[SOLVED] Swap my ASUS 3080ti for MSI 6950xt?

[Varg7]

I bought a 3080ti around a month ago, but the coil whine on it is bugging me a bit. I spoke to the company I bought it from and they are happy to give me a refund. I would have rather had a replacement but they have no more in stock.

I got a fairly good deal on the 3080ti on sale. After searching around for another 3080ti for a similar price to what I paid, there is nothing around. I would have to pay £200-£300 more to get another one. Not sure why the prices have gone up so much again suddenly.

Never gone with AMD before but I came across some pretty good deals on the 6950xt, over £100 less than I paid for the 3080ti. I'm now torn between sticking it out with the 3080ti and putting up with the whine, or refunding it and grabbing the 6950xt instead, then hoping I get either no or at least quieter whine. I'm not going to bother waiting for the new AMD cards as I'm unlikely to get one in stock, and the prices are no doubt going to be over £1000.

Think it's worth the swap taking into consideration things like performance, thermals etc? And of course with it costing less than I paid for my current 3080ti. I play at 1440p.

TLDR - In your opinion, should I refund my 3080ti & get a 6950xt for over £100 cheaper?

 

[Darkbreeze]

They've gone up again because what inventory is still available is being sold off in holiday sales plus it's highly likely they are not being manufactured anymore at this point because Nvidia and board partners are focused on investing their time and resources into the 40 series cards now.

The 2d, 3d and FPS performance comparisons between these cards are so close that they are nearly equal in most all categories so if you don't mind an AMD card and can get it for significantly less, besides which getting it at all, it's not a bad option.

Keep in mind though that ALL gaming cards are potential candidates for coil whine so don't make a change based on that, because you have as much chance of coil whine with AMD as with Nvidia. Personally, I'd say it's not a bad idea since you can't get a replacement.

 

[Varg7]

If the price was exactly the same I would just keep the 3080ti, the coil whine just made me think well if the 6950xt is cheaper & similar anyway, I could just take the gamble lol. Just watching some testing on games on youtube right now, the 6950xt seems to actually perform better on most titles at 1440p. I'm reading that the 3080ti is better for Ray Tracing and DLSS but tbh, I'm not that bothered about those features.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you don't care that much about RT and DLSS, then the 6950 xt is probably the better choice especially considering the price difference. AMD has done well with improving it's streaming, encoding and driver support issues over the last little while as well. It's really not a "yeah, but if they only had better driver support" situation like it used to be.

What brand of 6950 xt are you looking at and what country are you in?

 

[Varg7]

What brand of 6950 xt are you looking at and what country are you in?

I'm looking at the MSI 6950xt Gaming X Trio (which -apparently- has the best air cooled thermals out of all of them too) and my current card is the ASUS TUF 3080ti OC.

I'm in the UK and I paid £965 for the 3080ti. I can get the 6950xt for £833.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'd do it. The gaming X trio is higher quality than the TUF products IMO, plus I'm not a real big fan of ASUS anymore as their customer service has gone downhill over the last few years. Seems like maybe their quality control too. MSI had QC problems for a few years but they got them straightened out a while back. Only problem with MSI now is they are a crap company when it comes to trying to strong-arm reviewers and retailers, but probably all these companies try doing that to some degree at least.

I think you will be totally on point with the 6950 xt for 1440p gaming especially if you're trying to mostly run ultra settings on most titles.

 

[Varg7]

Yeah I think I'm going to go for it. You have helped me tip to one side of the fence I was sitting on. Thanks!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Anytime.