[SOLVED] Help me choose a GPU which are pretty close in price. RTX 2070S/2070/RX5700XT

Dreamevil55

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May 4, 2016
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Okay trying to buy a GPU for a relative, I live in a SEA country so the prices of the following 3 GPUs are pretty close.
RTX 2070 Super (Cheapest $495, Zotac AIR )
RX 5700 XT (Cheapest custom PCB $450, Sapphire Pulse/MSI Mech, Cheapest blower, $415..not gonna buy that one, ever)
RTX 2070 (Cheapest $410 Galax Mini, $445 Galax EX)

In performance, 2070 Super has around 10-20% edge over the 5700XT while 5700XT and 2070 are neck in neck, some games 2070 gets a tiny edge, vice versa so pretty much the same. The budget is $500 but even a dollar saved is helpful. The CPU is R5 3600, GPU GTX 1060 and PSU is some 700W 80+ Silver, don't know which one. Target is 1080p 144Hz gaming, maybe 240Hz in the near future. The dilemma is strong fellas, price..performance..power..cooling..ray tracing..lousy amd drivers. Help !
 
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Forgot to mention, he plays competitive Apex Legends and CoD. So 240Hz is an option.
When neither 2070 Super nor RX 5700XT are capable of a steady 240fps in either of those games... where does the advantage come in over a good 144hz monitor that either card will have no problem reaching anyways?
-Diminishing returns; there comes a point where the benefits from higher screen refresh rate hit the wall known as individual reaction speed. That wall will vary between individuals, but appears to be around 120hz.
-The hardware required to maintain that refresh is very expensive.
-The few 'true 240hz' monitors are mixed in with a bunch of fakes; they're either equipped with 120hz doublers, or can't achieve 240hz without stupid amounts...

mwasil

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RTX support will be all over the place in the near future with new titles popping up, so buying an AMD card right now just seems silly for me. I'd go risk-free with the 2070 Super.
Besides, what's wrong with blower fans? They are way more efficient in terms of thermal performance in tight cases like Micro-ATX. I have my 1080ti with a blower fan and I love it, on stock fan curve it hits 76 celius under max load, with a custom fan curve with MSI afterburner drops even to 63 celius.
 

Phaaze88

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240hz won't even be achievable with the combination you're considering, and isn't worth the investment, so forget about it; 144hz is enough for pretty much everyone.


The dilemma is strong fellas, price..performance..power..cooling..ray tracing..lousy amd drivers. Help !
-Price/value: RX 5700XT

-Performance: RTX 2070 Super

-Cooling: how well the card cools will depend on your case and fan setup. Generally speaking, the 3 fan models offer the best cooling at higher rpms(people seldom run their fans that high though) and the blower models are best for tight spaces.
The Zotac Air and Sapphire Pulse should be pretty even, but the manufacturing assembly plays a part here...

-Ray tracing: In it's current form, it's just an overpriced gimmick; you'll try it out a couple of times and be done with it. It's completely absent on AMD's gpus.
Which is going to look nicer? A ray traced scene at 1080p 60fps, or that same scene at medium/high at 1080p 120fps?

-Drivers: Money plays a part here. AMD's drivers will get better over time, but not at the same pace as Nvidia can. For example, if both companies were to launch brand new gpus at the same time, the drivers from Nvidia's end would mature at a faster rate than AMD's.
Nvidia can afford to send teams to the different developers to work together to optimize drivers for their platform. AMD, on the other hand, does not, and is more dependent on user feedback to optimize their drivers.


With that wall out of the way, since your focus appears to be value > performance, I'd point you towards the 5700XT.


RTX support will be all over the place in the near future with new titles popping up, so buying an AMD card right now just seems silly for me. I'd go risk-free with the 2070 Super.
Besides, what's wrong with blower fans? They are way more efficient in terms of thermal performance in tight cases like Micro-ATX. I have my 1080ti with a blower fan and I love it, on stock fan curve it hits 76 celius under max load, with a custom fan curve with MSI afterburner drops even to 63 celius.
Generally nothing wrong with blower coolers, the problem is AMD going too cheap on the reference cooler for their RX 5700/XT cards; they all run unnecessarily hot.
Here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SAWtKEIYbw


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQjTYbqG1CI
 

Dreamevil55

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May 4, 2016
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240hz won't even be achievable with the combination you're considering, and isn't worth the investment, so forget about it; 144hz is enough for pretty much everyone.
Forgot to mention, he plays competitive Apex Legends and CoD. So 240Hz is an option. My question is, should I ignore the 2070 Super when it's like 40-45$ more expensive ? Well, you make a good point for value but, which one of these two is more future proof ?
 

Dreamevil55

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May 4, 2016
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RTX support will be all over the place in the near future with new titles popping up, so buying an AMD card right now just seems silly for me. I'd go risk-free with the 2070 Super.
Besides, what's wrong with blower fans? They are way more efficient in terms of thermal performance in tight cases like Micro-ATX. I have my 1080ti with a blower fan and I love it, on stock fan curve it hits 76 celius under max load, with a custom fan curve with MSI afterburner drops even to 63 celius.
AMD Navi Blower fans are flat out bad my dude. The dilemma here is 10-20% more performance for $45 extra.
 

Phaaze88

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Forgot to mention, he plays competitive Apex Legends and CoD. So 240Hz is an option.
When neither 2070 Super nor RX 5700XT are capable of a steady 240fps in either of those games... where does the advantage come in over a good 144hz monitor that either card will have no problem reaching anyways?
-Diminishing returns; there comes a point where the benefits from higher screen refresh rate hit the wall known as individual reaction speed. That wall will vary between individuals, but appears to be around 120hz.
-The hardware required to maintain that refresh is very expensive.
-The few 'true 240hz' monitors are mixed in with a bunch of fakes; they're either equipped with 120hz doublers, or can't achieve 240hz without stupid amounts of ghosting.

My question is, should I ignore the 2070 Super when it's like 40-45$ more expensive ? Well, you make a good point for value but, which one of these two is more future proof ?
Neither is future proof - I really don't like using that word... it's really not a good term to use with gpus; their 'use by date' just isn't in the same league as a cpu.
Their 'playability' is good from 2-4 years(depending on tier), then it's about time to start looking at getting another.

The 2070 Super is the strongest of your provided options, but if you want similar performance while keeping a few extra bucks for something else, then go with the 5700XT.
Get the strongest card you can afford - or are willing to spend on - for the settings you want to play now; the performance needed to run newer games depreciates faster on gpus than with cpus.
 
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Dreamevil55

Honorable
May 4, 2016
192
46
10,690
When neither 2070 Super nor RX 5700XT are capable of a steady 240fps in either of those games... where does the advantage come in over a good 144hz monitor that either card will have no problem reaching anyways?
-Diminishing returns; there comes a point where the benefits from higher screen refresh rate hit the wall known as individual reaction speed. That wall will vary between individuals, but appears to be around 120hz.
-The hardware required to maintain that refresh is very expensive.
-The few 'true 240hz' monitors are mixed in with a bunch of fakes; they're either equipped with 120hz doublers, or can't achieve 240hz without stupid amounts of ghosting.


Neither is future proof - I really don't like using that word... it's really not a good term to use with gpus; their 'use by date' just isn't in the same league as a cpu.
Their 'playability' is good from 2-4 years(depending on tier), then it's about time to start looking at getting another.

The 2070 Super is the strongest of your provided options, but if you want similar performance while keeping a few extra bucks for something else, then go with the 5700XT.
Get the strongest card you can afford - or are willing to spend on - for the settings you want to play now; the performance needed to run newer games depreciates faster on gpus than with cpus.
You make some excellent points. Usually the simplest answer would be go with whatever your budget allows you to, and for the best one. From what I see, I'd be paying an extra 50 bucks for the 5700 xt from it's US MSRP while RTX 2070 Super price is the same here as the US.
I will give your answer some thought and discuss with the dude, thanks.
 
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