GTX 1080 now or wait for Vega?

Should I get a GTX 1080 now or wait?

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morfinx

[H]ard|Gawd
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Here's my situation: I have a 4K monitor that I got mainly for work. I don't play games nearly as often as I used to, but every now and then I still find time to enjoy it. My GPU (Radeon 7970) is getting long in the tooth, and clearly can't power most modern games at 4K (though it seems to do OK at 2560x1440 in Fallout 4 with some settings turned down). The two games coming out later this year that I really would like to play are Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2. Should I go ahead and get a GTX 1080 right now? Or wait for Vega?

Interesting side note, the last NV GPU I bought was the original GeForce 256 SDR (VisionTek, IIRC). Then I had a long string of Radeon GPUs:

8500 -> 9600 XT -> X850 Pro -> X1950 Pro -> 3870 -> 4870 -> 5870 -> 7970
 
Do you have a FreeSync or G-sync monitor?

EDIT: Looking at the three monitors in your sig I don't think either sync's are supported. However, you are running them in PLP formation which I believe is only supported on AMD hardware.
 
Algrim said:
Do you have a FreeSync or G-sync monitor?

EDIT: Looking at the three monitors in your sig I don't think either sync's are supported. However, you are running them in PLP formation which I believe is only supported on AMD hardware.
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No FreeSync or G-Sync. I'll only be gaming on the 4K monitor in the center. The other monitors are for productivity only.
 
You don't seem to be concerned about pricing, but you don't game as much, but you do have a 4K monitor. Just get a GTX 1080, who knows when the 1080Ti will come, and Vega is pretty much confirmed for 2017, and any predictions on what quarter is pure guesswork at the moment.
 
SighTurtle said:
You don't seem to be concerned about pricing, but you don't game as much, but you do have a 4K monitor. Just get a GTX 1080, who knows when the 1080Ti will come, and Vega is pretty much confirmed for 2017, and any predictions on what quarter is pure guesswork at the moment.
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That's a good point. Price is not of huge concern, but I also like to not spend frivolously.
 
If you're not planning to keep them long, buy the 1080 now, but if you will keep them for a while wait for the 1080Ti.
 
morfinx said:
That's a good point. Price is not of huge concern, but I also like to not spend frivolously.
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Well, if we are talking about money, not too up to date on gtx 1080 but if I'm still correct prices are still high for the 1080, you may want to wait till demand starts dropping. There should be nothing in competition till Vega so no AMD reducing prices of the 1080 till 2017. Only thing that might make pricing better is Nvidia products, I.e at the moment the Titan X, which you could go for, it is better than the 1080, but I think the consensus is that its overpriced, and it's top performance spot is replaced rather quickly, for less than you would pay for the titan x.
 
morfinx said:
I generally like keeping my GPU for a while. I mean, I'm still running my 5-year old 7970 :p
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Then wait until October for the market to stabilize. If AMD is still M.I.A. and Nvidia doesn't release the Ti because of it, buy the Titan X and be happy for the next 2-3 years.
But of course, you can save yourself time if you just buy the Titan X now.

Pay more money to save time, or wait for a period of time to save money.
It's the game we all play during GPU releases.

At the end of the day, we all waste time or money on GPUs.
 
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Now, the Titan X is 1,200 USD, so its alot more than a GTX 1080 at 600-800 USD, so not sure about what you can spend, but it is pricey as hell.
 
I went from a 290X to a 1080, and I'm happy. You'll need to turn down some settings, but image quality should be fine. Though I'm running 5760x1080, not 3840x2160.
If you're not in a hurry and waiting for those two games; then you may as well hold off till one or both come out. At the very least the cost will be a little lower if you do decide on a 1080.
 
N4CR said:
If there is no rush then wait and see.
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This.

Now is a crummy time to be in the market for a graphics card, since demand (and thus prices) is high and supply isn't able to keep up.

If you can live with what you've got, I say wait a little while and see what happens. I can almost guarantee that in 3 to 6 months, there will be better deals to be had than there are today.

Edit: My suggestion would be to run games at 1080P, if you have a 3840 by 2160 display, or if the games you play support it, run at 4K, but with the resolution scaling set to 50%.
 
The Titan X, in my mind, goes over the perforce/value threshold so I won't consider it.

You guys make some good points. It seems like I should at least wait until October to see what's on the market.
 
SighTurtle said:
You don't seem to be concerned about pricing, but you don't game as much, but you do have a 4K monitor. Just get a GTX 1080, who knows when the 1080Ti will come, and Vega is pretty much confirmed for 2017, and any predictions on what quarter is pure guesswork at the moment.
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so the rumors of a potential October 2016 release for Vega are false?
 
SighTurtle said:
Now, the Titan X is 1,200 USD, so its alot more than a GTX 1080 at 600-800 USD, so not sure about what you can spend, but it is pricey as hell.
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What if we wait for the Ti, and it doesn't come until December and it's priced at $900-999.
So we would have waited 5 months to nearly pay the same price for performance we could've had since August.

Pascal is overpriced from top to bottom. I would just recommend the OP to pull the trigger on the fastest card you can afford right now. The Ti will not be anything short of expensive as well.
 
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Wow, that's some spread for AMD!

anyway, if you can wait, prices inflated right now. I went for my 290 during the middle of the mining craze and spent 500 dollars on a 399 card, had I waited I'd have spent less for a better variant of it.
 
WorldExclusive said:
What if we wait for the Ti, and it doesn't come until December and it's priced at $900-999.
So we would have waited 5 months to nearly pay the same price for performance we could've had since August.

Pascal is overpriced from top to bottom. I would just recommend the OP to pull the trigger on the fastest card you can afford right now. The Ti will not be anything short of expensive as well.
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Rumors are rumors. At this moment, we don't even know if the Ti is intended to be made.
 
Buy the 1080 now... then buy the 1080 Ti... then buy Vega! (y)
 
Depends. How well are you rocking and rolling right now? If you can wait its always good cause prices drop and new things come out. Or maybe wait till black friday and catch a deal on a video card. It's not that far away.
 
Could just wait a bit and see how things go in the market. Maybe stock could fill up and we can have less price gouging from retailers.

Could just buy a 1070 as a pick me up until VEGA or whatever new Nvidia cards launch as well. If you're comfy with spending the dough on the 1080 you might as well. It would be better suited for 4k than the 1070.
 
WorldExclusive said:
What if we wait for the Ti, and it doesn't come until December and it's priced at $900-999.
So we would have waited 5 months to nearly pay the same price for performance we could've had since August.

Pascal is overpriced from top to bottom. I would just recommend the OP to pull the trigger on the fastest card you can afford right now. The Ti will not be anything short of expensive as well.
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Ti's not going to be priced $900-999. Won't happen. But whatever the price will be, it'll only seem "expensive" to someone that probably has no business looking at flagship cards in the first place, and should be sticking to 1060/1070 and below.

Pascal is not overpriced. It's priced at exactly what the market will bear.
 
I wouldn't wait for Vega, I really don't trust it to beat a GTX1080. So its either a GTX1080 or a TitanX. Although by the initial impressions on the Titan X it seems its not that much faster than the GTX 1080
 
Commander Shepard said:
Buy the 1080 now... then buy the 1080 Ti... then buy Vega! (y)
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Not following the logic here. If Vega cards ever get released - you know, before we're all geriatric, it'll be lackluster, so 1080 Ti -> Vega would be like going Lamborghini -> Corvette.

AMD was asleep at the wheel for too long, and the kind of R&D required to deliver a come-from-behind winner that could ever hope to beat Nvidia isn't something realistic for them anymore.
 
DPI said:
Not following the logic here. If Vega cards ever get released - you know, before we're all geriatric, it'll be lackluster, so 1080 Ti -> Vega would be like going Lamborghini -> Corvette.

AMD was asleep at the wheel for too long, and the kind of R&D required to deliver a come-from-behind winner that could ever hope to beat Nvidia isn't something realistic for them anymore.
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Never claimed it was logical. Just fun spending other people's money for them.
 
DPI said:
Ti's not going to be priced $900-999. Won't happen. But whatever the price will be, it'll only seem "expensive" to someone that probably has no business looking at flagship cards in the first place, and should be sticking to 1060/1070 and below.

Pascal is not overpriced. It's priced at exactly what the market will bear.
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With the Founders Edition BS I could see a 1080 Ti FE going for $900+ easy.
 
Vega may not even reach 1080 performance. Plus its far away and then you can think about Volta cards too in the waiting game ;)
 
Don't count on AMD to deliver with Vega. Either grab a 1080 now if you can't wait or 1080 Ti if you can wait a few more months.
 
[QUOTE="morfinx, post: 1042457035, member: 101944" Should I go ahead and get a GTX 1080 right now? Or wait for Vega?
[/QUOTE]

Totally depends on Vega's performance and pricing compared to 1070/1080 and Titan.

I hear October for Vega. But it could be 2017. If that's the case you can't go wrong with a 1080 now. I seriously doubt the Vega will blow it out of the water.
 
Vega is 2017, AMD said that several times, including conference calls. The October nonsense comes from a single forum post by a random user.
 
1080 isn't great for the latest titles at 60fps at 4k with completely maxxed out settings. it does OK for me at 3440x1440, right now playing witcher 3 at 45-65fps I can notice the drops though. thats 5 million pixels, 4k is at 8million, would be 30-45fps maybe?

option 1: get a 1080 and play on High, not ultra settings at 4k on the very latest demanding games.
option 2: get a $1200 titan X and play at ultra.

edit: option 3: wait 6? 10? months and get something else. that might or might not come and who knows how fast and for how much money
 
I can't for life of me, understand all the [H]ard followers saying wait for Vega in October? Not paying attention enough? Like it's going to be actually available? Shit, you're not going to see mass availability till Jan/Feb. And all this BS about a Ti variant of the 1080? As a company, I wouldn't waste time or resources on such a product. AMD can't compete as is in the 1070/1080 or Titan X. If Vega came out at or just above 1080 performance, you really think they can take a loss at releasing it any less then $700 for an HBM2 card? Even an GDDR5X would cost them that much without effecting their bottom line. And didn't Nvidia say Volta was going to be ready for May next year?? Yeah, there literally is no reason for a 1080Ti to ever exist this round even if it is to get the masses to 4K 60fps. No competion, the masses can hold out till May 2017. Just my opinion that make sense to me.
 
I think Ti would be a result of better wafer yields, so it isn't necessarily a waste of time or money for them to do
 
A couple points to consider:
  • No way in holy hell Vega going to be out by October. Even AMD just said it won't be available until 2017, and they have every motivation to have people think it's coming earlier. In general, one can take the earliest release date rumor for AMD cards and add 6 months to it (which is, not uncoincidentally, the length of time AMD marketing believes it can keep people hyped about a product i.e. they start to "leak" undercurrent-rumors around this time).
  • 1080 ti will likely arrive sometime October-December/Q4. It will likely be priced at "MSRP" around $800, but we all know that NVDA MSRP holds little weight apart from looking good on reviews and press releases. I'm betting actual street price for 1080 ti will be near $850-900. Remember, this isn't Maxwell where 28nm was a very mature process: this is Pascal on a new node where yields of the fully-enabled chips are low -- NVDA is not going to do any favors on pricing with the 1080 ti.
  • Stock is starting to loosen up for 1080, with a few available right now for around $650.
  • Neither Dishonored 2 (Gamebryo engine, if not mistaken) nor Deux Ex will be graphics killers.
All in all, I'd say go for a GTX 1080 now.

Edit: I do agree, in part, with SnowBeast's assessment above. There is no reason whatsoever for NVidia to release 1080 ti now. There is no competition and yields are too low on Pascal for profitability of a fully-enabled mass market chip priced below $1000. They will release 1080 ti when the yield and profitability intersect which won't likely happen until later this year.
 
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