Well guys, GTX 970 or 770?

[satindemon4u]

About to buy my friends gaming desktop but he is keeping a few of the parts from it. One of them being the video card which of course means that I will need one. I was pretty set on the GTX 770 as it is near my price range. However, now the 970 and 980 are out. I don't have the funds for the 980 so that one is sadly out of the question.

So, should I go with the 970 over the 770 for the new architecture that it seems to be sporting? According to GPUBoss they match up about the same. However, I would think with these cards being so new they probably haven't had the chance to fully test them...especially in gaming instances.

Your guys' thoughts?


EDIT: Going with the GTX 970. Thoughts on PNY as a brand for it?

EDIT EDIT: May go with Zotac because my last card was a Zotac and worked great. That and they have a two year warranty versus PNY's 1 year.

 

[Durvelle27]

 

[Jstn7477]

GTX 970 is much better than GTX 770 without a doubt.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I give a hearty vote for 970. A 970 beats a 780 in most tests, and users so far have been saying it's a beast!

 

[Sempron Guy]

This is not even debatable unless you got an option to get the 770 dirt cheap. 970 hands down.

 

[Nordic]

This thread just shows the weakness of sites like gpuboss, and in turn passmark because that is what gpuboss used for 2/4 metrics.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970-vs-GeForce-GTX-770

 

[WhiteNoise]

My 970 in most bench marks does not beat out my GTX 780. I would say it competes with the 770 well though. And of those two I would buy the 970 every time.

 

[Nordic]

My 970 in most bench marks does not beat out my GTX 780. I would say it competes with the 770 well though. And of those two I would buy the 970 every time.

The 770 has 22% less performance with 85w higher tdp and it is a competition?

 

[WhiteNoise]

Well I keep reading how the GTX 970 competes with the GTX 780 even out performing it but I am not getting those results.

I agree that it out performs the 770. But at this point I can't say the same against it and the 780.

 

[Nordic]

Well I keep reading how the GTX 970 competes with the GTX 780 even out performing it but I am not getting those results.

I am using w1zzards results. He shows a 22% higher performance at 1080p. His results even show it beats the 780 by 11%. I haven't personally tested and won't but I trust his reviews. I guess if your own testing shows different that is a separate matter entirely.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Well I bought the same card he reviewed because I read his review and so far I am not getting the results he did. I also own a GTX 780 and I'm comparing the two. My 780 out performs my 970 in the following benchmarks: Valley, Metro 2033 and heaven. The 970 out-performs the 780 in 3dmark Fire Strike.

Of course I'm on an older mobo and cpu but I still expected to compete with the 780 and actually out perform it. I'm wondering if new drivers will help down the road...

The TWO reasons I bought the 970 is his review showed it not only out performed the GTX 780 but it did it at $329.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

970 FTW!

 

[El_Mayo]

How is a GTX 970 only getting 7.7!!?!? GPUBoss is terrible!

 

[W1zzard]

Well I bought the same card he reviewed because I read his review and so far I am not getting the results he did. I also own a GTX 780 and I'm comparing the two. My 780 out performs my 970 in the following benchmarks: Valley, Metro 2033 and heaven. The 970 out-performs the 780 in 3dmark Fire Strike.

Of course I'm on an older mobo and cpu but I still expected to compete with the 780 and actually out perform it. I'm wondering if new drivers will help down the road...

The TWO reasons I bought the 970 is his review showed it not only out performed the GTX 780 but it did it at $329.

Is your GTX 780 overclocked ? I'm using the original GTX NVIDIA reference design.

We are using the Metro Last Light benchmark, which should make it relatively easy for you to replicate the results. Other benchmarks use custom scenes etc, so I doubt you'll be able to replicate scores.

How is a GTX 970 only getting 7.7!!?!? GPUBoss is terrible!

because they use an automated system to generate everything, using numbers downloaded from our gpu database (www.techpowerup.com/gpudb)

 

[RejZoR]

It all depends on what you have now. In certain cases you can skip GTX 900 series altogether because apart from low power usage they don't really provide all that much grunt to justify full price again...

 

[Vario]

770 isn't all that bad, if you can get one around $200 its a good price. However we haven't seen the 960 yet. If buying new, the 970 is the sweet spot for price and performance.

The 770 is enough for my 1080p needs, I am sure in the next few years the limit of 2gb vram will start to be more of a problem, it isn't now though.

 

[RCoon]

Well I bought the same card he reviewed because I read his review and so far I am not getting the results he did. I also own a GTX 780 and I'm comparing the two. My 780 out performs my 970 in the following benchmarks: Valley, Metro 2033 and heaven. The 970 out-performs the 780 in 3dmark Fire Strike.

Of course I'm on an older mobo and cpu but I still expected to compete with the 780 and actually out perform it. I'm wondering if new drivers will help down the road...

The TWO reasons I bought the 970 is his review showed it not only out performed the GTX 780 but it did it at $329.

My MSI 970 is spanking my Gigabyte 780 windforce without a doubt, then again slightly newer processor and board.

 

[Fluffmeister]

The 970 is bascially a no brainer at the moment, but if you want to save a few more quid it might be worth waiting to see what the 960 has to offer.

 

[RejZoR]

The above replacing of GTX 780 with GTX 970 makes no sense unless you have too much money. It just doens't provide any extra grunt. And i coudln't care any less about power consumption. Just give me more frames per second. When you're going 300km/h with a Ferrari, consumption is the least of your concerns. Same with graphic cards. You don't buy them to make planet more green. You buy them to churn out more frames per second.

 

[THE_EGG]

The above replacing of GTX 780 with GTX 970 makes no sense unless you have too much money. It just doens't provide any extra grunt. And i coudln't care any less about power consumption. Just give me more frames per second. When you're going 300km/h with a Ferrari, consumption is the least of your concerns. Same with graphic cards. You don't buy them to make planet more green. You buy them to churn out more frames per second.

Lower power consumption also means less heat generated and thus lower noise levels as well (and can mean higher overclocks too). This can be extremely important in SLI setups and also SFF cases. I'm considering moving to 2 970s as a sidegrade to my 2 780s for this reason as my case struggles to dissipate all the heat from the 780s. It will 'only' cost me about $50-$100 for the sidegrade which to me is worth it. The 970 also has an extra gig of vram too.

---

To answer the OP's question, without a doubt I would buy a 970 over a 770. If I'd buy a 970 over a 780 then this goes without question.

 

[RejZoR]

What noise? I'm pushing my HD7950 as far as i can go and in idle it makes pretty much no noise (i could tweak the fan profile further to run at even lower speed but i see no need for that) and at heavy loads it's hardly audible. Sure i hear it a bit but when you're gaming, the speakers are usually louder anyway and if i have headphones, then it doesn't even matter if i have a jet engine next to me.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Is your GTX 780 overclocked ? I'm using the original GTX NVIDIA reference design.

We are using the Metro Last Light benchmark, which should make it relatively easy for you to replicate the results. Other benchmarks use custom scenes etc, so I doubt you'll be able to replicate scores.


because they use an automated system to generate everything, using numbers downloaded from our gpu database (www.techpowerup.com/gpudb)

My GTX 780 is the PNY Enthusiast edition GTX 780 OC. It competes fairly well with the GTX 780Ti but I thought the GTX 970 would beat it.

I'm actually trying to decide if I should return the 970 and buy the 980 or if I should wait a bit and pick up another 970 for SLI. Not sure what I want to do yet.

 

[TheMailMan78]

What about two 670's in SLI running at 680 clocks? I play at 1080P.

I checked out the benches and it seems to be kinda a downgrade.

 

[satindemon4u]

Glad to see this question exploded haha. I think I will probably end up going with the 970. As far as GpuBoss goes, does anyone have another site that is more accurate then? I know there are tons but I figure some good recommendations from you guys won't hurt. It seems I am not the only way debating these two cards haha.

 

[Nordic]

The above replacing of GTX 780 with GTX 970 makes no sense unless you have too much money. It just doens't provide any extra grunt. And i coudln't care any less about power consumption. Just give me more frames per second. When you're going 300km/h with a Ferrari, consumption is the least of your concerns. Same with graphic cards. You don't buy them to make planet more green. You buy them to churn out more frames per second.

What if I want a tesla?