Stick with 970 or Upgrade?!?

[Haxorinator]

A little surprised next gen GPUs are so affordable!

Anyways, I picked up a GTX 970 reference (for ITX build) about a month ago for $180.

So far it has been performing great but I'm worried with the launch of the 1060 and the RX 480, as they perform similar or better at a similar price point.

Should I try and flip this 970 while it still has value?!

So far, I'm thinking about getting a RX 480 for the better DX 12 support and I'm betting (hoping) that AMD will squeeze out more power with driver updates.

My system:
Obsidian 250D Case
Athlon 860K with MSI a88x ac v2 (bottleneck I know.. but I'll be upgrading soon hopefully)
8GB Kingston 1600Mhz OCed to 2133
GTX 970 Reference (Or I like to call, Founders xD)

 

[shambles1980]

I would not "personally" swap a 970 for a 480.
from a 970 as an upgrade i would be looking at 980ti performance levels to make it worth doing.

 

[Kushiro]

TBH OP if you can sell the card at a good price, defo go for the RX480 (do not get the reference version) WAIT FOR THE AFTERMARKET MODELS>

 

[AlienALX]

If you want to look ahead (DX12) then I would switch. If not just stick with what you have for now and see what transpires over the next few months.

You won't need to switch until we are seeing nothing but DX12 games and that could take a while yet.

 

[mjmedina]

I'd say stick to what you have, but it really depends on whether or not you are happy with current performance on the GTX 970.

 

[Haxorinator]

Thanks for the responses everyone!

I'm undecided, but I listed my 970 on craigslist anyway. If I net even or even make money on the 970 I could be in good shape!

*slowly raises hand* I admit, I'm an Nvidia "fanboy" I enjoy their services and especially the reference (or "founders") designs over AMD's. However, performance is king and so far it seems the RX 480 nearly always out performs the 970 :/ and I'm afraid driver updates might separate the two even further. I don't thin 1060 is an option at the moment considering inflation will probably rise the price way over $250 suggested retail.

970 performance is GREAT right now, there are only TWO games I've encountered that wont run fully well (nitpicking, but "fully well" means dips below 60") on max settings, Shadow of Mordor, and DOOM, both having issues with the VRAM amount, not to mention "ramgate" haha.

Also, I would have to get a reference RX 480 if I chose that path, as it works better in my ITX build :/

Thanks again for the responses, perhaps I'll wait and see how things go!

 

[NeverBackDown]

Don't get the reference.. just warning you it gets pretty loud. Was messing around with my brothers reference 480 and anything above basically 45% and it gets loud quickly. Partner cards won't get much longer, so i'd really advise you wait for those if you have room for it. Besides, getting a Partner card means you get a single 8 pin which will provide better overclocks and safer power consumption if that's something you are worried about.

I'm also ITX, just waiting on a partner card worth getting.

 

[Kushiro]

If your fine with the stock performance, then by all means go for it. Otherwise I would strongly suggest you wait. Never know a 3rd party may bring in a blower cooler like Asus.

Reference is woefully inadequate for overclocking.