Best GPU?

TheTacticsGuy

I've an EVGA GTX 670 FTW edition card. My current card is fine, I've no problems running most games on high/custom settings with 60+ FPS. I'm looking to upgrade soon and am looking at a GTX 970. Is this the best GPU in the 350-400 euro bracket or would I be making a mistake?

stefanovich

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

I've an EVGA GTX 670 FTW edition card. My current card is fine, I've no problems running most games on high/custom settings with 60+ FPS. I'm looking to upgrade soon and am looking at a GTX 970. Is this the best GPU in the 350-400 euro bracket or would I be making a mistake?

If you can throw a few more quid at it I'd get the 980.

ShadowHearth

670 is still a good card for 1080p. Which ever card you will be getting next will have to be future proof. Unfortunately 970 and its 3.5gb scandal ( overbloated, but still an issue ) is not a future proof card anymore. Great option if you are due to upgrade for now for 1080p, but not if you plan on 1440p and 4k someday for sli.

In your case ( and in a way myself as I got 680 ) best bet would wait for march and see new AMD line. I have a feeling there will be something really tasty from them this year.

Tl:dR Stick with 670 for now.

Serephucus

The 970 is fine. The 3.5GB "scandal" is blown way out of proportion. I'd get the 970 if you want something now. There won't really be anything in that bracket for a while. The next cards out are AMD's 380X, and NVIDIA's Titan X (980 Ti, Titan 2, etc.) which will both most-likely be €800+ cards.

SterlingArcher

As serpent said Blown up.

Coming from a 670 you will notice a difference.

It is either that or an r9 290x.

Being nvidia so long and it being so smooth for you, you may not enjoy going amd. So would recommend you get the 970.

TerrorFirmer

A good quality r9 290 is a good bit cheaper and it has the full 4GB vram. At this stage I wouldn't be too quick to pull the trigger on the 970, I'd either get the 290 and save a bit or wait for new lines myself, 670 is still grand.

Luck100

The 980 is not good value and will likely take a bigger % loss in value than the 970 over the next 2-3 years. As for the 3.5 GB issue, it's completely overblown as said above.

Redfox25

Go with terrors advice and wait for the new cards which will likely trigger a price drop.
Then aim for 2 290's and you will be set for a long time. Maybe even two 290x if prices fall alot.
You might need a new psu as these are hungry in that regard

Dcully

I was going to wait too but glad now i didnt.
My 660ti would be similar to your 670 so it was a similar upgrade for me.
I went with an evga 970 SC and its a total beast of a card.
I did go from 1920x1200 to 2560x1080 monitor at the same time so wanted a bit more horsepower.
I wouldnt hesitate at all, the 3.5gb issue really is blown out of all proportion.

but but but your 670 is still fine for 1080 or 1200 , my 660 ti still ran games great.

stevenmu

I've been waiting for the GTX 970 to drop in price after the 3.5GB controversy, but it doesn't seem to have budged yet.

I'm not sure it is completely overblown though. There seems to be two symptoms of the issue. One is a small drop in performance, and that has been totally overblown.

The other issue though is with reports of stuttering in some games. That would drive me completely nuts if true. But I don't think its 100% confirmed yet either.

Serephucus

I don't think you're going to get price drops either. NVIDIA have stuck with the "it was designed this way" line adamantly (which it was, to be fair, it was just marketed very badly). So in their mind, nothing is wrong with it, therefore no price reductions.

Luck100

Stuttering MAY start happening when you go over 3.5 GB VRAM usage. Below 3.5 GB the slow VRAM is never used. Above 3.5 GB memory management tries to put the least-used assets in the slow 0.5 GB bank to minimize the impact.

More importantly, with a single 970 there are basically no scenarios where you can go over 3.5 GB without having already killed your framerate. Why? Because you have to crank up resolution, AA, and DSR levels way up. So with this memory issue all you are losing the ability to game stutter-free at 20 FPS with crazy-high settings.

With 970 SLI it's happening around 40 FPS, which is also personally below what I consider acceptable as well. Maybe other not for other people - but I didn't buy SLI 970's to play at 40 FPS. Easy enough to dial down DSR or AA a notch and kick it back up over 60 FPS.

pleasant Co.

Serephucus wrote: »

I don't think you're going to get price drops either. NVIDIA have stuck with the "it was designed this way" line adamantly (which it was, to be fair, it was just marketed very badly). So in their mind, nothing is wrong with it, therefore no price reductions.

Or, not at all :pac:

stevenmu

Luck100 wrote: »

Stuttering MAY start happening when you go over 3.5 GB VRAM usage. Below 3.5 GB the slow VRAM is never used. Above 3.5 GB memory management tries to put the least-used assets in the slow 0.5 GB bank to minimize the impact.

More importantly, with a single 970 there are basically no scenarios where you can go over 3.5 GB without having already killed your framerate. Why? Because you have to crank up resolution, AA, and DSR levels way up. So with this memory issue all you are losing the ability to game stutter-free at 20 FPS with crazy-high settings.

With 970 SLI it's happening around 40 FPS, which is also personally below what I consider acceptable as well. Maybe other not for other people - but I didn't buy SLI 970's to play at 40 FPS. Easy enough to dial down DSR or AA a notch and kick it back up over 60 FPS.

The video I saw demonstrating it was running CoD:AW at 1080p and it was using the full 4GB of ram. That seems to be a particularly poorly coded game which is why it uses so much memory, but it is certainly feasible for games to exceed 3.5GB at 1080p, and it seems in that case at least that it was causing stuttering.

FWIW the frame rates were 60+fps, so it looks like there can be stuttering even when the frame rates are quite high.

It is possible that the stuttering was caused by something else though.

EoinHef

Like luck100 i have not encountered any stutter yet. Well nothing that was related to the .5GB partition. Max VRAM usage ive seen is 2.9GB running most games on very high @1440p. With usually a minimum 2x or 4x AA. I dont have COD so couldnt test that.

Is there a link to this video?

TheTacticsGuy

I tried to install the latest driver update and was left with a black screen. I restarted my computer to use integrated graphics and tried to run the driver installer, this is what I got, see attached image. When I go into the BIOS, nothing is being detected in the PCIe slot, wtf has just happened????

SterlingArcher

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

I tried to install the latest driver update and was left with a black screen. I restarted my computer to use integrated graphics and tried to run the driver installer, this is what I got, see attached image. When I go into the BIOS, nothing is being detected in the PCIe slot, wtf has just happened????

What is your gpu.

TheTacticsGuy

gtx 670

SterlingArcher

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

gtx 670

Roll back. Go to nvidia site download older drivers say 337?

Dave147

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

I tried to install the latest driver update and was left with a black screen. I restarted my computer to use integrated graphics and tried to run the driver installer, this is what I got, see attached image. When I go into the BIOS, nothing is being detected in the PCIe slot, wtf has just happened????

I rebooted with windows updates and the Nvidia update worked fine after that.

TheTacticsGuy

Nothing worked for me until I loaded the default bios settings, latest drivers are installed and we're back up and running i.e. Using GPu for display...haven't tried a game yet :eek: