Hardware & Technical GPU Upgrade: EVGA 980Ti Classified to PowerColor Red Devil 5700 XT

GuruNot · Nov 19, 2019

So in a moment of weakness I decided to splash out on a new 5700 XT, to replace my ageing 980Ti:

I couldnt justify the price of a 2080Ti, especially with new cards from all three parties due to arrive next year.

Benchmark	EVGA 980 Ti Classified	PowerColor Red Devil 5700 XT	Percentage Difference
TimeSpy	5903	8303	40.66
TimeSpy Extreme	2784	3707	33.15
Firestrike	15205	18716	23.09
Firestrike Extreme	8341	11413	36.83
FireStrike Ultra	4506	6363	41.21
Unigine Heaven	2326	2654	14.10
Unigine Valley	3581	3998	11.64
WoT Encore	24389	27035	10.85

3D Mark comparisons for those that are interested:

Time Spy Comparison:

Result

www.3dmark.com

Time Spy Extreme Comparison:

Result

www.3dmark.com

Firestrike Comparison:

Result

www.3dmark.com

Firestrike Extreme Comparison:

Result

www.3dmark.com

Firestrike Ultra Comparison:

Result

www.3dmark.com

The neon on the edge of the card and metal backplate, is a tad bright mind:

Caramel Clown · Nov 20, 2019

Can't you just tone it down in a software? Talking about the light. Even if there's no brightness setting, switching to a darker shade will dim it.

Morbad · Nov 20, 2019

Hard to beat the 5700XT, value wise, probably at least until Q2 next year.

That model should have adjustable lighting, but if you don't want to install the software for it, you can just find the LED header and unplug it from the board.

Starbreaker · Nov 20, 2019

Good choice if you're looking at thermals.

Was looking at 5700XT cards but decided on a RTX 2070 Super because I got a ROG Strix 12% off. Almost went for the ASUS TUF 5700XT because of space-grade lubricants

. Glad I didn't since I couldn't find a review of the card when I was looking at it. XFX RX 5700 XT THICC Ultra II looks like another card to stay away from, love the name though.

Morbad said:
Hard to beat the 5700XT, value wise, probably at least until Q2 next year.

Combined with a Ryzen 5 3600 and you have the best bang for the buck if you're looking to upgrade or buy a new rig.

GuruNot · Nov 20, 2019

"DevilZone" RGB software installed and I have knocked the brightness down to around 35%, much better.

GuruNot · Nov 20, 2019

Starbreaker said:
... Was looking at 5700XT cards but decided on a RTX 2070 Super because I got a ROG Strix 12% off. ...

I got the Red Devil for £399.95, not exactly peanuts but it is around £1000 cheaper than the EVGA 2080Ti FTW3 I was looking at !!!!

GJ51 · Nov 20, 2019

For ED?

I run a 980Ti to drive a 34" monitor for ED @ 3440X1440 / 60Hz

The monitor only does 60Hz anyway, so as long As I get 60FPS without dropping frames, it doesn't seem like I would gain anything by a GPU upgrade.

Now if LG would release that 68" 144Hz G-Sync monitor, then yeah, I'll need more GPU - or if I ever wanted to get into VR - but for now the 980Ti is enought to drive the monitor I'm using so there wouldn't be any benefit to a GPU upgrade for me.

GuruNot · Nov 20, 2019

GJ51 said:
For ED?

I hardly play ED at the moment, although I will get back in to it at some point again.

GJ51 · Nov 20, 2019

GuruNot said:
I hardly play ED at the moment, although I will get back in to it at some point again.

I think I was trying to make a broader point, albeit rather poorly, that the only reason to upgrade a GPU is that you are not reaching the full potential of the monitor(s) you are using. All mine are currently 60Hz Dell monitors and even driving 3 of them at the same time doesn't begin to stress my 980Ti.

Without knowing anything about your hardware configuration, it's not really possible to determine if your GPU upgrade actually represents any value at all, or if so how much.

Using my own case, I anticipate I won't have any need for more GPU power unless/until I get into a more demanding monitor or VR. I could put a 3080Ti into my box, but I would not achieve any perceptible improvement unless I were to replace one or more of my current monitors.

HTH

Morbad · Nov 20, 2019

ED can utilize almost any arbitrary amount of GPU grunt you can throw at it. There are always more jaggies to smooth out, higher texture resolutions to run, etc. Whether or not that is worth a GPU upgrade or not is highly subjective though.

Personally, even targeting a 60 fps floor, I'm finding an overclocked 1080 Ti to be not quite sufficient for 4k at the settings I prefer to run. Had I a faster part, I could easily find plenty of IQ to spend the performance on.

Starbreaker said:
Combined with a Ryzen 5 3600 and you have the best bang for the buck if you're looking to upgrade or buy a new rig.

Depends on what you're upgrading from. My current setups are very close to that already.

Going to need to see what next year brings, GPU wise, as there is no way I'm grabbing an RTX 2080 Ti six months from a bunch of new architectures (Intel and AMD) and node shrinks (NVIDIA).

I'm also holding out for an X570 board that doesn't cost a fortune and is entirely passively cooled. It's absurd that manufacturers felt it was wiser to resort to chipset fans rather than actual heatsinks for a sub-15w part.

Starbreaker · Nov 21, 2019

Morbad said:
I'm also holding out for an X570 board that doesn't cost a fortune and is entirely passively cooled. It's absurd that manufacturers felt it was wiser to resort to chipset fans rather than actual heatsinks for a sub-15w part.

I missed this little detail when I built my new rig, and it annoys me a bit now that I'm aware of it. Few boards offer settings to control the PCH fan, even the high end boards. It appears to be settings in the BIOS to control the fan on ASUS boards, but they are not available in the menus, but you can modify the BIOS.

On my board (ASUS ROG Strix X570 Gaming-E) the fan intake is blocked by the gfx card. Rpm usually stays at 3000, it is audible in a sound insulated cabinet which is a cheap Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Edition.

Morbad · Nov 21, 2019

I'm worried about it being another point of failure down the line. Tiny ball bearing fans don't often fail gracefully (which is a pro and a con) and any noise there is now will be greatly magnified once it starts to rattle as the bearing start to go...at which point one would have to unplug or remove the fan.

It's just an incongruous bit of corner cutting on what is supposed to be AMD's first real high-end mainstream platform in forever. It would have cost maybe another dollar or two per board to give that X570 enough passive cooling to never need a fan.