Advice for GPU Purchase

Hardware Hub GPU
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Hello All,

I'm in the process of ordering components for my new rig but I'm stuck on the graphics card and don't know where to turn. Im building a custom watercooling loop to go with the new rig, Specs are as follows:
Ryzen 1700
Asus Crosshair
16GB DDR4 300MHz Gskill
Samsung 960 Evo 500GB M.2
EVGA 850w G2

Heres the catch with the deciding on which GPU to pair with this rig, I'm heading off to the military in late July this year and won''t get a great chance to use this new rig for a while there after so I didn't want to spend alot of money on the bleeding edge GPU when it will be outdated before I can really get the most out of it, but at the same I want to water cool the whole system. I also don't want to go backward in performance from my GTX780.

Current options are:
New RX 480 8GB
Second Hand GTX 970 Gigabyte G1 Gaming
Second Hand GTX 980Ti EVGA SC

I'm also open to suggestions or if someone has a GPU they would like to sell?

Thanks in advance for your help guys, you're always so wonderful.

Game Of Drones.

P.S. I'll be posting Pics and Video of the build once done so stay tuned!

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P.P.S I'm also open the idea of 2 x RX 480's in crossfire ... but this I think might be on the high side of my budget ... or even a 1070 i just don't know anymore ... PLS HELP!

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screen? games? budget? what sort of price are those second hand cards?

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480 or 1070 depending on your budget and preferred resolution.

Don't do crossfire. I do and I wouldn't recommend

Best 480:

1070:

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I have 3 x 1080p dell IPS monitors
Forgot the games, lol sorry:

  • Forza Horizon 3
  • Overwatch
  • Starcraft 2
  • Kerbal Space Program
  • Doom
  • Ghost Recon

I was hoping to spend no more AU$300, I'm open to spending more if there is a solid argument to suit my use case.

Both Second Hand cards are currently looking at just under the AU$300 mark which could also net me a new RX480 8GB.

Thanks for the quick reply as well.

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Are you using those monitors in Surround or just gaming on one?

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Could I ask why you don't recommend crossfire?
To be honest I've never used either crossfire or sli so ive never had the hands on experience.

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Both, I also have some racing games so I use surround in them if they support it.

Oh ill also be using Adobe Premier for vid editing. forgot that too lol.

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There was a thread on here a little while a go that was anti crossfire. I cant find it tho.

But basically not all games scale to support crossfire. So you would not see much improvement. It would be a waste of money.

Anyway here is a RX 480 crossfire review, if you had not seen it.

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Not only that, but you can sometimes get horrid frame stutter as well. :/

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Dual GPU setups, either Crossfire or SLI, have many issues that make it not worth it.

Many games do not see good scaling. Many games it doesn't work at all so you just have a GPU sitting there doing nothing. Even in games that work and have good scaling there is often stuttering which is almost worse than lower framerates.

Even in games that work perfectly, scale well and don't stutter you have double the power consumption, heat and noise.

You're always better off with a single more powerful GPU. SLI/CF only makes sense if you have the most powerful GPU available but still need more IE two 1080 TIs.

I'm always wary of used GPUs and you shouldn't even look at the 970 at all. It is slower than a 480 and has less VRAM.

Based on your needs I think a 480 is probably the best option. AMD Eyefinity is better than Surround too. If you really need more power than grab a 1070 but based on the games you play and your resolution a 480 is probably the more sensible choice

Which in that case get the GTR from XFX I linked above or the MSI Gaming X. They are the best 480s on the market

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Since you are going to be gone for a while. I would advise spending as little as possible now on the gpu and spend more when you get back. That will be the best long term solution, I think. So I would say get the 480 now, and when you get back, we will see how things go.

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Something something Vega perhaps?

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something something I don't know how long he will be gone something something Navi

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Something something, probably a year or 2 before I can game again.

(going to have about a month and a half off work before I go in so plenty of time for games, photo, and video editing :) )

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Then yeah, the 1700 and a 480 will be amazing for editing and gaming.

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Thanks for the advice guys.

Do you recon the RX480 would be able to handle Forza Horizon 3 on max settings or close enough to it? My 780 maxes out at medium at the moment lol, also uses all 3GB of VRam in an instant ...

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A 480 should be like 40% faster than a 780 iirc. Would have to double check though.

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To be fair Forza Horizon 3 is really poorly optimized but just glancing at some reviews the 480 does about 70FPS average, maxed at 1080p in that game.

The 780 averages..... 23-35 depending on the review...

God Kepler aged extremely poorly...

Always amazed every time I see it.