How capable of a 1440p card is the RX 480?

[newbuilder_41]

I'm a builder with an older rig, still running the i5-2500k on a 1080p monitor. But I'm thinking of upgrading to the 1440p ones and I have to choose between a freesync and a gsync monitor which obviously means I have to decide on nvidia or AMD. I want to buy the RX 480 as a stopgap card until the Vega line comes out, at which point I'll upgrade to the 1440p monitors.

I've been watching some benchmarks on youtube and it seems the RX 480 is capable of gaming at 1440p at about 30-40FPS range. I wanted to ask, how playable are games at that FPS? Is there a noticeable difference between gaming at that FPS and gaming at say 60 or 70 FPS? Because the difference between gaming at 40 FPS in 1440p and 70 FPS is the price difference between a 480 and a GTX 1070 and I wonder if the extra cost is even worth it. So do games feel smooth at a constant 30-40 FPS or is it worth it to try and reach those 60+FPS ranges? I don't game competitively or anything

 

[JackNaylorPE]

It's weak ... I mean you go to 1440p for more detail, but you won't be able to play at near 60 fps at 1440p w/o turning down the detail. And what refresh rate are we talking ... today's 1440p "gaming" monitors are 144 / 165 Hz ... it would be a waste to get one of these and be stuck at 40 fps.

As for Freesync / G-Sync ... not two sides of the same coin

Freesync provides frame synchronization

G-sync provides frame synchronization and it also includes a hardware module in the monitor that provided Motion Blur reduction technology (ULMB).

If you have an opportunity to do some gaming on a low lag (3ms real, not advertised) 1440p IPS 144 / 165 hz monitor, do so. On the down side, everything after that will feel "less".

As a stop gap, the 480 or 1060 (launches July 7) will serve well... it will rock anything at 1080p ... the 1060 is rumored to be faster but whether it is or it isn't, I wouldn't pick either regardless of which one ya want until after they have had a chance to go head to head for a week or two and prices are bound to be shaking up as that happens.

 

[newbuilder_41]

Interesting, I didn't know that about Gsync. I thought it and Freesync were basically the same thing.

Here's the thing though: a friend talked me into going the AMD route because of the new API's being released which he says AMD cards will get more benefit from due to the dedicated async compute hardware AMD cards have. It's confusing trying to pick a card now due to that and due to the Gsync/Freesync thing that monitors have nowadays. AMD isn't releasing Vega for quite a while. I guess I could buy a GTX 1070 for now and then just sell it when the Vega cards come out.

 

[newbuilder_41]

bump