[Mission failed] Convince me not to buy a GTX 1080ti

Right now I’m running Linux and have an R9-390 (Also R7-1700) but have been having some problems with it; for example:

  • SUPER screen tear-y in games if I don’t put it in ‘high performance’ mode
  • Loud
  • Disappointingly poor performance in games like Hitman, Deus Ex (FPS in mid 40’s on low), even CS:GO (Extremely unstable FPS and stuttering like crazy)
  • EXTREME coil whine in menus and stuff or at ridiculously high FPS (In stuff like Half Life 1 and such)
  • Using the amdgpu driver requires a customised kernel and setting boot parameters
  • In order to use the amdgpu-pro drivers you need to use a kernel too old to support AMDs new CPUs (You’re tearing me apart Lisa!)
  • DOOM in wine does not want to work in opengl or vulkan and from what I’ve seen, requires compiling a patched version of Mesa which seems pretty ugly.

In fact, I bought a 1050ti to see if the grass was greener on the other side (Heh, heh… I’ll stop now) and every game ran just as well as my 390, sometimes better! Still not great, but better nonetheless.
I’ll also not need to buy a new GPU for AGES I mean, even the 780ti is still a pretty good card.
Considering my experience with a pretty budget Nvidia card compared to my last-gen high end AMD card I can only assume the 1080ti will be an absolute BEAST, So many cats per second! I can afford one but I’d just like some approval from people in the know because I’m insecure like that.
In fact, here’s a nice poll so you don’t have to type things if you don’t want to.

  • Buy the 1080ti
  • Buy a 1070 or something
  • Buy an RX-580, those aren’t problems anymore
  • Just use the 1050ti/R9-390
  • Wait for Vega
  • Wait for Volta

0 voters

1 Like

Get the 1080 ti . Unless it doesn’t mean that much to run about 10% better than than a good 1070. SINCE AMD loves data miners but refuses to make cards exclusively for data mining (which would be the wisest thing considering this would be the way to satisfy both markets) AMD needs to learn a valuable lesson: STOP slighting builders and enthusiasts. Have you actually looked into the retail prices on VEGA 64s???

Buy what your pockets can afford that will make you happy.

Going from a 1050ti/390 to 1070 will be just fine. Nobody really needs a 1080Ti for healthy gaming.

<rant>
I'm currently on Dual Rx580's (bought a while ago) and they can kinda compete/beat a 1080 in select games.
But then again I don't game much. Gaming gets boring when you reach a certain age/part of your life and everything else just becomes more important/real to you. 
</rant>

Data mining? You mean crypto currency mining? They are making those…

You know AMD doesn’t set those prices right? That’s the retailer… also have you seen 1070 and 1080 prices? 1070s are over $450… Sometimes more than $500. And both are always out of stock. It’s a terrible time to buy a GPU now.

But I digress…

If you’re happy with the performance of the 1050 Ti then no need to upgrade. If you’re not then upgrade. Simple as that but you may actually not need a 1080 Ti. A 1070 or 1080 will be more than enough. The latter can max any game at 1440p so… 1080 ti is really only for 4K and 1440p 144hz gaming.

They are making those, I’d rather penalize NVidia for their horrid GSync tax which keeps me firmly entrenched in team red. If those assholes at NVidia would take something they charge a few hundred bucks for and support it for free I could considering buy Nvidia card. Instead now I have to spend 600 to 800 for a NVidia card THEN 800 to 1000 for a comparable monitor that I already have. Not going to happen, also you may want to see what is going on with 1070’s, its gotten to the point where miners are playing with those too.

Sucks to be in the market for a video card right now with all the crypto insanity going on.

I’d say just find a way to make due with what you have.

3 Likes

For reasons already discussed above, now is not the time to buy graphics cards. I would stick with what you have and find some other games to play.

2 Likes

Its interesting you’re having such shitty performance with that 390 even in CSGO. I would think it would do better. I know its not a new card and all but something doesnt seem right there. I would probably setup passthrough and see if its still as bad on windows.

Personally I have a 1070 and its more than enough card for what I use it for. The only reason I dont have something a little lower end is because of my VR setup which I hardly use these days. It would be cool to have a 1080ti but I cant justify it for anything I do gaming wise. In any case, prices are silly right now. Probably wont come back down either for a little while. Best bet is to wait if you can.

Easier solution: Stop using Linux for gaming.

Something something square peg something round hole. …

7 Likes

Since you have 2 GPUs do pci-e passthrough, and then you don’t have to spend any money at all.

you should probably just give up and become a console peasant. they don’t have to deal with this kind of crap.
just the crap all the PCMR peeps give them.

Easy, look at you bank account.

Hmmm… I love to see all of these suggestions without asking the most important question:

What kind of monitor do you have / plan to have?

It is not possible or responsible to recommend a GPU without knowing how many pixels it will be pushing.

Considering that you can sell your R9 390 and cover more than half the cost of a 1080 Ti, or like 75-80% of a Gtx 1080, I’d say this is actually a great time for you to upgrade.

There is a lot of talk about how its a bad time to buy GPU’s right now, and to an extent that is still true, but not for you. If your looking at Gtx 1080 or Gtx 1080 Ti (frankly Vega trades blows with the 1080 at the cost of a ton of power, will be hard to buy without a bundle, and has no aftermarket cards coming till at least next month, it really should be considered a non-option IMO) class of hardware, then this is a great time to buy. Gtx 1080 and 1080 Ti have seen little to no increase in price, and are not hard to get.

Don’t go RX 580, that’s a side step from your current R9 390 and not an upgrade. Only a reduction in power usage.

1 Like

The GTX 10 series is hardly the preferred choice for miners. This is why these cards can actually be purchased from retailers in the first place. Admittedly, I’m not happy about paying around 600 Canadian for an NVIDIA card but this really is a BAD TIME for cards. (see my “HAS ANYONE NOTICED” thread) Fortunately for me I’m not a hard core gamer. I respect your reason for wanting to penalize NVIDIA but I will give them this: At least they attempted to make a mining card so that the crypto crowd would leave graphics cards to those who were keen on GRAPHICS (of all things). Clearly there is a market for mining cards and the manufacturer that can come up with the design and still hold a substantial share of the market in Graphics card industry will be the winner in this game. I’ll give NVIDIA my pledge and an “A” for effort in this regard. But when it comes to paying an extra 200 for a High End card when the list price of the budget card is around 400 dollars but in REALITY you can’t get it for less than a thousand??? Yeah. I think the better buy is the high end card.

Currently: 1 1080p 60hz and 1 1680x1050 60hz. I got a job now so I’m in the process of getting rid of all the second hand junk I’ve had to make do with.
Looking to upgrade to higher refresh rates rather than 4k and 3 monitors at most.

A 1070 or 1080 should be enough,
but I’m sure someone will be more than happy to tell me how stupid I am.

1 Like

Yeah, fps was all over the place, going from 50 to 200 multiple times a second. Super annoying.

Have tried PCI pass through (Both cards), fps was more stable around 100-ish but input latency was a bit much. Also, any game except DOOM ran like garbage compared to native.

Now now, be reasonable here /s

You won’t be sorry you got the 1080ti. ;p

1 Like