GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

I wouldn't go with that Sapphire card if I were you. 😉

Look, I already said we’d have to wait on the Nvidia card because I just realized they only have it in stock at the Seattle branch and won't ship it out to me here in Chicago. So, I guess we're just waiting for the next opportunity to strike. Anyway, at least it's good to know they actually have them available if you know where to look.

You could probably try to haggle a little on that Inno3D, but honestly, you can't beat having a full 24-month warranty backing you up.

Alternatively, you might want to look at that Gainward 1660ti—it’s only three months old, so it's practically new.

Edit:

That ASUS card is also a pretty solid deal if you ask me.

At the end of the day, any of those three would work fine; it really just comes down to which one you personally like looking at more.

If I were in your shoes, I’d probably offer $717 for that Inno3D card. And make sure you tell them you'll cover the shipping costs too.

The cooler should be decent, and as far as the warranty and general age go, it's pretty much in the same boat as the Gainward...

Maybe try offering $717 for the Inno3D and just see how they react. 😉

It should be a solid enough GPU. It's a dual fan model, and I know from experience that their cards are usually pretty reliable.

I'm looking at this Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6g card with the 6GB of GDDR5 memory. I'd love to get some thoughts on it—specifically, does anyone have any hands-on experience with it when it comes to actual gaming performance? Thanks!

It’s getting pretty close to the price of a GTX 1660 Ti...

Timothy Kim60 said:It’s priced way too close to the GTX 1660 Ti...

Fair enough, but is this non-Ti version actually decent enough to grab, or what?

It’s just a tiny bit more powerful..

Ethan Wilson27 said:Fair enough, but is this version without the (Ti) still decent?

It’s fine, honestly. It just doesn't feel worth the premium price tag to me (anything over $667)

I’ve got a really tough question here. I tried figuring this out myself, but I'm hitting a wall.

So, I picked up a Dell OptiPlex SFF (it's been heavily modded, not stock at all). I haven't touched gaming in years, so I wasn't planning on it, but I was playing some multiplayer stuff with a buddy on it recently, and now I'm thinking about doing the same at home. The PC itself can handle the load since it's running an i5, but obviously, the graphics card is total garbage.

Right now, I'm stuck with a Radeon 5570. My power supply says it's only 240W, while this card supposedly needs 400W—honestly, I have no idea how it even works, but it does. That said, if I upgrade, I want something that won't pull massive amounts of power, because I don't want to fry my entire system when things get heavy.🙂

The recommended specs are
VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GTX 660 or Better, ATI 7950 or better

The absolute minimum is
VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GTX 260 or ATI 4850

port
PCIe (v3.0)
1 ea.
2.5" low profile
6.6" length
35W max. power

Is there actually a graphics card out there that fits all these constraints?

silentlynx24 said:I’ve got a really tough question here. I tried figuring this out on my own, but I'm stuck.

So, I picked up a Dell OptiPlex SFF (it's a custom build, not stock), mostly because I haven't touched gaming in years and wasn't planning on it. But, I was playing some multiplayer games with a buddy on it recently, and now I'm thinking about doing the same at home. The PC itself should handle it fine since it has an i5 processor, but the graphics card is obviously way too weak.

Right now, I'm running a Radeon 5570. My power supply is rated at 240W, and even though this card supposedly needs 400W, I have no idea how it's even working—but it does. That said, if I upgrade, I really want a card that doesn't pull massive amounts of power so I don't fry something when things get heavy. 🙂

Recommended video cards are
VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GTX 660 or Better, ATI 7950 or better

The minimum requirement is
VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GTX 260 or ATI 4850

port
PCIe (v3.0)
1 ea.
2.5" low profile
6.6" length
35W max. power

Is there actually a graphics card out there that fits these specs?

Which game are we talking about?

SOMETHING LIKE THIS would be the bare minimum size-wise while still being somewhat capable of gaming. You'd basically have to plug it directly into your nipples to power it. 😬

I wouldn't sweat the power supply situation too much.

That 400W rating from the manufacturer is just a suggestion, not the
Bible.

The specs say 35W max on the PCIe slot, sure, but these OEM systems usually come with solid power supplies. I'd bet my money the slot can handle 75W without breaking a sweat.

But yeah, the real issue is whether you can actually fit it inside the case.

It's a low profile card—check the dimensions first to see if it'll actually fit.
Worst case scenario, you just return it if it doesn't work.
https://www.newegg.com/p/gigabyte-vga-gigabyte-...file-24mj.html

P.S.

This GTX 10 is either better than what's recommended for gaming, or at least the GT 1030 would be decent enough for minimum settings.

With that passive heatsink on there, it looks even more tiny, at least from the photo. I'm not sure, does "low profile" automatically imply some kind of standard set of dimensions?

Adam Moore3 said:That one with the passive heatsink looks even more tiny, at least from the photo. I'm not sure if "low profile" implies some kind of standard set dimensions or what?

This GTX 1050 measures H=37 L=167 W=68.9 mm
The GT 1030 is 175x69x36mm
I'm guessing they swapped the H and W values.

2.5" and 6.6" works out to 167 and 63.5mm respectively

Best bet is just to measure it with a ruler. The GTX 1050 takes up 2 slots for the outputs (two rows of ports), so you need to check if there's actually enough room in the case for that.

I’ve got this Gigabyte GT1030 in my setup, and I noticed the top of the cooler sits maybe a millimeter away from the slot right beneath it; I haven't actually tested it out yet, but I do wonder if it might brush against another card if I were to plug one in there. That being said, it performs beautifully for HT—handling 4K HDR without breaking a sweat—and it comes factory overclocked to 1750 MHz by default. It’s honestly one of those rare Nvidia cards that I’ve grown quite fond of.

Thanks for all the help, you guys really saved my skin 🙂

I’ve run into a bit of a headache with my drivers. I recently picked up an Asus Strix Vega56, and even after installing the latest drivers, ReLive is nowhere to be found. It doesn't even give me the option to install it during the setup process. I actually tried rolling back to an older driver version just to see if that would trigger it, but no luck. From what I’ve been reading online, you're supposed to get a prompt to install ReLive right after the driver installation, but that step just never happens for me. To make matters worse, ReLive isn't showing up at all in the AMD Control panel either...
I'm pulling the drivers directly from the AMD website, and I always make sure to run DDU before attempting a clean install. Has anyone else dealt with something like this? Any idea how to fix it? Thanks.

Hey everyone! I'm looking for some urgent advice on picking up a new graphics card for about $333 (plus $67 if they're basically the same thing).
My current setup includes an FX 8300, a 970a-ds3p motherboard, 8GB of RAM, and a Zalman Z3 Plus cooler. This rig is already about 3 or 4 years old—you guys actually helped me put this together on the forum! I just want to upgrade my GPU, provided the processor won't bottleneck it too badly and I'll actually see a boost in my FPS. I don't care if it's used or brand new, as long as it stays within my budget.

Try finding a used GTX 1060 6GB at that price point. You might actually have some budget left to overclock your CPU after that.

Timothy Kim60 said:Try to hunt down a used GTX 1060 6GB at that price point instead. Also, give your CPU an overclock!

Is a Fortron Hyper 500W power supply strong enough for this?