OMG another "what vid card to buy" thread

[batboy]

Hey, it's been forever and a day since I posted on the forum. **waves** Lots of new avatar faces and a few old ones.

Well, getting to the point of this post... My computer has been working faithfully for many years (see signature). A couple years ago I upgraded the water block and radiator, plus changed out a failing hard drive. I'm still rocking Win 7 64 bit. I love my computer system and it does everything I need... except the ole Radeon HD6950 video card is not keeping up anymore. That's why I'm posting in this section, obviously. I have used both GeForce and ATI/AMD, so I could go either way.

It appears the top end market is solely dominated by the GTX 1080. Way too freaking expensive. In the past due to budget, I often settled for second best and overclocked the snot out of the card. So, I checked out the GTX 1070 line and was almost ready to do an impulse buy when I thought of my buddies here on the OC forum. Perhaps the smart thing to do is get some additional feedback? For one thing, I'm now thinking the GTX 1070 might be a bit too much for my current system to handle (only planning to upgrade vid card at this time).

The mission:

Find a suitable video card that is: (1) significantly better than my old card to justify the purchase, (2) will work and play nicely with my current computer system, (3) is a good bang for the buck, and (4) futureproof in case I do upgrade my system in a year or two.

Budget: I can afford the top of the line card, but I'm not about to spend that much dough... lol. Help me pick out a decent bargain. To throw out some figures, I'm thinking at least spend $200 and no more than $400.

I'm eager to hear your suggestions. Right now I'm thinking either the GTX 1060 or RX 580. I like the RX 580, but what's the deal with supply and prices? Yeah, I hear people muttering about miners and such, but not sure I understand or even want to know.

Thanks in advance!

batboy

 

[Jeff G]

The mining boom is at its end, there will be a flood of cards coming to the used market soon which should bring new prices back down to Earth. And the new AMD cards are launching soon and taking aim at the GTX 1060 to GTX 1080 segment which should also impact pricing.
I'd say hold off just a wee bit longer if you can, and there should be a good crop of cards to choose from under $400.

 

[batboy]

Good info, this is why I want input from y'all.

Yeah, I can wait, no problem there. But, I also know if you're not careful, it can be perpetual waiting, because there is always "something" on the way.

 

[Jeff G]

I wouldn't recommend waiting on the new AMD stuff to see how it performs, or wait on the next wave of NVIDIA stuff to see how they once again try to trump AMD. As you said, that kind of thinking will lead to the perpetual waiting game.
But with the new AMD cards right around the corner (literally any day now) and the mining bubble burst leading to a (most likely) flood of used cards, the current line up of GTX cards will be facing a price decrease in order to keep up. It will be a great time to get a current market card at a reduced price. If you can pick up a new GTX 1070 at a sub-$400 price point, you will be set even if you decide on a CPU upgrade down the road.

 

[batboy]

Thanks Jeff, I understand.

I think Vega is the new AMD gpu that everyone is waiting for. I'm willing to bet it'll be great... once the teething problems and bugs get worked out. That might be another good reason to not jump in immediately.

Again, I was wondering if my current setup could even handle the GTX 1070, so I did a bit of research on minimum requirements. It appears power supply, CPU, and system RAM are the most important. So, looks like my system should have no trouble since I have 750 watt PS, i7, and 8 GB RAM. The only thing I can find fault with is my motherboard has a 16X PCI Express 2.0 slot and I believe the GTX 1070 spec is the newer version 3.0. But, this is not a deal breaker because devices are backward compatible. Obviously, the card would run slightly less than optimal with 2.0 bandwidth instead of 3.0. On the other hand, the card is more futureproof for when I do upgrade the rest of the computer.

EDIT: I read an article that said a 3.0 vid card in a 2.0 slot would basically have no bottleneck.

 

[JLK03F150]

OMG it's batboy!

I'm a fan of EVGA B Stock because, well, I'm cheap. lol The deals and number of cards available vary, so you have to watch it over time. When I have time I also shop the OCF Classified, good deals still pop up from time to time. Got a great deal on my RX480 there a while back.

 

[batboy]

Hey there, another forum "oldtimer" from the good ole days!

Thanks for the EVGA B stock link. I was eying that Black Edition, it's $50 cheaper than Newegg

I've used the forum classifieds many times in the past. I didn't looked there this time because I wanted a new card.

 

[dudleycpa]

batboy! One of my favorite blues!

Everyone has offered excellent advice. GTX 1070 should be an excellent choice. Did you check the forums (here or somewhere else?)

Again great to see you my friend. Say hello to Clark for me!

 

[Nebulous]

batz! Good to see ya back bro! Yeah because of the mining craze prices shot through the roof. Hang on a little bit longer and you'll have a chance to score on a nice deal.

 

[batboy]

Hey, good to see some familiar "faces".

I know everyone said to wait and I do agree if you want the best bargain, that's sound advice.

Newegg offered a big sale with free shipping, so I crumbled and snagged the XFX RX 580 GTS XXX Edition ($320 with $15 MIR).

Yes, the GTX 1070 benches a little better, but I would've had to cough up another Ben Franklin. I really gave the GTX 1060 a good look too (since it's under $300).

SUMMARY: I bought a RX 580 video card.

 

[caddi daddi]

sit on your hands a little bit, a 1060 6 gig card will be nice for you, but not for more than 250-260, no good bang for the buck deals right now due to mining once again, I'm even hanging on to my twin 760's right now.

 

[JLK03F150]

Newegg offered a big sale with free shipping, so I crumbled and snagged the XFX RX 580 GTS XXX Edition ($320 with $15 MIR).

SUMMARY: I bought a RX 580 video card.

If you feel like using your video card to help heat your house, run Folding@Home (for Team 32) on it when the weather cools off. Folding with video cards is so different than CPU Folding years ago. Lots more points & not quite as much heat.

Enjoy the new performance.

 

[batboy]

That's interesting, using GPUs to fold. I gather that's what the miners are doing too, well not folding, but using the GPUs to do their thing.

Thanks for all the input. It helped me figure out the situation and guided me to my purchase. I'm tight with my hard earned money, but I think some of you got me beat.

If you're disappointed I didn't hold off for the ultimate bargain, here's my logic. I started looking around about a week ago. Most of the RX 580 cards were going for around $400 and the GTX 1070 for $450 (if you could find any in stock). An online article listed Newegg.com prices for the end of June as follows: RX 580 for $600 and GTX 1070 for $658.

So, after much research I conclude that Jeff G in post #2 was right. He said: "The mining boom is at its end..." From the end of June to a week ago, prices for the RX 580 dropped ~$200 and in the last week they dropped another $100. I figure prices will flatten out fairly quickly until vendors' inventory gets stocked back up. Yesterday, the cheapest I could find for the RX 580 was $360. So I jumped on the Newegg weekend sale when I saw the XFX RX 580 GTS XXX Edition for three bills. I know MSRP is $230, but that's for the basic RX 580. I got an OC card with dual fans and factory overclock. Yeah, so I might have saved a little more by waiting. But, I thank my blue OCF stars that I didn't run out and make an impulse buy a month ago (the same card would have cost me double).

 

[dudleycpa]

That's interesting, using GPUs to fold. I gather that's what the miners are doing too, well not folding, but using the GPUs to do their thing.

Thanks for all the input. It helped me figure out the situation and guided me to my purchase. I'm tight with my hard earned money, but I think some of you got me beat.

If you're disappointed I didn't hold off for the ultimate bargain, here's my logic. I started looking around about a week ago. Most of the RX 580 cards were going for around $400 and the GTX 1070 for $450 (if you could find any in stock). An online article listed Newegg.com prices for the end of June as follows: RX 580 for $600 and GTX 1070 for $658.

So, after much research I conclude that Jeff G in post #2 was right. He said: "The mining boom is at its end..." From the end of June to a week ago, prices for the RX 580 dropped ~$200 and in the last week they dropped another $100. I figure prices will flatten out fairly quickly until vendors' inventory gets stocked back up. Yesterday, the cheapest I could find for the RX 580 was $360. So I jumped on the Newegg weekend sale when I saw the XFX RX 580 GTS XXX Edition for three bills. I know MSRP is $230, but that's for the basic RX 580. I got an OC card with dual fans and factory overclock. Yeah, so I might have saved a little more by waiting. But, I thank my blue OCF stars that I didn't run out and make an impulse buy a month ago (the same card would have cost me double).

bats ~ Hard to argue with logic. Then again I don't think you would want to wait since you don't mine.

If you think GPU vs CPU is getting "weird" check RAM prices. Bonkers!!!!

Annie Oakley!!!