Trying to decide on a new video card for my birthday

[RareAir23]

Hi all. My birthday is coming up in about a week and I get paid September 25th. I am planning to pull as much as $450 out to get either an eVGA GeForce GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 card or an eVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0 card. I'm looking to future proof my system as much as possible with this purchase and at this point with my current video card and setup below:

Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield CPU
eVGA X58 3X SLI mobo
12GB Mushkin Enhanced Redline DDR3 1600 memory
eVGA GeForce GTX 680 SC video card
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer audio
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD (Windows)
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD (Games)
WD Caviar SE 640GB SATA 2 HDD (Storage)
Corsair AX850 PSU

I can get 60FPS on practically every game at 1080p maxed out settings that I have except...would you believe Guild Wars 2? Games I plan on playing in the next 6-9 months are as follows:

Killing Floor 2
Planetside 2
Battlefield 4
Guild Wars 2
Elite: Dangerous (no VR)
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Diablo III
Strider
Gauntlet
Star Wars: Battlefront
Tom Clancy's The Division

So I ask the experts at HardForum, of the 2 cards I've chosen as finalists which is the best choice for those games and getting at or above 60FPS in all of those titles at 1080p with everything (except MSAA) maxed? Thanks in advance for your advice and answers. Out!

 

[Killerxp100]

First thing you need to do on an old x58 system is upgrade that i7 950 with a cheap xeon 6 core x5650 and give it a nice 4ghz+ overclock. Then deside on your gpu upgrade.

Yes I believe your system struggles with gw2, it's heavily cpu dependent.

If your looking for future proofing then I would recommend you get the best you can afford, that being the 980.

 

[GameHard6]

Agree with Killerxp100 on this. Your CPU is going to be your biggest bottleneck with newer games and upgrading that will be essential to your moving forward. Futureproof really isn't a correct term to use in the computer world since nothing is. Personally, I've had great experience with the EVGA GTX 970 FTW http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-256bit-Graphics-04G-P4-29... for 1080p which is probably going to be what you're left with in your budget after you upgrade your CPU.

 

[Kaisei]

I think Battlefront may be the most gpu intensive game on the list. You would do well with a 980 for a good 3+ years. A 970 is quite a bit less overhead, but won't last as long. Maybe look into the Fury (non-x) as well. Get some benchmarks, prices, and see if you think the performances are worth their pricing.

 

[RareAir23]

Hi all. Thanks for the advice on the video card. I ended up getting the eVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 card. It arrives by Amazon tomorrow. Killerxp100 and GameHard6 mentioned I would be better off upgrading the CPU here and I do agree with them to a degree. Only thing that stopped me was the budget. I only had enough for a new video card so I jumped at that. I do plan a Skylake build to upgrade my X58 core in February right before Tom Clancy's The Division releases. I am going to post something in the Motherboard forums tomorrow as I can't decide which board to get. I already know I'm getting an i7 6700K and a set of 32GB Mushkin Enhanced Redline DDR4-2800 memory as a 4X8GB kit and also upgrading my chassis to a Corsair Vengeance C70 Gunmetal Black ATX mid-tower. The mobo though...always a tough choice. Thanks in advance for your help. Out!

 

[Dayaks]

Never mind OP got a card already.