So I'm faced with a silly dilemma and it all comes down to performance vs. efficiency. I want to make my rig more energy efficient without sacrificing too much performance, and I've narrowed it down to these two graphics cards. I'm in no hurry as we're just about to go away for a week, but I would love to hear some input on this. The 980 offers me slightly better performance with about 25% better efficiency over the 780Ti The 1060 (6GB model) offers me virtually the same (or slightly worse) performance with incredible efficiency I can get either for under £200 on ebay (I currently have a counter-offer for a 1060 waiting in my inbox) so price is not really the issue here... I just feel that whilst the 1060 is incredibly efficient, I'd be better off with the 980 considering my gaming resolution of 2560x1600. And if price ever did become the issue, I can definitely get a 980 for less than a 1060. I know that the 1060 has 6GB of vram but it's just a moot statistic if the 4GB 980 can outperform it, so I wouldn't consider it a deal maker by any means. Maybe I just don't play the games that use vram, so... Anyways, would love to hear some thoughts on this.
I'm impressed by the choices you've put forward here as they are quite sensible. Also you have a Dell 30", which is also awesome. I wouldn't get hung up on the energy efficiency thing. You're talking ~40 W difference, which is only going to be a few quid over the course of a year. Your resolution will be fine with 4GB. I would say go for the 980 based on the smidgen more performance. To be honest, either GPU will be fine and there'll be no buyer's remorse either way.
Had a quick look at anandtechs 2016 gpu bench for these two and there's very little in it, Like VT says I'd take the Vram, plus the efficiency.
It's amazing to think that the 1060 is, if you look at it in the ranges 2 steps back from the 1080. But as good or better than the 980. If the prices are similar I would go for the 1060, purely based on having a full guarantee. And there's me still running SLI 460's
Thanks folks. I was definitely leaning towards the 1060 because it's more "current" but in reality there's no urgency for me to make any changes at all and I have plenty time to chew the cud. It might be better for me to hold off just a little longer and upgrade my entire system in late summer, by which time prices in general will be a lot lower and I could get a 1070 instead.
If you are prepared to wait that long, that is also long enough to see how AMD's new products perform and how they influence prices in general.
For the sake of closure, I thought some more about this and decided to increase my budget - Pete J's comment about power consumption dissuaded me from going down the 1060 route. I normally try to go for EVGA cards because of the guest warranty, but this time it proved too expensive (my absolute max was £300). Lucky for me I found a bargain 980Ti Strix on ebay minutes after it had been listed and have taken the plunge, so hopefully that will be me sorted for the next couple of years. Either the 1070 or the 980Ti would have been great so I'm happy and have no regrets. Granted, an EVGA card would have given me greater peace of mind, but (touch wood) I have yet to have a GPU die on me in almost 20 years of PC use. Random trivia: the 8800GTX remains the most expensive graphics card I have ever purchased at £294.
With a heavy OC the TI will beat the 1070 in DX11. It won't beat it in DX12 if the 1070 is a good one though. Even my Titan X could not do that. Mind you, the difference was tiny and the Strix is a lovely card Remember - cool card is a happy card. All about the heat man.
At the risk of being unhelpful here are my thoughts My current gaming PC has 780ti also, I play generally at 2560 x 1680 also and it copes fine. My next graphics card update will likely be to achieve 4K gaming - my guess is that this means waiting another 6-12 months I agree with the comment above on power, unless you are running into problems with your current PSU the cost of the additional power is probably minimal. Chunks
