OT: GFX Card - Thoughts

[noddy]

I currenlty have a GTX 680 4GB card and was thinking about upgrading to a GTX 970 4GB as it appears to give good bang for the buck, being £300 rather than the GTX 980 being £400+.

I have an Alienware Aurora R3, so hopefully this can take this card, but would appreciate your thoughs on the card and or if my machine can handle it.

Thanks in advance,
Andy

[txnetcop]

These are probably the two best 970s. Some GTX 970s are a problem, but I have found the Gigabyte to be the best bang for the buck!

http://www.overclock.net/t/1516121/gtx-970-comparison-strix-vs-msi-gaming-vs-gigabyte-g1
Ted

[vortex]

The 970 is a great card for the money. One thing to look out for are reports of ”coil whine" (an annoying high-pitched buzzing) when the card is under load. Some manufacturers are better than others - it seems to depend on the quality of the components. I went for an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G which, whilst not the absolute fastest 970, has good performance, quiet fans and, importantly, no reports of "coil whine".

[Montie]

I myself have been looking at the GTX 970 for some time, but the 3.5 gig + 0.50 gig memory thing is holding of from getting it. I know its no a big deal, but I feel its less than advertised. I heard rumours about a possible Maxwell GPU refresh/re-branding in 2016 (because of the Pascal GPU release) so it might be worth waiting a bit yet. The GTX 970 it very easy on the PSU, so I can not imagine it should be an issue running it. I myself are considering AMD because for more VRAM and the possible DX12 performance gain on AMD cards.

[noddy]

Thanks guys, will do some detective work.

[dharris]

I upgraded to the MSI 970 several months ago, from a 560ti and it was a very worthwhile upgrade. I had read the reports of the coil whines and found that MSI cards where not as prone, or reported to have that problem, so went with it and glad I did. No problems here what so ever with the card or fsx.