Easy "New card" question. I hope.

[Alaric]

I can get a this card for $25 less (refurb) , but is there anything out there that will beat it out of the box in this price range? EVGA's customer service seems to be excellent , their cards have an excellent reputation , and this is a smokin' clock speed out of the box. So for $325 , is there any reason to keep looking?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487077

 

[Janus67]

I honestly wouldn't spend over 300 on a 970. Seeing how it trades blows with a 290x that can be found for 225 or less, I imagine used 970s go for around the same (or should)

 

[Alaric]

Well , that throws a fly in the ointment. LOL Although , that would leave me with AMD's drivers. A HUGE negative for me.

 

[Alaric]

I can't find a 290X for under $300. I checked newegg and amazon. Can't find one for $324.99 either. So far , the $324.99 EVGA GTX 970 FTW is leading the race. And it doesn't have AMD drivers. I'm so sick of black screens and slow boot times , all due to Team Red's lousy drivers , I don't have any interest in their cards anymore.

 

[Janus67]

I see 290x all over forums and such for well under 250. Sorry I didn't specify that it'd be used with regard to the 290xs, I implied it with the price of the 970.

Edit: looking at reddit /r/hardwareswap I see 970s listed and sell for around 250-270.

 

[Alaric]

Ahh. OK , that makes sense. I was looking at retail. The 970 refurb is as close to used as I want to get , and honestly , I don't want an AMD card. I have had nothing but grief from the ones I've had. The hardware may be great , but the drivers have sucked for at least two years now. I haven't had drivers that ended the black screen problem since I bought my last card (2 years). That's a lot of failure. And the 30 seconds of black screen every boot is just BS. I have put up with that crap for too long. If I'm buying a new card I'm buying one that works. AMD doesn't work for me. Maybe it's my OS configuration , maybe a bad card , maybe bad luck. Regardless , adios AMD.

 

[wingman99]

That is one thing I cant believe ever since ATI/AMD started making video cards all there problems have been drivers, I think it's there cards also.

 

[Janus67]

Ahh. OK , that makes sense. I was looking at retail. The 970 refurb is as close to used as I want to get , and honestly , I don't want an AMD card. I have had nothing but grief from the ones I've had. The hardware may be great , but the drivers have sucked for at least two years now. I haven't had drivers that ended the black screen problem since I bought my last card (2 years). That's a lot of failure. And the 30 seconds of black screen every boot is just BS. I have put up with that crap for too long. If I'm buying a new card I'm buying one that works. AMD doesn't work for me. Maybe it's my OS configuration , maybe a bad card , maybe bad luck. Regardless , adios AMD.

That's fine and completely fair, was just saying you could save around $100 looking at used 970s that would have warranties based on serial #s.

 

[Alaric]

That's fine and completely fair, was just saying you could save around $100 looking at used 970s that would have warranties based on serial #s.

And 6 months ago I would have seriously considered it. nVidia drivers may give me just as many headaches , I have never had one so I don't have any idea. If they are as bad , I'm buying an XBox. LOL

 

[wingman99]

You will fall in love with Nvidia compared to AMD.

 

[Alaric]

I'll be happy with "not pissed off". LMAO

 

[wingman99]

ATI/AMD pissed me off twice first Rage Fury Maxx in 1999 - the card failed because of poor driver support for Games they crashed in Windows 98se and XP, then SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3850 DirectX 10.1 had poor driver support game crashing, It's always about the divers with AMD. How do we know it is just the divers and not the Graphics cards?

You will be happy with Nvidia and just forget all your troubles.

Edit: I had a black screen problem once and it was because of my old CRT I use to have.

 

[Alaric]

For the money ($95) my card benched great , and punched above it's weight class in games. It has been the day to day crashes and glitches that have made it a major fail. When I'm hammering it , I can run 1250 MHz on the GPU and 1600 MHz on the GDDR. It managed a five figure Tiger rating on Catzilla (10,xxx something). For less than $100 it's been a screamer and eats the games I play. It's the random black screens (needs a reboot) , the 30 to 90 second black screen mid boot , and all the odd glitches that show up in the event viewer as AMD driver crashes that have made me throw in the towel. The hardware seems to be fantastic , but the drivers were written in crayon at a pre school.

- - - Updated - - -

That's fine and completely fair, was just saying you could save around $100 looking at used 970s that would have warranties based on serial #s.

I just re-read this. That is a definite help. I hadn't thought about warranty on a used card. Many thanks for the suggestion.

 

[knoober]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NV...SX200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=51aqEDykymL&ref=plSrch

Found this while I was windows shopping in the open box section. Might be good for you

 

[Alaric]

Oooh. That's a good deal.. Thanks!

 

[caddi daddi]

look for one with 3978 in the part#, that's ftw+, even better clocks than 2978

 

[Alaric]

That's handy info , right there , CD! I'm juggling budget woes and trying not to get a 960. Not that they're bad cards but I really want a 970. LOL

Found this with that info. The FTW+ comes with a backplate. Geez. I can't afford this right now , but......

 

[wingman99]

I would go for the GTX 970 it is a great Graphics card, I really like mine for 1080p Max game settings.

 

[Visa Declined]

I would not buy a 9xx series Geforce card right now. Pascal will be released soon, and nVidia is going to forget those 9xx cards even exist, it's what they always do to their previous gen.

 

[Vishera]

I would not buy a 9xx series Geforce card right now. Pascal will be released soon, and nVidia is going to forget those 9xx cards even exist, it's what they always do to their previous gen.

Um....are the consumer cards even announced yet? The only ONE I've seen announced for consumers is the GTX 1080. And I didn't see anything about price, or in depth performance details. Certainly not in comparison to the 970, 980, and 980ti.