Replacing gtx 660

[Lathais]

Games woun't just "use" vram... And plus Witcher 3 at max settings is very vram intensive because of nvidia hairworks. And plus... EVEN if you're right 3.5gb of vram woun't be enough to run future titles being that the graphical computing power is going to be there for much more detailed games come the 1070/1080 launch. And can you REALLY justify buying a 340$ 970 over a 380$ 1070 if you can I feel very sorry for you that's a huge waste of money. The argument here isn't is more than 4gb of vram useful. It's "Should I upgrade my 660 now?" And i've made my opinion more than clear that it's not worth buying a 960 or a 970 over a 1070.

Yes, games do just use VRAM. Well, not really, they load what they need into VRAM, but removing it from VRAM also takes resources, so it doesn't remove stuff until it has to make room for other stuff it needs, then dumps a bunch all at once instead of only keeping what it is currently using there. This is why the last .5GB of slow RAM on the 970 is not really an issue. They wrote the drivers in such a way that it doesn't use that last bit unless it really really absolutely has to and will start dumping what it doesn't need when it gets close to the 3.5 mark instead of close to 4GB.

No, I am not saying to buy a 970, but a 960 would not be a bad idea. I have no problems playing current games maxed out on mine, though I have not tried The Witcher 3 yet I can see here:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-...rks/page2.html
that with my 960 I could play on Medium settings and stay over 30 FPS, which his 660 could not do. If he's not looking to spend over $300 dollars and is on a tight budget, the 960 is still a good choice. Yeah, if your price range is in the $300-400 range, you'd be stupid to buy a 970, but if your price range is sub-$200 then there is no point in waiting for the 1070 and the 1060 is likely still pretty far out.

[ati87]

With the new nvidea cards coming out the current 970 will become cheaper probably and it shouldn;t be to long before the 1060 comes out.

Personally I would just wait a bit for the 1060 because it seems like a waist to buy any card now.

[Mythbredor]

No, I am not saying to buy a 970, but a 960 would not be a bad idea. I have no problems playing current games maxed out on mine, though I have not tried The Witcher 3 yet I can see here:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-...rks/page2.html
that with my 960 I could play on Medium settings and stay over 30 FPS, which his 660 could not do. If he's not looking to spend over $300 dollars and is on a tight budget, the 960 is still a good choice. Yeah, if your price range is in the $300-400 range, you'd be stupid to buy a 970, but if your price range is sub-$200 then there is no point in waiting for the 1070 and the 1060 is likely still pretty far out.

60FPS is really the current standard if you can't maintain 60 than you need an upgrade pretty bad. And he has said already he can afford a 1070. And if you read the OP's post he said "wanting to play some of the newer games such as fallout 4 / alien isolation / the new tomb raider / withcer 3 on high / ultra settings." which a 960 will not do and a 970 can do "Decently" currently as i've said a 970 can barely hold 60 fps at just below max settings.

ati87 - 1060 is a ways out I imagine they want to push 1080 pretty hard and they haven't announced the 1060 yet but my guse is as good as yours.

Morgaith - True I agree the OP said he doesn't need the power of a 1080 understandable neither do I, but the 970 might be slightly too weak to run "wanting to play some of the newer games such as fallout 4 / alien isolation / the new tomb raider / withcer 3 on high / ultra settings." yeah that fallout 4 is super easy to run but witcher 3 is a struggle at max settings for a 970.
Also the "major flaw" of the 970 was 500mb of slower vram not a HUGE deal... being that the 1070 has what? 6 or 8gb of vram I can't remember. Would be more than enough unless half of that is slower vram.

[Morgaith]

Anyone not looking to spend as much money as a 1080 and wants to upgrade should wait for proper reviews of the 1070 before buying it.

It looks great on paper but could have a major flaw in the style of the 970.

[Deleted]

Also the "major flaw" of the 970 was 500mb of slower vram not a HUGE deal... being that the 1070 has what? 6 or 8gb of vram I can't remember. Would be more than enough unless half of that is slower vram.

Not an issue at all, depending on the game. More of a PR issue. I haven't seen any game using more than about half of the VRAM on my 970, though I mostly (almost exclusively) play WoW.

As I stated earlier, a 960 is a *tiny* upgrade over even a 660 (non-Ti). I help a lot of people with upgrades to their gaming rigs, and in most cases you need a pretty solid GPU power boost to make a noticeable difference that people are happy about spending money on. A 10-20% speed increase is meaningless, except if your hobby is running GPU benchmarks.

So to the OP. Either be happy with your 660, or wait for benchmarks on the 1070...

[Mythbredor]

Not an issue at all, depending on the game. More of a PR issue. I haven't seen any game using more than about half of the VRAM on my 970, though I mostly (almost exclusively) play WoW.

As I stated earlier, a 960 is a *tiny* upgrade over even a 660 (non-Ti). I help a lot of people with upgrades to their gaming rigs, and in most cases you need a pretty solid GPU power boost to make a noticeable difference that people are happy about spending money on. A 10-20% speed increase is meaningless, except if your hobby is running GPU benchmarks.

So to the OP. Either be happy with your 660, or wait for benchmarks on the 1070...

Completely agreed but wow is a cpu hog not a gpu hog you wouldn't see too much vram use there.

[Lathais]

With the new nvidea cards coming out the current 970 will become cheaper probably and it shouldn;t be to long before the 1060 comes out.

Personally I would just wait a bit for the 1060 because it seems like a waist to buy any card now.

We just discussed this, in this very thread. No, prices on older tech do not typically drop when the new stuff comes out. Just look at the price of 760s. A brand new 760 STILL costs more than a 960. It's stupid, but for some reason, that's the way the industry works.

Also, to Mtyhbredor, yeah, i missed the part where he said he could afford the 1070. Was looking like he was not able to spend that much at first to me. In that case OP, yes, definitely wait not only for the 1070 next month, but to see what AMD is going to be releasing as they have pretty much stated their cards are targeted at meeting minimum VR specs for under $349. So whatever comes out with Polaris 10, likely the 490X and 490, at least one of them will likely be $349. Not sure how that translates to your currency, but it's less $ than the 1070.

[I No I FeaR I]

Not an issue at all, depending on the game. More of a PR issue. I haven't seen any game using more than about half of the VRAM on my 970, though I mostly (almost exclusively) play WoW.

As I stated earlier, a 960 is a *tiny* upgrade over even a 660 (non-Ti). I help a lot of people with upgrades to their gaming rigs, and in most cases you need a pretty solid GPU power boost to make a noticeable difference that people are happy about spending money on. A 10-20% speed increase is meaningless, except if your hobby is running GPU benchmarks.

So to the OP. Either be happy with your 660, or wait for benchmarks on the 1070...

I'm sure plenty of modern games use at least 2-3GB of VRAM. When I play Rainbow Six Siege with a mix of medium/high settings and no Ultra HD texture pack it maxes out at just under 2.8GB usage while in game. (using MSI Afterburner)

WoW uses around 700-800MB in game.