Looking for a good mid range card

[peonyu]

Hi, as the title suggest i am looking for the overall best bang for your back mid range card [$300 max]. The last card i bought was a GTX 970 Windforce and that was for myself, i like it since it works well for the games i play here and there. The question is for a friend though, who games all the time. I know questions like this tend to be divisive at times, but i have not had great luck finding good comparisons of cards in the $200-$300 price range, and the ones i did find are dated back to August [driver updates etc make a difference as we all know].

 

[Bacon1]

but i have not had great luck finding good comparisons of cards in the $200-$300 price range, and the ones i did find are dated back to August [driver updates etc make a difference as we all know].

Search for 480 vs 1060 6gb, there are hundreds of reviews and many of them are in the last few months.

 

[peonyu]

Search for 480 vs 1060 6gb, there are hundreds of reviews and many of them are in the last few months.

Ok thanks, that helped narrow it down better [i must have become a noob over the years].

 

[kawi6rr]

It's hard to beat the price of some of the RX-480's, lots of card for very little money.

 

[Bouowmx]

I do not think the 200-300 USD range is filled with worthwhile products.
Below 200 USD is AMD Radeon RX 480: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007709 601203793 601206485
In 200-300 USD is Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which the lower-priced AMD Radeon RX 480 matches.
Above 300 USD is Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, which Nvidia has announced a price reduction from 380 to 350 USD (yet to be implemented in retailers).

 

[tential]

Rumors are Polaris Refresh incoming, Vega incoming, GTX price cuts incoming, this is the most increased competition EVER in the HARDWARE era.
IMO, we're about to be entering the MOST price competitive age of CPU/GPU hardware in a LONG time.

So personally, I'd wait it out just at least until the GTX 1080Ti drops and GTX 1070 price drops.

Then get a GTX 1070.

Edit: For OPs friend.

 

[peonyu]

I am leaning towards the RX480 so far, in particular the ASUS STRIX RX480 08g. Its $244 on Amazon and has 8GB of memory plus a nice aftermarket heatsink [which is a must in my experience, stock HSF usually sound like jet engines], the 1060 seems a tad faster but the person who wants the card upgrades rarely...The extra 2GB will probably be used in the future. He is still using a HD6950 2GB btw.

Interesting about the 1070, though this guy is pretty set on $2-300 price range. If it were me thats more along the lines of what i would get.

Edit, maybe i will tell him to give it another month to see if the 1070 drops in price.

 

[Bouowmx]

Videocardz has an article on uncofirmed specifications of AMD Polaris refresh (Radeon 500 series): https://videocardz.com/66359/amd-radeon-rx-500-series-to-launch-in-april

Minor frequency increases.

 

[Thinker_145]

Wait for 1070 price drop and increase budget by $50 or get an 8GB RX 480.

 

[DooKey]

For $300 max I would look for a used 980 Ti.

 

[simas]

Another GTX 970 user here - how these whole set of cards compares in terms of performance to GTX 970 at 1440p resolution? Total War Warhammer and Mass Effect games . My understanding is that even 1070 is at best 40-50% increase at that resolution, correct?

 

[peonyu]

Wait for 1070 price drop and increase budget by $50 or get an 8GB RX 480.

This is what im going to recommend to him now, i checked a few benchmarks and that card is close to ~50% faster than the RX480 on alot of games. For a guy whose current video card came out in December 2010, i think waiting another month to get a more beastly card than the RX480 is a good idea and wont be a problem.

Thx for the comments guys, it was very helpful!

 

[Jaskalas]

I'm surprised so few are recommending the 1060 6GB. (Was my pick in this range)

 

[peonyu]

Heres a update - I gave it 12 days, and the price in general hasnt budged to much on the 1070 Gtx card. I was about to buy on Amazon the EVGA card that is at $349, but AmazonWarehouse taxes you and that added $25 on top of the price. Also it was Like - New, which for the price i prefer New...I had the same issue with some other nice looking prices from MSI and ASUS, even Gigabyte slid in the taxes on the cheapest card they offered, so i didnt go ahead with any of those.

Now i did buy a Gtx 1070 [my friend gave me his card info], its a Zotac brand card though. Ive had a Zotac card myself before about 5 years ago on a GTX 480 and it was solid and well built, one of the VRMs burned up though but that was my fault for tinkering with a 480's voltage [only a few 480's had good VRMs it was a issue at the time and i knew i was playing with fire].

Anyways, long story short, i got a GTX 1070 for $309.99 NEW and with free shipping. Its from Newegg via Ebay, its a killer price and worth the risk imo. If anyone else is interested here is the link...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZOTAC-GeFor...8GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Express-3-/292041166887

If i missed some details about this card and anyone spots it [like if its not a full 1070] please let me know, but i googled it and it seems to be a 1070 using the reference board [founders edition board]. It has a custom heatsink on it which is always a good thing, one negative is that it lacks the additional power port for more power [my friend never overclocks so this should not be a issue].

 

[happy medium]

Anything less than gtx1070 is lower end.
Mid range is now Fury X, gtx980ti or gtx1070.

The gtx1060 and rx480 are old news and now lower end. They will both be replaced with slightly faster cards in the coming weeks.

 

[Mopetar]

There really isn't a good card for $300 right now. Either spend another $50+ to get a 1070 (assuming 1440p gaming) or spend under $200 for a 480, or even a 470 if you can find a good deal like when they were ~$130.

Unless you need something for 1440p, a 1070 will be overkill and coming from a 970 (is that what he has as well?) a 480 and 1060 aren't that much of a performance bump. It's probably better to wait a few months for new or refreshed cards to come out. Either there will be a good card in the $300 segment or the 1070 will come down to that price where it's definitely a great value.

 

[happy medium]

Mopetar I disagree with this statement.
"Unless you need something for 1440p, a 1070 will be overkill........".

A gtx1070 is great for 1080p for now and the near future.
A gtx1080 is good for 1440p
A gtx1080ti is good for 4k

A gtx1070 was overkill for 1080p last year.
Does this look like overkill for a gtx1070?
It looks like a little wiggle room for the next year or so to me.

 

[A///]

Will we see a drop in price for the 1080 regular anytime soon or will the 2000 series cards have to be released next year for that to happen?

My current card's a few generations old. But it seems to be that gfx cards are pretty linear and ever evolving in performance. Meaning I can always wait and be stuck waiting for something good, which is what I've been doing for a few generations.

 

[Mopetar]

Mopetar I disagree with this statement.
"Unless you need something for 1440p, a 1070 will be overkill........".

There are a lot of people that still have 60Hz monitors, in which case the 1070 is often overkill even when you use scores for the reference cards (who's going to buy FE at this point?) and cherry pick the games where it has the lowest performance.

If you already had a 144 Hz 1080p monitor, you're probably not coming from something where the 1070 represents a good value upgrade at $400, unless you bought the monitor in anticipation of having a better card at some point in the future. The 1070 isn't even a good value if you're looking for more future-proof 1080p gaming. Volta is likely to represent a big shift in architecture for NVidia, so I don't expect the 1070 to age well even allowing for the usual NV driver support/improvement falloff.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Will we see a drop in price for the 1080 regular anytime soon or will the 2000 series cards have to be released next year for that to happen?

My current card's a few generations old. But it seems to be that gfx cards are pretty linear and ever evolving in performance. Meaning I can always wait and be stuck waiting for something good, which is what I've been doing for a few generations.

Nah, GPU value increases in stair steps.

What I mean by that is value is flat for say 12-18 months and then a new series of GPUs come out and the value shifts straight upwards. Then the value is pretty much flat for another 12-18 months until the next generation of GPUs comes out.

There are some exceptions to that (Nvidia FE pricing, the fact that AMD cards go on fire sale six months after launch, black friday deals, etc.) but for the most part the best time to buy a new GPU is the second a new generation comes out and the worst time to buy a GPU is right before a new generation comes out.

Given that it really pays to pay attention to new GPU launches and being patient waiting if the cards on the market are 12+ months old.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Looking at possibly purchasing some more GPUs, either mid-month, or more at the beginning of April. Not a lot of money. Maybe $200, if I can squeeze that. Maybe less than that.

1) Is an RX 480 4GB overkill for a Core2Quad rig? (No or very little OC, under 3Ghz CPU core clock.)
2) Is an RX 480 4GB overkill for a G4560 rig? (No OC, 3.5Ghz Kaby Lake dual-core with HT.)
3) Will the AMD RX-series cards be getting a refresh soon, and will the existing RX 460/470/480 be getting a fire-sale pricing, in the next month or two? They seem to be slowly sliding down in price already, I see an RX 480 4GB "new" on Newegg's ebay site for $159.99 FS. If I had the money right now, one would be en-route.

 

[happy medium]

1. way overkill, my q9550 @ 4.0 bottlenecked a gtx960 4gb.
2. NO, but in certain highly threaded games it might bottleneck a little.
3. I believe you are seeing the fire sale now. refresh is coming in a month or so.

 

[peonyu]

This thread can be closed now, he received his card today [Zotac 1070] and i helped him install it...Its a beast of a card, runs about 30% faster than my 970. And for $309.00 shipped from Newegg [via their seller id on ebay] its a hell of a deal imo, he wont overclock it so i doubt Zotac not being top tier like MSI will matter...anyways thanks for the advice guys it was much appreciated!

 

[VirtualLarry]

This thread can be closed now, he received his card today [Zotac 1070] and i helped him install it...Its a beast of a card, runs about 30% faster than my 970. And for $309.00 shipped from Newegg [via their seller id on ebay] its a hell of a deal imo, he wont overclock it so i doubt Zotac not being top tier like MSI will matter...anyways thanks for the advice guys it was much appreciated!

Was that a refurb? Still available? That sounds like a deal...

 

[happy medium]

This thread can be closed now, he received his card today [Zotac 1070] and i helped him install it...Its a beast of a card, runs about 30% faster than my 970. And for $309.00 shipped from Newegg [via their seller id on ebay] its a hell of a deal imo, he wont overclock it so i doubt Zotac not being top tier like MSI will matter...anyways thanks for the advice guys it was much appreciated!

The 1070 is a great choice. Good luck