Graphics card help

I am building a PC over the summer, do you recommend 960 sli or just one 970? Or what graphics cards would you recommend yourself? Thanks.

 

Always go for the faster single card. So, a 970. The only game that has made my GTX 970 fall was indeed BeamNG, but it's a brute for every other game.

I guess I'm really qualified to answer this, considering I had a 960 and now a 970, and had a brief chance to use a 960 SLI.

Either way they (970 vs 960 SLI) both perform around the same, but SLI can have technical problems with certain games.

 

go for a gtx970 strix i have one and performes amazingly super quiet too

 

GTX 970, as said before, the single more powerful card is almost always the better option. It's a beast of a card, really. Can handle anything I've thrown at it so far.

BeamNG can't keep a steady 60 maxed out for some reason, except on the grid maps, and there is only any kind of CPU bottleneck with the T75. GPU load is also at 90-98%, so it's not the problem that would make some Maxwell cards only run at under 60% load. Temperatures stay below 65*C. I have to blame it on T3D being poorly optimized graphics-wise, since it could max out far more demanding games and still get a solid 60 fps.

As for which brand, I have the MSI card and it runs cool, quiet, and looks great. LED dragon for bonus coolness. Can totally recommend it. Only drawback is the plastic shroud and lack of a backplate, but the card is still very well built with high quality materials, and feels very solid. It can use passive cooling by turning the fans off at low temperatures, becoming completely quiet. It is also the only cooler to have individual fan control, allowing both fans to spin at different speeds.

ASUS' STRIX card is rather similar to the MSI in design, sharing the ability to turn off the fans completely when under 60*C. It also has a metal shroud and backplate, as opposed to the MSI's plastic shroud and no backplate. However, the MSI card has a higher power limit and individual fan control for even less noise.

Gigabyte's G1 is a beast. Best overclocker out of every aftermarket card available. Also runs extremely cool due to the massive heatsink and triple fan design. It has a metal shroud and backplate, great build quality. It does have a few drawbacks, however. The most important being noise; it has three fans, and can't turn them off. There's also the dimensions, the G1 is one of the longest cards in the market at 315mm long. It will not fit in many smaller cases, and will block drive bays if your case has modular bays. If you're looking to buy this one for ultimate performance, make sure it fits in your case first. It is also a bit more expensive than MSI and ASUS cards.

EVGA has several models all the way up to the FTW. It is a very good card and the SSC and FTW models are great for overclocking. EVGA's ACX cooler is quite similar to MSI's Twin Frozr, having a plastic shroud, no backplate, and two fans that can be turned off at low temperatures. MSI's TFV shroud is built of a thicker and more solid plastic than the old ACX cooler, and while I haven't held an ACX 2.0 card, the shroud looks very similar.

I can't recommend any brand in particular, the four are very good cards. I might be slightly biased towards MSI since I've got one, but I would have a hard time choosing one myself. Mostly depends on what you want. MSI for ultimate quiet, Gigabyte for ultimate performance, ASUS for a quiet card with a fancy metal shroud and a backplate, or EVGA for a very good OC card that's not as loud as the G1 but doesn't have a monster cooler either.

 

Budget = 960. Cash to spend = 970.