Should I upgrade to gtx 970 or r9 290 considering I have an i7 960 cpu?

[josh_teh_ahhsom]

I have been planning on upgrading my gtx 560 ti sli configuration to a single gtx 970. However, I have recently been reading about AMD's Mantle technology that may work better with an older CPU like the i7 960. I understand that the gtx 970 is roughly %15 better/faster than the r9 290, but would that be the case with an older i7 960? I don't know a whole lot about the Mantle technology other than the few articles I have read... It seems pretty legit but I really have no solid insight to back that up. The idea of saving money on a GPU by going with the r9 290 sounds good but if the gtx 970 would still be considerably better with my current CPU I would go with that.

 

[Kkkk1]

To be honest I don't think your older gen i7 will bottleneck a 970. It's definitely the better gpu I'd certainly go 970

 

[josh_teh_ahhsom]

I appreciate your reply. I was thinking 970 all along until I had heard about the Mantle technology on the AMD cards... My main concern was the i7 960 bottlenecking the 970. Anyone else have any insight on Mantle specifically? How good it really is or...?

 

[Kkkk1]

Don't worry go 970

 

[krells]

I appreciate your reply. I was thinking 970 all along until I had heard about the Mantle technology on the AMD cards... My main concern was the i7 960 bottlenecking the 970. Anyone else have any insight on Mantle specifically? How good it really is or...?

My i7 930 @ 3.8ghz hasn't caused a big bottleneck running a 295x2 or 970's in SLI so don't worry about a bottleneck. Mantle has potential but at the moment I don't see it as a reason to buy one card over the other.

 

[josh_teh_ahhsom]

Thank you... I haven't checked this in a while. Anyway, I still haven't made the purchase. I ended up buying a PS4. I am going to buy a card, soon, though. I think I will go with the R9 290 (no x) simply for the price. I can get one under $250, for sure. Its just down to price, now.

 

[17seconds]

Mantle development has been discontinued by AMD. The GTX 970, however, has more complete support for DirectX 12 with a hardware implementation.

 

[josh_teh_ahhsom]

Interesting, I didn't know Mantle development was discontinued. Either way, I ended up purchasing a 970... a few hours ago, actually. I read so many reviews about the Radeon cards and there seemed to be far more black screens, blue screens, general driver issues, etc than I cared to potentially deal with. I know there is always a chance to deal with that on any card but I have never had a problem with nVidia. I was really just trying to talk myself into Radeon to save some money... Anyway, card should be here Friday. Along with my free Witcher 3 code. Too bad I have to wait to play it. I appreciate everyone's replies!