Nvidia GPU options?

[scotty38]

Hi all,

I recently built a machine primarily to use for processing of Astronomical images using PixInsight. It is quite processor cores and memory intensive which is why I built to the spec below. Additionally it does not use much in the way of GPU resources but a few processes will use one. That is likely to change at some point but will use CUDA hence my belief that I need to stick with Nvidia cards.

For PixInsight alone I don't think I'd need anything fancy and had been thinking I'd eventually go for something like a 3060/3060ti however the desire to run a few games just to have a play has kicked in. It won't necessarily be anything intensive and this desire may fade away but the question is do I stick with my original thoughts or maybe up it a bit to a 3070?
I did fancy having a look at CyberPunk/similar type games and my current monitor is 1440 but I will be getting a 4k device for the imaging stuff. As an aside I did used to play Battlefield with my youngest a few years back on Playstation and even though I was garbage it would be nice to have another look at that if it's still around....

Current machine spec for the bits I think relevant is:

AMD Ryzen 7950x
64GB of DDR5 5200Mhz
Arctic Freezer 360 AIO
2 x 3 Lian Li SL Infinity fans
1 x AL 120 exhaust
Lian Li O11D Evo case.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[scotty38]

Hi, budget is around the cost of those cards and will be new, most likely. I could go higher on the budget, it's probably not needed for my use case but to be honest it's why I'm asking just to make sure I don't buy and wish I'd gone bigger

 

[scotty38]

If I was in your shoes with your PC spec and use case, I wouldn't considering getting anything lesser than the 4080...however, the pricing for the new gen cards is horrendously overpriced...

Value for new last gen 3000 series cards are also quite awful, with it's pricing pretty much not much different from when they were launch 2 years ago.

Thanks but they are becoming serious prices and you think for my, possibly brief, venture into gaming a 4080 is the right place to be?

 

[scotty38]

Ok thanks, I have been reading the pricing threads etc but no idea if or when pricing will drop. I know some folk are waiting on the financial results today to see if it affects anything.....

 

[scotty38]

For a bit of casual gaming at 1440 then a 3060 Ti is fine, but I wouldn't pay nearly £500 for one. For production type work, the 3060 has 12GB of VRAM which can come in handy, but it's more of a 1080p card than a 1440p card. For 4K everything changes, since a 3060 Ti will struggle at that resolution, though you can upscale in some games, but of course Cyberpunk is one of the most demanding games you could dabble with.

Many thanks. I will end up with a 4K monitor but wouldn't necessarily want to dabble with games at 4K so would that be an issue? You mention upscaling but on the whole would having a 4k monitor basically mean gaming at 4K and therefore everything that comes with it?
The 4070ti seems more in reach although I think I'm aware of that card's history plus it's still priced higher than it should be I guess? I have never looked at these cards when prices were more normal so have no idea just how inflated they are at the minute.

 

[scotty38]

Thanks again, do you think a 4070ti would fit the bill all round, if we disregard its pricing for now?

 

[scotty38]

Thanks Decto much appreciated.

I'd honestly be tempted to just buy an RX 6600, which you can get for £240-£250. According to this video, it can play Cyberpunk at 1440p medium with FSR, or even 4K at a low setting and then if you get back into PC gaming (or your work stuff starts to use CUDA) then you can sell it on and buy a better card.

To be honest I'd not even considered this so probably not a bad shout. There is stuff already that will make use of CUDA, not huge amounts and I can certainly get by without it for now so I'll have a good look at this, thanks.

 

[scotty38]

Thanks @Tetras and @Poneros plenty to think about and appreciate the pointers. I suppose once the pain of paying for a 4070ti has faded that one would leave the fewest doubts and "I wish I'd done something else..." thoughts.

 

[scotty38]

Hi all, just to update on this one I decided to get an AMD card as seemed to be the better choice cost wise. When PixInsight can use more of a GPU I'll then consider a change to Nvidia as at the moment the app is blazing fast compared with what I'm used to anyway.

I bought an RX 6750 XT by the way, I managed to stop the creep up the range at that point....