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Need Advice: Return or keep GTX970

enragged

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I have a possibility to return the GTX970 card due to the whole 4GB/3.5GB+0.5GB issue for a full refund,
and I just don't know what would be a better choice.

For the time being I am satisfied with the card (not tried overclocking it yet), especially with the noise
and cooling, however, I don't know what is the forecast for the GTX970 in the future. As far as I read on
several forums the GTX970 will rely significantly more on driver optimizations to perform ok in future games
compared to the GTX980.

On the other hand, this is just a wrong time to be buying a new videocard. If I return the GTX970 I was
thinking of buying a used 280x card, and then buy a new card (GTX1070/AMD equivalent) in a year or so.
I am gaming on a 24" FullHD monitor (1920x1080), and do not plan to upgrade the screen for some time
(purchased it only few months back), with mostly RGP/FRP games. GTX970 was purchased in anticipation
of Witcher 3.

What are you thoughts? Help a fellow gamer out ...pleeeease
 
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I have no intention of returning mine. Makes no sense, there is no other GPU at the same price/performance/temp/power point at all that could replace the 970. Sucks to be lied to, but the 970 was so cheap I'm not wholly bothered.

The issues surrounding the 970 are not going to be apparent on 1080p anyway, unless you're a serial DSR user.
 

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Welcome to TPU!

You are on 1080p, and by your own words you are satisfied with the 970 right now. Well, right now and the very near future is what you buy a video card for. There is no "futureproofing", this is a silly term people use. All top of the line GPU's cease to be top of the line in about a year, and you can usually carry on using them for a year or two after that with newer games if you are careful with your settings.

So, if you are satisfied NOW with it at 1080p, and plan to stay there, then you should keep the 970. BTW, probably nothing will run the Witcher 3 at full-bore anyway on release. Witcher 2 was the same way.
 

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I'm happy with my MSI 970 Gaming at 1440p. You're not likely to run into any problems at 1080p. The 280x is about 40% slower than a 970 overall according to the benches done here. Witcher 3 will be a demanding game as you know so I would just stick with what you have. At 1080p you should be set for a few years. :)



btw don't count from 70 to 100 and think it's 30%. You have to multiply 70 X .4 +70 to see it's 40% slower
 
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enragged

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No DSR, just a pure FullHD (1080p) user with all settings to max.

For me the card was not cheap ...I payed 400€ ...considering that the previous card (Radeon HD6850) cost
me only 150€ about 3 year ago, I seriously considered buying a used 280x for around 150€ before deciding
to buy GTX970 since it was newer tech, cooler and silent, and should be significantly more future-proof than
280x.

Now with the whole 3.5GB fiasco I just don't know. This was a first time buying such an expensive card, and
of course, it was bound that something goes wrong : )
 

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Everyone so far has told you to keep it. And nothing "went wrong." At 1080p, you're not going to notice it until the card is outdated enough that newer games will need more than 3.5GB of VRAM at 1080p. I have a 3GB card, and with the current games I play, I'm still perfectly fine at 1080p and get great game quality. You can't future proof with GPU's. It's a myth. All GPU's become obsolete, even top of the line ones.
 

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1080p is 2.08 million pixels

1440p is 3.68 million pixels. I game at 1440p which is 75% more pixels than 1080p and very few games run above 3Gb Vram. Only shadow of Mordor at ultra textures has bothered my cards (at 3Gb each). 970 is perfect for 1080p. Now, at 1440p, I;'d say it'll have problems for some in the next few months or so but at 1080p, no. Keep the card.
 

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Everyone so far has told you to keep it. And nothing "went wrong." At 1080p, you're not going to notice it until the card is outdated enough that newer games will need more than 3.5GB of VRAM at 1080p. I have a 3GB card, and with the current games I play, I'm still perfectly fine at 1080p and get great game quality. You can't future proof with GPU's. It's a myth. All GPU's become obsolete, even top of the line ones.

That's true. Staying at a high level of performance is never ending upgrading process.
 
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Well after you already answered the only question I was going to ask you:
I am gaming on a 24" FullHD monitor (1920x1080), and do not plan to upgrade the screen for some time
I think that you don't really need to return the card. I would keep it. Not every game will need the whole 4 gb of ram and besides before the whole 4gb=3.5gb incident the 970 was considered the best bang for buck card.
 
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290X for me if I were in your shows. Especially for Witcher 3, it is possible that more than 3BG Vram will be needed, so it is a bit risky to not go for 4GB that will be secure for 1-2 years more imo.
 
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Pros and contras:
You can change your 970 for 280x if you don't want to play on full ultra settings
You can change your 970 for 280x if you want to save money for things you think are more useful

When a man starts to speak
For me the card was not cheap ...I payed 400€
It means that a man regretted about decision so I think both ways will make you unhappy:
You change your 970 for 280x and will have some lags/not constant 60 fps on ultra
You'll keep your 970 and will think about 400 euros is too much for this(nowdays it's normal price-just gpus became more expensive)

PS sorry about edits, but my tablet missed/corrected smthg
 
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Here is my opinion based on what you are saying:

1: A GTX 970 will handle 1080p Ultra no problem even with the memory concerns unless you play with DSR+Ultra+Mods
2: A GTX 970 is overkill for 1080p
3: An R9 280X is much lower than a GTX 970, however will also handle 1080p no problem

I guess what I am getting at is that the GTX 970 memory problem really only affects people with 1440p+ resolutions (4k the most), DSR, modded games, etc. 1080p is way more than fine for it and is in fact overkill for what you are playing even on the latest AAA titles. You could easily get away with an R9 280X at 1080p and max everything out and probably not really notice a difference (or much of one) but the R9 280X is much less powerful than a GTX 970 so its last ability is a bit lower. If you really are concerned then change it to an R9 290X which should be about the same price and a little more powerful with 4gb of VRAM however again the difference you would see at 1080p is non-existent and again would be very overkill for 1080p.

So in your shoes, I would not swap unless I really wanted some of the money back.
 
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I would also consider a custom cooled R9 290. Will be lower in price and also eat anything you throw at it @ 1080p. Get it second-hand and you've got spare cash to upgrade whenever you feel there is a good offering, which is bound to come in the second half of this year.

But all that aside, the 970 is a fine choice, even with the shaky memory bits, as you won't touch those bits on 1080p at all. The people that report issues with 970 are those who SLI two of them and try out 1440p and up. They actually use 4GB, the rest of us mere mortals probably won't.
 
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One more time)
I think that it's psychological problem that needs a psychological solve
Technical numbers are not so important in this case)
yeap, it's a great card and yeap, its 400 euros - that's all)
Smthg 40% less in performance costs only 150 euros)
So.... What's your decision?
We can also start a new thread with possibility of voting))
 

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I'm happy with my MSI 970 Gaming at 1440p. You're not likely to run into any problems at 1080p. The 280x is about 40% slower than a 970 overall according to the benches done here. Witcher 3 will be a demanding game as you know so I would just stick with what you have. At 1080p you should be set for a few years. :)



btw don't count from 70 to 100 and think it's 30%. You have to multiply 70 X .4 +70 to see it's 40% slower
What's the .4?
 

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That's how 40% is represented mathematically.

yes but how do you know to use that if that's what you are actually trying to find?
 
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I have a possibility to return the GTX970 card due to the whole 4GB/3.5GB+0.5GB issue for a full refund,
and I just don't know what would be a better choice.

For the time being I am satisfied with the card (not tried overclocking it yet), especially with the noise
and cooling, however, I don't know what is the forecast for the GTX970 in the future. As far as I read on
several forums the GTX970 will rely significantly more on driver optimizations to perform ok in future games
compared to the GTX980.

On the other hand, this is just a wrong time to be buying a new videocard. If I return the GTX970 I was
thinking of buying a used 280x card, and then buy a new card (GTX1070/AMD equivalent) in a year or so.
I am gaming on a 24" FullHD monitor (1920x1080), and do not plan to upgrade the screen for some time
(purchased it only few months back), with mostly RGP/FRP games. GTX970 was purchased in anticipation
of Witcher 3.

What are you thoughts? Help a fellow gamer out ...pleeeease
I think that you're thinking way too much into this. You bought a GPU. It works and you're satisfied with it. Use it, enjoy it and in a year time there will be something different you'll want. The 970 is a good card that has a very good price/performance ratio. It would be foolish to do anything but keep it.
 

enragged

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Wow, a bunch of replies. Thanks, guys.
I see the majority would keep the GTX970 ...considering the immediate focus will be
Witcher 3 I guess keeping GTX970 is indeed a better choice regarding the gaming experience
as well as in regard to thermals and noise.
I do appreciate everyone's help:toast:
 

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yes but how do you know to use that if that's what you are actually trying to find?

I didn't know it was 40% slower until I solved the equation. On W1zzard's chart he lists the 280x as 70% of the reference 970s 97% I wanted to know how much more performance I would need from a 280x to equal a 970 so I set up an equation

.7 * X = .97
X = .97/.70
X = 1.39

so the I would need the 280x to be ~39% faster than it is to equal a 970 therefore it's 39% slower.
 

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I didn't know it was 40% slower until I solved the equation. On W1zzard's chart he lists the 280x as 70% of the reference 970s 97% I wanted to know how much more performance I would need from a 280x to equal a 970 so I set up an equation

.7 * X = .97
X = .97/.70
X = 1.39

so the I would need the 280x to be ~39% faster than it is to equal a 970 therefore it's 39% slower.

Why is it that you are the only person I have seen on forums to do all that math to figure out the difference between cards? pretty sure most people just look at the bars and find the difference from the numbers there.
 

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Why is it that you are the only person I have seen on forums to do all that math to figure out the difference between cards? pretty sure most people just look at the bars and find the difference from the numbers there.

Because you can't do it that way and be correct. If you look at the 280x as 70% and the 970 reference an 97% and simply subtract 70 from 97 you would come to the conclusion that the 970 is 27% faster than the 280x. Obviously that's not correct. I just showed you that the 970 is 39% faster than the 280x. Anyway I just do the math in my head.
 

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I didn't know it was 40% slower until I solved the equation. On W1zzard's chart he lists the 280x as 70% of the reference 970s 97% I wanted to know how much more performance I would need from a 280x to equal a 970 so I set up an equation

.7 * X = .97
X = .97/.70
X = 1.39

so the I would need the 280x to be ~39% faster than it is to equal a 970 therefore it's 39% slower.

Wow. Or as Spock would say:
 
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Motherboard MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon
Cooling be quiet dark rock pro 3
Memory GSKill Aegis 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL16
Video Card(s) PowerColor Radeon RX 7800 XT Hellhound 16GB GDDR6 256-bit
Storage Seagate Barracuda SATA-II 1TB , HyperX Savage 240GB SATA 3
Display(s) Benq EX2780Q
Case Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900
Audio Device(s) Sound BlasterX G6
Power Supply Seasonic prime TX-650
Mouse Marvo Scorpion G981
Keyboard Razer Blackwidow Elite - Yellow Switch
Software Windows 10 Pro
but the 970 was so cheap I'm not wholly bothered.

Up until this morning i was having doubts if i am poor or not. Now it's a certainty. You can buy a bmw for how much this card costs in my country.
*Don't refund. I think your good,since you are using a 24inch monitor.
 
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