Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

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Matt
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Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Matt »

TIL LiS2 won't work with my dinky old EVGA Geforce 450.

I've got a 3.something GHz Sandy Bridge processor and 8 GB DDR RAM, none of which I particularly feel like upgrading anytime for the next year or two.

I don't want to splurge here but I'd also like something that lasts. (every non-peripheral component of this computer dates back to summer 2011, that's how often I like to upgrade this shit)

Any suggestions? Linux compatibility is a must, as well as obviously GZDoom and aforementioned LiS2.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by wildweasel »

Anything Nvidia will likely do the job if you are okay with using proprietary drivers (I'm told that the FOSS ones are, uh, not great). The GeForce 900 series will likely be fairly affordable by now and get you by for quite a while. Be aware though, that depending on the game, having this much GPU may start to harm performance due to CPU bottlenecking, if the CPU is old enough.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by sinisterseed »

wildweasel wrote:Anything Nvidia will likely do the job if you are okay with using proprietary drivers (I'm told that the FOSS ones are, uh, not great). The GeForce 900 series will likely be fairly affordable by now and get you by for quite a while. Be aware though, that depending on the game, having this much GPU may start to harm performance due to CPU bottlenecking, if the CPU is old enough.
Indeed, if you're looking for an upgrade you're gonna have to keep in mind the rest of the components, the graphics card won't help you much if the other components can't keep up with it.

I wouldn't recommend the 9xx series honestly, simply because it is a bit old by now, and who knows for how much longer NVIDIA is willing to support the Maxwell generations (yeah, there's two of them, the GTX 750ti is 2nd gen for instance). I'd suggest a 1xxx series card, namely a 1050ti. Should be neither too OP nor too underpowered for the machine.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Darkcrafter »

GTX 1060 3gb goes fine for doom here but I got an abused one from a miner for less than 90 dollars. If you want a card that lasts longer for games and AI experiments with python, go at least with GTX 1070 as it has 8 gigs of video memory, much better performance than gtx 1060 6gb and around 20-25% better than rx 580 from AMD which doesn't have NVENC codec for streaming, it's awesome if you don't want to load up CPU that much. Nvidia supports both CUDA and OpenCL, AMD only supports OpenCL, so AMD doesn't allow you to use some python AI stuff.

Upd: I'd go for a used GTX 1080ti today as it presents an awesome value here but you know, RTX 3080ti is apparently coming out in the future so 3rd gen could drop the prices of 10x series even more.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Nash »

Steam survey says the nvidia 1060 is a popular card, although for the highest dollar-to-performance ratio I'd honestly go for the 1070 - it can still handle modern games on High so that's added value there (why buy a graphics card to enjoy only 1 game when you can enjoy others too with not much additional investment added).

Don't buy into the "future proof" mentality, that's bullshit. Especially considering RTX is still so damn new and you won't really see this stuff being mainstream for another 4 - 5 years maybe. The 1070 or 1080 is more than enough for high res PC gaming.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Graf Zahl »

1060 if you won't play modern games, 1070 otherwise would be my recommendation. 1050 may also be fine in many cases.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Matt »

A quick look at Newegg suggests the 1070 is the best dollar value right now... though that is still a lot more dollars than I was expecting -_-; Will have to give this a good long think between LiS1 replays.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Caligari87 »

Look at secondary markets, especially when a new card family is released. Got a barely-used 1070 for nearly half price right around the time everyone was upgrading to the 20xx series, and it's still going well (runs Doom Eternal on med-low settings at 60 FPS so still pretty respectable). I don't see needing an upgrade anytime soon, especially since the bulk of my gaming is GZDoom or indie games.

EDIT: just looked at the GTX1070s on NewEgg and yikes those are expensive! They were going for around $300 a couple years ago. Definitely either look for used and/or wait out whatever price wave this currently is.

8-)
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Dancso »

As a point of reference, I've had my GTX 970 for a good 5 years now and it has served me well. Originally rated for 1440p gaming, new games still run really well in 1080p, less demanding titles even pull 4k (example CSGO). For the most part, you could say each generation takes one step up, give or take (ie gtx 1060 roughly equivalent to a 970, a 1070 to an rtx 2060 etc) You'd probably want to at least go for something in the 1000 series if buying older models, probably get better DX12 performance that way (compared to the 900 series).
Careful with undershooting it also, a friend of mine got a laptop with a 950M a couple years ago which is sadly not holding up at all in FHD even at low settings.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Matt »

I ended up getting a GTX 1650 Super after some discussion on the HD discord, for just a bit over 1/3 of the price I was looking at for the 1070.

Given my motherboard is PCI Express 2.0 only I doubt going much higher spec than this would've done much future-proofing beyond "be technically compatible".

I wonder if it would improve anything to put the old 450 on my work computer (currently using its built-in Intel thingy and maybe 2 years newer than my home machine)...
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Redneckerz »

ATI ES1000 server GPU from 2007.

All jokes aside (Perhaps one day we could set up a huge GZDoom vs AMD test and see how it all fares beyond the usual driver regression, esp with AMD APU's being more potent as we go).

Id go with the GTX 1650. Will fit in nicely. But be aware that NVidia in his infinite wisdom has released multiple versions of these, that also contain different memory versions (GDDR5 vs GDDR6) or whole different GPU's altogether that put it in a more performant bracket.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Talon1024 »

When I bought my gaming machine back in 2015, NVidia was the better choice for Linux gaming IIRC. But nowadays, it's all about AMD, since AMD GPUs are supported handsomely by the kernel, and the Mesa3D open source GPU drivers. If you use NVidia, you miss out on a whole bunch of Open Source goodness, like Wayland or ACO. Valve even said that the Linux release of Half-Life Alyx works better on AMD GPUs.

For a mid-level GPU, I'd recommend the RX 580. That's the GPU that Samsai uses. He's a prominent Linux gamer/streamer who used to do livestreams for GamingOnLinux, but he now has his own Twitch channel, since someone else took over livestreaming for GamingOnLinux.

I would also recommend avoiding the RX 5700, since several people have had severe issues with it.

Even though I'm on NVidia right now, I'm waiting for the new AMD RDNA2 GPUs, since they will have real-time raytracing, and hopefully, they'll work better than AMD Navi GPUs.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Darkcrafter »

RX580 consumes 250W at max load, GTX 1070 190W at max and performs better but I don't know what they are at nvidia doing to the drivers 10x have issues with zbuffer on my system not as much as the previous versions did but the flickering is still noticeable in the far on trees or objects on the ground. Not sure if AMD does the same.

If the topic starter thinks he is not going to replace his CPU in a year or two I could recommend two cards both for medium or medium-high settings for modern games:

1) AMD RX 570 4gb - usually cheaper, has true 4gb of vram, some vram dependant games like doom eternal for example will perform around 10% better with rx 570, only support OpenCL for rendering or AI needs.

2) nvidia GTX 1060 3gb - in some games like pubg 10% faster than rx 570 4gb, has nvenc video codec support for streaming - good to spare some CPU power, supports both CUDA and OpenCL for AI - way more possibilites to use python based AI "mockups" of software. If you work with 3D rendering, GPU renderers most of the time work only with CUDA but 3gb of vram is bad for GPU rendering and in this case you'd better to go with GTX 1060 6gb or even better with GTX 1070 - it has 8gb.

So
AMD RX 570 4gb - pure gaming, can still stream but it will utilize CPU to encode video.
GTX 1060 3gb - gaming and nvenc codec for video recording and streaming, more stable drivers, more software to work with.
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Matt »

just fyi
Matt wrote:I ended up getting
there is no longer any money (or, far more importantly, space in my apartment) to consider any further suggestions
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Re: Mid-level GPU recommendation wanted

Post by Project Shadowcat »

Matt wrote:... though that is still a lot more dollars than I was expecting -_-; Will have to give this a good long think between LiS1 replays.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
You can thank the cryptocurrency mining craze for that one. GPUs are taking their sweet, sweet time going back down long after the bubble has burst.
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