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gtx 960 4gb vs gtx 970 4gb

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Due to poor performance with titles that need more than 3.5gb's of Vram. So no, it's no enough sometimes.

Are you aware of any instances where a vram quantity issue arises with the 970 that can't be fixed with a setting change? I mean a setting adjustment that has very little effect on visual quality.
 
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CryEngine games, the new Tomb Raider game, games modified with higher res. textures, I'm sure there's plenty of others, but I don't play every game.
 

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While I swear at my 970 sometimes because of the 3.5gb issue, if you know how to use it, it's not really a problem. At least nothing that a GTX980Ti couldn't fix. I can't see the extra lousy .5gb of ram on the 980 for 200 more bucks being much more helpful. If textures are an issue, get a GTX980Ti, otherwise it should be a GTX970. To be honest, the GTX960 is a waste of a card. It's why I wracked up my credit card and went 970.
 
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I still don't get why people insist on ultra settings on 128-bit 960, or large texture mods on a 3.5GB 970. There is a reason for 6GB+ and 384-bit and 3072-core cards. 970 is a better investment, 960 is okay now (common sense settings and resolution), but will be sagging badly in a year, imo.

Almost every review maxes out all the gfx options. imho, this makes a lot of reviews useless for lower-end cards.
 
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I still don't get why people insist on ultra settings on 128-bit 960, or large texture mods on a 3.5GB 970. There is a reason for 6GB+ and 384-bit and 3072-core cards. 970 is a better investment, 960 is okay now (common sense settings and resolution), but will be sagging badly in a year, imo.

Almost every review maxes out all the gfx options. imho, this makes a lot of reviews useless for lower-end cards.

In the end a Game review turn into Test bench hardware+GPU reviews.

I don't recall a web-site testing Games Recommended hardware to see if they actually play decent
 
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CryEngine games, the new Tomb Raider game, games modified with higher res. textures, I'm sure there's plenty of others, but I don't play every game.

It's *possible* to cause the vram to be a limiter on most cards but not if you optimize the settings for the best mix of quality and speed. Are you after max eye candy and don't care about fps?
 

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CryEngine games, the new Tomb Raider game, games modified with higher res. textures, I'm sure there's plenty of others, but I don't play every game.

The new Tomb Raider game does not need a lot of VRAM, even on max settings.
 
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Well, most things can play at 60 fps if you turn the settings down. I use two 970's at 1440p and most of the time they're great, but with a couple games, they want more than the 970's 3.5gb of Vram offer.

Due to poor performance with titles that need more than 3.5gb's of Vram. So no, it's no enough sometimes.

What I have predominately noticed since the issue was revealed in February of last year is that this issue is primarily brought up by people that have not used one. So, not being a secret at all, it has still been one of the top selling cards of the last 12 months, despite this issue being much-publicized. Why? Because it's a damned good card, regardless.

i aint owned any either, but having seen the issue myself i too will continue to be vocal about it. i know 4 people personally that, like erocker, went the 970 sli route. 1 of the 4 i know has 0 issues and the other 3 have all since changed gpu setups.

970 is a great card if you have 0 intentions of upgrading your 12/10 screen. for anybody looking forward...
 
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i know 4 people personally that, like erocker, went the 970 sli route.

SLI is a different story. Until DX12 anyway. I've never done SLI. Everything I read about it seems problematic.

You get double the processor performance but no improvement in vram, so vram would become a limiter unless you just want high FPS. Plus driver problems, poor scaling, etc.
 
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SLI with these cards works fine. Games that benefit from it, certainly do.
 
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SLI is a different story. Until DX12 anyway. I've never done SLI. Everything I read about it seems problematic.

You get double the processor performance but no improvement in vram, so vram would become a limiter unless you just want high FPS. Plus driver problems, poor scaling, etc.
i cant really see split frame rendering being used on anything but vr optimized games.. more cash but anyway scaling is good for 2 gpu's now and yeah dx12 increases draw call rate so the vram will be used with even greater efficiency that gives developers the option of more eye candy or more performance.. or in the middle.
with that said i think a 4gb 960 is a great value to get 1 now and 1 in like 6-10 months when the prices come done.. that is of course if your fine with 1080p and i think 960sli is worthy of 1080p gsync.
 
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The new Tomb Raider game does not need a lot of VRAM, even on max settings.

Even at 4K using the Very High Preset the GTX 970 holds up admirably considering no card is playable at that setting, hell it was the Nano having heavy frame time variance when tested:



Souce: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...Performance-Results/Adding-GTX-970-and-R9-390

Ramgate was unfortunate, but people do tend overplay it's actual impact.
 
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Even at 4K using the Very High Preset the GTX 970 holds up admirably considering no card is playable at that setting, hell it was the Nano having heavy frame time variance when tested:



Souce: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...Performance-Results/Adding-GTX-970-and-R9-390

Ramgate was unfortunate, but people do tend overplay it's actual impact.
its just kinda a complex situation atm.. i think its a combo of some driver tweaks and game engine tweaks for hbm. nothing they cant fix just $$
 

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Even on Medium Settings its dipping a lot.

But not because of the VRAM. Just look at the SLI setup absolute crush everything at 1440p:


In fact, it is the only playable option. The game is just down right demanding.

The issue with the 970 isn't the amount of vram, it's the .5 GB or so that is slow. It would be better off without it.

I speak only from my experience owning the cards.

It definitely wouldn't be better off without it. The 0.5GB acts as a buffer to using system RAM, which is a lot slower than the 0.5GB. The drivers know to use that last 0.5GB last, it doesn't affect anything that uses less than 3.5GB, and anything that does use more than 3.5GB will run better with the 0.5GB than without it.
 
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But not because of the VRAM.



It definitely wouldn't be better off without it. The 0.5GB acts as a buffer to using system RAM, which is a lot slower than the 0.5GB. The drivers know to use that last 0.5GB last, it doesn't affect anything that uses less than 3.5GB, and anything that does use more than 3.5GB will run better with the 0.5GB than without it.
doesnt seem that its even possible.. if anything it would only mess up texture swapping if they let it be used.
yet another complex vram situation but not being taken as serious as it should be.
 
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Also, don't forget, that when asked if he would be reviewing any 4GB 960's, W1zz relied he would not, since the chip doesn't have the strength to proprly utilize 4GB.
4GB 960 is a marketing gimmick.

 

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My only question is the number of 60fps charts he put up for 1080p. As an owner I can tell you that although a decent card, you are only consistently get 60fps on all those games if you are lowering settings where needed, which neans it's not a good comparison accross all games.

That makes the tests worthless, unless you are lowering settings on ALL GPU's for the same games test, to get actual comparisons. I nearly spit my coffee out laughing at all the 60fps charts he put up for either 960....sonething shady goin on there. The GPU itself is just not THAT strong.
 
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But not because of the VRAM. Just look at the SLI setup absolute crush everything at 1440p:




In fact, it is the only playable option. The game is just down right demanding.



It definitely wouldn't be better off without it. The 0.5GB acts as a buffer to using system RAM, which is a lot slower than the 0.5GB. The drivers know to use that last 0.5GB last, it doesn't affect anything that uses less than 3.5GB, and anything that does use more than 3.5GB will run better with the 0.5GB than without it.
no no... they tested this on intels tech site. whatever its called and it cant be used like that because you cant access both segments at the same time. if nvidia has said otherwise its just lie to keep less informed people ignorant and keep selling it. the truth is the only optimizing they can do for the 970 is to not use .5gb segment period. people that own it should demand it.
 

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But... You can run games with textures on highest quality with the 4GB version, for example in GTA V.
When I run GTA V my GTX770M uses about 2600mb vram with highest texture quality which you can't do with a GTX960 2GB version.

GTA V was included in the link I posted above at ultra settings.

VRAM used is not the same thing as VRAM needed to play smoothly. Some games eat up more VRAM than is necessary to play.
 

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What I have predominately noticed since the issue was revealed in February of last year is that this issue is primarily brought up by people that have not used one. So, not being a secret at all, it has still been one of the top selling cards of the last 12 months, despite this issue being much-publicized. Why? Because it's a damned good card, regardless.

It is the same cost as an 8GB AMD 390. which performs as good at 1080P and better at all higher resolutions. I honestly don't understand why the 390 is so under-appreciated on the market. Me personally this is the exact situation where I would bypass nvidia and run a single AMD card. The 960/970 definitely aren't worth it.
 
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