GPU

Well I still don't have a GPU and I am impatiently waiting for AMD to release their 500 series before making a decision, hoping it's this week. I would ideally like a card before the weekend.. really unsure what I will go for, out of the current cards I go from thinking of just grabbing a 1050ti to then thinking a 470/480 to then being tempted to go for a 1060 6gb.

I think a 470 or 480 is probably the sweet spot for performance/value but I do like the low power and temps of the nvidia cards.

Hoping for some good advice from one of the bots who have joined the forum

what resolution you aim to play at and expected games?

There is a site that rents out cards, which I checked out after a youtuber praised them but the rental prices are insanity so wont recommend it.

if you know its going to be temporary prior to 500 series launch then I would go for the cheapest one.

I suspect AMD have a deal with the console vendors to make their SoC systems more powerful than what they sell as discrete which would explain why they not going into high end performance territory in the PC space. With that said tho I read rumours that the 500 series could hit gtx 1070 levels of performance for mid range price.

Regarding temps, go for an aftermarket card, prioritise heatsink thickness. Going for a card which could be considered too powerful will lead to lower temps as it wont be working at full pelt. Nvidia didnt really get cool until pascal tho in my opinion. Pascal temperatures are unreal. My gtx 970 would still hit mid 70s or higher in heavy games, my 1070 is 40s in most games, but enters the 50s if pushed. I can only get it higher than 60 in benchmarks.

Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 10-Apr-17 23:58:24)

I suspect AMD have a deal with the console vendors to make their SoC systems more powerful than what they sell as discrete

That's ridiculous.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I suspect AMD have a deal with the console vendors to make their SoC systems more powerful than what they sell as discrete which would explain why they not going into high end performance territory in the PC space. With that said tho I read rumours that the 500 series could hit gtx 1070 levels of performance for mid range price.

The 500 series is basically just a rebadge of the 400 series with slightly higher clock speed so expect around a 5-10% increase for a 580 over a 480 etc.

I'm not sure what you mean with AMD having a deal with console vendors to make their SoC systems more powerful that what they sell as discrete and that's why they are not going into high end performance in the PC space.

A 480 now is more powerful than what any current console can put out and TFLOPS wise is only a small amount lower than what the scorpio is down to do 5.8 vs 6 TFLOPS.
The AMD "Vega" cards expected next month from the leaked benchmarks beat a 1080 stats wise (obviously have to wait for one to be released before we can check games etc) but I would class that as going into high end performance.

why?

If I was a console vendor I would probably ask for that.

Its fairly standard industry practice that if you giving a hardware supplier a ton of business that you dont want them to give their best stuff to competitors.

e.g. samsung have exclusivity on qualcomm's latest chip.

I am not saying AMD have got such a deal, its just my theory tied in with what I know goes on in the industry. AMD has a lot of their business from the console's, to them that's more important than the PC market.

Regarding the new vega stuff we will have to wait and see, in terms of TFLOPS amd seems to underpeform.

e.g. an amd 480 card is 5.8 tflops whilst a gtx 970 is 3.9 tflops yet has comparable performance.
My 1070 is 6.5 tflops but has a bigger gap to the 480 than the tflops numbers suggest.

The xbox scorpio is over 6 tflops but not using vega so it would still be the most powerful amd polaris system in the consumer space.

My monitor is only 1080p and I will be keeping it for some time so that will be the max resolution... not sure what games but I would want to be playing any new ones that come out as well as older ones.

Here are a few I have been considering

Asus 470 4GB £158.28

Asus 480 4GB £168.91

Asus 470 8GB £173.33

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

why?

If I was a console vendor I would probably ask for that.

Because it's not based on any sort of evidence, empirical or published.

out of those 3 the 480 4 gig.