New 1060 3gb, rx 470 4gb, or used gtx 970..?

[MMKing]

New 1060 > new 470 > used 970

 

Simply because new is better than used.

[plyr0ne]

I appreciate all of the advice. I was deciding which gtx 1060 3gb model to go with... but the opportunity to pick up an 4gb Sapphire Nitro + rx 480 for an outstanding price fell into my lap and I took it. It's one that has the 4gb sticker over 8gb on the box, so if I get ballsy enough, I might try a bios update to see if I'm lucky enough to get those 4 extra gigs of vram.

[Nena Trinity]

You really do not want a 3GB card for games such as GTA V... (970 and RX are more solid picks but even the 970 cannot MAX out due to the VRAM limit) Note that the best card would be 1060 6GB if you can increase your budget...

[Cheddle]

1 hour ago, plyr0ne said:

I appreciate all of the advice. I was deciding which gtx 1060 3gb model to go with... but the opportunity to pick up an 4gb Sapphire Nitro + rx 480 for an outstanding price fell into my lap and I took it. It's one that has the 4gb sticker over 8gb on the box, so if I get ballsy enough, I might try a bios update to see if I'm lucky enough to get those 4 extra gigs of vram.

Gainward 3gb is cheap asf I paid $300 AUD brand new from MSY - http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=993&lang=en

 

1060 3gb vs 970 3.5gb - both are highest i3-6100 runs:

 

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/391819/spy/234438

 

and throw an rx470 in the mix:

 

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/391819/spy/234438/spy/390211

 

compare the rx480 to the 1060 - Basically idential score:

 

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/391819/spy/208636

 

TLDR;

 

the 1060 3gb performs on par with an rx480 at 1080p and 1440p - the RX480 is better at 4k and can crossfire.

[Dabombinable]

1 hour ago, Nena360 said:

You really do not want a 3GB card for games such as GTA V... (970 and RX are more solid picks but even the 970 cannot MAX out due to the VRAM limit) Note that the best card would be 1060 6GB if you can increase your budget...

I can max out FO4 at 2x 1080p (DSR) with my GTX 970 using all 4GB of vRAM (well, 100MB under). The last 512MB vRAM has no effect on performance.

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, Dabombinable said:

I can max out FO4 at 2x 1080p (DSR) with my GTX 970 using all 4GB of vRAM (well, 100MB under). The last 512MB vRAM has no effect on performance.

So GPU usage should not spike to 100% after 3.5GB? o3o

[Dabombinable]

Just now, Nena360 said:

So GPU usage should not spike to 100% after 3.5GB? o3o

It was running at 90-100% at that resolution, with or without the vRAM in full use. There definitely was no problems caused by the last 512MB.

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, Dabombinable said:

It was running at 90-100% at that resolution, with or without the vRAM in full use. There definitely was no problems caused by the last 512MB.

Maybe I should push it even further but I am worried the driver will crash. o3o

[Dabombinable]

14 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

Maybe I should push it even further but I am worried the driver will crash. o3o

then don't overclock the memory then....because that's all that causes a driver crash with mine. With the memory overclocked (because its a G1 Gaming, and herpa derp lets put half of the vRAM on the back with no cooling) I can't overclock the core at all, while with it at stock I can manage a 130MHz overclock (180MHz effective). You do have an FX 8370 however so for you it will be really hard to tell what the problem is, as even an i5 4440 (which is still faster single threaded than an FX 8320/8350 at 5.4GHz) can bottleneck a GTX 970 in some scenarios (hence the 4790K when I was able to afford it).

[Nena Trinity]

7 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

then don't overclock the memory then....because that's all that causes a driver crash with mine. With the memory overclocked (because its a G1 Gaming, and herpa derp lets put half of the vRAM on the back with no cooling) I can't overclock the core at all, while with it at stock I can manage a 130MHz overclock (180MHz effective). You do have an FX 8370 however so for you it will be really hard to tell what the problem is, as even an i5 4440 (which is still faster single threaded than an FX 8320/8350 at 5.4GHz) can bottleneck a GTX 970 in some scenarios (hence the 4790K when I was able to afford it).

Rivatuner blames the GPU so then it is the GPU!

[plyr0ne]

Interesting twist to a seemingly dead topic. So even though I already picked up an RX 480 (4gb sapphire nitro +), I also got my hands on a GTX 970 (evga SC) for super cheap, so I will attempt to do some comparisons and give my opinion, in hopes that it might help anyone else out. So far I'm impressed with the amd drivers.

[XenosTech]

16 minutes ago, plyr0ne said:

Interesting twist to a seemingly dead topic. So even though I already picked up an RX 480 (4gb sapphire nitro +), I also got my hands on a GTX 970 (evga SC) for super cheap, so I will attempt to do some comparisons and give my opinion, in hopes that it might help anyone else out. So far I'm impressed with the amd drivers.

Wise choice... I'll be getting the 470 from sapphire and I'll be cable to run that vs my cousin's collection of Nvidia cards on the games we play most and the ones we're planning to buy later this year.

[plyr0ne]

So far, I've noticed that the an overclocked rx480 performs better then a stock gtx 970 when I had an i3 4360 installed in my computer. When I overclocked the gtx 970, the rx480 gave higher high frame rates, but also lower lows (most likely CPU bottleneck), while the overclocked gtx 970 gave more consistent frame rates. I've recently swapped in an i5 4690k (currently at stock +turbo) and my gtx 970 and rx480 overclocks both became unstable with the presence of the upgraded CPU (not sure why, maybe since they got to work harder they couldn't handle them). I've seen a slight bump in frame rates for both. The gtx 970 gives me a better score and higher fps using the heaven benchmark, but lower fps when using the Division benchmark. The rx480 gives me higher fps in game in the Division and with the new CPU, and the frame rates are more stable. I was debating on which one to use in the main rig. When nothing graphically intensive it going on the gtx970 exhibits more stable behavior (the clock speed stays more consistent), and the rx480 sometimes seems like its clocks are all over the place for no reason (crappy AMD drivers..?). I really like the gtx 970, but since it sports a newer architecture and I recently got a freesync monitor, I will be sticking with the rx480. I do have to mention though, I kind of hate AMD's drivers.