New Gpu Suggestions

ShamrockRig · 07 Mar 2017

Hi All, Been some time since ive posted and made the jump from sevenforums! Hope everyone is well!

Got a new rig after a long time of getting round to it. So here it is as follows

Case: NZXT Source 340 Mid Tower Case - Black
Hard Drive: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5inch SSD
Processor: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Socket 1151 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz C16 Red 1.2V Memory Kit
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 600W Semi Modular 80+ Bronze Power Supply
Processor Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 4 Heatpipes/1x120mm Fan CPU Air Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 Socket 1151 DVI HDMI 8-channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

Basically the only weak point in my opinion there is the gpu.
What would you pair it with? Course id prefer to go nvidia however the premium prices are kinda off putting.

Was thinking something along the lines of these three cards.
Nvidia gtx 1060
Amd rx 480
or i could go for a gtx 980.

Thoughts?

Thanks all
Michael

Stephanie · 07 Mar 2017

Hiya Devlin, I recently upgraded from a GTX 650ti to a ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 DUAL OC 6GB GDDR5 with no complaints :)

ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 DUAL OC 6GB GDDR5

bobkn · 07 Mar 2017

Unless you have a really cheap source for the GTX 980, get the 1060.

You could just about buy a 1070 for the current price of a 980.

specialkone · 07 Mar 2017

As the owner of a Kepler Nvidia card EVGA 660 (like I previously had Asus GTX 770 x 2) you probably experienced as I did less attention by Nvidia in driver updates to Kepler when Maxwell (980) was the latest generation card. If you're going with Nvidia a benefit of the 1060 is that it is their latest generation card (Pascal).

Additionally, 4GB vram these days on a card is a minimum for gaming as I assume that is your focus given that gaming MB. Personally, I would go with at least a 6 GB card just to be safe.

I was searching for Stephanie's posts when she bought her card as reference as we know she indeed did her homework before buying. More than funny, I just realized she posted here in this thread. Thanks Stephanie.

Stephanie · 08 Mar 2017

specialkone said:

As the owner of a Kepler Nvidia card EVGA 660 (like I previously had Asus GTX 770 x 2) you probably experienced as I did less attention by Nvidia in driver updates to Kepler when Maxwell (980) was the latest generation card. If you're going with Nvidia a benefit of the 1060 is that it is their latest generation card (Pascal).

Additionally, 4GB vram these days on a card is a minimum for gaming as I assume that is your focus given that gaming MB. Personally, I would go with at least a 6 GB card just to be safe.

I was searching for Stephanie's posts when she bought her card as reference as we know she indeed did her homework before buying. More than funny, I just realized she posted here in this thread. Thanks Stephanie.

Good idea

AddRAM · 08 Mar 2017

How much money do you want to spend ?

ShamrockRig · 08 Mar 2017

Oh it'll be a minimum 6gb card anyway, preferably an 8gb model.
Well my budget will be in Uk £ so probably somwhere between the £250-£350 area.
Think its gonna either be the 1060 or the 1070.
Palit NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Super JetStream Graphics Card LN73750 - NE51060S15J9-1060J - Scan.co.uk
Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB DUAL OC White LN74252 - DUAL-GTX1070-O8G - Scan.co.uk

Or for an outside shout 4https://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-asus-radeon-rx-480-rog-strix-oc-gaming-14nm-polaris-pcie-30-8000mhz-gddr5-1310mhz-gpu-2304-strea

Depends on what i can afford next month, If im careful i can get the 1070.

But 1060 over the rx480?

Thanks all!

bobkn · 08 Mar 2017

Devlin1888 said:

Oh it'll be a minimum 6gb card anyway, preferably an 8gb model.
Well my budget will be in Uk £ so probably somwhere between the £250-£350 area.
Think its gonna either be the 1060 or the 1070.
Palit NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Super JetStream Graphics Card LN73750 - NE51060S15J9-1060J - Scan.co.uk
Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB DUAL OC White LN74252 - DUAL-GTX1070-O8G - Scan.co.uk

Or for an outside shout 4https://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-asus-radeon-rx-480-rog-strix-oc-gaming-14nm-polaris-pcie-30-8000mhz-gddr5-1310mhz-gpu-2304-strea

Depends on what i can afford next month, If im careful i can get the 1070.

But 1060 over the rx480?

Thanks all!

I have no personal experience with the cards, but the benchmarks at AnandTech.com suggest that the 1060 is a better choice than the RX-480, although the nVidia card wasn't superior in every test.

I'm not sure about the VRAM. It's needed for large 3D textures at high screen resolutions. I think that large amounts of VRAM are of more interest in SLI/Crossfire, where you have more GPU power. (The VRAM of one card is effectively all that is available in SLI, because the same textures are loaded into both cards.)

ShamrockRig · 09 Mar 2017

Judging from the review ive watched, overall the 480 takes it in every gaming fps side by side ive watched, It also seems to cope better with games due to the extra ram, Ive decided that il shall be getting an rx480 and another rx480 the following month. Thanks for all your suggestions!

Scottyboy99 · 09 Mar 2017

If you are looking at 4k gaming you need the fastest gpu you can go for. But if you are happy with 1080 gaming then you can prob get away with a much weaker gpu. I bought a 980ti just over a year ago and I only play at 1080 (struggle to tell 4k and 1080 apart - might be my eyes but they both look crystal clear to me). I'd say in hindsight I regret as the 980ti was a total waste of money and complete overkill for 1080 gaming. Even my old laptop with a Radeon 6970 mobile gpu coped fine at 1080!!! Save the pounds and go for a 1060. I noticed your spec only shows a 250 GB SSD. That seems a little bit light on the storage side. Put the extra £££ into a bigger SSD or get a large secondary mechanical HD to store games on. I know I am grateful for the 3 TB secondary drive on mine since I discovered the draconian size of game installs these days. 40 - 60 gb installs seems ridiculous to me but appears to be the norm unfortunately!!!