Best card around $200 for 1080 60 fps ultra gaming?

[bball1523]

Best card around $200 for 1080 60 fps ultra gaming?

I have an i7 6700k, 16 gb ram, 250gb ssd custom PC I'm building soon. I want to play newest games at 1080p ultra settings at 60 fps or at least 40-60 fps. I could maybe live with 30s fps for more demanding games. I plan to play Skyrim, Witcher 3, NBA 2k16, CS:GO and maybe others like battlefield 4.

I did buy an MSI r9 380 4gb videocard for around $188 (also have a $20 rebate for that). Is that better than getting a 960 4gb card?

 

[3DVagabond]

Best card around $200 for 1080 60 fps ultra gaming?

I have an i7 6700k, 16 gb ram, 250gb ssd custom PC I'm building soon. I want to play newest games at 1080p ultra settings at 60 fps or at least 40-60 fps. I could maybe live with 30s fps for more demanding games. I plan to play Skyrim, Witcher 3, NBA 2k16, CS:GO and maybe others like battlefield 4.

I did buy an MSI r9 380 4gb videocard for around $188 (also have a $20 rebate for that). Is that better than getting a 960 4gb card?

Best to wait until you are actually ready. Soon we'll have the 1060 which might be ~$200 and the 470 which will be under $200.

 

[CFP]

Well for 200 I'd say the RX480. It trumps both the 960/380. If you can afford to spend a little more, supposedly the GTX1060's are coming out at 249 which offer at the very least comparable performance to the RX480, and might even be a little better if they have OC headroom.

 

[A_Skywalker]

Since most games will be dx 12 I would suggest rx 480. GTX 1060 may be faster in dx 11 but amd still has big advantage in dx 12.

 

[R0H1T]

Best to wait until you are actually ready. Soon we'll have the 1060 which might be ~$200 and the 470 which will be under $200.

The 1060 will be at least 249$ & above when it launches, since the price reveal yesterday confirmed it, so that leaves 480 as the best choice for anyone who's looking for a 1080p atm; though I'll suggest aftermarket alternatives even for the 480.

 

[96Firebird]

Wait for the 1060 and see where the dust settles.

 

[LTC8K6]

Since most games will be dx 12 I would suggest rx 480. GTX 1060 may be faster in dx 11 but amd still has big advantage in dx 12.

I don't think there's enough data to claim a big advantage for either mfgs cards.

The 1070 and 1080 seem to do fine in the DX12 benchmarks in the RX480 reviews.

Why would the 1060 fall behind?

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Best to wait until you are actually ready. Soon we'll have the 1060 which might be ~$200 and the 470 which will be under $200.

The 1060 is confirmed at $250, probably $280 for custom boards so quite a bit above OPs budget.

The 480 will beat the 380, and the 380X (380 perf is 63% of the 480) and might cost $230 for custom boards soon (edit: for 4GB. Custom 8GB 480 is probably $250+). Is $50 more worth it to you..?

The question is the 470. Rumored at $150 (so $180 for custom with actually quite cooler?), but what will the performance be? 25-30% below the 480 would put it about at the 380X/gtx 780 level, so would fulfill OP's requirements, for less money.

 

[bball1523]

Thanks for the suggestions. I should've mentioned this in my post above. I'm looking for something maybe temporary until I may I get the 1070 a few months later.

Regarding 480 it's hard to find one as it seems sold out everywhere. I want something by tomorrow because I'm building my PC then.

I can go get a gtx 960 4gb tomorrow or keep the r9 380 4gb. What do you guys think? Any other recommendations?

 

[cytg111]

Thanks for the suggestions. I should've mentioned this in my post above. I'm looking for something maybe temporary until I may I get the 1070 a few months later.

Regarding 480 it's hard to find one as it seems sold out everywhere. I want something by tomorrow because I'm building my PC then.

I can go get a gtx 960 4gb tomorrow or keep the r9 380 4gb. What do you guys think? Any other recommendations?

Keep'n wait. 100p.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I would have said to just keep your old card from your old PC. I would return the 380 if you have an old card laying around (anything really would do), and wait either on the 1070 or the 480. The benefit of the 480 is that you can probably resell it in 1-2 months and not lose much money. The 380 is completely overpriced at $170 and you should return it for a full refund. They will be lucky to resell for $130 in a month or two.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Thanks for the suggestions. I should've mentioned this in my post above. I'm looking for something maybe temporary until I may I get the 1070 a few months later.

Regarding 480 it's hard to find one as it seems sold out everywhere. I want something by tomorrow because I'm building my PC then.

I can go get a gtx 960 4gb tomorrow or keep the r9 380 4gb. What do you guys think? Any other recommendations?

Even the RX 480 isn't going to give you 60 fps with Ultra settings in Witcher 3 at 1080p.


The GTX 960 and R9 380 would probably need some overclocking to get you around 60 fps at 1080p ultra in Battlefield 4.

 

[Headfoot]

Return the 380, this was a very bad time to buy that card. I'd return it and get a RX 480 for $200. Definitely do not get a 960 4GB. Both the 380 and 960 are completely obsolete now that the RX 480 is out.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Return the 380, this was a very bad time to buy that card. I'd return it and get a RX 480 for $200.

Where though? Unless OP has a Microcenter nearby there is no hope of a $200 480 anytime soon.

OP, I say keep the 380. Use it until you get the 1070, and mine Ethereum on it the rest of its life starting today to try and get back most of its value.

 

[RussianSensation]

Return the 380, this was a very bad time to buy that card. I'd return it and get a RX 480 for $200. Definitely do not get a 960 4GB. Both the 380 and 960 are completely obsolete now that the RX 480 is out.

The problem is it's not possible to actually buy an RX 480. There are pre-orders in place but the backlog/shortages seem outrageous.

XFX RX 480 = availability July 26
Asus RX 480 = July 29
MSI RX 480 = July 30

The best bet will be to buy AIB RX 480 or GTX1060 the instant it comes out. It seems this generation both NV and AMD decided to give us one of the worst paper launches in history. AMD shouldn't even have excuses since they knew they are targeting a market multiples of times larger than NV did with GP104 chips. Based on the various issues both cards suffered from, it seems both firms rushed their launches.

I also don't think that GTX1070 will drop much more below $399.99. If the end goal is a GTX1070, it doesn't really make sense to buy an RX 480/GTX1060 as a stop-gap, mores o since it's likely AIB RX 480/1060 cards could sell for $269.99-289.99, greatly eroding their valued against a used GTX980Ti or even a $400 GTX1070.

OP, I say keep the 380. Use it until you get the 1070, and mine Ethereum on it the rest of its life starting today to try and get back most of its value.

I am all for mining to subsidize the GPU upgrade cost. But in that case, it would be even better to return the R9 380, even get an R9 390 and sell the TW:W game coupon for $30. It would make the R9 390 a $230 card. R9 390 is 54% faster than the R9 380 is at 1080p. To me that means keeping a nearly $190 R9 380 sounds like a bad deal. Another option is to pre-order an RX 480 from Newegg and hope it ships before the return window on the R9 380 closes.

 

[nitromullet]

I did buy an MSI r9 380 4gb videocard for around $188 (also have a $20 rebate for that). Is that better than getting a 960 4gb card?

I should've mentioned this in my post above. I'm looking for something maybe temporary until I may I get the 1070 a few months later.

I can go get a gtx 960 4gb tomorrow or keep the r9 380 4gb. What do you guys think? Any other recommendations?

If your ultimate goal is to get a GTX 1070 and you simply have to have a lower end card in the meantime, I would suggest picking up an EVGA GTX 960 from an EVGA authorized retailer and stepping up to a GTX 1070. If you aren't familiar with EVGA's step-up program see: http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

Honestly though, it sounds like you have the money for a GTX 1070 now, why not just get the card you want instead of messing around with stop gap solutions?

 

[Piroko]

I can go get a gtx 960 4gb tomorrow or keep the r9 380 4gb. What do you guys think? Any other recommendations?

The 960 is worse than a 380, no point in doing that. The 380 also does reasonably well in 1080p, certainly not maxed settings, but well enough to carry you over to a 1070.
188$ with a 20$ rebate is a fair price for a 380 I'd say, a 480 would be a decent bump in performance but also a comparable bump in price. Anything else interesting will take a couple of weeks at least to be available.

One alternative I can think of is to grab one of the 980 Tis that are popping up in rather good sales here and there.

 

[MrTeal]

If you've sent off the 380 rebate, you won't be able to return it. At that price a 4GB 480 is a much better card, but good luck finding one. If you're planning on buying a 1070 some time in the next few months, just play on the 380 for now and the sell it (or keep it as a spare) once you buy your 1070.

 

[Zstream]

Just went to Microcenter and purchased mine. However, I got the 8GB version along with the extended warranty.

 

[Headfoot]

Where though? Unless OP has a Microcenter nearby there is no hope of a $200 480 anytime soon.

OP, I say keep the 380. Use it until you get the 1070, and mine Ethereum on it the rest of its life starting today to try and get back most of its value.

Put in a preorder at any etailer that supports it and use the decent iGPU on the 6700k until it shows up. Maybe it'll take a couple of weeks. Basic patience required.

Even better, return the 380 and wait a couple of weeks for AIB 480s to come out and preorder/instabuy one. Any way you slice it the 380 at right now was just an all around bad purchase when the budget is $200.

 

[SPBHM]

if you are set on $200 go 480 4GB looks great,

if you can buy the 8GB model I would wait for the 1060,

 

[littleg]

It seems this generation both NV and AMD decided to give us one of the worst paper launches in history. AMD shouldn't even have excuses since they knew they are targeting a market multiples of times larger than NV did with GP104 chips. Based on the various issues both cards suffered from, it seems both firms rushed their launches.

That's a bit harsh. We know first hand from retailers that they were stocked to the rafters with 480s but sales have been incredibly good.

 

[LTC8K6]

I don't think there's enough data to claim a big advantage for either mfgs cards.

The 1070 and 1080 seem to do fine in the DX12 benchmarks in the RX480 reviews.

Why would the 1060 fall behind?

ROTR has apparently released a patch with Async Compute for GCN1.1 and Pascal cards?

 

[guachi]

I was about to say you could get a 8gb rx480 right now at Dell.com for $249. But it's now sold out.

If you had to buy now I'd say get a 480 as soon as it comes in somewhere. Or a 1060 if that happens to be in stock.

My guess is that perf/$ will be a bit higher for the 480 and will be just fine for 60Hz 1080 gaming in that you can hit 60+ with a 480 as easily as you can with a 1060 and it'll be cheaper.

 

[bball1523]

If it was between the 960 4gb and 380 4gb, which one is better? I saw game benchmarks and the 380 got slightly more fps on most games. The 380 was getting higher temps and using more power though.

Would having higher temps such as in the 70s C damage the videocard? What about high power draw, would that hurt the card and system?