JEMC said:
It's a big deal... if you notice it. I game on a 60Hz monitor with relatively high response time of 8ms, and I don't have any trouble playing any kind of game. Both FreeSync and G-Sync are cool techs that are helpful for some users, but they don't do much for others.
It's true that Vulkan isn't gaining any traction, sadly. As for which card to get, I agree that Vega 56 seems to be a much better choice than its bigger brother, and I wholeheartedly agree that Nvidia's Founders Edition cards aren't good choices (unless you need a blower cooler). That said, I disagree with your negative view on the 1070. It's a very competitive card and, if the news about the real Vega pricing is true, it will offer a better price/performance ratio than Vega 56. So, in my opinion No buy : 1070FE, 1080FE, Vega 56/64 Launch Buy : 1080AIB, 1070AIB, Vega 56 AIB |
That sounds reasonable. I don't mean to say 1070AIB is a bad card by any stretch. The noise and thermals would certainly have me choosing 1070, even FE, over 56 as it currently stands. It's just that the price/performance seems to favor 56. Maybe well-overclocked 1070AIB is all around superior, that would be fair given how long 10xx has been out now. It's predictably a solid performer that beasts 1080p, and unless you go insane with settings, plows through 1440p as well. 4k remains elusive, with even elite-level 1080ti models like the Strix not truly strong enough to guarantee solid performance in many titles (albeit dropping some settings can make things pretty damned good in almost any game, with very little hit to actual IQ).
AIB 56 will be interesting for sure. I don't wish any ill will against miners, but it has REALLY hurt the PC gamers with the crazy price inflations, and I think it will actually harm AMD long term. Sure, they're selling basically every x70+ they can make, but how many actually go to gamers these days? I'd be VERY surprised if more than 10% of new 470/480/570/580 cards went to gamers, with the gigantic bulk going to miners. If the mining crashes again (like it did when ASICs busted GPUs for Bitcoin), it will flood the market with (mostly) abused Polaris cards for dirt cheap, which may run into reliability problems and frustrated users either getting warranty replacements (losers : AIB makers), or getting warranty denied (losers : customers). It goes without saying that it would drop prices so heavily that it would be hard to recommend $400+ Vega 56 against $100ish used 580 8GB. $100 sounds extreme, but if hundreds of thousands of GPUs suddenly become worthless for mining, the market will fall out.
Mining has hurt Nvidia as well, but I don't think to the same extreme. 1050ti and 1060 seem very popular with gamers, and are actually pretty widely available, unlike Polaris stuff.