Want a new GPU, trying to learn specs and how to choose

[tinpanalley]

Of course, I'd love any recommendations, but I have a feeling my needs won't be the same as for most people buying a gaming GPU. Believe it or not, I bought a Radeon R9 280 in 2015 when it was ALREADY about a year old, it happened to be on sale, and I'm STILL using it. It's fine, but there are times when it's limitations are evident. I just upgraded my system entirely. I'm thinking a new GPU could play better with my new system I built about a year ago.

 

System specs:

- MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX Motherboard
- AMD RYZEN 5 3600 6-Core 3.6 GHz
- CORSAIR RMx Series RM650x 2018 CP-9020178-NA 650W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD PSU
- G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600)

 

Needs:

Gaming

- There are a lot of older sports games which we don't even need to talk about because they all run fine even on the current card. I'm talking games from 5 years ago to up to 15 years ago.

- Current offline adventure type shooters (Tomb Raider, etc)

- And then most of the gaming is the current sports games (EA games, PES, NBA2K)

I currently play all these games on high settings and they play fine. Sure, fps is hardly ever perfectly 60fps or higher. Sometimes, but rarely. So to end up with something less than that or equal would be silly.

Video

I do very simple non-effects based video editing for production work but even on the R9 280, when I need it for rendering, I'm fine. So, I'm guessing any card today would be just as good.

Output

I need to have HDMI output but no display I have is more than Full HD (1080p) so I don't need a card that can output to a 2K display or anything like that. As far as future proofing, I'm unlikely to ever do that either or need this GPU to give me that option. But in most cases it's going to be the media determining output anyway.

 

Budget

Let's say I want to stick to 300-350 (Canadian). Is that doable considering my needs are relatively simple?

 

Any help with sites to read up on, good sites for comparing GPUs, reviews etc would be awesome.

Thanks!

[Doubble]

if your ok with taking a risk a 2070 is a good choice due to good frames. 1440p is hd. the only issue is that you can get it used on eBay but these are people upgrading so they aren't broken cards

[tinpanalley]

3 minutes ago, Doubble said:

if your ok with taking a risk a 2070 is a good choice due to good frames. 1440p is hd. the only issue is that you can get it used on eBay but these are people upgrading so they aren't broken cards

What's the risk? Buying a used card?

What makes you recommend the 2070 from what I'm looking for? Just trying to learn where the advice is coming from so I can learn about what people recommend. (although on quick glance, even used, they don't come anywhere near 350)

[Doubble]

1 minute ago, tinpanalley said:

What's the risk? Buying a used card?

What makes you recommend the 2070 from what I'm looking for? Just trying to learn where the advice is coming from so I can learn about what people recommend.

user benchmark is a good place to compare cards

[Coolmaster]

I'd get a 1660 Super or a RX 5600XT. The RX 5600XT is a bit faster but has had issues with drivers and if you're doing video editing an Nvidia card might be better. Both are good options, and are great for HD gaming.

[Samfisher]

6 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

What's the risk? Buying a used card?

What makes you recommend the 2070 from what I'm looking for? Just trying to learn where the advice is coming from so I can learn about what people recommend.

The risk is that you may be sold a dud card and have no way of getting your money back.  The 2070 is multiple times the performance of your 280.  You won't be talking about unstable 60fps performance.  You're talking high triple digit FPS

 

Your 280 is about the performance of a 1050ti

 

[Coolmaster]

Just now, Doubble said:

user benchmark is a good place to compare cards

Don't use User Benchmark to compare cards or really anything for that matter.  Userbenchmark is very biased and can't control for overclocks on cards, and use applications.

 

 

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, Doubble said:

user benchmark is a good place to compare cards

No it's not...userbenchmark is the worst place to compare anything.  If you want to compare across generations, use this performance gradient to compare relative performance

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

[Doubble]

2 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

No it's not...userbenchmark is the worst place to compare anything.  If you want to compare across generations, use this performance gradient to compare relative performance

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

yes but it gives a consumer test and not 1 sample

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, Doubble said:

yes but it gives a consumer test and not 1 sample

More submissions but inconsistent application of submissions are kinda pointless.  Plus there are tons of properly done reviews out there, so no you're not limited to only 1 card and 1 review...

[tinpanalley]

Ok, helpful info...

But I'm really not seeing this 2070 in my range either reburbished or on ebay or anywhere. Plus, I can imagine it would be like jumping into warp-speed in fps, but I'd prefer the comfort of a new GPU at the expense of power. This is my 5th or 6th GPU over the years and when I've picked a crappy card, it's been evident in how long it lasts. So, considering there will be sales soon, I thought I'd ask. By the way, my gaming is maybe 5-10hrs a week. So, I plan on having a new GPU for a while.

[Jurrunio]

On new cards that will get you a 1660 super, so in the used market it will be something like a 2060 or 5600XT (2060 super is really pushing it). Performance gap is too large to be noticed meaningfully because you wont even feel frame rates decrease when you max out graphical settings, it's still faster than an R9 280 will run in your usual settings.

48 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

I don't need a card that can output to a 2K display or anything like that.

everything still in production can do 4K 60fps at least already  aside from video adapters

 

[tinpanalley]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

you wont even feel frame rates decrease when you max out graphical settings

So you're saying with a 1660 Super I can run everything pretty much on high and I'll be running smooth? A decently running 60fps? The games I mostly play are only made for 60 anyway.

I guess I'll read up again on where video rendering is at these days on GPUs. But apart from that, do the brands really matter? Because the price changes drastically depending on who's making each card.

[Jurrunio]

3 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

So you're saying with a 1660 Super I can run everything pretty much on high and I'll be running smooth? A decently running 60fps? The games I mostly play are only made for 60 anyway.

as long as it's not some unoptimized thing #Ubisoft, it will run above 60fps all the time if you let it.

 

4 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

I guess I'll read up again on where video rendering is at these days on GPUs.

video rendering or encoding? 

 

4 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

But apart from that, do the brands really matter? Because the price changes drastically depending on who's making each card.

Different brand affects who you will go after for warranty claim. The big 4 (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA for Nvidia, first 3 and Sapphire for AMD) may not be always helpful but are at least there, but the smaller brands can be more iffy.

[tinpanalley]

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

video rendering or encoding? 

Rendering. Taking a timeline of uncompressed 1080p footage that has edits and minor fades, colour timing, etc and outputting an uncompressed master file to create compressed copies from.

[tinpanalley]

How does a Radeon 5500 compare to the 1660 Super?

[Coolmaster]

9 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

How does a Radeon 5500 compare to the 1660 Super?

The 1660 Super is significantly better, from AMD the 5600XT is in that performance category.

[tinpanalley]

I was told by someone that it's a bad time to buy. That both nvidia and AMD are about to come out with mid-range cards that will be better than last gen's high end because they'll offer ray tracing and other things you can't get now. And that even for not being someone who is looking for high end, it will still mean that 2 - 3 months from now I'm likely to get something better for my money.

 

Can anyone here speak to how valid that is? And, what I'm personally wondering is, isn't this ALWAYS true to some extent?

[Coolmaster]

2 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

I was told by someone that it's a bad time to buy. That both nvidia and AMD are about to come out with mid-range cards that will be better than last gen's high end because they'll offer ray tracing and other things you can't get now. And that even for not being someone who is looking for high end, it will still mean that 2 - 3 months from now I'm likely to get something better for my money.

 

Can anyone here speak to how valid that is? And, what I'm personally wondering is, isn't this ALWAYS true to some extent?

They will probably be coming out with cards slightly higher range than what you're looking at by the end of the year. The 3060Ti is supposed to launch in december and AMD is probably making a 6700(XT) right now. It will probably be until Spring before replacements for the 1660 Super or 5600XT are launched, if you wait a bit then it would be better to buy those.

[tinpanalley]

1 hour ago, Coolmaster said:

They will probably be coming out with cards slightly higher range than what you're looking at by the end of the year. The 3060Ti is supposed to launch in december and AMD is probably making a 6700(XT) right now. It will probably be until Spring before replacements for the 1660 Super or 5600XT are launched, if you wait a bit then it would be better to buy those.

Oh.. Ok, I thought it might be sometime in the next 6 weeks or so. The thing is, never over the past 15 years or so since I've been building systems have I ever bought any peripheral or component where a better one for less didn't become available in 5-6 months. It's just the way it is. If I wait til Spring, the same will end up being true about waiting until next autumn.

[tinpanalley]

Thinking about this one.

[Coolmaster]

36 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Thinking about this one.

I would get this one, all of them perform basically the same. So spending extra money isn't really worth it on the same GPU unless it has a better cooling solution, or you need an ITX sized one.

[tinpanalley]

58 minutes ago, Coolmaster said:

I would get this one, all of them perform basically the same. So spending extra money isn't really worth it on the same GPU unless it has a better cooling solution, or you need an ITX sized one.

Yeah, they're about the same, except for pixel rate. The ASUS appears to extend out beyond two slots. But you're right and thanks for bringing it to my attention. So what's with that Zotac brand? Not worth going that cheap?

[Coolmaster]

The pixel rate means basically nothing in real world applications, it's just that the MSI has an extra display port. And taking up more slots doesn't really mater unless you're doing SLI or in a Mini ITX case.

 

Zotac is fine too, generally if they have the same amount of fans they'll perform within 5% of each other thermally. 

[tinpanalley]

1 hour ago, Coolmaster said:

The pixel rate means basically nothing in real world applications, it's just that the MSI has an extra display port. And taking up more slots doesn't really mater unless you're doing SLI or in a Mini ITX case.

 

Zotac is fine too, generally if they have the same amount of fans they'll perform within 5% of each other thermally. 

I'm now reading that the msi has far better cooling. I think I'll stick with it.

I suppose I also have the ability to get this.