Good GPU on a Budget?

[UltimaHeart]

So i am building my first pc & im on a tight budget. I can either afford a 1050 TI, 1060 3GB, or a used 980 TI from ebay. Now I know 980 TI beats both of them but my bigger question is, Because its a last generation GPU, will this still be a good GPU for a few years? I am gonna play in 1080P @ 60 & 144hz. 

[Misanthrope]

The 980ti is at times stronger than a 1070 so it's on another league if you can afford that, just beware of cards that might not be in the best of conditions. Failing that I'd try for a 1060 3gb the VRAM is not ideal but it shouldn't be a problem for a while most games at 1080p are still not maxing 1080p and in case they do you can always just adjust your settings.

[UltimaHeart]

2 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

The 980ti is at times stronger than a 1070 so it's on another league if you can afford that, just beware of cards that might not be in the best of conditions. Failing that I'd try for a 1060 3gb the VRAM is not ideal but it shouldn't be a problem for a while most games at 1080p are still not maxing 1080p and in case they do you can always just adjust your settings.

Gotchu. Since some used 980 TI's are around the same price as a 1060 3gb, you think thats a good steal?

[Misanthrope]

Just now, UltimaHeart said:

Gotchu. Since some used 980 TI's are around the same price as a 1060 3gb, you think thats a good steal?

Well it does has it's trade offs: the 980ti is a far hotter card and since this are used cards they will probably need you reapplying thermal paste sooner than normal. Even if there's a fairly substantial performance difference the fact that the 1060 3gb is just 120 watts helps it behave better at lower temps overall, this of course depending on cooler.

[Reagan1998]

Sorry for interrupting, but is the 1050 TI a better card? Isn't it superior to the 980 TI in almost every way?

[UltimaHeart]

Just now, Reagan1998 said:

Sorry for interrupting, but is the 1050 TI a better card? Isn't superior to the 980 TI in almost every way?

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-980-Ti-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti/3439vs3649 Nope, 980 ti crushes 1050 ti

[DocSwag]

Assuming you have the psu for it and don't mind the extra power consumption the 980 ti is a much better option.

2 minutes ago, Reagan1998 said:

Sorry for interrupting, but is the 1050 TI a better card? Isn't it superior to the 980 TI in almost every way?

980 ti is vastly faster than a 1050 ti, I might even say it's over 2x faster.

[UltimaHeart]

Just now, DocSwag said:

Assuming you have the psu for it and don't mind the extra power consumption the 980 ti is a much better option.

980 ti is vastly faster than a 1050 ti, I might even say it's over 2x faster.

my PSU is an EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Fully Modular 

is that good enough?

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, UltimaHeart said:

my PSU is an EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Fully Modular 

is that good enough?

More than enough, for sure.

[UltimaHeart]

Just now, DocSwag said:

More than enough, for sure.

Since some used 980 TI's are around the same price as a 1060 3gb, you think thats a good steal?

[DocSwag]

Just now, UltimaHeart said:

Since some used 980 TI's are around the same price as a 1060 3gb, you think thats a good steal?

For sure. 980 ti is considerably faster. Probably by 70-100%.

[UltimaHeart]

Just now, DocSwag said:

For sure. 980 ti is considerably faster. Probably by 70-100%.

Gotchu! thats really good to hear

my only concern is that since its a last generation card from 2015, will it still hold up for a few years?

[DocSwag]

Just now, UltimaHeart said:

Gotchu! thats really good to hear

my only concern is that since its a last generation card from 2015, will it still hold up for a few years?

Definitely, while 1060 is newer even with drivers it's not gonna come anywhere close to a 980 ti. Performance wise a 980 ti will be vastly better until Nvidia stops supporting it (which should be quite a few years away)

[Reagan1998]

6 minutes ago, UltimaHeart said:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-980-Ti-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti/3439vs3649 Nope, 980 ti crushes 1050 ti

 Wow, that changes things. I thought that ARM chip gave it an advantage

 

[MoonlightSylv]

1 minute ago, Reagan1998 said:

 Wow, that changes things. I thought that ARM chip gave it an advantage

 

Where did you ever get the idea that the 1050Ti was faster than the 980Ti? It's on par with a 960.

[kronickiller]

used 290x / 970 

u can get them on the cheap dont think the miners even want them

good for 1080p

[dragonhart6505]

just curious, what CPU are you pairing it with and what monitor resolution/refresh rate are you shooting for? im sure if you got cash for a 1060/980ti youre pairing it appropriately all around

[UltimaHeart]

1 hour ago, dragonhart6505 said:

just curious, what CPU are you pairing it with and what monitor resolution/refresh rate are you shooting for? im sure if you got cash for a 1060/980ti youre pairing it appropriately all around

Im gonna pair it with Ryzen 3 1200 or intel coffee lake next month & i plan on playing at 1080p 60hz or 144hz

[dragonhart6505]

In either case your going to slightly bottleneck the 980ti (your best bet) closer to 60fps than you are higher frames depending on the titles you plan to play should you be maxing out quality settings at that resolution, which you obviously should. However youve left plenty of room for an upgrade path, so if you really wanted to bump resolution up to 1440p I'd say go for that instead off the bat with the couple extra bucks you'll save going for the 980ti > 1060 + Ryzen. You should still be able to maintain 60fps if you turn off any AA (which you won't necessarily need at 1440) and enable vsync unless you get a lucky deal for a Gsync monitor.

Good luck

[Haris Javed]

Hello - I am new to LTT forums, and would like to help. I have owned two of the three above mentioned gpu's. GTX 1060 6gb, and GTX 980 TI. 

- if you want to game at 1080P (60hz-144hz) the 980 TI is the best choice from the above cards. I had no problem hitting 144fps and above - with high/ultra settings (with 2x or 4xmsaa) in games like battlefield 4, battlefield 1 (110~135fps), Rainbow 2 siege, Overwatch. My card was OC'd and usually ran between 1463~1503 mhz core speed on air. The 980ti does produce a ton of heat, and power draw is increased quite a bit when the card is OC'd (noticed with killawatt) 

- The 1060 on the other hand will not do 144fps @ 1080p on high / ultra settings (with the exception of Overwatch, and Doom), but will do about 80-120fps in the above games when OC'd to 2000mhz. It also runs much cooler (60C for the card I have @ 65% fan speed), and the power draw is low

If you can find a 980ti for 240-280 usd, it might be worth picking up. It is also a very good card for 1440p gaming (70-90 fps in the above titles). I used both cards with a 6700K clocked at 4.6ghz 1.310V. 

 

[luigi90210]

12 hours ago, DocSwag said:

For sure. 980 ti is considerably faster. Probably by 70-100%.

The 980ti is faster than the 1060 6gb by 14-16% so at most the 980ti(since the 980 is slower than the 980ti by that much and the 1060 6gb gives you 980 performance) will be faster than the 3gb version by 20%. Please don't tell people a last generation card is 100% faster than a newer generation card without looking it up, makes you look bad...

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Reagan1998 said:

Sorry for interrupting, but is the 1050 TI a better card? Isn't it superior to the 980 TI in almost every way?

The 9 represents the generation in 980 TI

the 10 represents the generation in 1050 TI. 

 

The "weakest to strongest" cards end in 50, 60, 70, 80. 

TI in nvidia cards means it's slightly better than the base number.

a 1050 TI is a slightly better 1050. 

 

With nvidia and amd cards you can typically match up performance of cards like this

new 80 is the best

old 80 = new 70

old 70 = new 60

old 60 = new 50.

 

it doesn't always match up this way, as with this generation (pascal "10" series graphics cards)

the 980 = the gtx 1060 (not exactly, but closely) 

 

the gtx 1050 TI closely resembles the GTX 960. The gtx 1050 (NOT TI) is a little less powerful. 

 

If if I were you, I'd save for the gtx 1060 6gb, or RX 580 8GB. (Presuming it's an option) 

I have an R9 390, and a gtx 1050 TI. Imo, they're both close in real world performance that it makes little difference. (R9 390 is between 970, and 980. The 980 TI is better than the 980.) 

 

if if I had to choose I'd obviously go with the R9 390. It has twice the vram at 8GB. The 1050 ti has 4gb vram and performs pretty well from what I've seen. I haven't stressed tested them though in side by side. 

[luigi90210]

7 minutes ago, fpo said:

 

it doesn't always match up this way, as with this generation (pascal "10" series graphics cards)

the 980 = the gtx 1060 (not exactly, but closely) 

 

[SNIP]

 

If if I were you, I'd save for the gtx 1060 6gb, or RX 580 8GB. (Presuming it's an option) 

 

From what I saw the 1060 6gb has a +/- 1-2% difference with the 980 in benchmarks online(so better in some games and worse in some games) but since the 1060 uses less power it gives you more consistent performance over the 980 which runs hotter. 

 

Ultimately I would agree with your suggestion but retract the RX580 as that card is almost $400 while the 1060 6gb has gone back down to $260. 

[DocSwag]

40 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

The 980ti is faster than the 1060 6gb by 14-16% so at most the 980ti(since the 980 is slower than the 980ti by that much and the 1060 6gb gives you 980 performance) will be faster than the 3gb version by 20%. Please don't tell people a last generation card is 100% faster than a newer generation card without looking it up, makes you look bad...

Yeah mind giving a source for that?

Remember that 1060 3gbs don't benefit much from better coolers whereas 980 tis do. If you put a decent cooler on the 980 ti that performance is gonna be above the 1070 rather than 10% below it which makes the gap at least 50%. Not to mention this is worst case for 980 ti since it's 1080p rather than a higher resolution like 4k.

That performance gap could definitely reach 100% with a good cooler and OC on the 980 ti.

[luigi90210]

2 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Yeah mind giving a source for that?

Remember that 1060 3gbs don't benefit much from better coolers whereas 980 tis do. If you put a decent cooler on the 980 ti that performance is gonna be above the 1070 rather than 10% below it which makes the gap at least 50%. Not to mention this is worst case for 980 ti since it's 1080p rather than a higher resolution like 4k.

That performance gap could definitely reach 100% with a good cooler and OC on the 980 ti.

Looks like someone can't read those graphs. If the 1060 3gb is 100%, 133% means a 33% increase at 1080p so I was wrong with my 20% figure but a 980ti definitely isn't 133% faster than the 1060 3gb, if that was the case it would be greater than 1080 in performance but it isn't. 

 

Also no one buys a 1060 for 4k gaming, no one. A 1070 is what you want at minimum for 4k gaming and that's what the 980ti performs at, you are talking apples to oranges, if OP wants a 1060 3gb they will most likely be playing at 1080p or 1440p no higher, comparing benchmarks at a resolution a card isn't designed to be used at will always make the better card look better. 

 

I suggest learning how to read graphs first though, maybe then will you understand how these cards perform relative to one another.