Graphics? Gtx 970 or 1060?

kenneth18278

New member
The title really says it all. As you can see from my specs, I have a decent rig. I'm just wondering if I will see an improvement in T:ANE if I upgrade the graphics. T:ANE is running perfectly OK as it is, with most things turned up with no VSync or Texture Streaming, and with PhysX on.

However, I've been saving my pennies and can afford a GTX 1060 with 6GBs, and am wondering if I will benefit. Wisdom from those more expert in these matters will be welcome.

MB = Gigabyte GA-Z170XP Socket 1151
CPU = Intel Core i5 6600K O/C 4.4GHz
GPU = GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5
RAM = Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR-4 2666MHz
PSU = SuperFlower Leadex Gold 550W with Alpenfohn Matterhorn CPU Cooler
SSD = Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
OS = Windows 10 Pro 64 bit upgraded to Anniversary edition
 
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Hi Ken, Yes there will be an improvement and I'd much sooner own a 1060 than the 970 I currently have but I'm not sure the outlay would justify the gain. Novatech are currently offering an Asus 1070 8GB at £340 which would probably be a better investment even if it means holding on with what you have a little longer. Hopefully it might also indicate that there is a bit of a price war developing between graphic card manufacturers here in the UK. Peter
 
If what you have is working fine for you at the moment I'd stay with what you have. Undoubtedly next year will bring on a better cheaper card than the GTX1060.

Cheerio John
 
Wilts and John, thanks for the feedback. You both make the point about prices coming down in the future, and that is always a consideration of course. I am wondering, however, whether the 10 series cards with their new architecture are more economical in their power consumption than the 970.

Wilts, I had a look at Novatechs offer, and I must say I am tempted by that 1070. The specs tell me it runs at max 150W and requires a 500W PSU minimum. This does seem an improvement on the 970. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? It wouldn't be the first time!

Another factor is my monitor runs at full HD 1920x1080, so I probably wouldn't see any gain in resolution. Oh, the complication!!!!
 
I think you have got the details correct as I found the same power ratings on other websites but I couldn't verify them directly from the Asus website which is unusual. I do think however that a 500W PSU on such a setup is very much bottom line these days. There are a few good review on the web including Youtube, try Googling ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 DUAL OC 8GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review. I picked the original link up this morning from Google News which pointed to Trusted Reviews and in turn Novatech who I'd delt with priviously and found them to be quite helpful. I thing the factors governing resolution is more down to monitor than top end graphic cards. If you have a reasonable TV have you tried connecting your 970 to it using a HDMI cable, the family moan but it looks quite good. Peter
 
Kenneth18278 - The difference would likely be hard to pick whilst running T:ANE, though the Pascal cards bring many new tricks and greater efficiency to the table.
Here's a simple side-by-side comparison for your consideration from PassMark computer's GPU benchmarks:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=3548&cmp[]=2954

The Tom's Hardware guys quoted by johnwhelan above claim that to make a discernable difference, you need to choose a card 3 tiers above your current one.
According to their hierarchy, the GTX1060 is only one tier above the GTX970.

If your budget will stretch to the GTX1070, however, then you would certainly see a demonstrable difference in both performance and efficiency.

Here's the 3-way comparison. Note that most Asus GTX1070s run at much higher base clock speeds than those shown here...
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=3548&cmp[]=2954&cmp[]=3521
 
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Thanks to everyone for replying, your help is much appreciated.

I think that the performance gains between my current GTX 970 and the 1060 are not really worth the outlay. The 1070 (3 tiers and up rule) makes much more sense, especially if there is a price drop whilst I'm saving up for it. As I said, T:ANE is running perfectly happily as it is but I was just being greedy to get the very best possible out of what I think is the best Trainz yet.
 
Thank you for this thread, it has been very informative.
I have a MSI Radeon R9 290 Gamer card and I was considering changing it for a 1060.
I will now wait for the price dropped 1070 cards to appear.
 
DUal gtx1080 in SLI plus TANE?

Even wth new pc, sound still sucks.
TANE, all graphic settings in TANE at max, both in the game and on the main start menu before getting into game.

SYSTEM SPECS:
Build price: $3,500$
Build-Date: Feb-4-2017
Processor: i7-6850k 3.6GHz@OC4.0GHz (40*100MHz) Broadwell 1.199v 95°F
Motherboard: MSI-X99-GODLIKE-GAMING-CARBON Northbridge:Intel-Broadwell-E-rev.01
Southbridge: Intel-X99rev.05 BIOSv2.6(2016-08-29)
Memory: 32768MB Quad Channel DDR4-XMP2.0 3200mhz Ratio1:24Timings-16-18-18-36-2T(tCAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-CR) Slot#1,3,5,7=8192MB PN:CMU16GX4M2C3200C16 4 of these installed.
GPU: Dual SLI'd-MsiSeaHawkEkGTX1080 CoreClock:1683MHz Bus:pCIx16Gen3 DriverVersion:378.57 DXD3D:11 Memory:8192MB-GDDR5X BIOSversion:86.04.17.00.50
PowerSupply: EvgaSuperNOVA1300G2
Storage: SamsungSSD-850PRO-256GB
Display: ViewSonic3D-VisionVX2268wm 22inches 1680 x 1050 pixels 120 Hz
OS: Windows7Pro64-bitSP1
Cooling: CPU=CoolerMasterHyper212 GPU=SwifTech Watercooling for GTX1080MsiSeaHawkEk
Case: Thermaltake-Core-P5-OpenFrame

 
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Gidday TINE - Looking at your video now. (Or rather, watching the grass grow longer at the moment...)
Perplexing that you are getting such low FPS with a single GTX 1080 let alone 2 in SLI.

Suggest that you get the moderators to move this post to a fresh new one (same forum) instead of this one which is all about GTX 970 vs GTX 1060 video cards.
 
Gidday TINE - Looking at your video now. (Or rather, watching the grass grow longer at the moment...)
Perplexing that you are getting such low FPS with a single GTX 1080 let alone 2 in SLI.

Suggest that you get the moderators to move this post to a fresh new one (same forum) instead of this one which is all about GTX 970 vs GTX 1060 video cards.

Sure they can move it, I did start a new post in the main train forums..

Well, i DO have the graphic settings ALL THE WAY UP. you saying that won't kill even two 1080s?
I have provided more information about my setup in the new post.

Heres the new post.

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...dvantage-of-dual-SLI-d-gtx1080-graphics-cards
 
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