[SOLVED] Reference RX 5700 XT or Aftermarket RTX 2070?

[Scar The Silent]

Hi all, I'm currently in the planning stage of a new rig to replace my current, dated one. I have an i7-4790K and a GTX780. While those are still pretty great, it struggles with VR.

I know AMD are releasing their new cards at the beginning of next month. I was looking at the RX 5700 XT, but I've never had a reference GPU before, so I'm not sure whether to go that route or to just get an aftermarket RTX 2070. I will be waiting for the beginning of next month anyway as it seems sensible to get the Ryzen 7 3700X rather than the 2700X.

I'm going to be putting it all in an NZXT H500 if that makes a difference. I don't know what the airflow is like or which sort of card would suit it best.

Any advice?

 

[Metal Messiah.]

It's your choice, if you prefer a blower style cooling, or a single/dual/triple fan design for the PCB (Open Air) ? But these reference type GPUs can get noisy under load though. It also depends on what type of ATX cabinet you are having.

The blower cooler will help push the hot air from the near of the chassis. It sucks air in through the single fan in the front of the card and blows it out of the back. It is important to note that even though all blower-type coolers use a single-fan design, not all single-fan cards are blower-style.

Exhausting air out the back of the card helps in cases with poor airflow since there is no hot air blown into the case; conversely, it is exhausted outside of the chassis.

On the other hand, the volume of that air is usually so small that the single tiny fan must spin much faster to cool the GPU properly, meaning most blower style cards are susceptible to higher temperatures and noise levels compared to their competition. Blower coolers are generally most useful in mini-ITX cases and/or multi-GPU setups, where there is not enough case airflow available to sustain an open-air cooler design.

The logic behind open-air cards is also simple, a cooler with a single, double, or triple fan that blows cold air from the outside onto a heatsink – either directly or indirectly cooling the GPU. The radiator usually consists of fins that have heatpipes running through them. Blower-style cards use smaller heatsinks, which is one of the reasons why their cooling capacity is much smaller.

 

[lux1109]

I always prefer an aftermarket custom GPU model, with dual/triple fan cooling solution., but that is just me.

 

[Scar The Silent]

Thank you for the replies. I've opted for a Gigabyte RTX 2700 OC Gaming in white which I found for a great price.