Best GPU in the $300-600 range?

Fish_Tacos

I'm going to upgrade my computer, will get a new monitor, power supply, etc., so if you have any advice about that as well, please feel free to add. I'm willing to spend up to $1,200-ish. Also, since I don't know much about tech stuff, any other things I could think about. I just want to be able to play the news games coming out in the next couple of years with decent graphics settings. Thanks.

Vrika

At 300$ - 600$ price range, GTX 1070 is the only good option.

Vrika

DMKano said:

There are gtx 1080s at $630 - if the range is up to $600 might as well spend a few additional $ to get the 1080.

But it should not be done at the cost of performance in other parts of the computer. If you're going to upgrade the computer and buy a new monitor at 1 200$, there will be better ways to use that money.

Fish_Tacos if you'd tell us what parts of the computer you plan on upgrading, and what old parts do you intend to keep, we might be able to give you more advice on those other components. But right now your question about them is too vague.

wanderica

I would mirror the above for the 1070 in the $300 - $600 range if you plan on building now, but there are some things to consider. 

You're upgrading your monitor.  I think that is a great idea as tech has changed some over the last 5 - 10 years, but resolution choice matter a LOT when deciding on the best GPU.  1440p vs. 1080p is a good example.  As tempting as it may be to buy that 27" 1440p GSync monitor, it requires a lot more GPU horsepower to maintain very high settings in games.  If you'll be in a position in 12 - 18 months to upgrade your GPU if needed, then go for it, or if you're cool turning down a few settings in order to maintain acceptable framerates.  At 1080p, however, AMD's RX 480 would be a cheaper option at less than $300, and comes with the added benefit of being able to purchase a better monitor for less money.  A 1080p 144 Hz Freesync monitor is still a very nice monitor for gaming.

Since many overlook these in their pursuit of a better CPU / GPU, I'll mention it.  Don't get cheap on the Power Supply.  80 plus Bronze certification is the lowest quality I would recommend, and don't buy an "off-brand."  Calculate your power needs here: http://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

Finally, I like to use www.pcpartpicker.com to find the best deals.  It lists the whole build in one place and keeps it nice and tidy.

Ridelynn

GTX1080 is the fastest option, I agree, and if you look at GPU budget in a vacuum, you can make a case at the top end.

With a $1,200 total budget though, I don't know that I would say its the best option. Coming down to a 1070 or maybe even 1060/480, that extra cash frees up a lot of room for nice extras.

Speccing out the rest of the computer may be a good idea, and see what budget is left over, and that pretty much tells you which video card, in my opinion. So long as you have at least $200, your going to be able to get something great and current gen for 1080p gaming.

GladDog

Right now the GTX1070 is around $450 and the AMD Fury X is about $400.  Both of them are blazing fast cards; 1070 is latest GPU tech and the Fury X is the latest memory tech.  If you wait a couple of more weeks for supply to stabilize, the 1070 should be available for its original MSRP of $379.  AMD will be coming out with their RX-490 and Fury II around the end of the year (last I heard, anyway) and the 490 should be in your price range.  But that is a long ways out.

I would say that you can't go wrong with a GTX1070 in that price point.

Send a pm to @blueturtle13 if you want a first hand report on the GTX1080, he just got one, but he paid $710 for it.  It still seems like he very much likes that card.

Quizzical

I was going to say a GTX 1070, but as GladDog points out, some Fury cards have seen prices slashed.  So you could readily justify any of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150742
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126112

I'd still lean toward the GTX 1070 unless you have or will get a FreeSync monitor, in which case, saving $150 on a monitor as compared to a G-sync monitor tilts things in AMD's favor.

Cleffy

Wait for prices to stabilize before buying a product hundreds over MSRP. The MSRP of the 1080 is actually in the $500 range.

Phry

wanderica said:

I would mirror the above for the 1070 in the $300 - $600 range if you plan on building now, but there are some things to consider. 

You're upgrading your monitor.  I think that is a great idea as tech has changed some over the last 5 - 10 years, but resolution choice matter a LOT when deciding on the best GPU.  1440p vs. 1080p is a good example.  As tempting as it may be to buy that 27" 1440p GSync monitor, it requires a lot more GPU horsepower to maintain very high settings in games.  If you'll be in a position in 12 - 18 months to upgrade your GPU if needed, then go for it, or if you're cool turning down a few settings in order to maintain acceptable framerates.  At 1080p, however, AMD's RX 480 would be a cheaper option at less than $300, and comes with the added benefit of being able to purchase a better monitor for less money.  A 1080p 144 Hz Freesync monitor is still a very nice monitor for gaming.

Since many overlook these in their pursuit of a better CPU / GPU, I'll mention it.  Don't get cheap on the Power Supply.  80 plus Bronze certification is the lowest quality I would recommend, and don't buy an "off-brand."  Calculate your power needs here: http://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

Finally, I like to use www.pcpartpicker.com to find the best deals.  It lists the whole build in one place and keeps it nice and tidy.

If you are happy enough with a smaller monitor that runs at 1080, and lots are, then that might well be fine, i just know from my own experience that i wouldn't want to go back to gaming at 1080 since moving up to 1440, as for the GPU horsepower, the 1070 and 1080 have it for 1440 gaming, and in the case of the 1080 i suspect its more than capable of 4k gaming, i have a 980ti and it handles 1440 very well at max settings for all the games i have played, and reasonably well at 4k, a 1080 would do so with greater ease.

Hatefull

Go here It will let you design everything, find the lowest prices, and insure it is all compatible. Easiest way to do it. For 1200 you can probably build yourself a very nice gaming rig, they also have examples of rigs that people built. Oh and it is free to use which is surprising considering how powerful this site is.

Cleffy

4K resolution requires about 4 times more GPU power than for 1080p. After all you are displaying 4 1080p screens worth of information. With per pixel lighting you are doing several calculations per pixel.

Konfess

It is difficult to find the latest hardware on the shelf, they are flying out the door as fast as they come in.  what you are looking for is called NVIDIA Pascal™ architecture.

1. TitanX Pascal costs $1,200
2. GeForce GTX 1080 $699
   
3. GeForce GTX 1070 $499
   
4. GeForce GTX 1060 $299
   

I presently have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Maxwell architecture $199

My recommendation, hold out for Nov 2016, I predict you will find a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 at $499 price.

Vrika

Quizzical said:

I was going to say a GTX 1070, but as GladDog points out, some Fury cards have seen prices slashed.  So you could readily justify any of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150742
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126112

I'd still lean toward the GTX 1070 unless you have or will get a FreeSync monitor, in which case, saving $150 on a monitor as compared to a G-sync monitor tilts things in AMD's favor.

If you only care about performance, one of the Fury cards might be the best option.

But those cards use nearly 100W more power while gaming than GTX 1070. Electricity isn't free, and that's a lot of extra heat to your room during summer.

AMD's FreeSync is nice if you get a monitor that supports it, but I'd go for GTX 1070 because of the lower power consumption.

Quizzical

Vrika said:

Quizzical said:

I was going to say a GTX 1070, but as GladDog points out, some Fury cards have seen prices slashed.  So you could readily justify any of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150742
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126112

I'd still lean toward the GTX 1070 unless you have or will get a FreeSync monitor, in which case, saving $150 on a monitor as compared to a G-sync monitor tilts things in AMD's favor.

If you only care about performance, one of the Fury cards might be the best option.

But those cards use nearly 100W more power while gaming than GTX 1070. Electricity isn't free, and that's a lot of extra heat to your room during summer.

AMD's FreeSync is nice if you get a monitor that supports it, but I'd go for GTX 1070 because of the lower power consumption.

That's largely why I said I'd lean toward the GTX 1070 if you ignore FreeSync.  But adaptive sync makes such a big difference to smoothness that if you have or will get a monitor that supports it, I'd go with an AMD option instead.

Quizzical

Konfess said:

It is difficult to find the latest hardware on the shelf, they are flying out the door as fast as they come in.  what you are looking for is called NVIDIA Pascal™ architecture.

1. TitanX Pascal costs $1,200
2. GeForce GTX 1080 $699
   
3. GeForce GTX 1070 $499
   
4. GeForce GTX 1060 $299
   

I presently have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Maxwell architecture $199

My recommendation, hold out for Nov 2016, I predict you will find a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 at $499 price.

I don't see Nvidia slashing prices on a GTX 1080 until Vega shows up or is at least imminent.  AMD's latest public guidance on Vega is this slide:

http://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2016/07/AMD-GPU-Roadmap-July-2016-900x534.jpg

I'm sure that's intentionally vague.

Zzad

That´s an easy question!
The GTX 1070. You won´t get any better for that price.
I upgraded to the gtx 1070 and the card is a beast!

Malabooga

Fury Nitro for 299$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202186

1070 is only ~15% faster for 430+$ (non crappy blower cards)

Its absolutely quiet card, one of best Sapphire has ever made. Pair it with Freesync monitor and you have a great setup.

Otherwise its not a good time to buy 300+$ card as NVidias new cards are hugely overpriced for what they offer.

Quizzical

Malabooga said:

Fury Nitro for 299$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202186

1070 is only ~15% faster for 430+$ (non crappy blower cards)

Its absolutely quiet card, one of best Sapphire has ever made. Pair it with Freesync monitor and you have a great setup.

Otherwise its not a good time to buy 300+$ card as NVidias new cards are hugely overpriced for what they offer.

That's an impressively good deal for $300.  I thought it was a decent value when I linked it at $350.  I wonder if this is a clearance sale like with the Cypress chips back in 2011, when it was a Radeon HD 5850 for $140 and a 5830 for $110.

Malabooga

Actually thse deals have been going on in bouth EU and US: AMD still makes Fiji chips for their pro cards and these Furies have been among bestsellers, as its much better than any 1060/480 and both 1060 and 480 come quite close with AIB cards to 299$

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-components/graphics-cards/amd/radeon-r9-fury

https://www.caseking.de/pc-komponenten/grafikkarten/amd/radeon-r9-fury

https://www.alzashop.com/amd/18852308.htm

ocerclockers.co.uk, for instance, said that they constantly order new shipments of Fury Nitro from Sapphire (newly made cards, not old stocks from somewhere)

Octagon7711

General rule is the better the card the longer you can go before replacing it.

Phry

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Quizzical said:

I was going to say a GTX 1070, but as GladDog points out, some Fury cards have seen prices slashed.  So you could readily justify any of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150742
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126112

I'd still lean toward the GTX 1070 unless you have or will get a FreeSync monitor, in which case, saving $150 on a monitor as compared to a G-sync monitor tilts things in AMD's favor.

I hope nobody will ever dare to accuse you of AMD bias after this post
Right now, I'd go for a 1070 too, even though a Fury at $300 is an awesome bargain.
But I'm waiting to see how the high end AMD RX cards will perform.

If there is no desperate need to buy a new GPU then waiting is not a bad idea, the new AMD cards could be worth the wait, not to mention that waiting could see a fall in price on the Nvidia cards too.
The obverse however is that there will always be a 'new' GPU on the horizon

d_20

Awesome thread. You guys really are the reason I still come to MMORPG.com. You are the best in this community. Very helpful.