GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

First, check if your CPU clock speed is actually holding steady right now!

I wouldn't waste a single cent on a dead platform.

Don't waste your time Googling it; just check if it's actually throttling or not. At 3.5GHz, you shouldn't be seeing any issues unless the thermal paste was applied poorly or the cooler isn't seated right. Also, watch your voltage—for a motherboard like this, you definitely need to stay under 1.40V, though even with that setting, hitting north of 4GHz should be totally doable.

silentcobra3 said:Take Fortnite, for example (any settings, even if everything is set to low)
It keeps dropping from a smooth 60fps down to 15-20fps, and then it just hangs at around 15fps for maybe 10 seconds before bouncing back up to 60fps.

Getting Over It (everything on low)
Same exact situation—drops from 60fps down to 15-20fps and then fixes itself after a few seconds (maybe 5-10 seconds).

GTA V
It usually runs around 50-60 fps, but then it drops to 5-10fps and then recovers.

I honestly don't know why these drops are happening, but that part where it gets stuck at a lower fps for 5-10 seconds might be due to Vsync. That's just how Vsync works, I guess—if it can't load all the frames, it drops to half sync, which is usually 30 if you have a 60Hz monitor, but if the drop goes below 30, it might stick to an even lower value. I think it has to be a divisor of 60 (like 30, 20, 15, 10, 5), though I'm not entirely sure. I've never quite wrapped my head around exactly how Vsync operates.
You could try turning Vsync off and see if anything changes, though you'll probably deal with screen tearing. Or better yet, turn Vsync off and enable Enhanced sync under the Wait for vertical refresh setting within the Nvidia settings profile for that specific game. Sometimes that actually yields better results.

Though, none of this really explains why the actual drops are occurring in the first place.
I doubt it's the RAM because Windows usually throws that "Windows is low on memory..." warning if that's the case.
Maybe it's the VRAM, but that shouldn't really happen on low settings since your whole setup seems beefy enough to handle high settings easily.
Is it possible some other background program is occasionally hogging the CPU, leaving nothing left for the game? You could try playing around with the CPU priorities for individual programs.
We should probably check if your voltages are stable. You mentioned a 500W power supply, but you didn't say which one.
The best bet would be to grab HWInfo, reset the sensors, and run the game. Once you hit those drops, close it out and look at the min and max columns for everything to see what kind of extremes you're hitting. Specifically, keep an eye on the voltages—see if any of them dip way below the average. That could point toward a power supply issue, or maybe an overclock that's too aggressive or unstable.

I have the same graphics card and a motherboard with a similar phase design (but it's Intel) and I highly doubt that's the culprit. For me, GTA V runs without any issues at around 60 fps on most High settings. That phase design might be an issue if you're doing heavy overclocking, but at stock clocks, it should work fine with any processor for that socket. I mean, they test this stuff, right? God knows.

And make sure you've got the latest GPU drivers installed if you haven't already.

I've got the latest drivers installed, and looking at the sensors, everything seems pretty standard—voltages are all sitting right where they should be.
The only weird thing I've noticed in MSI Afterburner is that whenever I hit an FPS drop, both my CPU and GPU usage suddenly spike straight up to 95-100%. Then, as soon as the stuttering stops, they both settle back down to around the 60-70% range.

What’s your minimum CPU frequency after a gaming session? Check HWMonitor. Disable whatever setting auto-throttles it or just fire up HW Monitor once you’re actually in-game.

Alright...

I’ve got a chance to snag a GTX 1070 for an insanely low price, but here’s the catch: I’m running an FX 6300 overclocked to 4.1GHz across all cores, paired with 8GB of DDR3 at 1666 MHz. My current card, an R9 280, just sold, and I'm stuck waiting on a replacement to arrive. Will this actually be an upgrade over what I had, or am I looking at a situation where performance might actually tank in certain games?

Look, I know there's going to be a massive bottleneck—believe me, I'm fully aware of that—but I'm holding out until I can jump over to a Ryzen 2 setup to see how things shake out (either an R5 1600 or maybe a newer Rx 2xxx processor along with 16GB of RAM), so for now, the FX 6300 is still the one doing the heavy lifting.

Here is how my current framerates look: NBA 2K18 hits about 45-70 fps on max settings. PUBG sits around 45-65 fps on very low settings, though I keep anti-aliasing on ultra. GTA V runs between 40-60 fps on mid-high settings.

Jonathan Barrett said:So...

I have the chance to pick up a GTX 1070 for an insanely low price, but the issue is my current setup: an FX 6300 overclocked to 4.1GHz on all cores, paired with 8GB of DDR3 at 1666 MHz. I currently have an R9 280 in there (which I already sold, and waiting on the replacement is taking forever). Will I see better performance compared to my old card, or is there a chance it might actually perform worse in games?

I know there's going to be a bottleneck—I'm fully aware of that—but I'm waiting to jump over to Ryzen 2 to see how things shake out (either an R5 1600 or a new Rx 2 xxx processor + 16GB RAM), which is why the FX 6300 is still hanging in there.

Here is where my frame rates stand right now: NBA 2K18 hits 45-70 fps on max settings. PUBG runs at 45-65 fps on very low settings, except for anti-aliasing which is set to ultra. GTA V sits at 40-60 fps on mid-high settings.

It definitely won't be worse. Your CPU will just push the GPU as hard as it can, and at worst, you'll end up with roughly what the 280 was giving you. But realistically, in titles where the GPU was previously the bottleneck, you'll see an improvement. In games where the CPU was already pinned at 100%, you might not notice much difference.

Either way, if you can snag it for a good price and you're planning an upgrade soon anyway, you can't really go wrong. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of price are we talking about? 😁

Another huge win here is that the PC is going to be way quieter overall.

Anyway...

Thanks so much for the reply; you covered everything I was wondering about (and basically confirmed all my suspicions).

Regarding the total cost once I pop the GTX 1070 into the motherboard 🙂

Definitely grab it if it’s a solid opportunity. You can always switch platforms in a few months anyway.

Since my colleague was asking about the price of 😁

Anyway, I didn't end up buying the 1070 because, if you ask me, the guy seemed pretty shady. The price would have been $867. Plus, there's absolutely no warranty and no receipt to speak of. He claimed it barely saw any use, but honestly? It either got stolen or it's broken. I ended up grabbing a 1060 3gb for $140 instead. For comparison, I sold an R9 280 3gb for $10.

Jonathan Barrett said:Since the guy was asking about the price 😁

I didn't end up buying the 1070 because, honestly, the seller seemed sketchy to me. The price would have been $867. There’s no warranty and no receipt. He claimed it barely saw any use, but I don't know... either it's stolen or it's broken. I picked up a 1060 3gb for $140. Sold an R9 280 3gb for $10.

Hmm, I hear people worrying all the time that a card might be stolen in situations like this, but I don't get how that even happens? Like, does a thief just break into someone's house and snatch a GPU right out of their PC? I don't get it 😬

You should have at least asked if they had the original box and everything that comes with it.

It wasn't stolen; it was likely used for crypto mining. That was my immediate thought, because there is simply no way you could find a card like that at such an absurdly low price unless it had been running mining rigs non-stop and comes without any warranty left.

Stolen goods show up everywhere. It’s not like someone was out there breaking into houses just to strip down PCs, but there are plenty of ways for hot items to hit the market.

The buyer usually has no clue if a GPU was actually stolen, but they might notice something else is off—maybe it crashes constantly, throws artifacts, makes a hell of a noise, or looks like some amateur messed with the internals and voided the warranty.

P.S.

Look, given the situation, it’s obvious it was used for mining, but that doesn't justify a ridiculously low price tag unless the card is actually faulty. If the hardware is solid, there's no way to prove whether it mined a few Ether or not.

And it’s not just this one card. The guy mentioned he’s got ten more GTX 1060s sitting there, and a GTX 1070 is arriving next week. Honestly, either she was used for mining or something is fundamentally broken with her. He keeps insisting everything works perfectly and that she definitely WASN'T used for mining, though I have my doubts about that second part. I can drop a phone number in a DM if anyone wants to take their chances and try their luck 🙂
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Personally, I decided to just go with the solution of switching to a weaker GPU, which is already a massive enough upgrade for my setup, plus this card is still under warranty.

Cleaned out the drivers, and now everything is running smoothly. I actually saw a 15% jump in FPS across two different games I tested.

Don't be so quick to take their word for it, my friend; talk is cheap. Besides, when you're investing in high-end components, you simply shouldn't pull the trigger without a proper warranty, a receipt, and the original packaging in hand.

Samuel Castillo49 said:Don't be so naive, man. Words are cheap. Besides, you don't buy high-end components without a receipt, an invoice, and the original box.

Crypto miners know how to grab cards through sketchy imports without any paperwork, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them hitting the used market with zero warranty.

Looks like the crypto world is absolutely cratering, at least for right now. If this keeps up, we might actually see GPU prices finally start to normalize...

wearypilot59 said:it looks like the crypto market is crashing, at least for now. We can probably expect GPU prices to stabilize soon..

They will, but not for another few months.

Samuel Castillo49 said:Don't be so gullible, man; talk is cheap. Besides, you don't just drop cash on high-end components without a warranty, an invoice, and the original packaging intact.

Look, I know that words from someone I've never met are incredibly expensive.

What I'm saying is, I actually passed on the 1070 and went with the 1060 instead.