980 or 970 for a 3 years old system

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EvoFreak

Limp Gawd
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Jun 9, 2006
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Hi guys! Im getting the itch again on pc gaming. My current rig right now is an intel 2500k processor with 670gtx. Im thinking of upgrading my gpu to 980 but im thinking if i get the 980, it might get slowed down by my aging processor. I dont really want to upgrade my cpu right now because its gonna be expensive. Should i get the 980 or just get the 970? I game at 1440p by the way.
 
If you've got even a modest overclock on your 2500K, it won't hold back the 980 at all.
 
@1440p I am even inclined to go with 980ti (even if using stock cooler) instead.
 
I run stock on my 2500k. I've been out of the overclocking game for a while now but if i have to relearned it again to save money i would oc my cpu again.

Are 980 is not enough for 1440p?
 
Do it - and I think that 980s are enough for 1440p but you may as well get a 980ti for some extra headroom. :)
 
Are the Ti worth the extra? Is it a good time to purchase a 980 anyway since its a year old already been released?
 
I just got a 980 last week, came from a 670.
Get a Ti if you want to play at 4K. GTA5 runs around 40-45fps in 4K on my 980, pretty much the same story with my other games when going to 4K. It looks amazing, but that 60 fps is so much better, so 1080 or 1440 is what you'd want to stick with, while maxing out settings in most games.
 
980 is 18% faster than a 970 IIRC. 970, especially used, is likely a better value. Personally I'd do 970 or 980ti.

2500k holds its own OC'd as others have said.
 
Im about to pull a trigger on a used 980 for $500CAD ($383 usd). should i grab it?
 
The PCIe 2.0 is more likely to hold those cards back than the CPU's processing ability. Even then it won't be a noticeable difference. Keep that CPU above 4.0ghz and you will be fine. If you can get it to 4.5 you will hang with Haswell's at around 4.0-4.2.

If you start doing SLI, then you will start to see some bottlenecking. Again, it would be more from the PCIe 2.0 bus than the CPU itself.
 
evilsofa said:
If you've got even a modest overclock on your 2500K, it won't hold back the 980 at all.
Click to expand...
Yes it most certainly can but in most cases not enough to matter. He will be pegging the cpu at times in some games so expect a stutter here and there.
 
I just put two 970's in my almost 7 year old system and they rock. You'll be fine!! I use 2560x1600. Ultra settings on pretty much everything.
 
I ran a 980ti on a 2500k OC'd to 4.7 at 1440p and had no issues with the combo. It ran GTA V at 60 FPS with most options turned all the way up. MSAA was not on. Only time it dropped below 60 was sunset or a lot of action in Sandy Shores. Never saw it go below 50.

From what I have seen your CPU may keep your FPS back 10-20 FPS at 1440p compared to newer CPU's.
 
I have a i5 2500k and a GTX 980. I have the i5 overclocked to 4.7Ghz & the 980 @ 1420 on the core. It does 60fps (I limit it to that) in every game I play, even the Witcher 3 at Ultra (High foliage distance).

I game at 1080p though. So I would expect a 5-10% performance loss at 1440p. I say go for it if you can get a good deal on a 980, but if money is not the issue I would get the 980ti.
 
N1GHTRA1N said:
I just put two 970's in my almost 7 year old system and they rock. You'll be fine!! I use 2560x1600. Ultra settings on pretty much everything.
Click to expand...

Wow! Remember when having a 7 year old system meant it could barely run the latest version of Word? Computing has come a long way.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I bit the bullet and got the used gtx 980. Gtx980 Ti would have been awesome but 50fps and above with 90% of all the eye candy turned on is good enough to me. I will just save the money then upgrade the cpu in the future.
 
At the current rate of Growth of CPU horsepower, and the total lack of proper CPU multithreading in games, I wouldn't put too much stock in upgrading CPU.

Even with Skylake (or rather, ESPECIALLY with Skylake), the only reason I would even consider upgrading from 2500k is if I need an entire platform upgrade/replacement. I upgraded from 2700 only because my mobo couldn't support SLI and I wanted to try SLI. Replacing a EoL'ed but perfectly working Mobo was, IMHO, a daft decision so I just built another rig from scratch.

With Skylake, unless you use one of the DDR3 Z170 mobos, you are looking at pricier (though significantly less so now) DDR4 RAM.

TL,DR: short of your Mobo/CPU being fried, I don't see much benefit in going from a SB chip to anything in the near future. DX12 could change that, but I reckon it'd help older chips more than it would help newer chips.

$383 for a 980 however is a good buy.
 
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