Question Upgrade now or wait? RTX 2070S to ...

[PaddyMcpadington]

Hey everyone,

Just an easy discussion, and would like some food for thought.

I've currently got the RTX 2070 Super, I game on a 1440p Monitor and I just find its lacking now and not providing what I want.
I would have bought a 40 series card when they first launched but never had the availability and now I'm back to looking.
I bought my RTX 2070 Super for around £400 new 3/4 years ago and ideally want to stay around the same price / performance. I know costs have naturally gone up since, So I'm happy around the £500 range.

I'm split between the RX 7800XT for £505, or there is the RTX 4070 for £570 at most places.
It seems the AMD card is significantly better value for money; more performance, more vram and wider memory bus.

Nvidia is releasing the new super cards soon, But I suspect demand will be high, so price will still be high and it'll only be nvidia reference cards at the RRP and even with the 4070 expected to drop in price. I still can't see it better than the RX 7800XT for value But my worry is could the AMD cards drop in price anymore!?

So split on whether to just buy now or wait and see what happens, even Intel battleImage is looking interesting but it's release date is unknown? Big year for GPU and pricing.

 

[Lutfij]

I'd wait and see what the RTX5000 series has in store, which will be later towards the end of this year. If you can't I'd say you're good to pick up either of the cards you've mentioned above. What is your current PSU's make and model and age?

 

[PaddyMcpadington]

I'd wait and see what the RTX5000 series has in store, which will be later towards the end of this year. If you can't I'd say you're good to pick up either of the cards you've mentioned above. What is your current PSU's make and model and age?

Do you think rtx 5000 series will be released this year? Especially with the super refresh just happening.

I’m semi invested in Intel, I like the idea of a 3rd gpu player

I’ve got a Be Quiet, straight power 1000W power supply, got that at the end of 2022, so relatively new and got plenty of headroom for power.

My current system is:
I5 12600KF with a Noctua NH-D15 cooling
RTX 2070 S
Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite board with DDR5 32gb Ram,
Samsung 980 pro ssd 1tb
All in a fractal define r5 case

I am half tempted to just go all out on a GPU, but I can’t justify for where most of my gameplay sits 🤣

 

[General_Cool]

I’m semi invested in Intel, I like the idea of a 3rd gpu player

Only go Intel if you intend to be a tester. Their GPUs are not really intended for people who want to "shove something in their computer doohickey and play the game fast". If you're a tinkerer, enjoy looking into bugs, giving feedback on beta features, and seeing a performance increases over time with better driver updates (since early drivers will be near unusable), Intel is for you. I personally find it fun and interesting, but I also know I'm already in the minority when it comes to IT nerd stuff, so that doesn't say much...

I would say wait to buy 5000 series unless you intend to play games with raytracing enabled, in which case get a 4000 series Super card. Your system is quite good as is. Waiting for 5000 series may seem like a long while away, but if you see yourself still playing games at the end of 2024 going into 2025, I would wait. The performance gains will be great; just be wary of how nVidia has been trending with pricing...the 5000 series may become more unaffordable.

 

[PaddyMcpadington]

Only go Intel if you intend to be a tester. Their GPUs are not really intended for people who want to "shove something in their computer doohickey and play the game fast". If you're a tinkerer, enjoy looking into bugs, giving feedback on beta features, and seeing a performance increases over time with better driver updates (since early drivers will be near unusable), Intel is for you. I personally find it fun and interesting, but I also know I'm already in the minority when it comes to IT nerd stuff, so that doesn't say much...

I would say wait to buy 5000 series unless you intend to play games with raytracing enabled, in which case get a 4000 series Super card. Your system is quite good as is. Waiting for 5000 series may seem like a long while away, but if you see yourself still playing games at the end of 2024 going into 2025, I would wait. The performance gains will be great; just be wary of how nVidia has been trending with pricing...the 5000 series may become more unaffordable.

Ah okay, I’ll give Intel a miss then until it matures. I do find it fascinating though and look forward to how good it gets if they stay in the field.

I don’t particularly play games with RT, and if I’m honest I don’t really care about DLSS. Never personally looked for those settings which Nvidia offer to see if I can squeeze more performance.
But Nvidia’s pricing strategy has put me off their brand despite the quality of their products, except that 16pin power connector.
Shame really as I’ve had the 970, 1070 and 2070s…been relatively loyal 😂

I started with AMD with their desktop APUs(A10-7850k) which I really loved, and the idea when you could connect it to Radeon card of the time and enhanced the gpu power together. Shame it never took off.
I am tempted to switch to AMD for a bit while the GPU space improves.

Are there any estimated percentage increases that 5000 will have over 4000 series yet?

 

[General_Cool]

Are there any estimated percentage increases that 5000 will have over 4000 series yet?

Expect it to be similar to the jump 4000 series had from 3000 series. Since its very early and all the hype is around the Super cards, we're not likely to hear insider leaks for a few more months.

I am tempted to switch to AMD for a bit while the GPU space improves.

Go for it, highly recommend. Unless you are a twitch streamer or heavy video renderer, 3d renderer, etc., then AMD will always be a better value proposition. Their 7900 XTX cards perform better than the 4090 in a few games for a half or even a third of the price depending on the brand you buy from, and are on par with the 3080 in the vast majority of titles for less money too. AMD may not be fully next to nVidia with the drivers yet, but the two are very close and many see it as a feature of AMD cards as they "age like fine wine" and get faster as the months and years go by and better drivers are developed.

 

[palladinoandrea]

what did you do in the end? I'm in the same situation as you but I come from a 2060 and I intend to switch the screen to 2k

 

[PaddyMcpadington]

what did you do in the end? I'm in the same situation as you but I come from a 2060 and I intend to switch the screen to 2k

I ended up going for AMD with the RX 7800XT. It is a Beautiful Card; I'm not missing any of the NVIDIA Features. I think it was one of those situations where I thought because I had an Nvidia card and switched away, I could be missing out. But I wasn't! It's still a massive jump in performance, and for some reason, I've actually had a more stable system compared to before. I don't think about switching back any time soon.
However, you can choose a top-end AIB AMD Card instead of the cheapest but still more expensive lower-end AIB with NVIDIA, Which means you get a nicer-looking GPU and no doubt higher quality components on the board (Don't hold me to that, lol)
I'd rather invest the extra 10-20% you'd have to pay for a top-quality AIB 4070 later, in another 3 years, when wages catch up with pricing.

 

[palladinoandrea]

so do you recommend me with the 7900xt? How long can a card be valid?

 

[PaddyMcpadington]

so do you recommend me with the 7900xt? How long can a card be valid?

I personally couldn't justify the jump from a 7800XT to the 7900XT. You're paying 40-50% more for 25% better performance, and it's not as good value. But it also depends on your gaming or productivity requirements.

 

[palladinoandrea]

I personally couldn't justify the jump from a 7800XT to the 7900XT. You're paying 40-50% more for 25% better performance, and it's not as good value. But it also depends on your gaming or productivity requirements.

I'm finding a performance card (where you can play easily) and for a long time because it bothers me to buy a card every 2 years

 

[jasonf2]

I am still running a 1080ti. It launched in 2017. The biggest issue isn't really performance per se it is more about extended API support. So while it plays games in 1080p just about as well as it ever did, I don't get ray tracing or any of the dlss type stuff. While playable it also never was a real fireball at 4k and it never will be. But base frame rate and performance hasn't really changed since the PC was built. I find that if you get a top tier card it will be playable for a long time, just don't expect the good bells and whistles to apply for more than a couple of years as new API and games come out no matter what you spend. Framerate is very tied to the CPU as well, so simply upgrading the GPU isn't necessarily going to make you any gains there, just fidelity. DLSS is the exception, but only because it is pulling unnecessary rendering from the workload and only on supported games.

 

[palladinoandrea]

I am still running a 1080ti. It launched in 2017. The biggest issue isn't really performance per se it is more about extended API support. So while it plays games in 1080p just about as well as it ever did, I don't get ray tracing or any of the dlss type stuff. While playable it also never was a real fireball at 4k and it never will be. But base frame rate and performance hasn't really changed since the PC was built. I find that if you get a top tier card it will be playable for a long time, just don't expect the good bells and whistles to apply for more than a couple of years as new API and games come out no matter what you spend. Framerate is very tied to the CPU as well, so simply upgrading the GPU isn't necessarily going to make you any gains there, just fidelity. DLSS is the exception, but only because it is pulling unnecessary rendering from the workload and only on supported games.

so what do you recommend? I'm on a 2060

 

[Eximo]

Those are the two prevalent methods. Regular replacement of a mid-range card say two to three years or buying a high end card for longer cycles of like 5 years. Just depends what you can spend.

400 + 400 + 400 +400+ 400 over 15 years (roughly $130 dollars a year)
800+800+800 over 15 years (roughly $160 dollars a year)

With the slow down in cadence from the GPU manufacturers, that means skipping at least one generation with a mid range card, and at least two with higher end card.

I kept my GTX1080 for 6 years, it was $650 if I recall.

 

[Eximo]

so what do you recommend? I'm on a 2060

System specs and power supply, plus your budget to answer that question.

If you are looking at 7900XT, I generally lean towards the 4070 Ti Super. 7900XTX is decent and about as big as I would go without looking at a 4080 Super or 4090.

 

[palladinoandrea]

Those are the two prevalent methods. Regular replacement of a mid-range card say two to three years or buying a high end card for longer cycles of like 5 years. Just depends what you can spend.

400 + 400 + 400 +400+ 400 over 15 years (roughly $130 dollars a year)
800+800+800 over 15 years (roughly $160 dollars a year)

With the slow down in cadence from the GPU manufacturers, that means skipping at least one generation with a mid range card, and at least two with higher end card.

I kept my GTX1080 for 6 years, it was $650 if I recall.

so are you recommending an 80 series?

 

[Eximo]

Not at all. You have to judge the GPUs, not their names.

GTX1080 ~= RTX2070 ~= RTX3060 / 4060

$650 today puts you in nice RTX 4070 Super territory or 7900 GRE territory. Now the 7900 GRE isn't that much of an improvement over the 7800XT, so I don't recommend it for the price increase. 4070 Ti just squeeks in at under $700 and does a better job.

I prefer the 4070Ti Super over the 7900XT despite the $100 price difference.

At some point you just have to look at the games you want to play and what resolution and settings you want and see what your conscious allows.

 

[jasonf2]

so what do you recommend? I'm on a 2060

What is your CPU and RAM?

 

[palladinoandrea]

What is your CPU and RAM?

2x8 ram 2400 and 5600x

 

[jasonf2]

ram 8x2 ram 2400, cpu 5600x

So you are in a good mid range processor with mid range RAM with a low mid tier video card. If sticking with Nvidia that means that any of the 2000 gen GPUs above the 2060 up to the 2080 will give you some lift. In any series above that going to or above the 80 series card is probably not going to do much for you and will more than likely require a new PSU. It isn't entirely accurate every time but as a general rule of thumb each generation tends to bump performance one number plus APIs. So a 4070 is roughly what a 3080 is to roughly a 2000 gen Titan card. My card of choice to pair with your CPU would probably be a 3070, or 4070. Before doing that though I would definitely verify your power budget on the PSU. When you don't have enough CPU for your GPU it doesn't hurt anything, it just ends up underutilized so throwing a 90 series card in your build is serious overkill and not going to perform much better in real applications than the 70 or 80 series.

 

[palladinoandrea]

So you are in a good mid range processor with mid range RAM with a low mid tier video card. If sticking with Nvidia that means that any of the 2000 gen GPUs above the 2060 up to the 2080 will give you some lift. In any series above that going to or above the 80 series card is probably not going to do much for you and will more than likely require a new PSU. It isn't entirely accurate every time but as a general rule of thumb each generation tends to bump performance one number plus APIs. So a 4070 is roughly what a 3080 is to roughly a 2000 gen Titan card. My card of choice to pair with your CPU would probably be a 3070, or 4070. Before doing that though I would definitely verify your power budget on the PSU. When you don't have enough CPU for your GPU it doesn't hurt anything, it just ends up underutilized so throwing a 90 series card in your build is serious overkill and not going to perform much better in real applications than the 70 or 80 series.

from what I understand, they advised me against using the same PSU since it has been accessible since 2016

 

[jasonf2]

from what I understand, they advised me against using the same PSU since it has been accessible since 2016

It really depends on what it is. If it was junk in 2016 it probably didn't get any better. If it is a quality power supply, still in good working order, has all of the necessary connectors/spec for the new card and is big enough there is no reason to replace it. If it doesn't make any of those metrics it needs to go.

 

[palladinoandrea]

It really depends on what it is. If it was junk in 2016 it probably didn't get any better. If it is a quality power supply, still in good working order, has all of the necessary connectors/spec for the new card and is big enough there is no reason to replace it. If it doesn't make any of those metrics it needs to go.

its a Thermaltake paris 650

 

[jasonf2]

My guess is that you are probably going to need a new PSU. On newer cards 750+ watts is pretty much baseline needed and you really need to verify that the PCI express connectors for your prospective card are present due to the age. That goes up even further if looking at a 90 series. Obviously there are cards that this won't be an issue so make sure to calculate your power budget and as long as you stay in the window and connectors you will be fine.

 

[Avro Arrow]

At around the £500 price-point, there are three cards to choose from. These are the Radeon RX 7800 XT, the GeForce RTX 4070 and the RX 7900 GRE and here are their prices from least expensive to most:

RX 7800 XT:
XFX Radeon RX 7800 XT Speedster QICK 319 Core 16GB: £485 at eBuyer.com
RTX 4070:
Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB: £498 at neocomputers.co.uk
RX 7900 GRE:
ASRock Radeon RX 7900 GRE Challenger Gaming 16GB: £510 at overclockers.co.uk

I've been paying close attention to video cards for years and I would definitely recommend the RX 7900 GRE out of those three for its superior performance, value and 16GB of VRAM.

Here are reviews for it from well-known hardware reviewers:
Gamers Nexus:

Hardware Unboxed:

Level1Techs:

TechPowerUp:

Digital Foundry:

PC World:

And the OG nVidia fanboy himself, JayzTwoCents:

Here's a video by ScatterVolt who specialises in video card buying guides. This is the March 2024 buying guide and I've cued it up to the <$600 segment which is the American equivalent of the £500 price category:

Yeah, it's a lot of information but you're looking to spend a lot of money. It definitely pays to be informed about the product(s) that you want to spend ~£500 on.