Graphics card died, Buying new one ($100-$350 Budget), Need Help.

These posts seem pretty silly to me on which card to go with. The fact is, if you are buying an NVidia card TODAY, you are paying a premium no matter what card you purchase. You are not making a good decision; especially given you seem to have a pretty tight budget. I do not mean that in a negative way, I am only implying you seem to know what you can afford and are trying to get the most for your money.

Below is a re-post of what I said to another gentleman in a similar situation.

I am waiting for a GTX 1080 partner card myself. The lowest priced GTX 980 on Newegg (usually pretty good pricing and no tax for me), is $394.

If you have looked at any of the benchmark tests performed, the GTX 1080 is about 79% better performance than the GTX 980, and partner cards will start at $599. This seems on par as it is $200 more than the cheapest GTX 1080 at the moment.

However, the GTX 1070 is about 33% better performance than the GTX 980, and partner cards will start at $379. So we are looking at a 33% better card for $20 cheaper... I cannot believe anyone who values money would purchase a GTX 980 at this time.

Even the cheapest GTX 970 would be a waste of money as the cheapest is $289, and the $379 GTX 1070 has 55% better performance. So performance vs money is far better on the 1070. Purchasing any GTX 9XX is pretty much wasting money at this time. Do not think you are going to be able to get even half of that money back if you intend to purchase a GTX 9XX card and want to resell it when the 1070 is in good saturation (maybe a month).

The only card I can recommend (from NVidia) at this time is the GTX 960. And that is with the caveat that you just cannot spend more than $200 on a video card ever. Because if you can just wait a few weeks (even using on-board graphics, or the cheapest card to turn on your monitor) you will have much better options for your money.

Even if the $379 was just out of budget for a GTX 1080; you would be better suited to save $5-$10 a week for the next month and wait for the GTX 980 prices to plummet.

Oh and you can expect partner cards to follow pretty quickly. NVidia has already pre-sold their entire stock of "Founder Edition" cards. There is very little incentive for them to hold back on the partners.

Just my opinion.

-Ray

http://videocardz.com/60265/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1070-3dmark-firestrike-benchmarks