Upgrade to 960 from 670 for 1080p?

I'd keep the 670 if you're looking to spend around $200, see how nvidia responds to whatever is next from AMD (960ti or 970 price drop/rebadge).

970 would be the only worthwhile upgrade from a performance standpoint.
 
The GTX 960 is about 2 or 3 percent faster than a GTX 670. Absolutely not worth it.

The presumed upcoming GTX 960 Ti may or may not be worth it; it might be anywhere from 10% to 30% faster, depending on what Nvidia decides to do (multiple versions have been sighted). Either just go with a GTX 970 now for a huge 50% upgrade in performance, or wait for possibly a long time and see if a GTX 960 Ti Boost comes in for a lower price.
 
Darknyt said:
Worth it? If not, best bang for buck upgrade? I'm on 2gb version.
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Did you look at benchmarks? It performs roughly the same as the 670/760. And it still only has 2GB of VRAM. Going to a 970 is worth it.
 
I may get a lot of flak for recommending this, but if you have an extra $130 in your budget I'd strongly suggest you stump up for a 970. A 960 will mostly be a side-grade from a 670. As long as you don't go nuts with supersampling and insane levels of AA, this will be the fastest "practical" card you can buy to max out pretty much everything at 1080p.

AMD may be a suggestion from many that are pissed about Maxwellgate, but as it stands, for the price, you can't do better from a perf/watt perspective.
 
misterbobby said:
If you had simply looked at reviews then you would know its not an upgrade...
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Wasn't able to see one easily that included a 670, did a bit of googling. This sites review doesn't include one and neither did a few others. Plenty of other cards but not that one. Most of the results putting the two together are just those spec comparison sites. But even from that I was beginning to gather it wasn't a big step up.

970 May be the ticket but not having an issue just yet. Thinking the new crop of games this year may give me an excuse. In fact. I think it was evolve that started me thinking as the beta was not as smooth as I'd like. No need to jump the gun because of a beta but we'll have the game in hand here in a week to see.
 
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Sorry to hijack. What about going from a 580 to 960? I have an older i7-920 that I'm using for a HTPC more so than gaming but would at least like to keep the same level of gaming performance. I'm mostly interested in reducing power. Thanks!
 
Darknyt said:
Wasn't able to see one easily that included a 670, did a bit of googling. This sites review doesn't include one and neither did a few others. Plenty of other cards but not that one. Most of the results putting the two together are just those spec comparison sites. But even from that I was beginning to gather it wasn't a big step up.

970 May be the ticket but not having an issue just yet. Thinking the new crop of games this year may give me an excuse. In fact. I think it was evolve that started me thinking as the beta was not as smooth as I'd like. No need to jump the gun because of a beta but we'll have the game in hand here in a week to see.
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Relevant to Evolve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsgoD74vLIo

Know about the DLC bullshit-bullet-train you're getting into. If you've got money to burn (I'm assuming not since you're looking at a 960 instead of a 980).

heatlesssun said:
Sorry to hijack. What about going from a 580 to 960? I have an older i7-920 that I'm using for a HTPC more so than gaming but would at least like to keep the same level of gaming performance. I'm mostly interested in reducing power. Thanks!
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IMO, it's definitely worth upgrading for the extra 512MB of memory and lower power consumption for sure. You will gain performance, but do not expect leaps and bounds improvement - most likely a marginal one.
 
heatlesssun said:
Sorry to hijack. What about going from a 580 to 960? I have an older i7-920 that I'm using for a HTPC more so than gaming but would at least like to keep the same level of gaming performance. I'm mostly interested in reducing power. Thanks!
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Then yes. The 960 will give you a huge performance boost (up to 50%) while also reducing power draw.

If you want comparable performance then you may want to consider a 750Ti for even bigger power savings.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
IMO, it's definitely worth upgrading for the extra 512MB of memory and lower power consumption for sure. You will gain performance, but do not expect leaps and bounds improvement - most likely a marginal one.
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Stoly said:
Then yes. The 960 will give you a huge performance boost (up to 50%) while also reducing power draw.

If you want comparable performance then you may want to consider a 750Ti for even bigger power savings.
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Thanks guys. I'll probably will go with the 960.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
Relevant to Evolve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsgoD74vLIo
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Thanks - yeah I had seen that youtube video the day it came out when the announced the cluster of DLC. As ridiculous as the DLC is, I can afford to just get the game and not worry about a measly $60 or so. I will admit, to my eternal shame, I did the GMG deal for 20% off and preordered the Monster Race. I know - 2015 is supposed to be the year of rebellion against preorders . . . but I'm old and tired, lol. I will probably preorder GTA 5 too. :eek:

Honestly (as you can see by my 10+ years on here), I'm not a spring chicken anymore and frankly do have a few bills to burn at this point in my life. I do still have a mental block though from just popping for the highest card, if only cuz I know it's such a screwjob typically from the price/perf standpoint. Hard to train that side out of yourself . . .

So, I'm not tied into the 960 at all as a price point, and would gladly bump up to a 970 if it was needed to keep things silky smooth at 1080p. A new monitor is not in my near-term plan, but I may go 1440p at some point. But based on what I'm seeing in games so far right now, it's not a necessity. It's more that I don't keep up with cards at all anymore until it seems like it might be time to update, so you'll have to excuse my relative ignorance.

I will probably actually pick up both a XBONE and PS4 this month, so didn't know if I should bother with a new video card as well.
 
heatlesssun said:
Thanks guys. I'll probably will go with the 960.
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No problem! You won't regret it. Ordering mine in a week or two.

Darknyt said:
Thanks - yeah I had seen that youtube video the day it came out when the announced the cluster of DLC. As ridiculous as the DLC is, I can afford to just get the game and not worry about a measly $60 or so. I will admit, to my eternal shame, I did the GMG deal for 20% off and preordered the Monster Race. I know - 2015 is supposed to be the year of rebellion against preorders . . . but I'm old and tired, lol. I will probably preorder GTA 5 too. :eek:

Honestly (as you can see by my 10+ years on here), I'm not a spring chicken anymore and frankly do have a few bills to burn at this point in my life. I do still have a mental block though from just popping for the highest card, if only cuz I know it's such a screwjob typically from the price/perf standpoint. Hard to train that side out of yourself . . .

So, I'm not tied into the 960 at all as a price point, and would gladly bump up to a 970 if it was needed to keep things silky smooth at 1080p. A new monitor is not in my near-term plan, but I may go 1440p at some point. But based on what I'm seeing in games so far right now, it's not a necessity. It's more that I don't keep up with cards at all anymore until it seems like it might be time to update, so you'll have to excuse my relative ignorance.

I will probably actually pick up both a XBONE and PS4 this month, so didn't know if I should bother with a new video card as well.
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Just making sure you are aware of what you're getting into! If you have money to burn, it should be no issue for you then.

If you want the option to handle 2560x1440 at max details a 970 may be a wiser investment. With that said, I would honestly wait to buy a PS4 (I wouldn't touch a XBone with a 20' pole) and grab the 960/970 first. There should be enough exclusive games by year's end to truly justify a purchase. Until then, there are plenty of titles to pick up for PC (Steam sales!) but that's just me. PS4 has already proven itself to be more capable, and the divide will only widen over time. Why settle for an inferior experience if you don't have to (unless the majority of your friends/and or kids have XBones)?
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
A $200 (or thereabouts) aftermarket 290 >>>>>> 960.
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It's an option, but many of us only buy NVIDIA hardware because at one time or another we have had very sour experiences with the red team's cards, myself included.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
It's an option, but many of us only buy NVIDIA hardware because at one time or another we have had very sour experiences with the red team's cards, myself included.
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I do fondly remember my 9700 Pro . . . .

I hear you on the consoles. I agree there is not really much even out for them right now, Bloodborne/UC4 not till later this year anyway. But my brother does play COD and we like to try play together, but I suck on thumbsticks. He did get me a Titan One for my birthday so I've almost got that tweaked to use M/K on my PS3 and figure it would be fun on PS4.

The XBONE would be just because I have the money and I'm more about enjoying all the games than being tied to one platform. Had all previous gen consoles, loved GOW/Halo on 360 and all the PS3 ips like GOW (ha, same acronym)/UC/etc.

Plus my two younger girls really liked the Kinect, but the 360 implementation wasn't the best. From what I've seen, the new Kinect would be less frustrating for them - just wish there were a few more games for it.

But I'm at the point where I don't want to keep holding off on them until there is enough to "justify" it in my mind. I'd rather just get them and grow into the games and be able to enjoy what there is "now". That's the old man perspective anyway. I held off on enough things in life until I felt it was worth it, that I would have prob just been better off doing at the time.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
It's an option, but many of us only buy NVIDIA hardware because at one time or another we have had very sour experiences with the red team's cards, myself included.
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Fair enough. I'm team agnostic though as I've been f*cked sideways by both teams.
Could've sworn I was even double-teamed once :eek:
 
Stoly said:
If you want comparable performance then you may want to consider a 750Ti for even bigger power savings.
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I did not realize that the GTX 750 Ti gives comparable performance to a GTX 580. What a fantastic little card that is!
 
sk3tch said:
I did not realize that the GTX 750 Ti gives comparable performance to a GTX 580. What a fantastic little card that is!
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A friend get one as a replacement for a GTX660 under warranty. At first he was dissapointed but he actually liked it later on.
 
Darknyt said:
I hear you on the consoles. I agree there is not really much even out for them right now, Bloodborne/UC4 not till later this year anyway. But my brother does play COD and we like to try play together, but I suck on thumbsticks. He did get me a Titan One for my birthday so I've almost got that tweaked to use M/K on my PS3 and figure it would be fun on PS4.

The XBONE would be just because I have the money and I'm more about enjoying all the games than being tied to one platform. Had all previous gen consoles, loved GOW/Halo on 360 and all the PS3 ips like GOW (ha, same acronym)/UC/etc.

Plus my two younger girls really liked the Kinect, but the 360 implementation wasn't the best. From what I've seen, the new Kinect would be less frustrating for them - just wish there were a few more games for it.
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I have heard of those. Do they work as well as they do in the videos?

Kinect 2.0 is more accurate from what I hear (haven't had hands on time with one personally) than the Xbox 360 implementation, but it still isn't quite there yet. Input lag is still present and noticeable as well, just not as pronounced.

WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Fair enough. I'm team agnostic though as I've been f*cked sideways by both teams.
Could've sworn I was even double-teamed once :eek:
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Touché! I'd +1 that if I could
 
If you have the capability to save up the extra money until you can afford a 970, do so. It will be well worth the efforts to do so.
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Fair enough. I'm team agnostic though as I've been f*cked sideways by both teams.
Could've sworn I was even double-teamed once :eek:
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Its a possibility if you tried hybrid-physics lol.

I've had plenty of cards from both teams and I think right now AMD offers best bang/buck, love my 290s and the 7970s I had previously. I haven't had any problems with them since the HD 6000 series.
 
ssnyder28 said:
Its a possibility if you tried hybrid-physics lol.

I've had plenty of cards from both teams and I think right now AMD offers best bang/buck, love my 290s and the 7970s I had previously. I haven't had any problems with them since the HD 6000 series.
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I would tend to agree that the 290/290X offers more bang for the buck given the recent price drops for GPUs bearing 4GB of VRAM, especially if 1600p+ resolutions are to be utilized.

However, I feel that the added cost of the 970 over the 290/290X is worth it in regards to lower power draw and heat, as well as better drivers/game support, and exclusive features (if used/desired, like PhysX...totally subjective).

It breaks down simply as this:
1. If there is a serious budget constraint of no more than about $250, then go with the 290.
2. If the budget maxes out at no more than around $300, then go with the 290X.
3. If that budget allows for the range of $330-360, definitely go with a 970.

...as long as power draw, heat output, and "exclusivity" features are not important to the buyer. Impossible to beat the value just from a performance perspective on the 290 and 290X right now.
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Fair enough. I'm team agnostic though as I've been f*cked sideways by both teams.
Could've sworn I was even double-teamed once :eek:
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On the other hand, neither team has given me ANY grief - I moved from ATI to NVidia due to bang-for-buck, period. (Even my legacy notebook backs that up - AMD CPU, NVidia GPU and chipset - was that your laptop or notebook that bit you?)
 
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