What Graphics card should I get? GTX 960, 970, or 980?

OmegaBlight · Mar 19, 2015

Hey all,
I'm new here and I was looking to upgrade to a new graphic card (I do not even know what I'm using but its one of the low end ones, cost be 30$ in 2013).
Heres my build:
Asus Rampage IV Black edition
2x8gb RAM (DDR3-1600)
i7-3930K sandy bridge 6 core 3.2ghz
Corsair 110h cooling thingy (I do not recall)
1000 watts PSU
NZXT Phantom full tower
1 LG29 Ultrawide monitors
1 27inch monitor (I will be replacing this with a high resolution LG34)

And heres what I use my desktop for:
Mostly work(I multitask alot, spread sheets and docs, accessing remote servers and running alot of management applications)
Games - I do play games daily, maybe an hour a day, but mostly multiplayer games like heroes of the storm or starcraft 2
Movies

Now heres the thing, I do work and play games and watch youtube at the same time. So I literally have windows open for work, while at the same time a youtube video on and also playing heroes of the storm, my current graphic card cant handle that (so I have been using my Asus G75), now this desktop has been laying around for 6 months now, I really want to start using it... to me whats important is lag, I cant stand that and something that I can use for future, like a SLI ready one, so in the future I'll just buy one more and add it to the build (3 years from now maybe). So speed and resolution is key here. Thank you.

Deepanshu Singh · Mar 19, 2015

I would say go for gtx 980 if you can a single card should work fine for about 2-3 years.

p_nut_uk · Mar 19, 2015

I'd go for a 970, currently the best bang for buck, should easily cope with 2 monitors. The 970 is miles better than the 960 for not too much more whereas the 980 is almost double the cost (UK) and if you fancy overclocking you can get into 980 territory with the 970

jty0yt · Mar 19, 2015

You definitely don't need a 980 so I would personally go with a 970 so you can play future games over 60 FPS at 1080p ultra but you would also do great with a 960. Just the price!

jty0yt · Mar 19, 2015

Didn't mean to vote that up, a 980 would be way to much for him and what he needs

chenw · Mar 19, 2015

Same here, I would pick 970 and save the money for earlier upgrade. 970 is a beast for its money.

Deepanshu Singh · Mar 19, 2015

jty0yt :

Seeing this- http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=5490&game=Star%20Citizen
Don't you think that after 1-2 year you will think that you should have more than a single 970? Rest depends on the way you see things.

OmegaBlight · Mar 19, 2015

Well the difference between the cheapest 970 and 980 is 250$...So I guess the 970 would be a good deal... so would this be something you guys recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127833

or any other company? I do not know which is better MSI, Asus, Giga, or EVGA

krells · Mar 19, 2015

I would go with this card instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127832

p_nut_uk · Mar 19, 2015

You'll be happy with any card, I don't think there's any companies you should avoid, personally I like the EVGA SC ASX 2.0 GTX 970

OmegaBlight · Mar 19, 2015

krells :

Any reason to go for this one? sorry i'm a noob when it comes to this stuff.

krells · Mar 19, 2015

OmegaBlight :

It uses a better cooler and also has a higher factory overclock out of the box. Most popular models are really close in performance and features.

This comparison might give a bit more background;
http://www.overclock.net/t/1516121/gtx-970-comparison-strix-vs-msi-gaming-vs-gigabyte-g1

OmegaBlight · Mar 19, 2015

Deepanshu Singh :

krells :

I see where your coming from but my MB can take 3 more these and is it bang for the buck to get a single 980 or have 2 970s(buy one now and thane another 1 or 2 after 2 years)? I'm not a deep gamer, and the games I play are usually blizzard games like SC and HOTS. The rest is 90% work.

OmegaBlight · Mar 19, 2015

p_nut_uk :

Does EVGA have the best customer service? cause hardware always has a fail rate and the company that gives me the ease of a replacement is always a priority.

p_nut_uk · Mar 19, 2015

Sorry having never delt with their customer service I wouldn't know.

Deepanshu Singh · Mar 19, 2015

p_nut_uk :

then, don't worry too much go with any one of these I'm pretty sure you'll not regret it. All are high end cards for now.

krells · Mar 19, 2015

One or two 970s give great performance for the money. Three isn't such a great deal. Sli scaling drops off fast after 2 cards. Not that it really matters though for your purposes one and maybe a second later would be more than you need.

OmegaBlight · Mar 19, 2015

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate everyones support, I'm about to make the purchase... going for the MSI gtx 970 gaming 4g... before I make the purchase tonight... anyone has any other recommendations... brand or type. Thank you!

Just hate regretting a purchase... like the 29 inch ultra wide LG (its great but I should have invested more and went for the 34inch)

What Graphics card should I get? GTX 960, 970, or 980?

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