Best version/brand of GTX 970 or 980 for VR??

[treacotton]

Hey everyone,

I have been looking to upgrade my PC for the HTC Vive and for the longest time I have been sort of set on the EVGA GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ cause of the cost and performance. I know EVGA has a GTX 970 FTW that is supposed to be their fastest but then I heard Gigabyte and MSI had faster versions of the GTX 970 and I am confused about which one to buy or if it matters cause there are so many versions.

For example, the Gigabyte EXTREME gaming GTX 970 sounds like it may be their fastest card but I dont know if it is the fastest of all these or if it is worth the extra money (it is about $70 more than the other ones.)

On top of that, I honestly am a little concerned about maybe the GTX 970 not being able to run all games and not being a long lasting purchase for VR. I cannot afford a GTX 980 ti but I have seen a few GTX 980's for around $450. This is much more than I want to spend but I'm just toying with the idea and would appreciate some opinions.. especially from anyone who is running a GTX 970 with the HTC Vive currently and having good/bad results.

Thx

 

[TJ Hooker]

If you want to know which version of a 970is faster, just compare their clock speeds. Each brand will likely have a range of cards with a variety of clock speeds (with the higher clocked cards costing more). Honestly, the difference in performance between different versions of the same GPU is not something I would sweat over. You can also read some review of different cards to gauge other factors like noise and temperature.

If you're worried about a 970 not being powerful enough, you could wait until Nvidia's Pascal cards are released this summer. The GTX 1070 should have a nice performance boost over the 970 for hopefully around the same price.

 

[treacotton]

If you want to know which version of a 970is faster, just compare their clock speeds. Each brand will likely have a range of cards with a variety of clock speeds (with the higher clocked cards costing more). Honestly, the difference in performance between different versions of the same GPU is not something I would sweat over. You can also read some review of different cards to gauge other factors like noise and temperature.

If you're worried about a 970 not being powerful enough, you could wait until Nvidia's Pascal cards are released this summer. The GTX 1070 should have a nice performance boost over the 970 for hopefully around the same price.

I'll have to look into the pascal cards I didn't know about that. But my Vive is supposed to be here sometime in either June or July (no idea for sure) so I might miss the opportunity if they dont release soon enough lol. Thx

 

[treacotton]

If you want to know which version of a 970is faster, just compare their clock speeds. Each brand will likely have a range of cards with a variety of clock speeds (with the higher clocked cards costing more). Honestly, the difference in performance between different versions of the same GPU is not something I would sweat over. You can also read some review of different cards to gauge other factors like noise and temperature.

If you're worried about a 970 not being powerful enough, you could wait until Nvidia's Pascal cards are released this summer. The GTX 1070 should have a nice performance boost over the 970 for hopefully around the same price.

I should ask this also... My cpu is an I7-950 which will be overclocked to about 4 ghz. It is older now but i think still a great cpu and has been proven to work fine with a gtx 970 without bottlenecking.. But what about a higher gpu like the 980 or the 1070 when it comes out? I have only pcie 2.0 x16 on my x58 MB. I have read that current cards should be fine with this processor and with pcie 2.0 without any bottlenecking but then i read one guy saying that the processor is too old for a 980ti. Thoughts?

 

[erosion139]

If you want to know which version of a 970is faster, just compare their clock speeds. Each brand will likely have a range of cards with a variety of clock speeds (with the higher clocked cards costing more). Honestly, the difference in performance between different versions of the same GPU is not something I would sweat over. You can also read some review of different cards to gauge other factors like noise and temperature.

If you're worried about a 970 not being powerful enough, you could wait until Nvidia's Pascal cards are released this summer. The GTX 1070 should have a nice performance boost over the 970 for hopefully around the same price.

I should ask this also... My cpu is an I7-950 which will be overclocked to about 4 ghz. It is older now but i think still a great cpu and has been proven to work fine with a gtx 970 without bottlenecking.. But what about a higher gpu like the 980 or the 1070 when it comes out? I have only pcie 2.0 x16 on my x58 MB. I have read that current cards should be fine with this processor and with pcie 2.0 without any bottlenecking but then i read one guy saying that the processor is too old for a 980ti. Thoughts?

Now before anyone corrects me know that I don't know a lot about VR CPU consumption but as far as I'm concerned the CPU you have shouldn't be an issue and as for the PCIe 2 should be fine as well.

 

[KalTorak]

With that CPU you will be just about at the recommended minimum for VR.

Regarding the GPU, go for either a 1070 or 1080 as they will be out by the time your Kit arrives.