Is the GTX 980 Ti the best value for my money?

[llamasg]

Hi all, I currently have a Radeon 7750 that I bought for £70 about 4 years ago, it's served me well but it's on its last legs and is struggling a bit, especially with the newest wave of AAA games and keeping up in 3DS max.

I saw this 980 TI going for £500 and thought it looked like a pretty good deal considering I see most of them going for around £100 more than that. I know that whatever card I get I'm going to see a huge performance increase off of what I currently have but I wasn't sure if this 980 Ti was the best use of my budget (£500) and if there was a potentially better deal out there.

As a Side note, part of what attracts me to this card is its design, I have a green and black/grey themed build and that card would fit perfectly in with the rest of my case, I just don't want to end up with buyers remorse finding out that there's something twice as good for half the price, so I thought I would consult you guys here to make sure I'm getting the most out of my money.

Thanks,
llama


SPECS:

CPU: i7-4790K
MoBo: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7
RAM: 8GB
GPU: Radeon HD 7750
PSU: Corsair RMI 750w

 

[basroil]

If you are going to play 1440P, sure. If you just want 1080p, the 970 or 390 will be just fine and cheaper

 

[Hyboria]

Price per dollar I believe the GTX 980 Ti is one of the best. You won't find a card that's twice as good for half the price (unless you find someone selling two 980 Ti's for £250).

A lot of people will tell you to wait for Pascal to come out, but if you need a replacement now the 980 Ti is going to be your best bet.

 

[llamasg]

If you are going to play 1440P, sure. If you just want 1080p, the 970 or 390 will be just fine and cheaper

Yeah this is going to sound a bit stupid but I'm still rocking two 21.5" monitors with VGA and DVI cables so a 980 Ti is probably going to be a bit overkill for a while but I didn't see much point buying 144hz monitors without a decent card to run it.

 

[basroil]

Yeah this is going to sound a bit stupid but I'm still rocking two 21.5" monitors with VGA and DVI cables so a 980 Ti is probably going to be a bit overkill for a while but I didn't see much point buying 144hz monitors without a decent card to run it.

For most games that benefit from 144Hz monitors (as opposed to just g-sync), those two cards will do 1080p high enough that you won't tell the difference. Even maxed out BF3 is something like 150-200FPS on the 970, for garbage (graphics wise) like csgo and dota you're looking at >200 all the time.

 

[Helifano]

Yeah this is going to sound a bit stupid but I'm still rocking two 21.5" monitors with VGA and DVI cables so a 980 Ti is probably going to be a bit overkill for a while but I didn't see much point buying 144hz monitors without a decent card to run it.

For most games that benefit from 144Hz monitors (as opposed to just g-sync), those two cards will do 1080p high enough that you won't tell the difference. Even maxed out BF3 is something like 150-200FPS on the 970, for garbage (graphics wise) like csgo and dota you're looking at >200 all the time.

I know I'm a little late but honestly, unless you're doing something crazy like going for 1440p @ 144hz, just get the 970. My wife and I just built machines, mine a 980 ti and i7-6700k with a 1440p/144hz monitor and her's a 970 with an i5-6600k with a 1080p/60hz. Don't get me wrong, I love the huge screen size with crystal clear 1440p, but every time I see my wife running the same game at 1080p I always feel like I should have just saved some money and gone with a 970.

Here's some info from our recent Division playtime:

At 1440p, on tweaked ultra presets (object detail changed to max, shadows bumped from high to PCSS), my 980 ti/i7-6700k gets 50 fps, sometimes dropping to ~45
At 1080p, on ultra presets, my wife's 970/i6-6600k gets a solid 60 all day long

The higher resolution really requires a lot of gpu power and if you're not happy sacrificing some frames, 970 @ 1080p is the way to go and will save you lots of money in the long run. Sometimes I almost sort of wish I went with a 980 ti with a 1080p/144hz monitor instead of 1440p, but hey, it's all about that screen real estate!

 

[RobCrezz]

Unless you plan on getting a 1440p monitor, then something like a 970 will do just fine.