Need To Buy A New Graphics Card - AND YOU GET TO CHOOSE!

Hel Styrkr · Dec 28, 2015

Evening community,

So recently I put up a post talking about a failing graphics card, and it ended up being "resolved" by being RMA'd under warranty. So they returned my card to me with the same issue as before; needless to say, I'm not super thrilled about the service I've received from ASUS about this. Therefore, I've decided to buy a new card rather then deal with ASUS's b******t, and, seeing as how I just don't have the time, energy, motivation, or patience to deal with this issue anymore, I'd like to ask the community to choose my next graphics card.

Listed below are my system specs. Below that are my prerequisites for a new card.
-SYSTEM SPECS-
-ATX Full size case (Antec something-or-another)
-Intel i7 3.6ghz processor
-ASUS Sabertooth X79 mobo
-1kw PSU
-32GB DDR3 RAM
-2 TB HD

-CARD REQUIREMENTS-
-MUST NOT BE ASUS OR ASUS BRANDS (nVidia related brands only if you please)
-Price range of 200-400$ - preferably somewhere in the middle
-4GB GDDR5
-MUST have 2 DVI ports
-Reliable: I don't want to have to replace this in a year.

If I think of anything else, I'll post it. But thanks in advance for helping me out with this.

yoshimania · Dec 28, 2015

I highly recommend the GTX 970 from EVGA:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076&cm_re=GTX_970-_-14-487-076-_-Product

It also meets all your graphic card requirements and will last you at least two more years.

Hel Styrkr · Dec 28, 2015

Thanks for that, that's actually the one that's at the top of my list as of right now.

babernet_1 · Dec 28, 2015

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487088

An EVGA GTX 970. Super overclocked and the highest rating on Newegg.

shayan223 · Dec 28, 2015

GTX 970 for sure, I got it and I'm super pleased, best bang for your buck in my opinion, it's super energy efficient and it's bench marks do it's performance justice, definitely top of the line.

jerdle · Dec 28, 2015

All GTX 970 models only have 3.5GB of true GDDR5 memory, the 980 has 4 GB of full speed memory, but is outside your price range, and you excluded all Radeons from the competition.

The only nvidia card that fits your requirements is the GTX 960 4GB.

babernet_1 · Dec 28, 2015

jerdle :

Technically true, but its unlikely he will hit the 3.5G memory limit with a 1440P display. And if he ever did, all he has to do is bump the AA down a notch. The 970 will be much faster than the 960.

Hel Styrkr · Dec 28, 2015

Now this card here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487077 seems to be the best fit and highest recommended card I've seen so far. However, I keep seeing that it only has 3.5gb of usable memory and an additional .5gb of memory in reserve. Can anyone explain or comment on this? If it helps, I use two monitors running at 1920x1080, however, I only game on one, and I normally have a web browser in the other.

okcnaline · Dec 28, 2015

What resolution? And which Ivy Bridge-E processor do you have?

jerdle · Dec 28, 2015

babernet_1 :

And after seeing VRAM usage over the last year, do you really believe that one and especially two years from now games aren't going to be well over 3.5gb?

Im not saying the 970 isn't better than the 960, of course it is. I'm saying the 970 is a poor choice, and if he wants nvidia only he can't look at anything less than a gtx 980.

Hel Styrkr :

Basically, Nvidia marketed (and still does even today) the card as a 4GB GDDR5 high end card. A few months after release, its discovered they lied about it, and it's 3.5GB, with 0.5GB of gimped memory running @ 1/8 of the speed. The slow memory caused stuttering when it was accessed frequently. Rare in most situations, but as games start using up more VRAM, that problem is only going to get bigger the more months pass by. Oh, and they also lied about a bunch of other specifications of the card, but the VRAM got the most attention.

Hel Styrkr · Dec 28, 2015

Hold up people, lets not turn this into a 960 vs 970 vs 980 thread. I'm sure there are plenty other threads you can find doing epic battle of that.

@okcnaline: Both my monitors are running 1920x1080, and my exact processor is here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115229

okcnaline · Dec 28, 2015

This guy.

He can look at anything he wants, jerdle. GTX 980 is actually not worth it because it doesn't offer much better performance at any resolution compared to the GTX 970. GTX 970 aces at 1080P, GTX 980 Ti aces above 2K. In the meanwhile, GTX 980 steps between the 970 and 980 Ti, and it doesn't offer much more performance than the GTX 970. That means that you aren't getting much better performance in 2K, and that is a bit of an understatement. GTX 970 is a good choice for 1080P, GTX 980 for 1440P and beyond, but GTX 980 is not what anyone would want.

jerdle · Dec 28, 2015

okcnaline :

Of course he can. NOT, however, if he wants to look at cards that meet the specifications in the original post.

rcald2000 · Dec 28, 2015

@Hel Styrkr, a few things: I personally love MSI and EVGA GTX 970's. I previously owned the MSI GTX 970 4G Gaming card and loved it. I currently own a bunch of EVGA 980 Ti's and like them a lot, plus have tons of praise for their customer service. I've contacted them for information more times than I care to admit.

Suggestion: If you purchase the EVGA card, opt for the SSC or FTW, but not the SC. The SC had a temperature problem when users tried to push the stock overclock. It's very well documented issue, that you can read about if you google "evga sc heatpipe". However the design flaw was corrected with both the SSC and FTW models. The other thing that you should be aware of is that EVGA GTX 970 models numbers that start with 29xx designate that the card has two DVI, one display port and one HDMI. While models that start with 39xx designate that the card has no DVI, three display ports and one HDMI. Personally I'd rather have the 39xx model, but I thought that you should be aware of this distinction.

Hel Styrkr · Dec 28, 2015

So, based on everyone's responses, this is the card I'm leaning towards right now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487077

However, I've noticed again and again that it only has 3.5gb of usable memory and an additional .5gb of memory in reserve. Can anyone shed some light on this? Particularly how it will affect two monitors running at 1080p?

babernet_1 · Dec 28, 2015

Hel Styrkr :

This is not a problem with two displays and using one for gaming. The second display will only use a couple hundred MB at most of memory and the gaming monitor will use maybe 2.5GB at most. You are fine. You will never see that 3.5GB limit.

okcnaline · Dec 28, 2015

That card looks okay.

And as for the 3.5GB+.5GB issue, it's because there are a couple hundred of cores slashed from GTX 980. The slashing of cores resulted in .5 GB of VRAM not assigned to cores, and so they became slow but not gone. Luckily, because Maxwell is quite modular, engineers were able to prevent .5GB of slow VRAM from running unless in reserve.

And 1080P doesn't use 4 GB of VRAM, so you'd be fine.

Hel Styrkr · Dec 28, 2015

Ok guys, thanks for all the advice and help. I've decided to go with the previously mentioned card, the GTX 970 FTW. I wish that I could pick all of you as the best solution, but, sadly, I cannot. Anyways, thanks again.

Need To Buy A New Graphics Card - AND YOU GET TO CHOOSE!

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