Question Need help with choosing graphics card and need some suggestions. Thanks in advance.

[sagarkshetri]

PC configuration -

processor - i5 6500 @ 3.2GHz
Mobo - Asus z170-k
PSU - Corsiar VS 650
Case - Coler master force 500
Ram - g skill rip jaws (8 * 2)
HDD - Seagate 7200rpm
SSD - Samsung
Monitor - Dell 2415H - 1920 * 1080 at 60Hz


I assembled the above PC about 2 years ago

How I used this desktop

• Mostly used it for doing some development.
• Used it sometimes for video editing.
• Used it sometimes for playing games..

So coming to the point I have mostly played games like Sims, cities in motion, age of empires, cities skylines, Counter strike.. till now

Then one day I thought lets dive into one of the open world games and see...then is when I tried FAR CRY 3.

Man seriously I was blown away by the game, and it worked fine without any graphics card. I was in love of this game.

Then I thought I should be owning the Far cry other titles too. I checked the far cry 4 and 5 and it seemed good, and 4th version was even based in India by initial gameplay that I checked.

So installed Far Cry 4 and hell no it looked crap with the lowest possible graphics and resolutions and what not.....
my system started crying and scolding - 'I have had enough, please get me a GPU'

I could not bear its pain, so thought to check out on the graphics card.

(Note: I am from India, and here we have very very less people who play desktop or console games..so don't scold me..)

Man it was difficult to choose, but with my findings Of the graphics card which I can hope of buying and afford are(based on US price) -

Amd rx 580 8gb
Amd rx 590 8gb
Nvidia gtx 1660 6gb
Nvidia gtx 1660 ti 6gb

After that I did some price check and oh my goodness thats pretty good price difference between US and India -

rx 580 8gb - (US price ~ 180$ , India price ~ 255$) - gigabyte
rx 590 8gb - (Us price ~ 220$ , India price ~ 340$) - gigabyte
gtx 1660 6gb - (Us price ~ 220$, India price ~ 257$) - Inno3d or galax - for lowest one and gigabyte, msi and zotac will have around 280-290$, asus will be around 300$
gtx 1660 ti 6gb - (Us price ~ 280$, India price ~ 333$) - Inno3d or galax or MSi, rest will be around 350-360$ and more

So the price gap for all of them is around 40-100$

It was a sad feeling for me...but an opportunity rose when one of my friend is going to US for a week in july and I have got an opportunity to get one from US.

Now I have the following questions which is killing me. Let me pour them out -

1. Are the choices that I gave above fulfil my needs as I explained above(According to my findings I can go with 1660 non ti version which looks best according to review.. and save another 50-60$ for some good board game )
2. Is there any other that you can suggest me?
3. If you say any one is good any company that you can suggest me.
4. Buying from US will not give me warranty of around 3 years but with cost me 40-100$ less upfront. Is it a good thing?

Any expert here or faced similar issue?
I will be deeply thankful whoever pulls me out of this misery.

 

[jay32267]

Well first....I think all those cards will work well with your i5.

....and I think your PSU should be able to support them....just make sure it has the proper 6 pin and/or 8 pin plugs for the card you intend to buy.

Here are the performance numbers for the cards.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+580&id=3736

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+590&id=4025

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1660&id=4062

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1660+Ti&id=4045

as you can see the 1660 Ti is the fastest and this would be the best as far as gaming and will allow you to play pretty much any game on ultra settings at 1080p at 60 fps.

A GTX 1060 or a GTX 1070 would also allow you to do this....if you are looking for alternatives.....and both of these will work with your CPU as well.

As far as companies....I've had good luck with ASUS and NVidia cards....but I'm sure there are other good ones out there.

....as far as the warranty. versus the savings....I think that's a tough call.

 

[Gmoney06ss]

Another thing to think of is duties/taxes when your friend comes back. Usually you'll need to declare such a large dollar amount purchase. How much would that cost you?

Problem with the savings vs warranty, imo, is if the card is faulty, you're out a good amount of $$$.

 

[dontlistentome]

Certain games, such as City Skylines, are very CPU intensive. These games won't benefit so much from a more powerful card. Other games which are more dependent on the videocard will benefit from a better card. Better than what? I'd say you should consider a 6gb GTX 1060 the minimum to get for 1080p gaming. An RX 580 8gb is the AMD equivalent and would also be fine.

If you want something better then I'd spend the money on the 1660 Ti if possible. The 1660 is more of a replacement for the 1060 rather than an upgrade from it. It's not that it's not faster, it's that it's not enough of an improvement in performance in my opinion. The 1660 Ti costs more but it's very big jump in performance.

It depends on how demanding you are. A casual gamer would be happy with a 1060 6gb or 580 8gb at 1080p. If you want to run at ultra settings in the newest games, you probably would do better to get the 1060 Ti.

 

[sagarkshetri]

Another thing to think of is duties/taxes when your friend comes back. Usually you'll need to declare such a large dollar amount purchase. How much would that cost you?

Problem with the savings vs warranty, imo, is if the card is faulty, you're out a good amount of $$$.

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-bri...ut-import-duties-check-in-or-carry-on-baggage

According to this upto 700$ they should not charge you anything ...so hoping that it should not be a problem....
Only problem is if the card is faulty....that is where I will have to take chances..if I am to bring it from US...
Practically if I get galax or Inno3d ...I am still a bit fine as I have to give around 40$ more...
but If I want to get giagabyte or MSi ..I will have to give 60-70$ more...with which i can get a Ti version of the same....in US
Thats where my head is bursting...

 

[sagarkshetri]

Well first....I think all those cards will work well with your i5.

....and I think your PSU should be able to support them....just make sure it has the proper 6 pin and/or 8 pin plugs for the card you intend to buy.

Here are the performance numbers for the cards.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+580&id=3736

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+590&id=4025

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1660&id=4062

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1660+Ti&id=4045

as you can see the 1660 Ti is the fastest and this would be the best as far as gaming and will allow you to play pretty much any game on ultra settings at 1080p at 60 fps.

A GTX 1060 or a GTX 1070 would also allow you to do this....if you are looking for alternatives.....and both of these will work with your CPU as well.

As far as companies....I've had good luck with ASUS and NVidia cards....but I'm sure there are other good ones out there.

....as far as the warranty. versus the savings....I think that's a tough call.

Thanks for the reply...
I checked for 1060 version and it does not seem to be lesser priced than the 1660 and also performance wise 1660 seems to be better...as 1060 is an old version...
I am just going with the fps in the tests I have seem in You tube...Since I consider myself to be a casual gamer..I think I would be mostly considering the Fps in the games(the more the better).

And also yes...Warranty vs savings is what is killing me... What would have you done if you were in my case?

 

[sagarkshetri]

Certain games, such as City Skylines, are very CPU intensive. These games won't benefit so much from a more powerful card. Other games which are more dependent on the videocard will benefit from a better card. Better than what? I'd say you should consider a 6gb GTX 1060 the minimum to get for 1080p gaming. An RX 580 8gb is the AMD equivalent and would also be fine.

If you want something better then I'd spend the money on the 1660 Ti if possible. The 1660 is more of a replacement for the 1060 rather than an upgrade from it. It's not that it's not faster, it's that it's not enough of an improvement in performance in my opinion. The 1660 Ti costs more but it's very big jump in performance.

It depends on how demanding you are. A casual gamer would be happy with a 1060 6gb or 580 8gb at 1080p. If you want to run at ultra settings in the newest games, you probably would do better to get the 1060 Ti.

Thanks for the reply
Yes you are correct, I did not face much issue when I was playing strategy games...those worked pretty fine...
Open world games needs more graphics i think.....
But don't you think buying a 1060 6g whose cost is equivalent to the cost of 1660 6gb would do me any benefit? Dont get me wrong ..I am very new to the business of Graphics card...this is just my small findings..
I am not changing my system anytime soon, nor my Monitor...
I just would be super happy if most of the games would work in Ultra settings...Would be happy if games work in high settings also..Would be ok ok...if good games atleast work...for next 5 years...

Would be very good...if say 1660 or 1060 were to be obsolete now then 1660 ti or 1060 ti becomes obsolete atleast 2 years from now...then I think I have the point of buying the 1660 ti..

What do you say?

 

[sagarkshetri]

One thing I got from even more checking is that -

None of the graphics card company(MSi and gigabyte) will take graphics card brought from Outside India under warranty. So warranty goes for a toss..and its a electronic thing(God only knows when it will break done). So it means I have to be ready to shell out 40$(Rs 3000) more for the cards.

Now coming to the card, Atleast in India -

I would like to exclude 580 as it is not comparable to gtx 1660 while the price remains the somewhat less...and 590 is even more not recommended as it is even more priced than 1660(almost the price of ti version) with almost the same performance..
Rx 580 - Rs 16500(240$)
Rx 590 - Rs 22000(320$)

So the recommended card I think is -
gtx 1660 - Rs 18000(260$)
gtx 1660 TI - Rs 22000(320$)
Rtx 2060 - Rs 29000(420$)

So based on the above input, I think I can say that 1660ti makes much sense...as the price different between 1660ti and 2060 in US is 70$ but in India it goes for 100$ and more...
While the difference between 1660 ti and 1660 is 60$ which is fairly consistent with that in the US....so I would assume 1660ti is the best card for me right now...

Can someone please analyze my checking and tell to me if what I am analyzing is correct?