[SOLVED] Are Vega 64 good? Or gtx 1080

[malibu200786]

I'm looking at getting a 2nd hand powercolor red devil Vega 64 , for £200 are they any good ? How is this particular version of the card ? Would it be better to go for a gtx 1080 any version than the 64?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, in my opinion you'd be better off with a GTX 1080 than a Vega 64. Everybody I know who had one of those cards had nothing but problems with them. Moreso the Sapphire Vega cards than Powercolor, but all of them really. At this late date, it's not worth it. There are just too many other better options. Much might depend on what resolution you are planning to game at?

Honestly, I would REALLY try to sway you away from buying EITHER of those cards, used. You're not going to get ANY warranty, no matter what the seller or anybody else tells you, been through this TOO MANY times with people looking to buy used hardware. In the end, they ALL have understood that, and either decided that was a factor they couldn't live with after shelling out a few hundred dollars, or decided that they could live with it if something happened and did it anyhow, but either way, they understood the lack of warranty to be a FACT.

To me, no purchase of ANY kind of hardware that costs more than 200 dollar is a wise investment if it means you have no warranty to protect you from being out of your investment in 3 weeks or 3 months. None.

If there is any way you can purchase a new card that HAS a warranty, even if it means you maybe have to take a small hit in performance, it is well worth it simply to know that you have a warranty to protect you from being simply "out of luck" if or when it fails. And graphics cards have a higher failure rate than most other hardware to my experience. I would not buy one that was not going to have a factory warranty.

The exception for me might be if you lived in a region where getting warranty replacement was something so expensive and complication that it doesn't really matter if you have it or not because it's not a saving grace due to the difficulty and expense of shipping out of region and back. Then, and only then, does ignoring the lack of warranty make sense. To me anyhow.

 

[iPeekYou]

GTX 1080 easy. While both are still decently powerful cards even today, with the 1080 having much less problems than Vega. As much as I'm a shill for AMD, their Vega (and RX 5000 series) cards are too finicky to work with, with drivers that can make or break a card even supposedly stable releases.
Powercolor is good brand for AMD, I hold them in the same regard as EVGA for Nvidia, true, still the issue is with the actual GPU itself....on the other hand, whichever brand 1080 is basically the same. Works fine with either launch day drivers or latest one. Can't say the same for AMD's unfortunately.
That aside, if you can afford it (budget and stock availability), get a 3060 Ti. Much faster than either at somewhat reasonable price, and isn't as elusive as the 3070 and 3080 was.

 

[Karadjgne]

Ugh, prices are terrible. Right now new for @ £200 is a 1660 or 5500XT. Both of which are not on the same level as the 1080.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, I'll say this, depending on the resolution you plan for, which is why I asked, there might be wildly different recommendations as far as what might be a good choice and what might not. But no matter what, the Vega cards would not be among those choices in my opinion.

 

[malibu200786]

Any suggestions on what to go for then ? I want to play in 1080 in as high settings as possible , currently on a gtx 1050ti which is ok I guess at GTA V . Want better on flight simulator and newer games .
Wanting to keep to budget , Currently spent :
Ryzen 5 2600 & cooler new - £100
MSI b450m mortar max new - £60
Corsair vengeance lpx 16gb new - £60
Game max black hole case new - £50

 

[Karadjgne]

PCPartPicker Part List

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB XC GAMING Video Card (£207.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £207.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-12 19:45 GMT+0000

1660 Super is the next better step up, but you'd be looking at the £270+ range, starting with the mini-itx cards, £290+ for decent full size. Anything better is £350+

 

[spentshells]

If you insist on second hand due to prices as long as the price of the 1080 isn't much more than the vega 64 I'd say go with that.

There is a lot of heat involved with that card, the memory being on die isn't a good thing. The performance is slightly better, but the 1080 is a great card, much better than the 1660 super or 1660ti for that matter.

New cards do have their appeal though, warranty namely. as long as this is for 1080p either of those cards is fine, 1080 is preferable.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I have a hard time making recommendations for buying used hardware, for that exact reason. Warranty. However, I have to agree that if you can get a GTX 1080 for around 200 bucks, that is ACTUALLY in good shape, from a seller you feel you can trust, that might be kind of hard to pass up. Consider though that it has likely already been ridden hard for about four years now, so it's already a year past it's warranty and maybe half of graphics cards that are ridden hard for gaming (And who would buy a GTX 1080 new and NOT ride it hard?) end up being dead by the time they are five years old if not sooner. So, that 200-ish bucks COULD be going towards a brand new card, that has a warranty, and a much longer life ahead of it.

These are all choices only you can decide for yourself though.

 

[malibu200786]

Thanks for the help , so I'm looking at some new cards but for well under £300 new there are few options available.
MSI GTS 1660 super ventus 6gb
MSI Rx 580 8gb
MSI Rx pro 5500xt 8gb .
Can't find a gtx 1080 new anywhere .
Looking at charts , on paper it says the 1660 is better . But some games like doom eternal won't go on higher settings without over 6gb of vram .
So if I get the 1660 with only 6gb , I'm still not going to be able to select ultra settings at 1080p ??

 

[madmatt30]

Thanks for the help , so I'm looking at some new cards but for well under £300 new there are few options available.
MSI GTS 1660 super ventus 6gb
MSI Rx 580 8gb
MSI Rx pro 5500xt 8gb .
Can't find a gtx 1080 new anywhere .
Looking at charts , on paper it says the 1660 is better . But some games like doom eternal won't go on higher settings without over 6gb of vram .
So if I get the 1660 with only 6gb , I'm still not going to be able to select ultra settings at 1080p ??

Basing that on just doom eternal is kind of daft + 6gb is enough for ultra just not ultra nightmare settings at which point you'll barely see a difference graphically.

The 1660 super is easily the best gpu out of those 3 (and that's coming from a staunch amd supporter too)

 

[malibu200786]

Basing that on just doom eternal is kind of daft + 6gb is enough for ultra just not ultra nightmare settings at which point you'll barely see a difference graphically.

The 1660 super is easily the best gpu out of those 3 (and that's coming from a staunch amd supporter too)

As you can probably tell I'm new to all of this haha , was just checking that the less vram wasn't going to hold back the settings on most games .
So if I got the MSI gtx 1660 super ventus OC .
Would the difference be night and day over my current gtx 1050ti ?

 

[malibu200786]

Also are more teraflops important too ?

 

[madmatt30]

Also are more teraflops important too ?

Its always been pretty pointless directly comparing specs between competing amd and nvidia cards simply because nvidia generally rely on better compression techniques and arguably more comprehensive support from developers on a lot more titles.

AMD have pretty much relied on pure physical performance grunt over this at the expense of power requirements.

What this has shown is that over an extended period amd cards 'age' better when it comes to old model gpu's and newer titles.

From the xt series upwards this has changed significantly but that doesn't affect you because you'd need to be looking at a 5600xt to be on a similar level to the 1660 super and that's not doable on your budget.

You've actually picked the worst possible time to consider a gpu upgrade, the whole market is in turmoil.

What is available is 50% overpriced at the minute - 2 months ago a £300 budget would have got you an Nvidia 2060 super or an and 5600xt, both superior to a 1660 super, in August I bought a brand new 5700xt from amazon for just over £300!!

I'd consider holding off at the moment but who knows when the madness will end!?!?

 

[spentshells]

I'd consider holding off at the moment but who knows when the madness will end!?!?

In the new year it should level out.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, unless you REALLY have to have something NOW, it's probably not a bad idea to wait a while. It's likely Nvidia will release something below the 3060 ti before too long down the road. Something to replace the current 1660, Super and TI models, and it's likely that it will be much more capable than any of those cards currently are, by a fair measure, without increasing prices much, hopefully. The performance per dollar has actually gone substantially UP, even though the flagship cards have increased dramatically in price.

If not, then for that price, as already stated, the 1660 Super is the best of those cards and if you are going to be on 1080p for the foreseeable future then you could do a lot worse. The 1660 Super is highly capable as a 1080p card. Some flavor of 2060 would be even better, but also more expensive. I'd personally rather go with a NEW 1660 Super for 1080p than a four year old GTX 1080. Less likely to die anytime soon and would have a warranty if it did. Extra performance isn't very "extra" if it's extra dead.

 

[malibu200786]

I've got a new problem now and not sure we're to ask the question , but last night when playing doom , the screen kept flickering black then the screen went then the PC went into sleep mode . Could this be anything do with my current gtx 1050ti it is very old now ?
I probably will wait see if the rush subsides after the new year , if mine lasts that long lol .
Also I'm on a 300w psu but that shouldn't matter for my setup ?

 

[Darkbreeze]

What are the models of your current CPU and motherboard? What is the EXACT model of your current power supply and how long has it been in service? How long has your graphics card been in service?

 

[malibu200786]

What are the models of your current CPU and motherboard? What is the EXACT model of your current power supply and how long has it been in service? How long has your graphics card been in service?

Ryzen 5 2600 & stock cooler was new a week ago .
MSI b450m mortar max new a week ago
Corsair vengeance 16gb new a week ago.

300w 80+ psu removed from my old tower which I got 6 years ago probably was used before that .
My gtx 1050ti is about 6 years old too

 

[dotas1]

Darkbreeze was being very clear with his question about your PSU. EXACT model of the PSU is needed. 300w is wattage and 80+ is the efficiency.

 

[madmatt30]

Ryzen 5 2600 & stock cooler was new a week ago .
MSI b450m mortar max new a week ago
Corsair vengeance 16gb new a week ago.

300w 80+ psu removed from my old tower which I got 6 years ago probably was used before that .
My gtx 1050ti is about 6 years old too

Darkbreeze was being very clear with his question about your PSU. EXACT model of the PSU is needed. 300w is wattage and 80+ is the efficiency.

Not even worth asking if it's been in a system 6 years and also in a system before that.

It NEEDS replacing ASAP irregardless of who it's manufactured by.

Just the fact that's its so old it has to be group regulated and an ancient design and only likely has a 4 pin atx plug sets alarm bells ringing.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Replace the PSU. Even if it was brand new, it would not have been of sufficient capacity and quality that I'd have said this is able to be recommended for continuing to use it with a 1050 ti. For a slot powered only GTX 1050, maybe, possibly, but even then, you honestly always stand a good chance of running into problems running anything less than an ACTUAL 400w or higher unit with any discreet PCIe gaming card that is capable of modern playable 1080p graphics. Weaker cards like the GTX 1030 or GT 730, not so much, those are substantially different creatures, but anything that can actually do the job is going to do the job a lot better with something other than the OEM 200-300w model that came with whatever prebuilt is in question.

As Matt indicated, even if this was a 300w Delta or Seasonic unit, I'd be inclined to tell you the same thing, it's not good enough, and even if it WAS good enough originally, it's most probably failing now. I'd replace that first, and I'd replace it with something capable of supporting whatever it is you intend to upgrade to soon.

Capacity recommendations are here:

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

Model recommendations are here:

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[malibu200786]

Thanks for the replies the capacity list is really useful because I was looking at getting a amd card but they need twice the power and pcie cables , so I'll probably end up with a gtx 1660super or 1080 or better if everything sorts itself out after Xmas .
I was looking at this psu https://www.ebuyer.com/975191-aerocool-integrator-mod-xt-750-acpb-it75akc-12

 

[dotas1]

Thanks for the replies the capacity list is really useful because I was looking at getting a amd card but they need twice the power and pcie cables , so I'll probably end up with a gtx 1660super or 1080 or better if everything sorts itself out after Xmas .
I was looking at this psu https://www.ebuyer.com/975191-aerocool-integrator-mod-xt-750-acpb-it75akc-12

The link that has the capacity recommendation, is not up-to-date. The new 3000 series Nvidia cards and the new 6000 series AMD cards are not listed there. The top of the line from Nvidia requires a far better PSU than what the previous top of the line needed. AMD has done a good job when it comes to power requirement for these series.

 

[madmatt30]

Thanks for the replies the capacity list is really useful because I was looking at getting a amd card but they need twice the power and pcie cables , so I'll probably end up with a gtx 1660super or 1080 or better if everything sorts itself out after Xmas .
I was looking at this psu https://www.ebuyer.com/975191-aerocool-integrator-mod-xt-750-acpb-it75akc-12

Absolutely NOT that psu, its a dire little metallic box of danger.

You need to spend more on a psu.
A decent quality 550w will manage most gpu, be they amd or nvidia.

Psu's are a little overpriced at the moment,

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/650...OsRLj7f_4e0wOMS-GJrU2nzJtAkxx3nkaAlJ9EALw_wcB

Thats about the cheapest psu I would even consider buying at the minute in the UK.