Which computer is better for VR?

[jdcompy]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy an affordable computer with the intention of playing VR on it.

A friend recently purchased:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-ultra-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-1400-8gb-memory-amd-radeon-rx-580-1tb-hard-drive-black/5833100.p?skuId=5833100

And it seems to be doing a solid job so far.

I was going to get it but then saw this:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-master-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-1400-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hard-drive-black-red/5848610.p?skuId=5848610

They seem to be fairly similar with the main difference being the graphics card.

The first computer has AMD Radeon RX 580 while the second computer has NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060. When I did the GPU comparison

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-AMD-RX-580/3646vs3923

But on a different site, I saw slightly different results - I'm not really sure how to read what I'm seeing.

-------------------
In your opinion,

Which is a better video card?

And,

Which is a better computer to get for games/VR?


--- Thank you kindly for your thoughts!

 

[Malek Agha]

They are both very similar in performance, however the 580 is 4gb while the 1060 is 3gb. The extra video memory from the 580 will definitely help when doing VR gaming.

 

[jdcompy]

Hi Malek,

First, thank you so much for your time to reply. What you are saying definitely makes sense. Can you see any reason why the computer with the NVIDIA would be $50 more expensive if the graphics card isn't as good?

 

[Malek Agha]

Hi Malek,

First, thank you so much for your time to reply. What you are saying definitely makes sense. Can you see any reason why the computer with the NVIDIA would be $50 more expensive if the graphics card isn't as good?

I honestly cannot find a reason as to why it's like that. Price usually doesn't mean everything. I've seen many pre-built computers that cost more with parts that aren't as good as the parts in cheaper better computers. If you still have any doubts feel free to look up benchmarks for the two cards. I would however definitely still go with the 580 regardless.

 

[jdcompy]

When I look at this benchmark:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-AMD-RX-580/3646vs3923

It shows they are very close but the 580 slightly out edges the Nvidia.


But on this benchmark:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=3566&cmp%5B%5D=3736

The NVIDIA strongly out matches the 580 even though the comparison is showing the NVIDIA at 3gb and the 580 at 8gb (even though, I think it's supposed to be 4 (as noted on the bestbuy site)

What's most interesting (and confusing is) the Core Clock for NVIDIA is 1708 MHz and the Core Clock for the 580 is 1257 MHz. The 5 minutes of research I did (and I know nothing about this stuff) said core clock can be very important. And, that seems like a big difference.

Do you (or anyone else) know anything about that? Am I even looking at the right specs?

(thank you again!)

 

[Malek Agha]

When I look at this benchmark:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-AMD-RX-580/3646vs3923

It shows they are very close but the 580 slightly out edges the Nvidia.


But on this benchmark:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=3566&cmp%5B%5D=3736

The NVIDIA strongly out matches the 580 even though the comparison is showing the NVIDIA at 3gb and the 580 at 8gb (even though, I think it's supposed to be 4 (as noted on the bestbuy site)

What's most interesting (and confusing is) the Core Clock for NVIDIA is 1708 MHz and the Core Clock for the 580 is 1257 MHz. The 5 minutes of research I did (and I know nothing about this stuff) said core clock can be very important. And, that seems like a big difference.

Do you (or anyone else) know anything about that? Am I even looking at the right specs?

(thank you again!)

Firstly I would like to suggest looking at YouTube benchmarks as they tend to be very reliable. Secondly, mhz definitely does matter and the 500 mhz diff between the the two gpu's is def significant. However, the actual architecture of the GPU is more important. Also, the mhz of a GPU depends on the brand and model of the GPU you're getting. In the two links to the diff PC's you posted it doesn't specify the mhz anywhere so I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[jdcompy]

When I look at this benchmark:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-AMD-RX-580/3646vs3923

It shows they are very close but the 580 slightly out edges the Nvidia.


But on this benchmark:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=3566&cmp%5B%5D=3736

The NVIDIA strongly out matches the 580 even though the comparison is showing the NVIDIA at 3gb and the 580 at 8gb (even though, I think it's supposed to be 4 (as noted on the bestbuy site)

What's most interesting (and confusing is) the Core Clock for NVIDIA is 1708 MHz and the Core Clock for the 580 is 1257 MHz. The 5 minutes of research I did (and I know nothing about this stuff) said core clock can be very important. And, that seems like a big difference.

Do you (or anyone else) know anything about that? Am I even looking at the right specs?

(thank you again!)

Firstly I would like to suggest looking at YouTube benchmarks as they tend to be very reliable. Secondly, mhz definitely does matter and the 500 mhz diff between the the two gpu's is def significant. However, the actual architecture of the GPU is more important. Also, the mhz of a GPU depends on the brand and model of the GPU you're getting. In the two links to the diff PC's you posted it doesn't specify the mhz anywhere so I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

I'm very new at "comparing benchmarks" - but, I imagine even if the Best Buy site doesn't list the mhz, we should be able to look it up, if we know what the graphics card is right? (I've never had to look at or compare graphics cards before). If the benchmark site that lists the MHZ as 1200 (580) vs 1700 (nvidia) is correct, would you then still go with the 580? Or, are you able to find different stats somewhere else?

I'm sorry for so many questions - I'm still trying to learn about this stuff and understand how to make decision.

Thank you again!

 

[Malek Agha]

When I look at this benchmark:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-AMD-RX-580/3646vs3923

It shows they are very close but the 580 slightly out edges the Nvidia.


But on this benchmark:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=3566&cmp%5B%5D=3736

The NVIDIA strongly out matches the 580 even though the comparison is showing the NVIDIA at 3gb and the 580 at 8gb (even though, I think it's supposed to be 4 (as noted on the bestbuy site)

What's most interesting (and confusing is) the Core Clock for NVIDIA is 1708 MHz and the Core Clock for the 580 is 1257 MHz. The 5 minutes of research I did (and I know nothing about this stuff) said core clock can be very important. And, that seems like a big difference.

Do you (or anyone else) know anything about that? Am I even looking at the right specs?

(thank you again!)

Firstly I would like to suggest looking at YouTube benchmarks as they tend to be very reliable. Secondly, mhz definitely does matter and the 500 mhz diff between the the two gpu's is def significant. However, the actual architecture of the GPU is more important. Also, the mhz of a GPU depends on the brand and model of the GPU you're getting. In the two links to the diff PC's you posted it doesn't specify the mhz anywhere so I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

I'm very new at "comparing benchmarks" - but, I imagine even if the Best Buy site doesn't list the mhz, we should be able to look it up, if we know what the graphics card is right? (I've never had to look at or compare graphics cards before). If the benchmark site that lists the MHZ as 1200 (580) vs 1700 (nvidia) is correct, would you then still go with the 580? Or, are you able to find different stats somewhere else?

I'm sorry for so many questions - I'm still trying to learn about this stuff and understand how to make decision.

Thank you again!

Nah it's all good dude haha, I was there at one point too
Now, the thing is in the BestBuy website, it doesn't actually say the model of the card so you can't check the mhz. Like I said each GPU mhz depends on brand and model. Not all 580's have 1200 and not all 1060's have 1700. Now considering you can't tell what the mhz is, I'd go with the 580. Btw, the difference between 1200 and 1700 is absolutely huge and very very little GPU's have 1700 mhz. Considering this is a prebuilt PC they proly won't have something of that caliber in the build. Also, you asked earlier why the 1060 build is 50 dollars more expensive, I just realized this is because it is just that the 1060 is straight up more expensive than the 580, however they still perform very similarly.

 

[jdcompy]

]

Nah it's all good dude haha, I was there at one point too
Now, the thing is in the BestBuy website, it doesn't actually say the model of the card so you can't check the mhz. Like I said each GPU mhz depends on brand and model. Not all 580's have 1200 and not all 1060's have 1700. Now considering you can't tell what the mhz is, I'd go with the 580. Btw, the difference between 1200 and 1700 is absolutely huge and very very little GPU's have 1700 mhz. Considering this is a prebuilt PC they proly won't have something of that caliber in the build. Also, you asked earlier why the 1060 build is 50 dollars more expensive, I just realized this is because it is just that the 1060 is straight up more expensive than the 580, however they still perform very similarly.

Does this mean there is more than one 3GB NVIDIA GeForce 1060s with varying mhz and varying 4gb MD Radeon RX 580 with varying mhz?

If so, how do people usually compare parts in pre-built PCs?

Thank you!!!

 

[Malek Agha]

]

Nah it's all good dude haha, I was there at one point too
Now, the thing is in the BestBuy website, it doesn't actually say the model of the card so you can't check the mhz. Like I said each GPU mhz depends on brand and model. Not all 580's have 1200 and not all 1060's have 1700. Now considering you can't tell what the mhz is, I'd go with the 580. Btw, the difference between 1200 and 1700 is absolutely huge and very very little GPU's have 1700 mhz. Considering this is a prebuilt PC they proly won't have something of that caliber in the build. Also, you asked earlier why the 1060 build is 50 dollars more expensive, I just realized this is because it is just that the 1060 is straight up more expensive than the 580, however they still perform very similarly.

Does this mean there is more than one 3GB NVIDIA GeForce 1060s with varying mhz and varying 4gb MD Radeon RX 580 with varying mhz?

If so, how do people usually compare parts in pre-built PCs?

Thank you!!!

Exactly, there are multiple different companies that make diff models of just one type of GPU. Some examples are Gigabyte, PowerColor, EVGA, and MSI. When it comes to pre-built PC's however you can't really be picky. Honestly it's not like one 580 is going to be 10 percent better from a 580 from another company. All 580's are for the most part across the board will give you the same performance from any brand. Ofc you do have the slight changes in mhz which give you slight boosts in performance but all 580's still have around the same performance anyways. Anyways when you're buying a prebuilt PC you can't be picky with not only the GPU but the brand it comes from too and the mhz you're gonna get, that's just OD.

 

[jdcompy]

Okay, I think I'm almost done beating this question to death

Even if all GPUs are slightly different and we can never really know ahead of time, if the 580 (on average) is 1200 mhz and the NVIDIA is (on average) 1700 mhz.. even if one or both are off by 100-200, isn't it still such a huge difference that the NVIDIA would be better?

Again, thank you for your patience!

 

[toshibitsu]

If you are going to do VR, you'd probably want something better then a Ryzen 5 1400 CPU(like a Ryzen 5 1600 or preferably move up to a Ryzen 7). Or you could move away from Ryzen completely and go with an Intel i5-8400 or i5-8600k.

Also, both of those video cards would be a bit on the 'low side' for VR. I'd try to get a RX 580 8GB or a 1060 6GB(1070 if possible).

 

[Malek Agha]

Okay, I think I'm almost done beating this question to death

Even if all GPUs are slightly different and we can never really know ahead of time, if the 580 (on average) is 1200 mhz and the NVIDIA is (on average) 1700 mhz.. even if one or both are off by 100-200, isn't it still such a huge difference that the NVIDIA would be better?

Again, thank you for your patience!

Again, I I don't think all 1060's are 1700 mhz on average at all that benchmark you looked at isn't accurate I would say. Also I would still go with the 580.