Poll: GTX 1070 vs. 1080

[gorfias]

I'm seeing a lot of gaming rigs posted for sale on line.

Many of the more elite pre-builds have a GTX 1070. After taking a look, it appears that the 1080 costs nearly double what a 1070 costs but I doubt it is providing twice the FPS.

I'm interested in your experiences. Have you heard, if you have the money, the GTX 1080 is worth the extra money?

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Sorry I can't speak from experience as I have neither of these cards. But looking at the benches the difference is between 10-30%. The gap narrows as you go into crazier, higher res, but both cards are and will be fully capable of smashing frame rates for the next few years.

IMHO I think the 1060 is the sweet spot for gamers, 1070 would be for enthusiast setups, after that the price per performance increase ratio is just not worth it. Unless you absolutely want to be top of the curve, playing at 4K, multi-monitor setups, maxed out most demanding games, or even other purposes.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Sorry I can't speak from experience as I have neither of these cards. But looking at the benches the difference is between 10-30%. The gap narrows as you go into crazier, higher res, but both cards are and will be fully capable of smashing frame rates for the next few years.

IMHO I think the 1060 is the sweet spot for gamers, 1070 would be for enthusiast setups, after that the price per performance increase ratio is just not worth it. Unless you absolutely want to be top of the curve, playing at 4K, multi-monitor setups, maxed out most demanding games, or even other purposes.

I myself will be gunning for a 1070 build. There are system builders in my area and I can save up for a system with a 6700K, 16GB RAM and 1070. I can then later on add a second card.

 

[gorfias]

I myself will be gunning for a 1070 build. There are system builders in my area and I can save up for a system with a 6700K, 16GB RAM and 1070. I can then later on add a second card.

That is about where I'd like to be. Do I build myself or just get one on special for about $1,200 US ? We'll see. I'm OK for now. Not sure about chicken/egg or both. Do I do the build, get the upgraded 4K monitor or wait till I can do both?

IMHO I think the 1060 is the sweet spot for gamers, 1070 would be for enthusiast setups, after that the price per performance increase ratio is just not worth it. Unless you absolutely want to be top of the curve, playing at 4K, multi-monitor setups, maxed out most demanding games, or even other purposes.

I am an enthusiast but for now, I've got two rigs and they are AMD for now. An HD 7970 in one, an RX 480, 8 Gb in the other. The RX 480, depending upon what the developers put emphasis in, can keep up with a 1060. Funny thing: I have the 7970 on a computer with a smaller screen than the setup with the RX 480, but as long as I tone down just a little bit, the settings on cutting edge games like Battlefield 1, still looks pretty dang good. If I do go for the 1070, for now, its more about bragging rights than really seeing a big difference at 1080p.

Course, a new 4 K monitor? It will happen

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I myself will be gunning for a 1070 build. There are system builders in my area and I can save up for a system with a 6700K, 16GB RAM and 1070. I can then later on add a second card.

That is about where I'd like to be. Do I build myself or just get one on special for about $1,200 US ? We'll see. I'm OK for now. Not sure about chicken/egg or both. Do I do the build, get the upgraded 4K monitor or wait till I can do both?

IMHO I think the 1060 is the sweet spot for gamers, 1070 would be for enthusiast setups, after that the price per performance increase ratio is just not worth it. Unless you absolutely want to be top of the curve, playing at 4K, multi-monitor setups, maxed out most demanding games, or even other purposes.

I am an enthusiast but for now, I've got two rigs and they are AMD for now. An HD 7970 in one, an RX 480, 8 Gb in the other. The RX 480, depending upon what the developers put emphasis in, can keep up with a 1060. Funny thing: I have the 7970 on a computer with a smaller screen than the setup with the RX 480, but as long as I tone down just a little bit, the settings on cutting edge games like Battlefield 1, still looks pretty dang good. If I do go for the 1070, for now, its more about bragging rights than really seeing a big difference at 1080p.

Course, a new 4 K monitor? It will happen

Yeah I'm also in a similar boat. But either way, if you are *definitely* going 4K monitor one day, you should make sure you get the 1070 at least. Because going 4K @ 60fps is awesome, but having to turn back to 1080p one day would suck. I'm more deciding between 1060/1070 though, because I can't bring myself to spend $600+ on a 1080.

I have 2 rigs (one for FPS gaming/work/server, another for racing simulators only) both very old i5's which I'm afraid will not do a 1070 much justice. They run a GTX 970 and 560 Ti respectively. The 560 is obviously going to be the first to go, as the 970 is flawless in all applications thus far. It's in the racing rig now because of Forza Horizon 3, which is so damn poorly optimized that even many new i7/1080 setups are struggling. But either way, it's time for a new one, and that $1,000 is what makes me wait for way too long.

To build a new rig though, I always to prefer to build myself when I can be bothered, I just like swapping and picking parts, and the experience of building in itself. Don't have to make compromises either, such as exact amount of RAM, how many watt PSU, or SSD/HDD setup for example.

 

[gorfias]

Yeah I'm also in a similar boat. But either way, if you are *definitely* going 4K monitor one day, you should make sure you get the 1070 at least. Because going 4K @ 60fps is awesome, but having to turn back to 1080p one day would suck. I'm more deciding between 1060/1070 though, because I can't bring myself to spend $600+ on a 1080.

I have 2 rigs (one for FPS gaming/work/server, another for racing simulators only) both very old i5's which I'm afraid will not do a 1070 much justice. They run a GTX 970 and 560 Ti respectively. The 560 is obviously going to be the first to go, as the 970 is flawless in all applications thus far. It's in the racing rig now because of Forza Horizon 3, which is so damn poorly optimized that even many new i7/1080 setups are struggling. But either way, it's time for a new one, and that $1,000 is what makes me wait for way too long.

To build a new rig though, I always to prefer to build myself when I can be bothered, I just like swapping and picking parts, and the experience of building in itself. Don't have to make compromises either, such as exact amount of RAM, how many watt PSU, or SSD/HDD setup for example.

Guy kept telling me I just had to get the RX 480. He got one for $240 with 8 Gig of RAM and asked if I wanted his old GTX 970 for $240. I did not bite so he let me buy the 480 from him. My take (and judging by benchmark videos on youtube) is that he found no performance difference. The GTX 970 is still on par with the newer RX 480. Great card.

It is on a first gen I7 (the 930) build and the two appear to pair nicely. Were the chip any slower, I do think the CPU would bottleneck the 480.

I'm thinking I need to save up for a completely new build (I7-930 is 8 or 9 years old!) and my 2600K is about 6 years old. Save up enough for both a new build and 4K monitor at the same time. Best of luck to you in your endeavors.

Power supply would be the main reason for me to build rather than buy. Pre-made rigs often cheap out on the motherboard and power supply thinking no one really cares about their specs. But, your power supply dies and you have a boat anchor till you R&R it. IT matters. No bloatware is a big plus too. Only thing holding me back is that some of the pre-built deals are terrific.