GTX970 /960 or what GPU suggestions please

[Patrick_68000]

The 970 had 3.5gb of ddr5 ram and .5gb of slower ram.

Yes, the memory bus is 224-bit for the 3.5 gb and 32-bit for the 512 MB

 

[[DOOK] Droogie]

970 runs ED in VR fine, and is a beast with other games, a bit dramatic saying it's worthless. I gave mine to a friend when I switched to the Titan and then 980TI, he's happy with it playing games on a 4K screen. Everyone knows about the 512 issue, in reality it is a minor because the card is such a beast.

I never said the 970 is worthless. I said the extra 512mb runs slower than system memory. That 512mb is worthless. It actually hurts performance once you go past 3.5gb. It's a massive bottleneck. If you go higher than 1080p, it becomes very apparent. The 390 just blows it away for the price.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I never said the 970 is worthless. I said the extra 512mb runs slower than system memory. That 512mb is worthless. It actually hurts performance once you go past 3.5gb. It's a massive bottleneck.

Yes, the bandwidth is less important

 

[[DOOK] Droogie]

Yes, the bandwidth is less important

False. It cripples performance if the memory can't keep up with the gpu. When the memory is pre-loading textures and can't feed it to the gpu fast enough, it causes massive frame drops. That's how the problem was discovered in the first place when the card exceeds 3.5gb.

Put it this way: Most games that heavily use Vram like Shadow of Morder, modded Skyrim, modded Minecraft, etc., simply won't use the last 512mb. A lot of benchmarks won't, either. You're basically hitting the vram wall. In order to get them to use the remaining 512mb, you have to force some benchmarks to use it, and when you do, it severely hurts the performance. Meaning you're not getting the performance you should get with an extra 512mb of memory available.

It isn't a huge deal at 1080p. At 1440p and higher, it is a big deal. The 390 handily beats the 970 at 1440p and higher for the same price or lower. It still beats it at 1080p.

 

[xXCheeChowXx]

I have a R9 280 with 3 GB of RAM....I play on Ultra

 

[Hilight]

Insorfar as a 970 vs a R9 390 here is a recent test over on Hard[OCP] comparing the two cards. The 390 shows rather well as the cards come out with essentially the same performance although they recommend the 970 based on the fact you can get one on rebate right now. They also point out that the 390 looks very promising on DX12

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016...dissipation_black_edition_review#.VvgwOEdHeCo

 

[Drownerfood]

If you just want to play ED I'll say my GTX 960 runs it just fine! ED doesn't take that much power, honestly. The 960 is a decent card, and quite a lot cheaper than the 970. What screen resolution do you play at? You might not even need the 4GB version, just the regular 2GB version.

 

[Rhombus]

Hi all,


i think about upgrading my PC, though the rig is already quite fine: i7 4790, 16 GB DDR3-2800 C11 RAM powering an EVGA GTX 980 SC running OC at 1385 Mhz. The system is all water-cooled and the GPU does never rise above 45° C. So... ...what to do next? What do you think about adding a second GTX 980 SC für SLI. Or should I wait for a single Pascal card?
I am waiting for my HTC Vive... in respect to optimal Performance.

Thanks,
Rhombus

 

[Noddie]

R9 270 2gb

Runs fine on ultra, with a moderate overclock.

Even an r7 250 will run fine on high.

Elite really isn't a demanding game.