new graphics card

[Boon72]

Looking to upgrade the ageing (legacy) AMD HD6950 2GB to something shiny and new.

I have been waiting for the new AMD & Nvidia offerings hopping for something good, so far the RX480 & the GTX 1060 are the cards of choice.

the only thing is the reference AMD power issue has concerned me so I'd want a partner version but the prices are not what i was expecting to pay annoyingly, I have just about come to terms with them. I was looking to pay £150-£200 but not much has come in at those prices, but a maximum of £250 is now an option ( the less the better )

So my question is which path do I take?

[kalniel]

You won't be disappointed either way. If prices are just a bit too high then wait - we're in early adopter tax period still and once more stock is in they should come down.

Both are low power, fast cards. 1060 is a smidgen faster in DX11 (particularly if you have a weak CPU), 480 looks quite a lot faster in DX12. So if you're looking for a short term update you might argue slightly on the 1060 side, if you're looking for a longer term (and might consider a sync monitor) then the 480 pulls ahead.

[scaryjim]

The RX 480 is very unlikely to come in at less than £200 with the weak pound following Brexit - the $199 for a reference 4GB model equates to > £180 when you add on VAT, and if you're looking at 8GB models that the reference version comes out at around £210, so you can expect to pay more than that for a custom model.

The PCIe slot draw has been resolved by a driver update that rebalanced the power draw, so there really isn't an issue with the reference cards (plus several recent nvidia cards had similar issues, although oddly no-one made a big deal about that ), but you'll probably get better performance out of a custom card simply because it won't thermally throttle the way the refefence card does.

Assuming your system specs are up to date you're only gaming at 1080p, so I think you're really looking at two options to keep the costs down - either jump early on a 4GB custom RX 480 (Sapphire have a 4GB Nitro+ version), or hold on for a few more weeks when (hopefully) AMD will get the RX 470 out - that's a $149 card that should have good 1080p performance, and I'd expect custom versions of that card to be well under £200.

[Boon72]

I just wish they'd hurry up with it all, i've been waiting and reading since the 480 launched and it's starting to drag on, most shops have little or no stock, only pre-orders for custom 480's

i just want to get it over with LOL

[EndlessWaves]

It looks like your monitor is a current model so I'm guessing it's fairly new and you have no plans to replace it with one that supports variable refresh rates to make games smoother. If you were in that situation then you could have ruled out the 1060 because it's supported monitors are so much more expensive right now.

the only thing is the reference AMD power issue has concerned me

As scaryjim says both sites that highlighted the power issue said they were very satisfied with the changes the driver update a week later made:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-ra...iew-33600.html
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphic...ed-1671-Driver

There's really no reason to be worried about it. Given you've got an overclocking motherboard specifically designed to handle running components out of spec I'm surprised you were worried in the first place.

The partner cards will probably be quieter but if that doesn't bother you then I'd definitely go for a reference card.

[scaryjim]

... most shops have little or no stock, only pre-orders for custom 480's ...

That's because the custom 480s haven't left the factory yet. Gibbo managed to score the first batch of test custom 480s from Sapphire for Overclockers a few days ago - at that point they still hadn't produced any cards off their main production run. AFAICT the problem was the reference card being more popular than anticipated - they had to fill back orders for those cards before they could start production on the custom ones! I agree that the timescales are frustrating (I'm waiting for the RX 460, personally), but *fingers crossed* the custom 480s, and the 470 & 460 after them, will be worth the wait.

[DanceswithUnix]

I've seen GTX970 cards for £200, if you are OK with a 3.5GB card.

[Boon72]

Took the plunge and ordered the Zotac GTX1060 AMP! :-)

[kalniel]

Took the plunge and ordered the Zotac GTX1060 AMP! :-)

Nice, where did you get that for up to £250?

[Boon72]

well it was £259 from Scan :-)

[Boon72]

i was going to get the mini version for £229 but thought the extra fan and £30 wont kill me

[kalniel]

well it was £259 from Scan :-)

Ah, the enthusiast's budget limit applied

[MrJim]

Took the plunge and ordered the Zotac GTX1060 AMP! :-)

I've just bought the Zotac 1070 Amp myself...very happy with it so far...

[The Hand]

Looking to upgrade the ageing (legacy) AMD HD6950 2GB to something shiny and new.

I have been waiting for the new AMD & Nvidia offerings hopping for something good, so far the RX480 & the GTX 1060 are the cards of choice.

the only thing is the reference AMD power issue has concerned me so I'd want a partner version but the prices are not what i was expecting to pay annoyingly, I have just about come to terms with them. I was looking to pay £150-£200 but not much has come in at those prices, but a maximum of £250 is now an option ( the less the better )

So my question is which path do I take?

There are few RX 480 8GB cards going for under the £250 price by a quite a margin. I would probably go for a Sapphire 8GB version for around the £240 mark if I was in your position:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/nda-...6mhz-boost-230

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...06mhz-boost-23

The £150 range will occupied by the 4GB RX 470 and 1050 I'm guessing.

Edit:

I've just seen the you've bought the 1060 from scan..! Hope it does the job!

[The Hand]

I've just bought the Zotac 1070 Amp myself...very happy with it so far...

Sounds good! What resolution are you running at? Judging by the benchmarks it can handle 4K gaming quite well.

[MrJim]

Sounds good! What resolution are you running at? Judging by the benchmarks it can handle 4K gaming quite well.

I'm running 2560x1440...runs all my games at max graphics and acceptable framerates, so can't complain