Help with choosing a new GPU

Faith · 21 Jun 2019

Leave triple buffering as it were, off. LFC - low framerate compensation - is On by default as long as FreeSync (sometimes referred as "full" or "extended") is enabled on your monitor panel. It should already be on if you're seeing options for G-Sync in the Nvidia controlpanel. So it's enabled for you.

It basically means that you won't feel judder or see much tearing (if any) once the framerate drops below the target window of 48Hz for your monitor.

What flicker do you see? If it's slight brightness flicker when loading games or when the framerate drops below the target then that's normal for basically any G-Sync and FreeSync monitor. If it's a complete screen flicker (black) then that's not normal.

markfresh · 21 Jun 2019

It's just a slight brightness flicker I think , no more black screen , I went to the main hub in Warcraft where it is populated and dropped down to about 55-70fps , then in open world to over 100fps , I don't think I went below 48 though , and I did notice it did it up over 80fps .
And yes when I turn on gsync in NVIDIA control my monitor auto changes it's settimg so that's all good with the LFC

Faith · 21 Jun 2019

At least we now know that you can use a Nvidia card with your monitor and use variable refresh rate.

Just to add on the flicker: When clicking on certain things in the world, when there's small spikes in framerate, or especially when the game is loading - that's when these brightness flickers usually occurs. You can easily confirm this if you enable a fps counter to any game played. Fluctuating framerate between 47-49 and 0-48 spikes will definitely cause brightness flickers for you. It shouldn't be an annoyance for most users. Hopefully that's what you are facing and not something else.

markfresh · 21 Jun 2019

I have a fps counter in game and i did see the flicker at 80+ ffs, it might be because i was looking hard to see any problems.
I probbally wont notice it in time , in saying that , ive read about people using Custom Resolution Utility to change there min refresh rate , so if it does drop down it wont happen , is this worth a try in general or do i just leave that up to the LFC?

Faith · 21 Jun 2019

Honestly I'm not familiar with this so I wouldn't do it personally, but if it bothers you a lot you can always try. I did find this thread where users are talking about brightness flickering for your monitor: AG322QCX gsync : nvidia
Some are more sensitive to this than others, but all G-sync compatible monitors I have tried all have a slight brightness flicker during frame spikes. I got used to it.

markfresh · 23 Jun 2019

I will have a look , thankyou again for all the help .

- - - Updated - - -

- - - Updated - - -

Hi , another gpu question , i was just looking at a video about the rtx 2060 pro , in games that have rtx , they say that ray tracing is more suited to 1080p ......they also mention with ray tracing on ultra it is a 60- 70 fps loss compared to off, a 35-40 performance penalty aswell.
I dont know much about ray tracing , but it seems alot of games dont support it and the ones that do suffer with it on?
So now im even more lost , i was looking at the 1660ti as min and 2060 as max , or getting the 1660ti and waiting for 2060 price drop , now im not sure again .
YouTube

Pejole2165 · 23 Jun 2019

I just ran the Elevator demo downloaded from Nvidia site on my RTX2060 Black OC (EVGA) stock settings with an Intel i5-8400 and 1080p screen resolution and with v-sync enabled (a 60Hz monitor), no scaling (DSR), Driver version 430.86, settings at Quality, 32Gb DDR4, Windows 10 (1903), it ran at a constant 24fps, smooth enough to watch but I wouldn't want to play a game at that framerate. Just to give you an idea.
The demo is non interactive, and uses the Unreal Engine 4.0.
Requirements:
-------------
OS: Windows 10 1809 (Windows 10 October 2018 Update)
NVIDIA GPU with DXR support
NVIDIA Driver 416.25 or newer (GTX 10-series and GTX 16-series requires 425.26 or newer)

MrNeeds · 23 Jun 2019

honestly, ray tracing is still an emerging technology, even though it's been emerging for about 30 or so years, but still only now are we truly harnessing it to it's potential, however, it's still early days, if I were you, i'd focus on getting a card that can play at 1440p rather than focusing on ray tracing, so with that, I'd recommend a card that specifically targets 1440p, 1070Ti/1080/1660Ti, or an RX Vega 56 or 64, I too run at 1440p and my 1070Ti runs all my games perfectly fine, even use the Oculus Rift S fine as well, however the older Pascal Nvidia cards (10 series) might be harder to find now they aren't in production anymore.

markfresh · 23 Jun 2019

Thanks for the reply,
I have found some of the cards hard to find here, and i have been having a look at the vega 56 , it looks like it is up there with the 2060 and also is amd so i can use freesync2 with my monitors rather than adaptive , and also the price is between the 1660ti and the gtx 2060.
I am leaning towards that at the moment.

Pejole2165 · 23 Jun 2019

At the end of the day (I hate that phrase but...), make a list of what you want from a graphics card, in the order you prefer such as for example....

FPS at 1440
Low power need (maybe uses just slot for power)
DirectX features
so on and so on

Then set a budget and look at cards that fulfil your criteria.
Real time ray tracing is a nice feature but really needs a beefy set up to make it work in its current form.
How many games do you play that look awful with the standard methods of creating light and shadows? Not many I bet.
The ability to run with high to ultra settings in your preferred games at your desired resolution is much more important than having the latest feature in its fledgling state.
The 1660Ti is a very capable card for the price. And what you save from buying that you could use to upgrade RAM, SSD or CPU and get better all round performance.
I got the RTX2060 because I could, it was in my budget and reduced when I looked at buying it. If it hadn't been reduced I would most likely have got the 1660Ti and been just as happy.