Need a new card for Freesync ultrawide 2560x1080 monitor

[deepb]

Currently using a 760gtx. Has started showing its age in games like The Division. I have a budget of up to 450 usd before shipping and taxes. GTX 1070 would be a good option, but then I cant really make use of it for freesync. I might be springing for a htc vive headset also if PSVR ends up reviewing badly. I would give RX480 a try, but the AIB cards for those seem to be on hold forever.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The AIB cards are out but performance wise, they a loooong way from a 1070. The AIB 1070s are more than 50% faster

Do you have the monitor or just considering it ?

 

[deepb]

Have the monitor from 2 months now. Which AIB card is out for Rx480? I didn't see any yet and I've been watching the nowinstock.net site a lot. Rx480 should be more than enough to handle my the 2560x1080 resolution for a couple of years I believe. But I'm just wondering more on the VR performance.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The one in the chart above.. .. Asus Strix
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/RX_480_STRIX_OC/28.html

On the + side, the card has 8 GB, pin power connector and solves the temperature problem
On the - side, it's pretty noisy and delivers an extremely minor bump (6%) in performance (74.5 => 79 fps)

The 1060 / 480 will be just fine for 1080p ...

 

[deepb]

Yeah, that one isn't actually out yet. Release date of mid August onward on their press release.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

It's "out" in the sense that it's been delivered to reviewers and working models tested. This now puts consumers in a position to make a performance based decision. And if it was, as you wrote, between a 1070 and a 480, when the 480 was available wouldn't matter... there's a pretty wide distance between the 1070 and the 480.

We had been holding off on planning lower budget builds where the decision was between the AIB 1060 and the AIB 480 ... Now with these results out ... for the 1st time in 3 generations .... we won't be using AMD x80 card over an nVidia x60 card in this price segment as the performance gap (OCd) is just too wide.

Asus isn't the only AIB partner....Powercolor will be available in a week

http://videocardz.com/62489/powercolor-announces-radeon-rx-480-red-devil-for-269-usd

When nVidia "outed" the 1060, models were available for sale immediately. Not sure why AMD lifted the NDA if they aren't going to have the cards for 3 weeks other than that AMD wanted to dampen enthusiasm around the 1060.

This is going to cause heads to roll.... first the power broohaha and then they let nVidia deliver the AIB 1060 before they get their own AIB cards out ? And for the 1st time, the AMD x80 isn't a slam dunk choice over then nVidia x60.

Of course that doesn't diminish the value of the card ... the 4 GB model will make a fine choice for those sticking at 1080p for the foreseeable future. At $259 / $269 for the AIB cards, there's\ gotta be a price cut so it may make sense to wait a bit.

 

[deepb]

Just as an update, gave up on waiting for a decent custom rx 480 to come out and picked up an Asus Strix 1070. Freesync will just have to wait.