GTX 960 vs 970 vs 980

[MrMii Win 7]

Another GPU question. As much as I'd love to nab a 970 or sell one of my lungs for a 980, I feel they're just too expensive right now. What I'm wondering is, would a 960 with 4GB suffice for good performance? (In my case, good is better than 40 FPS in Skyrim on low, aiming for 60 in Skyrim and Saints Row IV with at least medium to high settings, preferably high)

 

[AddRAM]

I would think a 4 GB 960 will be fine, they are SLI ready so you can always get another later and you`re set for a long time. (nevermind on sli your board only has 1 PCI -E slot)

EVGA - Products - EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB FTW ACX 2.0+ - 04G-P4-3969-KR

EVGA - Products - Graphics - GeForce 900 Series Family - GTX 960


I recommend EVGA, no tax and shipping is a mere $5

Having more memory also helps the video card, I would seriously consider adding another set of Gskill 2 x 4 GB, the same exact set you have now.

G.SKILL - High performance gaming DDR3 and DDR4 memory, SSD, gaming keyboard, mouse, headset , SD card.

 

[MrMii Win 7]

Yeah, another mobo is definitely not on my list right now... But honestly a 960 doesn't sound like it'd be that bad. In my opinion, it probably would get like 3-5 less frames than a 970. Then again I'm completely unsure about that.

 

[AddRAM]

Go for it, and definetly get a 4 GB card

Check the reviews of all the different manufactureres of the 960 and get the card that you think is the best.

Start with the EVGA 960 FTW

EVGA - Products - EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB FTW ACX 2.0+ - 04G-P4-3969-KR

MSI USA - Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Mainboard, Graphics and more

Graphics Cards | STRIX-GTX960-DC2OC-4GD5 | ASUS USA

GIGABYTE - Graphics Card - NVIDIA - PCI Express Solution - GeForce 900 Series - GV-N960G1 GAMING-4GD (rev. 1.1)

Although, if you like red, the MSI card is sweet looking, the back plate is very nice.

MSI GeForce GTX 960 GTX 960 GAMING 4G 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card - Newegg.com

 

[MrMii Win 7]

Off topic: How do you make your signature image big like yours? My new one is over 300 pixels larger and looks the same size as my older one. And it's also wider by over 500.

 

[AddRAM]

I didn`t make it

Also, give the black theme a try if you haven`t yet, it`s the bomb !!!

You change the theme down the bottom there

 

[MrMii Win 7]

Well then, nvm on that xD Back to topic now xD

 

[MrMii Win 7]

Would you think my current 500w PSU could handle a 960? (since it requires at least a 400w supply and draws 120) It does happen to have two PCIe 6+2 pin connectors.

 

[AddRAM]

It will be fine.

What EVGA model is it ? It should be labeled right on the power supply, you need to put that in your specs.

 

[MrMii Win 7]

I believe it's the EVGA 100-W1-500-KR 500W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified (got that from my PCPartPicker build) I'd have to look inside my case to be sure though.

 

[MrMii Win 7]

Probably going to go with a 960 and another set of RAM sticks identical to the ones I got to boost my RAM to 16GB.

 

[AddRAM]

This it ?

EVGA - Products - EVGA 500W Power Supply - 100-W1-0500-KR

I would start saving for this.

EVGA - Products - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 Power Supply - 220-G2-0750-XR

 

[MrMii Win 7]

That looks to be it, yes.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Prices are dropping at a nice pace on gpu's end of the year looks like a good buy time

 

[MrMii Win 7]

This isn't a GeForce card, but does anyone have experience with the Radeon R9 series cards? It has twice the memory of a 970 or 980 (8GB) and currently Newegg is selling it for about thirty bucks cheaper than a standard 970. It's GDDR5.

Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 8GB SOC Video Card (GV-R939G1 GAMING-8GD) - PCPartPicker

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Interesting gpu but it does say on the system spec's a 600w or greater psu is required
Looks like a radeon version of the titan ?
EVGA - Products - EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN X Superclocked - 12G-P4-2992-KR

Except 700.us cheaper
GIGABYTE Radeon R9 390 GV-R939G1 GAMING-8GD 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready ATX Video Card - Newegg.com=

 

[MrMii Win 7]

The PSU isn't the concern for me, I can easily nab a higher watt one. But assuming this card works wonders, it means you don't need to leave a thousand dollar dent in your wallet for 8+GB VRAM.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I did notice the base clock was 100Mhz lower and it didn't say what the boost clock was the titan is like 1216Mhz
This is the pricey titan

Specifications

• Base Clock: 1127 MHZ
• Boost Clock: 1216 MHz
• Memory Clock: 7010 MHz Effective
• CUDA Cores: 3072
• Bus Type: PCI-E 3.0
• Memory Detail: 12288MB GDDR5
• Memory Bit Width: 384 Bit
• Memory Speed: 0.28ns
• Memory Bandwidth: 336.5 GB/s

Radeon

Chipset ManufacturerAMDGPU SeriesAMD Radeon R9 300 SeriesGPURadeon R9 390Core Clock1025 MHz (standard: 1000 MHz)Stream Processors2560 Stream ProcessorsMemory

Effective Memory Clock6000 MHzMemory Size8GBMemory Interface512-BitMemory TypeGDDR5

 

[MrMii Win 7]

How much of a performance drop would that cause?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Does it really matter it's 700.us cheaper
It's an oc gpu so I'm sure you can increase it with a gpu tweak program specific to radeon gpu's.
GIGABYTE - Motherboard , Graphics Card , Laptop ,Tablet , Mini-PC , Server , PC Peripherals and more

The card might have a software disk with one on it ?