Which graphics card for 250-300.

shaf · 25 Jul 2016 at 21:17

I am looking to upgrade my ageing 7970 and my budget is 250-300.

It needs to be a quiet and cool running card.

I game on my dell 1920x1200 monitor.

I am leaning towards the 1060 as I think it fits the purpose. I am planning on getting a 4k monitor but not anytime soon. I don't really want to buy a card for the future, I'll replace if required.

Thanks.

peahead · 25 Jul 2016 at 21:40

I think you have pretty hit the nail on the head with the 1060..the only other option would be a AMD rx480 or maybe a second hand 980ti.

Perfect_Chaos · 25 Jul 2016 at 21:50

I wouldn't get a 1060, not unless you absolutely must buy new. Try and get a decent used 980Ti, the MSI Gaming cards are really good and quiet but I think they are going for a little bit more than 300 used, seen one go for about 330 on eBay.. But it would be much more powerful than a 1060.

Tute · 25 Jul 2016 at 22:14

Depends - if you wanna blow the whole budget the Fury Nitro is hard to beat.

Beyond that i'd look at the 4GB Nitro 480 - it's just a better price point than the 8GB and pretty much all of the 1060s.

Cern · 25 Jul 2016 at 22:47

For 4k gaming you're going to need at least a 1080 (or a 1070 if you are happy to dial everything back to lower settings). So that's out of your budget.

For 1200p gaming a 1060 or RX 480 is just fine. if going for a 1060 there's no need to spend your full £300, the cards sub £250 are just as good (in fact Gibbo has said as much here).

Panos · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:01

shaf said:
I am looking to upgrade my ageing 7970 and my budget is 250-300.

It needs to be a quiet and cool running card.

I game on my dell 1920x1200 monitor.

I am leaning towards the 1060 as I think it fits the purpose. I am planning on getting a 4k monitor but not anytime soon. I don't really want to buy a card for the future, I'll replace if required.

Thanks.

Another vote for the RX480 4GB Nitro, at £199.99 is a steal (and far superior to the GTX1060), and with the £100 left over buy a Freesync 1080p monitor. (actually I suggest the £119 AOC one).
Especially when it seems you are going to keep it for a good 4-5 years, because it much better overall on DX12, Vulcan and Async compute and AMD has proven that cards mature nicely. On contrary to NV.

Also the Freesync monitor it will greatly improve your gaming experience compared to the Dell 1920x1200 you have, which is a "normal" desktop monitor. And you are still in budget more or less.

Mayh3M · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:12

Budget of £250-300? Definitely the 1060 or the £299 Fury.

Since you're buying for now, count the RX 480 completely out. It gets comfortably beaten by the 1060 in DX11, which makes up 99% of games today. Not to mention it uses more power so its louder and hotter.

Cern · 26 Jul 2016 at 01:29

Panos said:
Another vote for the RX480 4GB Nitro, at £199.99 is a steal (and far superior to the GTX1060), and with the £100 left over buy a Freesync 1080p monitor. (actually I suggest the £119 AOC one).
Especially when it seems you are going to keep it for a good 4-5 years, because it much better overall on DX12, Vulcan and Async compute and AMD has proven that cards mature nicely. On contrary to NV.

Also the Freesync monitor it will greatly improve your gaming experience compared to the Dell 1920x1200 you have, which is a "normal" desktop monitor. And you are still in budget more or less.

Going from a 60Hz 1920x1200 IPS monitor to a 60Hz 1920x1080 TN monitor is not likely to be an improvement, regardless of Freesync. Any modern GPU will easily cap out the 60 FPS ceiling imposed by the 60hz, making Freesync irrelevant. So why trade in the better colour of IPS and the extra screen depth of 1200p for a slightly faster response time? It's not like 8ms is horrible anyway.

Padraig · 26 Jul 2016 at 02:09

I would not recommend the 1060 its in a bad price point go for a second hand 980ti if you want nvidia or i would say a 480/390 cant go wrong.

arc@css · 26 Jul 2016 at 02:12

980Ti / Fury Pro / 1060 / 480 (in that order). Go with the fastest you can find for the best price.

Lokken86 · 26 Jul 2016 at 02:26

I think coming from a 7970 you'd be disappointed with a 1060 or a 480. I made the upgrade from the same card as you to the Fury for £450. You can get it for £300 now. A steal.

Alternatively as others mentioned If you don't mind second hand the 980ti would outperform it in today's games.

shaf · 26 Jul 2016 at 05:36

I've been considering a 980ti too but they are still quite expensive on eBay, going for 330 plus.

Overclockers has an evga for £350.

What's a good used price? I don't have access to MM.

sothur · 26 Jul 2016 at 07:49

+1 for Fury Pro

Yaayuh! · 26 Jul 2016 at 08:06

arc@css said:
980Ti / Fury Pro / 1060 / 480 (in that order). Go with the fastest you can find for the best price.

Best answer.

Zethor · 26 Jul 2016 at 08:38

I wouldn't risk that cash on a second hand card. Get a new Fury, it will cut through games at your res like a knife through butter.

shaf · 26 Jul 2016 at 08:53

How cool and quiet is the fury?

And isn't it limited by the 4G memory?

mahius · 26 Jul 2016 at 09:31

Tute said:
Beyond that i'd look at the 4GB Nitro 480 - it's just a better price point than the 8GB and pretty much all of the 1060s.

I couldn't have said it better myself and besides:

shaf said:
I am planning on getting a 4k monitor but not anytime soon. I don't really want to buy a card for the future, I'll replace if required.

A cheaper card works out better as a temporary replacement. At 1080p, more than 4GB VRAM is unnecessary and more than 970 performance is also unnecessary. At that, you could even look at getting a 970 or a 390 for closer to £200 too. Just that they won't be as power efficient, but that's up to you and what your PSU is rated at.

If you want AMD, drop down to below £200 and grab an RX480. The best price to performance below £300. If you want Nvidia, still spend around £200 on a decent 970. Even a 980 at under £300 is tough to recommend since it is a temporary upgrade and OP plays at 1080p. I was also personally recommended a cheaper 970 over the 980, a year back by most folks here on these forums (970 at under £300 and 980 under £400).

Cards like the Fury/980ti, etc are overkill for 1080p, in my honest opinion. I'm very tempted to upgrade to a 980ti myself, but I'm still on a 1080p monitor and have decided not to for now, simply because I won't see much improvement still playing at 1080p. The extra FPS won't be visible on my 60Hz monitor. Fury, Fury X and 980ti are cards more suited to higher resolutions, like 1440p. Especially the HBM cards, they don't perform as well at 1080p.

Save that extra cash for a monitor and bigger GPU upgrade in the future.

Zethor · 26 Jul 2016 at 09:53

shaf said:
How cool and quiet is the fury?

And isn't it limited by the 4G memory?

It's cool quiet and the memory is noticeable at 4k res but since you would need another card to play at 4k anyway, I'd say it's ultimately not an issue.

Triq · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:16

I'd agree with the Fury too. The 980ti might just be out of budget but if you do find one at the £300 mark then it would definitely do the job.

shaf · 26 Jul 2016 at 13:18

Fury does sound like a good option but I'm also tending to agree with mahius.

I could just get a second hand 970 for now and then upgrade it when I get my 4k monitor. I reckon I can get one for £130.