[SOLVED] What's a good low cost replacement for a GTX 980?

[Marc_55]

My GTX 980 is dead (RIP) and I'd like to spend as little as possible and not go backwards in terms of performance. I don't have a 4K monitor. I do want to use it to play games

What would you recommend?

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Well, when the GTX 1060 6GB was released, Nvidia said it would provide "GTX 980-like performance". I suppose that was a fairly agreeable statement, although the GTX 980 could beat it at times especially when overclocked.

An RX 580 8GB could get you pretty close to that for $160. Heck, the new GTX 1650 Super is supposed to be a better deal than the RX 580 8GB at the same price. It was outperforming the RX 580 in some games on the professional benchmarks on YouTube. It only has 4GB vram, but it's GDDR6.

You could ensure you clear the performance hurdle by going with a GTX 1660 Super or Ti, which both have GDDR6. The GTX 1660 non-Super non-Ti has GDDR5. Still not a bad card though.

 

[bmockeg]

1660ti beats a 980ti or is equal. This is better slightly than a 980 standard.

 

[Marc_55]

I believe I can get the 1660ti on Amazon for $330 CAD right now. Was honestly tempted.

The RX580 is much cheaper at $208 but I think it feels like a small step back in perfect. Not sure if 33% more cost is worth it though :/

 

[richiestang_78]

I would get either a 1650 Super or 1660 Super.

If you can afford the 1660ti go for that. You may also want to see of the RX 5700 goes on sale or has a rebate for black Friday cyber monday.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

I believe I can get the 1660ti on Amazon for $330 CAD right now. Was honestly tempted.

The RX580 is much cheaper at $208 but I think it feels like a small step back in perfect. Not sure if 33% more cost is worth it though :/

The RX 580 and GTX 980 are on par. The differences come in with which games play better on Nvidia vs AMD. With 8GB vram on the RX 580, it's a better card. I wouldn't call it a step back.

I would consider the faster cards though.

 

[Ketchup79]

Very happy with my gtx 1060 (from a 660). I bought a lightly used model at a good price. Coming from a 980, I am sure you would at least want a 1660. And fortunately, if your card was going to die, it picked the best time of the year to do so

 

[Marc_55]

I'll wake up tomorrow and see if anywhere is able to beat the price on the 1660ti

https://www.amazon.ca/GeForce-GTX-1...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GN517Q99YQJTNWJ4W8PP

 

[Notorious^]

Newegg has the EVGA GTX 1660 Super for $229 right now.

 

[Marc_55]

That’s a good deal! Also the 1660ti on Amazon has shot up in price again

 

[Marc_55]

OK so been thinking about this a lot. 1660 Super seems like a good affordable update for my 980. However, 2 things I’m uncertain about:

1) How much legs is it going to have? How long is it likely to stay relevant for gaming? Is there an extra X hundred dollars that I need to spend if I really want to get something that’s going to give me a couple of years?

2) How do I know which version of a card to buy? Do they all have the same performance? Is it just about price and looks? I noticed that I have to be careful to get one with GDDR6 rather than GDDR5. Is that going to have much of an impact? Also are there versions that come with promo codes for a game? Or does that only apply to the pricier cards?

I realize that’s more than 2 things.

Any help appreciated. The basic gist is that I have a pretty low budget right now but I’m open to being swayed to invest a bit more if there’s a big pay off.

I’m looking to buy on Newegg.ca or Amazon.ca. Looks like there’s around $80 price variance depending on the exact card

 

[Ketchup79]

If you stay at the same resolution, and considering the way the video card market has been lately, a 1660 Super would probably last you quite a while. But if you ever go up in resoltion, you will see that drop a good bit.

 

[Marc_55]

No monitor upgrade planned for a while. I’d much rather higher FPS with a lower resolution than the other way around