Late 2018 GPU choices

[riklaunim]

I want to replace my R9 Fury with something better, but there isn't a clear choice as usual. I have a 3440x1440 75Hz Freesync display and the second hand / new options I'm looking at:

 

1. Reference Vega 64 used + Alphacool water cooling kit
2. Sapphire Nitro+ Vega 64 - beefy air cooling new
3. 16GB Vega FE + Alphacool or rarely Vega FE water cooled (or Vega 64 Liquid)
4. OC 1080 Ti used or new 2080

There is relatively a lot of stock Vega 64 and even FE on the market from mining. Stock cooler is "bad" and loud so I would use Alphacool water cooling kit on it. Price would be 600 - 700 EUR for a stock or custom water cooled 8GB Vega 64 or 16 GB Vega FE. Sapphire Nitro+ would be a 535 EUR new air cooled 2,5 slot card with beefy cooling that reviews grade nicely.

Used 1080 Ti rarely get as cheap (those MSI 1080 Ti mini from mining rigs) but bit above water cooled Vega (745 EUR) there are OC models of 1080 Ti used (like Zotac AMP! Extreme or Gigabyte Aourus Waterforce). Going for a new card with full warranty - 2080 slightly more expensive.

 

Would be handy to keep FreeSync or have 1080Ti that would be fast enough not to require it much. Nitro+ seems like most handy option right now. The GPU doesn't have to be extreme tier, rather best value for money among those. So what do you think?

[zhubaohi]

Right now nvidia cards also support freesync. 

[voiha]

Currently the best for your money would be if you take used 1080 Ti, of course if you want to treat yourself you can go for the 2080, but if you can't justify the price with your income/money saved, then pick the 1080 Ti you would be happy with it for some couple of years. Apparently Nvidia wants to sell all their left over 1080/1080ti so I guess games will continue to support 10 series cards for longer period of time

[Jurrunio]

I'd just get a new 1080ti or 2080. You don't need Freesync if you can get more fps than the refresh rate which these two Nvidia cards can do as long as the graphics settings arent unreasonably high.

 

between 1080ti and 2080 is more debatable. I don't like paying for things I don't know whether works, so I'll skip the 2080 since the reason why it cost more is RTX features support (raytracing, DLSS etc) which doesnt work with any games yet.

 

3 minutes ago, zhubaohi said:

Right now nvidia cards also support freesync. 

Only with Ryzen APU, which isnt the case here.

[voiha]

2 minutes ago, zhubaohi said:

Right now nvidia cards also support freesync. 

You need AMD graphics hardware in order to do that "trick". Nvidia on it's own can't do that.