Need a graphics card upgrade

[Willir]

I have been away from the PC gaming scene for a while and recently wanted to get back into it. I am also a games development student at university and need a new graphics card to cope with the 3D modelling/animation work.

I roughly have a budget of £200 and would want something that will be good for gaming/rendering etc...

My current specs are:

XFX Radeon HD 6850
AMD FX 8350: Black Edition (@4.00GHz)
ASUS 970 Pro Gaming/Aura mobo
HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3
Corsair CX550M

Thanks in advance.

 

[Willir]

I was looking at the RX480s, I have also been looking at the GTX 1060s?

 

[Willir]

What are you using for editing/production? If using Adobe software, I would go for AMD.

I use Adobe software, AutoDesk software such as 3Ds Max and I also use Unreal Engine a fair bit too.

 

[Willir]

Over a period of time, I've noticed that the playback performance/applying of transitions when using Premiere Pro has definitely gotten steadily worse (I'm using a 980Ti). It's not at the point where I can't make a simple YouTube video, but it was much smoother when testing my old 7970 some weeks/months back.

The way it stands at the moment, if I was buying a new card then AMD would currently be a strong consideration as far as Adobe is concerned. Hopefully, performance for Nvidia products will improve further down the line.

Thanks for the advice, I use Premiere Pro also and could do with a good solid card for rendering etc...

I think I will go for an AMD card tbh, just not sure which one at the moment, the RX 480 seems promising upto now for the price.

 

[Willir]

Yeh I would also echo the 8GB RX480.

These are the two I personally would opt for atm;

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-18d-gi.html

or

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-40h-as.html

With regards to new gpus, the RX580 should be coming out within the next few weeks or so. I don't know if you can wait till then, although they might be more pricier than the £200 you're willing to spend.

I may go for the RX480 considering it would be a nice upgrade from my current card, especially for the price. I am in no rush for a new card but I also would like to stick to around the £200 budget, splashing out on a more expensive card is something Im not willing to do just yet.

Which brand of the RX480 is the more reliable?

 

[Willir]

Seems like I have a lot of RX480s to pick from. The Strix card looks nice although I do like the sound of the XFX GTR.

 

[Willir]

The Powercolor Devil looks great for the price, the core & boost clock looks to be faster than the XFX GTR card.

 

[Willir]

Is the ASUS RX480 Dual card a reliable card though? TerrorFirmer posted above to stay clear of the ASUS dual cards, hence why they are so cheap.

Upto now I'm looking at the Strix, Devil or possibly the ASUS duel card mentioned.

*Thinking about it now, I may wait around a bit longer to see how much the RX570/580s are, I understand they are out around April 11th?

 

[Willir]

I was thinking the same, all the cards must all be fairly stable and reliable.

Is there any ideas of how much the RX580 will be on launch?

 

[Willir]

Maybe the 480s will lower in price when the 580s launch, if the 580s don't meet performance then I will probably stick with getting a 480 as I have read that the performance always increases with driver updates.

Hard decision picking graphics cards haha.

 

[Willir]

I wouldn't go for the Asus Dual, seems a fair few are having problems with it...
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/asus-rx480-dual-problems.18773368/

I would want to wait for the 580s to release if I were you. Not too long now.

Ahhh right, thanks for the heads up. I will probably hang around to see how much the RX580s will be in price.

 

[Willir]

Yes i would have to agree ive been contemplating for ages but my gtx 670 still shocks me how good it performs. When the rx580 are relesed lets pick up the discusion again.

I'm only rocking an XFX Radeon HD 6850 and I'm way over due a new card. Been away from PC gaming for too long.

 

[Willir]

My 6850 runs GTA V on normal at a decent FPS but it looks awful, software and games have become so demanding.

 

[Willir]

*Update*

Finally made my mind up and decided to go for the PowerColor Radeon RX 480 Devil with the FREE Doom code, I also added in a Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED Air CPU Cooler because my current stock cooler is not very good. Thanks Overclockers looking forward to receiving my order tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone for the advice!

 

[Willir]

Yeah my case has enough room for it (I think) as I knew before hand its a large card. Will keep you all updated once I fit it tomorrow.

 

[Willir]

*Update* - Received my RX480 Red Devil today with a Hyper 212 Cooler to replace my stock cpu fan. Crd was easy enough to install, updated to the latest drivers and boom card is up and running in my current build, probably gonna spend the night testing a few games and software.

Thanks again Overclockers, spot on service and happy with my products. The Haribo went down a treat.

 

[Willir]

Yeah going to start testing DOOM, GTA V and some 3D Mark and Heaven benchmarks. Then I will probably check out how quick it renders 3D models in 3Ds MAX.

And thanks, did not realize how big the cooler was until I opened the box haha