Question Which Graphics card to buy? Struggling to decide or do I wait?

[thedude300]

I'm in Ontario, Canada.
I'm absolutely kicking myself for not jumping on the pricing error at Canada computers for $499.99 6750XT Asus Dual.
The price point has ruined everything else I look at now because I view it as all over priced. I still lean towards the 6700xt or 6750xt but I keep seeing the 3060ti recommended over it.
My current rig has a Gigabyte 1070. I recently got a 1440p monitor and I can see it struggling now. I want to upgrade but I'm not entirely sure its the right time with these prices.
Anyway, what would you recommend? Hold off and wait and see what comes out and down in price. Or which card should I upgrade to for 1440p gaming that will hopefully give me the years my 1070 had? I want some future-proofing. I was thinking of even going the 3070 or 3070ti route but it seems expensive.

The purpose is for gaming mostly FPS and RTS
5800x on a X570 ASUS Tuf board
RM850 PSU

 

[mjbn1977]

How much would you be willing to pay? what is your limit? How important is ray tracing to you in modern games that support ray tracing (such as Cyberpunk 2077 for example)?

 

[Math Geek]

i don't see prices coming down any time soon for sure at the top end of the cards.

the 6700xt type cards are the next to be replaced with the 77/7800xt and the 4060/70 cards. so you might see some small price drops depending on how those new cards perform and how they are priced. but sadly i don't think it will make much difference. folks keep buying no matter how high the price is, so there is no reason for the companies to drop the price.

if you don't want to wait, then buy now. i don't see any real advantage for either case.

as to amd vs nvidia, i don't get involved in that stuff. i'm not impressed with any of the features people go on and on about as a reason to go with one vs another. i'm a bang for the buck guy and nvidia is def not the bang for the buck purchase right now. no box you can check for an extra few fps makes the price for a comparable card from nvidia worth it in my truly humble and worthless opinion.......

 

[mjbn1977]

as to amd vs nvidia, i don't get involved in that stuff. i'm not impressed with any of the features people go on and on about as a reason to go with one vs another. i'm a bang for the buck guy and nvidia is def not the bang for the buck purchase right now. no box you can check for an extra few fps makes the price for a comparable card from nvidia worth it in my truly humble and worthless opinion.......

I disagree a little bit with you. This really depends what someone is looking for. Nvidia is usually having the more robust product with better design, cooling, overall features, and by far better drivers. If someone is interested in really giving Raytracing a try or wants to use it in games, Nvidia is the obvious choice. If you only compare pure rasterization performance, AMD is usually the better priced product when you only compare that. But you missing out on Next Gen features which AMD only will deliver a generation or so later. With the current generation we getting better upscaling technology (DLSS 2.0), Frame generation (DLSS 3.0), much better Raytracing performance from Nvidia, and much lower power requirements. Yeah, you pay a few bucks more, but you also get the better product. If rasterization is all you care about and you like waiting for optimized drivers, and you don't care for ray tracing.....go with AMD. Then Nvidia is not for you......

 

[healthy Pro-teen]

I disagree a little bit with you. This really depends what someone is looking for. Nvidia is usually having the more robust product with better design, cooling, overall features, and by far better drivers. If someone is interested in really giving Raytracing a try or wants to use it in games, Nvidia is the obvious choice. If you only compare pure rasterization performance, AMD is usually the better priced product when you only compare that. But you missing out on Next Gen features which AMD only will deliver a generation or so later. With the current generation we getting better upscaling technology (DLSS 2.0), Frame generation (DLSS 3.0), much better Raytracing performance from Nvidia, and much lower power requirements. Yeah, you pay a few bucks more, but you also get the better product. If rasterization is all you care about and you like waiting for optimized drivers, and you don't care for ray tracing.....go with AMD. Then Nvidia is not for you......

Raytracing isn't worth it at this performance tier. Let's take the game that you mentioned earlier (Cyberpunk 2077) as an example. RT does introduces some effects that you may prefer over rasterization, but your FPS will drop by quite a bit. The 3060Ti gets around 40FPS at RT Ultra at 1440P while turning RT of gets you 60+FPS. Also the drivers for Radeon 6000 series are already optimized (as they should be as RX7000 is launching by now) And RX 6700XT consumes at max 15% more power, often that gap is smaller. That I calculated using a quick search. Not as huge of a difference as you make it seem. DLSS 2 is already on AMD cards by the name of FSR 2, and DLSS 3 isn't supported on many games, till it gets more support AMD should be out with FSR 3. Anyways here are the 3060Ti benchmarks I based my CP 2077 benchmark numbers on (

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jlVN1_L6bc
)

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Also keep in mind dlss 3 is so far not supported in nvidia 3000 series cards so you could very well find yourself using amd fsr 3 on an nvidia 3000 series card at some point. Between the cards, the 6700 or 6750 xt is probably where I’m thinking if it were me. The extra vram may benefit more down the road depending how long you keep the card and how games get developed in the future. Or you can wait and see what new cards come out and if there are price drops.

 

[Avro Arrow]

How's it goin' eh?

You're going to love me because I'm also in Ontario, Canada, I'm very well-versed in what we have here (I even used to work at Tigerdirect.ca) and I'm about to save your butt!

No card below the RTX 3070 is any good at ray tracing and anyone who wants a card for professional purposes isn't going to look that low on the product stack either. At this level, nVidia's CUDA advantage becomes moot as does its advantage in ray-tracing (which is the most over-hyped thing in tech today).

The disadvantages of nVidia do still exist at this level, however. Those being small amounts of VRAM and high prices.

Now, I have found something for you that you'll love and probably jump on immediately. What I found for you is almost as good as an RX 6750 XT for $500. What I found instead is an RX 6700 XT for $500. The performance difference between the two is so small (8%) that many reviewers don't bother even separating the two. The RX 6700 XT is on average 2% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti, has 50% more VRAM (12GB vs 8GB) and is at least $90 less expensive. Like I said, no reason at all to get the RTX 3060 Ti.

Here's the listing from Newegg.ca:
MSi RX 6700 XT 12GB Mech Edition - $500CAD (free shipping)

Grab it NOW, while you still can. You can send me a 2-4 of Canadian and some Timbits later.

You'll probably hear crazy stories of Radeon driver issues but here's the last 8 cards that I've owned:

HD 4870 (2 in CF), HD 7970 (2 in CF), R9 Fury (2 in CF), RX 5700 XT, RX 6800 XT

The only driver issue that I ever really encountered was overscan and that was easy enough to fix by toggling the GPU scaling ON/OFF feature (and that was before DDU existed). As long as you use DDU to clear out the old drivers before installing the new ones each time you update, you'll have no problems whatsoever.

People who complain about Radeon drivers are often not all that tech-savvy and don't have the first clue as to how to fix the odd little niggles that often have nothing to do with the driver package itself. Just think of the number of people who have no idea that motherboard chipset drivers are a thing. That blew my mind.

If they were even remotely as bad as people say, I wouldn't have bought eight Radeon cards in a row over the years, but I have. To this day I recommend them even though I have nothing to do with the company whatsoever. That should tell you how satisfied that I've been with them.

 

[klavs]

I want some future-proofing. I was thinking of even going the 3070 or 3070ti route but it seems expensive.

I would ignore the 3000 series because it uses too much power, and go for a 4070 Ti, or wait for the 4060/4070 cards. If you find it too expensive, I'd wait with upgrading and start saving for a 4000 series card. I am in the same boat as you, I find the graphic cards too expensive, but there are games I want to play that requires a powerful GPU. The reason I do not recommend the Ati cards, is because I have had very bad experiences with Ati (drivers and support).

If you, as you imply, want to use the system for many years, the money you save on using less power for your 4600/4700 series GPU will pay for some or all of the price difference. Plus your system will probably be more reliable, due to less heat.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

6700xt is a good card. You’d likely be hard pressed to see a difference between it and a 6750.

 

[5900x]

I would pick Intel Arc A770 over both the 3060ti and 6750xt. The card is the best in 1440p segment with price to perfomance in my opinion. It has more vram, a faster vram, it can also play at 4K with variable settings depending on the games and it does Raytracing better than both AMD and Nvidia, and has future proof AV1 tech. And with each driver update, Intel is really earning the buck giving so much at this price. I would assume it will keep getting better as more time passes until they release their next big GPU. This is the only card in the market that gives all this at that price. If you want Av1 on other cards, your only options for now are the price fixed 40 and 7900 series.

Just remember, you are being an early adopter of this tech, so don't go in expecting all guns blazing. It will take time to get better and better. But for what it offers, I'm very impressed at how it performs.

 

[klavs]

I would pick Intel Arc A770 over both the 3060ti and 6750xt.

I wouldn't, because of the power consumption, heat and first gen.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-arc-a770/38.html

He plans to keep the system for many years, so I would pick a 4070 Ti, which has much better performance per watt, and is a more mature product.

 

[5900x]

I wouldn't, because of the power consumption and first gen.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-arc-a770/38.html

He plans to keep the system for many years, so I would pick a 4070 Ti, which has much better performance per watt, and is a more mature product.

Article dated Oct 5th 2022.

Here's the latest from 3 days ago, after their newest driver update.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-lowers-arc-power-consumption-in-dual-display-setups

I wouldn't call 4070Ti future proof. It is scuffed tech with vram bit bus and you pay excessively more for something Intel gives dirt cheap.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

4070ti is more than double the pricing of what the op was asking about to begin with.

As far as Intel Arc, it’s definitely interesting but 1st generation as someone said. I’m a tech, so would I try it? Maybe. But I’m not sure how experienced the op is. But going Intel arc, you would essentially be an early adopter not always knowing what you’d come across.

It may be worth waiting as the next cards from amd should be the 7800 series then the 7700 series and so on. From nvidia the 4070 non ti and 4060ti might be interesting options but I’m not sure when those will release.

From the choices in the opening post I like the 6700xt/6750 personally. But Intel arc does certainly seem to be improving. The 3060ti seems the most linked with only 8gb vram and no dlss 3. The same for the 3070 if you include that card as well.

 

[klavs]

Article dated Oct 5th 2022.

Here's the latest from 3 days ago, after their newest driver update.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-lowers-arc-power-consumption-in-dual-display-setups

I wouldn't call 4070Ti future proof. It is scuffed tech with vram bit bus and you pay excessively more for something Intel gives dirt cheap.

The article is for dual displays. What I am referring to is idle mode with a single display and the heat the card generates during gaming. And of course first gen. Do you have a source that tests heat and power consumption for a single display with the new drivers? I was of the impression that it was almost impossible to fix in drivers.

My personal opinion: I am so fed up with first gen products, software and hardware. Because users keep buying faulty/bug filled products, and they expect bugs aplenty and make excuses for the companies, the companies keep producing products with mediocre QC/QA. Or the new trend, to release extra downloads for money, that should have been a patch. Or releasing it as version 2, 3, 4, .... 11, 12 when it should have been a patch. Sorry for being grumpy

 

[klavs]

4070ti is more than double the pricing of what the op was asking about to begin with.

It was my understanding that the OP is unhappy with the current prices, but he did not specify a minimum price. What I took note of, was that he wants to keep using what he buys for many years to come, which is why I recommend a mature product with the latest tech (and a great performance pr. watt) and raise objections with regards to the Ati/AMD GPU's (drivers+support) and the intel GPU's (1st gen).

My recommendation is for the OP to wait, and start saving for a new system - it has become too expensive, but I do not think the prices will be lowered any time soon. I may be wrong. I am unhappy with the current prices - I was used to only pay $200-$400 when upgrading my GPU, which is one of the reasons why I (like the OP) have an old GPU in my current system.

I've spend a great deal of time researching what to buy, and I landed on the 4070ti, even though I initially planned to only upgrade to a 1660 Super. The new games require a lot of GPU power, and I also plan not to upgrade any components in the new system any time soon, preferably never. Here is the new system I am going to buy:

Build Advice - What is your opinion on this DDR4/AM4 build?

What is your opinion on the following build? Chassis Lian Li Lancool 216 Lian Li LAN216-2X Dust Filter PSU Seasonic Prime PX 850 Platinum Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4GHz GPU ASUS...

forums.tomshardware.com

I may swap the CPU to a 3800X3D and the motherboard to a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme 2.0. I may wait even longer, and see if DDR5 is not a dead end (which it is in my personal opinion). In case you wonder why I buy a Samsung SSD, it's because they seem to have fixed the issues in their latest firmware. In case you wonder why I buy seemingly overpriced components (but quality in my opinion), it's because I plan to keep the system "as is" until it dies.

 

[healthy Pro-teen]

I would pick Intel Arc A770 over both the 3060ti and 6750xt. The card is the best in 1440p segment with price to perfomance in my opinion. It has more Vram, a faster vram, it can also play at 4K with variable settings depending on the games and it does Raytracing better than both AMD and Nvidia, and has future proof AV1 tech. And with each driver update, Intel is really earning the buck giving so much at this price. I would assume it will keep getting better as more time passes until they release their next big GPU. This is the only card in the market that gives all this at that price. If you want Av1 on other cards, your only options for now are the price fixed 40 and 7900 series.

Just remember, you are being an early adopter of this tech, so don't go in expecting all guns blazing. It will take time to get better and better. But for what it offers, I'm very impressed at how it performs.

6650XT is better value than the A770, faster and cheaper in many cases. RT performance doesn't matter much in this tier. I would probably wait for New Midrange Intel, AMD and Nvidia launches and see If there is any Intel 'Finewine'

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If you are looking at the 6650xt then consider the 6600xt. Or even the older 5700xt cards if you are willing to look at used. For example

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2661640414...1QoO_yZSxW&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

For 165 a used mining card that just about equals the 6650xt. I picked up a very similar card to this, almost identical for $148 including tax a few weeks ago. Yes my card was a bit more crusty than the one they show but is functional. But I could also see by pictures what I was getting as well.

With eBay you do get buyer protection so if the item wasn’t working you could file a claim to get a refund but my card is humming along fine thus far. Might repaste it at some point but hate to mess with a working card also. Keep in mind I’m in the USA though so my prices probably look a bit different than yours.

 

[klavs]

People who complain about Radeon drivers are often not all that tech-savvy and don't have the first clue as to how to fix the odd little niggles that often have nothing to do with the driver package itself. Just think of the number of people who have no idea that motherboard chipset drivers are a thing. That blew my mind.

I guess you don't use or develop OpenGL applications. Recently I read that Ati (now AMD) released drivers that fixed the OpenGL issues, but they have released statements like that for the last 20 years.

 

[KyaraM]

I guess you don't use or develop OpenGL applications. Recently I read that Ati (now AMD) released drivers that fixed the OpenGL issues, but they have released statements like that for the last 20 years.

The statement you quoted is also auch a weird thing to say. "They lack the expertise to deal with issues, but that doesn't mean the drivers aren't fine!"
Well. If you need to have technically expertise to make them work because weird issues are popping up in any amount of frequency... then they kinda aren't fine. It literally blames the customer for expecting things to simply work, without jumping through hoops to make it work.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Not sure why my last answer was voted down. But that’s fine. Just throwing out an option. I did get a card that was about half the cost of a 3060 for about half the money. I call that a win.

As far as drivers not sure about open gl but amds drivers don’t give me much trouble with most of the games I play on it. But again, not as much experience on open gl.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Not sure why my last answer was voted down. But that’s fine. Just throwing out an option. I did get a card that was about half the cost of a 3060 for about half the money. I call that a win.

As far as drivers not sure about open gl but amds drivers don’t give me much trouble with most of the games I play on it. But again, not as much experience on open gl.

If there was a green K beside the notification, it was this Klavs person. Whoever it is seems to like down-voting other answers in these threads. Perhaps they think that they'll get best answer that way. That's the 100% wrong attitude to have though. I don't care if I get best answers, I mean, it's nice, but I come here to try to help people and if someone else has an objectively better answer than me, I'll upvote them because I care about the OP taking the best course of action.


Clearly, this "Klavs" person doesn't share that sentiment as you, me and 5900X got down-voted by them. I upvoted both your answers to make them zero again.

Perhaps you could down-vote Klavs' answers in kind. It's only fair, eh?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Clearly, this "Klavs" person doesn't share that sentiment as you, me and 5900X got down-voted by them. I upvoted both your answers to make them zero again.

Perhaps you could down-vote Klavs' answers in kind. It's only fair, eh?

There is no reason to gang up upon eachother using the voting system, especially when the blame is being directed at the wrong person. You may not agree with someone down voting your answer but that IS how the site works and a legitimate form of reply to a question. Now that said if you're going to downvote someone you should do the right thing and reply to the post with why. And the hope is (in your case) others will disagree and upvote your post to negate that downvvote.

 

[Avro Arrow]

There is no reason to gang up upon eachother using the voting system, especially when the blame is being directed at the wrong person. You may not agree with someone down voting your answer but that IS how the site works and a legitimate form of reply to a question. Now that said if you're going to downvote someone you should do the right thing and reply to the post with why. And the hope is (in your case) others will disagree and upvote your post to negate that downvvote.

RL, you've always been fair and I agree that pointing fingers at the wrong person is a terrible thing to do, but my notification history says that Klavs voted me down. When I hover over the "K" next to the downvote, it's a link to Klavs' profile.

So there's definitely something odd going on.

 

[Rogue Leader]

RL, you've always been fair and I agree that pointing fingers at the wrong person is a terrible thing to do, but my notification history says that Klavs voted me down. When I hover over the "K" next to the downvote, it's a link to Klavs' profile.

So there's definitely something odd going on.

He did downvote 1 of your posts, but the other person downvoted multiple.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I did admittedly after the fact downvote a few times but then removed all but 1 I think.