If your GPU was dying now and you wanted an AMD GPU which would you get?

[fillip2k]

So my old GTX1080 is unstable when playing games and frankly its old and I want a change. I'm set on going team red.

Mostly as seeing Nvidia's price gouging over the last few years has left me with a dim view of them and while I like RT its not a killer feature for me.

I'm considering a choice between the 7900 series GPU's really. For the XT/X I want to go for the Sapphire Nitro+ editions. I love the way they look and my plan is to take advantage of the ability to connect one of my front 180mm intake fans to the GPU. That way the bottom one will react to the GPU while the top one will react to the CPU. I was also considering the GRE, but I kinda feel like I would be better served with the XT instead? I currently game at 1440p (27" 144mhz Dell G-sync) But next year I want to jump on one of the 32 inch Alienware OLED models.

My heart wants to go for the XTX as its the top of the range. But I'm not sure if the 5700X3d would bottle neck it? I do want to upgrade to AM5, possibly end of next year though. So perhaps then I could keep hold of it and use it with the AM5 system?

Taking these things into consideration which would you go for? The rest of my system specs are in my signature....

 

[fillip2k]

Hmm consensus seems to be pushing me towards a 7800XT...

In regards to the Nitro specifically, I really wouldn't be put off by e.g. the 7900 XT Hellhound at £630

I'm a sucker for aesthetics and I'm just not a fan of the Hellhounds looks... I like the looks of the Nitro+ so in that regard I'm set on a Nitro+ card tbh. Otherwise I actually like the reference designs but they seem to be hard/impossible to come by now.

I was going to hold off until Black Friday (maybe some deals, but also close enough to Christmas that it will be my christmas present to myself, buy it now and my child like psychology won't count it...)

I think I'm going to have to do a bit more review watching and looking at performance charts...

 

[fillip2k]

I see. In that case, I think it would have to be the 7900 XT. £720 is high relatively, but not too high, whereas the XTX is £990 and that definitely does not make sense.

Yeah, I'm coming to the conclusion that the 7900XT is the best one for me to go for. The same "compromise" as between me wanting a 5800X3D and getting a 5700X3D. The "compromise" being not much difference in perceived performance vs big difference in actual price.

My only real reluctance to go with the 7800XT is the extra 4gb of vRAM and general faster GPU on the 7900XT which might give a bit more longevity to the card? which brings me to...

There were rumours awhile ago that RDNA 4 was launching imminently, but I haven't really been keeping track.

I was wondering if RDNA4 launches or is imminent perhaps there might be a some deals on 7900 cards to be had? But the rumours do seem have gone quiet. So this does add a bit of hesitation, but as it currently is the system is unusable for games. Firing up Destiny 2 results in a crash after about 20 mins, if I flick the switch to the non-OC bios on the 1080 then it might last an hour. The crash is always accompanied by increased temps with one of the MEM and PWR temperature probes being about 10 degrees higher than the rest.

 

[fillip2k]

The reason I just ignored the 7800 XT is because you specifically said you liked the aesthetics of the Nitro and from what I can see, the 7800 XT doesn't have quite the same cooler / design as the XT and XTX models.

I think the 16GB will probably be fine for the 7800 XT in the longer-term, since it'll likely run out of grunt before you have serious problems there and get upgraded anyway.

For 4K, the extra power of the 7900 XT is definitely going to be nice, but while you're at 1440p you don't need it.

The 7800XT mention missed a quote from someone else who suggested the 7800XT... sorry my mistake!

 

[fillip2k]

New pads and sheet of ptm7950 might be a cheap solution.

But where's the fun in that eh?

 

[fillip2k]

Good question. End of the last AMD generation there were good deals to be had. Time will tell I guess.

Due to circumstances* I'm looking to upgrade before I would usually do so and a bargain/reduced price 7900XTX would be a worthwhile upgrade from my current card (RX6900XT)

*Son's PC in need of a boost. As good excuse as any.

Edit - they (the deals) were around the middle of November > Black Friday, just prior to the launch of the 7xxx series.

Hmm, so then waiting till BF might still be a good idea after all. Been reading some run downs and reviews and all I can say is jesus Nvidia, why do they have so many SKU's! It just adds so much confusion. The naming structure seems to have gone to hell with "super" this, "ti" that and the. "ti super". It's another reason for me to dislike what Nvidia has become!

 

[fillip2k]

I don't give a damn about aesthetics however, performance vs price will always be king to me.

I dunno, I feel its a part of the buying choice now for me. Especially with the prevalence of windowed cases now. I don't want to be looking at something fugly. Before I bought my EVGA 1080 FTW2 I had the equivalent Aorus card and I really did not appreciate the looks. Whereas the EVGA I still think is one of the better looking cards from that era of cards. One of the reasons I miss EVGA is the quality of the designs they had as well how good the actual cards they made were.

Asus used to have some really attractive designs but not so much anymore. I felt they went through a period where the Mobo's also looked a bit naff... The new X870 Crosshair Hero though does look sweet

 

[fillip2k]

The 7900xt is definitely the sweet spot if buying new. They launched it at too close to the the price of the xtx so it got a hard time in the launch reviews despite being a good card. It now makes a lot of sense.

The 7800xt gets beaten by the 6800xt in some situations so I would pass on that just in principle. Ignoring the name it's a decent value option though

I'm about 90% certain now I'll go for the 7900XT based on some of the things said here and reading reviews etc. I'll be going for the Sapphire Nitro+ one. Which I know is at the top of the 7900XT scale but I really really dig the way it looks.

Only left field thing that might happen is going for a 4070 ti super if the deal is just so great for me to ignore my dislike of Nvidia.

 

[fillip2k]

Ohh I've been down that road before and man did I regret it . But of course.. some times.. things do turn out better than expected. Sorry not much of a helping hand

Just realised the RTX's need a 12v High Power connection. Which I don't have...

 

[fillip2k]

Even if you don't care about RT you still have to account for the image quality difference of DLSS which is something you can't "spend" (rendering time wise) for with AMD. Meaning, even if you were to use FSR/XeSS at higher quality levels you can't make up the difference versus DLSS and the less shimmering/ghosting etc (nor even with the game's regular TAA in most cases - which in any case would have you halve your performance comparatively).

That's something you should think about in relation to the games you play and how it works there.

It's too bad your GPU is unstable, if you could've waited then maybe AMD announces new cards soon and showcases FSR with ML, which they quasi-announced a few weeks ago.

Yeah there's a part of me that thinks "well I can just game on my PS5 and wait" then there's a part of me that thinks "I've just spent the last couple of months faffing about with the PC and upgrading to the 5700X3D and wants to actually make some use of it". Its annoying because after years and years of faithful service the 1080 decided now was the time to start acting up.

I guess there is an argument to be made for perhaps seeing if a re-pad and paste of the 1080 solves the issues. Although I have a feeling its more that a Memory chip is dying personally, I've been running the official EVGA 11 gpbs OC bios since they released it. I stress tested it fully when I implemented it but it may be a case of it having reached the end of its life due to being OC'd? I'm purely basing this on the temps being fine imo in general, and even the one memory temp sensor that reports a higher than the others only does about 10 degrees (~74 highest recorded on HWinfo). But I see the tell tale signs of instability before a crash, artifacts on screen etc.