• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Upgrade from AMD 260X - advice needed

Ant480

Ant480

Ant480

Associate
Joined
30 May 2015
Posts
28
Location
East Sussex, UK
Good morning all, I've been using the following system for a couple of years now, and fancied doing a slight upgrade to improve its performance in games.

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7
CPU: i7 4790K
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Teamgroup Vulcan Red DDR3-19200C11 2400MHz
GPU: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2 GB
PSU: SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold"
Storage: Samsung EVO 250GB 850 SSD and 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD
This is housed in a Corsair Carbide 330R mid tower case.

I play Battlefield 1, PUBG (which I know is famous for being pretty demanding of systems) and a variety of others on Steam and Origin.
I have been content to game on mid to low settings, using my pretty basic Iiyama Prolite 19" monitor, but thought it would be nice to replace the monitor and get things running quicker and looking a bit nicer at the same time.
I was thinking that a GPU upgrade and taking the system to 16GB or RAM would do the trick.
I don't have a set budget, but baulk at the thought of paying over £700 for a 1080Ti. Perhaps a GTX 1060 6GB for around £280 would give a noticeable improvement.

I appreciate that my choice of GPU will be influenced by which monitor I order. I'm not looking for 4K performance, but something that could go to 1080p, with the option of 1440p.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
If you don't mind going 2nd hand, the 980Ti for ~£250 would be a great solution and handle 1440p relatively easily. Otherwise a 480/580/1060 will be good for 1080p and 1440p (though you may have to notch a few settings down with recent games as I do with my 290). For a more future proofed solution, a 1070 or 1080 can be had for <£400 and <£500 respectively.
 
Thanks for the swift response.

The 980Ti is a good call and something that hadn't occurred to me until you suggested it. I'm not against the idea of 2nd hand, and having done a quick bit of research, it would seem that the 980Ti has potential for overclocking.

I think that perhaps that or, as you suggested, spending more for a 1070/1080 and getting some longevity is a good idea.
 
I was going to say wait for CES but thought there aren't going to be any big GFX announcements (unless AMD are)?

An OC'd 980Ti should easily trade blows with a 1070, wanting to do the same myself - just hard to find one.
 
doodah said:
I was going to say wait for CES but thought there aren't going to be any big GFX announcements (unless AMD are)?

An OC'd 980Ti should easily trade blows with a 1070, wanting to do the same myself - just hard to find one.
Click to expand...

Replacment cards are long overdue and it seems AMD have 12nm shrinks of Vega and possibly Polaris.
 
I guess this probably isn't the best time to be buying a new graphics card - I hadn't realised that CES was later this month.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for 980Ti bargains and hopefully there will be some interesting developments in the next few weeks.
 
I agree bakes0310, I really should try my hand at overclocking the CPU and get the RAM as I’ll be wanting that regardless of the GPU I choose.

Thanks ci_newman. It’s good to hear of someone with the 980Ti getting good results. That could be the best value route for me.
 
So, I thought I'd resurrect this thread, given the fact that I decided to wait on the new Nvidia cards...I did upgrade to 16Gb RAM, but still haven't overclocked the CPU as couldn't decide on a better cooling solution.

Now that the Nvidia 20XX series pre-order prices have started appearing I find myself tempted to take the plunge on a new GPU, but a leaning towards the AMD offerings, particularly those on the new offer from Powercolour this week. I had wanted to stick with Sapphire as have been really impressed with my current card and how its dealt with nearly four years trying to run new games, but if Powercolour are as good, then they certainly look like the ebst bang/buck at the moment.

I'll only be using my Iiyama prolite E1908WS at the moment, but would like a slightly larger screen and 1080p capability. The 580 8Gb should be sufficient, unless anyone has any advice to the contrary?
 
Ant480 said:
So, I thought I'd resurrect this thread, given the fact that I decided to wait on the new Nvidia cards...I did upgrade to 16Gb RAM, but still haven't overclocked the CPU as couldn't decide on a better cooling solution.

Now that the Nvidia 20XX series pre-order prices have started appearing I find myself tempted to take the plunge on a new GPU, but a leaning towards the AMD offerings, particularly those on the new offer from Powercolour this week. I had wanted to stick with Sapphire as have been really impressed with my current card and how its dealt with nearly four years trying to run new games, but if Powercolour are as good, then they certainly look like the ebst bang/buck at the moment.

I'll only be using my Iiyama prolite E1908WS at the moment, but would like a slightly larger screen and 1080p capability. The 580 8Gb should be sufficient, unless anyone has any advice to the contrary?
Click to expand...

For that sort of money, you'd be better off with a second hand 1070/ 1070 Ti. Much more powerful :)
 
Sadly I don't have access to the Members Market and am reluctant to go to other sources for secondhand parts, where prices for the 1070 seem to start around £250, but more commonly around £280. I've been pondering the 10XX range, and even considered stumping up for a new 1080.

I'd rather buy new with a full warranty and also I respect the fact that certain manufacturers are making the effort to do work with retailers to offer decent deals at the moment. I'm just torn between the 580 and the Vega 56 (or even the 64 as isn't much more than the 56)
 
Ant480 said:
Sadly I don't have access to the Members Market and am reluctant to go to other sources for secondhand parts, where prices for the 1070 seem to start around £250, but more commonly around £280. I've been pondering the 10XX range, and even considered stumping up for a new 1080.

I'd rather buy new with a full warranty and also I respect the fact that certain manufacturers are making the effort to do work with retailers to offer decent deals at the moment. I'm just torn between the 580 and the Vega 56 (or even the 64 as isn't much more than the 56)
Click to expand...

Given your PSU, better keep away from GTX980Ti/GTX1080/Vega etc.
So tell us your absolute budget to find what you can get.
 
Hi Panos. I was prepared to spend up to £500 on the new GPU. If my current PSU isn't up to the task of powering those higher-end CPUs then it's looking more like the RX580 and saving a few £ in the process is the best course of action. I'm coming from an R7260X, so I'm sure I'll get the benefit of even a modest upgrade.
 
Ant480 said:
Hi Panos. I was prepared to spend up to £500 on the new GPU. If my current PSU isn't up to the task of powering those higher-end CPUs then it's looking more like the RX580 and saving a few £ in the process is the best course of action. I'm coming from an R7260X, so I'm sure I'll get the benefit of even a modest upgrade.
Click to expand...
The RX580 has a similar TDP to a ref 1080. A 1070 would be better fit for your PSU especially if you want to a OC your CPU.
 
If a GTX1070/1070Ti is looking like the better call in terms of power consumption whilst offering performance above that of a RX580 and equal to the Vega 56, then maybe that's the better call.

Now/I'm left with the decision of which model to go for. I see that the Founders Edition 1070Ti is £419. As an aside the RTX2070 looks like carrying a hefty premium over the 1070 Ti at £569, so I'm not going to wait for that.

So, GTX1070/1070Ti Founders Edition or one from brand such as Zotac or EVGA?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom