Is GTX 1070 overkill for 1080p? Should I go RX 480/GTX 1060?

The rumour-du-jour now is that the RX 480 8GB will cost $229 (link). If it gets close to the GTX 980 performance, that's what I'd be happy with for 1080p and it's quite cheap.
I have a feeling this is pissing off Nvidia. I would have expected the 1060 to be between 970-980 and probably cost $250-300 with 4/6GB. Now they can't do that, as AMD would be either cheaper or a stronger performer, or both. Seems to me the RX 480 just made Nvidia have to make a stronger 1060 and limited them to a specific price bracket. That's only good news for both AMD and Nvidia customers: competition is always good!

I'm looking forward to reviews in 9 days. After that, probably it'll be hard to get the 480s, so I'll wait a few weeks and I'd expect to have decent leaks on the expected 1060 to make an informed decision.

It's an interesting time to buy a GPU!
I agree with you; if only they caught Nvidia more flat-footed and they were forced to drop pricing mid-release. The waiting right now is killing me, I tell ya...
 
Yep, the 970 will handle 1080p, high (not ultra) settings, 40+ FPS in every game. Most games not named The Division will perform much better than that, actually. Which means the RX-480 will do the same or slightly better and the 1070 is definitely overkill.

If you want to go 1080p absolute maxed settings and locked at 60fps, yes the 1070 is a better choice.
I wonder if RX480 beefy enough to run The Division / GTA V at 1080p max quality (especially that viewing distance). If based on RX390X performance, it does struggle a bit.
 
Go for the 1070...games will only get more demanding, so you're going to want as much bang for the buck horsepower, even for 1080p @ 60.
 
I think it boils down to how much money you have. If you have the disposable income, why not go with the 1070?
 
A GTX 1070 is about right for a new GPU purchase for 1080p AAA gaming right now. A GTX 970 or GTX 980 is decent for games released until now, but there already are some games which they can't deliver 60 FPS in, with maxed settings at 1080p. Buying a GPU is typically about playing games that will release over the next couple of years as much as it is about playing the ones that have already released, and anything less than a GTX 1070 / 980 ti for high settings 60 FPS 1080p gaming at this point is not very future-proofed anymore.

If you have a 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitor, a GTX 1070 is still not powerful enough to get full 120 / 144 FPS for those monitors in most modern games, and a GTX 1080 also can't push those frames in all modern games, Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Syndicate being two examples.
Well yeah but having a cpu like yours would also be a limitation. In fact both games you listed will fully peg an i5 at times even with little to nothing going on since you would be cpu limited quite often with a card like that at 1080p.
 
Well yeah but having a cpu like yours would also be a limitation. In fact both games you listed will fully peg an i5 at times even with little to nothing going on since you would be cpu limited quite often with a card like that at 1080p.

I'm going 1070 (at 1080p 144hz) in an attempt to compensate for a dated X58 Xeon system as I believe there is more performance per dollar invested in GPU than a new CPU platform.

A GTX 1070 is about right for a new GPU purchase for 1080p AAA gaming right now. A GTX 970 or GTX 980 is decent for games released until now, but there already are some games which they can't deliver 60 FPS in, with maxed settings at 1080p. Buying a GPU is typically about playing games that will release over the next couple of years as much as it is about playing the ones that have already released, and anything less than a GTX 1070 / 980 ti for high settings 60 FPS 1080p gaming at this point is not very future-proofed anymore.

If you have a 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitor, a GTX 1070 is still not powerful enough to get full 120 / 144 FPS for those monitors in most modern games, and a GTX 1080 also can't push those frames in all modern games, Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Syndicate being two examples.
For high fps first person shooters, the games where high refresh monitors have the most impact on your experience, I believe the 1070 should be able to sustain high framerates with minimal reduction from uber high graphic settings. At some point most people still will need to choose what is most important to them, buttery smooth gameplay or a few extra image quality frills

IMO, A GPU being overkill is very subjective based on the user's gaming preferences and the rest of their system. In the context of gaming investing more in a GPU will improve your experience most unless you have a severe bottleneck somewhere in the rest of your system
 
Yep, I was completely satisfied with my GTX 770 when I had a 1080p 60Hz monitor. I had to upgrade to a GTX 970 when I got a 1440p 144Hz monitor and its still not fast enough (I get about 80fps in Overwatch) so I am eyeing a 1080 upgrade now.
 
OK, I just installed my new EVGA 1070 SC card and ran up both World of Tanks and Fallout 4 for a little look-see before work.

I didn't want to go to work.

To put this into perspective this card replaced an ASUS Strix GTX 960 4GB card and is pushing an Extended Display to two ASUS MX279H 1080P monitors at 60Hz.

I can tell you that I see a difference.

In world of tanks zooming from 3rd person to "Sniper View" is instantaneous with no noticeable pause or video lag at all. I have all setting on Ultra, AA and all that stuff maxed and the card works perfectly to the point that all you can say is, it's performs flawlessly.

In Fallout4 I loaded a saved game that was at nighttime so I really didn't get to see a stunning scene or anything like a beautiful vista. But what I did see was sooo smooth that again, everything just looked like it was running perfectly.

I can't tell you if the 1070 is overkill but if it is then the perfect card for 1080P lies somewhere between my old GTX 960 and the 1070. Where on that line I can't say. But I can say that if a $100 is all that separates perfection from overkill, and overkill is newer, uses less power, and creates less heat and noise?

Then I would go with overkill :cool:
 
The difference is $200, not $100-- I haven't seen any 1070s under $400, and you can actually buy a RX-480 for $200. So it is literally double the price. The 1070 will certainly obliterate any 1080p game, though, no doubt about that.
 
Frankly I'm pretty sure my FX6300 is going to bottleneck a 1070. For my use cases, the safest option seems to wait for 1060 reviews and then buy whichever is the best value, RX480 or GTX1060.

The performance of the 480 seems just where I expected it, around a GTX970. The power consumption does worry me though - should be quite lower now that they switched to 14nm and FinFets - and the voltage load that is killing motherboards... these are big problems in my book.

If the eventual 1060 - clearly rushed on Nvidia's part to not lose marketshare - hits the same performance or even better closing in on 980 and consumes less power hitting a $230-250 price despite those 6gb VRAM (more would be useless if it has a 192bit bus)... then the 1060 might be the winne rin my book.

For now, it's wait and see.
 
The difference is $200, not $100-- I haven't seen any 1070s under $400, and you can actually buy a RX-480 for $200. So it is literally double the price. The 1070 will certainly obliterate any 1080p game, though, no doubt about that.

I wasn't specifying the card. That's the other card which handles 1080P perfectly and isn't overkill because truthfully I do not know what that card is. I do know that my GTX 960 4GB is close but I did have to back off some settings so I know it doesn't represent 1080P perfection. I know my 1070 looks like it is perfection or maybe even overkill. What I don't know and can't say is, if there is a cheaper card then the 1070 that will run 1080P as well as the 1070 does.

I won't try and speculate on future cards.
 
I think you should wait for the 1060 and then when that's release you should wait for vega or a nv Ti then when that comes out wait for the 1090 and when that comes out you should wait for the rx580...

Hmmm, no, that would be quite a useless strategy, don't you think? However, waiting for the two main competitors at a given price range and then deciding which is the best option seems a much better idea. That said, if you want to perpetually wait and never buy anything, I won't be one to stop you. [/sarcasm]
 
Frankly I'm pretty sure my FX6300 is going to bottleneck a 1070.

It's not going to bottle neck it. If you have a 1060 and a 1070 in your system and review FPS is games you will see the 1070 will be faster. And it all depends on how CPU intensive the game is. Some games take great and average CPU and one high end GPU and the FPS are almost identical.

No bottle neck so don't listen to the crowd that tells you to sit down.
 
What I don't know and can't say is, if there is a cheaper card then the 1070 that will run 1080P as well as the 1070 does.
Assuming you don't use DSR (essentially running at 4k then downscaling to 1080p for superior image quality) the RX-480 will crush 1080p. It's essentially GTX 970 speed. But I would certainly wait to see how the GTX 1060 turns out in 4 days before making a purchase.
 
RX 480 would run current games just fine at 1080P. I wonder though where the VRAM requirements will go once games are ported from the PS4 Neo, and Xbox Scorpio. I'd go with the 1070, or at the minimum the 8GB RX 480. I wouldn't consider the 4GB card at this point.
 
Leaks of the Neo and Scorpio say they will still have 8GB of RAM, so I wouldn't expect any change there. Of course ports from the console refreshes will scale higher, utilizing more GPU horsepower, but there's no clear indication they'll benefit from more RAM at 1080p.
 
You could also buy a used 390X, which is a very good value option at this point, even new ones are much cheaper now. 1070 is overkill in a certain sense for 1080p60, and the rx480 is reference only for now, so either way you should wait a couple weeks for the custom cards to become available, and see them reviewed.
 
I would wait to see the 1060 before buying anything for 1080p right now, for sure. It's being announced in 4 days.
 
I'm currently planning to replace a 970 with 1070 @ 1080p60 with plans to upgrade to 1440p in the future. I've found some games where the 970 won't max out (GTA5, Witcher 3 etc) @ 1080p so I think it's a fair upgrade if you want high settings on everything.
 
I'm currently planning to replace a 970 with 1070 @ 1080p60 with plans to upgrade to 1440p in the future. I've found some games where the 970 won't max out (GTA5, Witcher 3 etc) @ 1080p so I think it's a fair upgrade if you want high settings on everything.

This is what I'm doing except I'm going 670 to 1070. My logic being spend the extra $ now and if I choose to upgrade monitors in the future I'm covered.
 
sweetspot GPU as of now? an RX 480 8GB put some more cash and you'll be able to score a GTX 980 TI from 300-400 USD
 
sweetspot GPU as of now? an RX 480 8GB put some more cash and you'll be able to score a GTX 980 TI from 300-400 USD

I think that the 980ti/FuryX are sweetspot GPUs if you can find them new for around $350. Otherwise, the 970/480 at $250-ish are better values. Cheapest I can find a new 980ti is $399. It's $459 for a Fury X.

I don't compare used to new.
 
A 970 is good for everything at 1080p. A 1070 will be overkill, but I wouldn't knock you for getting one. If you decide to upgrade to 1440p or even 4k you'll have a card that will hold its own.
 
I think that the 980ti/FuryX are sweetspot GPUs if you can find them new for around $350. Otherwise, the 970/480 at $250-ish are better values. Cheapest I can find a new 980ti is $399. It's $459 for a Fury X.

I don't compare used to new.

yeah I did see a GTX 980 TI here and over at Reddit HardwareSwap sold for $350 but yeah, its again a lottery for the used market segment.
1080p gaming? well a 4gb RX 480 may suffice for your need, heck rumors of it having 4GB more locked VRAM is pretty exciting!
 
just picked up an EVGA GTX 1070 FTW from newegg w/ $25 off using paypal discount woot woot
 
Buy the best you can afford!

There is no such thing as "overkill" in this market, because what might be classed as overkill now, will not be in a year or so.

If you can afford that 1070, go for it!
 
just picked up an EVGA GTX 1070 FTW from newegg w/ $25 off using paypal discount woot woot

Congrats I'm in a similar boat... and I'm eyeing 1070 (maybe EVGA FTW). I have slightly faster CPU [email protected] and my monitor is 1080P which I can run at 75Hz. With older games I will use DSR (2k/4k) and/or benefits of 75Hz (if I can).
 
I usually wait for the next title to come out that crushes graphics cards *edit - the next title that I really want to play, not just the next title **, then figure out if I need to upgrade. I'm still running my 770 on 1080p and haven't had any cry times, but then I mostly console game these days. I think if the 1060 came w/ 8gb of memory it would be more appealing, the 1070 is too expensive and I have a hard time with the idea of paying more for an NV card that comes with less RAM.

Come to think of it, you probably shouldn't take my opinion very heavily since the games I played the most lately are Minecraft (PS4) and Ultima Online (laptop), but I can't say that if I had the money burning a hole in my pocket I wouldn't get a 1070 anyway.
 
I find that the 1070/980ti is needed if you are using the ultrawide 3440x1440 (so sitting inbetween 1440p and 4k).
Not really for 1080p unless if you insist on the 144Hz.
 
OP,

You're going to want the GTX 1070, not the 1060. Check out this comparison review by Digital Foundary.

They test the 1060, 1070 and 1080 at 1080p/60. The GTX 1060 drops below 60fps quite often, while the 1070 usually manages to stay above 60fps. And games are only going to get more demanding over time.
 
OP,

You're going to want the GTX 1070, not the 1060. Check out this comparison review by Digital Foundary.

They test the 1060, 1070 and 1080 at 1080p/60. The GTX 1060 drops below 60fps quite often, while the 1070 usually manages to stay above 60fps. And games are only going to get more demanding over time.

Why is The Division only hitting that kind of figure? The Witcher 3 is able to net far better performance.
 
OP,

You're going to want the GTX 1070, not the 1060. Check out this comparison review by Digital Foundary.

Yup, saw that yesterday, and actually it confirms that I'll be perfectly fine with the 1060. As I said in my original post, "60 frames preferred, but I can put with variable 40-60" and the 1060 delivers just that. It has enough VRAM to be enough for the next couple years. It plays the games I'm interested in playing very nicely, and its ~60/~50 fps averages won't crush down to sub-30fps in two years, more likely ~40fps territory. By then I'll be ready to upgrade to a GTX 1260 or whatever comes out. 1070 is clearly more powerful, but the ~%30 extra performance doesn't warrant the ~%50 more expensive price tag (to me).

Why is The Division only hitting that kind of figure? The Witcher 3 is able to net far better performance.

I figure that's because of drivers and updates. Notice how ME Catalyst performed much worse with Hyper settings a few weeks ago than it does now. As usual, it's all in optimizations.
 
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