Which GPU should I buy?

crisangelfan · Sep 25, 2015

I have a pretty decent PC and I want to do something with my GPU. I currently have an EVGA SSC GTX 960 2gb and want to upgrade to SLI for a total VRAM of 4. I was looking on Amazon for another card, and I saw that for only like US$32 more, I can get the the 4GB version of the card. Or I can go the extra Mile and spend about 100 dollars more and get the 970 or spend a little more and get a 980. I have a 4790K CPU, a G1 Gaming-5 MOBO, and a 850W Bronze PSU. So which route should I take for this upgrade. I want to game at 1080p at higher settings for most games. I can already max out a few and get roughly 30 FPS but 60 would be Desired.

UnforgivenGamer · Sep 25, 2015

Even with a single 970 paired with that cpu will max out pretty much all games at 1080p and a 980 would be overkill. I'd recommend the 970 and if you feel the need for more power get another one in the future. Two would last for quite a while I'd imagine

cleanshot911 · Sep 25, 2015

crisangelfan :

That's not how SLI works. If you have two cards that each have 2gb of VRAM, for a total of 4gb of VRAM in the system, the programs that games are based on will only use 2gb of VRAM. Supposedly this is supposed to change for new games that implement DirectX 12, but even if that's the case, no games currently use DirectX 12 and it will take about a year before games really start coming out with it. I didn't really understand your description of the situation either. Are you saying that you already have a GTX 960 and found another for $32? That doesn't make any sense where did you find a card for that price? This question also applies to the rest of the cards and prices you listed. If you meant that you haven't bought your 960 yet and you found cards that are that much more than the one you intend to buy, then that's a different story, you should get the gtx 970. For the record if you want to play any game at max settings at 1080p, you'd need either a gtx 970, a gtx 980, or two gtx 960s with 4gb of VRAM each. If that's what you want and you can afford it, get whichever of those options is cheapest.

crisangelfan · Sep 25, 2015

cleanshot911 :

crisangelfan :

That's not how SLI works. If you have two cards that each have 2gb of VRAM, for a total of 4gb of VRAM in the system, the programs that games are based on will only use 2gb of VRAM. Supposedly this is supposed to change for new games that implement DirectX 12, but even if that's the case, no games currently use DirectX 12 and it will take about a year before games really start coming out with it. You didn't really describe your situation well either. Are you saying that you already have a GTX 960 and found another for $32? That doesn't make any sense where did you find a card for that price? This question also applies to the rest of the cards and prices you listed. For the record if you want to play any game at max settings at 1080p, you'd need either a gtx 970, a gtx 980, or two gtx 960s with 4gb of VRAM each. If that's what you want and you can afford it, get whichever of those options is cheapest.

Sorry for not describing the situation well enough. I have one GTX 960 in my build already and found a GTX 960 2GB on amazon for $180.50. The prices for the other cards go up from there. Also, you said that running the cards in SLI wont benefit my usable VRAM? I thought that, and increasing the card's max performance was what SLI was for.

spentshells · Sep 25, 2015

Buy a 970 and call it a day. Sell off the 960 and you got a decent upgrade for a reasonable price.

cleanshot911 · Sep 25, 2015

crisangelfan :

I see. Well the thing about SLI is it's not the extra VRAM that makes your rig run faster. Because you have two gpus, it allows the work to be split up between the gpus, so that basically they both put their processing power towards rendering the same frame. This allows the frame to be rendered quicker than it would be if only one gpu were rendering it. It doesn't exactly double your performance because of the way that the cards render the frames in SLI, but it increases performance significantly. But VRAM doesn't stack. By getting another 2gb card, you may have 4gb of VRAM, but the programs you are running (games) will only recognize that you have 2gb because of the algorithms those programs use to detect your system's hardware and it's capabilities. So your rig would run faster with two gtx 960s, but if you are being held back by your low amount of VRAM, then that's not going to change. VRAM is used to render images that have very detailed textures, or that have lots of anti-aliasing. So you may be able to put all of your settings on ultra no problem, except for the textures (the most noticeable setting) or anti-aliasing (the other most noticeable setting). So for your situation, since you game at 1080p, I'd suggest selling your gtx 960 and buying a gtx 970, because that should be able to max anything at 1080p for now. However, if you really don't want to sell your gtx 960, you could just get another, pop it into your build, and you should see some significant performance gains, but there may be some settings that rely on VRAM that you can't max out.

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Which GPU should I buy?

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