I think that as long as you go online after changing hardware components, you should be safe with any change.

I just saw this chart of a performance boost from the website:

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/10series/geforce-gtx-1060

And it shows it shows the leap in performance from a 960 to a 1060.

And I assume 970 is roughly the same as a 960.

Besides I tried playing Witcher 3 on Ultra and even it could not handle that game on ultra and what is worse it could run the risk of overheating my PC without setting the fans to around 75%-100% fanspeed and I don't wanna know what happens playing a game with the EVGA fan at 100% for hours.

Yes, the upgrade is legit. But don't expect much from ''only for next-gen GPUs(TM)".

mmm; not really (only issue could be the last 512 MB of VRAM....in some cases)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_900_Series

Sure there's a huge increase in performance (on the paper) with the 1060.

As for changing only the GFX card , i assure you it's not a problem with Steam , it's not considered as a major change.

For Denuvo, i can't tell , but i seriously doubt you will get any warning or prevent you to run a protected game by it.

The 1060 is roughly on par with a 980. You are basically going 970>980! Why not sell your card and save up some more for a 1070? :)

There probably isn't any harm in running the fans at 75%, except it might give you tinnitus. Are you not using a fan-profile that adjusts fan-speed proportional to load? My 7850 runs at a constant 100% GPU-usage and 40% fanspeed when playing Witcher 3 (50% in the summer). Temperature on the card never exceeds 60C. It depends on the cooler of course, but my card pretty much has the same power consumption as your 970.

Because I still wanna use the 970 while I purchase a new card and to actually keep it as a "just in case" if the new card ends up being defective in the long run?

But regarding the fans.

So there is no problem if I set it to 100%? Besides the obvious loudness of the fan (which is no problem since I always use Headphones for my PC usage) but I fear that playing something at 100% fan speed is bad in the long run like it overexerts the fan or something making it break?

Unless you buy the card used you have 3 years of warranty, it would be a big waste to make a minor upgrade from 970 to 1060 and not at least get some money back by selling the old card while it still has some value at least.

I'm not an expert on this, I run my fans at factory default, so hopefully someone else can answer this in more detail. From what I've read, the fans will have a much longer lifetime if you run them at 90% instead of 100%. I think this was a protip from Bitcoin-miners, so there should be some experience behind the statement. 90% should be enough to keep it cool though, right? I assume you don't overclock it.

I have never sold back anything I have bought from internet and its mostly because I think its gonna be a huge pain to do so.

Also I currently have no backup cards so if I sell the one I am using now my PC would more or less be inert and I still need to use it even as I buy a new card.
It all depends on how hot the PC gets.

Like by Celsius the highest GPU temp I have ever saw is 60+ percent. How hot does it have to get to be a concern for the PC? And is 60-ish Celsius too hot?

I don't have any experience myself with nVidia-GPUs, so I'm not sure. 60C isn't too bad though. It should also automatically downclock itself or shut down if the temperature reaches unsafe levels.

An EVGA 970 is significantly better than a 960. If you have an older PC I'd save up for a new one, otherwise, you'll get considerably more bang for your buck if you wait until the end of the year or for a decent sale.

And download EVGA's graphics utility if you haven't already.

Getting a New PC is the day where I am forced to upgrade to Windows 10 and DX12 for the latest games.

It's too early to tell but this latest display of MS's contempt for it's customers may be it's last. I'm hoping that multiple state AG's decide to go after these pricks and take them to the cleaners. I think they've really screwed the pooch this time, much like Murdoch did in the UK.

I can't speak for 970 vs 1060, but I just got a GTX 1060 to replace my AMD R9 380, and it's roughly 2x as powerful. As far as heat, The Witcher 3 sizzles the card a bit, I think it got up to 68ish degrees celsius, but keep in mind that's with everything maxed other than Hairworks. I also don't use fan speed software, since other than W3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Dragon Age: Inquisition, nothing even makes my card work that hard.

I know typically nvidia cards should run cooler than amd, but I believe for the 1060 the safe operating temps reach into the 70's. You should have nothing to worry about.

I know you want to get the 1060, and it's a hell of a fine card, but my concern is that it might not be as huge of an upgrade as you're expecting. Again, I'm not sure because I haven't owned an Nvidia card since the GTX 260 was hot.

All I can say is I'm happy to be back on Team Green. Good luck, Elmo!