"Future proofing" and the RX 480

[nashathedog]

3Gb is rubbish for 1080p, 3Gb 1060 is a cash grab card.

If there was only 4Gb on 480's-'it wont be enough for 1080p'.

We'll gain more insight when DX12 Deus X MD releases whether 3Gb's holds back 1080p IQ on the most relevant forward pointing 'next gen' engine is released.

@Op, Deus X MD's showing 7870/660 as minimum spec, thats an indication where your performance will be in 4 years.

I was looking at the videos for Deus ex on the Steam store page today when I saw pre-loading was available so now I'm trying to not spend 40 quid on it, I'm meant to be saving for Zen and Vega but I keep spending on games at the moment with about 200 spent over the last 4-6 weeks, mind you that is what its about so I think I'll buy just one more It does look quite good. It'll also be interesting to see what tech's used and how the cards stack up with it.

 

[nashathedog]

For which card? The 480?

Thanks

Whatever you get don't go under 4 gb's, Nowadays it's textures that push ram usage up more than anything and textures do not directly impact performance hence why they're being used as the way to maximise visual quality. There's too many titles available that will want more than 3gb's of ram at 1080p and there's some that want more than 4, I sold a 3gb 780 a couple of years ago because mods used textures that wanted more ram than it had for 1080p and now the game developers are using the same tactic to get the best visual quality out of the box. I'd say you need 4gb's minimum for 1080p, That way you will only need to drop the odd texture setting on the odd game. Anyone wanting to maximise a cards life needs to be going for the higher ram models for the reasons given. Over the next couple of years more and more games developers will be pushing high res textures to maximise there games visual quality. That will result in 2gb and 3gb cards becoming handicapped by the memory limit regardless of the gpu's capabilities. A 3gb 1060 was a terrible pairing for the gamer, A card that should match or outperform the card that sat above it in the previous gen's range should never of had less ram considering the current trends. Buy a 4gb card or higher, Personally I'd go 6gb 1060 or 8gb 480.

 

[LMT50]

Deus ex does look very good.

 

[Telecaster]

Hardly, They're talking 6 tflops which is basically a 390x, A 390x is not capable of 4k gaming

Not at satisfactory levels for a PC gamer, but we're talking about console gamers here who have been happy with 900/1080p <30FPS at medium settings. I bet a 390X could manage that if the game is optimised specifically for it, which console games usually are.

 

[Final8y]

Whatever you get don't go under 4 gb's, Nowadays it's textures that push ram usage up more than anything and textures do not directly impact performance hence why they're being used as the way to maximise visual quality. There's too many titles available that will want more than 3gb's of ram at 1080p and there's some that want more than 4, I sold a 3gb 780 a couple of years ago because mods used textures that wanted more ram than it had for 1080p and now the game developers are using the same tactic to get the best visual quality out of the box. I'd say you need 4gb's minimum for 1080p, That way you will only need to drop the odd texture setting on the odd game. Anyone wanting to maximise a cards life needs to be going for the higher ram models for the reasons given. Over the next couple of years more and more games developers will be pushing high res textures to maximise there games visual quality. That will result in 2gb and 3gb cards becoming handicapped by the memory limit regardless of the gpu's capabilities. A 3gb 1060 was a terrible pairing for the gamer, A card that should match or outperform the card that sat above it in the previous gen's range should never of had less ram considering the current trends. Buy a 4gb card or higher, Personally I'd go 6gb 1060 or 8gb 480.

Yep i got rid of my 7950s because 3GB was not enough and i had to drop settings.

 

[nashathedog]

Not at satisfactory levels for a PC gamer, but we're talking about console gamers here who have been happy with 900/1080p <30FPS at medium settings. I bet a 390X could manage that if the game is optimised specifically for it, which console games usually are.

That's the problem I was talking about, They may waste the extra performance by forcing a high res with frame rates that can drop below the 30 level, sometimes far below as they do now. I hope if as an example I plug a Neo into a 1080p TV it is allowed to run at that rather than it upscaling and taking a performance hit when doing so.

It'll be so much better if they just add one option in the software that allows us to decide what res ie: native or upscaled.

 

[bainbridge]

Well the 480 seems future proofed to me.

They're all sold out in the shop so I'll have to wait until the future to get one!

 

[LMT50]

Whatever you get don't go under 4 gb's, Nowadays it's textures that push ram usage up more than anything and textures do not directly impact performance hence why they're being used as the way to maximise visual quality. There's too many titles available that will want more than 3gb's of ram at 1080p and there's some that want more than 4, I sold a 3gb 780 a couple of years ago because mods used textures that wanted more ram than it had for 1080p and now the game developers are using the same tactic to get the best visual quality out of the box. I'd say you need 4gb's minimum for 1080p, That way you will only need to drop the odd texture setting on the odd game. Anyone wanting to maximise a cards life needs to be going for the higher ram models for the reasons given. Over the next couple of years more and more games developers will be pushing high res textures to maximise there games visual quality. That will result in 2gb and 3gb cards becoming handicapped by the memory limit regardless of the gpu's capabilities. A 3gb 1060 was a terrible pairing for the gamer, A card that should match or outperform the card that sat above it in the previous gen's range should never of had less ram considering the current trends. Buy a 4gb card or higher, Personally I'd go 6gb 1060 or 8gb 480.

Right, that makes sense.

I guess I'm going to go with the RX 480 8gb after all then.

Anyone have a preference on brand?

I put up a thread the other day asking and the winner was power colour, but then I've seen other reviews comment on how others are much better, so I'm still not sure.

 

[tommybhoy]

For which card? The 480?

Thanks

Yes 480, if it was my money it would be 6 or 8Gb for 1080p at a minimum, my 970 ran out@1080p within playable fps, more is always always better than less in this performance bracket.

I was looking at the videos for Deus ex on the Steam store page today when I saw pre-loading was available so now I'm trying to not spend 40 quid on it, I'm meant to be saving for Zen and Vega but I keep spending on games at the moment with about 200 spent over the last 4-6 weeks, mind you that is what its about I'll think I'll buy just one more It does look quite good. It'll also be interesting to see what tech's used and how the cards stack up with it.

I caved and bought it@Cdkeys for £30, really need a title to get me engrosed again as everyhting else isn't holding my attention at all right now.

 

[OC18]

Would you say it is better to wait for vega or get the RX 480 now?

 

[TheRealDeal]

Would you say it is better to wait for vega or get the RX 480 now?

This all depends on what you want to spend and what you have now. If you are happy with what you are experiencing now then there is no harm in waiting. With the way prices are going though expect Vega to cost well over £300 for the lowest part. I only upgrade when i feel my experience is negatively impacted enough to the point that i need an upgrade. Game play is what drives my gaming and always has done so i don't need the highest settings to get the best experience.

 

[BluD]

Yep i got rid of my 7950s because 3GB was not enough and i had to drop settings.

I had the same thing with crossfire, a single card would have been fine though. If a 1060 is getting close to double the power of a 7950 im guessing ya would be running into the same thing.

 

[OC18]

This all depends on what you want to spend and what you have now. If you are happy with what you are experiencing now then there is no harm in waiting. With the way prices are going though expect Vega to cost well over £300 for the lowest part. I only upgrade when i feel my experience is negatively impacted enough to the point that i need an upgrade. Game play is what drives my gaming and always has done so i don't need the highest settings to get the best experience.

That makes sense, thanks for the tips.

 

[h4rm0ny]

Thanks for the pointers. I don't really know much about freesync and gsync; I'll have to do some research./

Freesync and Gsync are the same idea, the latter is owned by NVIDIA and they charge a big licence fee in monitor makers to include it so Gsync monitors are more expensive. Gsync has a slightly higher range of supported frequencies but it's marginal and makes lno difference to most so I would say Freesync is better. I very much believe that GSync will lose as monitor makers can add Freesync for next to nothing and because it's open Nvidia can add support for it if they choose. They're just not yet because they still hope to make their proprietary tech the standard. I give it three years toos before we see an Nvidia card with Freesync support.

By the way, what are people's opinions on microsofts project Scorpio? Do you think it's legit?

I wouldn't have thought they could put out a 4K gaming capable system by next year and it not cost an insain amount..

If it is then it'd be a pretty big deal I'd imagine.

I think it will either cheat and use upscaling (which actually I would be alright with) or they'll just run at 30fps/have low levels of detail/simplistic lighting.

I'm seeing reports of Vega architecture set to release in October, is that likely

I think the word is 'plausible' rather than 'likely'. Could it? Yes. Will it? Don't know.

Is it better to hold off on the 480 and wait in that case? I know some of you are doing that.
Seems pretty soon if it is the case...

It's going to be pricey - it's AMD's high end where they'll be competing with 1080ti's et al. It wont be replacing the 480, it will be supplementing it. Unless you want to spend a lot more money, I'd stick with the 480.

 

[LMT50]

Freesync and Gsync are the same idea, the latter is owned by NVIDIA and they charge a big licence fee in monitor makers to include it so Gsync monitors are more expensive. Gsync has a slightly higher range of supported frequencies but it's marginal and makes lno difference to most so I would say Freesync is better. I very much believe that GSync will lose as monitor makers can add Freesync for next to nothing and because it's open Nvidia can add support for it if they choose. They're just not yet because they still hope to make their proprietary tech the standard. I give it three years toos before we see an Nvidia card with Freesync support.



I think it will either cheat and use upscaling (which actually I would be alright with) or they'll just run at 30fps/have low levels of detail/simplistic lighting.





I think the word is 'plausible' rather than 'likely'. Could it? Yes. Will it? Don't know.

Is it better to hold off on the 480 and wait in that case? I know some of you are doing that.
Seems pretty soon if it is the case...

It's going to be pricey - it's AMD's high end where they'll be competing with 1080ti's et al. It wont be replacing the 480, it will be supplementing it. Unless you want to spend a lot more money, I'd stick with the 480.[/QUOTE]

Understood, thanks for the info.
I presumed vega to be a replacement.

 

[motiv]

It's going to be pricey - it's AMD's high end where they'll be competing with 1080ti's et al. It wont be replacing the 480, it will be supplementing it. Unless you want to spend a lot more money, I'd stick with the 480.

Understood, thanks for the info.
I presumed vega to be a replacement.[/QUOTE]

nah, the 480 is only just out. The 490 is more likely to be out October which should go up against a 1070.

 

[Kaapstad]

This thread will still be going when the RX480 and 1060 are EOL.

 

[akarypid]

Well, talking about 'future-proofing' and the 3gb vs 6gb editions of the 1060... Is anyone worried about the fact that developers need to manage memory in DX12/Vulkan?

Any sincere developer will admit that when they're writing code they just assume that "there's enough of everything" and that includes memory. They will only spend time to constrain their footprint if they actually run into a problem.

The way things are going, the 470/480 owners will have at least 4gb RAM (or even 8gb) and then there'll be the 1060 owners with 3 or 6. I'm thinking that people who opt of the 3gb version may run into a situation where a game performs poorly not because it actually truly needs 4gb RAM, but because the devs never bothered to manage things running on fewer than 4gb.

I don't think it's very prudent to go for a 3gb card before we see how well the transition to DX12/Vulkan goes...

 

[h4rm0ny]

I don't think it's very prudent to go for a 3gb card before we see how well the transition to DX12/Vulkan goes...

Good advice. And in support of it I'll point to benchmarks of the 460. In almost all cases, it is beaten by the 380 which is unsurprising as that's a modern architecture with more grunt to its name. The exception? Doom on Vulkan where the 380 gets beaten out by a weaker card. The reason is almost undoubtedly that the 380 has topped out its 2GB RAM. I think people buying 4GB cards wont have to worry but I do think it's going to become the new baseline before 2017 is done meaning 2/3GB cards are an unwise buy now.

 

[LMT50]

Good advice. And in support of it I'll point to benchmarks of the 460. In almost all cases, it is beaten by the 380 which is unsurprising as that's a modern architecture with more grunt to its name. The exception? Doom on Vulkan where the 380 gets beaten out by a weaker card. The reason is almost undoubtedly that the 380 has topped out its 2GB RAM. I think people buying 4GB cards wont have to worry but I do think it's going to become the new baseline before 2017 is done meaning 2/3GB cards are an unwise buy now.

I think there could be some value in buying a 2gb card if you get a decent deal.
I've seen a couple of 960's go for about £70 on eBay, and they're still performing in current games pretty well at the moment - Doom looks great at 1080p with it.
When performance does start slow and an upgrade is mandatory, upgrading wouldn't be a big deal because the card didn't cost much.

I think I'm still go into go for the 480, but I've been toying with the idea of doing this myself.
I mean, is it worth buying something that you know is going to become outdated fairly soon, if you get it for nearly a quarter of the price of a current card?