I assume a GTX980ti is overkill for 1080P gaming

Sunshinewelly

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want to upgrade from my gtx670.

Sold a nice guitar so money not an issue but dont want to spend more than i need.

what should i get

GTX970, GTX980 or GTX980ti
 
I enjoy very high / ultra settings at 60fps from my GTX 970 at 1080p.

You will always find something a GTX980TI can do at 1080p that a GTX970 can't. You just have to consider whether that's worth the price delta (for me, diminishing returns says probably not).
 
indeed, generally for just 1080p 60fps generally a GTX970 will do the job just fine (or possibly a R290x if you are not bothered with physx)

but think about if you will ever be interested in VR.... you need everything you can throw at it for that ;)
 
Overkill possibly, but it means the card 'lasts' longer as games in the future get more demanding.
 
No such thing as overkill, get the best you can afford :) It will run everything at max now, and for at least another couple of years and will be the cheapest option in the long run, unless the next series of cards are an enormous jump up in speed, which is highly doubtful.
 
Overkill holds no place in these parts. I would go ti, titan performance at a fraction of the cost and gives you more headroom going forward. The 980 is probably the sweet spot. May even pick a second hand one nice and cheap?
 
want to upgrade from my gtx670.

Sold a nice guitar so money not an issue but dont want to spend more than i need.

what should i get

GTX970, GTX980 or GTX980ti

If I was you what I would do is go for 2 x GTX 970's the cost is around the same as 1 x GTX 980ti (depending what ones you get), and you get more bang for your buck. :thumbsup: at the end of the day when building / upgrading you should be thinking what is the best I can get for my budget, and sometimes less is more. :)

Another option would be go for 1 x GTX 970 and go for the second in the future when you need it / if you need it and when the price has dropped a bit, In my opinion this is the better option as you can upgrade when needed and not go all in from the start. You might find 1 x 970 is perfect and can spend that extra money on other things, like a better CPU. (If needed)

But as above has said the GTX 980 / 980ti will give more "headroom" in the future if you decide to SLI them.

Edit : When I made my system I started with 1 x GTX 670 like you, and then got 1 x 970 and now have 2 x 970 what is more than enough.
 
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I only game at 1080p and I personally wouldn't want anything less than my 980, games aren't always perfectly optimized these days and its nice to have a bit of extra oomph to try and power your way through some of the issues.

You still have the likes of Shadow of Mordor, Far cry 3/4, Crysis series, Witcher 3, GTA V etc that are more than happy to tax even some of the best GPUs.

Id say sensible option is 970, if the money is there and your happy to part with it then 980ti for sure.
 
Absolutely worth it if you have a 120Hz or 144Hz 1080p monitor, but if it's just a standard 60Hz 1080p monitor, I really think you should save the money now to put into upgrading down the line when you need it. The GTX 980 Ti isn't at a very competitive pricepoint unless you need that extra performance right now, not in two or three years.
 
I'm of the opinion that future proofing a GPU is a nonsense. Buy the GPU that does everything you need today for a reasonable sum then buy the shiny new in 2 years time. Expecting anything more than 2 to 3 years out of a GPU is bonkers.

Even economies and processing power aside, there is always new gimmicks, such as phys-x, v-synch and shadowplay, that are not retro-fitted to powerful but older GPUs.

Accept you'll be replacing your GPU (which is a doddle, especially if you stick with Nvidia / AMD) every 2 years.

More controversially, I also feel the SLIin' older cards after a couple of years is not worth it when compared to flogging your old secondhand and buying new.
 
Also worth bearing in mind we a due a die shrink next year, along with a new memory architecture (HBM), so there is a good chance these cards will have a short shelf life before being completely eclipsed.
 
I'm of the opinion that future proofing a GPU is a nonsense. Buy the GPU that does everything you need today for a reasonable sum then buy the shiny new in 2 years time. Expecting anything more than 2 to 3 years out of a GPU is bonkers.

Even economies and processing power aside, there is always new gimmicks, such as phys-x, v-synch and shadowplay, that are not retro-fitted to powerful but older GPUs.

Accept you'll be replacing your GPU (which is a doddle, especially if you stick with Nvidia / AMD) every 2 years.

More controversially, I also feel the SLIin' older cards after a couple of years is not worth it when compared to flogging your old secondhand and buying new.

....going to grudgingly agree here. I SLI'd 670's in a kind of cost versus upgrade exercise and think that I would be unlikely to do so again, and may just sell the card that I am thinking of SLI'ing in the future*






* I reserve the right to edit and or delete my comment to prove or disprove any arguement I have should anyone dredge up this post in the future.
 
It begrudges a lot of people... but Nivek is always right! :p

I was going to give you a like, but your reply in the third person negated it. Sorry. :)
 
As far as I'm concerned there is no such thing as overkill when it comes to single card solutions. If we were talking about 3-way SLI then sure because no game will be programmed well enough to use that GPU power at 1080p.

Still if I were you, I'd get a 970 since they are nice and cheap, save yourself £300+ and wait for the next wave of GPU's next year with HBM and upgrade again. In the meantime the 970 will double your performance which for me is the minimum upgrade point and whilst it can't max most of the newer games at 60fps for the price it is a great card.
 
cheers for the advice - decided i will either get a gtx970 or a gtx980. they had some gtx980 for £310 on ebay last night but thats now sold out
 
I understand there is a nice reference one on the classifieds section.....
 
yes but it seems to have now been sold
 
cheers for the advice - decided i will either get a gtx970 or a gtx980. they had some gtx980 for £310 on ebay last night but thats now sold out

IF you can get a GTX980 for the £300 mark, that is a very nice card for the price, and would probably tempt me over a GTX970 even for 1080p / 60.

not only is it slightly faster you get the full 4GB of full speed ram as well, CF the GTX970 which 500mb of it is crippled. When I looked however they were around the £400 mark still.
 
I'm of the opinion that future proofing a GPU is a nonsense. Buy the GPU that does everything you need today for a reasonable sum then buy the shiny new in 2 years time. Expecting anything more than 2 to 3 years out of a GPU is bonkers.

Even economies and processing power aside, there is always new gimmicks, such as phys-x, v-synch and shadowplay, that are not retro-fitted to powerful but older GPUs.

Accept you'll be replacing your GPU (which is a doddle, especially if you stick with Nvidia / AMD) every 2 years.

More controversially, I also feel the SLIin' older cards after a couple of years is not worth it when compared to flogging your old secondhand and buying new.

....going to grudgingly agree here. I SLI'd 670's in a kind of cost versus upgrade exercise and think that I would be unlikely to do so again, and may just sell the card that I am thinking of SLI'ing in the future*

* I reserve the right to edit and or delete my comment to prove or disprove any arguement I have should anyone dredge up this post in the future.

SLI only really makes sense at once, up-front. You get the most value and use from it instead of, as you mention Nivek, where the money you'd spend buying a second GPU is best spent on a new one.
 
Thanks for all the advice . Managed to get a cracking r9 290 for £180
 
Great price, I paid £200 for mine second hand!! You will not have any issues with that card at 1080p, mine very rarely goes below 60fps on any of the games I play.
 
IF you can get a GTX980 for the £300 mark, that is a very nice card for the price, and would probably tempt me over a GTX970 even for 1080p / 60.

not only is it slightly faster you get the full 4GB of full speed ram as well, CF the GTX970 which 500mb of it is crippled. When I looked however they were around the £400 mark still.

whats this 500mb of crippled VRAM? GTA V shows 4gb available to me.

i just got myself a 970 to go with my new i5 4690K, so far everything plays at 60fps+ all maxed out. and i havent even tried to OC it yet and CPU is only OC'd to 4ghz so far, im sure i can push it to around 4.4ghz.

the 980 seems to only offer a small amount of added grunt for the extra cash. to me it wasnt worth it but i guess im watching the pennies at the moment.

Great price, I paid £200 for mine second hand!! You will not have any issues with that card at 1080p, mine very rarely goes below 60fps on any of the games I play.

any problems with drivers? i know in the past i have had loads of trouble with AMD taking too long to get drivers out. i didnt even consider an AMD GPU in this new build.
 
whats this 500mb of crippled VRAM? GTA V shows 4gb available to me.

Here's all the controversy summarised:

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Revisited • Eurogamer.net

As for drivers, AMD's use more CPU grunt than nVidias, basically (on Windows 7 and 8). If you're rocking an i7 then it's not something you'd care about, but if you had an i3 then you'd best go with green. I heard that Windows 10 changes things, the driver performance is much more even.
 

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