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Replacing graphics card in 5 yr old PC

Criller

Criller

Criller

Associate
Joined
7 Dec 2009
Posts
11
Hi,

I'm looking to change my current Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti with something a little more modern that will play the current games without a struggle. (Titan 2, COD IW etc.)

I currently have the following PC set-up:

MB - Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
CPU - i5-2500 3.30GHz
Case - CoolerMaster CM690
Mem - 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz

I'm looking to get a GTX1060 which I'm presuming is backwards compatible with PCI Express 2?

Would this be a sensible product to go for and is there a big difference in performance between 3GB and 6GB? I appreciate that the card won't run at full speed due to the PCI Express 2.

Any comments will be greatly received.

Thanks
 
That GPU would be a decent match for your current system, you will see an incredible jump in performance.

It is indeed backwards compatible with PCI-E 2.0.

You won't see a performance difference between the 3GB and 6GB model unless you are likely to use more than 3GB of VRAM (playing at higher resolutions) - If you game at 1080P then the 3GB card should be fine.
 
One thing to bear in mind is that the 3GB 1060 not only loses half it's memory (obviously), but also the core itself is a little cut down too. It loses one of it's 10 SM modules, so the 6GB 1060 has 1,280 "cores" where the 3GB has 1,152.

Doesn't make a huge difference to performance, both are VERY fast cards compared to a 560Ti, but it's worth remembering that the 3GB 1060 isn't quite as quick as the 6GB one even before it runs out of memory at higher resolutions.
 
The OP should also look into the RX 480 since the games he mentioned are faster on that card compared to the Nvidia equivalents. Also it is faster in modern DX12 games. Go for a non-reference card for whatever card you choose.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/73945-gtx-1060-vs-rx-480-updated-review-7.html

GTX-1060-UPDATE-69.jpg


GTX-1060-UPDATE-81.jpg
 
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Regardless of which card you eventually buy (RX 480 or GTX 1060) you will probably need to update your BIOS on that board first.
:)
 
Thanks for all your comments.

I'll take a good look at the RX480 to see if I can get over my bias to NVidia. If not it will be the 1060.

Happy New Year!
 
^ 6GB 1060 or 8GB 480. Please do not buy a 3GB card, even for 1080p. Most new major titles can easily use over 3GB at 1080p.

Most importantly though is it will hold it's value much more in the future, so it's almost silly to get a 3GB card for £30 odd difference on the 6GB version.
 
I'll stick my oar in here. I replaced a 970 with an RX XFX 480 GTR 8gb and its running everything I throw at it with ease so far:

Crysis 2 and 3
COD infinite warfare
Modern warfare remastered.

Can see me holding on to this for while (well until Vega appears:D)
 
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