r9 380 2gb vs 1050Ti vs 970

[Excelcior]

Hi Guys!

I currently have a Sapphire Radeon Dual-X R9 380 2Gb. I'd like to upgrade my GPU since the 2gb of VRAM is causing issues with playing recent AAA titles in medium to high 1080p.

I have the option of buying a brand new 1050Ti or a second hand 970 to replace it.

Should I just stay with my r9 380 for now and just wait for a mid-end VEGA card or do you think I should get either a 1050Ti or 970 right now?

I also have the option of getting another r9 380 and do crossfire but that wouldn't fix my VRAM issue.

Sadly due to this stupid mining craze I don't even have the option to get a 470/570

Thanks for any response!

 

[feelinfroggy777]

The 970 is faster than the 1050ti, it does have a little less RAM as it is only 3.5gb. There is not a huge difference between all three of them, so I would say go with whatever is cheaper. You should be able to find a used 970 for a decent price, so I would go with it before a 1050ti.

As for Vega, there is a huge difference between your 380 and Vega 56. Vega 56 looks like a good card, for the right price. But it may be some time before those prices warrant a purchase.

 

[ghettogamer]

id save up for a 1070 but if your on a pinch and you need it immediately then id go for a gtx 970 should have plenty of muscle and ram to power your gaming needs. gtx 970 is much more powerful than the 1050 ti and more ram too

 

[Excelcior]

The 970 is faster than the 1050ti, it does have a little less RAM as it is only 3.5gb. There is not a huge difference between all three of them, so I would say go with whatever is cheaper. You should be able to find a used 970 for a decent price, so I would go with it before a 1050ti.

I can sell my 380 for about $100-120 in my local used market. Then buy a used 970 for about $150-200. A brand new 1050Ti is about the same price as a used 970 depending on the brand and model.

As for Vega, there is a huge difference between your 380 and Vega 56. Vega 56 looks like a good card, for the right price. But it may be some time before those prices warrant a purchase.

I haven't done any research but I think its possible that AMD might release a mid-end VEGA card that is cheaper than the 56 and would compete with the 1060 with a better price to performance (since I can't really afford anything more than $250).

 

[Excelcior]

id save up for a 1070 but if your on a pinch and you need it immediately then id go for a gtx 970 should have plenty of muscle and ram to power your gaming needs. gtx 970 is much more powerful than the 1050 ti and more ram too

I was doing some research and found out that the 970 only has 3.5Gb of usable VRAM while the 1050Ti has 4Gb. I wouldn't mind playing in 1080p medium settings with new and upcoming AAA games if that would mean stable fps. My 380 has the processing power but not the VRAM required to get decent fps

I originally wanted to go with the 480/570 or the 1060 but the pricing is too bad due to this stupid mining craze.

 

[renz496]

id save up for a 1070 but if your on a pinch and you need it immediately then id go for a gtx 970 should have plenty of muscle and ram to power your gaming needs. gtx 970 is much more powerful than the 1050 ti and more ram too

I was doing some research and found out that the 970 only has 3.5Gb of usable VRAM while the 1050Ti has 4Gb. I wouldn't mind playing in 1080p medium settings with new and upcoming AAA games if that would mean stable fps. My 380 has the processing power but not the VRAM required to get decent fps

I originally wanted to go with the 480/570 or the 1060 but the pricing is too bad due to this stupid mining craze.

to some people the memory situation on 970 is confusing. but in reality the card capable of using all it's 4GB VRAM. if 970 can only use 3.5GB of it's VRAM then there is no reason to put the last 512MB chip on the PCB. the more correct way to interpret 970 memory config is the card have fast 3.5GB VRAM and slower 0.5GB VRAM. the concern is what effect it will have on games when memory usage is exceeding 3.5GB. performance wise your performance will not going to slow down. but in some games it might show slight stutter from time to time. apart from that GTX970 will always be faster than 1050ti in games (it was even ahead of GTX1060 3GB majority of the time). factory overclocked GTX970 is pretty much go toe in toe with GTX1060 6GB.

 

[explainitlikeimanidiot]

what about selling the 380 and buying a second hand 1060 6gb?

 

[Excelcior]

what about selling the 380 and buying a second hand 1060 6gb?

It would be pretty hard to find a decent brand used 1060 with our local market these days. I just checked 5 minutes ago and the cheapest 1060 6gb I could find was around 280 USD. I can sell my 380 for about 100-120 USD so I would need to save up ~100 USD before I can get one.

BTW a brand new 1060 6gb in my country would be around 300 USD so it would be better to get a new one if I had the budget.