debating 3 mid-range cards...

A

admiralperpetual

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
416
sorry to have "another one of these" threads, but having the same debate right now between 1060 and 480...

watched many videos about it in the past few months, but seems pricing in canada is a bit different than in the states (or perhaps has just changed globally recently?)

at the moment, here in canada I could get this rx 480 8gb:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-rx-480-g1-8gb-0a-135081.htm?promoid=1308 for $294.99 (w/Doom)

or
this gtx 1060 6gb:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-1060-g1-0b-133566.htm?promoid=1308 for $364.99

or hell, this 470 8gb:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-radeon-rx-470-armor-00-138122.htm?promoid=1308 for $239.99 (after MIR w/Hitman)

OR we have a r9 390 8gb sitting on a shelf at work I could probably offer to buy for maybe $200??

sigh... coming off gtx 670 2gb SLI I am hungry for video ram, so don't really want to go for a 4GB/3GB card..

I do "only" play at 1080p60 as I like to play on my TV most of the time.
games I'd like to play at very high/ultra settings:
-witcher 3
-deus ex: mankind divided
-rise of the tomb raider
-doom
-batman arkham knight (gameworks no worky on amd cards?)
-mass effect andromeda (not out yet obviously..)
-vr eventually...

after digging through all the reviews and whatnot my gut tells me to go for the rx 470, or 480 but I'm worried they won't be good in the long-run because of A) drivers (haven't had a Radeon card since they were ATI branded!) B) gameworks c) VR
on the other hand, the 1060 seems expensive for the performance and lacks SLI, so would it be better to save for a 1070??

so, anyone want to chime in? slow week?

cheers!
 
C

chenw

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
3,977
With those prices, I would be more inclined to go with 480.

While I would have preferred going with 1070, it is overkill for 1080p60 (it would be more ideal for 1080p144+).

AMD cards also tend to get supported for longer, if that's of any concern for you.

With regards to GameWorks, I don't have Arkham Knight, but you should easily be able to switch those effects off if you are AMD and/or unwilling to take the perf hit. Witcher 3 also has GameWorks, albeit in a much smaller implementation (Geralt's hair).
 
O

Omegas

[H]F Junkie
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Messages
10,871
You said VR, 1060 or better is the only recommendation I can make.
 
J

jbc029

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2013
Messages
484
If you really are planning to get to VR in the next year or so, the 1060 is the only viable choice out of what you've listed. If that's more of a halo type thing and you want to focus on desktop...that 390 is hard to beat at that price, but the PSU is still actually a concern when running a 390. None of the other cards are massive power hogs like the hawaii was. My 390 regularly pulled > 200 W on just modest load and neared 300 W under heavy load at stock settings. The 1060 would barely pull half that if you buried it in work and the RX 4s are closer to the 1060 than the 390 regarding power consumption. Bur raw performance, the 390 will hang pretty well on desktop gaming (within 10-15% of a 1060) for about half the price. VR is dicey on a 390, but it is the best AMD VR card you have listed, also. It's just noticeably not as good as a 1060 for VR.
 
A

admiralperpetual

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
416
jbc029 said:
If you really are planning to get to VR in the next year or so, the 1060 is the only viable choice out of what you've listed. If that's more of a halo type thing and you want to focus on desktop...that 390 is hard to beat at that price, but the PSU is still actually a concern when running a 390. None of the other cards are massive power hogs like the hawaii was. My 390 regularly pulled > 200 W on just modest load and neared 300 W under heavy load at stock settings. The 1060 would barely pull half that if you buried it in work and the RX 4s are closer to the 1060 than the 390 regarding power consumption. Bur raw performance, the 390 will hang pretty well on desktop gaming (within 10-15% of a 1060) for about half the price. VR is dicey on a 390, but it is the best AMD VR card you have listed, also. It's just noticeably not as good as a 1060 for VR.
Click to expand...

yeah, I had considered that issue though I figured 1x390 shouldn't be pulling much more than my current 2xgtx 670's?
 
xmadror

xmadror

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Feb 13, 2012
Messages
849
I just got this RX 480 4gb for 229.99$ (CAD) for a relative's computer. Awesome performance for 1080p.
I know it's not 8gb but the price was too good to pass on it.
Since I haven't ran into any Vram issue yet with my Fury at 3440*1440 resolution I tough it was not a big deal to go with 4gb at 1080p.
 
A

admiralperpetual

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
416
xmadror said:
I just got this RX 480 4gb for 229.99$ (CAD) for a relative's computer. Awesome performance for 1080p.
I know it's not 8gb but the price was too good to pass on it.
Since I haven't ran into any Vram issue yet with my Fury at 3440*1440 resolution I tough it was not a big deal to go with 4gb at 1080p.
Click to expand...

yeah, seen a bunch of those too.. tempting.. I'm just worried with all these "HD Texture packs" coming out and whatnot that 4gb won't last for long.
 
xmadror

xmadror

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Messages
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admiralperpetual said:
yeah, seen a bunch of those too.. tempting.. I'm just worried with all these "HD Texture packs" coming out and whatnot that 4gb won't last for long.
Click to expand...
How long 4gb will last is hard to say. In my case the 1st choice was a 1050Ti for ~180$ (cad) so going up to a rx480 for an extra 50$ was a good deal. I'm also not talking about someone who would visit [H] either so if you can swing it maybe 8gb would be the way to go after all. I just wanted to point it out to you since its IMHO a great deal.

edit: you could get a RX 480 8gb for 275 here but I would pricematch at NCIX instead since they have always been good to me and I've never tried mikescomputershop.
 
A

admiralperpetual

Limp Gawd
Joined
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Messages
416
xmadror said:
How long 4gb will last is hard to say. In my case the 1st choice was a 1050Ti for ~180$ (cad) so going up to a rx480 for an extra 50$ was a good deal. I'm also not talking about someone who would visit [H] either so if you can swing it maybe 8gb would be the way to go after all. I just wanted to point it out to you since its IMHO a great deal.

edit: you could get a RX 480 8gb for 275 here but I would pricematch at NCIX instead since they have always been good to me and I've never tried mikescomputershop.
Click to expand...

good find, I've used mikes before without much issue, but I don't think NCIX would price match it due to it being backordered... but yeah worth shopping around for price-match! I mostly like NCIX since here in vancouver they have many locations I can pick-up from.
 
xmadror

xmadror

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admiralperpetual said:
good find, I've used mikes before without much issue, but I don't think NCIX would price match it due to it being backordered... but yeah worth shopping around for price-match! I mostly like NCIX since here in vancouver they have many locations I can pick-up from.
Click to expand...
You are right they would not PM since its back ordered, I missed that. I just did a quick shopbot.ca search a great tool for us in Canada.
I kinda like and dislike at the same time that Ncix aren't in Québec since I can't pick up anything from them but I only pay 5% taxes instead of our 15% here.
 
W

whateverer

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Yeah, go 480, especially if you don't already have Doom. It's a fantastic price right now, and performs just as fast as the 1060.
 
Susquehannock

Susquehannock

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Messages
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RX 480 ... ASUS strix or MSI gaming X would be my two top choices if you can swing the extra money. Be sure you have a very good PSU.
whateverer said:
Yeah, go 480, especially if you don't already have Doom. It's a fantastic price right now, and performs just as fast as the 1060.
Click to expand...
Even more so in Vulkan. Switching my RX 480 to it in Doom made a HUGE jump in performance. Friend and I were playing a co-op map online, both on Ultra settings. I was getting about same frame rates as his 1070 believe it or not.
 
Last edited:
K

Kryogen

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Messages
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I just bought a msi gaming x 1060 6gb and it's fine.

overclocks +150 gpu +800 mem (+1600)
 
FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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Messages
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chenw said:
If VR is an important decision, I'd argue to even go for at least 1070.

Kyle recommends 1070, though it is subjective, I trust his answer as he reviews VR performances.
Click to expand...
I stand fully behind this, but it is not subjective at all in terms of VR performance.

The results are quite clear. http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/vr/

1477505321vjj3GlvUda_6_2.png
 
B

BassTek

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Messages
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I am in Canada and faced a similar choice. I went with thr RX480 and it runs well, although i had to set the power limit to 50 to avoid throttling. VR is not in my plans any time soon though, if it were I probably would have went Nvidia.
 
A

admiralperpetual

Limp Gawd
Joined
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Messages
416
thx for all the replies everyone - my boss is letting me "borrow" the 390 indefinitely so guess I'm going to use that for now, hopefully get a 1070 later on :)
 
B

bobzdar

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
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Messages
1,965
admiralperpetual said:
sorry to have "another one of these" threads, but having the same debate right now between 1060 and 480...

watched many videos about it in the past few months, but seems pricing in canada is a bit different than in the states (or perhaps has just changed globally recently?)

at the moment, here in canada I could get this rx 480 8gb:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-rx-480-g1-8gb-0a-135081.htm?promoid=1308 for $294.99 (w/Doom)

or
this gtx 1060 6gb:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-1060-g1-0b-133566.htm?promoid=1308 for $364.99

or hell, this 470 8gb:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-radeon-rx-470-armor-00-138122.htm?promoid=1308 for $239.99 (after MIR w/Hitman)

OR we have a r9 390 8gb sitting on a shelf at work I could probably offer to buy for maybe $200??

sigh... coming off gtx 670 2gb SLI I am hungry for video ram, so don't really want to go for a 4GB/3GB card..

I do "only" play at 1080p60 as I like to play on my TV most of the time.
games I'd like to play at very high/ultra settings:
-witcher 3
-deus ex: mankind divided
-rise of the tomb raider
-doom
-batman arkham knight (gameworks no worky on amd cards?)
-mass effect andromeda (not out yet obviously..)
-vr eventually...

after digging through all the reviews and whatnot my gut tells me to go for the rx 470, or 480 but I'm worried they won't be good in the long-run because of A) drivers (haven't had a Radeon card since they were ATI branded!) B) gameworks c) VR
on the other hand, the 1060 seems expensive for the performance and lacks SLI, so would it be better to save for a 1070??

so, anyone want to chime in? slow week?

cheers!
Click to expand...

VR eventually means 1060. It'll run most of what you listed at 1080 without issue at high settings. You'll have to drop them some in VR but nowhere near as badly as an rx480.
 
E

Elory Besus

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Feb 22, 2017
Messages
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Well, if you're willing to dish the money, I would recommend a GTX 1060. However, for 1080p gaming, the RX 480 is pretty good with very high/ultra settings.
 
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