Part of the eBay 20% off tech deal
So with the 20% off deal post I checked out PCCASEGEAR and they've got the MSI GTX 970 at $559, with 20% off I've paid $447.20. Pretty good deal as I was prepared to pay $525 to MSY for the Gigabyte version but I'm fairly certain the MSI is the top of the line 970 so to get it at this price is pretty damn good.
Maiden bargain post FTW.
Thanks mate, some reason I couldn't get it to link in the OP.
gigabyte is best one for overclocking i believe then its MSi
Edit nevermind, just reading through again and I think you're right.
Hmmm should I replace my 2 gtx 780.
No, a 970 is only moderately faster than a 780 (10-15%). You can see some comparative benchmarks here
Later on this year, "Big Maxwell" cards are going to come out in a more affordable price range (The recently released Titan X was our first taste of it), and that will be a more worthy upgrade, with more memory and a generous performance upgrade. The 12gb titan points to a 6gb "GTX 1080" with slightly reduced shader perf over the titan X, just like how the 780 itself was a cut down original-Titan with half memory and slightly reduced shader perf. Additionally, AMD's 300 series cards are launching closer to the middle of this year, and take advantage of a whole new kind of memory called "HBM". It is expected to beat out the Nvidia series in performance until Nvidia uses HBM in their "Pascal" architecture due for release in 2016.
If you have a 780, you are not struggling to play modern games. You are in a great spot, there's no point upgrading yet.
It's a good card. Be aware of the memory issue when purchasing it (0.5gb of the 4gb framebuffer has less memory bandwidth than the rest) which can cause frame-pacing issues when a game is using more than 3.5gb. It's better than if it only had 3.5 total, but worse than if all 4gb had access to the full bandwidth. However, it took months after launch before anybody even figured out that it existed, and even then it took weeks of analysis before tech sites could confirm that it happened. As a consumer you are unlikely to notice this, but some people may want to avoid purchasing this if they don't want to support shady business practices like failing to disclose this information.
I have used a Gigabyte 970 since it came out, and the performance is very good. At 1080p this is a pretty fantastic card, yielding great performance for its cost. Keep in mind there are AMD cards cheaper that offer comparable performance (290/290x), and they compare even more favorably at higher resolutions (1440p / 2160p) on account of higher overall bandwidth. If you are wedded to the Nvidia ecosystem (I use a G-sync monitor, for example) then this card is the best value you'll get in this range.
I was lucky enough to purchase from Amazon when our dollar was a little stronger, and they gave me a 20% refund as compensation for the memory issue. So I got a better deal than this, but regrettably you had to be in the right place at the right time :P
Great reply thanks man.
ASUS Strix 970 or this? anyone have an opinion? From what I've read, they are basically identical in most categories, making it a real tough decision! I think I'm leaning towards the strix however
I think the Asus runs slightly louder thus making the MSI a better option IMO.
Thanks mate, picked up one
Dont forget MSY have a 10% sale on all Gainward GPUs.
Gainward GTX 970 Phantom $413.10 after the 10%.
$459 before 10%.
http://www.msy.com.au/nswonline/pc-components/14471-gainward…
I seen that and considered it but the MSI would be a safer bet for $34 more. MSY are good though, will be getting some other parts from them.
The Asus Strix 970 is also the same price after the 20% off voucher.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/231506604143
I've got this card and replaced a HD6970 for a massive upgrade.
Great price for AU stock.
For anyone else interested I've also bought the Z97 Deluxe MOBO for $347 & the G.SKill Ripjaws (2x8gb) @ 1866mhz for $168. Quite happy with that.
I have a Gigabyte OC 480 Gtx edition card and was wondering if this would be a good upgrade.. Also my current card has bit rate as 320 and this card is 256.. I am wondering if that would make any difference..
The number of bits the interface has is one of a billion highly complicated metrics that a video card has. The best way to get a clear idea of how much better one card is over another isn't to compare raw specifications, it's to compare benchmarked results from the real world. In this case, the 970 benchmarks here put it at between 2 and 3 times more powerful than the 480.
Basically, the 970 murders your existing card, and I would recommend it as an upgrade if you wanted to improve your PC. If your PC is still using the same processor from when you had a 480 or older (e.g. intel 760 or something like that) it might be time to think about upgrading your mobo+cpu this year. Broadwell and Skylake processors are coming out later on in the year, so those would be ideal places to move!
Thank you for the reply. I'v got an I7 2600k so guess the VGA will do for now.. don't want to spend too much on a single day.. :)
i7 2600k is a pretty solid CPU still as long as you OC it a bit. Quite competitive with modern stuff. You'd only get a 25-35% improvement at stock clocks by going to a 4000 series i7, most likely, and a lot of games aren't CPU bottlenecked to begin with.
Maybe replace it when Skylake or Cannonlake comes out at the end of this year/next year.
I recommend that everyone who purchased this card ask pccg if you are eligible for witcher 3 game as they announced the bundle today with msi and gigabyte cards. https://www.facebook.com/pccasegear
You guys reckon this GTX 970 price will come down next year? Not sure to buy it now or not
Yes, as there will be newer and better cards.
I heard AMD R9 3xx series performance won't be as good as expected. Their R9 380 x will have 6% less performance than R9 290x But built with 20nm chip which cost less electricity . (Not so sure, You can try to check it out).
But like you said , based on camel-camel , after 1 year most of the GPU price will drop especially AMD card. But this is unlikely with the NVIDIA card especially GTX 970 which can bring best value for it's price (Performance : Price ratio). I reckon it will down in another 2 years or so. There are so many demands with this card , especially with GTA V and Witcher 3 Wild Hunt coming, the demand even much more higher than ever before, at least for the next 1 year.
I was planning to buy r9 300 series / r9 280x because of 512-bit they have compared to NVIDIA which only have 256-bit + NVIDIA 4gb card restricted to 3.5gb ram. But I'm wedded to NVIDIA because I bought the 120 HZ 3D monitor require NVIDIA GPU to enable 3D gaming / movie , Darn it!! Guess , have no choice but to buy this GPU.
Actually I currently used Crossfire for HD 7850 which I found sometimes inconvenience. Game like Max Payne 3 , Withcer 2 Wild hunt will make Crossfire utilize both of the card up to 196% (which mean 98% for each card). But some older games really incompatible with crossfire /SLI considering the technology is currently introduced like 3 years ago i guess. It increase the GPU heat until 72 celcius if your room temperature around 31 celcius.
Don't forget that you can claim 10% more with TRS refund from GST. Not so sure if you can do this through ebay , but I guess you can.
AirAsia currently on promo to overseas , might take it in your luggage and have your holiday as well.
good price!