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GTX 980.....what is the best bang for buck upgrade?

Merzil

Merzil

Merzil

Associate
Joined
17 Mar 2006
Posts
25
Hi All,

Simple question really, i currently have a reference 980 and have started to struggle with newer games on my 1440 ultra wide screen.

So i'm looking for some advice on the best bang for buck GPU at the moment, one thing to be aware of is i like quiet running so please don't go down the hair dryer route if possible.

Thanks for the advice :)

60hz is fine for me....Dell U3415W
 
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https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...hbm2-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-193-pc.html

Assuming you are talking about 60hz and not >60, then this is without a doubt the best bang4buck @ 3440x1440. The Nvidia equivalent (1070ti) is right now more expensive & lacks a game bundle.

Here's the issue though, it's not going to be enough for rock-solid 60 fps in all games @ ultra. Some games you'll have no issues achieving that but in others you will. The catch is, unfortunately, that nothing short of a 1080ti will overcome those scenarios - but that's a completely different price category.
 
Difficult to say really, there aren't any obvious 'bang for buck' upgrades from that ilk of GPU. If you didn't have the hair dryer restriction then a 1080 at under £400 new might have fitted the bill, but I think your best option is probably to scour the secondhand market, see if you can pick up a quiet one around £300.
Don't see much value from lesser cards in terms of the differential from a 980.

Left-field suggestion if you have an SLI board and decent PSU is to see if you can pick up another 980 on the cheap second hand, that's probably the best bang for buck option, but of course is a bit inconsistent in terms of how much benefit it gives in different games.
 
Thanks chaps, I edited my post, i'm a 60hz gamer on a Dell U3415W

I didnt realise 1080s were noisey but i like this idea....1080ti just seems abit to expensive for me especially with my monitor.

Is the AMD quiet? I thought the last series ran hot?
 
Merzil said:
Thanks chaps, I edited my post, i'm a 60hz gamer on a Dell U3415W

I didnt realise 1080s were noisey but i like this idea....1080ti just seems abit to expensive for me especially with my monitor.

Is the AMD quiet? I thought the last series ran hot?
Click to expand...

AMD's been running almost cool lately tbh. The card is going to be quiet, no doubt, but I would recommend undervolting regardless, it's nothing but gains. This is the only reviewer of the card I could find outside of customer reviews (like on reddit).
 
Thanks guys, it looks like Vega is the best option for the money then...just need to decide between the 56 and the 64 now.
Is the 64 worth the extra £70 notes?
 
Merzil said:
Thanks guys, it looks like Vega is the best option for the money then...just need to decide between the 56 and the 64 now.
Is the 64 worth the extra £70 notes?
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Depends. Here's my view, if you keep it for ages then yes, but if you're eyeing another upgrade 2 years from now, maybe not? It's also a question of how much time you spend with the PC & gaming. I spend a LOT of time that way so for me £70 would be an easier decision to make especially because the £450 Red Devil V64 is an excellent card in every respect and with GPU tech not advancing all that fast anymore either (because if you look at the new cards, if they do offer more performance they necessarily up the price, so what you bought for £400 2 years ago is not gonna buy you anything better today necessarily -> that means extra performance for marginal cost increase is a better deal than in the past). The V64s have also kept OC potential much better as production increased compared to V56 so if you like tweaking the card and trying to push it further then it also offers that little bit more.

Fundamentally, would you pay £70 for a 10% extra performance boost? That's what it boils down to.
 
why would you buy a 1080 for 350 2nd hand when you can get a new one with warranty for 400 ? :confused::D yes a blower but id rather have new and warranty over 2nd hand maybe mined on . 980 gtx not a bad card still.
 
different strokes for different fokes, i would rather have a second hand gigabyte 1080 G1 for £350 (which is what i sold mine for within 2 hours, deffo should have gone £400) than a blower card. Dunno where you've seen them for that price anyway. Cheapest blower i've seen is £450 which is a tiny bit cheaper than a open air cooler version
 
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Merzil said:
Thanks guys, it looks like Vega is the best option for the money then...just need to decide between the 56 and the 64 now.
Is the 64 worth the extra £70 notes?
Click to expand...

YES. There are some Red Devil tonight for £449 at OCUK.
And pay a visit at the Vega 64 discussion. We have settings there for higher than watercooled GTX1080 @ 2190 performance level, at less power consumption with Nitro & Red Devil cooler .


(Imho is the card that will lose less money moving forward, because other than gaming is amazing for number crunching stuff (eg TensorFlow), and almost in par to the £8000 V100 GPUs)

Otherwise look for used 1080Ti assuming you have gsync monitor.
 
~>Dg<~ said:
why would you buy a 1080 for 350 2nd hand when you can get a new one with warranty for 400 ? :confused::D yes a blower but id rather have new and warranty over 2nd hand maybe mined on . 980 gtx not a bad card still.
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The OP has clearly stated that as quiet a possible running is one of his main things so a blower card is definitely not a good recommendation.

I have a 1070TI and I'm playing at 1440p and I can manage 60+fps in most games so the faster 1080 is a good call, it's about the same as a Vega 64 but consumes ~40% less power under load (using the Anandtech GPU 2016 bench) and is also quieter.
 
I wouldn’t buy anything personally, what games are you playing that are starting to struggle? I’m using a 290 at 1080p and an Oculus Rift for VR, and I’m looking for a GPU upgrade, but there’s nothing that gives me the performance boost I want for a £300-400
Unless you were willing to spend 1080ti/2080 money I don’t think there anything worth upgrading too. The Vega54 is a great card, but it’s on par with a 1070, which in turn is on par with a 980ti...not worth upgrading from 980 too in 2018 for only 10%~15% IMO
 
In all honesty as mentioned above, Vega 56 is GTX 1070 performance give or take which realistically is overclocked 980 Ti performance. I've owned a 980 Ti and overclocked to the max was actually on par with Vega 56 sometimes faster.

Now get a good overclock on the 980 which I've also had and it was 90% the performance of a 980 Ti. What I'm trying to say is, overclock the 980 to 1450-1500 and the Vega 56 wouldn't be miles ahead.

IMO a GTX 980 should still be able to handle 1440p albeit with a few graphical settings turned down. Personally I'd wait. OR I would look for a second hand 1080 Ti which I have seen some go for £450 on the bay
 
Merzil said:
Thanks guys, it looks like Vega is the best option for the money then...just need to decide between the 56 and the 64 now.
Is the 64 worth the extra £70 notes?
Click to expand...

I've had both, I ended up keeping the 56 and just flashed a customer 64 BIOS to it. It is now no slouch and less than 5% off a stock 64.

Plus I undervolted it too and use iChill software in the Raedon settings to get it even more quiet when gaming. With a freesync monitor (27" 1080p) my gaming is great. My wallet thanked me too...
 
I've still got my trusted GTX 980 under water and decided to try some sensible overclocking with it rather than splashing £500 on a decent GPU this year.

I've got a similar issue with considering an ugprade from an i7 2600k. Nothing available on the market would be classed as a VFM upgrade.

Hopefully we'll see some healthy competition from AMD next year with Zen 2 CPUs and Navi cards, and that may compel me to upgrade.

Right now, I'm willing to settle on turning down a few settings.
 
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