GTX 970 vs GTX 980

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Gam3r01
Depends on your specs and needs.
The 970 has better price/performance, but sometimes you need the little extra boost the 980 offers.
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Chugalug_

Chugalug_

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Assuming you're upgrading from a 970 to the 980 (or even if you're not), the performance difference is not worth the price. You can easily hit 980 level clocks with an MSI Gaming 970 through a bit of DIY overclocking with afterburner.
If you ARE to upgrade from a 970, go all the way and get a 980ti.
In terms of 980tis the best card at the moment for the price is the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming.
At the moment however, it is not worth buying a GPU. Wait another month for the new pascal cards to launch, and the prices for the 980ti will drop hugely. I reckon pull the trigger then, or get a new GPU if they out perform the current ones at a similar price, although I think they are launching the titan grades first.
 
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Gam3r01

Gam3r01

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We will likely not see pascal until Q3 or later (summer or later), so next month is not true.
Current gen prices may fall 20-30 dollars, but nothing more than that (historically). Nvidia has no need to cut prices at launch. Production stops before the new generation launches so there is not much stock to get rid of, prices then go up for the few remaining cards.
Dont wait for a price drop.
 
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10tacle

10tacle

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Not only is the 980 not worth the price premium over a 970 at face value, but if you buy a factory overclocked 970 variant with a good air cooler solution like MSI's Gaming or EVGA's ACX SSC or Gigabyte's G1 series cards, you can overclock them to meet or even exceed stock 980 performance, even at 1440p.

I have my two SLI EVGA SSC Gaming ACX 2.0+ cards overclocked to 980 performance levels. Here are the results from two websites of that example, one with my EVGA card and another with a Gigabyte G1 card:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2015/05/08/evga-geforce-gtx-970-ssc-acx-2-0-review/9

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_970_g1_gaming_review,15.html

And contrary to claims, I've never had any issues with 3.5GB direct access VRAM on the 970 at 1440p at ultra and AA settings enabled. In fact, I've never seen over 3GB VRAM allocated in MSI Afterburner or GPU-Z while gaming (Witcher 3, Crysis 3, Far Cry 4, BF4, Battlefront, Project Cars). Note that memory "allocation" reported by those two apps is not the same as actual memory usage.
 
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Gam3r01

Gam3r01

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I hate the comparison of OCing a 970 to the 980s level. Yes its possible, and yes its fairly easy to do.
But you can get a near identical OC on the 980 as well, giving you a net change of zero. When comparing the OC to stock that is worth considering, not when comparing the two.
 
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Chugalug_

Chugalug_

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Provided they reportedly taped out the GPUs in around June last year, mass manufacturing should begin some time soon, and if the past releases have told us anything, namely the GM200 chips, its that Nvidia typically releases GPUs around 9 months after taping out. Four of the pascal cards were leaked as under testing by several sources. The fact that most of these sites seem to be saying similar things regarding dates, its heavily expected the cards will be unveiled at the big GPU conference in early April.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gp100-chip-taped-gp-104-arriving-q2-2016/
http://www.mobipicker.com/nvidia-pascal-news-at-least-four-gpus-currently-in-testing/
 
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10tacle

10tacle

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Oh I understand fully...it's not a fair comparison directly. You can OC a 980 to near 980Ti performance levels. But then again, the price point isn't a fair comparison either...that's the point.

 
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Chugalug_

Chugalug_

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I'm by no means that guy that goes: "If you get a card with 99% ASIC quality you can OC to Titan X clock!"
I accept the fact that I worded that REALLY poorly! :p
But at an additional 50% cost with 10% performance increase, I simply don't see it as a viable alternative to the other cards on the borders of the price range of the 980.
 
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10tacle

10tacle

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And just for giggles, here are two reviews of the same G1 Gigabyte series 970 and 980 cards for comparison form the same website, so everything is equal in test settings:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_970_g1_gaming_review,26.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_980_g1_gaming_review,26.html

Their best O/C on the 970 vs 980 and game FPS at 1600p, arguably where the 980 has the better advantage:

Bioshock Infinite - 86 / 99
Tomb Raider - 100 / 117
Hitman Absolution - 63 / 72

So the question above, even comparing overclock, is the G1 980 worth $510 (NewEgg, US) over the G1 970 for $320? That's a 59% increase in price for an average of 15% performance increase. It's the same stock for stock as well. I don't see the value.
 
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Epicness937

Epicness937

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unless you can get a 980 for under 420$ get a 970 maybe you can maybe sli later they sli like a dream.
however do keep in mind the next pascal gpus are coming out soon so you may also want to wait a bit to see what they can do then you could decide for a price dropped 970/980 or a new pascal gpu
 
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