RIP 7970, Advice on graphics card purchase

Menshai · 25 Sep 2018 at 22:41

Hey everyone!
After 5.5 years of faithful service my 7970 passed into the electronic afterlife this evening. Fans still spin but nothing presents to the monitors. Fiddled with plugs, seating, gave it a clean etc. Swapped around cables, tested monitors on flatmates computer, all seemed fine. Finally, switched out the 7970 for my old old 6970 (at last, vindication for keeping the 'junk' lying around!) which posts to the screen successfully and I now have a 'usable' computer again. Albeit one that sounds like a jet engine...

So I'm in the market for a new graphics card. I am unashamedly team red and I'm out to get the best that I can... while still keeping a reasonable bang per buck ratio.

The current PC infrastructure is
Intel core i5 2500K
2x8Gb DDR3 (I forget the timings/speed)
2x 1080p monitors
Windows 7 64 bit
The above will change in the next few months - I've been saving up for most of the last two years to do a full hardware refresh around Christmas time. I'm doing a lot more development and 3d design work now and the whole system is chugging more than I'd like.

Right now, while still in shock of the unexpected loss, my budget goes up to £500. So I'm looking at the Vega 56/64 range and thinking "those are some mighty fortuitous discounts you got there Overclockers?" But, I have a couple of questions before I sink £400+ on a graphics card.

1) Should I wait? As I wasn't planning to upgrade until December, I'm currently a little out of touch with the market. Are there new and potentially better releases *just* around the corner?

2) Would a Vega 64 be overkill? Should I settle for a 56 or even drop down to a 580? I'm doing a lot of work with Game Engines at the moment like Unreal and quite a bit of 3D design work (3DS Max/Maya) and I would ultimately like to be doing that smoothly at at least 1440p resolutions, but preferably 4k. I'll also confess to occasionally gaming, but I have such a back log that I ppprrobably don't have to worry about playing 'this years' titles until 2021...

3) If the answer to the above two is 'No, you should go for it!' then what manufacturers are the *better* ones right now (reference question 1)

Many, many thanks for your kind thoughts and considerations at this difficult time of electronic passing.

Kind regards,
Menshai

trickynickyuk · 25 Sep 2018 at 22:54

I would be very tempted at the Vega 64 but looking at your system specs you might bottleneck a little with your CPU also there are rumours of amd releasing a newer version at the start of 2019, but the decision is totally yours but if you were looking to do an upgrade in December I would hold off to see what the offerings are then for further upgrades to your system

hedgey · 25 Sep 2018 at 23:18

1080 or 1080ti

Menshai · 26 Sep 2018 at 00:00

trickynickyuk said:
I would be very tempted at the Vega 64 but looking at your system specs you might bottleneck a little with your CPU also there are rumours of amd releasing a newer version at the start of 2019, but the decision is totally yours but if you were looking to do an upgrade in December I would hold off to see what the offerings are then for further upgrades to your system

Thanks muchly for the insight! No doubt you're right about bottlenecking on my CPU. If I did get new graphics now, I would probably bite the bullet and upgrade the rest of the main hardware by the end of October. While I wasn't planning to upgrade until the end of the year, the rest of the PC is over seven years old now, so I guess it's only a matter of time before something else fails. And I don't have spare mobo's/CPU's to hand...

I hadn't realised a new round of AMD cards were potentially on-route for early 2019 though. So another option is to try and duke it out with my eight year old jet-engine of a 6970 for a few more months...

Freddie1980 · 26 Sep 2018 at 00:19

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...hbm2-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-190-pc.html

A good price for what it offers, gtx 1080's offer the same performance for less power but Vega is likely to be supported better then older geforce cards.

MissChief · 26 Sep 2018 at 00:24

Buy well now and it'll carry over into your new PC. Buy poorly and you'll end up having to replace it within a couple of years. Either go 1080 or Vega 64 IMO. Your monitors, will they also be changing? Perhaps 4k or 1440p Ultrawide? If so then a G-Sync monitor is far more costly than a Freesync one so perhaps this might suggest which direction you should head in.

twistedheat · 26 Sep 2018 at 01:13

Here's my thoughts:

If you're buying new, right now, you are either buying 2 year old architecture (GTX series, Vega series, or RX series) at pretty much the same price as when those cards first released. Or, you're buying a new architecture cards priced if they were the higher tiers of old architecture instead of the usual "new architecture at same msrp as previous architecture" cycle that used to happen in the GPU world (RTX series) i.e grossly overpriced.

Right now, it's just not the time to buy anything new in my opinion. Either buy something high end on the used market for ~60% of new prices, or be patient and wait it out until RTX falls in price or AMD release something new.

If you really need something to tide you over, an RX 570 4gb will outperform your 7970 by ~40% and will play 90% of games at Ultra settings on 1080p and can be purchased for £110 on a certain online auction site. In 6 months time you'd still be able to sell that off for £80-90. So you're paying £20-30 to have Ultra 1080p gaming for 6 months and then likely getting much more bang for your buck for a top end purchase.

That's what I'd do anyway.

MrRockliffe · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:22

Tbh I would wait for the new gen of Polaris - launch seems to be imminent.

The Polaris architecture is used in the RX 580, and a new generation should bring a 10% performance increase at least, which would bring performance closer to a 1070.

Even if it's no good, you can then pickup a Vega 56

Or wait until 7nm from AMD

Marine-RX179 · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:37

MrRockliffe said:
Tbh I would wait for the new gen of Polaris - launch seems to be imminent.

The Polaris architecture is used in the RX 580, and a new generation should bring a 10% performance increase at least, which would bring performance closer to a 1070.

Even if it's no good, you can then pickup a Vega 56 Or wait until 7nm from AMD

I was going to suggest the same, but then again the OP literally don't have a working graphic card at all at the moment, so not sure if he can bare waiting for another few weeks.

chroniclard · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:41

Seems a decent deal, 80 quid over budget but best performance this side of a 2080.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...dr5x-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-19h-gi.html

LoadsaMoney · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:42

chroniclard said:
Seems a decent deal, 80 quid over budget but best performance this side of a 2080.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...dr5x-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-19h-gi.html

Yup, that a helluva price for a 1080Ti.

x-st · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:45

chroniclard said:
Seems a decent deal, 80 quid over budget but best performance this side of a 2080.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...dr5x-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-19h-gi.html

Reviews of that card aren't great unfortunately....really tempting price but no backplate, volume levels and cooling make it less appealing.

chroniclard · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:47

Ah shame.

Panos · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:47

chroniclard said:
Seems a decent deal, 80 quid over budget but best performance this side of a 2080.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...dr5x-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-19h-gi.html

Is almost 50% over budget.

Panos · 26 Sep 2018 at 12:49

Menshai said:
Hey everyone!
After 5.5 years of faithful service my 7970 passed into the electronic afterlife this evening. Fans still spin but nothing presents to the monitors. Fiddled with plugs, seating, gave it a clean etc. Swapped around cables, tested monitors on flatmates computer, all seemed fine. Finally, switched out the 7970 for my old old 6970 (at last, vindication for keeping the 'junk' lying around!) which posts to the screen successfully and I now have a 'usable' computer again. Albeit one that sounds like a jet engine...

So I'm in the market for a new graphics card. I am unashamedly team red and I'm out to get the best that I can... while still keeping a reasonable bang per buck ratio.

The current PC infrastructure is
Intel core i5 2500K
2x8Gb DDR3 (I forget the timings/speed)
2x 1080p monitors
Windows 7 64 bit
The above will change in the next few months - I've been saving up for most of the last two years to do a full hardware refresh around Christmas time. I'm doing a lot more development and 3d design work now and the whole system is chugging more than I'd like.

Right now, while still in shock of the unexpected loss, my budget goes up to £500. So I'm looking at the Vega 56/64 range and thinking "those are some mighty fortuitous discounts you got there Overclockers?" But, I have a couple of questions before I sink £400+ on a graphics card.

1) Should I wait? As I wasn't planning to upgrade until December, I'm currently a little out of touch with the market. Are there new and potentially better releases *just* around the corner?

2) Would a Vega 64 be overkill? Should I settle for a 56 or even drop down to a 580? I'm doing a lot of work with Game Engines at the moment like Unreal and quite a bit of 3D design work (3DS Max/Maya) and I would ultimately like to be doing that smoothly at at least 1440p resolutions, but preferably 4k. I'll also confess to occasionally gaming, but I have such a back log that I ppprrobably don't have to worry about playing 'this years' titles until 2021...

3) If the answer to the above two is 'No, you should go for it!' then what manufacturers are the *better* ones right now (reference question 1)

Many, many thanks for your kind thoughts and considerations at this difficult time of electronic passing.

Kind regards,
Menshai

you have a working 6950 yes? Wait couple weeks to see if new Polaris is out then imho depends the resolution you buy a card. Are your monitors freesync?

chroniclard · 26 Sep 2018 at 13:06

Panos said:
Is almost 50% over budget.

Its £80 over the £500 budget?

MrRockliffe · 26 Sep 2018 at 13:08

Panos said:
Is almost 50% over budget.

£500 + £250 (50%) = £750? :confused:

nashathedog · 26 Sep 2018 at 13:15

Menshai said:
Thanks muchly for the insight! No doubt you're right about bottlenecking on my CPU. If I did get new graphics now, I would probably bite the bullet and upgrade the rest of the main hardware by the end of October. While I wasn't planning to upgrade until the end of the year, the rest of the PC is over seven years old now, so I guess it's only a matter of time before something else fails. And I don't have spare mobo's/CPU's to hand...

I hadn't realised a new round of AMD cards were potentially on-route for early 2019 though. So another option is to try and duke it out with my eight year old jet-engine of a 6970 for a few more months...

You could build a very capable Ryzen system with Vega or Polaris. With your budget the Powercolor Vega 64 Red Devil is the obvious choice as you're an AMD user who I presume has no complaints, Plus you can get 50 to 60 quid back by selling the 3 free games that come with it. The game bundle comes with the 580 and above but if you want 1440p or 4k the Vega would be the better choice, When it comes to resolution I was happily gaming at 3440x1440 with an RX 480 Red Devil for around 6 months and I'm now running 3440x1440 with the Vega Red Devil and performance is great, Some games need tweaks in the menu graphics but it easily gives a solid 60 fps + in everything. I'm not sure what your work with the Unreal engine is and requires but if AMD's do it well then stick with what you know.

When you do a cpu upgrade check out the 6 & 8 core Ryzen cpu's as well as Intels, I've had the 1600x (6 core) and the 2700X (8 core) and both are great choices, Also see if you can wait for the next Ryzen range due in 2019 to maximise the new builds longevity.

Menshai · 26 Sep 2018 at 13:25

Thanks everyone for the thought provoking responses!

Indeed I have a working 6970 (this one to be precise: https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/EAH6970_DCII2DI4S2GD5/) so, if a refresh of Polaris is indeed imminent then I can *probably* muddle through for a couple of weeks. I haven't tried doing much with it though. It is nearly eight years old. If Unreal Engine or Maya grinds to a halt and I can't get workable framerates in the common games I play without dropping the resolution to the stone age, then I doubt I'll have the patience to wait too long! :/ I'll investigate the above when I get back from work this evening. It also sounds like a gosh-darned jet engine so that could get intolerable pretty quick.

If I were to buy now, something between £400-500 is probably the upper limit in terms of price, with a mind to this lasting me at least a couple of years performance wise. Hence why the discounted VEGA 64's or 56's looked appetizing. I think the linked 1080Ti is definitely outside of my budget. Rather than buy high end, I could settle for buying lower end (£100-£150 max) to tide me through to whenever new cards come out next year and prices settle. I'm always hesitate of buying second hand so I'd prefer new, but I can probably persuade myself if push came to shove...

If it helps to inform advice better, my overall budget for the rebuild is probably £1.5k max. My current plan is...
Ryzen 7 2700X
A motherboard of some description.
At least 16Gb of RAM to start. I'd prefer 32Gb but, with current prices, that probably isn't feasible right now...
At least one new monitor, minimum 1440p. Needs to have good quality light/dark ranges and color reproduction so if I can get that at 4K even better.
Maybe a new PSU. Current PSU is around 6-7 years old now so it might be healthy to replace it...

I'll spawn separate threads in the appropriate forums for advice on some of the above bits - its more just so people know the direction I anticipate the rebuild going in...

Menshai · 26 Sep 2018 at 13:32

nashathedog said:
You could build a very capable Ryzen system with Vega or Polaris. With your budget the Powercolor Vega 64 Red Devil is the obvious choice as you're an AMD user who I presume has no complaints, Plus you can get 50 to 60 quid back by selling the 3 free games that come with it. The game bundle comes with the 580 and above but if you want 1440p or 4k the Vega would be the better choice, When it comes to resolution I was happily gaming at 3440x1440 with an RX 480 Red Devil for around 6 months and I'm now running 3440x1440 with the Vega Red Devil and performance is great, Some games need tweaks in the menu graphics but it easily gives a solid 60 fps + in everything. I'm not sure what your work with the Unreal engine is and requires but if AMD's do it well then stick with what you know.

When you do a cpu upgrade check out the 6 & 8 core Ryzen cpu's as well as Intels, I've had the 1600x (6 core) and the 2700X (8 core) and both are great choices, Also see if you can wait for the next Ryzen range due in 2019 to maximise the new builds longevity.

Ah, wish I'd seen this before posting an update. Thanks for letting me know your experience, especially with the Ryzen's as well. The Vega 64 Red Devil is starting to look a good choice!