Is a GTX 970 worth it?

[No3dg3]

I picked up a brand new still sealed EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC+ GAMING ACX 2.0 for $175 off craigslist and am trying to decide if I should just keep it and build a rig or resell it now and wait for Pascal, possibly the 980 maybe the Ti if they drop?

 

[Greeko85]

There's always going to be something better down the line-what you need to determine is does the card suit your needs? Are you planing to play games at 1080p or hoping to game at 4k or even VR later down the track? Are you happy dropping a few settings down a notch or are you one of those people that needs everything maxed out?

Getting a 970 for that price is a steal-it's a great card that will remain relevant for a while to come. Yes, of course, a 980ti is significantly better but it's also significantly more expensive. As far as polaris/pascal cards are concerned there really is no solid info on them-yes everyone is expecting them to be great but i imagine they will be priced accordingly as well costing an arm and a leg.

 

[No3dg3]

There's always going to be something better down the line-what you need to determine is does the card suit your needs? Are you planing to play games at 1080p or hoping to game at 4k or even VR later down the track? Are you happy dropping a few settings down a notch or are you one of those people that needs everything maxed out?

Getting a 970 for that price is a steal-it's a great card that will remain relevant for a while to come. Yes, of course, a 980ti is significantly better but it's also significantly more expensive. As far as polaris/pascal cards are concerned there really is no solid info on them-yes everyone is expecting them to be great but i imagine they will be priced accordingly as well costing an arm and a leg.

I currently only play on 1080p but I'm just worried will I feel the limitation of 3.5GB of ram within the next say 2 years on 1080p compared to the 8GB of a 390?

 

[neblogai]

I'd say, resell it if you think you will be able to afford to buy Pascal. It is just a few months wait, and these GPUs will be new architecture, new process, and new memory.

 

[Greeko85]

You can only speculate at this point. I myself have a 390 and it is not very often I see it utilising the extra vram-don't get me wrong there's certain games that are Vram thirsty but in a lot of cases it feels like bad optimization. Look at a game as beautiful and intensive as the witcher 3-i barely see it going anywhere near the 3gb vram mark.

Personally I'd buy the 970 being that the price your getting it at is amazing and later on down the track if the need arises just replace it. Even with the introduction of polaris/pascal I dont see the 980ti dropping in price a significant amount.

 

[noko]

I say if it plays games how you like - keep it. Don't worry too much about the future - you maybe able to pick up a 980Ti for the same price if need be later.

From past Nvidia releases, their card prices don't drop much at all. They pretty much stabilize the price for the retailers on a longer basis since they have the market share. AMD is more forced in reducing prices to move cards out of inventory.