Confused by GPU titles

KietsuUK · 16 Dec 2022 at 09:15

Howdy,

Im looking at buying a 3080ti or a 4080 but im a little confused as to the different tuners/brandings. The whole MSI/Gigabyte/Palit/Zotac thing. Are they not all the same cards and if they are, why the price difference?

On the OC shop, they range from 1200 to near 1500.

Thanks for any help clearing this up

Armageus · 16 Dec 2022 at 09:24

NVIDIA (or AMD) just produce the actual GPU chip, and only produce limited actual cards e.g. Nvidia "Founders Edition" FE Cards.

MSI/Gigabyte/Palit/Zotac are board manufacturers. They manufacturer the rest of the Graphics Card, i.e. the physical Printed Circuit Board (PCB), the cooling system (heatsink/fans), and choose relevant components that support the operation of the GPU chip (i.e. what VRAM is used, what power circuitry).

The physical GPU chips e.g. 3080ti/4080 should be identical across different manufacturers products, but how the board is designed in terms of power delivery and cooling, can affect overall performance slightly as it can affect how well the GPU is able to boost, or bad design can cause the GPU to throttle under load.

Manufacturers largely also dictate the aesthetics of the card, e.g. the colour, whether it has RGB lights etc. Warranty length and type of support can also vary between manufacturers.

KietsuUK · 16 Dec 2022 at 09:26

Armageus said:
NVIDIA (or AMD) just produce the actual GPU chip, and only produce limited actual cards e.g. Nvidia "Founders Edition" FE Cards.

MSI/Gigabyte/Palit/Zotac are board manufacturers. They manufacturer the rest of the Graphics Card, i.e. the physical Printed Circuit Board (PCB), the cooling system (heatsink/fans), and choose relevant components that support the operation of the GPU chip (i.e. what VRAM is used, what power circuitry).

The physical GPU chips e.g. 3080ti/4080 should be identical across different manufacturers products, but how the board is designed in terms of power delivery and cooling, can affect overall performance slightly as it can affect how well the GPU is able to boost, or bad design can cause the GPU to throttle under load.

Manufacturers largely also dictate the aesthetics of the card, e.g. the colour, whether it has RGB lights etc. Warranty length and type of support can also vary between manufacturers.

Ok, i think i get it. Are there any i should steer clear of for either of the 2 cards i mentioned? Its going to be used for gaming

Trypta · 16 Dec 2022 at 09:47

KietsuUK said:
Ok, i think i get it. Are there any i should steer clear of for either of the 2 cards i mentioned? Its going to be used for gaming

Depends on your use, if you just want to stick it in your pc and play games and forget about it, any card will be fine.

A lot is just personal preference like how quiet they are or physical size. Find something with a decent warranty (more than just a year) and that'll fit in your case and the average person is fine.

Don't need to worry about cooling too much unless you like to tweak and push them.

Zotac have a nice warranty I believe.

KietsuUK · 16 Dec 2022 at 09:53

Trypta said:
Depends on your use, if you just want to stick it in your pc and play games and forget about it, any card will be fine.

A lot is just personal preference like how quiet they are or physical size. Find something with a decent warranty (more than just a year) and that'll fit in your case and the average person is fine.

Don't need to worry about cooling too much unless you like to tweak and push them.

Zotac have a nice warranty I believe.

tbh id never even considered the size of the card lol It seems i have plenty of room in there atm. Let the shopping commence!

Marine-RX179 · 16 Dec 2022 at 10:02

KietsuUK said:
tbh id never even considered the size of the card lol It seems i have plenty of room in there atm. Let the shopping commence!

Are you planning on pairing the new graphic card with the system listed in your signature?

Cause if that's the case, your 550W PSU (even with the consideration of it is a good unit from EVGA) could be cutting it really close with most of the newer high-end graphic card...nowadays typically you would need at least a decent 650W PSU minimum, better at around 750W (a good 550W PSU generally are ok with mid-range graphic cards, but not so much for high-end cards with higher power-consumption).

Also your CPU being the non-X 2700 I could see it bottlenecking the new card in certain situations, depending on the resolution and refresh rate of the monitor you use (would be good if you could mention what monitor you are using as well).

KietsuUK · 16 Dec 2022 at 10:34

Marine-RX179 said:
Are you planning on pairing the new graphic card with the system listed in your signature?

Cause if that's the case, your 550W PSU (even with the consideration of it is a good unit from EVGA) could be cutting it really close with most of the newer high-end graphic card...nowadays typically you would need at least a decent 650W PSU minimum, better at around 750W (a good 550W PSU generally are ok with mid-range graphic cards, but not so much for high-end cards with higher power-consumption).

Also your CPU being the non-X 2700 I could see it bottlenecking the new card in certain situations, depending on the resolution and refresh rate of the monitor you use (would be good if you could mention what monitor you are using as well).

I was >.<

My monitor is Gigabyte M28U. What CPU and PSU would you recommend?

Trypta · 16 Dec 2022 at 11:53

What kind of games do you play? And what's your budget?
A 5800x3d would be an easy upgrade, you might just need to update your motherboard bios and it'll slot in your existing motherboard nicely.
Psu is dependant on your gpu at this point, with a 3080 or 4080 I'd say 850w to be comfortable

Marine-RX179 · 16 Dec 2022 at 11:55

KietsuUK said:
I was >.<

My monitor is Gigabyte M28U. What CPU and PSU would you recommend?

Had it been a 1440p 144Hz/175Hz monitor, then it could have been a case of not getting the most out of the high-end graphic card at over may be over 100fps range due to CPU bottleneck.

But as you are using a 4K 144Hz monitor, the CPU bottleneck might not be too much of any issue, as cards like 4080 at 4K would generally be only pushing out around 80-100fps for game, so your 2700 probably *shouldn't* be too much of of a bottleneck, unless you were to use DLSS which render at 1440 and upscale which the CPU bottleneck would become more noticeable with the graphic card having more juice left in the tank not being utilized. So you could probably get away with leaving the CPU upgrade for a later date.

The 4080 has a max power consumption of 320W and with the 2700 being lower power-consumption comparing to the 2700X and with just a power consumption of just around 126W under load, doing the maths the CPU plus the graphic card would consume around 450W, and leave around 100W to spare for other things. You *may* get away with using the your existing PSU, but PSU performance would degrade as they age, so it's still more recommended to upgrade the PSU for more headroom to be on the safe side.

EVGA are still one of the better PSU manufacturer, so you can't go wrong with getting their PSU again. The EVGA G6 750W and the EVGA 850W pricing seem to be just around £10 difference, so you might as well go for the 850W to futureproof.

KietsuUK · 16 Dec 2022 at 12:02

I play mostly FPS stuff. Dont really have a budget in mind. Not looking for top tier nor bottom tier so mid range items i guess.

Marine-RX179 · 16 Dec 2022 at 14:49

KietsuUK said:
I play mostly FPS stuff. Dont really have a budget in mind. Not looking for top tier nor bottom tier so mid range items i guess.

After you have upgraded the PSU and the graphic card, you would then be in the position to consider upgrading your 2700 to something like a 3700X, 3800X or 3900X depending on how much you want to spend.

You should be able to find them 2nd hand on the bay with 3700X around £120, 3800X around £150-£170, 3900X around £200.

Though for your MSI B450 Tomahawk you would have to make sure to flash and update the bios for it to support the 3000 series CPU (if the version you bought is not labelled as 3000 series ready out of the box).

KietsuUK · 16 Dec 2022 at 14:51

Marine-RX179 said:
After you have upgraded the PSU and the graphic card, you would then be in the position to consider upgrading your 2700 to something like a 3700X, 3800X or 3900X depending on how much you want to spend.

You should be able to find them 2nd hand on the bay with 3700X around £120, 3800X around £150-£170, 3900X around £200.

Though for your MSI B450 Tomahawk you would have to make sure to flash and update the bios for it to support the 3000 series CPU (if the version you bought is not labelled as 3000 series ready out of the box).

Cool, thanks. I rarely buy anything off ebay anymore, been burnt to many times so id be looking for new items. As for flashing the mobo, thatll be a YT job, never done that before and sounds like i could tank something if done wrong lol

Marine-RX179 · 16 Dec 2022 at 16:41

KietsuUK said:
Cool, thanks. I rarely buy anything off ebay anymore, been burnt to many times so id be looking for new items. As for flashing the mobo, thatll be a YT job, never done that before and sounds like i could tank something if done wrong lol

MSI has an official video on YT on how to flash the bios using the M-Flash.

I have just seem this recently myself as I also need to update my MSI motherboard bios for improving better NVME compatibility before installing my new Samsung 980 PRO NVME 1TB SSD

I just need to find a spare <32GB or lower capacity USB drive that I could format/clear the content and to put the downloaded and unzipped bios file on it :cry:

muon · 16 Dec 2022 at 17:03

If I was you I'd try to buy the Nvidia manufactured 4080. It will most likely be fine with your PSU as it adheres to a lower stock power limit than others (also taking into account the likely CPUs you will use which are 142W max).

I wouldn't try and run a 3080 Ti on that PSU as even the stock limit edges it closer to what the PSU can do.

KietsuUK · 18 Dec 2022 at 00:36

Ok, so ive been looking around. In my head i have a 3080TI/3090TI - Ryzen 7 5800x 3D - EVGA 750W G6 PSU. That seem about right to you guys? Would just need to update my Mobo?

Joxeon · 18 Dec 2022 at 00:46

Which games do you play at what resolution?

Tetras · 18 Dec 2022 at 00:50

KietsuUK said:
Ok, so ive been looking around. In my head i have a 3080TI/3090TI - Ryzen 7 5800x 3D - EVGA 750W G6 PSU. That seem about right to you guys? Would just need to update my Mobo?

The EVGA G6 is a solid PSU, I'd be tempted to go for a little more headroom though. How much are you planning to pay for the 3080 Ti/3090 Ti? I'd also consider just dumping the new card in "as is" because if you're playing at 4K you'll probably get away with it, with a 2700X (though depends on the game / settings).

KietsuUK · 18 Dec 2022 at 01:06

Tetras said:
The EVGA G6 is a solid PSU, I'd be tempted to go for a little more headroom though. How much are you planning to pay for the 3080 Ti/3090 Ti? I'd also consider just dumping the new card in "as is" because if you're playing at 4K you'll probably get away with it, with a 2700X (though depends on the game / settings).

Up the the PSU to the 850 G6? Tbh with the extra ill potentially have to buy to make the most of the new gpu, i dont want to pay more than £1200. If anything i might upgrade the CPU and PSU first and hope for a slight price decrease in the meantime. As for settings, atm i usually run @1080 on the highest settings i can, to try and get the most FPS that i can. Once i can start getting atleast a solid 90fps on those settings, then i can start upping the res. I dont mind not playing on 4k as long as it runs smooth and doesnt look like complete ass XD

Tetras · 18 Dec 2022 at 01:12

KietsuUK said:
Up the the PSU to the 850 G6? Tbh with the extra ill potentially have to buy to make the most of the new gpu, i dont want to pay more than £1200. If anything i might upgrade the CPU and PSU first and hope for a slight price decrease in the meantime. As for settings, atm i usually run @1080 on the highest settings i can, to try and get the most FPS that i can. Once i can start getting atleast a solid 90fps on those settings, then i can start upping the res. I dont mind not playing on 4k as long as it runs smooth and doesnt look like complete ass XD

Yeah, 850 would definitely boost the comfort levels with a high-end graphics card. Lots of people do get away with 750, but if you're buying a new one, I think it makes sense.

Well, you'd be better off playing at 4K and whacking up the settings if you keep the 2700, at 1080p you'd have an unholy bottleneck with a 4080 in many games (and ram speed starts coming into it too).

Chuk_Chuk · 18 Dec 2022 at 20:56

KietsuUK said:
tbh id never even considered the size of the card lol It seems i have plenty of room in there atm. Let the shopping commence!

I'm just going to bring this point back up, since I don't think anyone addressed it. I would highly recommend that you check the actual dimensions of your case and compare it to the card you want. These cards are big now and you might be in for a surprise when you try and install the card and it doesn't physically fit in your case.