Question Replacing my 1070Ti for faster work with Stable Diffusion

ars.arch01

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Hello everybody!
I am thinking about replacing my Zotac AMP Extreme edition 1070Ti, to work faster with Stable Diffusion AI...and 1440p gaming

I would love to stick with Nvidia if it is ok for my system
What would you recommend me for a budget up to 1000 euro.
My PC specs:

i7-7820X 8x 3.6 GHz So. 2066 WOF + Noctua NH-D15S
750Watt Seasonic Plus modular 80+ Gold
500Gb Samsung evo 2.5 SATA
Asrock Fatality X299 Gaming K6 Intelx2999 so. 2066 quad channel ddr4 ATX
32Gb Quad Kit ddr4-3200 CL16-18-18-38

Thank you for your advices!:)
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
From what I can find, StableDiffusion is pretty much Nvidia-exclusive.... most info is ~6 months old, so there may have been changes, but it sounds like Nvidia is the way to go.

In terms of a GPU, you likely wanted the strongest GPU you can afford (you'll run into diminishing returns in gaming, of course).
For 1440p and a relatively strong GPU - assuming your 1000EUR budget is GPU only? An RTX 4060TI / RTX 3070 class card, depending on prices in your specific area would likely be a pretty good sweet spot. You could get a better card for the budget & they'll pair pretty well for 1440p gaming with your existing components.
 
I wouldn’t get anything less than a 4070. It has 12GB of VRAM and a full 16x pci-e 4 bus. If you can wait for the 16 GB version of the 4060 Ti, then that would be better for stable diffusion, as vram is the limiting factor on the resolution of the final product. However, the 4060 Ti 16 GB is advertised as a 1080p card by Nvidia so go with the 4070 if high detail 1440p is desired. The second biggest performance limiter is your hard drive. Your work times will be much longer with a powerful GPU mated to a SATA SSD vs a weak GPU mated to an NVME SSD. So I also recommend upgrading your hard drive to an NVME SSD like the Samsung 970 evo plus.
 
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ars.arch01

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I wouldn’t get anything less than a 4070. It has 12GB of VRAM and a full 16x pci-e 4 bus. If you can wait for the 16 GB version of the 4060 Ti, then that would be better for stable diffusion, as vram is the limiting factor on the resolution of the final product. However, the 4060 Ti 16 GB is advertised as a 1080p card by Nvidia so go with the 4070 if high detail 1440p is desired. The second biggest performance limiter is your hard drive. Your work times will be much longer with a powerful GPU mated to a SATA SSD vs a weak GPU mated to an NVME SSD. So I also recommend upgrading your hard drive to an NVME SSD like the Samsung 970 evo plus.
Hello! Yes I was thinking of buying a evo 970plus or 980 SSD to install software on it. And about graphic card I see some prices for 4070Ti ...that seems ok too, less than 800-900 euro. Will it run fine in connection with mine 7820X CPU? which 4070-4070Ti would you recommend? I used to have Zotacs
 
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Hello! Yes I was thinking of buying a evo 970plus or 980 SSD to install software on it. And about graphic card I see some prices for 4070Ti ...that seems ok too, less than 800-900 euro. Will it run fine in connection with mine 7820X CPU? which 4070-4070Ti would you recommend? I used to have Zotacs
In my opinion Asus is the best, but others will argue that MSI and Gigabyte are good as well. I haven’t purchased a zotac or pny gpu in years so I don’t know how their reliability is these days. Personally, I would get the 4070 for 3 reasons. 1: price to performance, the 4070 Ti is ~16% faster for 33% more money. 2: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti have the exact same memory layout IE 12GB operating at 21Gbps on a 192-but bus so the 4070 Ti will not be able to provide a higher final resolution of your work. 3: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti will be bottlenecked by your 7820x in a lot of games, so unless you upgrade your cpu, both GPU’s will perform the same in most games. I’d say save your money with the 4070 and get a 2TB or 4TB 980 NVME ssd, that or go above your budget and get a 16GB 4080 for better final resolution and game future proofing as 12GB of vram is already getting maxed out in the latest games at 1440p.

Alternatively, there are stable diffusion variants ( https://github.com/nod-ai/SHARK ) that work with AMD cards. The 7900xt and 7900xtx have 20GB and 24GB vram respectively for US $850 and $999 Respectively. The massive VRAM in these cards will last you quite a while at 1440p and the 7900xt is 10% faster than the 4070 Ti with 66% more vram and the 7900xtx is 2% faster than the 4080 with 50% more vram and is 17% cheaper.
 
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ars.arch01

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In my opinion Asus is the best, but others will argue that MSI and Gigabyte are good as well. I haven’t purchased a zotac or pny gpu in years so I don’t know how their reliability is these days. Personally, I would get the 4070 for 3 reasons. 1: price to performance, the 4070 Ti is ~16% faster for 33% more money. 2: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti have the exact same memory layout IE 12GB operating at 21Gbps on a 192-but bus so the 4070 Ti will not be able to provide a higher final resolution of your work. 3: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti will be bottlenecked by your 7820x in a lot of games, so unless you upgrade your cpu, both GPU’s will perform the same in most games. I’d say save your money with the 4070 and get a 2TB or 4TB 980 NVME ssd, that or go above your budget and get a 16GB 4080 for better final resolution and game future proofing as 12GB of vram is already getting maxed out in the latest games at 1440p.

Alternatively, there are stable diffusion variants ( https://github.com/nod-ai/SHARK ) that work with AMD cards. The 7900xt and 7900xtx have 20GB and 24GB vram respectively for US $850 and $999 Respectively. The massive VRAM in these cards will last you quite a while at 1440p and the 7900xt is 10% faster than the 4070 Ti with 66% more vram and the 7900xtx is 2% faster than the 4080 with 50% more vram and is 17% cheaper.
Thank you very much ! Can I ask a following question then about CPU....what would be the optimal one for me right now? I mean if I save a bit with GPU maybe I could add some money to the budget and get a good CPU to it as well ?
 
Games are limited by the cpu or the GPU.
Games such as sims, mmo and strategy will be limited mostly by single thread performance.
Fast action games, high quality settings or resolution need a strong graphics card.
Try this simple test:
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

If you think cpu may be your limiter, run the cpu-Z bench and look at your single thread performance rating.
It should be about 475 for a I7-7820X:

A cpu change will also require a motherboard change; you could reuse your ddr4 ram.
A $230 13400 processor will be close to 2x the cpu capability .
You get what you pay for going up from there.

A B760 DDR4 motherboard may be $170:

On gpu upgrades, look at tom's gpu hierarchy chart:
 

ars.arch01

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In my opinion Asus is the best, but others will argue that MSI and Gigabyte are good as well. I haven’t purchased a zotac or pny gpu in years so I don’t know how their reliability is these days. Personally, I would get the 4070 for 3 reasons. 1: price to performance, the 4070 Ti is ~16% faster for 33% more money. 2: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti have the exact same memory layout IE 12GB operating at 21Gbps on a 192-but bus so the 4070 Ti will not be able to provide a higher final resolution of your work. 3: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti will be bottlenecked by your 7820x in a lot of games, so unless you upgrade your cpu, both GPU’s will perform the same in most games. I’d say save your money with the 4070 and get a 2TB or 4TB 980 NVME ssd, that or go above your budget and get a 16GB 4080 for better final resolution and game future proofing as 12GB of vram is already getting maxed out in the latest games at 1440p.

Alternatively, there are stable diffusion variants ( https://github.com/nod-ai/SHARK ) that work with AMD cards. The 7900xt and 7900xtx have 20GB and 24GB vram respectively for US $850 and $999 Respectively. The massive VRAM in these cards will last you quite a while at 1440p and the 7900xt is 10% faster than the 4070 Ti with 66% more vram and the 7900xtx is 2% faster than the 4080 with 50% more vram and is 17% cheaper.
so my choice so far is down to these two cards...but I never had of their products..any advises? the difference is about 50 euro:)


 
I would go with MSI because I have bias against gigabyte from the early 2000’s with a motherboard that blew bios chips, RMA’d it 4 or 5 times, they even sent me a bag of bios chips. Major design fault.

Here is what I would get for a little bit more. More VRAM means higher end product resolution in stable diffusion. And AMD just issued a new driver for the 7900 xt/x that doubles performance in stable diffusion. This is a much better long term investment than any Nvidia card out right now.
 
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ars.arch01

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I would go with MSI because I have bias against gigabyte from the early 2000’s with a motherboard that blew bios chips, RMA’d it 4 or 5 times, they even sent me a bag of bios chips. Major design fault.

Here is what I would get for a little bit more. More VRAM means higher end product resolution in stable diffusion. And AMD just issued a new driver for the 7900 xt/x that doubles performance in stable diffusion. This is a much better long term investment than any Nvidia card out right now.
Thank you very much for the reply!
So about this Radeon card... Will it still work good in combo with my Intel 7820X CPU ? I have never used Radeon before
 
Thank you very much for the reply!
So about this Radeon card... Will it still work good in combo with my Intel 7820X CPU ? I have never used Radeon before
Absolutely! And the drivers are as reliable as nvidia’s so no need to worry. You will just have to download a dedicated gpu driver eraser program called DDU to completely remove Nvidia drivers from your system before installing the new AMD drivers. It’s really easy and there are plenty of how-to guides if you are unsure.

You won’t regret getting the 7900 xt. 20GB of vram will get you better stable diffusion results and 20GB gives you at least 2 to 3 years of max game texture resolution at 1440p. Nvidia realized too late that they did not give their 4000 series enough vram to play the latest and about to be released games which is why they are rushing a 4060 Ti variant with 16GB of vram to market (which doesn’t matter because the 4060 Ti is not powerful enough for high end 1440p anyway). With the 7900 xt you will be able to max out game settings for years!
 
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ars.arch01

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In my opinion Asus is the best, but others will argue that MSI and Gigabyte are good as well. I haven’t purchased a zotac or pny gpu in years so I don’t know how their reliability is these days. Personally, I would get the 4070 for 3 reasons. 1: price to performance, the 4070 Ti is ~16% faster for 33% more money. 2: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti have the exact same memory layout IE 12GB operating at 21Gbps on a 192-but bus so the 4070 Ti will not be able to provide a higher final resolution of your work. 3: both the 4070 and 4070 Ti will be bottlenecked by your 7820x in a lot of games, so unless you upgrade your cpu, both GPU’s will perform the same in most games. I’d say save your money with the 4070 and get a 2TB or 4TB 980 NVME ssd, that or go above your budget and get a 16GB 4080 for better final resolution and game future proofing as 12GB of vram is already getting maxed out in the latest games at 1440p.

Alternatively, there are stable diffusion variants ( https://github.com/nod-ai/SHARK ) that work with AMD cards. The 7900xt and 7900xtx have 20GB and 24GB vram respectively for US $850 and $999 Respectively. The massive VRAM in these cards will last you quite a while at 1440p and the 7900xt is 10% faster than the 4070 Ti with 66% more vram and the 7900xtx is 2% faster than the 4080 with 50% more vram and is 17% cheaper.

Games are limited by the cpu or the GPU.
Games such as sims, mmo and strategy will be limited mostly by single thread performance.
Fast action games, high quality settings or resolution need a strong graphics card.
Try this simple test:
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

If you think cpu may be your limiter, run the cpu-Z bench and look at your single thread performance rating.
It should be about 475 for a I7-7820X:

A cpu change will also require a motherboard change; you could reuse your ddr4 ram.
A $230 13400 processor will be close to 2x the cpu capability .
You get what you pay for going up from there.

A B760 DDR4 motherboard may be $170:

On gpu upgrades, look at tom's gpu hierarchy chart:

here is the pcpartpicker list I came up with with all help from Tom's forums)


I am reusing my Noctua fan as well as some HDD, SSD SATA, case and all fans for system from current Build I have for 5 years already:)
What do you think about such an upgrade?
 
here is the pcpartpicker list I came up with with all help from Tom's forums)


I am reusing my Noctua fan as well as some HDD, SSD SATA, case and all fans for system from current Build I have for 5 years already:)
What do you think about such an upgrade?
Not bad!!! Not bad at all!!! Good CPU, high speed low latency ram, 4080 with 16GB vram, I think you will love it, however in a few years that 4080 will probably be running out of vram.

It’s up to you but for almost 1200 euros I’d get the 24 GB 7900xtx for future proofing, although I do understand the mystery around switching to an unfamiliar GPU ecosystem. If you must stay with Nvidia, get the 4090, it’s the only 4000 series card worth the money.
 
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ars.arch01

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Not bad!!! Not bad at all!!! Good CPU, high speed low latency ram, 4080 with 16GB vram, I think you will love it, however in a few years that 4080 will probably be running out of vram.

It’s up to you but for almost 1200 euros I’d get the 24 GB 7900xtx for future proofing, although I do understand the mystery around switching to an unfamiliar GPU ecosystem. If you must stay with Nvidia, get the 4090, it’s the only 4000 series card worth the money.
4090? oh damn XD...I wanted only 4070 in the beginning without changing anything at all. now I have 4080 and everything new.
4090 is about 400-500 euro more expencive than 4080 as well...so
I was thinking about 7900xtx, but I was not sure how does Stable Diffusion perform there and it seems it needs different settings and installations. and seems nvidia performs better in general. If it would be only for gaming I would chose Radeon for sure. + I have no idea about the support in future between SD and AMD

for now I bought only 4080 from the whole list, expecting delivery in a day or two...but maybe I can send it back. what would you pick then what do you think?
 
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4090? oh damn XD...I wanted only 4070 in the beginning without changing anything at all. now I have 4080 and everything new.
4090 is about 400-500 euro more expencive than 4080 as well...so
I was thinking about 7900xtx, but I was not sure how does Stable Diffusion perform there and it seems it needs different settings and installations. and seems nvidia performs better in general. If it would be only for gaming I would chose Radeon for sure. + I have no idea about the support in future between SD and AMD

for now I bought only 4080 from the whole list, expecting delivery in a day or two...but maybe I can send it back. what would you pick then what do you think?
It’s up to you, I’m only giving advice. If you are worried about future support with stable diffusion, I doubt AMD will drop support, in fact their new drivers double the 7900xt and xtx’s performance in SD. But if you want to play it safe stay with Nvidia. 4090 has best chance at remaining relevant in 5 years with its 24GB of vram, 4080 is better price to performance but may get “long in the tooth” sooner.

My honest no bs advice is go with your gut and keep the 4080. Like I said you will love it.
 
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ars.arch01

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It’s up to you, I’m only giving advice. If you are worried about future support with stable diffusion, I doubt AMD will drop support, in fact their new drivers double the 7900xt and xtx’s performance in SD. But if you want to play it safe stay with Nvidia. 4090 has best chance at remaining relevant in 5 years with its 24GB of vram, 4080 is better price to performance but may get “long in the tooth” sooner.

My honest no bs advice is go with your gut and keep the 4080. Like I said you will love it.
only quick question...

does this make sence to get this Motherboard with PCIE 5 instead of PCIE 4 on the one from the list? to be able exchange the GPU in 5 years lets say without switching Motherboard


and what is your recomendation for rtx 4090 as for motherboard and PSU?
 
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only quick question...

does this make sence to get this Motherboard with PCIE 5 instead of PCIE 4 on the one from the list? to be able exchange the GPU in 5 years lets say without switching Motherboard


and what is your recomendation for rtx 4090 as for motherboard and PSU?
If you want to set yourself up to upgrade at the 5 year point, then yes PCI-E5 makes sense, but unfortunately Intel only supports PCI-E5 on their M.2 port for the latest NVME ssd’s, so I’d only get the PCI-E5 motherboard if you are getting a PCI-E5 NVME SSD or would upgrade to one in the future. If not, a good PCI-E4 NVME ssd is the Samsung 980 Pro.

Also, all PCI-E generations are backwards compatible so if in 5 years you get a PCI-E5 graphics cards it will still work in a PCI-E4 port.

For the 4090, I really like the Asus strix or TUF models. MSI’s range is also good.

For motherboard, I suggest an Asus TUF Gaming Z790-plus WIFI. The reason is that the TUF series uses extended life span capacitors and mosfets so the motherboard theoretically should last longer. The MSI Z790 tomahawk is under reputable board.

For PSU, I would suggest a 1000 watt 80+ Gold, platinum, or titanium rated. It’s more wattage than you need but all PSU’s hit maximum efficiency at ~50% watt output. This will also allow the PSU to last longer because it will run cooler (capacitors have shorter lifespans the hotter they get). For brands, DO NOT GET Gigabyte!!! Corsair, EVGA, and BeQuiet are all reputable brands. Cooler master is another good choice. Just make sure whichever PSU you get is ATX 3.0 and PCI-E5 compliant since you’ll be keeping this for a while.

Another thing to consider is your CPU choice, if you want to keep the cpu at the 5 year mark while upgrading graphics cards, the 13900k is your best bet (not that the 13700 is bad by any means). You could do like I do and get the cpu I can afford now and then 2, 3, 5 years from now grab whatever CPU is the fastest compatible with your motherboard off of eBay (Intel generally supports 2 generations for each CPU socket so perhaps the 14th gen Intel CPU’s will work).
 
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ars.arch01

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If you want to set yourself up to upgrade at the 5 year point, then yes PCI-E5 makes sense, but unfortunately Intel only supports PCI-E5 on their M.2 port for the latest NVME ssd’s, so I’d only get the PCI-E5 motherboard if you are getting a PCI-E5 NVME SSD or would upgrade to one in the future. If not, a good PCI-E4 NVME ssd is the Samsung 980 Pro.

Also, all PCI-E generations are backwards compatible so if in 5 years you get a PCI-E5 graphics cards it will still work in a PCI-E4 port.

For the 4090, I really like the Asus strix or TUF models. MSI’s range is also good.

For motherboard, I suggest an Asus TUF Gaming Z790-plus WIFI. The reason is that the TUF series uses extended life span capacitors and mosfets so the motherboard theoretically should last longer. The MSI Z790 tomahawk is under reputable board.

For PSU, I would suggest a 1000 watt 80+ Gold, platinum, or titanium rated. It’s more wattage than you need but all PSU’s hit maximum efficiency at ~50% watt output. This will also allow the PSU to last longer because it will run cooler (capacitors have shorter lifespans the hotter they get). For brands, DO NOT GET Gigabyte!!! Corsair, EVGA, and BeQuiet are all reputable brands. Cooler master is another good choice. Just make sure whichever PSU you get is ATX 3.0 and PCI-E5 compliant since you’ll be keeping this for a while.

Another thing to consider is your CPU choice, if you want to keep the cpu at the 5 year mark while upgrading graphics cards, the 13900k is your best bet (not that the 13700 is bad by any means). You could do like I do and get the cpu I can afford now and then 2, 3, 5 years from now grab whatever CPU is the fastest compatible with your motherboard off of eBay (Intel generally supports 2 generations for each CPU socket so perhaps the 14th gen Intel CPU’s will work).
thank you for your reply !

I was considering only KFA2 RTX 4090 SG as 4090 series card because all others are quite more expencive and waaaay over what I originally was going to spend, so I think I will stick with my 4080, and let's say upgrade it in 2 generations when 6000-7000 series comes. Therefore I was thinking of this Mainboard with PCIE-5.

In order not to change other details such as Motherboard...I am wondering if this build is OK
I added also all drives that I have now HDD, SATA SSD and M2 SSD 970 evo plus.

Please have a final look:)


is 1000W PSU a must here, or 850W will be enough ?
Thank you again! and sorry if I asked already too many similar questions)
 
thank you for your reply !

I was considering only KFA2 RTX 4090 SG as 4090 series card because all others are quite more expencive and waaaay over what I originally was going to spend, so I think I will stick with my 4080, and let's say upgrade it in 2 generations when 6000-7000 series comes. Therefore I was thinking of this Mainboard with PCIE-5.

In order not to change other details such as Motherboard...I am wondering if this build is OK
I added also all drives that I have now HDD, SATA SSD and M2 SSD 970 evo plus.

Please have a final look:)


is 1000W PSU a must here, or 850W will be enough ?
Thank you again! and sorry if I asked already too many similar questions)
It looks fine but like I said earlier, the gpu pci-e slot on all Intel motherboards are PCI-E 4 not 5 so save your money and go with a 100% pci-e 4 motherboard unless you are getting a Samsung 990 pro NVME ssd.

1000 watts is very recommended but an 850 watt will work as long as you get a high end model that can take the GPU’s transient power spikes.
 
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