Upgrading from AMD 7950

[geokilla]

I'm considering upgrading from my AMD 7950 to a newer GPU. With prices starting to drop down to pre-crypto mining, I'm wondering which GPU would be the best for me and whether the performance difference will be significant to warrant the extra money. I game at 1080P and play mainly CS:GO and SC2, but like everyone else, I have a Steam library of games to get through. Obviously the NVIDIA GTX 970 is very enticing since I can find it on Kijiji for $200.

NVIDIA GTX 970
NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB
NVIDIA GTX 1060
AMD RX 580

 

[Mopetar]

I’d honestly wait. The prices are still too high IMO and the 970 isn’t enough of an upgrade at that price either. 1060 3GB is probably going to hit memory limits much sooner and I don’t think it’ll last as long.

The 1060 (6GB) ~= 580 which has about 33% more cores at around 50% higher clocks which should give you an idea of what kind of performance improvement to expect from either. I think it would be better to wait for 1160 and get one at launch when availability is good and you can get one at MSRP. Even if you don’t like it, it will drop prices for the older NV cards.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I was in your predicament 2 years ago when I upgraded to a used 980ti for $330 shipped, which provided a solid 60% uplift, which was very noticeable on games at the time.

An aftermarket 980Ti sits somewhere between a 1070 and a 1070Ti in terms of performance.

What are the clocks on your 7950? Most 7950's hit 1100-1200 on the core no problem and you'll get a bit more juice out a that oldie. To give you some context, a 7950 is roughly equivalent to a 1050/1050Ti if overclocked.

My advice, wait till Nvidia announce their new line of cards, which looks to be within the next few months. With any luck we'll start to see a real glut of 10 series cards hit the used market and you should be able to pick up a 1070 or better for the price of the cards listed.

 

[Shmee]

I agree you could wait a bit longer. If you need it now though, I would consider only your last 2 options, the 580 or the 1060 6 GB. I would not go with a less than 4GB card at this point. Keep in mind the 970 is effectively able to use 3.5GB.

 

[NomanA]

If you are in US, I recommend Rx570 8GB or Rx580 8GB, which you can find for around $260-270. These are substantial improvements over 7950. In some cases, my Rx 470 8GB performs at the same level as 7950 crossfire, with much less heat and noise.

It even performs at decent level for 4K resolutions (Battlefront 2, Destiny 2, Forza 7 etc), and since it's an HDMI 2.0 card, I can have HDR enabled at 4K. The image improvements from HDR alone, more than cover the graphic settings that I have to turn down at 4K resolution. At lower resolutions (1080p, 1440p) its performance is even better of course.