Custom RX Vega 64 vs Custom GTX 1080 with 1440p Freesync

AngryGoldfish

AngryGoldfish

Old N Gold
I know NBD and Alien both use Nvidia graphics cards after realising that Vega wasn't what they wanted, I'd still like to ask the forums what everyone thinks, or what they'd do in my situation.

So another review for the Strix RX Vega 64 came out today, and it's not what I want. The only benefit the custom cooler and PCB has over the original is it is quieter. While that's a big deal, it's not enough, and it may be the straw that broke the camel's back.

So I quickly searched prices on GTX 1080's, and a Gigabyte Aorus 1080 can be found for €540-580. That's probably slightly more than Vega, but custom Vega is two months away, draws a lot more power, doesn't overclock as well, isn't supported by most games as well, and will be a hotter and louder GPU.

So then I quickly tested the two games I'm playing right now with my current setup: Batman Arkham Knight and Mad Max. I spent about fifteen minutes trying to decide whether Freesync at the FPS I play at (70-90 as a minimum range; 90-120 as an ideal) was noticeable. I could barely tell the difference. In fact, unless someone gave me a blind test, I don't know if I could confidently say there was any difference.

So (another 'so'), my question is:

1) Buy an Aorus 1080 now (it's the cooler I want)

Pros:
Greater out of the box performance in the majority of the games I play now and intend to play
A lot more out of the box performance with overclocking
Cooler
Quieter
I can finally be able to start my constantly delayed build

Cons:
Ever-so-slightly more money than I'd like to spend
No Freesync
Volta is not that far away
Vega could improve with drivers
I'd rather support AMD

2) Wait for Aorus RX Vega 64

Pros:
Freesync
Might be slightly cheaper
More room for improvement in performance
Fun to tweak
I want to support AMD

Cons:
Consumes more power
Could potentially be louder
Exhausts more heat into the case
Less overclocking headroom
Mediocre performance in many games
Might never come
If it does come it could take another 2-3 months
Volta is around the corner
I'm frustrated with AMD

3) Wait for Volta or Vega to improve

I really don't want to do this as I've already waited for months and months, but I guess it is an option.
 
Conclusion fella? Don't get me wrong I totally loved my 290X Vapor X but the I know the tech interests you :) my advice buy later :)
 
After having benchmarked over the past few days, granite not extensive testing, compared to my old 390x, the 1080 in my synthetic scores wasn't that much faster. In fact out of the box it was slower in firestrike(overall score). Other than that it was not all that much farther ahead until I started messing a bit with fan profiles/etc.

But in games is it faster than my 390x was? Yes. Depends on the game but generally speaking it was faster with quite a gap in between. Coming from my 480 is it faster? Not as much as I would have liked, but at the same time I'm running faster at higher settings so it's understandable.

With that said I do like my 1080. Do I miss my freesync? Yeah I do actually. I don't notice it in my high framerate games(like WoT for example) unless I actively looking for it, but in games where I don't hit at least 90fps I notice the difference. It bothers me a bit but I'm not sure if it was because of the Nvidia technology I enabled (Witcher 3) that was causing bad frame times, but I did notice.

With all that said the 1080 is good card. Is it worth upgrading by selling the Strix? Depends on how much you sell it for. I don't think it's worth the money for it by itself however. I only bought mine because I am selling my 480 AND old spare PS4. If I didn't get to sell both I wouldn't have upgraded.

Also just popped in my head. If Navi is 7nm, means you have to wait till 2019. So unless AMD can make a 12nm Vega 20(whatever) that's not bad, then I would probably upgrade now if you can get good money for the Strix
 
NeverBackDown said:
After having benchmarked over the past few days, granite not extensive testing, compared to my old 390x, the 1080 in my synthetic scores wasn't that much faster. In fact out of the box it was slower in firestrike(overall score). Other than that it was not all that much farther ahead until I started messing a bit with fan profiles/etc.

But in games is it faster than my 390x was? Yes. Depends on the game but generally speaking it was faster with quite a gap in between. Coming from my 480 is it faster? Not as much as I would have liked, but at the same time I'm running faster at higher settings so it's understandable.

With that said I do like my 1080. Do I miss my freesync? Yeah I do actually. I don't notice it in my high framerate games(like WoT for example) unless I actively looking for it, but in games where I don't hit at least 90fps I notice the difference. It bothers me a bit but I'm not sure if it was because of the Nvidia technology I enabled (Witcher 3) that was causing bad frame times, but I did notice.

With all that said the 1080 is good card. Is it worth upgrading by selling the Strix? Depends on how much you sell it for. I don't think it's worth the money for it by itself however. I only bought mine because I am selling my 480 AND old spare PS4. If I didn't get to sell both I wouldn't have upgraded.

Also just popped in my head. If Navi is 7nm, means you have to wait till 2019. So unless AMD can make a 12nm Vega 20(whatever) that's not bad, then I would probably upgrade now if you can get good money for the Strix
Click to expand...

That's weird. A GTX 1080 at 2000Mhz should offer almost double RX 480 performance, though probably not in synthetics.

I think I'd miss Freesync as well, and I'd miss Radeon Settings. I'd miss being on the red team. It's just such a shame Vega is so far behind. I was really hoping for a better architecture. The 1080Ti is out of my price range and I don't know if I can wait until Volta, so I'm stuck really. If Vega had come out 8 months ago, I wouldn't mind. If Vega had come out as a 200W TDP card, I wouldn't mind. If Vega nipped at the heals of the 1080Ti, I wouldn't mind. If Vega 64 was only $450, I wouldn't mind. But not even one of those requirements have been met.

The next games I'll be playing will be:

Deus Ex - an overclocked 1080 gets the same performance as a Vega 64
Fallout 4 - a stock 1080 is faster than Vega
AC Black Flag - Nvidia is faster
Hitman - Nvidia is actually on top surprisingly, or at the very least on par
Wolfenstein Enemy Territory - Nvidia is miles faster at max settings
MGSV - not sure on this one but it's so easy to run anyway
GOW4 - Nvidia beats AMD even with DX12
Project Cars - I think Nvidia wins in this one
DIRT Rally - AMD wins in this one
BF1 - Biggest win for AMD

Those games will last me a long time. I play games slowly and thoroughly. By the time I've finished them it'll be well into next year when Volta is out and Vega is either on its way out (replaced by Navi) or has improved to the point where it is clearly ahead of Pascal (not Volta obviously).

I don't know how much I can sell the Strix Fury for. Maybe I could get £200 or so for it. I may not even bother selling it though. I may keep it. I have grown quite fond of it. It'll be a good backup card for sure.
 
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Tolemac said:
If I had spare money right now I would be doing this :). NBD like you I have a freesync screen but what I did find is enabling fast sync in the Nvidia control panel improves the gaming a lot
Click to expand...

Where could I find this fast sync? I'd like to try it out and report back here to see if it's beneficial and may help out Goldfish:)
 
OK so without repeating all of the stuff that made me go with a Titan XP (well, 1080Ti, it was the same price..) and being more specific now that Vega is out etc.

Stock Vega is very noisy. Why would you put up with that when you can have a custom card that uses a whole load less power and makes hardly any noise? sure, custom cooled Vega cards will no doubt solve the noise issue but then the ones being touted ATM will be LOLpriced. Vega Strix? haha you would need a king's ransom.

Freesync and G-sync came about because when games dipped to low FPS you got input lag. IE - something would happen on screen, you would react, but it would stutter causing issues. The first time I ever noticed this was BF3 on my GTX 470. I did not have enough VRAM, and I always played with Vsync on because tearing is disgusting. So basically there's a level where you are in a mall and you have a buttload of sniping to do and I was just messing it up badly. Bought a 6970 2gb, problem be gone.

However, G-sync and Freesync are useful in a couple of situations, but not to most. Reasoning is this, if you spent the extra you would spend on G-sync on a faster GPU then the chances are you would not even see the issues I speak of, let alone suffer from them. If you put that extra £100 into GPU "boof" then you would use G-sync less and less. Same goes for Freesync, it mostly operates from 45 FPS to 70 FPS IIRC, useless for me.

I know I keep mentioning it but I use Adaptive Vsync. Mostly because I throw a lot of GPU power at the issue, so rarely have the problems associated with G-sync and Freesync. IE - Titan XM on 1440p up until about 2-3 months ago Titan XP 1440 70hz. Games do not tear at low frame rates. They only tear when the signal FPS exceeds that of the monitor. So AVS turns it off when you don't need it (and stops stutter) and then turns it on when you do need it. Pretty much eliminating tear and input lag, just like the more expensive sync options.

Thus I would not care so much about your sync options and just buy the fastest GPU you can get your hands on. Which would be the 1080.
 
I'll have to try that. Mostly because apparently it does not lock you to the refresh rate :)

Edit. It would actually be useless to me sadly, given it breaks the games I play :(
 
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AlienALX said:
OK so without repeating all of the stuff that made me go with a Titan XP (well, 1080Ti, it was the same price..) and being more specific now that Vega is out etc.

Stock Vega is very noisy. Why would you put up with that when you can have a custom card that uses a whole load less power and makes hardly any noise? sure, custom cooled Vega cards will no doubt solve the noise issue but then the ones being touted ATM will be LOLpriced. Vega Strix? haha you would need a king's ransom.

Freesync and G-sync came about because when games dipped to low FPS you got input lag. IE - something would happen on screen, you would react, but it would stutter causing issues. The first time I ever noticed this was BF3 on my GTX 470. I did not have enough VRAM, and I always played with Vsync on because tearing is disgusting. So basically there's a level where you are in a mall and you have a buttload of sniping to do and I was just messing it up badly. Bought a 6970 2gb, problem be gone.

However, G-sync and Freesync are useful in a couple of situations, but not to most. Reasoning is this, if you spent the extra you would spend on G-sync on a faster GPU then the chances are you would not even see the issues I speak of, let alone suffer from them. If you put that extra £100 into GPU "boof" then you would use G-sync less and less. Same goes for Freesync, it mostly operates from 45 FPS to 70 FPS IIRC, useless for me.

I know I keep mentioning it but I use Adaptive Vsync. Mostly because I throw a lot of GPU power at the issue, so rarely have the problems associated with G-sync and Freesync. IE - Titan XM on 1440p up until about 2-3 months ago Titan XP 1440 70hz. Games do not tear at low frame rates. They only tear when the signal FPS exceeds that of the monitor. So AVS turns it off when you don't need it (and stops stutter) and then turns it on when you do need it. Pretty much eliminating tear and input lag, just like the more expensive sync options.

Thus I would not care so much about your sync options and just buy the fastest GPU you can get your hands on. Which would be the 1080.
Click to expand...

Yeah, really the biggest issue right now with Vega is that it needs water cooling to keep it quiet whilst still performing on par with a 1080. I can buy an Aorus 1080 for €600 (more than Vega likely) that performs above it while being quieter and cooler. That's a massive selling point for a small case like mine. Like I said, I would buy Vega if it had a 200W TDP as it would be so easy to cool comparatively. You probably could get a Vega 56 down to be as cool and quiet as a 1080, but I'd have to delay my build for another two months and I wouldn't have the performance I wanted.

I bought the last Jonsbo W2 case (it's been discontinued) so my build has started. I think I'm going to go with the 1080. Even if Vega gets a nice boost in performance with drivers, an overclocked 1080 will still be comparable whilst being as quiet as I want a GPU to be. Then when Volta's 2080 comes out mid next year, I can buy it. Then when Navi comes out, I might upgrade again and finally be back with Freesync.

I'll test out Adaptive Vsync and Fast Sync when I have my build finished. If worst comes to worst, I can always sell my 1080 and get Vega again. I don't mind too much. I just want to start my build. I'm fed up of waiting.
 
Hey man one thing before you pull the trigger... The only thing worrying me here is that you are going from a Fury to a 1080. So you are already at 1070 performance in most games.. I'm just worried that 600 euro is going to be too much for the bump you will get.

Maybe you should save that bit more and go 1080Ti? which is a massive boost rather than an incremental one?
 
AlienALX said:
Hey man one thing before you pull the trigger... The only thing worrying me here is that you are going from a Fury to a 1080. So you are already at 1070 performance in most games.. I'm just worried that 600 euro is going to be too much for the bump you will get.

Maybe you should save that bit more and go 1080Ti? which is a massive boost rather than an incremental one?
Click to expand...

I'd love to, mate, but I can't afford €800-850 for a GPU. I MIGHT be able to find the one I want second-hand if I were patient, but that's always a gamble. €650 is really my maximum.

Besides, in the games I play a Fury is nowhere near a 1070. In BF1, yeah, a Fury is on par, but not in the majority of games. I definitely wouldn't say a Fury is in the same league as a 1070 in most games. I would say in a 'few'.

If you look at this benchmark here, a Fury would be about the same level as a 980Ti. An overclock 1080 would be a sizable uplift in performance.

The same can be found with Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, [URL="https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_RX_Vega_64/24.html"]ROTR, Prey, and others
[/URL]
 
Since you are going with a 1080 you can now at least get the Forge your Army bundle and get a free game(Shadow of War) just to sweeten the deal:)
 
AngryGoldfish said:
Who's offering that? Like, what retailer?
Click to expand...

No idea. WYP posted that article about Nvidia starting a bundle earlier today.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lp/nvidia-shadow-of-war.html
OCUK has a promo page. I added a card to the basket but I didn't see the promo get added as well. In the US you would see it included, so not sure if the EU does it differently. But could always wait a day and see if they update the cards with the bundle.
 
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NeverBackDown said:
No idea. WYP posted that article about Nvidia starting a bundle earlier today.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lp/nvidia-shadow-of-war.html
OCUK has a promo page. I added a card to the basket but I didn't see the promo get added as well. In the US you would see it included, so not sure if the EU does it differently. But could always wait a day and see if they update the cards with the bundle.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing it out. The cheapest places to buy from are Germany, but either I can't find the one I want in stock or they won't ship to Ireland. I'm not sure if they offer the promotion.

I'm also having trouble sourcing the memory I want. This build is such a pain in the ass. I want to give people money, but they're making it so hard for me to do so.
 
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