Question Would you buy a new GTX1050ti or used GTX1060? (pc bios limits to Pascal.)

[Coyle]

It's for a child so performance isn't the issue; durability is key. The three new 1050ti are MSI/Gaming & Gigabyte; reviews aren't inspiring. It's going into an older XPS8300 that's bios limits it to Pascal. Do you think a used GTX1060 is a better choice--thinking if they've lasted this long might continue. But no warranty so is gamble. If so, are there any particular models/manufacturers that are known for being long lasting?

 

[blckgrffn]

It's for a child so performance isn't the issue; durability is key. The three new 1050ti are MSI/Gaming & Gigabyte; reviews aren't inspiring. It's going into an older XPS8300 that's bios limits it to Pascal. Do you think a used GTX1060 is a better choice--thinking if they've lasted this long might continue. But no warranty so is gamble. If so, are there any particular models/manufacturers that are known for being long lasting?

Given that with some shopping you can get a used GTX 1060 for ~$80-$100 I would go that route all the way. If/when it dies (it should work when you get it at the very least) hopefully the new waves of cards have FINALLY come and pushed the prices down further. Maybe a year from now we'll be able to get those for $50 - $70 used and if needed you could put one on the shelf

I got turned down on a eBay offer for an AMD 270 last night of $45 shipped, which is just insane imo. Those cards are so "slow" and power hungry they should be very low cost, but the lack of supply of anything under the RX 470 seems to keep prices of everything - even of lowly GTX and older GCN AMD cards pegged at $50+.

Cannot wait for this generation of video cards to finally "drop" and disrupt the used GPU market.

FWIW, for me video cards seem to either work or be bad out of the box. Fans might die but lots of these dual card setups can probably work with one, and replacements are usually pretty easy to find and economical when direct shipped from China.

 

[Coyle]

Will be interesting to see if it does disrupt the used market; eBay's a strange beast, people buy broken electronics, pay as much for used as could get new, etc. Perhaps it the auction bidding effect. I remember once I went to a police auction of unclaimed stolen bikes thinking I'd pick one up cheap; they had a professional auctioneer--the type that talk super fast hyping it up--and people went into this irrational bidding frenzy; could've bought what they were bidding at any bike shop for less. Oh well. The 3gb 1060 are going for around $100; the Gigabyte model looks very high quality; copper heatpipes, sturdy backplating; any idea if the 1060 puts out more heat than a 1050ti, I see the 1060 is 120w to 1050ti 75, but the 1060 has direct contact heatsink so cools better than the 1050ti which only has fans blowing on the fins?

 

[blckgrffn]

Will be interesting to see if it does disrupt the used market; eBay's a strange beast, people buy broken electronics, pay as much for used as could get new, etc. Perhaps it the auction bidding effect. I remember once I went to a police auction of unclaimed stolen bikes thinking I'd pick one up cheap; they had a professional auctioneer--the type that talk super fast hyping it up--and people went into this irrational bidding frenzy; could've bought what they were bidding at any bike shop for less. Oh well. The 3gb 1060 are going for around $100; the Gigabyte model looks very high quality; copper heatpipes, sturdy backplating; any idea if the 1060 puts out more heat than a 1050ti, I see the 1060 is 120w to 1050ti 75, but the 1060 has direct contact heatsink so cools better than the 1050ti which only has fans blowing on the fins?

eBay is weird but it has gotten crazy. Historically, my best deals have come on sniping auctions but I mainly do Buy It Now because I don't have the patience for multi-day auctions.

Well, heat is a function of power usage as you pointed out - and that's going to fluctuate a lot based on if the CPU is the bottle neck or if the GPU is running full tilt, which is going to change based on games and settings. At peak usage the 1060 will generate up to 50 more watts of heat, sure.

That said, both of these are considered really low power, efficient cards for their time so basic case cooling should ensure they function without issues, IMO.

 

[Coyle]

eBay is weird but it has gotten crazy. Historically, my best deals have come on sniping auctions but I mainly do Buy It Now because I don't have the patience for multi-day auctions.

Well, heat is a function of power usage as you pointed out - and that's going to fluctuate a lot based on if the CPU is the bottle neck or if the GPU is running full tilt, which is going to change based on games and settings. At peak usage the 1060 will generate up to 50 more watts of heat, sure.

That said, both of these are considered really low power, efficient cards for their time so basic case cooling should ensure they function without issues, IMO.

 

[Coyle]

So, do the heatpipes in the 1060 just serve to keep the GPU cooler but that heat still ends up in the case as much as a 1050ti with just fans blowing on the fins?
Wouldn't be at peak usage; could use GTA5 1080p Ultra settings for example max output. 92mm intake fan in front grill of case & rear chassis fan.

 

[blckgrffn]

So, do the heatpipes in the 1060 just serve to keep the GPU cooler but that heat still ends up in the case as much as a 1050ti with just fans blowing on the fins?
Wouldn't be at peak usage; could use GTA5 1080p Ultra settings for example max output. 92mm intake fan in front grill of case & rear chassis fan.

Exactly. The only time this is really different is for blower style cards that try to exhaust the hot air out the back. Open air coolers just push it away from the card and into the case.

The temp of the GPU is not directly correlated to how much airflow you need to keep your case cool.

Again, though, these are pretty tame cards you are looking at so I would feel comfortable with any reasonable case setup so long as you aren't locking it in a nonventilated cubby.

You know who you are

 

[Coyle]

Hmm, the blower style card sounds good; figure there's some disadvantage to them compared to regular ones since they're not as popular?

 

[fralexandr]

Hmm, the blower style card sounds good; figure there's some disadvantage to them compared to regular ones since they're not as popular?

They're louder and run hotter. They're useful for prebuilts with limited cooling or multigpu setups.

 

[Coyle]

Would mine be considered a prebuilt with limited cooling? It does have the little front intake grill that takes an intake fan as the XPS Studio is kinda considered a bit higher performance?

 

[VirtualLarry]

so long as you aren't locking it in a nonventilated cubby.

You know who you are

Heh.

 

[blckgrffn]

Would mine be considered a prebuilt with limited cooling? It does have the little front intake grill that takes an intake fan as the XPS Studio is kinda considered a bit higher performance?

I think that will be fine - is there an exhaust fan as well? There are some little heat death boxes out there, that doesn't look like one.

It looks like you could even add another fan if you wanted, but did this come with a GPU out of the gate?

Gaming is not nearly so taxing as mining or doing science, so it is relatively rare for your GPU to really get that hot. I am selling a PC this morning that has a GTX 950, a 95W AMD CPU and has "only" an Arctic Cooling 92 mm fan and the 120 fan in the PSU for exhaust. I ran Fortnite on it for several hours and the fans didn't really kick up to high on the GPU and all the internal temps read out OK to me.

I left a 120 mm fan that came with the case as an intake unplugged but present. If the new guy gets crazy, he can enjoy more airflow and the noise

 

[In2Photos]

We have an XPS 8700 that I installed a GTX 1660 in for my son. In runs perfectly fine. No thermal issues at all. The case is very similar to the 8300. I also am repurposing an 8300 for my daughter. Since the 8300 is BIOS limited I plan to put my GTX 1060 6GB in the 8300 for her and pick up a 1660 variant for me. The 8300 I have does not have the front fan, but I may add one.

 

[Coyle]

We have an XPS 8700 that I installed a GTX 1660 in for my son. In runs perfectly fine. No thermal issues at all. The case is very similar to the 8300. I also am repurposing an 8300 for my daughter. Since the 8300 is BIOS limited I plan to put my GTX 1060 6GB in the 8300 for her and pick up a 1660 variant for me. The 8300 I have does not have the front fan, but I may add one.

Yes the case is very similar so that's good news; and yeah the 8300 didn't come with front fan but it is set up to take a 92mm fan (what length 1060 6gb card are you going to install in the 8300?)

 

[Coyle]

I think that will be fine - is there an exhaust fan as well? There are some little heat death boxes out there, that doesn't look like one.

It looks like you could even add another fan if you wanted, but did this come with a GPU out of the gate?

Gaming is not nearly so taxing as mining or doing science, so it is relatively rare for your GPU to really get that hot. I am selling a PC this morning that has a GTX 950, a 95W AMD CPU and has "only" an Arctic Cooling 92 mm fan and the 120 fan in the PSU for exhaust. I ran Fortnite on it for several hours and the fans didn't really kick up to high on the GPU and all the internal temps read out OK to me.

I left a 120 mm fan that came with the case as an intake unplugged but present. If the new guy gets crazy, he can enjoy more airflow and the noise

Yes, it came with a HD6450--still in there.

 

[In2Photos]

Yes the case is very similar so that's good news; and yeah the 8300 didn't come with front fan but it is set up to take a 92mm fan (what length 1060 6gb card are you going to install in the 8300?)

I have a Zotac. It's 8.31 inches long. I believe it will fit just fine.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X | ZOTAC

<p>The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card is loaded with innovative new gaming technologies, making it the perfect choice for the latest high-definition games. Powered by NVIDIA Pascal™—the most advanced GPU architecture ever created— the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 delivers brilliant performance...

www.zotac.com

 

[blckgrffn]

Yes, it came with a HD6450--still in there.

Wow, what an upgrade!

 

[Coyle]

I have a Zotac. It's 8.31 inches long. I believe it will fit just fine.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X | ZOTAC

<p>The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card is loaded with innovative new gaming technologies, making it the perfect choice for the latest high-definition games. Powered by NVIDIA Pascal™—the most advanced GPU architecture ever created— the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 delivers brilliant performance...

www.zotac.com

That'd perfect size for a dual fan 1060. Is it loud, do the fans shut off when idle?

 

[VirtualLarry]

do the fans shut off when idle?

I don't think that most video cards had that technology back in the GTX 1060 days. That mostly was introduced with the RX 470/480 cards, IIRC. I could be wrong, someone please correct me if they owned a GTX 1060 card with "fan stop at idle" technology.

 

[In2Photos]

That'd perfect size for a dual fan 1060. Is it loud, do the fans shut off when idle?

My computer is not quiet. It's a build from 2009. I use this PC for photo editing, work, gaming, and it also folds most of the time. So it's pretty much always at full usage. Plus it is overclocked. The fans run around 50% when it's 90%+ utilization and temps are 65-72C depending on ambient. I don't notice the fans on the GPU over my other fans in the PC. It spins down to 33% when idle, but you could adjust the fan curve with MSI Afterburner to help keep any noise down. If I wasn't folding I would probably adjust the curve.

In my son's 8700 the fan noise on his 1660 is noticeable, not loud, but we fold on that computer as well. If he were just gaming I don't think it would be as noticeable.

EDIT: Just checked with afterburner and the fans will not go below 33% no matter what.

 

[blckgrffn]

I don't think that most video cards had that technology back in the GTX 1060 days. That mostly was introduced with the RX 470/480 cards, IIRC. I could be wrong, someone please correct me if they owned a GTX 1060 card with "fan stop at idle" technology.

Heck, I own two ASUS Strix OC GTX 950s that don't fire up their fans until they are hot. I thought they were broken until I pushed them on the off chance that was why they weren't spinning up. I too thought this was a more recent development.

So yeah, I find it really likely GTX 1060s exist with this tech.

 

[ultimatebob]

I wouldn't buy a new one at this point, but it's impressive what these cards can still do. My daughter inherited my old gaming rig with a Core i7 3770 and a GeForce 1060. When I installed Fortnite on it for her, the settings defaulted to 1080p, Epic quality. It played butter smooth, too! Nice.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

FWIW, for me video cards seem to either work or be bad out of the box. Fans might die but lots of these dual card setups can probably work with one, and replacements are usually pretty easy to find and economical when direct shipped from China.

- Frankly, outside of items with battery tear and wear, this has been my experience on virtually all electronics. Its to a point where I actually go out of my way to buy a used items from a prior generation as opposed to a new item with similar performance. End up saving a lot of money too.

 

[grant2]

It's for a child so performance isn't the issue; durability is key.

Both cards are going to have the same durability.

If your child is going to be removing the card and chewing on it or whatever you are worried about, both are equally likely to be broken.