New Gfx Card advice

MrDragonfyr · 8 Nov 2017 at 17:39

Current spec below.

Looking for recommendations for buying a new gfx card.

Something is wrong with my current card. It won't work on AMD Crimson Drivers, but works fine on windows default drivers! So, i'm just going to sell it! (No interest is troubleshooting the issue any more).

Someone has mentioned looking for a 1060 6GB or 1070 on sale. Not sure what the difference are / and / if / it will fit my criteria (below).
--------------------------------------------
So...
Current Card: AMD XFX Radeon R9 290 DD Black Edition 4096MB GDDR5

-- Criteria
-> IT MUST NOT BE AMD <- Current issue has put me off them
- I'd like to buy a card for around £400-£500 GBP.
- It must support 3 displays. (Listed Below).
- Be able to run on a new Ryzen build, if i decide to build one.
- Be better than my current card.
- Work in my current system (spec below).
--------------------------------------------
Thanks

My Current Spec.
-- Screen1 - Asus VG248 Digital LCD, 3D Enabled.
-- Screen2 - Dell 17" Wide Screen LCD.
-- Screen3 - Dell 17" Wide Screen LCD.
-- GFX - AMD XFX Radeon R9 290 DD Black Edition 4096MB GDDR5.
-- MOBO - Asus Crosshair V Formula Z AMD 990FX.
-- CPU - AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz.
-- RAM - TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB PC3-2133MHz.
-- CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator X6
-- PSU - 860W Corsair AX860 Full Modular.
-- CASE - CM Storm Trooper Gaming Windowed Case.
-- HDD1 - Crucial 240GB M500 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5".
-- HDD2 - WD 3 TB 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive - Black Edition.
-- HDD3 - External 1TB Western Digital Drive.
-- HDD4 - Internal WD Black Edition 2TB Sata Drive.
-- HDD5 - External WD Passport 4TB.
-- M - Corsair M65.
-- KB - Cougar 200k.
-- NET - Fiber Optic - 73mbps down. 19mbps up. 20ms avg.

Thank you,
Gary

mickyflinn · 8 Nov 2017 at 18:57

Are you gaming across 3 monitors and at what resoloution ?

MrDragonfyr · 8 Nov 2017 at 20:56

Nope. I use the main screen (1920 x 1080) for gaming. The other side screens are used for watching YouTube, live streaming assistant windows.

I started using dual screen / three screens when i was using Photoshop / Lightroom / other applications where i needed to multi task.

mickyflinn · 8 Nov 2017 at 21:07

All gpus will run 3 monitors its how you set them up, the 6gb 1060 will run at 1080p nicely but the 1070 is a lot more powerful all depends on your budget.

The newer gpus's have Display Connectors – DP1.4, HDMI 2.0b, DL-DVI-D some have more than one of each.

MrDragonfyr · 8 Nov 2017 at 23:21

So when you say "1070", should i just look for a NVidia card that has 1070 in the title?

Kinda looking for a bit more directional advice.

southernorth · 9 Nov 2017 at 00:35

MrDragonfyr said:
So when you say "1070", should i just look for a NVidia card that has 1070 in the title?

Kinda looking for a bit more directional advice.

Your options are a GTX 1070ti, or GTX 1080. The 1080 will almost take your entire £500 budget, whereas the 1070ti could leave ~£75

The performance difference between the 1070ti and a stock 1080 is minimal if you overclock the 1070ti. If you don't overclock the 1070ti it performs ~10% worse in games.

You could have course just overclock the 1080 which would mean a much larger gap vs stock 1070ti.

Here are some potential options:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Turbo 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card= £479.99
1 x Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 AMP Edition 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (ZT-P10800C-10P)= £518.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 1070Ti EX 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £428.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070Ti Gaming 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £469.99

Total: £1,897.96
(includes shipping: £0.00)

The Turbo comes under budget, but it is a blower style cooler which means the card will run hot and loud. Not ideal if you want a quiet computer. Standard 3 year warranty, no UK RMA centre. Still, this is a good price for a GTX 1080.
The AMP is slightly over budget, but has a much better cooler which means it will run quieter and cooler than the Turbo. This card comes with a 5 year warranty instead of 3, but doesn't have a UK RMA centre either.
The 1070ti EX has a decent cooler meaning it will be fairly quiet and run cool when under load. This card has a below-average 2 year warranty, but does have a UK RMA centre. As you can see you can't quite buy one yet, but it is an excellent option for the price.
The 1070ti gaming has a slightly better cooler than the 1070ti EX, it will run slightly cooler but not much quieter. It has a 3 year warranty and also has a UK RMA centre. This card is a bit too expensive in my opinion, as it's almost the price of the ASUS 1080 Turbo, but it would run quieter and cooler than the turbo.

I would either buy the KFA2 when in stock, or wait for a different GTX 1080 with a better cooler to lower in price. If noise and heat don't bother you much, go for the Turbo as its fairly well priced.

MrDragonfyr · 9 Nov 2017 at 01:17

Brilliant reply, you're hired! lol. Thank you for that.

I've never heard of "KFA2" before. And until recently i was into the named side of computing. (More people to ts issues / more issues that can be resolved). But as with my current card and it's random driver issue, i've been put off AMD!

I must admit, the thought of sinking so much into a gfx card, isn't a nice thought. I was trying to ask myself if i need to buy such a fantastic card, yea, 3 screens is a must, but as for the most demanding games... i like to play Warcraft on ultra / high with no fps lagg, and Cities Skylines with no gfx issues. Yea, i'd like to try 4k gaming at some point, but not in any rush. Also play BF1 or GTAV when i feel like it, but again, not the most demanding of gaming!

£400-£500... a lot of money when you don't have a lot of money! :/

Thanks again for your help. Il weigh this all up tomorrow when im a bit more awake!

southernorth · 9 Nov 2017 at 01:25

MrDragonfyr said:
Brilliant reply, you're hired! lol. Thank you for that.

I've never heard of "KFA2" before. And until recently i was into the named side of computing. (More people to ts issues / more issues that can be resolved). But as with my current card and it's random driver issue, i've been put off AMD!

I must admit, the thought of sinking so much into a gfx card, isn't a nice thought. I was trying to ask myself if i need to buy such a fantastic card, yea, 3 screens is a must, but as for the most demanding games... i like to play Warcraft on ultra / high with no fps lagg, and Cities Skylines with no gfx issues. Yea, i'd like to try 4k gaming at some point, but not in any rush. Also play BF1 or GTAV when i feel like it, but again, not the most demanding of gaming!

£400-£500... a lot of money when you don't have a lot of money! :/

Thanks again for your help. Il weigh this all up tomorrow when im a bit more awake!

Fair enough. I'm sure more people will give their thoughts as well; it's always good to get a variety of opinions.

For 4K gaming you become GPU-limited, so you would want to get a GTX 1080 or better to be honest. Even a 1080ti doesn't quite run all 4k games at 60fps+.

The upcoming Volta GPUs in ~6 months might be able to run games properly at 4k though.

MrDragonfyr · 9 Nov 2017 at 01:30

Indeed, might get some other suggestions but im not holding my breath.

Skylines and wow worked fine with the current card / build. Think i paid around the £380 mark for this gfx card. Sure any i buy now will be just as good. As for my current pc spec, yea, think it's time i invested in a Ryzen system. But again, cash flow!

MrDragonfyr · 9 Nov 2017 at 01:33

Also to add, i'm running this laptop too, which does a lot of what i need https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GE72-6QC-Apache.html#hero-overview

Considering selling parts of main rig / building a ryzen system. Dunno though

MrDragonfyr · 9 Nov 2017 at 11:32

If anyone else has any ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.

I have the money ready, just need to know which card would be the best. As i say, anything around £400-£500 area would be good. Thanks

edit:
-- Criteria
-> IT MUST NOT BE AMD <- Current issue has put me off them
- I'd like to buy a card for around £400-£500 GBP.
- It must support 3 displays. (Listed Below).
- Be able to run on a new Ryzen build, if i decide to build one.
- Be better than my current card.
- Work in my current system (spec below).

mickyflinn · 9 Nov 2017 at 19:09