Upgrade: GTX 970 to RX 580. Worth? [Solved]

Hardware Build a PC
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So Best Buy finally has some RX 580’s in stock for what seems like a decent price ($450) given the current state of things. I don’t really see prices going down any time soon.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/xfx-amd-radeon-rx-580-8gb-gddr5-pci-express-3-0-graphics-card-black/6092641.p?skuId=6092641

Price aside (I have a gift card that will basically cover the entire cost, which is why I’m specifically buying from Best Buy), do you think it would be worth upgrading from a GTX 970? I’ve seen some FPS scores and they both seem pretty similar in some games, but there are some where the RX 580 kicks the GTX 970’s butt (it averages like 20 FPS more in WoW).

I mostly play competitive games like Rocket League (which isn’t very demanding), but I do play some WoW (which is surprisingly heavy), heavily modded Skyrim, and a few other things.

I also like the idea of Freesync, and I don’t like what NVidia is doing with their new partner program.

I don’t do anything with VR, so I couldn’t care less about that.

I’m only gaming in 1080p at the moment, but am saving up to buy a 1440p monitor in a few months. I currently have two screens, one 1080p and one 720p (or close to it, not exactly sure, I just found it in the garage and plugged it in for my secondary).

If I upgrade, I’m going to throw the GTX 970 into a second PC, probably give it to my girlfriend to put in her PC when she saves up the money to buy the rest of the parts.

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Unless you are buying a new monitor including the freesync or your girlfriend really needs the update I think it will be a waste of money.

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Unless you’re desperate for more VRAM, its basically a sidegrade…

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I do want a Freesync monitor.

She currently has no desktop PC, so I’d be giving it to her so she doesn’t have to save up as much so we could get it done sooner. I’ve been itching to build a new PC from scratch, but have no dire need to upgrade anything, so if we can start sooner that’s a plus for me lol.

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Not really an upgrade. Peruse you’re local Craigslist for like a 980ti or something last gen prices aren’t as inflated.

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Well if I were on your place I would wait for Navi or if my girlfriend really decided on her PC purchase I would buy the rx580 + monitor. But SoulFallen has a point.

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Ya, it seems like it’s not really much of an upgrade unless they’re DX12 games.

The main reasons I’m considering it are:

  1. I have a gift card that would cover the cost
  2. I could give the 970 to my girlfriend for her PC we’re going to build

CL would be an option but if I have to pay out of pocket I’d rather just keep the 970 :stuck_out_tongue:

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With that in mind maybe consider using the gift card on something else instead? RX580 would a waste IMO.

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If the sellingmpoint ofb3.5gb vs 8misn’tmconvincing enough then no probs not till the 600 series is out.

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Maybe I’ll get her like 1050 Ti or something and just save the rest of it for me. It’s like half the price. I don’t want to cheap out, but realistically she’s not playing anything super demanding. Right now she’s playing the old Harry Potter PC games which run perfectly fine on her old laptop. Eventually I’d like to get her into an MMO or something though.

Well it performs considerably better in DX12 games, but most older games it’s about the same, maybe 5fps better performance on average from what I’ve seen in YouTube videos.

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You mentioned she does not game much. Maybe go for an RX 560 then?
My sister has one and she is perfectly happy with it.

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But the 580 mines so much better…

Otherwise, yeah. Sidegrade if you are gaming.

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Yeah, there’s that, but i assumed he wants it for gaming…

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That’s a possibility too.

I’ve thought about it, but probably not gonna happen. I was thinking for gaming, but now that I think about it more I’d be interested in video editing performance vs the 970, as well as GPU acceleration in Lightroom.

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Unless this is your job, where the time matters its not financially ‘worth’ it.

Spend that extra time it takes to render stuff on sexy fun time.

You: “Honey I’m rendering again!”

Her: “sigh that’s the 10th time today!”

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This may be a useful point of comparison for you:

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You’d probably see just about no difference in performance. Even an R9 290 was keeping up with a 970 respectibly well.

Although if the gril doesn’t have a system right now that’d be fine, I just think if you were going to use the RX 580 you might as well wait until you have a freesync monitor (100% do recommend) and by then maybe you can actually buy vega?

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As other have said, unless you are going Freesync or need the added VRAM, stick with the 970. Especially since you are gaming at 1080p.

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Ya I’m just gonna stick with the 970 for now. I’ll use it towards an entry-level card for my girlfriend when she saves up for the rest of the parts.

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Some companies are preparing new generation of crypto mining asics, that will again make mining with GPU obsolete just like they did with Bitcoins. So let’s say by the end of the year the prices should start to normalize. 200$ GPU for 450 is not worth it.
Also, no. It’s not really an upgrade… It us sliiiiiightly faster, but no. Don’t throw 450 at it…