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Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4gb with FX 6300 as stop gap upgrade

AnthonyDublin

AnthonyDublin

AnthonyDublin

Associate
Joined
12 Oct 2016
Posts
87
Location
Dublin, Ireland.
Hi folks,
I did a search but didn't want to hijack anybody else's threads.

I am a very casual gamer (five or six hours a week) and have always built my own (budget) computers.
I'm currently still using the following old build.

Asus m5a97 r2.0
Fx 6300 @4.3ghz (good aftermarket cooler and could go higher)
Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-x
8gb ram
Antec 900 case with great cable routing and cooling.
BenQ GL2460 @1920x1080
Corsair 750w
Various SSD's and HDD's.

Due to high outgoings, it's been hard to upgrade for a few years, but I want to buy a new GPU at a reasonable enough price this month, in preparation for January when the girlfriend has promised me a new MB and i5 6500 combo as a January sales gift.

With the Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ now at 205 quid, I could order one today, and another 8gb of ram within my budget.

It's hard to get decent information online these days due to the flood of fan boys posting nonsense, but surely my games will all run better with this upgrade yeah?

I'm currently playing World or Warships, Fifa 16, GTA 5 etc... But want to get some newer stuff off steam, and need to up the frame rates a bit.

Thanks in advance.
 
Yea, that'll be a nice upgrade. Go for it.

Dont get the 8GB of extra RAM, though. Your new motherboard will require new DDR4, unfortunately.
 
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Good plan, the 480 is twice as fast and it will handle anything with high/max details for 2 years at 1080p. During the past few years, AMD has had better support for older cards so if you don't upgrade frequently, AMD is the better investment.When you get the i5 you will also get a big fps boost in Warships n GTA V.
 
Not sure if 4gb is a wise investment, from my observations quite a lot of games i've been playing at 1080p are hitting just under or over the 4gb limit. I don't think the 480 is a card to look at for longevity but even so i'd rather have 8gb than 4gb.
 
Davedree said:
Not sure if 4gb is a wise investment, from my observations quite a lot of games i've been playing at 1080p are hitting just under or over the 4gb limit. I don't think the 480 is a card to look at for longevity but even so i'd rather have 8gb than 4gb.
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If you're turning up the settings, sure. He said he's a more casual gamer though, so probably doesn't care as much about turning some settings down, he just needs the general performance to be adequate.

Given I'm just fine with a 3.5GB GTX970, a proper 4GB card is definitely still sufficient.

beany_bot said:
Surely as a stop gap a second hand 290 or 390 is the way to go? more or less same performance for a lot less money
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I think y'all are missing that the 480 is gonna stay. It's the 6300 that is getting replaced soon.
 
Seanspeed said:
If you're turning up the settings, sure. He said he's a more casual gamer though, so probably doesn't care as much about turning some settings down, he just needs the general performance to be adequate.

Given I'm just fine with a 3.5GB GTX970, a proper 4GB card is definitely still sufficient.
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So you think a 4gb rx480 turned down in game settings, to cope with 2-3 year old game engines is perfectly fine to then cope for current and future game engines over next 2-3 years.
For 30-40 quid more i'd be buying the 8gb, and if mpgu ever improves you have added security for cf.
 
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Davedree said:
So you think a 4gb rx480 turned down in game settings, to cope with 2-3 year old game engines is perfectly fine to then cope for current and future game engines over next 2-3 years.
For 30-40 quid more i'd be buying the 8gb, and if mpgu ever improves you have added security for cf.
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What *I* would do is not relevant to what somebody else would do. Especially for somebody working on a tight budget and is only a 'casual' gamer.

And yes, I think 4GB will be fine for the next 2-3 years so long as you dont mind turning down some texture and LoD/draw distance settings where necessary. Sometimes people just want something 'adequate', not great. I think some here dont quite understand that cuz too many of us are hardware and/or gaming enthusiasts who take it more seriously than others.
 
Seanspeed said:
What *I* would do is not relevant to what somebody else would do. Especially for somebody working on a tight budget and is only a 'casual' gamer.

And yes, I think 4GB will be fine for the next 2-3 years so long as you dont mind turning down some texture and LoD/draw distance settings where necessary. Sometimes people just want something 'adequate', not great. I think some here dont quite understand that cuz too many of us are hardware and/or gaming enthusiasts who take it more seriously than others.
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I own an rx470 4gb, a 970 and a 1060 6gb i run at 1080p.
I'm a casual gamer but just because i don't spend a lot of time gaming it doesn't change what games i choose to play, or how i setup a game for each graphics card.
The op is asking for advice i'm saying get the 8gb for the sake of 30-40 quid.
You can argue a 4gb will be fine is subjective to user requirements sure, but future gaming will determine if that 30-40 quid could have been better spent. Op has said he has enough money for the 480 rgb and an additional 8gb of ddr3. So surely he has the budget for an 8gb 480 if not bothering with the ddr3 ram, as he's.upgrading to intel next month.


Edit also 8gb cards have faster memory chips, more potential for memory overclocking which in turn provides more bandwidth and performance.
 
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Davedree said:
I own an rx470 4gb, a 970 and a 1060 6gb i run at 1080p.
I'm a casual gamer but just because i don't spend a lot of time gaming it doesn't change what games i choose to play, or how i setup a game for each graphics card.
The op is asking for advice i'm saying get the 8gb for the sake of 30-40 quid.
You can argue a 4gb will be fine is subjective to user requirements sure, but future gaming will determine if that 30-40 quid could have been better spent. Op has said he has enough money for the 480 rgb and an additional 8gb of ddr3. So surely he has the budget for an 8gb 480 if not bothering with the ddr3 ram, as he's.upgrading to intel next month.
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He still needs to buy that DDR4 though, man. The fact that he cant reuse the 8GB of DDR3(like it sounds he thought he'd be able to) only hurts his budget plans, if anything.

Davedree said:
Edit also 8gb cards have faster memory chips, more potential for memory overclocking which in turn provides more bandwidth and performance.
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I'm really doubting he's all that interested in getting into memory overclocking.

Maybe he is, but most casual gamers aren't gonna care about that kinda thing. He's not even getting an OC'able CPU.

It doesn't make that much difference, either.
 
Seanspeed said:
He still needs to buy that DDR4 though, man. The fact that he cant reuse the 8GB of DDR3(like it sounds he thought he'd be able to) only hurts his budget plans, if anything.
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No, I was only buying the ram for the current setup (was 2nd hand from a workmate and the price of a few pints). It would be sold alongside the mobo/cpu and old gpu in January on the free ads.

The 8gb equivalent card would cost me 297 Euro, which is out of my budget.
 
Seanspeed said:
I'm really doubting he's all that interested in getting into memory overclocking.

Maybe he is, but most casual gamers aren't gonna care about that kinda thing. He's not even getting an OC'able CPU.

It doesn't make that much difference, either.
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4gb 7000mhz
8gb 8000mhz

Quite a difference.

If buying a zboard with older bios the 6500 is clockable.
 
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Check my sig, i have the 4gb Sapphire Nitro+.. ran GTA V well enough on pretty high settings and used less than 4gb of VRAM, about 3.5gb if i remember right.. BF1 Beta i had maxed out Ultra and i remember it using exactly 3.4gb of VRAM.. any issues then just lower AA.. Arma 3 uses less than 3.5gb VRAM while using x2 MSAA. This is all at 1080p.

The Sapphire card is fine as long as you dont wana max out every game you play.. but you're 5-6 hours a week gaming.. what you get out of spending too much on a system isnt gona be justified in my opinion.

The Nitro is a great card too, my temps never go over 60c, unless i run 3D Mark.

As for the memory, not much difference to be honest.. i have one of the fastest 480's in the benchmark threads by only overclocking the core to 1400.. on stock volts :)

You may get an upgrade itch down the line if you start playing more games more often anyway, makes sense right?

I came from a 7950 and im very happy with the performance, even though i'll be looking at baby Vega next year.

Im sure you're gona be more happier than me, going from a 7770 to a 480 :D
 
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