Freesync vs. G-Sync

[Guest nmtroeger]

G-Sync is super expensive compared to free sync in monitors and I have seen some graphs online comparing two AMD RX 580's (8gb) in Crossfire to a GTX 1080, and the performance is pretty similar. At this price point I could also get the air cooled AMD Vega 64. Should I go with AMD or get a GTX 1080 or wait for Volta?

[Kobathor]

I can recommend AMD at the mid-range. The 580 is a good card for the price and better than the 1060. After the 580 though, I cannot recommend AMD's offerings. Vega 56 and 64 are simply not up to par with the 1070, 1080, and 1080ti. If you have the money, the 1080ti is the best graphics card on the market.

[Hybris5112]

3 minutes ago, Kobathor said:

I can recommend AMD at the mid-range. The 580 is a good card for the price and better than the 1060. After the 580 though, I cannot recommend AMD's offerings. Vega 56 and 64 are simply not up to par with the 1070, 1080, and 1080ti. If you have the money, the 1080ti is the best graphics card on the market.

I completely agree and would like to add though that you should be sure to shop around if you are looking to get a 580 as much over MSRP make going up a tier or 3 much better looking options. After that I wouldn't touch Vega with a 10ft stick for fear of it trying to drain all my life energy in order to boost a few more Mhz.

[Misanthrope]

Here's the only sensible option for adaptive sync technologies assuming you're not a rich bastard:

 

1) Cheap 1080p monitor with Freesync range 40 to whatever the maximum is, 75 for the cheapest up to 100 or 120hz for the expensive but still reasonably priced.

2) Over paying for a 570.

 

You're gonna be wasting a lot of money (right now 100 bucks over MSRP so close to 60% price increase) on an inferior-for-the-price GPU from AMD at this time. Don't believe people saying prices will come down: We've been hearing this since late May we're days away from fucking October, it's not coming down probably for the rest of 2017 if not quarter 2 of 2018.

 

What most people should be doing at this time is this:

 

1) Buy the Freesync monitor that fits your budget.

2) Put it on a 1060 3gb or 6gb depending on your resolution (though you will overpay slightly for the 6gb version, just not nearly as much as for a 580)

3) Play games without Freesync at whatever refresh rate you can handle

4) Buy an AMD card if and when they become reasonably priced and available.

 

If you're in the market for a monitor it's the kind of purchase you can easily grow into so to speak so if you don't want to spend too much on a G-sync panel just get a Freesync one and don't worry about it until AMD cards can be had.

[Misanthrope]

17 minutes ago, Kobathor said:

I can recommend AMD at the mid-range. The 580 is a good card for the price and better than the 1060. After the 580 though, I cannot recommend AMD's offerings. Vega 56 and 64 are simply not up to par with the 1070, 1080, and 1080ti. If you have the money, the 1080ti is the best graphics card on the market.

It is not: it's 330 for the cheapest to be found and performs marginally better than the 1060 6gb which is about 280. The 1060 6gb is already close to 30 to 40 bucks too expensive.

 

This is not at all a good price it's still not worth spending so much on a 580. If you need a card that on this price range go buy a used 980ti.

[DragonTamer1]

I have two 480s in Xfire, and while it is a fun tinkering project, I wouldn't really recommend that as your main line of graphical horsepower. Not all games support it, and while it's not usually a big deal since in my case the second card won't even turn on in those games, there are some games where it will come on and degrade performance. They are also not going to get you GTX 1080 performance except in some very niche circumstances, namely AOTS and Sniper Elite 4.

 

 

[Prox1ma]

Until RTG comes up with a good GPU, there is no point in freesync. Get yourself a 1070 or 1080 with a 1080p gsync monitor. When RTG launches something that's worth your money, then get yourself a 1440p freesync and the RTG card. Vega 56 with 1080p freesync is a good option but I don't know whether you can even find those cards. Just to give you an example, the Vega 56 retails around 46000 INR here, while a 1080 is available at 43000. Yes you read that right, Vega 56 is more expensive than a 1080 here.

[naaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

if you can get hands on vega 56 at msrp(+tax) in your country, it's a good gpu for the price, AIB might release oktober.

same price as 1070 here and you save on freesync

[Kobathor]

11 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

It is not: it's 330 for the cheapest to be found and performs marginally better than the 1060 6gb which is about 280. The 1060 6gb is already close to 30 to 40 bucks too expensive.

 

This is not at all a good price it's still not worth spending so much on a 580. If you need a card that on this price range go buy a used 980ti.

I haven't been following graphics card prices recently, I already bought a nice one. I just know performance. I don't really care anyways, since graphics cards are selling for relatively normal prices in-store here (lots of computer parts stores in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex.)

[Darkseth]

Depending what games you compare, and resolution, 2x RX 580 will even be beat by a single  GTX 1070.

And 2 RX 580 consume 400 watt. a single GTX 1080 consumes 180 watt. Do the math, but over a few Years, G-Sync doesn't really cost more than Freesync here. ^^" And won't give you any problems, since you're not going Multi-GPU.

 

 

Don't go Multi-GPU. Doesn't matter if it's Sli or Crossfire. it IS a stupid idea, especially if we're talking about weaker cards like 2x RX 580.

 

Single GPU > All. Always. 

If a single RX 580 or GTX 1060 (Depending on prices) doesn't have enough performance for you, you don't get a second one, you buy a stronger Card. simple as that.

 

Multi-GPU support from the Games is getting more and more droped. Many modern titles don't support it at all, and if they do, the scaling is just bad. Even worse in lower resolutions like 1080p.

You have many problems like double the heat, Power Consumption, micro stuttering, driver problems etc etc.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, Kobathor said:

I haven't been following graphics card prices recently, I already bought a nice one. I just know performance. I don't really care anyways, since graphics cards are selling for relatively normal prices in-store here (lots of computer parts stores in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex.)

Well if you don't know then you don't know but No: prices are not normal so sadly, it doesn't matters if AMD makes better cards if their prices are absurd (1070 prices for 1060 performance)