Question Want a new GPU, trying to learn specs and how to choose

[tinpanalley]

Of course, I'd love any recommendations, but I have a feeling my needs won't be the same as for most people buying a gaming GPU. Believe it or not, I bought a Radeon R9 280 in 2015 when it was ALREADY more than a year old, it happened to be on sale, and I'm STILL using it. It's fine, but there are times when it's limitations are evident. I recently upgraded my system entirely. I'm thinking a new GPU could play better with my new system I built about a year ago.

System specs:
- MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX Motherboard
- AMD RYZEN 5 3600 6-Core 3.6 GHz
- CORSAIR RMx Series RM650x 2018 CP-9020178-NA 650W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD PSU
- G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600)

Needs:
Gaming
- There are a lot of older sports games which we don't even need to talk about because they all run fine even on the current card. I'm talking games from 5 years ago to up to 15 years ago.
- Current offline adventure type shooters (Tomb Raider, etc)
- And then most of the gaming is the current sports games (EA games, PES, NBA2K)
I currently play all these games on high settings and they play fine. Sure, fps is hardly ever perfectly 60fps or higher. Sometimes, but rarely. So to end up with something less than that or equal would be silly.
Video
I do very simple non-effects based video editing for production work but even on the R9 280, when I need it for rendering, I'm fine. So, I'm guessing any card today would be just as good.
Output
I need to have HDMI output but no display I have is more than Full HD (1080p) so I don't need a card that can output to a 2K display or anything like that. As far as future proofing, I'm unlikely to ever do that either or need this GPU to give me that option. But in most cases it's going to be the media determining output anyway.

Budget:
Let's say I want to stick to 300-350 (Canadian). Is that doable considering my needs are relatively simple?

Any help with sites to read up on, good sites for comparing GPUs, reviews etc would be awesome.
Thanks!

 

[Leeea]

It is a bad time to buy.

Very high demand pushing prices up. Very low supply making them hard to obtain.

Then next gen ( Nvidia's 3000 series and AMDs 6000 series) both are a massive leap forward from the previous. So much so I would say buying previous gen at this point is foolishness. Even if your not interested in the high end, both will be coming out with midrange that are expected to be superior and cheaper to last gens high end.

The current 3000 series from Nvidia is iffy with only 10 GB of ram. That would be ok on midrange, but that is a high end card. Even Nvidia's last gen had more ram then that.

The projected 6000 series from AMD is iffy also, with no real official ray tracing benchmarks. Ray tracing is going to matter this gen, and that is a big unknown with AMDs 6000 series.


People like to complain about drivers, but I have had issues with drivers on both brands. Any time you buy the bleeding edge your going to bleed. Problem is this time around, it appears the bleeding edge is a big step forward.


In other words, I suggest you wait 3 months. See what the reviews have to say. See what the bleeding edge has to say. Give both manufacturers time to work out the bugs.

 

[Mopetar]

Yeah, I'd definitely wait until both AMD and NVidia have their new $300 cards available.

Though there is a good possibility of big Black Friday deals as both will want to clear existing inventory before they launch their new cards in those market segments.

 

[tinpanalley]

Hmm.. ok, so the idea is that if I can wait a few months there will be good regular prices on mid-range cards that will be great for the leap in specs and the same price or cheaper as last gen's high end. But I guess what I need to know is whether that will still be roughly 350 Canadian which is what I can get a 1660 Super for right now? Because it's all well and good if the mid-range that's coming will be cheaper than the last gen high end but if that's still 400-500, I can't afford them no matter how much of a deal they are.

 

[Leeea]

In all probability, yes, if you wait a few months the same money will buy you a lot more card.

That 1660S is a big upgrade on your RX290. But it is 2 generations behind the curve. AMD is still producing RX 5000 series cards. Odds are the 5000 series will become AMDs new low end card. I would speculate the result of this will be AMDs 5000 series will be selling for 1/2 the price they are selling now. This will also drive Nvidia's low end prices down also.

In other words, I am of the opinion you would be able to pick up a card with 30% more performance to the 1660S for less money two months from now.


personal note:
I am considering buying 6800xt on launch day, which makes me a bit of a hypocrite.

 

[Stuka87]

With a budget of 300-350 CA, you definitely want to wait a few months.

 

[tinpanalley]

Ok, so what are the cards that will change things in two months that I can potentially buy later on so that I can research those, read about them, etc? Just wanna see some kind of real world information on them and how they'll differ from the 1660 Super.

 

[Leeea]

Speculation mode on!:

Well, your 1660S is likely to get a hefty price cut.

The 5600 XT is roughly equivalent to the 1660S you are looking at:

GPU 2019 Benchmarks - Compare Products on AnandTech

GPU 2019 benchmarks: Compare two products side-by-side or see a cascading list of product ratings along with our annotations.

www.anandtech.com

The 5600 XT, 5700 (+20% performance), 5700 XT (+28% performance) are likely to see hefty price cuts.
On the Nvidia side the 1660S, the 1660 Ti ( +2% performance) are likely to see hefty price cuts.

The RTX 2000 series is out of manufacture. Unlike the AMD RX 5000 series, these cost Nvidia a lot to produce. These will not see a price cut, but will simply disappear from the market.

The replacement for the 1660S will likely drop, at the price point the 1660S is at now. No real information is available about this. This will likely result in Nvidia flushing the current 1660S out of inventory at hefty discounts.

AMD indicates it will have midrange RDNA-2 cards coming out, likely with a small reticule size allowing cheap manufacture. These will likely become the midrange, with AMD 5000 series becoming the low end. I would speculate the 5700 XT would go to 200ish USD, the 5700 to $180 USD, and the 5600 to $140 USD.


counter point:
The AMD RX 5000 series has seen an recent uptick in demand from the mining crowd. Best hash rate per watt to be had in certain cryptocurrencies. If the miners keep buying all of them AMD will not drop the price.

 

[Guru]

In 3 months time when AMD and Nvidia release all their new mid range cards the used market is going to see big price drops and I expect the new mid range cards to be very good value as well, considering they need to beat the 2060 and RX 5700 and 5700xt in value!

 

[VirtualLarry]

I would speculate the 5700 XT would go to 200ish USD, the 5700 to $180 USD, and the 5600 to $140 USD.

Where would the RX 5500(XT) end up then? $100 for 4GB, and $120 for the 8GB? Seems unlikely.

I think AMD will simply re-brand existing Navi10 GPUs to something in the 6000-series family (re-brand).

 

[KompuKare]

The 5700 speculative prices ignore one thing: they're made in the same TSMC 7nm node as Zen3, RDNA2 etc. So each Navi 10 die made will cut into the same limited wafer capacity.
Since RDNA2 is more efficient, once the lower ones launch it doesn't make sense to produce RDNA1 anymore.
Same with Zen 2 versus Zen3. I don't really expect any inventory clearing out bargains like there was with Ryzen 2000 once Zen 2 launched.

 

[DownTheSky]

Nvidia 3050Ti will be launched sometime in January or Febuary. It should be cheap enough and a very good card for the money.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 Ti rumored to feature GA106 GPU - VideoCardz.com

A fresh rumor from Kopite7kimi about GA106-based GeForce RTX 30 graphics cards. NVIDIA GA106 GPU coming to RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 Ti? The Twitter user that brought us numerous confirmed leaks in the past has now provided an update on GA106-based models. According to his information, both RTX 3060...

videocardz.com

 

[Leeea]

The 5700 speculative prices ignore one thing: they're made in the same TSMC 7nm node as Zen3, RDNA2 etc. So each Navi 10 die made will cut into the same limited wafer capacity.
Since RDNA2 is more efficient, once the lower ones launch it doesn't make sense to produce RDNA1 anymore.
Same with Zen 2 versus Zen3. I don't really expect any inventory clearing out bargains like there was with Ryzen 2000 once Zen 2 launched.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-rx-5700-not-dead-yet
October 02, 2020

AMD: 'We are continuing to produce RX 5700 series graphics cards.'

It appears they are still making the things. As you rightly point out, AMD has better more profitable products to make a 7nm, any of the Ryzen 5000 series, the new RDNA2 cards also.

speculation on!:
TSMC has N7, N7P, and N7+ production lines for 7 nm. TSMCs first gen 7nm lines had AMD as the launch customer. AMD said the Ryzen 3000 series was 7nm+, but then walked that back to 7nm improved. The original 7nm lines appear to not be used for Ryzen 3000, 5000, or RDNA2.

That leaves one product, the RX 5000 series the original 7nm lines. With the capitol costs paid for, the bugs worked out, and production running, it is just printing money for AMD and TSMC. Why would they shut them down?