"Future proofing" and the RX 480

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 00:39

I thought it'd be interesting to talk about the concept of future proofing.

While researching the RX 480, the term has come up quite a bit in its discussion; some deeming it a great card for the future, and others essentially saying that within a couple of years it'll be junk.

It's something that's been bugging me since I decided to get into PC gaming, and I've been confused about what to think and what to buy because of it.

Rather than buying a good GPU and knowing I'm set for a good several years, there's an uneasiness that I'm going to make the wrong decision and have wasted my money, ending up two years down the line with a system that can barely run current games.

Of course, the idea of having a "future proof" system is somewhat of a falacy; technology is moving a such a pase virtually everything is rendered out of date before you've even opened the box, (as we've seen with the announcement of the new Titan X barely any time after the release of the 1080)
So by no means am I expecting the card I buy to last forever, but ideally I'd like to keep my card for around four years before upgrading.
Others have said that at "this price point", you're not going to get anything which will last you longer than two years.

Is this too much of a tall order with the 480? Or will I be set for around the time frame of 4 years?

Thanks allot.

ShakeNBake · 20 Aug 2016 at 00:42

Depends with what settings / resolution / frame-rate you are happy with.
For 1080p / 60Hz it'll probably be fine.

Vore · 20 Aug 2016 at 00:46

Put it in the bin and buy an 10XX, that will future proof the card

Lokken86 · 20 Aug 2016 at 01:32

Vore said:
Put it in the bin and buy an 10XX, that will future proof the card

What?

OP,

The 480 will last 4 years, sure. Just be prepared to dial down the settings somewhat by then. With the aid of dx12/Vulkan api, a 480 may well be running games at 1080p with medium settings 4 years down the line. It's not unlikely. Certainly 720p won't be an issue for it.

I think you sorta know yourself how it's going to be judging by what you've said already.

~>Dg<~ · 20 Aug 2016 at 01:46

980 ti.

oldestgregg · 20 Aug 2016 at 01:46

Rule to live by - Buy the best you can afford when you need it. Future proofing dosnt work in this game so worry about now and ho from there

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 01:59

ShakeNBake said:
Depends with what settings / resolution / frame-rate you are happy with.
For 1080p / 60Hz it'll probably be fine.

Well I'd be happy knocking the settings down as time goes on, I just didn't want it to be way, way out of date.

Vore · 20 Aug 2016 at 01:59

Lokken86 said:
What?

OP,

The 480 will last 4 years, sure. Just be prepared to dial down the settings somewhat by then. With the aid of dx12/Vulkan api, a 480 may well be running games at 1080p with medium settings 4 years down the line. It's not unlikely. Certainly 720p won't be an issue for it.

I think you sorta know yourself how it's going to be judging by what you've said already.

I collect graphics cards, it is my hobby. I would rather buy a 1060 or 980ti, the RX480 is pants (I own one). In 4 years who on earth will be playing at 720p, most people don't do that now...

Vore · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:00

oldestgregg said:
Rule to live by - Buy the best you can afford when you need it. Future proofing dosnt work in this game so worry about now and ho from there

Good advice IMHO.

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:00

Vore said:
Put it in the bin and buy an 10XX, that will future proof the card

Haha

Lokken86 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:00

Vore said:
I collect graphics cards, it is my hobby. I would rather buy a 1060 or 980ti, the RX480 is pants (I own one). In 4 years who on earth will be playing at 720p, most people don't do that now...

Why is it pants?

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:01

Lokken86 said:
What?

OP,

The 480 will last 4 years, sure. Just be prepared to dial down the settings somewhat by then. With the aid of dx12/Vulkan api, a 480 may well be running games at 1080p with medium settings 4 years down the line. It's not unlikely. Certainly 720p won't be an issue for it.

I think you sorta know yourself how it's going to be judging by what you've said already.

That sounds promising, then. I've heard good things about dx12 and Vulkan. That's one of the reasons I was going to go with the RX 480 over the 1060.

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:04

~>Dg<~ said:
980 ti.

Surely it'd be better to just get the 1070 for you were going that route. The 980ti is barely any cheaper.

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:05

oldestgregg said:
Rule to live by - Buy the best you can afford when you need it. Future proofing dosnt work in this game so worry about now and ho from there

I suppose you're right.

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:08

Vore said:
I collect graphics cards, it is my hobby. I would rather buy a 1060 or 980ti, the RX480 is pants (I own one). In 4 years who on earth will be playing at 720p, most people don't do that now...

Well a 1060 is round about evenly matched with the 480, isn't it?

I thought the 480 had the edge because of the new API's coming in the near future.
I'd rather buy a card that runs worse in dx11 but better in dx12 and Vulkan than the other way around.
I might be wrong, but aren't dx12 and Vulkan supposed to be the way everything's going go?

LMT50 · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:08

Thanks for the replies everyone,

MyBrainz · 20 Aug 2016 at 02:29

Im still running an AMD 7950 (overclocked of course) since July 2012.. can still do high settings in games and Standard/Very High settings in Arma 3 Battle Royale.. DayZ runs great on it too with Medium to Very High settings. Even BF4 Ultra is doable with 2xMSAA.

Im probly gona buy a 480 but will maybe buy a Vega card when they come out for the longevity.

480 will be fine for a few years to come with future drivers giving that extra perf as time goes by.. just buy the 8GB version though and maybe add another down the line.

revanchrist · 20 Aug 2016 at 03:24

Either 1060 and 480 is a good card for 1080P gaming. 1060 is a few % ahead in performance under DX11 while 480 is a few % ahead under DX12. 1060 plus side is lower power consumption while 480 is freesync support (i don't think anyone considering a budget card below 300 dollars will actually buy an expensive gsync monitor). For me personally i don't have a freesync monitor so i bought a 1060. IMHO, both 1060 and 480 will last you until 2020 for 1080P gaming. Then you can consider upgrading your monitor to a 4K freesync/gsync monitor and a 4K capable graphics card, assuming 4K gaming will become more affordable/mainstream by then.

DarrenM343 · 20 Aug 2016 at 06:22

News just in. All graphics cards will be junk within two years.

Okay, just like the headlines that's an exaggeration but after two years their use is limited, especially at the cheaper end.

The 480 is a fairly cheap card, you're not going to get something that plays current games for long before it's too slow. Have to spend much more money to future proof for longer I'm afraid. As someone said above, buy the best you can afford (or justify paying).

Final8y · 20 Aug 2016 at 06:33

oldestgregg said:
Rule to live by - Buy the best you can afford when you need it. Future proofing doesn't work in this game so worry about now and ho from there

Future proofing does work, i could have bought quad fire 5970 2GB versions 1GB per GPU, but i wanted to use them as long as i can without having to worry about the Vram becoming an issue before the GPU grunt, i bought the 4GB versions, 2GB per GPU, i didn't need 2GB per GPU at the time but i would need it in the future and indeed my prediction was right, with other users ditching there 5970 2GB because they said the vram is not enough anymore while i carried on to nearly 4 years with the cards.