Why isn't there much to choose from in the AMD gpu range anymore

[LePhuronn]

Yes, AMD are releasing an entirely new architecture called Navi some time this year. It's going to be a mid-range product though based on everything that's been said, perhaps offering Vega 64-ish performance with much lower power draw and at 1660 Ti-esque pricing. Which sounds like what you're after, but it's all still entirely rumours and speculation at this point.

I'd add to that don't expect anything before September, just to add some kind of pie-in-the-sky timeframe to it for those looking to hold out on a GPU purchase.

 

[Brazo]

Yes, AMD are releasing an entirely new architecture called Navi some time this year. It's going to be a mid-range product though based on everything that's been said, perhaps offering Vega 64-ish performance with much lower power draw and at 1660 Ti-esque pricing. Which sounds like what you're after, but it's all still entirely rumours and speculation at this point.

Problem is that product already exists and it’s called a 2060. No point waiting for Ford to make a corsa.

 

[Pants]

I guess theres still a few brands to choose from, but when your spending a few hundred £££ on a card you want a bit of bling or uniqueness aswel.

I quite fancy a 1fan card this time as I have gone off the big hardware thing. I have been looking at this card,, less noise and dust, but not sure about the temps. But anything I upgrade too will be cooler then my r9 290?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-42v-as.html

What is bling or unique about this?

1 fan means more noise not less. If you get a "big hardware" 3 fan it's more likely the fans will be 0 rpm more of the time. And when they do need to turn on they will spin far slower and make less noise, as there is three of them not one, to do the same job.

The cooler and bios play a huge part. I have had an Asus Dual RX480 which made an intolerable racket, and then after an XFX RX480 GTR XXX. Totally different experience, the XFX needs some serious provoking to make it audible.

I'm with you on wanting cool and quiet but it takes scouring endless user reviews as it's very subjective.

 

[Nasher]

Problem is that product already exists and it’s called a 2060. No point waiting for Ford to make a corsa.

But the 2060 is something from last generation really. It's lacking vram and that is going to be an issue.

 

[Phil2008]

`Thankyou for all your comments, much appreciated... The 1 card fan is very minimalistic, and I really into all of that now, and that card might not be your cup of tea, but it would look quite cool in my case with my white cables. But yeah more fan, less speed and noise might be the way to go. I have always changed the fan profiles on all of my cards for good temps and ok noise levels. The default fan speed for my xfx r9 290 runs at 25% speed near enough all the time so you cant hear it, but the temps are dreadfull and I would rather have a noisy gpu and not to kill it.

But I will hold off and have another look at the end of the summer as no GPU's really strikes me atm. Im looking for a 50% increase in speed from my 290 to make it worth the upgrade, like a £200-£300 nice looking card with good temp and smaller the better but that might not be possible I guess.

 

[Zernath]

But I will hold off and have another look at the end of the summer as no GPU's really strikes me atm. Im looking for a 50% increase in speed from my 290 to make it worth the upgrade, like a £200-£300 nice looking card with good temp and smaller the better but that might not be possible I guess.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but perhaps a Vega is the way to go, if you can find one for a good price? I don't think the next generation of cards are going to be any cheaper, judging by market trends and previous releases, so you may end up waiting even longer.

 

[4K8KW10]

There are 97 different versions of the RX 580 to choose from https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-580.c2938

Also, a card is meant to sit quietly in the case, without anyone noticing its design too much.

 

[Phil2008]

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but perhaps a Vega is the way to go, if you can find one for a good price? I don't think the next generation of cards are going to be any cheaper, judging by market trends and previous releases, so you may end up waiting even longer.

I would have gone for a vega56 card if there were more to choose from, as I want a half decent looking card if I am spending £300+, I dont want to make do.

But Im thinking if new cards get released, then the old ones will drop in price, hopefully the RTX 2070

 

[Zernath]

Im thinking if new cards get released, then the old ones will drop in price, hopefully the RTX 2070

Logically you would assume so, but that hasn't really been the case so far, at least not in terms of significant price drops.

There's always eBay I suppose, if you don't mind used cards, and I've actually seen some good Vega bargains on there today. Nvidia cards not so much, those things seem to be holding their prices quite well, despite the release of RTX.

 

[4K8KW10]

Your best bet is Sapphire NITRO+ RX Vega 56 Limited Edition http://sapphirenitro.sapphiretech.com/en/vega56le.html

 

[Brazo]

But the 2060 is something from last generation really. It's lacking vram and that is going to be an issue.

It’s still as good as a vega 64 at 4K, if that’s all that Navi is offering then as I said it’s already here in both flavours.

On another note I do also think there is a limited variety of coolers on these cards and whilst I bought a Vega 56 pulse it was an ugly card but so were all the other Vegas apart from the Asus Strix but that’s not without its own problems.

 

[TheRealDeal]

`Thankyou for all your comments, much appreciated... The 1 card fan is very minimalistic, and I really into all of that now, and that card might not be your cup of tea, but it would look quite cool in my case with my white cables. But yeah more fan, less speed and noise might be the way to go. I have always changed the fan profiles on all of my cards for good temps and ok noise levels. The default fan speed for my xfx r9 290 runs at 25% speed near enough all the time so you cant hear it, but the temps are dreadfull and I would rather have a noisy gpu and not to kill it.

But I will hold off and have another look at the end of the summer as no GPU's really strikes me atm. Im looking for a 50% increase in speed from my 290 to make it worth the upgrade, like a £200-£300 nice looking card with good temp and smaller the better but that might not be possible I guess.

What are these dreadful temps. Most people think less temps more harm but i have ran all my cards on the stock fan when not pushing clocks and not had failures. If you are running well within spec and gaming normally there is no real issue.

 

[TheRealDeal]

It’s still as good as a vega 64 at 4K, if that’s all that Navi is offering then as I said it’s already here in both flavours.

On another note I do also think there is a limited variety of coolers on these cards and whilst I bought a Vega 56 pulse it was an ugly card but so were all the other Vegas apart from the Asus Strix but that’s not without its own problems.

Do you mean a Vega 64 that's been tweaked as from what i have seen a 2060 can't compete with a 56 that's tweaked. Stock for stock you are not wrong but Vega with a few button presses is pretty impressive. With this being OCUK and not every day Joe you have to take that into consideration.

 

[Brazo]

Do you mean a Vega 64 that's been tweaked as from what i have seen a 2060 can't compete with a 56 that's tweaked. Stock for stock you are not wrong but Vega with a few button presses is pretty impressive. With this being OCUK and not every day Joe you have to take that into consideration.

Well a stock vega 56 can be tweaked to nearly stock vega 64 performance and given a stock 2060 is nearly as good as a stock vega 64 there’s really not much in it. Yes that’s without oc the 2060.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_1660_Ti/28.html

There’s really nothing between a few %, personally I’d be looking at other things like noise!

 

[Nasher]

Doesn't change the fact that 2060 is going to be vram limited probably in games coming out later this year. Then it will tank. Like the 3gb 1060 did.

 

[Darujhistan]

Doesn't change the fact that 2060 is going to be vram limited probably in games coming out later this year. Then it will tank. Like the 3gb 1060 did.

This. The 2060 is perhaps the worst card on sale right now. It's spec deficient.

 

[Brazo]

Doesn't change the fact that 2060 is going to be vram limited probably in games coming out later this year. Then it will tank. Like the 3gb 1060 did.

Well that’s not a fact, just your opinion. Which of course your entitled to. Personally I’d take 6gb of ddr6 over 8gb of hbm in a heartbeat. Given the cards really a1440p I think it’s fine for some time at least until it’s grunt runs out!

 

[Aretak]

Personally I’d take 6gb of ddr6 over 8gb of hbm in a heartbeat.

That's a truly bizarre viewpoint. What are you basing it on? When you run out of VRAM, it doesn't matter one bit what type it is - you're still falling back to the same slow system memory. It's like the people who tried to claim that it didn't matter that the Fury cards only had 4GB VRAM because HBM was so fast, yet you look at their minimums in games now and they're often horrific, because again it simply doesn't matter how much memory bandwidth your card has if you run out of VRAM. System memory speed instantly becomes the bottleneck at that point.

 

[Apone70]

I think the amount of Nvidia GPU's that are out make AMD's selection small, Nvidia have so many its crazy

 

[Zernath]

I think the amount of Nvidia GPU's that are out make AMD's selection small, Nvidia have so many its crazy

That's their tactic, flood the market so that the competition get buried under new release after new release. It's part of the reason they get so much media exposure.