Should this GPU work in my sytem, and is the 970 the best option?

[roboroter]

Hi,
My birthday is coming up and i'm hoping to buy a new graphics card for my PC. I bought this PC last year, and its done me well, but ive found that the Radeon R7 260 it came with just doesn't cut it for modern gaming requirements, and sometimes i have to game in 720p to get a decent frame rate. This is my current specs:
AMD A8 6600k APU (3.9Ghz)
Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2
8GB memory
Radeon R7 260
1TB HDD
Corsair cx600 psu (im pretty sure is 600W)

Im thinking of upgrading to a GTX970 strix graphics card but im not sure. I think my power supply and motherboard support it but i just wanted to check. And is there any other GPUs that would be better? I definitely want one with 4Gb of VRAM but im not sure if i should stay with amd or not, are there any particular bonuses for a full AMD system?

Thanks

 

[Jayhawker32]

Don't know if you're aware of this but there was a huge deal with the last 500 MB of the 970's VRAM being run at slower speeds so most people consider it a 3.5 Gb of VRAM. Not a huge deal but something you should be aware of. Compatibility wise I think you should be good to go. Your CPU supports at least 16 PCI-E lanes at gen2, your MOBO has enough expansion slots, and 600W should be plenty for a single 970. I was able to run most games at 1080p on medium to high settings depending on the game at 60 FPS.

 

[SkyMembrane]

Don't know if you're aware of this but there was a huge deal with the last 500 MB of the 970's VRAM being run at slower speeds so most people consider it a 3.5 Gb of VRAM. Not a huge deal but something you should be aware of. Compatibility wise I think you should be good to go. Your CPU supports at least 16 PCI-E lanes at gen2, your MOBO has enough expansion slots, and 600W should be plenty for a single 970. I was able to run most games at 1080p on medium to high settings depending on the game at 60 FPS.

But the truth is, most games don't use more than 3.5gb of memory, even on Ultra. They might reserve more if it's available, like GTA V on 4k/Ultra that reserves itself 8gb of Vram when ran on a Titan X, but runs the same on a GTX980ti where it reserves 5.5gb. And considering the price/performance ratio of the GTX970 is one of the best one out there and definitely the best one Nvidia has put out in a while, it's probably his best bet.

Then again, you could also stick to AMD's 300 series and you'd get better prices, at the cost of higher TDP and temperatures.

 

[Jayhawker32]

Don't know if you're aware of this but there was a huge deal with the last 500 MB of the 970's VRAM being run at slower speeds so most people consider it a 3.5 Gb of VRAM. Not a huge deal but something you should be aware of. Compatibility wise I think you should be good to go. Your CPU supports at least 16 PCI-E lanes at gen2, your MOBO has enough expansion slots, and 600W should be plenty for a single 970. I was able to run most games at 1080p on medium to high settings depending on the game at 60 FPS.

But the truth is, most games don't use more than 3.5gb of memory, even on Ultra. They might reserve more if it's available, like GTA V on 4k/Ultra that reserves itself 8gb of Vram when ran on a Titan X, but runs the same on a GTX980ti where it reserves 5.5gb. And considering the price/performance ratio of the GTX970 is one of the best one out there and definitely the best one Nvidia has put out in a while, it's probably his best bet.

Then again, you could also stick to AMD's 300 series and you'd get better prices, at the cost of higher TDP and temperatures.

I'm not arguing against it I was just making him aware of it.

 

[roboroter]

Don't know if you're aware of this but there was a huge deal with the last 500 MB of the 970's VRAM being run at slower speeds so most people consider it a 3.5 Gb of VRAM. Not a huge deal but something you should be aware of. Compatibility wise I think you should be good to go. Your CPU supports at least 16 PCI-E lanes at gen2, your MOBO has enough expansion slots, and 600W should be plenty for a single 970. I was able to run most games at 1080p on medium to high settings depending on the game at 60 FPS.

Thanks. I did hear about the final 500mb but for the games I play (I only have a 1080p monitor) im sure it should be more than enough. Thanks for the quick reply!