Just a friendly heads up about recent conditions: Now is definitely a relatively bad time to buy a new card, especially in those model ranges. Why?
Crypto-currency.
Video cards (both ATI and Nvidia) are getting bought en masse because of the current crypo gold-rush going on. Store shelves are stripped bare, and cards have been marked up significantly simply due to sudden explosion in demand. Lotsa people got it in their head that they’re gonna get rich real fast if they buy thirty 1080 TI’s and run up their electric bill. 😛
A 960 is a solid card that’ll carry you pretty far if you’re smart with optimization. I use a 970 myself.
If your renders are REALLY capping out and it’s hindering your progress as an artist, perhaps there’s not much of a choice; especially if you have that forward momentum going on!
However, if you’re like me, and you can get away with further optimizing your workflow instead (such as breaking scenes into smaller parts, for instance), there’s speculation that all those cards are going to hit ebay real quick once mining stops being worth it. Not to mention, you’ll learn all sorts of good ways to optimize in the process, and that will serve you well no matter what hardware you’re rocking. 🙂
Hope this insight proves even the slightest bit helpful. Good luck!
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