there is not enough of a performance difference between the 970 and the 980 to justify the price difference. For a little more you could get sli 970s which is well worth the $.

The g1 will provide better cooling than the reference cooler but then again so do all the other aftermarket coolers.

Heres the performance difference between the 970 and the 980 [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Can you justify spending the extra $200?

I need 3 monitor Nvidia surround. Works much better with the 980.

Can't believe someone has actually bought a 9590, you must be one of three people that own one. Sorry, but it's a terrible choice. Whoever recommended the 4770 also doesn't know what they're talking about FYI and buying a 9590 for editing/rendering makes no sense since the Intel route would have been much better.

Nvidia surround does not work "much better" with the 980 at all. The 970 is the obvious choice, and there's no real reason to buy a 980 anymore, the card was a flop at launch and still is. With it's position in the market, it's not a wise purchase, at all. The 970 performs within 10% of the 980 in almost every case, a lot of the time, a much smaller gap in performance and it's $200 cheaper. Slightly overclocking a 970 will close the performance gap between it and a 980. SLI 970s are only about $100 more expensive than a 980 for much more powa.

As for cooler, get whichever you want, the reference cards tend to run a little hotter but the air is exhausted out the back with the blower style coolers. It's entirely up to you. It's probably wisest to just get whichever is cheapest and looks best to you.

I have the G1 Gaming 970, never goes over 50C with my custom fan profile.

As for the 9590, You must enjoy your house burning down + it is the same CPU as an 8320 just binned and OC'd from factory.

You better enjoy living on that old chipset PCIE 2.0 and everything.

Alexyy wrote You better enjoy living on that old chipset PCIE 2.0 and everything.

Don't remind me about this... plez