GPU upgrade

FriedPet

FriedPet

New member
Hello

This is what I currently have:

AMD FX 8120
ASUS M5A970 970GX
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
GTX 550 Ti 1gb
2 internal HDDs (500gb and 2tb)
dual monitor setup 24" and 19"
500w PSU

Unfortunately, I don't play games as much as I want to, but when I do, I'd like to play on the best settings possible.
Otherwise, I also use my PC for watching movies and series.

So I'm thinking about upgrading my GPU. I don't need the best. I'm not planning on buying any new games anytime soon (famous last words??). No, but seriously, studies and life and stuff. I just want to be able to play Skyrim, Shadow of Mordor, etc on max. (Currently, my system is struggling with Shadow of Mordor...)

Hopefully, soonish, I can also upgrade my monitors. Either another 24" or something bigger and the 24" or 2 something biggers.

Currently leaning towards Radeon. Thinking rx480, but that might be overkill? I've stumbled upon AMD fluid motion, and it caught my attention. Anyone here that can comment on its performance?

Also, I hope for a card that I can use for the next 5 years. My 550ti did quite well:cool:
 
FriedPet said:
Hello

This is what I currently have:

AMD FX 8120
ASUS M5A970 970GX
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
GTX 550 Ti 1gb
2 internal HDDs (500gb and 2tb)
dual monitor setup 24" and 19"
500w PSU

Unfortunately, I don't play games as much as I want to, but when I do, I'd like to play on the best settings possible.
Otherwise, I also use my PC for watching movies and series.

So I'm thinking about upgrading my GPU. I don't need the best. I'm not planning on buying any new games anytime soon (famous last words??). No, but seriously, studies and life and stuff. I just want to be able to play Skyrim, Shadow of Mordor, etc on max. (Currently, my system is struggling with Shadow of Mordor...)

Hopefully, soonish, I can also upgrade my monitors. Either another 24" or something bigger and the 24" or 2 something biggers.

Currently leaning towards Radeon. Thinking rx480, but that might be overkill? I've stumbled upon AMD fluid motion, and it caught my attention. Anyone here that can comment on its performance?

Also, I hope for a card that I can use for the next 5 years. My 550ti did quite well:cool:
Click to expand...



If you playing game on a regular monitor [MENTION=428]1080[/MENTION] then I would look at the NVidia 1060 as a cheaper upgrade.
You could also go for the AMD 460 but get the 4gig of ram rather than the 2 gig. (470 maybe a better bet) I don't really follow AMD so I don't know how if compare to the 1060. There is also the NVidia 1050 but if you want a few extra years out of you card its best to try go up the hierarchy ladder as much as you can.

480 would do nicely though. You'll need to look a upgrading the CPU in a little while too
 
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FriedPet said:
Hello

This is what I currently have:

AMD FX 8120
ASUS M5A970 970GX
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
GTX 550 Ti 1gb
2 internal HDDs (500gb and 2tb)
dual monitor setup 24" and 19"
500w PSU

Unfortunately, I don't play games as much as I want to, but when I do, I'd like to play on the best settings possible.
Otherwise, I also use my PC for watching movies and series.

So I'm thinking about upgrading my GPU. I don't need the best. I'm not planning on buying any new games anytime soon (famous last words??). No, but seriously, studies and life and stuff. I just want to be able to play Skyrim, Shadow of Mordor, etc on max. (Currently, my system is struggling with Shadow of Mordor...)

Hopefully, soonish, I can also upgrade my monitors. Either another 24" or something bigger and the 24" or 2 something biggers.

Currently leaning towards Radeon. Thinking rx480, but that might be overkill? I've stumbled upon AMD fluid motion, and it caught my attention. Anyone here that can comment on its performance?

Also, I hope for a card that I can use for the next 5 years. My 550ti did quite well:cool:
Click to expand...

If you are leaning towards Radeon, why not wait a bit for their new architecture to come out soon.
At the moment Nvidia has matched and/or beat the Radeon cards (new gen). But it might be a different thing with their new architecture.

It is a difficult thing to say your don't want the best, but want something that will last 5 years + and play everything effortlessly. What I always used to do is every 3-5 years I would be the top of the line GPU out at that moment of time.

My last jump from the 970HOF to the 1080HOF was just an impulsive decision and went against everything I believe. but before that I played on a 550 for years!

You must also consider things like, do you maybe want to SLI/Cross Fire instead of buying a whole new card in a few years. If so then cards like the 1060 can be ruled out.

Lots of factors to consider, both long term and short. It is after all not a small amount of cash
 
Thanks for the input so far.
[MENTION=6606]Gforced[/MENTION]
I'll have a look at the GTX 1060 and do some comparisons.
Yeah, CPU is next on the list, but might have to upgrade motherboard as well?
[MENTION=13245]blaaislaai[/MENTION]
Yeah, I actually looked at this one: http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html
Not sure about PowerColor though??
[MENTION=16362]Flex[/MENTION]
There is indeed a lot of factors to consider! This is where you guys come in handy:D
I just can't justify paying more than R5000 for a GPU. Even then I'm looking for specials to drop the price below R4000. I can't subject myself to that kind of guilt.
I've heard that their new architecture is going to be used in their top range cards - which I won't buy. How long before budget cards are built on the new architecture? When is the new architecture coming, anyway?
 
FriedPet said:
Thanks for the input so far.
[MENTION=6606]Gforced[/MENTION]
I'll have a look at the GTX 1060 and do some comparisons.
Yeah, CPU is next on the list, but might have to upgrade motherboard as well?
[MENTION=13245]blaaislaai[/MENTION]
Yeah, I actually looked at this one: http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html
Not sure about PowerColor though??
[MENTION=16362]Flex[/MENTION]
There is indeed a lot of factors to consider! This is where you guys come in handy:D
I just can't justify paying more than R5000 for a GPU. Even then I'm looking for specials to drop the price below R4000. I can't subject myself to that kind of guilt.
I've heard that their new architecture is going to be used in their top range cards - which I won't buy. How long before budget cards are built on the new architecture? When is the new architecture coming, anyway?
Click to expand...

It won't only be in their new cards no. Same as with the new Nvidia cards. Same architecture used from the 1050 to the 1080.
I am honestly not 100% sure. Think early next year.

What is your budget? Start with that perhaps.
What lots of people are doing is buying a 480 just to buy another one in a few years and crossfire them. But not lots of games support crossfire and sli properly yet.

The 1060 or even 1050 ti are both nice decent budget cards
 
Flex said:
It won't only be in their new cards no. Same as with the new Nvidia cards. Same architecture used from the 1050 to the 1080.
I am honestly not 100% sure. Think early next year.

What is your budget? Start with that perhaps.
What lots of people are doing is buying a 480 just to buy another one in a few years and crossfire them. But not lots of games support crossfire and sli properly yet.

The 1060 or even 1050 ti are both nice decent budget cards
Click to expand...

Nvidias 10 series all use the pascal architecture mainly they all use less power and some newer tricks in how to process data. I am struggling a 1060 would be a nice upgrade but a 1070 a really good one but my cpu is going to hold me back from getting my money's worth. Ah the dilemma.
 
Gforced said:
Nvidias 10 series all use the pascal architecture mainly they all use less power and some newer tricks in how to process data. I am struggling a 1060 would be a nice upgrade but a 1070 a really good one but my cpu is going to hold me back from getting my money's worth. Ah the dilemma.
Click to expand...

I would avoid the 1060 tbh. But yeah what you said is true
 
Nvidia is only releasing the 1080Ti in January, they have no other cards coming until around June/July (Volta)
AMD won't have low range/mid range cards at launch, only Vega coming..hopefully in January.

Both companies released their low and mid range cards already.
(This could change though, but thus far I've not seen anything that makes me think we'll see new low/mid range cards in the near future)

As for what you should buy? RX480.
The 1060 and RX480 trade blows but as history has shown Nvidia will drop the 1xxx series like an unwanted stepchild as soon as their new cards are available. The 9xx series is a perfect example of that (Nvidia made them legacy cards as soon as the 1xxx launched). AMD on the other hand work on their drivers and performance of their cards non stop. So the RX480 will get stronger, especially in DX12 titles.
 
FriedPet said:
Currently leaning towards Radeon. Thinking rx480, but that might be overkill? I've stumbled upon AMD fluid motion, and it caught my attention. Anyone here that can comment on its performance?
Click to expand...

You may find this video worth watching:


It shows the RX 470 is very close to the 480 in terms of performance, and since Evetech has one for under R4k it might be worth considering.
 
Evetech does not always have the best client support, but their prices are usually very good
 
Hoping to get a good deal on the 25th. I'm looking for the 8gb version.

How big is the difference between the different manufacturers? By looking at the prices, I'm assuming Sapphire is 'better' than PowerColor. It's mostly coming down to the cooling of the cards, right?
Worth it to crack my head open due to these differences?

This looks like a good price: http://carbonite.co.za/showthread.php?t=141040
Not sure if we can expect the same during Black Friday sales?

Edit: My 500w PSU will be enough?

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk
 
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FriedPet said:
Hoping to get a good deal on the 25th. I'm looking for the 8gb version.

How big is the difference between the different manufacturers? By looking at the prices, I'm assuming Sapphire is 'better' than PowerColor. It's mostly coming down to the cooling of the cards, right?
Worth it to crack my head open due to these differences?

This looks like a good price: http://carbonite.co.za/showthread.php?t=141040
Not sure if we can expect the same during Black Friday sales?

Edit: My 500w PSU will be enough?

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I've actually heard really good things about PowerColor's Red Devil Cards and its RX 480 actually has a 3 fan cooler on it as opposed to the Sapphire's dual-fan cooler:

View attachment 23086

Not only that but Wootware has the 8Gb version pictured above for R4399. Lastly 500W is the minimum PSU requirement for this card and a single 8-Pin PCI Express Power Connector.
 
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