need help with choosing a new graphics card

maji

Well, it seems that my MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G died. It ran very well, then in the past few months I sometimes had crashes which seemed to related to the graphics card. Earlier today, I couldn't get my PC out of standby (just a black screen). Restarting the PC gave me first the mainboard start screen, but instead of a Windows 10 login screen I just got a black screen again (no mouse cursor or anything).

I removed the graphics card from the computer and plugged the screen directly to the mainboard, and now I can see something again. That is quite a shame, because I was otherwise very happy with the graphics card.

I'm not really into hardware, so I'd be glad if anybody could give me some advice on which one to get.

My current system:
- OS: Windows 10
- RAM: 8GB
- CPU: i5-3570k
- one SSD and one old school harddrive

What is important for me:
- I need to be able to plug in two screens at once.
- Maximum budget would be 350€ (or $, just something around that), though I wouldn't mind spending less, as I had a couple of annoying bills recently.
- I like to game a lot, so while I don't need always everything on maximum details, I want to be able to play games fluently without them looking ugly (DOTA2, Rust and so on).
- I personally like the NVidia tools quite a lot (like recording videos, or auto-tuning the setting of games), so I wouldn't mind another NVidia card, but if there is another one out there that is far better for less or same money, I'd be open to that too.

Graphics cards I considered:
- MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB X (found that one for 290€)
- MSI Gaming Geforce GTX 1070 8 GB Z (found that one for 460€)

I've read good about either graphics cards. I'm not sure whether the 170 € difference are really worth it.

Thanks a lot for any advice.

maji

Wasn't there once an edit button?

I've read that the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 would be also quite nice, in comparison to the MSI GeForce GTX 1070. But it's quite a lot more expensive, so I'm not sure whether that would be worth it.

cheyane

When you start a topic the cogwheel the one you use to edit is right on top by your topic title on the right next to the bookmark. It is also on the forum your topic lies in, for instance in this case Hardware and if you see your topic there will be a cogwheel next to it allowing you to edit from the index itself.

maji

cheyane said:

When you start a topic the cogwheel the one you use to edit is right on top by your topic title on the right next to the bookmark. It is also on the forum your topic lies in, for instance in this case Hardware and if you see your topic there will be a cogwheel next to it allowing you to edit from the index itself.

Thanks, found it.

Scorchien

maji said:

Well, it seems that my MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G died. It ran very well, then in the past few months I sometimes had crashes which seemed to related to the graphics card. Earlier today, I couldn't get my PC out of standby (just a black screen). Restarting the PC gave me first the mainboard start screen, but instead of a Windows 10 login screen I just got a black screen again (no mouse cursor or anything).

I removed the graphics card from the computer and plugged the screen directly to the mainboard, and now I can see something again. That is quite a shame, because I was otherwise very happy with the graphics card.

I'm not really into hardware, so I'd be glad if anybody could give me some advice on which one to get.

My current system:
- OS: Windows 10
- RAM: 8GB
- CPU: i5-3570k
- one SSD and one old school harddrive

What is important for me:
- I need to be able to plug in two screens at once.
- Maximum budget would be 350€ (or $, just something around that), though I wouldn't mind spending less, as I had a couple of annoying bills recently.
- I like to game a lot, so while I don't need always everything on maximum details, I want to be able to play games fluently without them looking ugly (DOTA2, Rust and so on).
- I personally like the NVidia tools quite a lot (like recording videos, or auto-tuning the setting of games), so I wouldn't mind another NVidia card, but if there is another one out there that is far better for less or same money, I'd be open to that too.

Graphics cards I considered:
- MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB
- MSI Gaming Geforce GTX 1070 8 GB would also be an option, but that would be really expensive for me and I'm not sure how much of a difference there is to the 1060

Thanks a lot for any advice.

     

    well ill tell ya , i had the same exact 970 card , and moved to my back up pc and upgraded this one to the same exact 1060 GTX 6 GB you listed .. I have had no trouble with any game at all..

  Ill add , i know nothing about PCs , i take it down to my PC guy every 3 months , he cleans it runs it thru paces and recommends any upgrades ..

  Ive been very happy with my new card ............ It has run every thing well on max settings

maji

Scorchien said:

    

    well ill tell ya , i had the same exact 970 card , and moved to my back up pc and upgraded this one to the same exact 1060 GTX 6 GB you listed .. I have had no trouble with any game at all..

  Ill add , i know nothing about PCs , i take it down to my PC guy every 3 months , he cleans it runs it thru paces and recommends any upgrades ..

  Ive been very happy with my new card ............ It has run every thing well on max settings

Thanks.

I'm now tending towards the 1060 too. I mean, the 1070 one got a lot of good reviews, but the shops I checked here in Germany have the 1060 X for less than 300€ and the 1070 Z for more than 460 €. That's quite a difference.

laxie

The 1060 should be able to run any game comfortably. My friend just got it in a new PC and is very happy. Especially if you aren't opposed to turning some of the extreme settings down, it will likely run the next generation of games on high settings.

Two situations where it may struggle are VR and 4K. In both cases, you'd probably consider a 1080 (or 1080Ti) anyway, as the 1070 may not even cut it.

The 1060 sounds like a better pick overall, given the price.

maji

laxie said:

The 1060 should be able to run any game comfortably. My friend just got it in a new PC and is very happy. Especially if you aren't opposed to turning some of the extreme settings down, it will likely run the next generation of games on high settings.

Two situations where it may struggle is VR and 4K. In both cases, you'd probably consider a 1080 (or 1080Ti) anyway, as the 1070 may not even cut it.

The 1060 sounds like a better pick overall, given the price.

I've no plans for either 4k nor VR anytime soon, so I guess the 1060 seems worth it (considering the 290 vs 460 € prices).

Thanks.

Quizzical

If you can find a GeForce GTX 1070 that fits the budget, that will be the fastest card in your budget.  It looks like you probably can't.

A 6 GB version of a GeForce GTX 1060 is typically about the same performance as a Radeon RX 580.  If they're the same price, there's nothing wrong with getting the GTX 1060, but if the RX 580 is markedly cheaper, it would take a very strong pro-Nvidia preference to justify the GTX 1060.  What makes sense to buy really depends on prices.

Do be warned that a 3 GB version of a GTX 1060 is really a different card than the 6 GB version, as it's cut down, not just less memory.  They should have been a GTX 1060 and GTX 1060 Ti or something like that.  So don't think that's just as good as a 6 GB version; it's more a competitor to the Radeon RX 570.  But it could still be worthwhile if it's a lot cheaper.  Again, it depends on prices.

You should also be aware that while these cards (other than the GTX 1070) are perhaps a little faster than your dead GTX 970, they're not a lot faster than it.  So while it's an upgrade as opposed to a downgrade, it would be far too small to justify except that your old card is dead.  I'm all in favor of replacing a dead card, of course, but don't expect a huge jump in performance.

Quizzical

Actually, let's be a little more precise than that.  My recommendation is to look up the best prices you can find on 3 GB and 6 GB versions of a GTX 1060, as well as a Radeon RX 470, 480, 570, and 580.  In order to justify consideration, the price discount as compared to a 6 GB GTX 1060 would need to be at least:

GTX 1060 3 GB:  10%
RX 580:  0%
RX 480:  5%
RX 570:  15%
RX 470:  20%

That's not to say that if you find a Radeon RX 580 for 2% cheaper than a 6 GB GTX 1060, that you should buy it.  That's a close call and it's reasonable to go with Nvidia on vendor preference--and that's really within a margin of error on performance per dollar, anyway.  But if an RX 580 is 20% cheaper than a GTX 1060, then you should at least be aware that you'd be paying a large price premium for the Nvidia label on the box.  And if the GTX 1060 is cheaper outright than the RX 580, no need to further consider the RX 580.

maji

Well, the the RX 580 seem to hover here at roughly 260€. Hover, they are quite hard to find. All shops I checked said "expected to arrive at", and then in roughly a week or so.

The GTX 1060 6GB X would be available now for 290€.
The GTX 1070 8GB Z would be available for 460€.

Quizzical

Well, it's your money and therefore your call on what to do.  If this were an upgrade, I'd scoff at being unwilling to wait a week.  With the old card dead outright, I sure wouldn't want to wait a week.

The Radeon RX 580 is nearly the same as the Radeon RX 480, but clocked a little higher.  So I'd look at RX 480 prices, too.  I'd be very surprised if the RX 480s have all sold out before the RX 580s arrive in stock.  In the US, at least on New Egg, the RX 480s at decent prices are gone, but the RX 580s are abundant.

Timing can vary based on where you are in the world.  Some AMD chips are fabbed in Germany, but it looks like the discrete GPUs are built in New York.  Board partners are all over the place, but a lot are in Taiwan.  That can affect how long it takes to ship to various parts of the world.

maji

The only Radeon 480 8 GB I could find to be available right now from a reliable shop in Germany would cost about the same as the GeForce 1060 X 6GB. Hmmm...

Quizzical

maji said:

The only Radeon 480 8 GB I could find to be available right now from a reliable shop in Germany would cost about the same as the GeForce 1060 X 6GB. Hmmm...

No sense in paying that for it.  In the case of the Radeon RX 480, the only difference between the 4 GB and 8 GB versions is memory capacity.  It's not like the GTX 1060, where they also disabled a compute unit.  I'm skeptical of the need for more than 4 GB in that range, and the 4 GB cards tend to be cheaper.