970 GTX or wait?

gazzamc

Ok so I've been in the market for a GPU for a while now, I've been sitting on a 750ti since my last card died (670), it's a nifty card get 40fps in Arma 3 (MP with usual dips)...

So I'll be mainly playing Arma 3 with the odd Triple A title every now and then.. I've been eyeing the 970 GTX for a while now and I've got just about enough for it, but I don't want to upgrade and then Pascal be released in Q1 of next year, I'd like the card to last a few years at least.

So the questions is, do I upgrade now or wait until pascal drops and get the pascal equivelant for that price bracket?

Budget is about €300 - €350, may be able to add more if I wait for pascal, only issue is that it's a bit of a wait and I may spend it on something else :P

grindle

If you can wait, do wait, but I thought Pascal was a Q2 release?

If you're buying now I'd get a 390. Better card.

gazzamc

grindle wrote: »

If you can wait, do wait, but I thought Pascal was a Q2 release?

If you're buying now I'd get a 390. Better card.

Is it not set for March? It's all speculation until it's released either way... I'm trying to avoid AMD as it doesn't run Arma 3 well but I'll check it up.

Thanks

Xenoronin

I want to upgrade to a VR build so waiting for Pascal is ideal for me. If you have no interest in VR, then the 970 is an excellent card and won't really be upgraded a whole lot by the next iteration. I say buy now and sell on (the 970 should have a good second hand value) if you see Pascal as a major upgrade.

Zillah

Xenoronin wrote: »

I want to upgrade to a VR build so waiting for Pascal is ideal for me.

I'm in the same boat. My system is well-able for the specs other than graphics card, which is a 770 at the moment, so I'm going to upgrade but I've been thinking about how long I should wait - probably as long as I can I suppose.

Xenoronin

The 770 is still an amazing card (and should still push VR initially anyway), I'm sitting on a 760 myself. It's running everything just grand at 1080p.

Zillah

Xenoronin wrote: »

The 770 is still an amazing card (and should still push VR initially anyway), I'm sitting on a 760 myself. It's running everything just grand at 1080p.

Minimum spec for the Rift calls for a GTX 970.

I'm sure it will run on weaker cards, but for VR to work properly you need it super-smooth, any interruption to frame rate is much more jarring, so I'm going to bite the bullet and upgrade in tandem with the headset.

game4it70

The last releases haven't been huge upgrades by any means but i'd expect the newer process to actually give us a decent upgrade.As to when we will find out is another story.

If you get a 970 now i'd expect it not to hold its resale value as well as previous cards because the equivalent pascal card should be better bang for buck.I'd expect say a 1060 to be at least as good as a 970 if not better.

All speculation at this stage though.

Zillah

game4it70 wrote: »

If you get a 970 now i'd expect it not to hold its resale value as well as previous cards because the equivalent pascal card should be better bang for buck.

Yeah exactly, hence why I'm sitting on my hands for now. Googling tells me Pascal isn't due until mid-2016, which might make it a bit late for the Rift, so I'm a bit torn.

game4it70

Zillah wrote: »

Yeah exactly, hence why I'm sitting on my hands for now. Googling tells me Pascal isn't due until mid-2016, which might make it a bit late for the Rift, so I'm a bit torn.

Well maybe wait for the rift and by then there should be more info about pascal to help you make a more informed decision?

RoyalMarine

Any speculation on a price for a high end Pascal?

I'm also sitting on my hands at the moment, but will be planning on a new CPU, RAM and GPU mid next year when I get into VR.

Serephucus

I find myself in a similar position at the moment: Whether or not to buy a second 970.

//the following assumes rumours to be true, for lack of any other info.

Why:
A 970 doesn't max out some of the games I play. (Space Engineers, Star Citizen, ARK)

For:
Better performance, at what is currently a very good price/performance ratio.
Mature drivers, with a proven track record at this point.

Against:
Pascal is six months away, possibly sooner.
It sounds like it's going to be great performance-wise.
^which means 970s may not sell that well when Pascal lands.
^^and because it's such a good performer now, it's popular, meaning the market will be flooded with them.

All in all, I'm reluctantly waiting for Pascal. We haven't seen a generational jump like this in quite some time. If Pascal was going to be another relatively small jump like we've had with the past couple of generations I'd say go with it, but it looks to be something quite different entirely.

It'll all depend on pricing though. There's little doubt that the equivalent level cards will be significantly faster than their counterparts, and that the highest-level one will be truly monstrous, but NVIDIA really could go either way with this. Many were expecting the 980 Ti to be $799 or more before it launched, and then it came out for only $650. The same could happen here - Hopefully NVIDIA will be nervous of AMD's Arctic Islands, but I doubt it - or we could see them decide that AMD really don't stand a chance, and launch the 1080 Ti (I hope they don't call it that) for $1,200.

Either way, I think it's worth the wait, this time.

Redfox25

My two cents as a non 970 owner.
Wait.
When new card comes out decide. Go with a new monster card or snap up cheap 970s that will be dumped on market. Two 970s would be very capable and nvidia has good sli driver support too.

Zillah

Serephucus wrote: »

Why:
A 970 doesn't max out some of the games I play. (Space Engineers, Star Citizen, ARK)

Isn't this often the result of poor coding, resulting in bottlenecks, that throwing no amount of hardware at will solve?

chris0808

I wouldn't get a 970 anyways. The 390 is the way to go and directx12 performance is pretty promising also on the 390.

Serephucus

To be fair, we know nothing about DX12 at this point. Short of the odd upcoming tech demo, and one early-stage development engine, we don't really have any idea. Never mind driver maturity. AMD looks to be ahead at the moment, but that could change overnight at any point between now and games actually using DX12.

gazzamc

I guess we're in that odd phase between generations, waiting seems like a good choice atm.

The way GPU pricing is going I can see another increase with the next gen, unless AMD deliver something spectacular (I hope so)... But they're trying to get out do the budget image so who knows. I don't want to be biased but I do like Nvidias software, it's developed and very handy for broadcasting/recording gameplay... That would go in as a pro for me but it's isn't a deal breaker, there's plenty ways to record gameplay.

I think I'll wait for now, if a good deal pops up in the coming months on either card I may pull the trigger then, but I've been paitent so far and with the awful console ports of late I think my 750ti can hold out for a little bit longer.

Appreciate the comments lads lets hope AMD's new tools gets a hold in the industry and we get a little more competition between both companies again ;P

Serephucus wrote: »

I find myself in a similar position at the moment: Whether or not to buy a second 970.

//the following assumes rumours to be true, for lack of any other info.

Why:
A 970 doesn't max out some of the games I play. (Space Engineers, Star Citizen, ARK)

For:
Better performance, at what is currently a very good price/performance ratio.
Mature drivers, with a proven track record at this point.

Against:
Pascal is six months away, possibly sooner.
It sounds like it's going to be great performance-wise.
^which means 970s may not sell that well when Pascal lands.
^^and because it's such a good performer now, it's popular, meaning the market will be flooded with them.

All in all, I'm reluctantly waiting for Pascal. We haven't seen a generational jump like this in quite some time. If Pascal was going to be another relatively small jump like we've had with the past couple of generations I'd say go with it, but it looks to be something quite different entirely.

It'll all depend on pricing though. There's little doubt that the equivalent level cards will be significantly faster than their counterparts, and that the highest-level one will be truly monstrous, but NVIDIA really could go either way with this. Many were expecting the 980 Ti to be $799 or more before it launched, and then it came out for only $650. The same could happen here - Hopefully NVIDIA will be nervous of AMD's Arctic Islands, but I doubt it - or we could see them decide that AMD really don't stand a chance, and launch the 1080 Ti (I hope they don't call it that) for $1,200.

Either way, I think it's worth the wait, this time.

ShadowHearth

Hehe looks like we are all stuck. I am still on 680 and it is working pretty damn fantastic at 1080p, but I am going for upgrades this January. Hopefully 2560x1080p ( or 4K version) monitor and new gpu.
My first choice would be 390 over 970, but with so many changes coming in architecture in the new gpus, I am really struggling to go for current gen gpus.
Looks like wait and see situation.