£300 for a new GPU... Any Help?

[PlymouthJoseph]

Okay, because Christmas is just around the corner, I am going to be upgrading my GPU, but I do not know what to get... I have a budget of a maximum of £300 (Which means a GTX 1070 is out of the question) but I cannot decide on what to get.

After about 2 months of looking at different models from both AMD and Nvidia... And I have come to the conclusion that there are 5 I can choose from. 

Nvidia: 
Asus Strix GTX 1060 6GB OC Gaming
EVGA GTX 1060 FTW+ (I've ALWAYS been a fan of EVGA)

AMD:
Asus Strix RX480 8GB OC Gaming
Powercolor Red Devil RX480 8GB
-OR- Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury 4G OC+

Now, I know the GTX 1060 is more power efficient and is better in some titles. It also has ShadowPlay and other Nvidia 10xx series bonuses. But the RX480, although being more power hungry, has better performance in DX12 and is only going to get better with Driver updates. Also, with the 1060, although it has only 6GB, it has the Nvidia Memory Compression, so it makes the memory go further... Right? 

Now, when it comes to the R9 Fury... I don't know what to say about it... It has the advantage of having HBM, but it only has 4GB of VRAM. And although some will say this will not be a issue, but I've read that large open-world games such as GTA-V and Skyrim use much more VRAM... Which would make the 4GB an issue. 
Also, I know some are going to say that the Fury is the obvious choice, but you've gotta remember that you cannot really overclock the Fury, but you can overclock the 1060 and the 480 which could make them within spitting distance of the Fury. 

In short, can you guys help me choose because I do not know what to choose. My current specs are in my Signature, and the games I will mostly be playing are GTA-V, BF1 and The Crew. I will also be buying a 2560x1080 monitor soon, but currently running at 1600x900.

Many Thanks

- Joe

[Shoob]

AMD already has a proper alternative to Shadowplay - ReLive. The 1060 and 480 have reached parity in most recent DX11 title (except for GTA5) and the 480 is better in DX12/Vulkan. Have you considered other RX 480s? The XFX GTR model is probably the best one.

[Morgan Everett]

Some points: 

• The 1060 is only marginally more power efficient than the 480.
• AMD has recently released software that replicates closely the features of Shadowplay.
• The 480 may have an advantage in some of the very small number of DX12 titles available. But this says little about future performance in this respect, in my view.
• Both the 1060 and 480 will improve with future driver updates.
• Don't get the Fury. 4GB is not enough now, and, more importantly, going forward.

[johnnysasaki]

I'd go with  EVGA GTX 1060 FTW+ , just cos of EVGA. As long as their UK customer service is similar to the one they have in US. Which as far as I know, is similar and since November 2015, they even have UK based customer service center. 

[PlymouthJoseph]

1 minute ago, Pandalf said:

AMD already has a proper alternative to Shadowplay - ReLive. The 1060 and 480 have reached parity in most recent DX11 title (except for GTA5) and the 480 is better in DX12/Vulkan. Have you considered other RX 480s? The XFX GTR model is probably the best one.

Well, I have looked... But since I've got £300 to spend... I wanted to get the best of which I thought I could overclock it. Hence the Powercolor Red Devil and Asus Strix. 

Also, whatcha mean by reached parity? 

[PlymouthJoseph]

1 minute ago, johnnysasaki said:

I'd go with  EVGA GTX 1060 FTW+ , just cos of EVGA. As long as their UK customer service is similar to the one they have in US. Which as far as I know, is similar and since November 2015, they even have UK based customer service center. 

Other than EVGA, why would you choose the GTX 1060 over the RX480 and the R9 Fury. 

[Clanscorpia]

1 minute ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

Well, I have looked... But since I've got £300 to spend... I wanted to get the best of which I thought I could overclock it. Hence the Powercolor Red Devil and Asus Strix. 

Also, whatcha mean by reached parity? 

The Red Devil is the worst card. And the GTR is the best card without going into the overclocking cards, the GTR Black and Platinums. With the Platinums hte average clock is 1450 iirc. My 4GB Nitro reached 1495/2100 because AMD screwed up  there's a few other 480 Overclocking enthusiasts here if you have any questions @Deli

[Clanscorpia]

1 minute ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

Other than EVGA, why would you choose the GTX 1060 over the RX480 and the R9 Fury. 

No other reason as of the new Crimson

[johnnysasaki]

1 minute ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

Other than EVGA, why would you choose the GTX 1060 over the RX480 and the R9 Fury. 

That's actually the main reason. With recent driver updates rx480 and gtx1060 are basically on par in dx11 titles. I guess OC capabilities would swing me towards nvidia card as well. R9 Fury is simply 'meh' in-my-opinion. 

[PlymouthJoseph]

4 minutes ago, Morgan Everett said:

Some points: 

• The 1060 is only marginally more power efficient than the 480.
• AMD has recently released software that replicates closely the features of Shadowplay.
• The 480 may have an advantage in some of the very small number of DX12 titles available. But this says little about future performance in this respect, in my view.
• Both the 1060 and 480 will improve with future driver updates.
• Don't get the Fury. 4GB is not enough now, and, more importantly, going forward.

Wouldn't the HBM on the Fury help it with the low VRAM? 

[comicsansms]

Gtx 1060 and RX 480 are very similar , the RX 480 is more power efficient than the GTX 1060. AMD also has similar features to shadow play. 

 

What do I think you should get? RX 480 8GB, games will use more VRAM in the future, the GTX 1060 6GB and RX 480 (4GB or 8GB) are very comparable, so more VRAM wins.

i don't know how I feel about the Fury, it preforms similarly, but has less VRAM. 

 

My pick: ASUS Strix RX 480, I heard ASUS did a really good job and didn't fuck up the GPUs this time. 

[Clanscorpia]

1 minute ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

Wouldn't the HBM on the Fury help it with the low VRAM? 

It helps if you go over yes but I wouldnt depend on it.

 

1 minute ago, johnnysasaki said:

That's actually the main reason. With recent driver updates rx480 and gtx1060 are basically on par in dx11 titles. I guess OC capabilities would swing me towards nvidia card as well. R9 Fury is simply 'meh' in-my-opinion. 

Boi my RX 480 Overclocked beats a 980 on LN2. 480 Overclocking is waaaaaaaaay better

[Clanscorpia]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-radeon-rx-480-gtr-black-edition-8192mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-with-backplate-gx-23a-xf.html Thats the best one

[PlymouthJoseph]

1 minute ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Gtx 1060 and RX 480 are very similar , the RX 480 is more power efficient than the GTX 1060. AMD also has similar features to shadow play. 

 

What do I think you should get? RX 480 8GB, games will use more VRAM in the future, the GTX 1060 6GB and RX 480 (4GB or 8GB) are very comparable, so more VRAM wins.

i don't know how I feel about the Fury, it preforms similarly, but has less VRAM. 

 

My pick: ASUS Strix RX 480, I heard ASUS did a really good job and didn't fuck up the GPUs this time. 

Doesn't Nvidia have that compression for memory, which makes the 6GB go further? 

[Clanscorpia]

1 minute ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

Doesn't Nvidia have that compression for memory, which makes the 6GB go further? 

AMDs compression has been better for years iirc 

[PlymouthJoseph]

2 minutes ago, Clanscorpia said:

AMDs compression has been better for years iirc 

Huh... That I didn't know. Lol. 

[Freezanator]

@PlymouthJoseph get the Gigabyte GTX 1060 Windforce OC 6GB card. Reputable company and great card.  

[Bananasplit_00]

fury all the way, its close to a 1070 depending on the tittle. its the most powerfull card of them

[Morgan Everett]

14 minutes ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

Wouldn't the HBM on the Fury help it with the low VRAM? 

It's fast memory, so it will help, but it's still 4GB. It was a limitation when the card was released; it's even moreso now. More importantly, I assume you'll want to keep a £300 card for awhile, and the problem will get worse in the future.

[Mello]

Make sure you don't have an old motherboard since the RX 480 draws more than the PCI-E can handle.

.

[Simon771]

I would go with GTX 1060 any day.

[Megah3rtz]

7 minutes ago, Mello said:

Make sure you don't have an old motherboard since the RX 480 draws more than the PCI-E can handle.

.

Erhm I'm pretty sure they fixed that awhile ago. 

 

 

42 minutes ago, PlymouthJoseph said:

- Joe

Look at the updated review on the RX480 8gb vs GTX 1060 6gb from Hardware Canucks

[Mello]

1 minute ago, Megah3rtz said:

Erhm I'm pretty sure they fixed that awhile ago. 

I was so busy being happy with my 1060 build at that time

[PlymouthJoseph]

12 minutes ago, Morgan Everett said:

It's fast memory, so it will help, but it's still 4GB. It was a limitation when the card was released; it's even moreso now. More importantly, I assume you'll want to keep a £300 card for awhile, and the problem will get worse in the future.

That makes sense, and yea... I plan too. Bu current upgrades have been, XFX Radeon HD6670 2GB DDR3, Asus 750ti, EVGA GTX 960 SSC. And I've quite frankly been upgrading them every Christmas... So if I can have one that will last me a while, that'll be amazing.

[PlymouthJoseph]

9 minutes ago, Mello said:

Make sure you don't have an old motherboard since the RX 480 draws more than the PCI-E can handle.

.

They fixed that a while ago with a driver update, and I don't have a old motherboard... I have a Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5... So it's not an old motherboard...