Gpu question

i need a new graphics card and here are my options i need advice.

option 1: gtx 950 price $150.00 (i really like the price but not sure i will be satisfied with card)

option 2: gtx 970 price 370.00 (a little out of budget for me)

i currently have a gtx 610 i believe, with 24 G ddr3. any feedback is appreciated. (also im taking donations for the gtx 970 lol jk)

 

Go for 970, there is some huge leap in performance.. If $370 is too much, then go for GTX 960. DO NOT go below that.

Also check on AMD counter part, they might be cheaper.

 

FYI

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

 

GTX 960 is a good card

 

Get the 970 and be done with it for some time. 960 is already 'too old'.
....
Dann that's going fast these days. How old is the 960? Not even six month? Oo

 

I did quite a bit of research on this before I got my GTX 970 - since I wanted the "best bang for my buck".

Here's a well respected site for comparing video cards.

There is quite a large difference in the performance between the 970 and the 950.

 

I did quite a bit of research on this before I got my GTX 970 - since I wanted the "best bang for my buck".
Here's a well respected site for comparing video cards.
There is quite a large difference in the performance between the 970 and the 950.

 

I did quite a bit of research on this before I got my GTX 970 - since I wanted the "best bang for my buck".
Here's a well respected site for comparing video cards.
There is quite a large difference in the performance between the 970 and the 950.

 

GTX-970 is by far the better card, but your current mbo can't take full advantage of the 900 series bandwith, so if you can get the GTX-950 for $150.00, I would choose this card as it is far superior to the GTX-610 you're currently using... Unless your willing to upgrade the mbo, it's kind of pointless to spend a lot of money on the video card... Make sure your PSU is big enough and has all the connections for the new card...

 

There's too little information to give any kind of answer. What games do you like/expect to play? On what resolution? What about he rest of the rig?

Also depends very much on the deals you can get. Today is not exactly the best time to purchase a gpu, especially an expensive one, a bit similarly to how last spring was not a good time to invest in SSD disks. Technology advances gradually but also in leaps, and there are some big ones coming down the pipe for gpus (like stacked memory), affecting the entire market.

@SmokerKGB's remarks about the MB and and especially PSU are important.

In hard numbers,
- the 960 is about 70% of the performance of a 970, and 950 is about 60% (your current card about 4%)
- 970 has a TDP of 145W, 960 120W, 950 90W, your current card 29W.
- 970 was released in September 2014, 960 in January 2015 and 950 in August 2015 (not that it matters, just someone was curious )

 

Here's a site that might or might not be helpful in determining what kind of performance you need
(for example put "970 960 950" as model filter, select only desktop cpus, and look for games that might have similar requirements to what you actually want to play).

 

I would save and wait for the 970. Pascal gpu will be dropping the prices a bit more of current gpu *hopefully * not insanely much but a little.

 

Maybe this helps too.

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-strixgtx970dc2oc4gd5

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-turbogtx970oc4gd5

Cheapest... ^^

 

You may have to buy a new power supply as well depending on what you have right now. If I recall correctly, 970 requires 2 X 12v rail connectors.

 

960 is old? I'm still pounding away on my 660! Though I have two and from what my numbers are telling me SOTA actually supports SLI pretty well.

 

You can wait until June for the Pascals to come out as well... it's not that far away at this point. The low end cards are better then a 970.

 

i've got a gtx960 and love it.
before, i had two gtx 680's in SLA, and the single 960 blows them away.

but if you can wait, @ridicOne is right, do so for the pascals. the 900's will be a HELL of a lot cheaper (then get the 980), or pay the hefty price for the pascal..those things are gonna be hot stuff for a while.

 

I'm sorry what is a pascal I have no idea what that is can you be more descriptive

 

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-launch-pascal-editors-event-may/

 

Its just the name of the New architecture.. they always have a buzz name for tech as it comes out.

 

Looking at the recent announcements (one of which is linked above), I doubt that the introduction of Pascal alone is going to bring any significant price reductions to the midrange market very soon. You might get some good deals on 970s (/equivalent performance level) at the end of summer/autumn, until they run out. In this sense I'm actually more interested in how AMD will be pricing their upcoming 14nm R9 480/470 low-power lineup.