A semi future proof graphics card

[Lucek]

I'm running a GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670 1GB DDR3 and looking at an upgrade. I know a potato is an upgrade.

 

Basically I want a graphics card that will be like my 6670 HD is today in 2029.

 

Any advice?

[Fasauceome]

well without the ability to see the future, "future proof" can't really happen. My advice is to just get the best graphics card that fits your budget,

[SpookyCitrus]

Future proofing isn't a thing, pretty much any recent card is a major upgrade from what you have and could possibly last as long but there is no telling, in order to determine which graphics card will be best for you we need to know your use case, budget, and what your current system specs are.

[Lucek]

My goal is to have playable (30-40 fps) frame rates on low settings in most of a decade. My budget is flexible. I want to keep it around $300USD at most. I don't need it too powerful.

[NinJake]

20 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

well without the ability to see the future, "future proof" can't really happen. My advice is to just get the best graphics card that fits your budget,

This, and it seems you have a $300 budget so pick the best card you can find for ~$300! Pray it lasts for a decade but don't be surprised if the future has some crazy jump in rendering or graphics processing capabilities that just won't work with whatever card you purchase today.

[Fasauceome]

17 minutes ago, Lucek said:

My goal is to have playable (30-40 fps) frame rates on low settings in most of a decade. My budget is flexible. I want to keep it around $300USD at most. I don't need it too powerful.

An RX 5600 XT is the best GPU you'll get in that budget.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/MYRgXL/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5600-xt-6-gb-windforce-oc-video-card-gv-r56xtwf2oc-6gd

[SupaKomputa]

RX5600XT or GTX1660

[aisle9]

42 minutes ago, Lucek said:

I'm running a GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670 1GB DDR3 and looking at an upgrade. I know a potato is an upgrade.

 

Basically I want a graphics card that will be like my 6670 HD is today in 2029.

 

Any advice?

A used 1070 or 1080, maybe a used Vega 56 or 64. The GTX 480 from 2010 can still cook pizzas as well as any AMD card this side of the R9 295X2 handle 1080p low settings at 30 fps on lighter titles. That's the tier of card I'd be looking for if your budget will allow it. You're not going to find that tier brand new in a box with a 5000 or 1600 label on it for $300.

[CoolKD]

2 hours ago, Lucek said:

I'm running a GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670 1GB DDR3 and looking at an upgrade. I know a potato is an upgrade.

 

Basically I want a graphics card that will be like my 6670 HD is today in 2029.

 

Any advice?

Over the years (first PC in 2000) I have "future proofed" my rigs with the best or almost the best cards every time I upgraded.

Last year I got myself a GTX1080Ti, the upgrade was from a GTX680 direct CU2 TOP card that has served me well and long.(before the 680 it was a GTX285 and before that 8800GTS) So as you can see I always jump over many generations of cards.

So going for the top cards has usually worked for me. But things have become so expensive now a days that going for a flagship card is out of most peoples budget.

The RTX cards was out when I got the 1080ti, but was reluctant to pay the idiotic price for 20 or so more frames.

So my logic is buy big and upgrade less often. Doing this I always have a card that does all the games good enough at the end of its life and always get a huge boost when I finally do upgrade. So save up your money and go as big as you can afford.

It's better to jump over some generations and save up money for a flagship card or close to it then to piss money away on some half upgrade thing.

 

[Lucek]

Looking at my amazon points balance and upcoming offers my budget can stretch abit further.

 

Is the rtx 2060 super a good option?

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-WINDFORCE-Graphics-Windforce-GV-N206SWF2OC-8GD/dp/B07TT8QQ5M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?keywords=nvidia+rtx+2060+super&qid=1583494965&refinements=p_89%3AGigabyte&rnid=2528832011&sprefix=nvidea+rtx+206&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyUUhVS0hXQ0VLMVBIJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjIzMjM0M0tQVFY4NjNXVDRDTSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjgxNDM1SkxRU1YyM0pCUjROJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[NineEyeRon]

The only way I know how to future proof is to build your PC for the applications and quality you want now and then don’t change how you use it.

[tdkid]

if you are looking for future proof then too powerful for today is what you want to get as you wont have to upgrade again soon but its just a dream anyway as computer component and game manufacturers keep coming out with new things every year that require different things to run it. and dang, your GPU is slightly older than mine since I am running an AMD radeon HD 6700 series (pic below). I have been looking at the RTX 2070 super myself but my budget is slightly higher than yours. the best advice I can give you is to watch the video by linus where he explains the best cards of 2019 at a range of prices. 

 

[i_build_nanosuits]

On 3/4/2020 at 2:26 PM, Lucek said:

My goal is to have playable (30-40 fps) frame rates on low settings in most of a decade. My budget is flexible. I want to keep it around $300USD at most. I don't need it too powerful.

What kind of machine are you working with? What's the rest of the specs?

[Xkillerpn]

If you are going with used

 

R5 1600

32G of cheap 3200mhz ram

vega 56, vega 64, rx480 or 580

( amd cards will be cheaper on used market)

Get a new psu 750w gold rated 

Dont get a used ssd amazon you can get really good deals

B450 MAX board

 

Case get a fractal meshify 

 

 

This is just advice 

[Tan3l6]

Semi-proof GPU is always a midclass GPU. 5700XT or RX 2070 

Or just wait for 5800/5900 that should be arriving soon.

[Cavalry Canuck]

Wait for the price of the 1080ti to drop in the used market when the RTX3k series cards come out?

[RandomStyuf]

To be honest it's hard to see so far into the future, but I'd probably go for something like the RTX 2060 (or the Super variant if you can) over the equivalent AMD offerings because of future features. I think there are a bunch of new features which might extend your ability to continue using the card well into the future which exist on the RTX line but won't exist in the AMD Navi GPUs until much later. Specifically:

• Variable Rate Shading, which is going to be supported by next generation consoles and next gen AMD cards (and is already supported by Nvidia's RTX line and even Intel's new Ice Lake integrated GPU) so you bet developers will start implementing it into games. Basically it's a feature to increase performance by rendering some parts of the image at a sharper resolution and other parts of  (the image at a lower resolution, thereby saving processing time for what is practically almost the same visual experience for the most part. This could be the difference between playable and not playable in 5-7 years.
  • This is a tech quickie episode that explains it but mostly focused in VR, and another video by Digital Foundry about the feature as implemented in Wolfenstein 2 which explains a bit more about how it works
    Spoiler

    Digital Foundry video:

     

• The other feature that could be useful in the future is DLSS. This is less certain but the implementations of DLSS in the new Wolfenstien game is (based on reviews on Digital Foundry and Hardware Unboxed) virtually free performance. From what I understand, the DLSS in Wolfenstein and going forward is a completely reworked and reengineered DLSS from that on release titles and supposedly functions much much better, allowing rendering at lower resolutions and filling in of details of the missing pixels in a way that makes it almost indistinguishable (especially during gameplay).
• Obviously there's also ray tracing and I remember reading somewhere that at least one developer is planning to completely move to raytracing some time in the future because it simplifies their engine and they believe the performance will be there (I think it might have been the Metro series developers). I donno if by the time we reach that point maybe the cards we have today would be useless anyways or not but it could be sad to run across such a game you want to play but can't.

 In general, I think we're entering a little bit of a transformative period over the coming year in GPUs (New tech, new console generation, renewed competition from AMD,...), and If I were you, I'd probably avoid making my big purchase now until things settle down a bit. I personally found myself in a similar situation having to make a similar decision, and I decided instead of springing for something higher end to go for something decent enough for now and upgrade my graphics card later (For example, I think you could probably squeeze 2 years from AMD's Polaris GPUs, like the RX570, RX580 or RX590 if you game at 1080p without everything on high settings. Also Nvidia GPUs such as the GTX 16xx lines are good options depending on pricing, and used can be even better. You could probably do ok with  a GTX 1060  6GB until it settles).

 

If you do go for the one card now, I'd make sure to look at the VRAM too. The 2060 Super has 8GB which I think is preferable to the 6GB found some other options. I expect it will become significant down the line.

That's my 2 cents at least.

 

[Lucek]

5 hours ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

What kind of machine are you working with? What's the rest of the specs?

Kinda up in the air. My machine I'll be chunking it into is a phenom 2 1090 with 16gigs of ram but I'll be upgrading that in the not too distant future. Atm the GPU is the bottle neck.

 

Btw I'm good with the case PSU and storage. Ok The PSU is out of warranty but It's also a replacement for one that died 4 years and 11 months into a 5 year warranty so they gave me the then current model.

[Lucek]

Just an update. My 2060 super(really happy I didn't wait for a 30xx card) is still going strong but I finally made the big purchase. I'me getting a 5800x and 32 gigs (16 gig dimms so I can upgrade to 64 at a later date) of ram to feed it and everything that goes with that. I also splurged on a nvme m.2 ssd (only 500 gigs) for a new boot drive.

 

The one thing I was sad to see go was my case. I've had the same Thermotake case for the past 14 years but I don't need 5 cd drive bays 2 floppy drive bays and 4 internal 3.5" drive bays. Simply put there are too many drive bays and my graphics card sticks into some of them.