Hardware & Technical Which GPU, if you were me?

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

So, still debating which GPU to upgrade to.
I made a thread about it over a year ago. And i still have my trusty AMD HD 6870 1GB... Lol
Since then, loads of new cards have come out, and I'm back to the drawing board on which to get.

I have a few minor requirements.
1) It needs to output at 4k resolution.
It doesn't have to game at 4k, just support it, for if/when i get a new 4k TV. (I play entirely through my TV)
2) My imaginary budget is around £150, but in truth, i have nothing to spend..yet. Lol
But, i want a new card.
3) It needs to be capable of video capture. nVidia shadowplay seems a good choice, but i read AMD have a good utility too now.
4) It needs to be able game at 1080p, ideally in ultra. At 30-60fps. My current GPU can just about manage 30fps if i stick ED on ultra. But it dies (10-15fps) if i go near a surface port of station. It also gets really hot (and loud).
5) VR support is not necessary. I doubt we will come in to my price range any time soon.
6) Above all, it just needs to be a decent improvement over my current card.


So, with all that in mind, I've mostly narrowed it down to;

A) An nVidia 1050 ti 4GB.
Or B) an AMD RX 470 4GB. (Probably Sapphire, from good experience with that brand, it's slightly over budget though)

However, I have no idea which brands are any good anymore.

What would you guys suggest? I have no real loyalty to either AMD or nVidia.
However, my AMD card has nearly outlived all of my other nVidia cards combined. Lol

The rest of my pc is fairly 'meh' but not by any means slow.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA 970 UD3P
CPU: AMD FX-8320 (stock speeds, aftermarket cooler)
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) G.Skill DDR3 2133mhz (running at 1600mhz, doesn't seem to like going higher!)
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200rpm HDD.
620w PSU, Dual Rail, and 'stuff'. It's fairly old.

Thoughts?

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[jmg]

£150, that's just shy of $200?
1050 ti is going to have some trouble with 4k.. 1060 is a nice sweet spot, just a touch higher than your budget (if I did the conversion correctly). EVGA and Asus are always a good NVidia partners -- I like their bards a lot.

I don't know anything about AMD, but I'm sure others will chime in.

 

[Jon flint]

Something like this would probably do you just fine.

It's a few £ over budget, but represents great value. Won't play much in 4k except older games. But should do anything current in 1080p with ultra or high settings 60fps and with elite should manage 1440p/ultra/60fps.

To be perfectly honest, I'm an Nvidia guy, last time i had a radeon card, they were still ATI, think it was the 9700 in the early 2000s! But even i can see the appeal of these rx480s!

 

[Zetta]

The new AMD cards are coming soon so expect to see a bit of a price drop in their 470/480 range. Might be worth holding off until then.

 

[jmg]

The new AMD cards are coming soon so expect to see a bit of a price drop in their 470/480 range. Might be worth holding off until then.

... or just get something better now, like Nvidia
I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd bet good money that AMD will underwhelm with their GPU release, just like they've been disappointing with Ryzen.

 

[Zetta]

... or just get something better now, like Nvidia
I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd bet good money that AMD will underwhelm with their GPU release, just like they've been disappointing with Ryzen.

Ugh tribalism....

But why? If the price of the 470/480 drop into this guy's £150 price bracket because of new GPUs entering the market why advise him to spend £50-£80 more than his budget?

I would not consider a $500 chip matching or out-performing a $1000 chip as underwhelming. I think they have done a very good job with their Ryzen 7s.

 

[Drownerfood]

... or just get something better now, like Nvidia
I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd bet good money that AMD will underwhelm with their GPU release, just like they've been disappointing with Ryzen.

It doesn't matter if nvidia has faster cards if they're far above his budget.
I've heard an RX 470 is just about as fast as a 480, so that sounds good. The 1050Ti is a weaker card, but if it fits your budget better... I'm not sure of the up to the minute pricing, just know that they're within about $20?
I think any of the current cards will output to a 4k display.

I checked pricing. I didn't know 470's were that cheap. I'm seeing a few 470's at the price of the most expensive 1050Ti's. Try ASUS, EVGA or MSI for card brands, for either AMD of Nvidia.
There are supposed to be new AMD cards coming out in a month, but from what I've heard it won't change things dramatically. Basically for 1080p play, a 470 would be great.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm incredibly fickle when it comes to picking anything, so it'll likely be weeks/months before i get around it.

My imaginary budget of £150 was just spent on fixing my washing machine for my birthday. Lol
Yay -_-

In any case, the AMD RX 470 is looking like the better card. Especially if the price drops for the next generation.

I only need the card to support 4k for my desktop and Netflix/movies.
I'm not really fussed about gaming at 4k.
It wasn't that long ago i was still using a 1600x900 monitor. Lol

The GTX 1060 is clearly the best card, but it's still way above my budget. But i can wish. Lol

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

OT but it's Brexit day so happy birthday I assume!

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

OT but it's Brexit day so happy birthday I assume!

Lol thanks!



I'm old. 34. Bah.

 

[MickyG1982]

If your budget is still the same as it was:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-DUAL-RX480-O4G-Radeon-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B01L3H2ZP6/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1490794505&sr=1-2&keywords=rx+480

Still reduced (& better than a 470)

 

[jmg]

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm incredibly fickle when it comes to picking anything, so it'll likely be weeks/months before i get around it.

My imaginary budget of £150 was just spent on fixing my washing machine for my birthday. Lol
Yay -_-

In any case, the AMD RX 470 is looking like the better card. Especially if the price drops for the next generation.

I only need the card to support 4k for my desktop and Netflix/movies.
I'm not really fussed about gaming at 4k.
It wasn't that long ago i was still using a 1600x900 monitor. Lol

The GTX 1060 is clearly the best card, but it's still way above my budget. But i can wish. Lol

shame.. I had a 1060 hanging around and just sold to someone for $100 last week... to bad this didn't come up a few days earlier :-(

 

[shadragon]

Ugh tribalism....

Yup, and the same mentality invades every part of society. Mac vs. PC, AMD vs. Intel, Apple vs. Samsung, Liberal vs. Conservative, Ford vs. Holden, USA vs. well, every thing.

What they have is perfect and you must be a brain dead moron to not have exactly what they have. As I get older, it gets easier to ignore them.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Yup, and the same mentality invades every part of society. Mac vs. PC, AMD vs. Intel, Apple vs. Samsung, Liberal vs. Conservative, Ford vs. Holden, USA vs. well, every thing.

What they have is perfect and you must be a brain dead moron to not have exactly what they have. As I get older, it gets easier to ignore them.

+1

I've learned to just get what works for me.
An Intel CPU was too expensive. So AMD won.
nVidia was too expensive so AMD again.
Mac doesn't support gaming, and they're too expensive, so PC won.
Apples IOS is too restrictive, and again too expensive. So android won.
Cars... I err.. just get whatever isn't broken. Lol
Politics? Neither party makes a shred of sense, and are all basically the same. So i don't vote. (So i cant be blamed!)

Most of my choices are basically because I'm poor. Lol

 

[jmg]

Ugh tribalism....

But why? If the price of the 470/480 drop into this guy's £150 price bracket because of new GPUs entering the market why advise him to spend £50-£80 more than his budget?

I would not consider a $500 chip matching or out-performing a $1000 chip as underwhelming. I think they have done a very good job with their Ryzen 7s.

tribalism indeed

That AMD made a chip that can meet the performance (in some tests) of a deprecated Intel chip that was released three years ago at $1,000 is exactly the reason AMD will continue to disappoint us all. But this is not the thread to rehash this argument.

but to each their own. And fwiw, I have been hoping against hope that AMD would pull out a winner with Ryzen. I would have been more than happy to build my next rig around their hardware. but, I prefer quality to blind loyalty.

 

[Zetta]

It's Intel's current 8C/16T chip, that and the price is all that matters with regards to comparisons. If Intel bring out a faster 8C/16T chip which isn't $500 more expensive than its counterpart then they "win". As it stands the Ryzen 7 series are very good performance for price.
If it is not the thread to rehash these arguments perhaps you should refrain from the tribalistic comments in the first place....

I prefer a mix of quality and price over blind loyalty which is why I run various AMD/Intel chips in my PCs/servers.

 

[Morbad]

However, I have no idea which brands are any good anymore.

Warranty and support is the only thing that really matters in this segment.

... or just get something better now, like Nvidia

In the target budget, the AMD part is the better buy.

disappointing with Ryzen.

If you are disappointed with Ryzen, you had completely outlandish and unjustifiable expectations to begin with.

I prefer quality to blind loyalty.

Automatically equating Intel with higher quality and AMD with inferior quality is blind loyalty.

I haven't had enough long term experience with enough Ryzen parts to get a feel for their quality (honestly, no one has, at this point...too new), and as the AM4 platform still has teething issues, I've held off on purchasing my own. However, I have quite a bit of experience with Haswell-E and Broadwell-E and they've been far from shining examples of Intel quality. I've had two 5820Ks fail in different ways (and in different systems) and a 6800K (new, sealed, and original lid adhesive intact) that had an improperly attached IHS.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

In my experience, I've never had either an AMD CPU or Intel CPU fail, ever.
So they're on equal terms for me, and I've alternated with each new build.

If i recall correctly, I've had 5 graphics cards since i started building PCs.
A Geforce 4, which became outdated.
A GTX 7800, which died after a few years.
A GTX 9800, which was DOA, and returned for,
Another GTX 9800+, which died 3-4 years later.
And my AMD HD 6870 which is now 7 years old, and still going. Lol

So AMD is winning on that front. Lol

If AMD cards can record video as well as shadowplay can, then i have no reason to buy a weaker nVidia card within my budget, or go way over it for the next model.

 

[Aussiedroid]

Just for some perspective I guess, desktop @ 4k works 100% ok on my oldish 780ti and still plays ED @ Ultra mainly @ 1080p.

I think either of the cards you have chosen would out perform my ~3-4yr old card and run the game fairly well for the money.

I don't have hands on experience with either of the models though, but from what I read the AMD is the better bang for the bucks in the lower price brackets.

Brand wise, I have found the EVGA cards to be reliable, ASUS as well. Haven't had a great run with Gigabyte or MSI though between myself and some friends. Realistically, the failure rates are probably similar across the board brand wise, so if you can, just find one with a decent cooling solution on it (say a double or triple fan setup with good size sink) vs the conventional single.

Just my 2c .. good luck!

 

[Thalion Solarstorm]

Get a Sapphire RX 480 8GB. Very decent cooler, runs ED absolutelly smooth in Ultra also with EDFX and Stuff at 60fps and due to the vast Amount of Memory it also will decrease Loadingtimes alot. When Playing ED mine uses up to about 6.6GB vMemory playing 1440p downsampled to 1080p.

Price/Performance wise the best thing yet - plus you can add a second if you feel like it at a later time for more Perfromance.
WHich wont work for Example with a 1060.

Also 8GB under 4K is pretty good too since your desktop Apps and especially your Browser will eat considerably more.

Also the Driver Buildin ReLive recorder is pretty decent.
Output looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_BN8L76Ss


Cheers!