[SOLVED] what to look for in GPUs?

[hiro928]

my current GPU is a Radeon RX 480, which i've had for the past few years and i love it, it could run any game i bought on ultra settings no problems, but it's finally starting to show it's age a bit, when i play games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey i can play on Ultra but i get frame dips, or when i'm playing Division 2 i can run it on Ultra, but according to Task Manager it runs my GPU up to 96% so i end up playing on Medium, anyway, the TL;DR of it is at whatever point i decide to upgrade, what should i look for besides the VRAM of a card? what other specs are there to look at and what do they mean? now i'm not expecting someone to tech me all about GPUs in this forum (though that would be very kind) but if someone could link me to a good article where i could learn more i'd appreciate it, just so when i finally decide to upgrade i can make the best decision.

 

[AngelTech]

Hope this helps https://www.windowscentral.com/everything-you-need-know-about-gpu

 

[hiro928]

Hope this helps https://www.windowscentral.com/everything-you-need-know-about-gpu

thank you, it was a very interesting read, but going online to apply some of this new knowledge, i'm confused, so i have the RX 470 with 8 GB of DDR5 RAM, Effective Memory Clock (which i assume to be the Bandwidth?) of 8000 MHz a Core Clock of 1288 MHz and 2304 Cores, but then i look at the specs of the RX 570 which also has 8 GB of DDR5 RAM, but only has 2048 Cores, a Core Clock of 1244 MHz and an Effective Memory Clock of 7000 MHz, so how can this be an upgrade to the RX 480 if it seems like it's less powerful?

 

[AngelTech]

That I am unsure about I'd suggest researching on your own as I think all that matters really is bandwidth (?) and VRAM

 

[sizzling]

but according to Task Manager it runs my GPU up to 96% so i end up playing on Medium,

There is nothing wrong with a gpu being run at 100%. Are you sure you really need a gpu upgrade?

 

[hiro928]

There is nothing wrong with a gpu being run at 100%. Are you sure you really need a gpu upgrade?

as i said as well i also get frame dips in other games like AC: Odyssey and a few others, again i'm not planning on upgrading right now, this was just the first i thought about upgrading since i bought the card, so i wanted some information for when i do

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

as i said as well i also get frame dips in other games like AC: Odyssey and a few others, again i'm not planning on upgrading right now, this was just the first i thought about upgrading since i bought the card, so i wanted some information for when i do

I mean honestly just try lowering your graphics settings in your games and your gpu being utilized 100% isn't bad and the rx 480 is a very good gpu

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

and if you can run division 2 on ultra that's great and just lower assasins creed graphics settings to maybe high or medium it doesn't sound like you even need an upgrade

 

[sizzling]

This sounds like the limitation might be cpu given the cpu heavy games you mentioned and that the gpu is not 100% utilised. What is the full pc spec?

 

[ElectrO_90]

All you can do is the following
your budget determines how good the GPU you is.
You can look at charts to compare GPU's
But end of the day, reading specs is just not what it is all about, because AMD uses different technologies than Nvidia - so you can't compare 1 with the other in specs

But you can compare what your GPU will be like in certain games when you know the price you want to spend. It always comes down to more money you spend the more powerful your GPU will be.

If you have $300 - you look at both AMD and Nvidia cards around that price, then look at websites that review the cards you are interested in and come to your own conclusion.

And also, if you are experiencing slowdown in modern games it could be your CPU is limiting the potential. You should list your computers entire specs

 

[Saucydrip]

Here are your options
Sell your graphics card and buy a new one/used (currently gtx 1070's are going for 200-250$)
Or wait and upgrade for navi

 

[RobCrezz]

thank you, it was a very interesting read, but going online to apply some of this new knowledge, i'm confused, so i have the RX 470 with 8 GB of DDR5 RAM, Effective Memory Clock (which i assume to be the Bandwidth?) of 8000 MHz a Core Clock of 1288 MHz and 2304 Cores, but then i look at the specs of the RX 570 which also has 8 GB of DDR5 RAM, but only has 2048 Cores, a Core Clock of 1244 MHz and an Effective Memory Clock of 7000 MHz, so how can this be an upgrade to the RX 480 if it seems like it's less powerful?

The 570 isnt an upgrade over the 480.

Best thing to do, is to ignore specs and judge a graphics card based on its performance in reviews. Theres so many times when a card which should be faster on paper, but in the real world its not.

 

[hiro928]

The 570 isnt an upgrade over the 480.

Best thing to do, is to ignore specs and judge a graphics card based on its performance in reviews. Theres so many times when a card which should be faster on paper, but in the real world its not.

thank you for this, to be honest i was kind of getting annoyed with people missing the point, i'm not saying i need to upgrade, i'm saying i haven't thought about it till now, so i wanted info for what to look for in the future when i finally decide to so i don't end up buying a crap card, so can you possibly give me some websites or direction on where are good places to compare cards?

 

[RobCrezz]

thank you for this, to be honest i was kind of getting annoyed with people missing the point, i'm not saying i need to upgrade, i'm saying i haven't thought about it till now, so i wanted info for what to look for in the future when i finally decide to so i don't end up buying a crap card, so can you possibly give me some websites or direction on where are good places to compare cards?

Yeah sure.

Techpowerup is great for this because you can look at a review of a card and compare with others:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/RX_570_Pulse/30.html

If you look at the above link, youll see that the rx 570 has lower performance than the rx 480.

 

[hiro928]

Yeah sure.

Techpowerup is great for this because you can look at a review of a card and compare with others:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/RX_570_Pulse/30.html

If you look at the above link, youll see that the rx 570 has lower performance than the rx 480.

thanks again, i appreciate it, but if the 570 came after (almost a year after) yet it's inferior to the 480, why did they make it? i'm just confused as to what the cards purpose was?

 

[RobCrezz]

thanks again, i appreciate it, but if the 570 came after (almost a year after) yet it's inferior to the 480, why did they make it? i'm just confused as to what the cards purpose was?

It was a small improvement over the 470, just like the 580 was a small improvement over the 480.

Usually you would want to wait a couple of generations if you are going to the same model, or go to the next model up.

So for a rx 480, its not really worth upgrading unless you went for Vega 56 or higher.