Upgrading my rig. The nuclear power plant next door is closing down and I can't power it anymore :c

[Stefan_10]

Greetings, currently I am rocking a fx8350 and a r9 280x. I figuratively had to pay a scadoodle ton of money on power last year, and I kind of wanted to upgrade anyways. I would stick to the fx, as long as it doesn't bottleneck the gpu. I want to do some photo editing, and gaming at 1080p, 60fps, but on ultra/max settings. The rig should also be able to handle at least 2 screens, and playing youtube full hd videos shouldnt make my games stutter -_-.

Tl;dr I want to upgrade my gpu, for 1080p gaming and basic commodities like multiple screens and stuff. VR ready is not a must, but it would be vewy nice.

Also, power consumption and heating should be taken in consideration . . . I live in Denmark and currently, while I game with the door/windows closed it's 10 degrees warmer in my room. Amd team here, but as long as the price and performance are there, I can go with nvidea.

Oh, and 8gb of ram is still enough, right ? Also got a no name 750w psu(made in germoney so it's kinda good, served me well till now)

Bah ! Didn't mention budget ! Anything is fine as long as it won't get bottlenecked by the fx8350 in gaming, and it's not ridiculously over priced. Like I won't go for a 1080, but maybe a 1070 ? The 580 from amd is also tempting ...

<Moderator Warning: Watch your language in these forums>
- Sorry, it's been so long :c

 

[Dugimodo]

I think to get a meaningful upgrade from a 280X you need to go to a 1070 or one of the new Vega cards. Nvidia are more power efficient still.
Unless your power costs an absolute fortune though I doubt you will see a meaningful drop in power usage. 8gb is still enough mostly, but it's starting to reach the point where 16gb is the safer bet for new builds. For an exisiting machine stick with what you have and see how you go. Something else is likely to become a problem before RAM does (like that 8350)

Say you buy a card that uses 100W less power at max. If you game 10 hours a day that's 1KW/H saving per day. I don't know prices in Denmark but to use my local NZ prices as an example, a KW/H here costs 25c and power is not particularly cheap. For a 30 day month thats $7.50 but the reality is hardly anyone pushes a card that hard that often and the actual power differences are likely to be less that 100W to begin with. I think a more realistic power saving would be in the $1-$5 a month range. You could work it out for yourself in local currency based on your gaming habits.

 

[Stefan_10]

I think to get a meaningful upgrade from a 280X you need to go to a 1070 or one of the new Vega cards. Nvidia are more power efficient still.
Unless your power costs an absolute fortune though I doubt you will see a meaningful drop in power usage. 8gb is still enough mostly, but it's starting to reach the point where 16gb is the safer bet for new builds. For an exisiting machine stick with what you have and see how you go. Something else is likely to become a problem before RAM does (like that 8350)

Say you buy a card that uses 100W less power at max. If you game 10 hours a day that's 1KW/H saving per day. I don't know prices in Denmark but to use my local NZ prices as an example, a KW/H here costs 25c and power is not particularly cheap. For a 30 day month thats $7.50 but the reality is hardly anyone pushes a card that hard that often and the actual power differences are likely to be less that 100W to begin with. I think a more realistic power saving would be in the $1-$5 a month range. You could work it out for yourself in local currency based on your gaming habits.

Mhm,mhm. . .
Thing is, where I live, the price for electricity is 'included' in the rent, but because I have a pc I had to pay like 150$ extra (for a few months rent, it's calculated at the end) which kind of sucks. Yeah, I could go with a 1070, as long as the fx8350 wouldn't be a problem. So what do you say ? 580 or 1070 ? I only care about 1080p gaming at a stable 60fps, and my current card is starting to feel old (unless it's my cpu)

 

[garryash]

I used an R9 280X with three monitors for a couple of years and had no problems (even played Cities Skylines with 3). Would probably still be using it but was given a GTX 980 !

 

[hang-the-9]

You have a high power use CPU and a high power use video card, however the cost of upgrading them will not likely make much of a dent in your power bill vs upgrade costs as another post has pointed out. Paying $150 extra for a few months of PC use maybe a bit much, a gaming PC uses about the same power as 4 normal 60w light bulbs on average and maybe 6 when on full load. You should talk to your landord about actual power us vs what you get charged extra. Upgrading your CPU, video card and possibly motherboard and RAM will cost more than several years of electricity.

 

[Dugimodo]

I think rather than 580 you should be looking at Vega 56 or 64 if they are available or the 1070. As to which is better, best to look at some benchmarks of the games you play and the resolution you use and base your decision on that and the price.

Personally I've had a good run with Nvidia so I'd favour the 1070. I've had a 980 for 3 years now and it's looking like I can skip the current generation of cards completely.