Which Sub £500 card?

[Shrdlu]

Hi all

I am planning on upgrading my PC as it is getting a touch old and I am a touch bored atm. I currently have a GTX 980 and aiming for a mid range rig with the new Metro and Doom in mind.

I have managed to sort out most of the specs but I am still not 100% on which GPU. I am looking at an MSI RTX 2070 Armor at £489 which as a bonus comes with a free copy of Metro.

Is this a good option or can sombody come up with an alternative?


The rest of my planned specs are:
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
MoBo - MSI X470 Plus
RAM - 2 x 8Gb Corsair DDR4 3200
SSD - Samsung M.2 970 Pro

Thanks

 

[Zernath]

What is your screen resolution?

 

[Shrdlu]

What is your screen resolution?

Doh! Forgot that bit. Currently 1080p on a 22" screen.

Am I correct in thinking that 4K is only really noticable/beneficial on bigger +28" screens?

 

[vapor matt]

Vega 64 are on a great deal at the moment and will be a better price than the 2070 for sure.

 

[Aretak]

For just 1080p a 2070 would be massive overkill (and also end up bottlenecked a lot of the time at 1080p by a 2600X). You'd be better off going with a Vega 56 and spending the extra £220 better elsewhere. Also comes with Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5 and The Division 2, which you can either play or sell to knock some more off the price of the card.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX VEGA 56 Pulse 8GB HBM2 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11276-02-40G)= £278.99

Total: £278.99 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

 

[AthlonXP1800]

Well I used 1080p with RTX 2080 and 8700K, it is not a massive overkill and never been bottlenecked at 1080p if you read reviews benchmarks.

MSI RTX 2070 Armor at £489 used normal TU106-400-A1 chip which is not factory overclocked.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/msi-rtx-2070-armor.b6304

I would recommend you to get MSI RTX 2070 Armor OC used binned TU106-400A-A1 chip which is factory overclocked and pick free game Metro Exodus.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/msi-rtx-2070-armor-oc.b6299

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor OC 8192MB PCI-Express Graphics Card= £499.99

Total: £499.99 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

 

[Chrisc]

If you plan on staying at 1080 for a while, the Vega 56 or 2060 is a good shout.

 

[Shrdlu]

If you plan on staying at 1080 for a while, the Vega 56 or 2060 is a good shout.

As much as I am on 1080p now i am guessing 4k will become more mainstream in future, im trying to future proof with this build.

Is 4k noticable on screens below 28"?

 

[vapor matt]

As much as I am on 1080p now i am guessing 4k will become more mainstream in future, im trying to future proof with this build.

Is 4k noticable on screens below 28"?

then vega 64 or the new VII vega for 4k if you want to future proof a bit.

 

[Shrdlu]

...and also end up bottlenecked a lot of the time at 1080p by a 2600X

Is the 2600X such a limiting factor? Im going for it because its the sweet spot of price Vs performace. Going for a Ryzen 7 or TR would just be overkill for gaming since its just more cores?

 

[Poneros]

As much as I am on 1080p now i am guessing 4k will become more mainstream in future, im trying to future proof with this build.

Is 4k noticable on screens below 28"?

You won't want to use the GPU you buy now at 4K when you make that jump if it's not within the year, and it wouldn't make sense to pay that money upfront, when 7nm GPUs are just around the corner next year.

Be smart, get that V56 Pulse and pocket the money for the next time you upgrade.

 

[Chrisc]

As much as I am on 1080p now i am guessing 4k will become more mainstream in future, im trying to future proof with this build.

Is 4k noticable on screens below 28"?

Although the Vega has proved it's not a bad 4k card, I can't imagine it will be very future proof. The VII or 2080 is a better option, albeit more expensive

 

[AthlonXP1800]

Is the 2600X such a limiting factor? Im going for it because its the sweet spot of price Vs performace. Going for a Ryzen 7 or TR would just be overkill for gaming since its just more cores?

It all depend on games, I suggest you to take a look around games CPU benchmarks on gamegpu.com.

Ryzen 5 2600X not bottlenecked with RTX 2070 at games with maxed graphic settings like Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 2, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider etc. But games like Far Cry New Dawn will bottlenecked Ryzen 5 2600X at 75 fps and also Ryzen 7 2700X at 79 fps too, Far Cry New Dawn run much better with 8700K at 116 fps, 9700K and 9900K at 126 fps.

 

[Aretak]

Is the 2600X such a limiting factor? Im going for it because its the sweet spot of price Vs performace. Going for a Ryzen 7 or TR would just be overkill for gaming since its just more cores?

As always it depends on the game, but my 1080 Ti was bottlenecked even at 1440p by my 2700X in games like Final Fantasy XV, Hitman 2 and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. That was paired with 3200MHz CL14 RAM and manually tweaked minor timings too. It's not really a matter of extra cores - just clock speeds are what holds Ryzen back a little right now. Which isn't to say that it wasn't still a fantastic gaming experience, as it was (and I'm certainly not trying to steer you away from Ryzen - it's great), but dropping down to 1080p is going to magnify the issue, even if the 2070 doesn't quite keep up with a 1080 Ti most of the time.

Personally, I think trying to "futureproof" is a bad idea. A 2070 barely cuts it for 4K gaming even now unless you're willing to turn settings down a couple of notches. By the time you actually buy a 4K monitor, it will be struggling even more. The 2080 Ti is really the only card on the market right now which you could say is remotely "futureproof" for 4K, and that's priced accordingly. By the time the future comes, that level of performance will be available for much less. Personally, I'd rather have a card that suits my needs now and £200+ in my pocket, rather than trying to prevent a future upgrade (and again, especially when the 2070 isn't really a 4K card even now). Of course, it's entirely your decision. There's no doubt you'll be happy with your 2070's performance if you buy one. I just think it'll prove to be very poor value in the long run.

 

[Abdul Rafay Mian]

From the Reviews and benchmarks I think the RTX 2060 is much better value but you could also go with amd and get Vega 64 or Vega 56 get 3 free games too.

I recently got Vega 56, this was suggested to me over vega 64.

The sapphire vega 56 Pulse is a very good one currently available for £278

 

[Vexr]

Doh! Forgot that bit. Currently 1080p on a 22" screen.

Am I correct in thinking that 4K is only really noticable/beneficial on bigger +28" screens?

According to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehvz3iN8pp4
Then 1080p pixels on a 27" screen become indistinguishable at 3.4 feet, then 2.6 ft for 1440p, and 1.7 ft with 4k, so yeah I'd personally say the larger monitors only will benefit from 4K.

Spec wise, I think a crucial question is how many hz your current monitor is and what your target fps is. If you're only at 60-75hz @ 1080p I'd be tempted to hang on to the GTX 980, dial down some settings, and wait it out until the GPU market looks more attractive.

 

[Participant]

Get a V56 then reassess when and if you decide to go 4K. You can't future proof 4K now for reasonable money. In a year or two when 7nm GPUs are bedded in this could change.

 

[TNA]

Future proofing has always been a bad idea. If you have self control with money, buy what you need now, put the rest in a separate pot, leave it there, then when the time comes sell what you just got and add a little on top and buy something MUCH better. At least this always has worked for me. Though it is getting harder now that we are running out of room to shrink the manufacturing process and performance jumps are much smaller.

Over the past 2 decades I have overall spent very little on graphics cards relative to people who buy top end and watch the value of the card plummet 80% in 2-3 years. It just works

 

[Tommy_Here]

I agree 1080p I'd hang on to the GTX 980. Second hand will bag you a 1080 Ti for £500 and will crush all other cards mentioned here.

I have a 27 inch 4k ips monitor and looks great imo. I've had a heavily overclocked 980 Ti power it, a 1080 Ti, Titan Xp and since I don't use my pc as much I've downgraded to a 1080 FE non Ti and it's surprising how well it does. If you must buy a new card now is look at Vega 56/64 or RTX 2060. I just don't see any value in the 2070 at its current price and is hardly any faster than a GTX 1080

 

[Shrdlu]

I guess I have been too focused on it being a 4 year old and 2 generation old card. Having compared results in reviews the GTX 980 is still packing enough punch for what i need from it. Ill keep the money for next time.

Thanks for your help all