Upgrade to existing build

Vadersoul · 17 Sep 2018 at 15:51

I have an existing build (6 years old and still going strong) and am looking to Ship of Theseus upgrade it part by part.

My current build is a AMD 7870 2GB PCI-E card with an i5-3570K 3.4Ghz and 18GB of ram all slotted into a Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (1155) mobo.

Looking to upgrade just the GPU at the moment and for around £250-£300

As far as I can tell, I am picking from the variants of the AMD RX 580 8GB and the GTX 980 6GB
The benchmarks seem to be quite similar between variants of each card and a comparison between the two.

One game I will play quite a lot on it is WOW so max settings without choppyness would be appreciated

Would be keen to hear any advice on RX 580 vs GTX 980 as well as opinions on which card is best for my budget against each (ie should I spend the extra £60 between the different RX variants to get a better one or not bother?)

Thanks for any advice in advance.

LuckyBenski · 17 Sep 2018 at 18:12

Well the 980 is now turning two generations old - are you seeing them available new somewhere? I wouldn't pay more than about £180 for a used 980 so I'd expect you're better off aiming for a 1070. Great balance of performance and efficiency.

The RX580 is close to a GTX 1070 but it looks to me like the 1070 comes out on top. Don't know much about the various RX card models but Pascal hardware tends to perform similarly for most coolers. So maybe more forgiving if you buy a less fancy model.

Vadersoul · 17 Sep 2018 at 18:13

On the OC store... fairly sure it was new and the 1070 was a good £100 over my budget

Am I wrong?

LuckyBenski · 17 Sep 2018 at 18:20

Vadersoul said:
On the OC store... fairly sure it was new and the 1070 was a good £100 over my budget

Am I wrong?

Eesh just had a look, I thought prices came down further! Well the 580 performance wise for £300 is pretty good in my opinion. Don't know how it is for energy consumption/heat.

Vadersoul · 17 Sep 2018 at 18:21

So worth it over competition then? Should keep me going for another 6 years lol

LuckyBenski · 17 Sep 2018 at 18:24

Vadersoul said:
So worth it over competition then? Should keep me going for another 6 years lol

I'd say so - my last purchase was a 1070, but it was £330 used and I'm dead happy with it. It'll sit under water for a long long time. So similar performance but with a warranty, sounds like a good deal.

I certainly wouldn't invest in a 980 for too much right now - it's likely to start losing points in newer games in terms of optimisation. Last card was a 970 though and I love it, still have it in my second setup.

mattyfez · 17 Sep 2018 at 18:39

580 is closer to a 1060 than a 1070

Vadersoul · 18 Sep 2018 at 09:46

So in comparing a 580 vs 1060, which seems a better idea, which shapes up best?

orbitalwalsh · 18 Sep 2018 at 10:12

Vadersoul said:
So in comparing a 580 vs 1060, which seems a better idea, which shapes up best?

depends on your screen, or if upgrading, 1080p 144hz freesync is £200 and £200 cheaper then nvidia version

Feesh · 18 Sep 2018 at 11:04

I'm running the same CPU/MOBO with an rx480, gaming at 1080p on a Freesync Monitor.

Still holding its own with the latest releases.

Have you considered a 2nd hand rx480? Bang Vs Buck I imagine that would be a nice boost!

Donny84 · 18 Sep 2018 at 15:42

I purchased a used 980 from eBay for £167. It's for my son's build for Xmas present. I tried it in my rig in place of my 1080 and I must say... really impressed with it. Yes there's a few frame drops from the 1080 but it's still impressive. If you can find one on eBay for around the same price I'd highly recommend it.
It was a toss up between the 1050ti for £250ish and the 980 for £160ish. Really happy with my choice.

I don't think you'll find better new for under £300.

Donny84 · 18 Sep 2018 at 15:45

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-980-vs-AMD-RX-580/2576vs3923

Seems the RX 580 has slightly higher FPS on WoW though.