My Current GPU Dilemma

[cctaylor88]

Just built a completely new setup... less the gpu. Currently running whats in my signature with a GTX 760. I recently purchased an ultrawide monitor (the LG UC88-B) which has freesync so I am committed to getting an AMD based graphics card when I finally decide on what to do. Which is why I made this post in the first place.

I don't know which direction I should go (although I feel like the consensus will more than likely be to wait until next year essentially). I am 100% committed to getting AMD, and I am not very versed on this platform as I have always been a member of team green as opposed to team red. Anyways, I feel like I have a decently fast computer that is only lacking in the graphics department and I don't mind spending a little extra coin to get it up to par with my i7. The only thing I know at this point is that the 480 is dropping at the end of the month but it is more or less a "budget" card, and the new flagship Vega (right?) won't be out anytime soon. I don't want reference cards so I'd be waiting until third party coolers for Vega drop which I have a feeling won't be till Q1 2017 at best.

What is the current AMD flagship (and not the $1500 XfX Radeon Pro Duo, not dropping that kind of coin)? Isn't it the R9 Fury X or something along those lines? The Vega is supposed to take its place as a better card is it not? What is the next best card in the line?

Purpose of the card is for gaming use. I don't need to absolutely max everything on ultra or extreme settings (like TW3 for example) but I would like the ability to run most games at very high settings as I did afterall drop the money on the 6700k. Right now while playing TW3 on medium settings I'm getting like 22-25 FPS with my 760 and I have a feeling that's terrible? Thoughts? I thank you all in advance.

 

[khon]

Either get 2x480 8GB in CF, or wait for Vega

Buying an older AMD card right now seems like a waste of money to me.

 

[cctaylor88]

Either get 2x480 8GB in CF, or wait for Vega

Buying an older AMD card right now seems like a waste of money to me.

I'm not sure I want any part of CF or SLI (btw... is crossfire strictly for AMD and SLI is strictly Nvidia?) I've always heard that many games simply don't support dual GPUs and they often cause more headache than anything else.

 

[YBS1]

If the 480 performs as the leaks are indicating at $200, it basically obsoletes the rest of the Radeon line if they remain near their current pricing. Yes, the Fury/Nano is still faster but we are talking about a $200 card being within spitting distance. In your position I'd buy the 480 (assuming it does perform as such) and hold tight to see how Vega pans out. At that point you can sell the 480, even if at $100 and not be out much at all.

I want a Nano to put into my mini-ITX box, but holy crap I'm not spending ~$460 with the rumors of this thing looming around the corner at the proposed price/performance.

I'm not sure I want any part of CF or SLI (btw... is crossfire strictly for AMD and SLI is strictly Nvidia?) I've always heard that many games simply don't support dual GPUs and they often cause more headache than anything else.

Of course you're going to hear that from the "single card only for me" crowd in here. I can pretty much guarantee you more often than not I'm going to have a better gaming "experience" with SLI than they are having with a single GPU. In the cases where SLI doesn't work (Doom), I fall back to a single 980ti, and look at that.....I'm still having as good an experience as they do. I'll agree with them to this point though, better to have a faster single GPU than two slower GPUs, that way when you do run into those games that don't play nicely with multi-gpu, you're getting the best results for your money.

 

[khon]

I'm not sure I want any part of CF or SLI (btw... is crossfire strictly for AMD and SLI is strictly Nvidia?) I've always heard that many games simply don't support dual GPUs and they often cause more headache than anything else.

Then you can either get a single 480 and turn down your settings a bit to get acceptable FPS at 3440x1440, or wait for Vega

Buying a Fury card just does not seem like good value at the moment. A Fury-X still costs $600+, but it's slower than a a $450 GTX 1070, and not that much faster than a $200 RX 480 ...

 

[cctaylor88]

Then you can either get a single 480 and turn down your settings a bit to get acceptable FPS at 3440x1440, or wait for Vega

Buying a Fury card just does not seem like good value at the moment. A Fury-X still costs $600+, but it's slower than a a $450 GTX 1070, and not that much faster than a $200 RX 480 ...

Well yeah at the moment it doesn't seem smart to purchase a fury-x, btw is a fury-x, the top of the line? But if the RX480s drop it should tank the cost of a fury-x no? Somewhat like the pricing of a 980ti? So the fury-x is slower that the 1070, thats disheartening to say the least!

Any idea about the possible FPS I could expect with my current setup + a RX480? Would I be able to achieve at least "high" graphics on TW3?

 

[topmounter]

8GB RX-480 at $229, enjoy FreeSync and see what Vega brings next year. The 480 is being positioned as a 1440p card (~390x - Fury performance) by AMD so you should be fine.

 

[cctaylor88]

If the 480 performs as the leaks are indicating at $200, it basically obsoletes the rest of the Radeon line if they remain near their current pricing. Yes, the Fury/Nano is still faster but we are talking about a $200 card being within spitting distance. In your position I'd buy the 480 (assuming it does perform as such) and hold tight to see how Vega pans out. At that point you can sell the 480, even if at $100 and not be out much at all.

I want a Nano to put into my mini-ITX box, but holy crap I'm not spending ~$460 with the rumors of this thing looming around the corner at the proposed price/performance.

What are your thoughts on two 480s? Also, could you please answer me about the CF and SLI (is CF exclusive for AMD and SLI exclusive to Nvidia?) Is it worth the headache to get two 480s, will they even be supported? Would 2x480s be better than a single 490 in your best educated guess?

 

[cctaylor88]

8GB RX-480 at $229, enjoy FreeSync and see what Vega brings next year.

I really can't see myself purchasing a reference card, do we have any idea about when third party coolers are supposed to drop for the 480?

 

[kraatus77]

Well yeah at the moment it doesn't seem smart to purchase a fury-x, btw is a fury-x, the top of the line? But if the RX480s drop it should tank the cost of a fury-x no? Somewhat like the pricing of a 980ti? So the fury-x is slower that the 1070, thats disheartening to say the least!

Any idea about the possible FPS I could expect with my current setup + a RX480? Would I be able to achieve at least "high" graphics on TW3?

just look at the 980's performance in that game, because that's what you can expect from rx480. at least.

but it's performance will get better with later drivers just like all amd cards do. they never stop optimizations.

 

[werepossum]

If the 480 performs as the leaks are indicating at $200, it basically obsoletes the rest of the Radeon line if they remain near their current pricing. Yes, the Fury/Nano is still faster but we are talking about a $200 card being within spitting distance. In your position I'd buy the 480 (assuming it does perform as such) and hold tight to see how Vega pans out. At that point you can sell the 480, even if at $100 and not be out much at all.

I want a Nano to put into my mini-ITX box, but holy crap I'm not spending ~$460 with the rumors of this thing looming around the corner at the proposed price/performance.

Of course you're going to hear that from the "single card only for me" crowd in here. I can pretty much guarantee you more often than not I'm going to have a better gaming "experience" with SLI than they are having with a single GPU. In the cases where SLI doesn't work (Doom), I fall back to a single 980ti, and look at that.....I'm still having as good an experience as they do. I'll agree with them to this point though, better to have a faster single GPU than two slower GPUs, that way when you do run into those games that don't play nicely with multi-gpu, you're getting the best results for your money.

If the 480 stays around $200 then it obsoletes nvidia's entire line as well, except maybe the GTX1070. If supply is sufficient, the next year should be glorious for PC gamers.

 

[cctaylor88]

If the 480 stays around $200 then it obsoletes nvidia's entire line as well, except maybe the GTX1070. If supply is sufficient, the next year should be glorious for PC gamers.

I'd for sure get the 8gb 480 so we'd be right around what $229? Why do you say next year should be glorious for PC gamers, what exactly are you referring to? Vega?

 

[YBS1]

What are your thoughts on two 480s? Also, could you please answer me about the CF and SLI (is CF exclusive for AMD and SLI exclusive to Nvidia?) Is it worth the headache to get two 480s, will they even be supported? Would 2x480s be better than a single 490 in your best educated guess?

Well, for the price they are slated at I don't suppose it would be too bad of a sting to take a shot at two of them. I would be hesitant to recommend two slower cards over whatever happens to be the fastest single GPU available (1080 ATM), but in your case since you are locked into AMD Freesync and the 480 is within nipping distance of the Fury line, $400 doesn't seem too bad for (probably) better than 1080 performance when it scales correctly. Historically SLI seems to have more rapidly supported profiles in a greater number of games and as of the past couple of generations Crossfire seems to have superior scaling in supported titles. So it's pick your poison. Yes, SLI and Crossfire are just proprietary names for the same thing.

 

[cctaylor88]

So how can I find out which titles are completely supported by CF? It sounds like when its supported (CF that is) its generally optimized and worth the price of admission. But 2x480 8gbs will be crossing the $500 price point, so at that price point I for sure want plenty of supported games. Or else I may just have to, ugh, wait for Vega...

 

[Headfoot]

You'll get probably 80% of AAA titles covered by Crossfire .... 6 months after they come out. Day 1 coverage has been extremely spotty. 50% or less. Definitely less than 50% if you don't include day 1 games with nauseating Crossfire related bugs (flickering, frame inconsistency, etc.). This is coming from a guy w/ 2x290. The last 4 games I bought day 1 did not have functional Crossfire. (The Division, Fallout 4, Overwatch, Stellaris). The Division and Fallout 4 now work fine but it only started working after I had already played the game through...

DX12 doesnt support dual cards in the same way DX11 does, it is more dependent on the game developer to build it in. Jury is still out on how prevalent this will actually be.

If I were you, I'd get a single RX 480 8GB and replace it with Vega once available. It should actually work out pretty nice.

Usually you need a lot more GPU grunt than it takes to run something at 60 fps average, in order to run it at 60 fps MINIMUM so that you get that buttery smoothness. But with FreeSync (gsync too) you just need to have a decently high average framerate and it appears smooth. You don't get the choppiness you feel when you drop below your monitor's max refresh rate like you do on a regular monitor. Anything above 45-ish FPS feels quite smooth on adaptive sync monitors, and you dont get judder due to fluctuating frame rates.

Adaptive Sync makes a huge difference in my opinion.

PS: highly envious of that monitor. Looks awesome. Wish they had a lower freesync cutoff than 48hz though (though I hear you can flash modified firmware to lower it)

 

[Raising]

Get a 1070 and use fast sync

 

[Tohtori]

Get a 1070 and use fast sync

Buy AMD and spend the difference on NVidia shares...

Oh you ninja edit you

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I thought Vega was supposed to come out in October?

 

[zinfamous]

I'd for sure get the 8gb 480 so we'd be right around what $229? Why do you say next year should be glorious for PC gamers, what exactly are you referring to? Vega?

Far cheaper GPUs performing at and well beyond the previous generation chips. The great thing here is that at least with AMD, DX12 performance seems far superior now. Their history of excellent support indicates that you can likely get a great GPU @ $250 or less with a a 2-4 year lifespan and at decent-to-good 1440p performance now and until you replace it. Best part, though, is that with AMD support, this thing is likely going to win most races with anything nVidia tries to put in its class during its entire lifespan and at their expected 50-70% price premium.

the 480 already looks great at its supposed price/performance. One can reasonably extrapolate that it is going to get better as it gets older and, while this is a stretch, might even surpass something like the 1070 when it truly matures.

 

[cctaylor88]

Yeah... looking at prices of USED R9 390x and Fury-X on eBay is absolutely not happening. Prices aren't all that good IMO I would much rather wait for a 480 and see whats up, BNIB for $229 with comparable/better performance?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I recently purchased an ultrawide monitor (the LG UC88-B) which has freesync so I am committed to getting an AMD based graphics card when I finally decide on what to do. Which is why I made this post in the first place.

Is a 480 with freesync really going to be a better gaming experience than at 1080 without it? I guess I'm living in the past but plain old 60 hz on my Dell 2408 (with a 980ti) seems fine to me.

 

[sirmo]

Buy AMD and spend the difference on NVidia shares...

Oh you ninja edit you

Nvidia is headed for the licensing cliff with Intel in H1 2017. They are losing marketshare to AMD in the short term. Can't really see this as a sound advice. They are being challenged by Intel and Google in the HPC space.. and a slew of companies in automotive.

AMD seems like a far better opportunity. Expected to turn profit in H2, Polaris and Zen likely to increase their market share. Buy low sell high is how you make money.

 

[werepossum]

I'd for sure get the 8gb 480 so we'd be right around what $229? Why do you say next year should be glorious for PC gamers, what exactly are you referring to? Vega?

Mostly the 480 - price per performance is incredible. But the GTX 1070 is also an excellent value which will have to get a bit cheaper to compete. And existing stock of R9 390/R9 390X and 970, both of which are excellent cards, will have to greatly decrease in price, yielding a number of great performing cards at relative bargain prices.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Nvidia is headed for the licensing cliff with Intel in H1 2017. They are losing marketshare to AMD in the short term. Can't really see this as a sound advice. They are being challenged by Intel and Google in the HPC space.. and a slew of companies in automotive.

AMD seems like a far better opportunity. Expected to turn profit in H2, Polaris and Zen likely to increase their market share. Buy low sell high is how you make money.

It's derailing the thread, but 99% of investors are better off getting S&P 500 or similar index funds / ETFs and holding them instead of trading any individual stocks. Gut instinct about the future of red and green is not a good way to invest.

Most full-time professional active fund managers with research staff and very expensive modeling software struggle to even match the S&P 500.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Buy RX 480 and wait for Vega.