GTX 970 | Good Budget Graphics Card for 2022?

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Today we are taking a look at the legendary GTX 970, is it still a good budget GPU option in 2022?
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[@Hannib4lBarca]

I've had my MSI GTX 970 for nearly seven years now and the only problem I have with it is I still can't justify upgrading my pc cause it runs every game I want it to just fine.

[@angelo3805]

I've had mine for that same time. It's such a reliable card, and I prefer to run games > 100fps so I'm fine with medium-low settings. Same problem here, I can't justify upgrading at all. Maybe when the 40 series comes out if I can even get a card.

[@momentykk]

and here i am just bout to get the 970:D

[@angelo3805]

@@momentykk you won't regret it. Get the MSI one if you can it's the best. You should be paying max 200 bucks for it typically. Any more and you're getting ripped off

[@momentykk]

@@angelo3805 i am getting a used pc for 280 euros, it has 1TB HDD 120GB SSD 8gb ddr 3 ram (i have 16 in my current pc tho, i can replace), gtx 970 intel core i7 2600k, with a new case and changed thermal paste for both gpu and cpu

[@angelo3805]

@@momentykk hopefully it's got a good power supply. Honestly not a bad buy, you're going to want to find a better motherboard later down the line but you should do fine with that for a while. Do you know what brand graphics card that 970 is? Doesn't matter at this point buy I'm curious

[@timothymceachron9127]

I just picked up one a little while ago I think it's a pretty great card overall good performance for 1080p in most games nowadays

[@mustachesally4134]

It's an awesome card. I have it At as well and i can play 1440p on bfv ultra. Though it's only the game I play.

[@Anthrax45]

@@mustachesally4134 the GTX 970 OC / SC or w/e version you have is the best. My RX 580 8GB recently died and had to bust out the trusty 970 as I know for a fact that has seen more computer changes...

[@mohamed_sumbul]

Is it still good?

[@TechWithSean]

970 actually has 4GB VRAM, but 0.5GB of it is slower than the rest and it causes stuttering if you go over 3.5GB usage. (I had one of them back when they were new). Great vid though, there are a ton of these out in the wild.

[@baroncalamityplus]

This is correct. I have a 970 in my pinball machine computer and going over 3.5 gigs is asking for trouble / bad frame times.

[@rathstar]

So true, but I've found driver support over the years has helped the performance. While I see other 4gb cards go right up to 4gb usage the 970 ever only tops out at 3.7gb, obviously something has been done to ensure that last bit of slow vram is not fully used. The vast majority of (particularly older) games will not use 4gb of vram at 1080p medium settings, neither at high settings in most cases.

[@Daltonleach11]

Will overclocking the Vram help this issue somewhat?

[@rathstar]

@@Daltonleach11 Not really as the last 0.5 GB of vram is particularly, especially as I think the drivers have been amended to not use the slow vram. So in effect the issue is a storage one, the GPU can exchange info between the CPU and GPU fine, but when it runs out of vram space it's uses the much slower system ram which is much slower than vram. Best solution in a game which is trying to use more than 4gb of vram is to lower the texture settings. However in the vast majority of games the texture settings that the gtx 970 can run playable frame rates will not use more than 3.5gb of vram.

[@ephesius7576]

I don't know If it was my card but I never experienced that problem. I bought the first gtx 970 arrived to a local tech shop and been using it since then. Here are the tests i did back then with 2880x1620 Resolution(DSR) kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3a6Zmp-dtV5ibc kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYvTmZ9vbJeBnJI Gtx 970 was a great performer and it is still capable at 1080p running arround 72C without undervolting. Would highly recommend

[@Independent_Rbx]

Loved ur Xbox series s replacement video. Recently bought the Xbox series s and it’s amazing for the price!!! Might have to buy a better refresh rate monitor

[@timmyboy2357]

I love this channel i hope you guys upload more and often I know this sound stupid but I cant stop watching these vids great content keep it going :)

[@MericaBack2backWWChampions]

I'm running almost this exact PC build and love it! There are some limitations but it will run VR pretty well in low settings.

[@madcapper6]

Been running a desktop 970 on my Alienware laptop with a 6th gen i7 6700hq through the Alienware graphics amp. Even with the 5% or so bottleneck via the graphics amp, it's a huge improvement over the 970m that's built into it. As long as I'm not running into problems with vram limitations, like with RDR2, it runs most modern games pretty well. Even with RDR2 with the texture quality set at high instead of ultra to get it under the vram limit, I can get consistent 40-60 fps on mostly high settings with a few optimization tweaks with an absolute low of around 34. It even allows me to run Breath of the Wild on Cemu at 1440p with rarely a dip under 55 fps. I love the 970.

[@rathstar]

Awesome little card the 970, along with the rest of the 900 series. The support for DX12 and drive updates puts it above other budget GPUs in the same price range. Prices are also dropping fast, as people are finally able to upgrade their GPUs at reasonable prices, I picked up a gtx 970 and a 120mm aio deepcool cooler for £100 yesterday.

[@dek1930]

love you guys thanks for the great video

[@rmmm329]

just picked one up for $80 for a htpc build. Stoked!

[@bradleye1964]

Nice video. I bought the 6900 saphire toxic air cooled for 1,499$ Canadian. It is selling for over 2k and some for 2.4 on sites. I cannot find many reviews or videos on the card... a few... lot of happy customers and many paid full price over the 1499 I spent. Seems like a good purchase for the price. I was looking at a MSI suprim 3070 TI for 999$. Yet went for the 6900 with two year protection plan.

[@DaleStrickland]

This was exactly the video I need. I don't know much about computers but this is the card I've been rocking for years; trying to figure out if an upgrade is necessary. Given the over inflation of graphics cards (even right now) I think I can chill for a bit longer!

[@sburton015]

I have that same brand of graphics card in my main gaming PC, but it's a GTX 1080 graphics card paired with an i7-6800k CPU. High end hardware for 2016, still very capable today.

[@sarukun1228]

I ran a 970 for a long time until I bought a 2070 a few months before the pandemic started. I'm glad I got it when I did. My secondary card, for running extra monitors is a 960. I haven't tried to game on it though

[@Duck_Sauce09]

picked up a 980 ti last week for 160. paired it with my 4790k and 32 gigs at 2400 ram I already had stored. pretty good with eSports games. Only tested Fortnite and warzone, and pretty happy with the results.

[@KnightofAges]

A 980ti? It's 60% stronger than a 970 and has full 6GB VRAM. Don't stay just on E-sports, it can play basically any game on the market quite well at 1080p. And yes, that includes Cyberpunk at high settings. For 160 dollars, you got yourself quite a deal.

[@southboundtp2067]

@@KnightofAges FACTS, it's still a beast.

[@83RhalataShera]

@@KnightofAges Cyberpunk on low settings maybe.

[@KnightofAges]

@@83RhalataShera No, 1080p High. Try it if you have the GPU.

[@UTFapollomarine7409]

@@83RhalataShera with FSR i can run cyberpunk in high settings 1440p with 5500xt 8gb without a doubt! a 980ti will easily run it!

[@ChantztheWrapper]

Love your vids

[@samowen7080]

I’m currently saving for my first pc, and I have the msi 970, and after seeing this I’m blown away with how good it can be since I got mine for £100 used

[@czguy3045]

I do have a couple EVGA 970s. I only have one in a computer but yeah... not a bad card at all. Hopefully prices on slightly higher end cards seem to be dropping. I bought a 1070 TI and a 1080, I guess because I like blowing money on slight upgrades, but I got the 1080 for $250 and the 1070 TI for $200. I still seem to be seeing 970s listed for $200-ish but I probably wouldn't spend quite that much on one at this point.

[@leejones9574]

i got my 970 strix 7 years ago and still playing games well at 1080p just played through resident evil 8 in my book it is a very strong card for its age

[@Unluckyfliccz]

Love the videos

[@wellspring7700]

I just got an Optiplex and GTX 970. Even with the i5-2400, it plays Fortnite in performance mode all maxed out settings with these numbers. Excellent card!

[@onlydanss]

I use this card, founders edition. Does me well for 1080p waiting on 40 series now!

[@StojanovicJovan]

My fav youtuber still has the 4790k and gtx 970 he uses it for streaming and it works like a charm (He uses only 1 pc for streaming) And you should make a streaming setup with this pc

[@constantinehoof8020]

Using Gigabyte 970 since 2013/14. Best card price-performance for me.

[@jppotato17]

To put it in perspective, I got a gtx 1070 for $210 2 Christmas’s ago. Now a 970 cost the same amount. The market is still pretty screwed up

[@practicalcucumber1395]

I got one for $130 on eBay

[@mrsxber1916]

@@practicalcucumber1395 auction or buy it now

[@practicalcucumber1395]

@@mrsxber1916 buy now

[@cowboyjsn8505]

the best gpu i have had was the geforce 9700 i was thinking of building a new pc thanks for the video!

[@azcould7971]

which better gtx 970 or rx 580? and which i should pick (both with 4gb varians)? sorry for my bad english

[@BockwardsOne]

Picked up a Asus GTX970 for $50 about 3-4yrs ago. It has worked through the various PC's in the home from Media PC to Daughters PC to my Wife's PC. Just moved a LG 27GNP750 240hz 1080p 27" to my wife's PC. It appears there is no way to get a GTX970 to enable Gsync with this monitor? I know a 1060 or 1660 works fine to enable Gsync but I have no option for a GTX970. Is there a work around to get Gsync/Adaptive Sync to work on a old 970?

[@JacobJosephVanStraten]

Great video Guys ! 🍕

[@maximusbell8936]

Just a question what is the difference of the tile looking gtx 970 and this one?

[@zeriul09]

got one in my old rig, just gave it to my dad, righ has an old i7-4700 and 16gb of ddr3 2333 ram and it plays most current games just fine on mid settings

[@slickfn5594]

I actually put the gtx 640 in an old pc I gave to my brother, my lil bro plays fortnite on it now. it is pretty handy

[@blakebotha8520]

PLEASE ANSWER ME but will my alienware Alpha r2 (the better one) be able to run warzone bc I have bad half mega line (yet we pay for 4 or 8) so what is my issue

[@boomshaka918]

Will kraken g12 fit on that exact model? I have almost identical zotac and it's super loud and hot.

[@Wyattdigitalz]

a few weeks ago i picked up the asus strix 970 on ebay for just 90$. amazing performance.

[@patrickmcgovern4004]

I always try to stick with the dual fan models at least but the gtx 970 is my go to gpu for budget builds, both because it still performs decently and also because it's new enough to still have driver support.

[@umamishra956]

Hey I'm from india I want to ask that I'm getting a used gigabyte gtx 970 mini single fan version in. 136 dollars Or should I go with used sapphire rx 570 4gb in 174 dollars Because I will mostly do 720p hight to ultra gaming or sometimes 1080p normal gaming with some youtube video editing and some normal game dev Which should I consider ??? Plzzz help 😢

[@patrickmcgovern4004]

I'm pretty sure the gtx 970 would outperform the rx 570. The only thing that i would consider suboptimal about it would be the single fan. I've never used one that couldn't keep up with the cooling but they are generally much louder because they have to spin faster to compensate. But as long as your case has good airflow it should be fine.

[@stevesmith1383]

Picked one up today for $30 to put in a build to flip. Gpu fire sale locally for me. In last 2 weeks got 2 RX 560 for $30 each, a RX 580 for $50, and 970 I mentioned.

[@Pootie-jk9ff]

Just grabbed one up on eBay for $50. Great little living room pc graphics card. Still running games like these well in 2023

[@the_holy_forestfairy]

I have a Gainward GTX 960 Phantom, 4GB (Bought used for only 120 Euro!). Newer Triple A games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 5 or 6, etc. run surprisingly well on medium settings! But, I also have to say that I'm not an ULTRA setting, 4K, UHD, or anything else gamer! I'm more of an old-school (until mid-2000s) and indie gamer.

[@reoencarcelado5904]

I'm trying to find-out what's the ATI (now owned by AMD) equivalent of a "nVidia GeForce GTX 970". Does anyone have any idea? (P.S. I found a refurbished HP-Z440 that is coming with a 700W power-supply and a EVGA "nVidia GeForce GTX 970". As well as a Intel "Xeon E5-1630 V3" processor (3.7GHz, 4 cores, 8 threads), and 16GB of DDR4 RAM).

[@bryndyn123]

I picked this up for around $170 and it does pretty well and Its able to handle VR I'm satisfied with it rn I've used my oculus plenty of times with it

[@robwiljas]

My 980 is still going strong. I just upgraded my 5820k to a 5960x off ebay for $70, running that at 4GHz with 32GB DDR4-2400 with the 980 and it'll run anything at 1080p no problem.

[@FunkyTechy]

Did they fix the evga ones from blowing up?

[@samdeleon8121]

just got one for $130 great review!

[@Partner737NG]

I buy right now a Gainward GTX 970 Phantom for 70 euro! It run xPlane 11 and Aerofly FS 4 , both with Vulkan at 60 FPS at hight quality !

[@kimsoderholm9101]

I got a gtx 970 for 120 dollars and OCed it to 1500 mhz, it performs like a stock gtx 1060 6gb or gtx 1650 super. While not OCed it performed like a gtx 1060 3gb and about 10 fps slower than the 6 gb version and gtx 1650 super so alltogether when oced you get really god performance. I also tried it against my sons gtx 1660 stock and it performs around 15 percent slower.

[@TheWarmotor]

I've been buying 970s for boneyard builds for friends, less than $100 now and capable of playable framerates with an i72600.

[@aussiematematt6781]

What software do they use to see the fps and stuff?

[@2528drevas]

I put a GTX 960 4GB in a PC with a Ryzen 2700X and 16GB of RAM for my Grandson. He games at 1080p and has no complaints.

[@sethr89s]

And here I am October 2022 picking a GTX 970 up for $60!

[@evilqtip7098]

SUPPPPERRRrrrrrr EXCELLENT REVIEW!!

[@Chris_G_541]

I just sold mine in a whole system with a i7 3770 and msi case for $450. I loved it.

[@woozah8624]

bought a 970 gigabyte oc for roughly 55 bucks. Hopefully it will do well in a my cheap gaming pc

[@xxpzc_]

hey toasty bros, i have a question! so i was wondering whether i should have each of my fans set to exhaust or intake? as of right now (buying this as a prebuilt from ebay) they're all set to exhaust. i have 2 140 mm fans in the front, 1 140mm fan on the top, and 1 120 mm fan at the rear all inside of a nzxt s340. would love to see a reply from you guys! keep up the good content

[@chaniibak7702]

With all your fans set to exhaust, no fresh air is coming into the pc, this is a rlly bad setup. Typically, you'd want intake in the front, exhaust at the top and backside, and intake at the bottom.

[@xxpzc_]

@@chaniibak7702 okay i don't have any bottom fans but i'll set my front ones to intake. thank you. i do think it's a bad setup but i got this as a prebuilt and didn't which fans to set to intake.

[@blackcatcomp]

got one for $20 and got and old dell gaming pc that had an i7 for $50. got to surprise my friend with a entry level gaming pc for 70 bucks :D

[@6toportal]

I traded a paint job for a 970 FE from a friend a year ago, I would've charged him 100 bucks so I got it for cheap for my cheap build, I have a Dell t1650 Xeon e3-1240 v2,16gb ram ddr3 at 1600mhz, 1tb ssd, all in a nzxt 510 case... the thing works great for what it is! I run cyberpunk on medium settings, assasins creed origins on ultra, Destiny2 runs 2k at medium high, so yeah! works great, the pc I use is mostly for FL studio and media playing so is not a heavy load on it, really great card for the year!

[@Delpzie]

I get 90-120fps on forza 5 on med settings with the GTX970 but mine is gigabyte 3x runs cooler and clocks higher.... i recently sold it to a friend of mine still runs perfect.

[@ItsBuuild]

I have to msi gaming 4g 970, is it any better than this one?

[@GamingGoose]

Would it run older games like euro truck simulator 2 on ultra?

[@Foreseen3]

4770k and EVGA gtx 970. Had it since 2014 and is still going strong.

[@theocook2049]

Just got one for $155nzd. Or about $100 usd, pretty stoked

[@V_Istvan]

where can I buy the mouse pad or smth on the table?

[@joshuareynolds6958]

Damn, a year later and I bought my founders edition 970 for $50. It still rocks

[@albioncia]

Just pick it up to upgrade my laptop's gpu using cheap external gpu setup, i think its worth it considering better performance compared to 1650 at 50% the price

[@turfhawg7006]

970 still kicks butt 👍

[@berryallen7891]

Wake up babe, new Toasty Bros video just uploaded

[@glishes]

u should do a gtx 1660 super next

[@quesokid4959]

I’d say if your going pre pascal era you should go for a 980 at least. 4 gigs of vram just isn’t enough anymore if you want decent looking triple A titles.

[@josephlozano7792]

This is my "placeholder" card. Running it with a i5 12400F; waiting for gpu prices to drop. I'll pass it on for $60 when I do upgrade.

[@MrEmiXaM]

It was my gpu , i spent countless of hours in GTA Online , Fallout nv ,3 , Apex ,Titanfall , Max Payne 3 , COD games up to Modern Warfare , BF4 and BF1.

[@AnnHiroCh]

Picked one up to put in a used build for $91

[@jajayn3124]

Gtx 970 with what monitor?

[@brytenolson2166]

should i buy a 960 or a 1050ti

[@crunchrmunch]

What settings were u using for warzone just threw a ROG Strix 970 in my wife's computer and can get it balance out

[@crunchrmunch]

Can't get it

[@willw6014]

Still Staying Strong with my 970 💪

[@HearMeLearn]

I mean considering that games are still being made for the ps4 and that's the equivalent of a 750ti. there should really be no surprise a 970 can keep up in modern gaming

[@abinaslimbu3057]

VAG cooler fan power pin goes current

[@OriginalSphincter]

I picked up a used 1060 3gb phoenix for $135 maybe a year ago. I kind of wish I had found a 970 or 980 instead for windows xp compatability, but I have a 760 2gb kickin around if I found time to fart around with games for before windows 7.

[@visxble]

i have a gtx 970 paired with a i5 10400f with 16gbs of ram. on warzone i get 90-110 and on forza i get a locked 60 fps at almost all ultra settings. the card isn’t oc but i find it crazy that this old card does good

[@thedeadpubgguy8809]

Man just get an 1660ti 6gb and you will get much stable fps trust me coz the other specs are much better than needed for that gpu tbh

[@visxble]

@@thedeadpubgguy8809 i’m not complaining about it bro . so basically i bought a gtx 760 for 30 bucks . then i traded up for a gtx 970 with 50 bucks on top .

[@thedeadpubgguy8809]

@@visxble thats a great deal and it has great specs btw i was just recommending it nothing serious 👍

[@fragalot]

the 970 does have 4GB of VRAM , it's just the last 512GB of it is slower, but it's still there,

[@julian2wavy875]

Do a review on the amd Radeon 5500xt❗️❗️❗️

[@andigamin1602]

Can you do the 1060 6gb next

[@saddamsaad8595]

I still have the Asus GTX 970, almost 5 years and it's a great piece of hardware, but it shows it's age in some games.

[@adgsewf9957]

did you mention gtx970 is a overclock champ? easy 1500MHz

[@snapdragon9300]

What about a cpu test? 10105f in 2022?

[@Smokey1938]

Got my 970 from a friend for 100 dollars years ago. Still running great one of the best budget options today.

[@_ren5506]

yo after tha gpu crisis this card costs around 250 in my area lol

[@EpicDDK]

gtx 950m gddr5 2gb vram test?

[@why8410]

I would say so. You can get them for under 50$. Someone bidded one for 41$ on ebay

[@reminon]

Just picked up the evga variant for 75 bucks for an old windows 7 machine.

[@denzo3882]

Look at that gpu temp, single fan ain't enough.

[@kylerkeenan585]

You guys should do krunker for one of your test games

[@BREEZYM6015]

Nice video. I wonder if I could get those kinds of results if I were to use the Radeon HD 7950 3GB GPU in a rig similar to yours. My FX8320 isn't pairing well with the 7950. Maybe both aren't good nowadays.

[@7229.]

What pc is that

[@SmokedGaming_Official]

I just picked up a 3080ti and running that right now.

[@shanecorneliuson]

I just purchased this card for 40$ used to get me by with my 5600g and I’m actually pretty impressed. Thanks for the video guys 🎉

[@baraaibrahim8197]

where did you get it from?

[@shanecorneliuson]

@@baraaibrahim8197 used on local marketplace

[@rebel_smoke8006]

Can’t wait until i get the money so i can buy a pc

[@jamesmorrison7407]

I have an old 980 laying around. Wonder what I could get from that? It says Windforce on the card if that makes any difference.

[@andrek2193]

depends on your cpu but it'll still perform decent in AAA titles

[@jamesmorrison7407]

@@andrek2193 I think it's paired with an Intel i7 but not sure which one. It's been in my closet for a few years.

[@HushNR]

hey can you make a pc using nz products pls??

[@shinefake48]

I found a very good gtx 1650 super deal along with a ssd deal, so my brothers build is almost complete and now just waiting for the 5600 to arrive

[@tahirj9129]

i bet it was a bad deal

[@shinefake48]

@@tahirj9129 1650super for 189,cuz seller say it blackscreens, but I "fixed" it by using the DP instead of the Hdmi, becuz seller may have broke that port

[@tahirj9129]

@@shinefake48 a 1650 super is not worth 190 either way bruh

[@shinefake48]

@@tahirj9129 but is not as pricey as others out there, plus ordered this quite a while ago, and the seller included a 512Gb SSD(new) inside, and its a branded SSD too. If you look at prices of things, I technically paid 130$ ish for the card, and 1650 super out there are all 200$+

[@tahirj9129]

@@shinefake48 ahh, not bad then

[@drock1717]

I got an i5 6500 gtx 970 pc when covid started for $300 and its still running strong, gonna buy a 5600x soon

[@anonymus5173]

Check out for the 5600 🙂