[SOLVED] Best video card for around $200

[keyboardkowboy]

I was looking at the rx580 series the ASRock the mail or the sapphire. But I want the best bang for the buck. Any video cards that are better for the price? Would love some recommendations.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The Gigabyte 8GB RX 580 at 199 is probably about the best card on the market currently for under 200 bucks new, however, if you can wait a few weeks Nvidia is supposed to be releasing the GTX 1660 TI, which is a pared down no ray tracing model based on the RTX 2060, which lands it somewhere between the RTX 2060 and GTX 1060 in performance, which will certainly be a few notches higher than the RX 580, for around 250 bucks.

https://www.hardocp.com/news/2019/01/23/nvidia_1660_ti_will_launch_on_february_15_at_279/

 

[tennis2]

RX580 8GB + 2 free games = $165
Act fast. That's a great deal.

I haven't heard about actual launch date news for the "1660Ti" but it doesn't make sense for them to release it too long before AMD Navi GPUs (which are still a few months out last I heard)

 

[Darkbreeze]

That is a good deal, but ASRock is new to the graphics card game and I've heard less than shining reviews on their cards so far in terms of them being fairly loud compared to just about everybody else. I don't know about that specific card, but I'd definitely check reviews on it first.

In fact, this review of the ASRock Phantom gaming OC seems to indicate it's a pretty noisy card as well, but performance seems ok for a budget entry.

https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/asrock-phantom-gaming-x-rx-580-review/14/

 

[tennis2]

That's not surprising. The fans are smaller because they didn't extend the GPU an inch above the expansion bracket like most companies are doing these days. TBH, my MSI Gaming X RX480 (considered above average cooler) isn't exactly silent when the fans are running all-out in an enclosed case either. Considering that the "very good" RX580 coolers are running about 20% more expensive than this.... I wouldn't spend up.

I tried looking up reviews of this phantom D when this sale started at the beginning of the week, but came up empty handed. Seems they both have similar/ same heatsinks, with a tweak to the fan shroud on the phantom X (obviously)

Undervolting is your friend. Very easy to do with AMDs built-in WattMan utility.

 

[crystalcity]

Yeah what they said, basically rx580/590 is the deal right now.

 

[keyboardkowboy]

The Gigabyte 8GB RX 580 at 199 is probably about the best card on the market currently for under 200 bucks new, however, if you can wait a few weeks Nvidia is supposed to be releasing the GTX 1660 TI, which is a pared down no ray tracing model based on the RTX 2060, which lands it
somewhere between the RTX 2060 and GTX 1060 in performance, which will certainly be a few notches higher than the RX 580, for around 250 bucks.


https://www.hardocp.com/news/2019/01/23/nvidia_1660_ti_will_launch_on_february_15_at_279/

Looked into the 1660 ti and it looks promising. I know it's speclative that's it's going to be 6gig ddr5. I also want my card will last me a good 3-5 years you think it would be better to have the 8gig or just shoot for the 6?

 

[ahmadhijazi0]

The Gigabyte 8GB RX 580 at 199 is probably about the best card on the market currently for under 200 bucks new, however, if you can wait a few weeks Nvidia is supposed to be releasing the GTX 1660 TI, which is a pared down no ray tracing model based on the RTX 2060, which lands it
somewhere between the RTX 2060 and GTX 1060 in performance, which will certainly be a few notches higher than the RX 580, for around 250 bucks.


https://www.hardocp.com/news/2019/01/23/nvidia_1660_ti_will_launch_on_february_15_at_279/

Looked into the 1660 ti and it looks promising. I know it's speclative that's it's going to be 6gig ddr5. I also want my card will last me a good 3-5 years you think it would be better to have the 8gig or just shoot for the 6?

I think 4 or 5 years is pretty ambitious for a $200 gpu unless you're willing to play at low or very low settings. Best bang for the buck is buying a used card. You could pick up a GTX 1070 for $220 on eBay or potentially less if you're willing to do some hunting. Likely equivalent to a 1660 Ti.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Buying a used card right now is like playing the lottery. The odds might not be a bad, but the result if you lose is the same, you end up with nothing. Way too many of the used cards for sale were mining cards that were heavily abused or had BIOS modifications making them basically useless for gaming unless you are able to get the BIOS back to what it should have. That's not always the case. I've seen four or five people at least, myself, that have tried that and ended up with bricked cards.

If you're willing to take that risk, wonderful, it could turn out great for you. I'm not. Even if it wasn't a mining card it still may be a card with problems or one that has been abused. There are a lot of idiots out there running unrealistic overclock settings and just burning these cards out and then dumping them off on unsuspecting buyers. If you can find a very reputable seller, maybe worth the chance. Myself, I like a card with a warranty and a full lifetime ahead of it for the money I spend on one.

I also don't agree that a card can't last four or five years if you buy a card that is capable enough for the resolution you intend to continue running. MOST people keep their cards that long. Not everybody, in fact, relatively few people, upgrade every or every other cycle.

Honestly, I'd probably, as usual, WAIT to say either way what these cards might or might not do until we can see some professional reviews. What they SAY a can can do, and what they ACTUALLY do, are usually not exactly the same.

If you need to pull the trigger now, then do it. There is always a "better" card waiting "just down the road" and if we always waited to see we'd never actually end up buying anything.

 

[crystalcity]

If you lose, you return it. Don't buy used cards in a marketplace where you have no recourse. I just returned a defective used card on ebay and got my money back lickety splickity.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good luck returning a used card, which is what we were talking about, to a seller that knew it was bad from the start. Everybody talks about how great Ebay's protection policy is but the fact is, it's really not. I know a few people who have tried this and in every case they could not prove to Ebay that the card was not faulty when they received it. The seller disputed it, they were out their money. Simple as that.

And that's without even factoring in the well known fact that there are MANY hacked Ebay accounts selling fake or faulty products and there's NO chance of getting anything back from one of those.

If you bought the card from a reputable seller who has a good reputation, and wishes to continue doing so because that is what they do, then sure, they're not going to damage their reputation by not playing ball because a lot of those seller have likely bought batches of product and hardware and have no idea the product has a problem. But that's going to be a crapshoot as to which kind of seller you end up dealing with.

 

[ahmadhijazi0]

Good luck returning a used card, which is what we were talking about, to a seller that knew it was bad from the start. Everybody talks about how great Ebay's protection policy is but the fact is, it's really not. I know a few people who have tried this and in every case they could not prove to Ebay that the card was not faulty when they received it. The seller disputed it, they were out their money. Simple as that.

And that's without even factoring in the well known fact that there are MANY hacked Ebay accounts selling fake or faulty products and there's NO chance of getting anything back from one of those.

If you bought the card from a reputable seller who has a good reputation, and wishes to continue doing so because that is what they do, then sure, they're not going to damage their reputation by not playing ball because a lot of those seller have likely bought batches of product and hardware and have no idea the product has a problem. But that's going to be a crapshoot as to which kind of seller you end up dealing with.

You can tell before you buy what kind of seller you're dealing with. If it's a new account with a few transactions, you should stay away. They are many reputable sellers that offer 30 day warranty and have 1000s of transactions. Plus if seller is fake, I doubt he can prove that he sent something functional or will respond to the dispute, in which case eBay protection kicks in and you get refunded.

eBay is not going to risk losing millions in commissions because of a few bad sellers. They know it's better for them to eat the loss and refund the buyer than to scare people from using their marketplace.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You can't tell. You actually have no idea whether the person selling is actually the person who built that reputation or not. There are literally thousands of threads regarding hacked accounts that have been taken over by malicious users.

I'm well aware of the "best practices" when deciding to buy from an Ebay seller. I'm pretty sure I've done more business through Ebay over the years than most people. It doesn't change the fact. If you actually believe what you're saying then all I can say is it must be nice to live in your world. Because in the world the rest of us live in, there are far more of these types of cases happening with faulty hardware, fake hardware and hardware that just never even shows up being sold than Ebay can even keep up with much less get a handle on.

I do agree however that IF, IF you get a bad card through a reputable seller, and there is no funny business going on, you're pretty well covered. Like I said, it's a gamble. Enough of that, as this is starting to go way off topic.

 

[jitendrad]

RX 580 will be the best choice for now.

 

[keyboardkowboy]

Thanks guys pulled the trigger and ordered the Sapphire 580 nitro.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Let me know if you have problems with it. I'm collecting threads with RX 580 failures. Hopefully, you're not one of those folks. If you do, we'll try to sort it out if possible.

 

[tennis2]

^What's that supposed to mean?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's means that since late November myself and a few others here have noticed very high numbers of RX 580 graphics card failures. Either DOA, sometimes multiple DOA in a row, or complete card failures in a relatively short amount of time after installation on cards that worked fine at first. If his card works fine, that's great. If it doesn't, I'd like to know so we can try to sort it out because some of them are are simple as a BIOS reset on the motherboard, others are driver related, but there is clear evidence of a number of cards that are simply faulty either straight out of the box or not long after, and there's too many of them to be considered the normal percent that we'd always see regardless of series or brand.