Hardware & Technical Which GPU, if you were me?

[proffrink]

Whilst I don't necessarily agree with jmg, the whole 'wait for X' thing is always said in these sorts of threads. One can always wait for better, but with the way the pound might be heading it may all be moot anyway. I equally don't think AMD has set a precedent worthy of waiting for any of their lineup to come out when with NVidia already doing some sizeable price drops across their whole range.

But, I would look at the 470/480 at that price point for the larger VRAM however at 4k anything below a 1060 is going to be a bit unless you're upsampling (and in many games that can look far, far worse than a native lower resolution). It sounds like you know this though. I'm just not sure if £150 is going to be any good realistically (even if you wait).

Also if your RAM is clocking low then I hope you took that up with the manufacturer when they were still under warranty. There's something very wrong there, but if it's both sticks then more than likely the motherboard or bios than the memory itself.

 

[jmg]

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

Already stated my position on this -- simply incorrect.

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

You haven't been reading. I've been expecting Ryzen to be better than Intel. Or cheaper. They're neither. Case close.

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

Actually, I'm basing it off benchmarks and pricing. I'd much rather have a market with two players than a monopoly. And I never said they were inferior, so stop projecting.

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.

One person's experiences does not a trend make. I've hobbied with AM2, am3, am3+, Haswell, Haswell-e, skylake, tabby lake, xenon ... just about all of them. Heck, I go back to the 8088, x868, cyrix days... I've never had an issue with a sealed, OEM chip from either manufacturer. The processing and QC from any modern chip maker is almost a given these days. Sounds like you should stop buying off ebay.

Just to make my point clear--- AMD has released a chip that can play on the same field as some of Intel's chips. I'm sure for some they will fill a need, for other phans, that have been rooting for AMD, they will flock to what is, in my opinion, a chip that will not be embarrassed by Intel, which will game very well, and should make do in some server applications. but they fell far, far short of expectations.


Let's put it another way -- if Intel had released the Ryzen line, at the same prices AMD did.,.. the world would be saying.. Why? Nothing in the Ryzen line up does anything better than anything already in Intel's line up, and the prices are about the same. So, slapping an AMD label on it doesn't make it any different. there is nothing innovative, interesting, or compelling about anything AMD has come out with today. What I was expecting was something in line with their Athlons -- where they came out with a really unique, clever architecture that destroyed the then-current mentality that better meant faster clock speeds. They beat Intel's "netburst" fiasco by being better and smarter. They've done neither here. What we have instead is a semi-decent clone of Intel, at roughly the same price. It that's the legacy AMD wants, so be it. But I think they're better than that.

and as for "they'll get better with time," we'll see. If they do, maybe I'll build a rig using one. To me though, it's only about what they can deliver today. I don't give Intel or Nvidia the benefit of the doubt, I go by what they're delivering, today. And today, Intel is delivering in each product segment the best product, either performance wise or price/dollar wise. Or both. I don't believe their promises, but would be happy as heck to be proven wrong.

 

[Morbad]

at 4k anything below a 1060 is going to be a bit unless you're upsampling (and in many games that can look far, far worse than a native lower resolution)

A 1060 is not what I'd consider a part that was viable for 4k. The 1080 is probably the entry level 4k part, and even it will need to make considerable sacrifices in many newer titles at 4k.

Even if we limit ourselves to Elite: Dangerous, there are parts of the game that may dip uncomfortably low at 4k, even on a 1080, with ultra (or higher) settings.

Already stated my position on this -- simply incorrect.

Overall, an RX 470 or 480 is faster than a 1050 Ti, which is similar in price, and a bit slower than the 1060, which is more expensive, in most markets that I'm familiar with.

I've been expecting Ryzen to be better than Intel. Or cheaper. They're neither. Case close.

Overall, Ryzen is a better performer than the Intel processors available at similar prices. All the R7s compete with 6900K in performance in most areas.

Heck, I go back to the 8088, x868, cyrix days... I've never had an issue with a sealed, OEM chip from either manufacturer.

Neither did I, until 2015. Never even had one fail before that, unless it was heavily OCed or otherwise abused.

Sounds like you should stop buying off ebay.

Microcenter, Newegg and Amazon. Even if it were eBay, I know how to spot a part that's been tampered with.

but they fell far, far short of expectations.

Not any realistic expectation.

Let's put it another way -- if Intel had released the Ryzen line, at the same prices AMD did.,.. the world would be saying.. Why?

If Intel had released the Ryzen line they'd be throwing away half their margins by cannibalizing their own market.

Ryzen R5s and R7s, barring a handful of scenarios, are the best buys in the 130-500 dollar range. Anyone looking for a part at that budget, that isn't wholly focused on lightly threaded performance, who doesn't need more than 64GiB of memory, have a damn good reason to need more than 20 PCI-E lanes, or work with a ton of AVX 256 dependent code, should be getting a Ryzen part.

Nothing in the Ryzen line up does anything better than anything already in Intel's line up, and the prices are about the same.

Prices aren't anywhere near the same.

If you are buying an eight core part to do things an LGA-1151 quad would be suited for, you're a fool. If gaming is your prime concern, and you are buying an R7, you're a fool.

Either you take the part that offers superior performance in these tasks, at this price, which is the 7700K...or you get an R5, which is half the price.

The R7 is what I'd get today, rather than the LGA-2011-3 parts that are available...except the 6950X, which while priced extremely high, is the only one that doesn't have a competing R7 for substantially less.

and as for "they'll get better with time," we'll see.

They won't, not significantly, not CPU wise. I was referring to the boards and firmware being largely immature junk at the moment.

Some games/apps will get Ryzen specific patches, sure. OSes will also become more aware of Ryzen's unique topology and stop scheduling tightly coupled threads across different CCXes. However, these mostly won't be game changers.

 

[jmg]

Ryzen R5s and R7s, barring a handful of scenarios, are the best buys in the 130-500 dollar range. .

I haven't seen any commercially released r5 benchmarks yet... send a link? Maybe that'll change my opinion.

Anyway, I didn't intend this to get tribal, and I think we're getting very far afield of the OP's original question. So, I'll be the better man and withdraw-- the points have all been made, I still stand by what I said -- having two players in the market is always a good thing, and AMD has given us more choices, and that's a good thing, because other than AMD, there really is no one else out there that can come close to competing (and to be fair, on that point alone, AMD gets serious points for taking on Mighty Intel). But from a purely performance/price analysis, I find nothing compelling in current lineup to warrant switching, and I'm betting most (except for the tribes) won't either. But, we'll see. Contrary to what most people seem to be projecting on me, I would love to be proven wrong -- at absolute worst, it'll mean lower priced intel chips, and at best, maybe an AMD build in my future.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Well, I've been looking at the Asus AMD RX480 4GB (£169.99 in Amazon).

I think I've settled on that one. I won't need more than 4GB for a while. I don't have a 4K TV or VR, so it'll be more than good enough for 1080p/60hz.

But i have a minor possible issue.

I'm not sure my PSU has an 8 pin PCI-e connector (been a while since i looked). But it does have two 6 pin connectors.
Would a 6 to 8 pin adapter be ok, or is that not recommended...?

 

[Zetta]

Edit: A 6 to 8 pin adaptor should be ok according to http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3067667/pcie-pin-pin-connector-question.html

 

[The Chairmaker]

Just be aware rx580 launches tomorrow which is a tweaked version of the 480 with process improvements essentially a faster card

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Edit: A 6 to 8 pin adaptor should be ok according to http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3067667/pcie-pin-pin-connector-question.html

Thanks!
Hopefully i just have an 8 pin. It's just been a while since i actually looked. Lol

Just be aware rx580 launches tomorrow which is a tweaked version of the 480 with process improvements essentially a faster card

I know
I'm hoping it drives down the price of the RX400 series a bit more.
I'm only looking for best performance for lowest possible price.
The £169 RX480 is currently the best in my budget, and probably more than good enough for my needs.

 

[Bladefeather]

Maybe find a GTX 970 or 980 on Ebay. You will be able to play at 1440p and 4k, and will have a much better overall experience than with a current budget card.
EDIT; It's 970, not 97o...

 

[Cruise]

I have an Nvidia gtx Titan Z 12gb gpu for sale if anyone is interested.
Looking for £300

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Maybe find a GTX 970 or 980 on Ebay. You will be able to play at 1440p and 4k, and will have a much better overall experience than with a current budget card.
EDIT; It's 970, not 97o...

I'd love one, but i don't even have a 4k Tv. Lol

A RX470/80 4GB still be a huge improvement over my current AMD HD 6870 1GB.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I was almost disappointed then.
I was checking my PSU for an 8 pin PCI-e connector. And i couldn't find one.

Then i looked at my graphics card, and one of the 6 pin plugs has an 8 to 6 pin adapter on it. Lol
Yay!

The RX480 will soon™ be mine! Mwhahahahahah.

Only probably is a distinct lack of funds to buy it with...

Will haul poop for money.

 

[Morbad]

The RX480 will soon™ be mine! Mwhahahahahah.

Might want to see if the newly released RX580 or 570 can be had for similar price. They are a minor refresh of Polaris with higher clock speeds than the 400 series.