I’ve decided that I’m going to get an Nvidia 1080 GTX at some point ‘soon’. I don’t know when exactly, because I still haven’t decided which version of the card to get (feel free to offer advice here, I’m not exactly on the bleeding edge of tech news anymore), and because it seems most of them are sold out right now. Plus I’ve seen prices between $600-$900, and while I’m guessing there are reasons behind the price differences, what exactly they are, and if they are worth paying more, I again don’t know right now.
On the gaming side, knowing I’m in for a hardware upgrade puts a hold on playing games that run well, but not ‘perfect’ right now, so no more Total Warhammer, and no more Fallout 4. TW:W has the beastmen coming out soon, which I’ve already purchased, and starting a game with them can really happen at any time. For Fallout 4, I’d almost rather wait for the remaining DLC to come out before diving back in, so that works out well-enough. I am also curious to see what, if any, difference I see in EVE. EVE runs without a hitch 99.9% of the time, but in the few larger battles (with sound on), I’ve had my framerate actually dip. Maybe the 1080 will help, maybe not.
For now I’ll keep running my vault in Shelter, play a little Verminetide co-op, keep doing EVE things, and hopefully finish up Shadow of Mordor before the next shiny catches my eye.
Hardcore Casual 
What card are you upgrading from? I picked up Shadow of Mordor during the sale as well and burned through the game in like 18 hours over the weekend. It is very rare a game hooks me into playing those kind of hours. Hope they keep em coming.
GTX 970, although that card will be going to the second computer which has a 790 or something like that.
Really? Jesus I just upgraded to that card. If you have the $ go for it but I don’t see what benefit 90 fps will give you in the games you listed.
I updated my video card recently to an MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X from the same companies GTX 980 card. I am using it in a 3 year old PC (i4770k 4GHz, 16GB ram, and a 1440p monitor).
The 1080 has given me a massive increase in all the games I have played even on my very conservatively overclocked PC. 3D Mark scores have increased 50%. I am also getting framerates in the 80-90fps range in most games. Black Desert Online increased from 40fps to 90fps and that is a very graphics intensive MMO. Overwatch I get 95-100fps max detail. ArmA III Apex on Ultra detail using the new Tanoa map I get 45-50fps.
If you have the funds the GTX 1080 is a very worthy upgrade.
I bought ASUS STRIX 1080 OC, mainly for cool cooling system wich stop fans then card idle, but card also super quiet even under load. Also it have factory overclock, wich is nice, i don’t like tweaking expensive pieces of hardware.
the 980 is more than enough for all of the games you listed. I’ve got Fallout 4 and it looks and runs beautifully.
F4 maxed at 1900×1200 runs well 95% of the time, but it does dip in certain scenes. TW:W maxed drops both in huge battles and once a good chunk of the campaign map is revealed. Dropping the graphics settings helps, so I am assuming upgrading the card will do the same.
GTX1080 is mighty overkill for 1920×1200, if you do not plan also buying 1440p monitor maybe you better buy GTX1070 instead, it still major upgrade from GTX970.
Plan is to eventually upgrade the monitor as well, just not sure to what size, as those keep changing and the prices keep dropping.
I’ve got 980, 2560×1440 gsync, i7 6 core, more ram than you can shake a stick at. No issues or slowdowns. Ever. I run EVE with all graphics settings on even in the major PH v. Imperium battles (Saranen et al.) with only brackets and audio turned off. No issues.
Assuming you’re waiting for prices and stock to stabilize, most of the manufacturers out there are fairly solid. Personally, I’m a fan of Gigabyte and EVGA, have had solid cards from both of them.