dieandpuke
4gb for sure.  Don't even think about 2.

ty_ger07

dieandpuke
4gb for sure.  Don't even think about 2.

Yeah...  Except that you might choose the 2 GB version if you want to save money, want more overclock potential, want to consume less power, want to create less heat, want to buy a product with less chance of failure, want to receive a product with identical performance.  Other than that, yeah, there's no reason to even think about it.  
 
DRAM marketing has made everyone a bunch of illogical suckers.  I am convinced that the only reason these products exist is because they know that marketing brainwash has convinced people to believe that the 4 GB version is better than the 2 GB version.  It's like a laptop with 8 GB of graphics memory.  Or that all-in-one PC with a 4k display, "gaming" design, and a GTX 950 graphics card.  
 
I invite you to do some googling yourself and see the difference between the 4 GB and 2 GB version of this card.  Yes, yes, I know... you will still say "future-proofing!" no matter what the current evidence shows.  All I can say in response is that the present limitations, which make the two essentially equal, will exist in the future; and most likely to an even greater degree.  Please show me any examples of 2 GB versus 4 GB purchases anyone has made in the past showing a happy 4 GB user a year or two later versus an unhappy 2 GB user.  Has anyone ever really future-proofed in the mid-range segment where this card occupies?

stalinx20

GloR1ouS_
I can tell you the 960 is a budget card but still a very good card for 1080p gaming. Honestly this whole 4k thing is a joke and any real competitive gamer should be playing on a 144hz setup. You could buy a 960 and another later if your board is SLI and get more performance than a 970.

Bottom line is that in a year or 2, he's going to have to upgrade anyway, because most developers, again, are doing much more variations on their game coding which exceed 2gb, even at 1080p. And how is a 960 going to push 144hz? And if he even thinks about going SLI on 2 960's, then he may as well consider the purchase of a regular 980, currently priced at right at 499, and give him a 256bit memory bandwidth, which is what a 960 does not have. The 980 will give him true 4gb of VRAM.
 
I would like to add this : http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=14&itemid=1538
 
That article is a great example of the difference between a single 980 VS a 960 SLI setup. The 980 beats the setup at so many angles all the time. So, anyone who was thinking about going 960 SLI may as well purchase a 980 because the price differences is not that far off. You'll probably have to add an additional $40-50 for the 980, but the purchase would be far better, and have far more benefits than to go 960 SLI.

stalinx20

GloR1ouS_

stalinx20

GloR1ouS_
I can tell you the 960 is a budget card but still a very good card for 1080p gaming. Honestly this whole 4k thing is a joke and any real competitive gamer should be playing on a 144hz setup. You could buy a 960 and another later if your board is SLI and get more performance than a 970.

Bottom line is that in a year or 2, he's going to have to upgrade anyway, because most developers, again, are doing much more variations on their game coding which exceed 2gb, even at 1080p. And how is a 960 going to push 144hz? And if he even thinks about going SLI on 2 960's, then he may as well consider the purchase of a regular 980, currently priced at right at 499, and give him a 256bit memory bandwidth, which is what a 960 does not have. The 980 will give him true 4gb of VRAM.
 
I would like to add this : http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=14&itemid=1538
 
That article is a great example of the difference between a single 980 VS a 960 SLI setup. The 980 beats the setup at so many angles all the time. So, anyone who was thinking about going 960 SLI may as well purchase a 980 because the price differences is not that far off. You'll probably have to add an additional $40-50 for the 980, but the purchase would be far better, and have far more benefits than to go 960 SLI.

 
If he bought 2 960 4GB cards he would be future proofing as developers have promised games will benefit a lot more from dual GPU setups. A 960 could easily push a 144hz monitor on medium to high settings. I said 2x 960's beat a 970. 2x 950's beat a 970. It's been proven that VRAM is almost a sales gimmick on a lot of cards. 4GB tends to be the sweet spot on high end cards for people who think 4k gaming is so cool. 4k is a joke lol. You're at a huge disadvantage at 60 fps or less versus another player at 144hz. The problem with SLI is your vram doesn't combine, meaning if you bought the 2gb and SLI'd youd still have 2 GB vram where as 2x 4 GB cards would leave you with 4 GB of vram and future games benefiting more from dual gpu setups. Either way my point was buy a 960 now and maybe another later. The pricing of cards will drop more than likely since the new titan card is coming.

A 960 setup can't push to 144hz. It can, but it will not get that kind of FPS, maybe 90 at the most, in certain games. If he were to decide to get 2 960s, they will only hold out for maybe a year, 2 at most (if we're lucky) (due to the VRAM size). Only in certain "older" games will 2x 960's beat a 980. The recent game releases, 2x 960s will not beat a 980. it's the 980 that wins. 2gb will be a bottle neck in a few years, trust me. And those 4gb VRAM cards is nothing because of the lower memory bandwidth on the 960, it's capped at 112gb, while a 980 has a CAP of 256gbps. That bus will be the big improvement. Pricing wise, a single 980 will cost roughly the same compared to 2x 960s, and the performance difference is that the 980 wins at most. Yes, 2x 960s will beat a 970, but we're looking at the 980. Don't let that marketing scam from the 4gb of VRAM on the 960 lead you to believe that a 960 is just as good as a 980.
 
I understand your point about considering SLI, but I was speaking on your point that if he were to decide to even think about going SLI, or to buy the 1st one now and consider buying one later, he is better off to buy the 980 now.

EVGATech_AndrewA
You will definitely see a difference between the 2GB and 4GB version especially if your playing most high end games these days. 4GB-6GB of VRAM while gaming on settings like high or ultra will be needed with most modern games such as Tomb Raider or Assassins Creed for example.

stalinx20
I don't know... that limited bit size on the 960 is going to really hold back the card even if you're under 4gb, it won't hold up and you'll start having decrease in performance. Just like ty_ger07 said, the 4gb card was for marketing purposes.
 If you only do 1080p, try and save an additional $140 and get the 970 if you want 4gb VRAM (please hold back on the stabs people...)  because the 970 has a bigger memory bandwidth. the 960 has a memory bandwidth of 112gb. the 970 has a size of 224gb.

Price difference :
970 : $359
960 : $219.
 
I say this because 2gb is starting to be the bare minimum for most games. And soon it would be 3. Trust me on this; we have all seen the VRAM requirements increase in the years. with the purchase of the 970, it would add much more to your "future-proofing", but if you're on a tight budget, honestly, the difference between the 2gb and 4gb 960 cards is zero. There is no difference.