Best GPU for older systems?

bobtuck

B
Having received much appreciated support on these forums regarding OpenXR I thought I'd avail myself of the experience and knowledge present here once more if I may....

Long story short, I 'think' I could get a better experience in VR if I upgrade my GPU.

Due to financial restrictions I cannot do anything regarding the CPU at the moment as it would mean updating mobo, ram etc. so I have to make the best of what I've got i.e.

HP Reverb G1
i7-4790k stock speed (currently)
GTX 1080 stock speed (MSI Afterburner overclock reports any overclock attempt as 'unstable')
32GB DDR3 Ram
Game installed on SSD 'C' drive and using OpenXR

What are your thoughts re. the best GPU to pair with this lot ladies & gentlemen?

I'm tempted with something like a 3060ti (probably over the top for the CPU but would still be good if/when I can revamp the enire system?)

You opinions are much appreciated :)
 

Northpin

Northpin
bobtuck said:
I'm tempted with something like a 3060ti (probably over the top for the CPU but would still be good if/when I can revamp the enire system?)
Click to expand...

A 3060TI is about the same as a 1080Ti - so bit faster than what you have now, but not enough for Odyssey for example

Anything under 3080TI is not really worth it IMO
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Yes - that setup is ok as it is, for anything except ody on high settings. I had something similar for a long time - and any revamp would likely mean to throw out everything (except the reverb) and start from scratch.
As for Ody - the game is cheap if you can catch a deal (black friday beckons). Otherwise, you do have access to Horizons 4.0, which is Ody without the foot parts. My guess is that you'll need to cut down graphics settings by 50% in order to keep the FPS at an acceptable level.

But back to your question - nothing very much better than what you have now (I'd sell you my used 1080ti, but you probably won't even notice the difference). Buying a GPU (or any other computer parts) in advance to use them for a later and, currently unplanned, rebuild, is a waste of money IMO. By the time you actually get around rebuilding the system, it'll be mediocre at best.
If you still want to go that route, I concur with Northpin - 3080ti (or 6900XT) or something of that caliber. Or, depending on price development and availability, the corresponding top end models from the 4xxx series. ED and VR is a challenging combination.
 

aXeL

A
I'm going to go with Northpin and, with all respect to Ashnak, I'm going to disagree on upgrading the GPU being a waste of money. I went through 3x 680s SLI, 2x 970s SLI, 1080Ti on my 4790k before the chip saw an upgrade. Get as good a GPU as you can comfortably afford and, when you're ready - upgrade the rest. Going from my 4790k and 1080Ti to my 12900K +1080Ti, yeah it was better by ~20% and the 12900K is hardly being touched. When I added the 3090, it was bit less than double the FPS of my 1080Ti. You're going to go the other way around so yes, I think the GPU first is a good idea, especially with the three way price war kicking off.

Put OpenXR into 'Advanced' mode for FPS and you will see comparative CPU and GPU loading. That will tell you where most of the work is being done and can influence your upgrade path for ED.

I will probably drop a 13900KS in there simply because Meteor Lake will be down two P-cores and Arrow Lake will only equal Raptor Lake core counts so Lunar Lake will be my earliest shot at more cores ( assuming they do ).
 

Globusdiablo

Globusdiablo
bobtuck said:
...I'm tempted with something like a 3060ti (probably over the top for the CPU but would still be good if/when I can revamp the enire system?)

You opinions are much appreciated :)
Click to expand...
It really depends on your expectations.
  • Horizons or Odyssey?
  • Fluid minimum 60 frames per second while raging around a RES?
I've got a 12600k and a 3070ti and HP Reverb G2V2. I only play in Horizons (Odyssey is crazy load and I have no interest in on foot gameplay), and want fluid fps while raging around a RES.

I use fpsVR to in-game monitor fps, loads and temps.

I ended up setting everything but draw distance (I'm a sucker for draw distance) to medium settings (E: D is still gorgeous in the Reverb).

Personal recommendation would be Horizons 3070ti minimum, and the kitchen sink at Odyssey. :)
 
Last edited:

BigBANGtheory [VR]

BigBANGtheory [VR]
bobtuck said:
I'm tempted with something like a 3060ti (probably over the top for the CPU but would still be good if/when I can revamp the enire system?)

You opinions are much appreciated :)
Click to expand...

No I wouldn't advise that, you need to be looking at something much faster.

New AMD GPUs are being announced later today, I wouldn't buy anything until we know more.
 

Cmdr. Numa

Cmdr. Numa
That CPU is actually slightly faster than my i7 5960X when looking at single core performance, and my CPU is enough to feed my 3080ti. Mine is an 8 core though, which means overall higher performance. ED though doesn't fully utilize all cores.
 

Northpin

Northpin
BigBANGtheory [VR] said:
the new 7900 XTX is looking very juicy, whilst the RTX 4090 maybe faster (TBC) it's not by much and it's a lot more expensive
Click to expand...

You may want to check Morbad's analysis over the matter
And even if a 7900XTX will beat a 4080/16gb, i'd still prefer the 4080/16 unless the 7900XTX will deliver a very solid and tangible advantage, solid enough to beat their crappy drivers.

And lets not forget that AMD launch will put some pressure on NVidia
And Nvidia will have a comeback next year with something like 4080TI / 4090TI

Nvidia have a lot of room to jiggle, while AMD apparently cannot push the clocks too much
 

aXeL

A
I used to flit back and forth between AMD and NV GPUs. My 2 pence worth was that, on balance, NV gave me a better quality picture and smoother animation even when, on paper, my AMD cards might have been newer and faster. It seems apparent to me also that, on balance, Devs invest more effort into working with NV and, again on balance, VR vendors invest more effort into NV, especially with some of the premium headsets. For that matter NV seems to clearly invest more effort than AMD specifically on VR. Over the years I've, very grudgingly, come to the conclusion that, if I want the best experience, at any price point, I'm going to buy NV. It's a PIA really because the AMD cards are usually better priced but they're both still silly money so I'm going to pay for the better card. Like Northpin says, I always found AMD drivers a PIA whereas I rarely ever bother upgrading my NV drivers - no reason to. Clocking my NV cards usually makes them faster, clocking my AMD cards makes them faster but they'll stutter more than my NV builds.

Power:
The more the GPU is heating the room, the less actual heating is needed. The room where my gamer is, the heating doesn't get switched on - ever.

Already, I have a clothes rack over my PCs radiator. Not used a tumble drier in years. But then I've been doing WC builds for decades so I'm always looking for fun ways to use the radiator. One time it was under my bed which was very nice in the winter.
 

Globusdiablo

Globusdiablo
avow555 said:
$999 for the 7900XTX at 335 watts is a no brainer.

Go pay an extra 600 bucks for the 4090 at 450 Watts and watch your meter fly.
Click to expand...
You would think it was a no brainer, but sadly general consensus says that AMD drivers are the achilles heal of otherwise excellent hardware. I would love to go red, but green has just always been more consistent with actual real world performance, for me at least.
 

Rudlzavedno

R
I have a similar problem. I'm in the process of building cheap PCVR build (R5 5600/32GB DDR4-3600/1TB M2 SSD) and I'm still deciding between Pico 4 and G2. I'm wondering if RTX 3060TI would be enough to run ED Horizons with these headsets?
 
Last edited:

Northpin

Northpin
Rudlzavedno said:
I have a similar problem. I'm in the process of building cheap PCVR build (R5 5600/32GB DDR4-3600/1TB M2 SSD) and I'm still deciding between Pico 4 and G2. I'm wondering if RTX 3060TI would be enough to run ED Horizons with these headsets?
Click to expand...

It may be enough for Horizons 3.8 - but NOT for Horizons 4.0 / Odyssey
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Rudlzavedno said:
I have a similar problem. I'm in the process of building cheap PCVR build (R5 5600/32GB DDR4-3600/1TB M2 SSD) and I'm still deciding between Pico 4 and G2. I'm wondering if RTX 3060TI would be enough to run ED Horizons with these headsets?
Click to expand...
Depends on your expectations on image quality. Might work with 50% or so undersampling.
 

aXeL

A
Rudlzavedno said:
I have a similar problem. I'm in the process of building cheap PCVR build (R5 5600/32GB DDR4-3600/1TB M2 SSD) and I'm still deciding between Pico 4 and G2. I'm wondering if RTX 3060TI would be enough to run ED Horizons with these headsets?
Click to expand...
You do not want a Pico 4. There's at least one video around here showing the screen rendering choking, badly, on the wireless connection, compared with a Pico 3 on display port. If you're even wondering then buy the G2. Plus the G2 is WMR so just plug it in, no bloatware, works out of the box.
 

BinakAlgo

BinakAlgo
bobtuck said:
Having received much appreciated support on these forums regarding OpenXR I thought I'd avail myself of the experience and knowledge present here once more if I may....

Long story short, I 'think' I could get a better experience in VR if I upgrade my GPU.

Due to financial restrictions I cannot do anything regarding the CPU at the moment as it would mean updating mobo, ram etc. so I have to make the best of what I've got i.e.

HP Reverb G1
i7-4790k stock speed (currently)
GTX 1080 stock speed (MSI Afterburner overclock reports any overclock attempt as 'unstable')
32GB DDR3 Ram
Game installed on SSD 'C' drive and using OpenXR

What are your thoughts re. the best GPU to pair with this lot ladies & gentlemen?

I'm tempted with something like a 3060ti (probably over the top for the CPU but would still be good if/when I can revamp the enire system?)

You opinions are much appreciated :)
Click to expand...
I was using a i7-4790 about a year and a half ago and, from my experience, ti does create a noticeable bottleneck in anything higher than what you have. I was pairing it with a GTX 1660 Super and I had stuttering in Medium Intensity Conflict Zones and it was almost unplayable in High Intensity ones. After upgrading to an Ryzen 9 5900X and using the same GTX 1660 S, everything became playable (low-med settings but playable) and way smoother in Horizons.

So I recommend saving up in the CPU and all the other parts that it requires :confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom