# Will GTX 970 be bottlenecked by my CPU?



## monkey (Feb 21, 2015)

I am planning to upgrade my GPU to GTX 970 but I am unsure if my CPU can handle the load. Is it advisable to go for GTX 970 or will GTX 960 be enough? I will be gaming at 1080 resolution.

My current rig is mentioned in my signature.


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## adityak469 (Feb 21, 2015)

i don't think so, even if it did, it will be negligible (5 frames at max)


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## bssunilreddy (Feb 22, 2015)

Go with GTX960 2GB.


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## monkey (Feb 22, 2015)

bssunil said:


> Go with GTX960 2GB.



It was my initial plan but then the reviews of GTX 960 are mixed-bag. Many called it overpriced for the performance it provides. So it was 18k for GTX960 or 25.5k for GTX 970. I am slightly bent towards GTX 970. I then have atleast 4 years before I decide to upgrade my GPU again.


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## bikramjitkar (Feb 22, 2015)

It could, but the 970 has enough horsepower to pull through. Go for it.


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## monkey (Feb 22, 2015)

I have two options for GTX 970: Zotac GTX 970 and Asus Strix GTX 970. Both cost nearly the same (difference of about Rs. 500). Which is a better buy? Zotac with 5-year warranty or Asus with better build and slightly over-clocked card?


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## HE-MAN (Feb 23, 2015)

yes it will bottleneck for sure what by how much that actually depends on the game. in some games you may not even notice it but in some it can cause major performance decrease. 

go with zotac if you dont mind the look. zotac may not have better build quality then asus but its certainly not below it. i would still recommend asus strix gtx 970 that card will look great with you're current setup.


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## The Sorcerer (Feb 23, 2015)

I doubt it will be a bottleneck in most cases, especially you're going to be playing on a 1080p resolution. But take a look at Gigabyte's variant as well. gtx 960 makes more sense IMO.


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## monkey (Feb 24, 2015)

HE-MAN said:


> go with zotac if you dont mind the look. zotac may not have better build quality then asus but its certainly not below it. i would still recommend asus strix gtx 970 that card will look great with you're current setup.



2 suggestions in 2 sentences?? It confuses me even more...



The Sorcerer said:


> I doubt it will be a bottleneck in most cases, especially you're going to be playing on a 1080p resolution. But take a look at Gigabyte's variant as well. gtx 960 makes more sense IMO.



I am planning to ditch GTX 960 as there are not many good reviews of it - especially at this price point. GTX960 may be enough for today's games but it will soon become minimum spec. for playing games at high quality setting. 

Now I have to decide between Zotac and Asus version of GTX970. I am not sure about Gigabyte's after sales service (besides the card is expensive and very long in comparison to Zotac) and hence will avoid it for now.


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## Zangetsu (Feb 24, 2015)

Zotac GTX970 FTW!

but is VX550 enough ?


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## sam_738844 (Feb 24, 2015)

Zangetsu said:


> Zotac GTX970 FTW!
> 
> but is VX550 enough ?



yes enough.


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## monkey (Feb 24, 2015)

[MENTION=150630]sam_738844[/MENTION]: How's your experience with MSI GTX 970? Does lack of back plate affects your experience in any ways?


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## sam_738844 (Feb 25, 2015)

Experience is beyond awesome. MSI did a beautiful job with this one. It looks great, it has twin frzr  V cooler which is one of the best coolers on AIB available. Performance wise its terrific! I'm playing games at 1440P with all eye-candies at full throttle. Even ocing is a two minute job, i have pushed my card on 1453 Mhz and 110% power target on air without a sweat, the temp reaches max 68 deg c in extreme conditions. Experienced no drawbacks for the lack of backplate so far.


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## The Sorcerer (Feb 25, 2015)

I am assuming you are aware of the GTX 970 VRAM issue, yes? Even many FC4/Shadows or Mordor 1080p with higher settings have observed stuttering issues. There is already a guy in Kolkata with 4K res x GTX 970 facing issue with Shadows of Mordor, and there's no return policy as of yet.


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## sam_738844 (Feb 25, 2015)

> "So without further ado, we present a selection of comparisons of the game's opening scenes, captured at medium, high and ultra texture settings with all other settings ramped up as high as they go. Monolith recommends a 6GB GPU for the highest possible quality level - and we found that at both 1080p and 2560x1440 resolutions, the game's art ate up between 5.4 to 5.6GB of onboard GDDR5. Meanwhile, the high setting utilises 2.8GB to 3GB"



--Eurogamer

So you see the HD texture pack requires a > 5GB of GDDR5 to provide smooth FPS. I played without it, with default ultra settings, had 70-90 FPS at 1080P. It doesn't matter if you have 4GB of VRAM in ur card for ultra HD.


For Far Cry 4, > 4GB of VRAM in 1080P is pure  bulls$it.

Because this

*i1334.photobucket.com/albums/w643/sam_738844/proof_zpsspjop18a.jpg

This is my GTX 970 running FC4 at 2560*1440P @SMAA with Nvidia Soft Shadows, HBAO+ and Enhanced God Rays. There is no way a GTX 970 can face stuttering in 1080P ! in ultra settings.

And if you really want to know about the VRAM issue. Know this.

NVIDIA GTX 970 has on board 4GB of VRAM, yes, read it again, 3.5 GB of vram with max access speed and  0.5GB of less, maxwell memory architecture allows cards like GTX 970 have more than 3GB ( unlike GTX 780 ) with this segmentation. If anyone is asking for a refund because it has less VRAM and ROP's then they should not buy any card in future. 

No body discovered this on the next day of purchase by looking at the ROP counts the card has , counts of ROP's or L2 Caches are not mentioned on the box either. It became important when some synthetics did not get enough juice and then referring to Nvidia Marketed specs in internet. Nvidia mislead people on internet, and they are having a lawsuit for that, but FUD over the internet because of performance issue on GTX 970 is akin to steaming pile of shite.


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## Zangetsu (Feb 26, 2015)

Also in Nvidia blog 

Jen-Hsun On GeForce GTX 970 | The Official NVIDIA Blog

In-depth explanation:
NVIDIA Discloses Full Memory Structure and Limitations of GTX 970 | PC Perspective


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## monkey (Feb 27, 2015)

I am aware of VRAM issue and I know that Nvidia will not be going for some kinda refund/compensatory policy in India 'cause its....INDIA!!

Anyhow I am currently on 1080p and do not plan to move to 1440 for atleast 2 more years...AND GTX 970 is still very powerful for it. The cards above it are GTX 980 and TITAN, both of which are expensive. The other things I can do is either wait for some price correction by NVidia owing to this problem OR wait for a new replacement card/series...


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## sam_738844 (Feb 27, 2015)

monkey said:


> I am aware of VRAM issue and I know that Nvidia will not be going for some kinda refund/compensatory policy in India 'cause its....INDIA!!
> 
> Anyhow I am currently on 1080p and do not plan to move to 1440 for atleast 2 more years...AND GTX 970 is still very powerful for it. The cards above it are GTX 980 and TITAN, both of which are expensive. The other things I can do is either wait for some price correction by NVidia owing to this problem OR wait for a new replacement card/series...



nvidia does not have any refund policy anywhere. E Commerce biggies like Amazon and newegg have in very restricted regions and continents on their own accord. Stop blaming India for nothing.


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## monkey (Feb 27, 2015)

sam_738844 said:


> nvidia does not have any refund policy anywhere. E Commerce biggies like Amazon and newegg have in very restricted regions and continents on their own accord. Stop blaming India for nothing.



I am NOT blaming India in general but its the lax consumer law/implementation which I criticize. That is a long debatable topic which I want to avoid here.

Anyways, I am ordering for Zotac GTX970 from snapdeal.com. I am getting it for 25.5k (with applied offers and SD cash) which I think is better than what is being offered at Nehru Place. I hope it is a good investment.


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## bikramjitkar (Feb 27, 2015)

Snapdeal!? All the best to you...


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## monkey (Feb 27, 2015)

bikramjitkar said:


> Snapdeal!? All the best to you...



I know about the experiences people have with this site but (fortunately) I have had many good experience, till now. So taking a risk again...


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## Zangetsu (Feb 27, 2015)

bikramjitkar said:


> Snapdeal!? All the best to you...



Not that Bad


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