Unfortunately for most PC gamers there exists a clear and painful disconnect between how fast graphics and gaming technology advances and how fast their salaries increase year on year. So when you are looking for your next GPU you want to get a great card without having to break the bank correct? Well this article should help you, if you are a Nvidia enthusiast, to decide between the GTX 960, 970 or 980.
Considering only the specs on paper the GTX 980 is the clear winner, but which card will give you more bang for your buck? Say for every R1000 spent on the GPU, how much performance will you get? Want to know, check out this comparison.
The table below summarises the basic specifications and price range of the cards. Although the GTX 970 is advertised as a 4GB card, there have been many stories that contradict this statement. The truth is that the 970 uses 3.5 GB at full capacity and the remaining 500MB at a reduced, prioritised speed.
| Card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 |
| Steam processors | 1,024 | 1,664 | 2,048 |
| Core Clock | 1,127MHz | 1,050MHz | 1,126MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1,178MHz | 1,178MHz | 1,216MHz |
| Memory Clock | 7GHz GDDR5 | 7GHz DDR5 | 7GHz DDR5 |
| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit |
| VRAM | 2GB | 4GB (advertised) | 4GB |
| Max Digital Resolution | 5120 x 3200 | 5120 x 3200 | 5120 x 3200 |
| Max VGA Resolution | 2048 x 1536 | 2048 x 1536 | 2048 x 1536 |
| Power Consumption | 120W | 145W | 165W |
| Price | R2,999 ““ R4,000 | R4,899 ““ R6,500 | R7,599 ““ R11,000 |
The specs on the next table shows how each GPU performed in a frame rate test. The tests were conducted by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry. I then took the results and added an additional statistic – the “FPS per R1000” column. This shous you how many FPS you get per R1000 spent on the card. I assumed the lowest price (indicated on the above table) as benchmark.
| Game | Settings | GTX 960 | FPS per R1000 | GTX 970 | FPS per R1000 | GTX 980 | FPS per R1000 |
| BioShock | Ultra DDOF 1920×1080 | 69.1 | 23.03 | 111.1 | 22.67 | 121.6 | 16.00 |
| Tomb Raider | Ultimate FXAA 1920×1080 | 65.7 | 21.90 | 81.6 | 16.65 | 91.1 | 11.99 |
| Battlefield 4 | Ultra 1920×1080 | 48.6 | 16.20 | 77.3 | 15.78 | 87.2 | 11.47 |
| Crysis 3 | Very High 1920×1080 | 47 | 15.67 | 70.5 | 14.39 | 77 | 10.13 |
| Avg – FPS per R1000 | 19.20 | 17.37 | 12.40 | ||||
| * GTX 960 @ R3k / GTX 970 @ R4.9k / GTX 980 @ R7.6k | |||||||
The above numbers tell us that the GTX 960 gives you more bang for you buck. I personally would go for the 970, FPS does not increase on a linear scale but the FPS per R1000 of the 970 is close to the 960. The gap between the 970 and 980 is just too big, unless you actually have the money it would not be a cost effective buy.
Let me know what you think below.
Source: MyGaming
Follow Jaco on Twitter: @Jaco_vdWalt
