GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

You haven't even checked out the new benchmarks for the RX 480 yet, have you?
What about the pricing on those drivers and the software they come with?

Robert Rodriguez2 said:You clearly haven't looked at the latest benchmarks for the RX 480, have you? Or perhaps you've ignored everything regarding their drivers and accompanying software suite?

I have seen the discussions. However, until the RX 480 can actually clock in at 2100 MHz like this MSI GeForce RTX 4060, what exactly are we debating?

Furthermore, I keep reading reports of a total mess regarding software stability; apparently, WattMan isn't compatible with Afterburner, and the moment Afterburner makes a single adjustment, most users are greeted by a black screen and a dead system.

If their drivers were actually functional, would they really need to be rushing out a hotfix every five days?

I expect Nvidia to drop a surprise of their own, though I certainly hope it arrives as a finished masterpiece.

Brian Campbell36 said:Yeah, I've seen the stories. When the GTX 1060 hits 2100 MHz like this MSI GTX 1060 6gb gaming x, then we can talk.

I'm also reading that the setup is a mess—it's like trying to mix oil and water. Using MSI Afterburner alongside the standard control software causes black screens for most people, and then you're dead in the water.

If their drivers actually worked, they wouldn't be dropping hotfixes every five days.

I expect Nvidia to drop a surprise too, but I doubt it'll be perfect.

Now you're just talking nonsense. You're comparing apples to oranges here—two completely different architectures. A GTX 1060 isn't going to hit 2100MHz, and honestly, few GTX cards can run that stable 24/7 either.
And that bit about the software compatibility? Doesn't hold water. I've tweaked my cards using both tools plenty of times without an issue.
But if you want my two cents, look at how AMD is pulling ahead of Nvidia lately. They actually try to fix problems immediately, whereas Nvidia just sits on them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some AMD fanboy—I own an Nvidia card myself—but I see them breaking things in certain games with every new driver update. Over the last year, my performance has tanked by 10% just because of a driver, forcing me to roll back to the previous version. I haven't had to do that once with the AMD cards I've used since May. That's just how it is.

I don't care about fanboyism if it's based on facts, but being a fanboy just for the sake of it is pointless. You can't ignore the obvious reality that hardware reviewers are seeing too. Just watch the latest Hardware Canucks video; look at how much AMD closed the gap with the 1060 just through driver updates in a few short months. At this rate, that lead is going to vanish or flip entirely in favor of the red team.
And we're strictly talking about mid-range cards by American standards. It’s not all about raw hardware power; the software matters, and lately, AMD is putting in the work there, and the results show it.

Brian Campbell36 said:Sure, I’ve seen those stories. We can talk when that GTX 1060 starts hitting 2100 MHz like this MSI GTX 1060 6GB Gaming X.

You’ve basically proven you don't have a clue what you're talking about. To put it in perspective, saying that is like saying, "Once this apple turns yellow like this pear, then we'll finally have a real apple."

By the way, while you're busy attacking AMD, plenty of people are actually pointing the finger at Nvidia lately—they're constantly pushing hotfix after hotfix because of all the driver issues users have been complaining about.

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@Gary Anderson38/">@@Gary Anderson38

Are you seriously citing drivers from July or September?

I haven't messed around with older drivers; I just updated whenever a new one dropped, hoping they'd iron out those early "growing pains."

This one’s finally grown up a bit. 😁
Give it a little more time and they'll probably drop a whole new series anyway. 😵

Gary Anderson38 said:I haven't bothered testing those legacy drivers; I simply updated them as soon as the new versions were released, operating under the assumption that they would eventually iron out the initial "growing pains."

But this particular card has already moved past its awkward teenage years, wouldn't you agree? 😁
Before we know it, they'll have rolled out an entirely new series anyway. 😵

In that case, why not just sell your GTX 1060 6 and pick up an AMD RX480 8 GB instead? 🍿

My kid got a PC for his birthday, but there's no graphics card included...

CPU AMD A6-7400K
RAM 8GB DDR3 @ 798MHz
Motherboard: MSI A68HM-P33 V2
Power supply: Not sure exactly, but it's 550W

Since Christmas is coming up, he's asking for a GPU. Money is a bit tight right now, so I was wondering what new one
would work for some games (FIFA 15,16) within the budget of $267
I know it's not much money, but I wonder if anything can be found... It doesn't matter if the games don't run
on max settings, since he's just using a 22" monitor
I don't know much about this stuff, so would any of these work?

MSI GeForce GT730 4GB DDR3 - $200
NVIDIA GeForce GT 730, PCI-E 2.0, 2048 MB GDDR5 - $193
XFX R7 360 2GB DDR5 - $267
XFX R7 HD 250 2GB DDR3 - $233
Asus R7250-2GD5 - $233

Or maybe something used... though I prefer buying new just to have the warranty...

Thanks...

Forget everything you just said and just go for the rx460.......$20 It's a much, much better card

http://www.google.com/search?q=rx+460

I don't want anyone thinking I'm talking nonsense here

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...on_R7_360_OEM/

That comparison uses the strongest card on the list, but here is how it looks against the gt730

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...F730-1024D5H1/

Absolute misery

The rx460 OC is an even better version of that card, and it's only about 20 bucks $10 more than the standard rx460

Look, I have to admit, I’m definitely leaning towards the green side of things lately...
I managed to put together two different rigs within about a three-month window.
One is rocking a gtx 1080, while the other is running an rx460.

Now, obviously, they are in completely different leagues, but honestly? The headache caused by trying to get that rx460 to actually behave was way more significant than any performance gap.

driftingdrifter88 said:Look, I have to admit I lean toward the green team...
Built two rigs within three months
One has a gtx 1080, the other an rx460....

Aside from them being different classes, the rx460 was way more of a headache to get running properly.

I'm not really sure what kind of problems you mean... You grab the card, install the latest driver, and you're good to go. And obviously, they aren't comparable because an rx460 is cheap, whereas a gtx 1080 is well over $300 $1333

In that specific bracket, $300 Nvidia literally has nothing to offer. The gtx950 is overpriced and the gtx750 is just too weak for me.

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...750TI-OC-2GD5/

boldfox15, that budget is pretty awkward. Honestly, the first GPU that actually makes sense starts at around $267 (check out that 460 link above). Unfortunately, even that dual-core AMD chip won't be able to push it to the limit, but regardless, there's just no point dropping that kind of cash on those cards. You could always swap in an athlon 845 down the road, though.

Quote : Bryan Taylor6

Look at you, acting all high and mighty now like some big shot from the countryside 😁

You can't draw any real conclusions about gaming performance based solely on GPU-Z. That's like linking to HWCompare without including the actual gaming benchmarks they sometimes have

Not that I’m exactly bragging about it (kind of becoming a total nerd)... 🙂

But you just can't look at those graphics cards and call it even... if you're looking at FPS, then everything becomes subjective because some games are just better optimized for, say, Nvidia....so I still think there's a real difference between 1600 GFLOPS and 2150....

Bryan Taylor6 said:I'm not really following what kind of issues you're talking about... You grab a card, install the latest driver, and just go. I mean, they aren't even in the same league; an rx460 costs basically nothing $300 while a gtx 1080 is sitting way north of $1333

In that specific bracket $300 Nvidia has absolutely nothing to bring to the table—the gtx950 is overpriced and the gtx750 is just too weak for anything meaningful.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rx+460

Here’s the reality of what I’m dealing with:
With the 1080, I had a nightmare trying to get G-Sync to actually work—you have to manually tweak both the monitor settings and the GPU software separately—and it would occasionally throw a black screen right when I tried to launch a game.

But now, this whole saga with the 460... everything runs perfectly for ten days, and then suddenly there's a notification: "Driver update available." Fine.
So, I download the update, everything seems fine for a few hours, and then it pops up again saying, "Version X is better suited for your device" (basically forcing a rollback)... and then the whole system just stops working.🙂.....I ended up having to completely reinstall Windows.

And honestly, I don't get why people keep claiming these things run hot... playing BF 1 and 4 at 1080p on my TV, the dual-fan model doesn't even cross 60c.

Bryan Taylor6 said:not exactly something I'd brag about (it's starting to feel like a bit of a joke) 🙂

but you can't just rely on those numbers alone... if you're looking at FPS, it's all relative because certain games are just better optimized for, say, Nvidia....so I still believe there's a tangible difference between 1600 GFLOPS and 2150....

Look, everything is relative here. Take a simple comparison—Fury X versus Titan X—that's 8,602 vs 6,144 GFLOPS, so you tell me...

It would be much more helpful if you linked actual reviews or direct comparisons from sites like AnandTech (even if they use a similar GPU since a perfect match might not exist). Honestly, extrapolating results against another GPU as a baseline is a far more reliable metric for gaming performance than just staring at GFLOPS.

So, how are Nvidia and AMD actually holding up on Linux when it comes to drivers? I’ve been kicking around the idea of setting up a dual boot system down the road—nothing set in stone yet—but I’m really curious about how much effort is actually being poured into driver development for the Linux ecosystem. And I don't just mean "do they exist?"—I'm talking about actual stability and how things feel when you're actually gaming. Are we talking decent performance, or is it a struggle?
From what I’ve been digging up online, it seems like Nvidia puts a massive amount of work into the gaming side of things, whereas AMD might have the edge when it comes to applications relying on OpenGL and Vulkan. Does that sound right to anyone who has actually spent some time under the hood?

Nvidia really ought to be delivering better performance on Linux.

On another note, I came across a slide suggesting that AMD has been quite generous with their ReLive drivers for Linux lately. Honestly, though, I haven't seen any actual benchmarks—it was just a single slide—so it's tough to say what the current landscape actually looks like. But if you're going by past experience, Nvidia is still probably your safer bet. That said, even they seem to show significantly worse gaming results on Linux compared to Windows based on some recent tests I caught a glimpse of once.

When it comes to OpenGL, AMD has traditionally been the heavy hitter (at least regarding all that processing software), and Vulkan is essentially their territory since it's a derivative of Mantle, even if it is open source.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I’m not jumping the gun and buying anything just yet—I like to think a few steps ahead. It honestly feels like both companies are at a bit of a crossroads right now. It seems like AMD is finally stepping up their game, putting some real muscle into their drivers and extra software features. If they could just find a way to dial back that power consumption a notch, things would look much brighter. On the flip side, you've got Nvidia, and they seem to be playing catch-up when it comes to DX12 support.
I can't quite decide if it's worth holding out for the next generation of cards. Does anyone actually know when that's slated to happen?

Typically, we see a new generation rolling out every 12 to 18 months, so I don't expect anything out of the ordinary this time around—meaning we're looking at a window from six months out through the end of the year.

There are whispers circulating that both AMD (excluding the high-end stuff, which doesn't even exist right now) and Nvidia might just rebrand the next generation (though they might refresh the high-end tier too). Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. Since this current generation features both a new architecture and a debut on a new manufacturing process, they've historically leaned on rebrands during transitions like this (think of the jump from the hd7xxx series to the RX 2 XX, or the gtx 6xx versus the gtx 7 xx).

Why on earth are these Palit cards priced so much lower than the competition from brands like MSI, Asus, or Gainward?

Hey everyone.
I need some advice on which GPU to pick up for around $667—any idea if there are any holiday sales going on right now? I built this rig about two years ago without a dedicated card:
ASRock Z97 Anniversary
FORTRON Hyper 500W PSU
Intel Core i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz
2X 8 GB PC3-14900 DDR3 SDRAM Kingston KHX1866C10D3
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
Current setup uses a monitor Dell 24' FHD 1080p. I might upgrade to a 4K display or just grab a second FHD monitor, though I'm undecided—advice there would be appreciated.
Running a dual boot of Windows 8/Ubuntu 16.04
The kids have grown up a bit and want to play games. They've got their eyes on VR, so if budget allows, we might look into a headset too (recommendations wanted). My gaming experience is basically zero, so we aren't being demanding—for now... > ran fine on integrated graphics.

For video editing, I rely on CUDA technology, so I was looking at an NVIDIA GTX 1060. I don't mess with settings or drivers unless absolutely necessary; I just want something stable and quiet. I have zero interest in water cooling or overclocking—that’s way too much hassle for me. If you could suggest something straightforward that can handle something like an HTC VR headset and run modern titles at decent (not maxed out) settings for the next few years...
Thanks in advance.