Performance / Watt / SPL ?

They make noise, too.

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NeilBlanchard
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Performance / Watt / SPL ?

Post by NeilBlanchard » Thu Jun 09, 2016 7:05 am

I am looking to buy a new performance video card, and I am hoping for guidance on which video card has the best performance per watt, and that also has a quiet stock cooler. I am assuming that the newest nVidia cards are the most likely candidates? Are dual cards going to be able to support 3440x1440, or is only one card going to drive the monitor?

Abula
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Re: Performance / Watt / SPL ?

Post by Abula » Thu Jun 09, 2016 8:59 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:I am looking to buy a new performance video card
If you can wait a month or so, you will see the the offering from both brands hit the market. Nvidia GTX1070/1080 and AMD RX480.
NeilBlanchard wrote:I am hoping for guidance on which video card has the best performance per watt,
Seems AMD is aiming more mid end efficient and affordable cards, the seem they dont want to enter yet the high end. The RX480 seems like a very good value/performance. The bad news is that its not out yet, it should hit retail 29 june, probably early july for reference cards, maybe mid-ends july for custom coolers.
NeilBlanchard wrote:and that also has a quiet stock cooler.
MSI with their TwinFrozr and Asus with their Strix seem to be delivering very good cards each gen, so i would wait for either of them to release their RX480, thats if you think this card would be enough for your needs.

As an alternative, there is also the mighty Prolimatech MK26 that plays very nicely with MSI cards, as they have frontal plate to cool vrms and memory, thus you practically only change the cooler with 4 screws, really easy upgrade done to MSi cards, not saying you should do it, just there is a very easy alternative, and MSI PWM design works really well with standard PWM fans like Prolimatech Ultra Slim Vortex 14, Thermalright TY147A or Noctua NF-A15 PWM.
NeilBlanchard wrote:I am assuming that the newest nVidia cards are the most likely candidates?
Im also betting on Nvidia, but it seems there will be good offering from both companies, i feel the RX480 will be aimed more to mainstream market, while the GTX1070/1080 will be more high end, and thus the pricing will reflect it.
NeilBlanchard wrote:Are dual cards going to be able to support 3440x1440, or is only one card going to drive the monitor?
Dual cards can support 21:9 resoltuion fine, i leave you couple of videos,

Acer Predator X34 - World Of Warcraft (21:9) Widescreen
World of Warcraft / 21:9 / Full Settings / 980ti SLI / Acer x34 / Nvidia / PC

Weather you need dual gpus or single will depend on the games and quality you play it at, popular games like WOW, LOL, DOTA2, will be easily driven by a single card, newer games you might need dual cards. I personally would suggest to go with one, the amount of heat that SLI puts into a system and then generates more noise its not worth it, so my suggestion go with as high as you budget allows on a single card, thus my recommendation is to wait for the MSI GTX1080 Gaming, will probably be hitting retail mid to late june.

Just as a final comment, the 21:9 is a very nice ratio for movies and for editing is a dream, but there are certain companies that are not supporting it intentionally, like blizzard, Overwatch, SC2, Diablo3 dont support it, nor they have intentions to, and their excuse is that they don't want to have unfair advantages on thier games, so 16:9 is what they still consider the standard. That said, there are tons of games, even old like TF2, even new shotters have support, so just a warning before you get into. Btw the only game that i think its supported fine from blizzard is WOW.

PS. Hey steve, i think you should prepare for legion, an ACER X34 + MSI GTX1070 and you are set =P

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Re: Performance / Watt / SPL ?

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Jun 09, 2016 11:40 am

What are your apps/games, Neil?

As Abula said (and I'm not gonna upgrade for Legion), chances are a GTX 1070 class/ R9 480 card will probably be great for 1440p. Aftermarket reveils for the GTX 1070 are due tomorrow (and Guru3D accidently showed their MSI Gaming review early and pulled it...so we know that'll be there tomorrow). AMD and the 480...they are announcing/introducing on June 29...we don't know if it's a paper intro or not.

That said, you might be able to get away with the GTX 1060 class...depending on the games and apps. But that's a fall release...probably the same for the AMD cards.

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Re: Performance / Watt / SPL ?

Post by NeilBlanchard » Fri Jun 10, 2016 4:47 am

My needs are relatively modest - I run DataCAD and SketchUp, and I will game with R Factor - and I will run Folding@Home. I am considering No Man's Sky when it finally comes out.

My kids will game on it, so whatever I get, it will be used to it's limits. My CPU (latest gen i5 6600K) and 16GB RAM are better than my son's computer. He's got a 980ti.

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Re: Performance / Watt / SPL ?

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jun 10, 2016 6:56 am

Here's an easy comparison, then. The GTX 1070's gaming performance is similar to the GTX 980 Ti. So, grab your son's gfx card and try it on your setup and see how well it drives the monitor while gaming. I think the GTX 1070 will be a good fit. Here's Guru3D's MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X review. It'll probably take a month or so for prices to settle down...and we'll get to see what the R9 480's performance is by then.

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