help GPU Recommendations and Advice

[spidermankini]

I recently built a new PC to replace my 6-year old self-built machine that was starting to show its age in preparation for University. I carried over my storage drives and GPU but I am looking to replace the graphics card for something that would give me better performance in games, and in GPU-driven applications.

My specs are as follows:
CPU: Intel i5-6600K OC'd to 4.6GHz
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 Water Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2400Mhz
GPU: MSI R9 270X ITX 2GB
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB
HDD : Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400S ATX Mid Tower

I've had my eye on a couple of AMD cards, but I am concerned with the power draw I would be dealing with under load due to the 650W PSU, as power consumption is a factor I have very little knowledge about.
To give an idea of my current options I have looked at the following cards:
RX 470 4GB £170~
RX 480 4GB £220~
RX 480 8GB £240~

I'm not looking to pay much more than £250 (including shipping) on a GPU as I'll be paying around the same for some pre-uni payments and Don't want to end up eating into my savings too hard.
Thanks in advance for the advice 

[Kd4lif3]

That last card looks great. You can't go wrong with an RX480 but that just depends on what games you play. I find that current gen gpu decisions are quite straight forward, budget/ rx480, 1060, 1440 gaming/ 1070 higher resolution or enthusiast 1080 1080ti or SLI 

[EminentSun]

The RX 480 isn't insanely faster than the 470, but either way unless you are doing VR/1440p gaming I would save the money and stick to the 4gb version.

 

Its just up to your to decide if a ~%15 improvement in performance (userbenchmark) is worth 50 pounds. Also note that some of that difference can be made up if you are willing to overclock.

[Brooksie359]

i would go with the rx 480 8gb if you can afford it. its a great card and will play anything you want at 1080p with really good settings. 

[Princess Luna]

rx480 and crossfire it down the line...

[Brooksie359]

Just now, EminentSun said:

The RX 480 isn't insanely faster than the 470, but either way unless you are doing VR/1440p gaming I would save the money and stick to the 4gb version.

 

Its just up to your to decide if a ~%15 improvement in performance (userbenchmark) is worth 50 pounds. Also note that some of that difference can be made up if you are willing to overclock.

but then the gap widens when you overclock the rx 480. if you want a card that will a long time i would go for the rx 480 as it will last longer than the rx 470

[Guest]

From what I hear the rx 480 8GB is the best kind of RX 480 and is supposedly better than the 1060.

 

EDIT: I have a 390 and from benchmarks online its the same (a little less than) as the 480 8gb. The Fury X is better than the RX 480 so if you want to shoot for that (If it's in your price range and doesn't compete with any better cards at the price range) go for it.

[Princess Luna]

Just now, fpo said:

From what I hear the rx 480 8GB is the best kind of RX 480 and is supposedly better than the 1060.

Literally speaking the top of the line rx kinda Has to be the best no? and cost to performance the rx480 really beats the 1060, but if OP could go for a 1070 that would the best alternative specially for longer future proof... but with an 6600k I would not go any farther than the 1070 as the processor would bottleneck better options.

[spidermankini]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

Literally speaking the top of the line rx kinda Has to be the best no? and cost to performance the rx480 really beats the 1060, but if OP could go for a 1070 that would the best alternative specially for longer future proof... but with an 6600k I would not go any farther than the 1070 as the processor would bottleneck better options.

I was concerned about bottlenecking but wasn't sure if i was high enough up the GPU chain to be approaching bottlenecking issue or not so thanks for clarifying

[Kd4lif3]

2 minutes ago, spidermankini said:

I was concerned about bottlenecking but wasn't sure if i was high enough up the GPU chain to be approaching bottlenecking issue or not so thanks for clarifying

The only time I would be concerned about a bottleneck is if you were looking at an oc 1080 on the i5 or if you had an i3. Imo idd pick a 1060 6gb because I play a lot of nvidia optimized titles but the rx480 is a much better price to performance. You will in no way be limited by v ram with the 8gb card.

[spidermankini]

27 minutes ago, fpo said:

EDIT: I have a 390 and from benchmarks online its the same (a little less than) as the 480 8gb. The Fury X is better than the RX 480 so if you want to shoot for that (If it's in your price range and doesn't compete with any better cards at the price range) go for it.

Would the newer architecture with an Overclock not work out better in this case though? Unless the performance difference is significant, an extra £50 on a 390X seems a bit much and at that price range some lower end 1070s start to crop up 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, spidermankini said:

Would the newer architecture with an Overclock not work out better in this case though? Unless the performance difference is significant, an extra £50 on a 390X seems a bit much and at that price range some lower end 1070s start to crop up 

The newer architecture is better. I have a 390 not a 390X and from online benchmarks the 480 got 5-15~ more FPS when it got more FPS than the 390. So yes the newer architecture is better, I was hinting at a 390 would also not be a bad choice if there was one for cheap enough. 

[Kd4lif3]

14 hours ago, spidermankini said:

Would the newer architecture with an Overclock not work out better in this case though? Unless the performance difference is significant, an extra £50 on a 390X seems a bit much and at that price range some lower end 1070s start to crop up 

I definitely recommend choosing the latest arcetecture just because of future proofing. The last architecture is already a year and a bit old and in no way erelevent but is a year closer to obsolescence than current arcetecture. Also remember that last gen 900 series is currently supports DX12 but will probably not support the next generation software. I don't know a lot about AMD generations but I feel like it will follow a similar route.