Is the GTX 970 4GB a good card?

DylanCamps

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Feb 11, 2014
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Hello!

I'm considering buying the GTX 970 4GB card from Amazon. (http://amzn.to/1T3rWf6)

I want it to be able to handle some modern games such as GTA V/Assassins Creed, etc. on high/ultra settings. I've read the reviews and I discovered that there is only actually 3.5GB usable VRAM, but this doesn't really bother me as my current card is 2GB and it's still 1.5x the amount that I have now.

Here are my current specs:
Graphics: Sapphire AMD HD Radeon 7870 GHz Edition 2GB

CPU: AMD FX-8320 8 Core Processor, Overclocked to 4GHz

CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo

RAM: 16GB DDR3 (2xCorsair Vengeance 4GB, 1xGeneric 8GB)

Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-USB3

PSU: Corsair CX750M 750W

Case: Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Edition


If this card isn't very good for very high settings, then could someone link me to a different one that's near to the same price range?

Many thanks, much appreciated. :)
 
Solution


the r9 390 will do better at 1080p but for most games it is over 60fps anyways so it doesn't matter.

I suspect that future games will go below 60fps and a 390 would be better at that point, Even some intensive games today like the witcher 3 go below 60 on my 970.

Lets say you keep the GPU for 4 years and play it on full load for 6 hours a day which you probably wont, , this is equivalent to 1 year full load so again, just take 613 and multiply it by your states price per kilowatt hour, make sure you do it in decimals.

RCFProd

Expert
Ambassador
The GTX 970 is a very good graphics card, even if it is 3.5GB VRAM which is not even a problem.

The people who complain about it being 3.5GB are the ones that do not have knowledge with graphics cards and think It's a much bigger issue than it really is.
 

Dunlop0078

Titan
Ambassador
Yah the 970 is a very good card it should get very close to maxing most games at 1080p 60fps. Another option is the r9 390 which would be my personal choice, they have very similar performance but the r9 390 sports 8gb of usable memory unlike the 970s 3.5gb. They are both great cards you cant go wrong with either.
 

Rhezner

Admirable
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/H98hXL

this is what i would get if i were you, The cx series is pretty bad and is tier 4 and the neo eco is manufactured by seasonic.

It is personal preference whether to go with a 390 or a 970. The 390 has better performance but will cost more on power, If you ran it for an entire year on full load 24/7 it would cost 73$ more than the gtx 970 from the average load wattage from this website and considering the national average of 12 cents per kilowatt hour

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/28.html

here are some performance comparisons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqkid-z40s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cKZiJw6Pk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udXCusTnRsY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWqxclHV_Y

look up the cost per kilowatt hour in your state and multiply 613 by 0.xx (whatever your cost is) and you will find how much more it will cost than the gtx 970 if you ran both cards on full load for 1 year (obviously unrealistic)
 

mudpuppet

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My experience with my EVGA 970 has been great. I bought a FTW edition off Amazon through their used Warehouse Deals. It was just over $300 and the description was "packaging has minor damage". I didn't notice a thing wrong with the box, but the card is great. I've had it in use for the last 3 months and no complaints. I was originally thinking of buying new, but a friend convinced me that Warehouse Deals (openbox) from Amazon was a pretty win situation. If it's DOA, send it back and you can get a new one there ASAP (I'm a prime member btw if that matters, so yay free 2 day shipping. My experience was good enough I think it's worth considering grabbing an open box card from amazon or microcenter, plus it saves you like $50 depending on the card model etc. That's like 5 large 1 topping pizzas or about 67,123 games during a steam sale!!!
 

Rhezner

Admirable


the r9 390 will do better at 1080p but for most games it is over 60fps anyways so it doesn't matter.

I suspect that future games will go below 60fps and a 390 would be better at that point, Even some intensive games today like the witcher 3 go below 60 on my 970.

Lets say you keep the GPU for 4 years and play it on full load for 6 hours a day which you probably wont, , this is equivalent to 1 year full load so again, just take 613 and multiply it by your states price per kilowatt hour, make sure you do it in decimals.
 
Solution

DylanCamps

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Feb 11, 2014
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Thank you Rhezner for the very detailed answer with lots of info about the pricing too. After reading these posts I have decided to go for the 970 simply because of the difference in power usage. It should get me through the next few years considering the different range of games that I play.

Thank you everyone else for the great answers as per usual!