GPU dead or dying. What to upgrade to, and when?

briany

Old card (R9 280X) is dying on me. Budget (or what I'm prepared to pay) is 250 to 350 euros (including shipping). Had been thinking about an upgrade for a while anyway.

Not in an immediate rush but don't want to wait forever.

Am concerned that I'll pay money for a particular card only to be sickened when there's a Bitcoin crash two days after I buy it and it becomes that I could have gotten it for half of what I paid.

Would want something to last me 4-ish years on a single monitor setup.

Have been looking at the 1060 mini or 580x 8GB. Seem comparable. Leaning Nvidia because of its apparently higher compatibility.

What to do?

Cordell

1060 6GB version, better and cheaper than 580.

TerrorFirmer

Yep, I'd say GTX1060 6GB but prices are still pretty high for what it is.

Still though it'd easily last 4 years at 1080p, I would imagine by that stage you'd still be OK to achieve 60fps with low/medium settings in the latest and greatest titles...pretty much exactly how the 280X aged.

briany

Cordell wrote: »

1060 6GB version, better and cheaper than 580.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Yep, I'd say GTX1060 6GB but prices are still pretty high for what it is.

Still though it'd easily last 4 years at 1080p, I would imagine by that stage you'd still be OK to achieve 60fps with low/medium settings in the latest and greatest titles...pretty much exactly how the 280X aged.

Thanks for the answers.

But just on my concern about price drops - what's the forecast, if any? Bitcoin is always stated to implode any day now, and then I imagine the market would be awash with cheap cards.

site_owner

briany wrote: »

Thanks for the answers.

But just on my concern about price drops - what's the forecast, if any? Bitcoin is always stated to implode any day now, and then I imagine the market would be awash with cheap cards.

Ethereum ASICS are cutting the market now. Many Cards are in stock and can be picked up at retail prices again. I don't think they'll drop much below, other than occasional specials etc, until new 20xx cards are released at end of the year.

Watch out for second hand as miners off load their cards.

Cordell

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Yep, I'd say GTX1060 6GB but prices are still pretty high for what it is.

Still though it'd easily last 4 years at 1080p, I would imagine by that stage you'd still be OK to achieve 60fps with low/medium settings in the latest and greatest titles...pretty much exactly how the 280X aged.

With a bit of patience you can get it at around 300, which is pretty close to pre-mining fad price.

briany

Cordell wrote: »

With a bit of patience you can get it at around 300, which is pretty close to pre-mining fad price.

But I can get it for around 300 now . It's around 332 euro on Amazon right now, but I'd put a load onto my gift card balance back when the conversion rate was better.

I thought the price of the 1060 was closer to 200 before Bitcoin?

Cordell

No, it was around 250 for the 6G version, I paid around 270 delivered just before Ethereum took of.
Now the short PCB single fan is around 320 on amazon.de and the dual fan around 350. There are some listings around 20-30 cheaper from new sellers, but I'm not sure about them, maybe they are unloading stock acquired for mining.

briany

Went with the 6GB Mini from Amazon.de for 306 delivered, in the end. Best deal I could find for a proper new item, and not some Ebay 'new' seller.