March 29, 2024
Zotac GTX 970 AMP Extreme Omega
Currently, you can find a GTX 970 card for just under $200. That might not be a good deal normally, but it does represent the best FPS/$ in the current scenario. And if you get lucky, you might even snag one for closer to $125. The card may still last long or you might need to replace thermal paste and perhaps old fans but it is a risk indeed to invest in an very old GPU even if it's not a big chance that it will fail. In terms of performance, it's actually slightly faster than Nvidia's GTX 1650.

TomsHardwre GPU pricing index shows how overpriced are the latest graphics cards in this inflated market, even if you manage to find one at good price, due to many scams going on you could fall into one of those.

Based on their GPU benchmarks hierarchy, and combined with current (the past week) eBay prices, an FPS-to-dollar metric was generated to see which cards might provide good value. The winner was Nvidia’s much older GPU dated back in late 2014, the Geforce GTX 970.

The GTX 970 sports the Maxwell architecture, with 5.2 billion transistors fabricated on TSMC’s 28nm high-performance node.The chip also measures nearly 400mm square, and by way of comparison, the latest Ampere GA104 chip used in the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti is only a touch smaller (393mm square compared to 398mm square) but has over triple the number of transistors. =In terms of performence the 3060 Ti is over three times as fast as the much older GTX 970.

Currently, you can find a GTX 970 card for just under $200. That might not be a good deal normally, but it does represent the best FPS/$ in the current scenario. And if you get lucky, you might even snag one for closer to $125. The card may still last long or you might need to replace thermal paste and perhaps old fans but it is a risk indeed to invest in an very old GPU even if it’s not a big chance that it will fail. In terms of performance, it’s actually slightly faster than Nvidia’s GTX 1650.

If you simply have to have something and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, it’s one of the better options right now. It can also manage over 60 fps at 1080p medium settings in most modern games, though obviously there are exceptions. There are other old GPUs to consider, like the GTX 980 and R9 390, but prices on the latter are back above $300. AMD’s RX 570 4GB ranks as the second-best GPU using the same metrics, with a median price of $225. And those cards are likely much newer — but possibly used for 24/7 mining, so fan failures can be more common and also depends on how carefully they were used.

Here’s the full list of graphics cards with their accompanying performance that we’ve sorted by FPS/$. You can see the relative performance rank in the far right column as well.

otGraphics Card Value Based on Current eBay Pricing

GPU FPS Score eBay Price FPS/$ Performance Rank
GTX 970 33.81 $197 0.1716 42
RX 570 4GB 38.52 $225 0.1712 39
R9 Fury X 49.97 $306 0.1633 30
GTX 980 40.36 $257 0.157 38
GTX 1060 3GB 34.04 $224 0.152 41
GTX 980 Ti 50.28 $339 0.1483 28
R9 390 41.51 $319 0.1301 36
GTX 1080 FE 69.08 $533 0.1296 21
RX 560 4GB 19.14 $148 0.1294 45
GTX 1070 Ti FE 63.89 $494 0.1293 24
GTX 1070 FE 56.11 $437 0.1284 27
GTX 1050 18.63 $150 0.1242 46
GTX 1660 Ti 57.77 $479 0.1206 26
GTX 1080 Ti FE 88.2 $750 0.1176 13
GTX 1650 Super 43.47 $372 0.1168 34
RTX 2080 Super FE 102.07 $878 0.1163 9
GTX 1060 6GB FE 40.41 $350 0.1155 37
RTX 2060 FE 68.55 $595 0.1152 22
GTX 1650 GDDR6 36.4 $317 0.1148 40
GTX 1050 Ti 24.51 $214 0.1145 44
RTX 2080 FE 95.49 $836 0.1142 10
RX 590 49.41 $435 0.1136 31
GTX 1660 Super 57.92 $516 0.1122 25
RX 5500 XT 4GB 43.32 $390 0.1111 35
RTX 2070 Super FE 91 $820 0.111 11
RTX 2070 FE 81.03 $740 0.1095 16
RX 5500 XT 8GB 48.6 $450 0.108 32
GTX 1660 50.12 $469 0.1069 29
RX Vega 64 73.98 $693 0.1068 19
RTX 2060 Super FE 77.22 $730 0.1058 18
RX 580 47.18 $450 0.1048 33
RX Vega 56 65.26 $639 0.1021 23
RX 5600 XT 71.11 $697 0.102 20
GTX 1650 31.9 $317 0.1006 43
RTX 2080 Ti FE 118.16 $1177 0.1004 6
RX 6800 127.27 $1273 0.1 5
RX 6800 XT 142.31 $1461 0.0974 3
RTX 3070 FE 116.6 $1250 0.0933 7
RTX 3060 83.6 $904 0.0925 15
RX 5700 78.43 $853 0.092 17
RX 5700 XT 86.53 $945 0.0916 14
RTX 3060 Ti FE 106.31 $1222 0.087 8
RX 6900 XT 146.86 $1759 0.0835 2
RTX 3080 FE 142.14 $2084 0.0682 4
RTX 3090 FE 152.72 $2932 0.0521 1
Radeon VII 89.91 $1850 0.0486 12