Need Upgrade Advice - from R7 370 to ??

F

FruitFace

n00b
Joined
May 25, 2016
Messages
6
Current build:

MSI 970a-G46
AMD FX-6300 stock cooler/No OC
XFX R7 370 2GB/No OC
8GB RAM
Win 10
512G SSD
650W Seasonic

Games I am playing:
DOOM
Stellaris
Subnautica
FO4

Will play:
No Man's Sky

I have about 450$ to spend. I currently game on a 1080p TV, and will do so for the foreseeable future. That said, I was eyeing an RX480 8GB AIB when they get released (4GB might be enough, but large texture packs make me want to spend the extra$$). I worry that the CPU will bottleneck performance for some games.

Another avenue I was considering is the GTX 1070, which I know is a 1440p card, but my reasoning is that as games become more demanding, the extra performance on the 1070 will keep me maxed out at 60fps @ 1080p for a good while longer than the RX480, even if DX12\Vulkan gets more popular, and the RX480 will become a better performer (and better value), but will never touch the 1070.

Still CPU will be an issue, though I imagine I could go 1070 now, and change out mobo and CPU when Zen comes along, or I can go with an i5, and get a boost in performance then.

I might consider trying VR sometime in the future, which again, leans me toward 1070, but again, CPU remains an issue.

Thoughts?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
RX480 is a very good 1080p card. The GTX 1060 is coming out very soon, though, and seems likely to be faster and more expensive; how much of both remains to be seen.

GTX 1070 is very nearly as fast as RX 480 Crossfire, but without the disadvantages of Crossfire. It would certainly overkill 1080p for a very long time.

VR: don't worry about that for now. By the time the jury is in on whether it fizzled or not, and which platforms for it succeeded or failed, it'll be time to upgrade your hardware in general anyway, and you'll have a lot better understanding then of what hardware to get.
 
With your current setup, I would think that the RX 480 (or similar) would be your best bet until you can update your cpu. I do think that a GTX 1070 is a great card, but like you mentioned, I think that the FX-6300 would bottleneck the card. Some games are more sensitive than others obviously. I think that FO4 specifically is pretty sensitive to cpu performance:

Fallout 4 CPU Benchmark: Major Impact on Performance - i3, i5, i7, & FX
 
Good points all around. I'll wait at least until the 1060 AIBs get some real world benchmarks and DX12/Vulkan comparisons to see if it's worth the extra $$ for the performance. Then I can look at a CPU upgrade in the near future, and have a more balanced build.

Thanks for the responses.
 
Yup waiting for both RX480 and 1060 AIBs seems to be the way to go. If you decide to go for the RX480 you could probably use the rest of your cash for a 1080p freesync monitor.
 
Get an AIB 480, Stay away from NVIDIA if you wanna play DX12 or Vulkan games in the future. Also i saw Fury X for $389 at amazon yerterday.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4CR
like this
AIB RX480, 8Gb more future proof and likely better architecture looking to DX12 etc...
 
I would get a 480 (should be around twice as fast as the 370), that will be enough for a while at 1080p. Also spend $30-$40 on a high quality cpu cooler and OC that cpu you can still get by on it for quite a while.
 
ecogen said:
Yup waiting for both RX480 and 1060 AIBs seems to be the way to go. If you decide to go for the RX480 you could probably use the rest of your cash for a 1080p freesync monitor.
Click to expand...

Freesync would be cool, but this is actually a home theatre\gaming setup in the basement, so the 55" TV is my only monitor. I specifically scoped out this TV because of low lag, and visual quality at a good price. There really wasn't anything I could find in my price range and features that also offered more than 60hz true refresh rate, and I didn't want to go into 4k as I wanted to run native resolutions, being pushed by a moderate system. That and I didn't want to buy a crap 4k TV, when I could get a nice 1080. Also, my HT receiver doesn't support 4k anyway.

But I will save up the remaining for a nice CPU. The i5-6400 and 6500s have reviewed really well...
 
wantapple said:
Get an AIB 480, Stay away from NVIDIA if you wanna play DX12 or Vulkan games in the future. Also i saw Fury X for $389 at amazon yerterday.
Click to expand...

Opening a can of worms here, but the real question is how much the gap would close between the 1060 and RX480 in DX12\Vulkan situations.

There is little to no doubt that AMD will benefit from continued proliferation of DX12/Vulkan, and DOOM has been the best example of nice jumps in performance, when it is properly implemented.

Nvidia cards have seen some improvement with Vulkan (DOOM) while Nvidia cards have seen little or no improvement with DX12 implementations, or even worse performance in other games (Total War:Warhammer, I think?)

So, will the 1060 performance get worse in DX12\Vulkan? Maybe to probably. Will it be superseded by the RX480 in the Vulkan/DX12 realm? Possibly, but if the class match ups are accurate, 1060=980 and RX480=970, it'll be quite a swap up. AIBs will blur this, of course.

I don't think that the changes will be so massive that one will be the absolute winner over all gamedom in the 1080p realm, but I do think the value proposition between the cards will change over time, but prices will probably be changed to match. The games one plays would really say if the owner is happy with that outcome, I suppose.

I did see that FuryX deal too, though for that price, I'd almost rather go with a 1070 when they drop in price, and have the better power draw. The 1070 beats the FuryX anyway in all but the AOTS benchmark. Granted, as we see more DX12/Vulkan friendly software, the value will change, so that one's also up in the air. But a fair question is, do I want better overall performance that I know I would get now, or better overall performance in the future? I know the world will go DX12\Vulkan, but how long will that take? 1, 2 years? If the Fury drops to crazy low prices, I would be more willing to go that route and wait:)
 
N4CR said:
AIB RX480, 8Gb more future proof and likely better architecture looking to DX12 etc...
Click to expand...

See my response to wantapple. I agree that RX480 represents the future, but the performance metrics in the interim shows that we are not in a black and white situation.
 
ssnyder28 said:
I would get a 480 (should be around twice as fast as the 370), that will be enough for a while at 1080p. Also spend $30-$40 on a high quality cpu cooler and OC that cpu you can still get by on it for quite a while.
Click to expand...

I do like this idea. One caveat, is I have a msi 970a-g46, which as is known to have MOSFET \ VRM overheating issues due to the 4+1 phase. In fact, there was a BIOS update that actually throttles performance when a FX-8xxx is used, because the TDP is too high for the board's default heat dissipation to handle under load.

I could probably get away with a decent overclock with the FX6300 and aftermarket cooler, as the TDP is realistically about 1/2 of the FX-8xxx series. I just don't want to jump through hoops trying to cool the VRMs either. Nevertheless, it's worth a look see.

Nothing's ever easy ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top