Will a GTX970 run well in my PC?

[Cobus]

Easy one. My PC specs are in my sig.

Will anything bottleneck a GTX970?

And if not, since my mobo is SLI capable, is there any trick/reason to put my 660Ti alongside it? I am talking about where in the past one card would function as a physics card? Or has that gone the way of the Dodo?

 

[EliteOp]

I'm guessing maybe just the CPU but as with most systems, if you have a standard HDD, that might be the biggest "slow" performer of the lot, as it will immensely impact reading/loading times.

 

[iamgigglz]

+1 to the HDD comment. An SSD changes everything, although isn't really related to GPU performance.

It would make a fun experiment but I wouldn't bother with the physics card. Very few games would use it and it'll be stealing PCIe lanes from your 970. Sandy Bridge CPUs only have 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes to work with and that 970 will take as many as you can offer. PCIe lanes rarely have any appreciable performance impact but putting a 970 on 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes might be pushing it.

Buy the card, benchmark the different setups and let us know the results!

 

[SBA]

I'm guessing maybe just the CPU but as with most systems, if you have a standard HDD, that might be the biggest "slow" performer of the lot, as it will immensely impact reading/loading times.

How is a 2600k going to bottleneck a 970???

 

[EliteOp]

How is a 2600k going to bottleneck a 970???

As per iamgglz " Sandy Bridge CPUs only have 16 PCIe 2.0"!!! Maybe not much, but after the HDD I'd suggest that would be the other closest issue to "bottleneckking" the GPU

 

[iamgigglz]

I've done some more looking around and found stuff like this:

If switching from 16x to 8x pcie 2.0 bottlenecks these cards it'll definitely bottleneck your 970 horribly. Stick to one card.

 

[Toxxyc]

1. Get a 970.
2. Get a SSD.
3. Be sad about your credit card.

 

[Cobus]

Oh damn I have to update my sig... I do have a 256GB SSD

 

[nan0s0ldier]

Get that 970 and scream coz you love it so much

 

[Cobus]

Sandy Bridge CPUs only have 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes to work with and that 970 will take as many as you can offer.

The spec for the mobo says PCIe Gen3, does the CPU being Sandy Bridge drop performance of the GPU slot to 2.0 levels?

 

[iamgigglz]

The spec for the mobo says PCIe Gen3, does the CPU being Sandy Bridge drop performance of the GPU slot to 2.0 levels?

Yup. Drop an Ivy Bridge cpu in there for gen 3.0.

 

[SBA]

Yup. Drop an Ivy Bridge cpu in there for gen 3.0.

Is there a performance difference if you only have one card? Was thinking of 290 xfire, i guess not...

 

[Deepblue]

If you are considering a particular game and this is the reason why you are wanting to upgrade then use this tool to check what maybe required for the particular game:

Can You RUN It | Can I run that game | Game system requirements

 

[iamgigglz]

Is there a performance difference if you only have one card? Was thinking of 290 xfire, i guess not...

If you want to xfire/sli then I would definitely recommend a CPU upgrade. A single card will be fine.
I've run my single 980 on Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge and now Haswell and haven't seen any (GPU score) difference in benchmarks.