Unless you absolutely have to get a new card now, none of the above. AMD is supposed to be releasing their new cards next month and Nvidia around the same time. With that in mind better to wait and see what and how the new cards are, as well as the current cards may see a price reduction when that happens.
A couple of points, you can use Windows scaling feature to use a 4K display more comfortably for your eyes (I suffer from ageing peepers too), and new video cards are just a couple of months away if current rumours become reality. When new cards launch, you could probably get a previous gen card cheaper that current prices as most resellers will want to clear stock for the new breed.
As for a card to buy now if you cannot wait, for a 4K display (even if running at 1440p) I would not go lower than a 2060s with 2070s being the sweet spot for price/features/power. An 8Gb card is preferable to a 6Gb card (allows for higher quality textures).
I'll admit I prefer Nvidia cards and drivers over AMD but recently people are saying AMD drivers have improved a lot over the last few years, so don't rule an AMD card out if you don't need the Nvidia feature set.
I've always been an nVidia fan myself. As for timing, it will be 2-3 weeks before I have the money in hand. I don't have to buy anything right this second. A video card is first up on the upgrade list because I notice my old 960 struggling to power the new TV. If I'm playing any video in the background, VLC or Youtube, and playing a game in full screen, my screen will flicker to black for a second or 2 every so often.
It is quite likely that the new cards will be released before I have the money in hand or close to it.
I'm just looking for a bit better experience than my 960 gives me with a little bit of future proofing thrown in given my uses, which is not centered on gaming.
Future proofing demands for you to get an RTX , all developers big and small plan on adding mirror effects everywhere which will stress all non RTX cards .
(I discussed it in details here : GTX1660Ti or GTX1660 SUPER)
2060 RTX and 2070 RTX have slightly noticeable difference between which , so up to your budget . usually the word goes that the 2070 has an edge over the 2060 in VR gaming just .
I got a good deal on a RTX 2060 Super overclocked version which has a performance close to the RTX 2070 but cheaper - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC 8G
I wanted a card no wider than 2 slots and fans which don't spin under light load.
I recommend to wait for the next Gen cards to come out. They should be out around mid fall. Which isn't that far away.
Due to unforseen life issues, I had to scale back my budget. I ended up getting an XFX Radeon RX580 GTS XXX Edition, 8GB. Problem appears to be solved. No dropped frames, blank screens or artifacting since the swap.
Interestingly, I found this when I pulled the GTX 960;
Not sure exactly what caused that. I don't recall that being there the last time I looked, but then again it has been awhile. Anyone have any thoughts are the cause of that discoloration? Thermal Damage? Power Surge? Severe Overheating?
That's severe overheating for sure , strange for an HDMI port though to sustain such amount of heat and persist to survive , i mean the middle plate is plastic .
Determining the cause of that may require an inside look as usually heat affect the entire path it originated from , other than that would be all speculations .
Probably be a good idea to throw out the old hdmi cable also.
That's what I thought too as I don't recall any kind of a power surge anytime in the recent past strong enough to do that sort of damage. The discoloration is actually much more extensive and worse than the picture reveals. Unfortunately, I dont have the skills to take a picture that would really do it justice.
Already have, I don't use the monitor it used to be connected to either. Though my Nephew is uising the monitor for his XBox with no ill effects so far.
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