Best Budget Gaming Card?

Roberty

Roberty

Extremely [H]
Joined
Nov 30, 2001
Messages
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Which card around $200 or less would be the best bet? My old GTX 960 has crapped the bed and I need a replacement without breaking the bank. Would the new GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G or the EVGA 03G-P4-6160-KR GTX 1060 be a decent upgrade for my failed card and if so which one since there is only about $10 separating them?
 
Tainted - why avoid the GTX1050Ti? So far, every review (not just [H]) puts it above the GTX950, and at par with the GTX960 4 GB, and in some cases (game dependent) within shouting distance of the GTX970. It mostly forces the AMD RX460 to pound sand, and is within shouting distance of the RX470 (said RX470 has both price AND availability issues compared to even the GTX1060 3 GB, let alone the RX460 - you can't sell what you can't stock).
I haven't just looked at the GTX1050Ti high end; I've looked at the middle-end (and even parts of the low-end) comparing performance to that high end - the biggest surprise is that the performance delta between bus-powered and non-bus-powered 4GB cards is miniscule to none. I looked at the middle-end because of airflow issues in my case (full-sized ATX case with a mATX motherboard WILL have airflow issues - the disparity creates a rather substantial dead-air zone due to components being squeezed into tighter quarters compared to standard ATX), while I looked at the LOW end in case other issues force a re-jiggering due to budget issues. The difference between low-end and high-end is $30USD for the GTX1050Ti - but that is in terms of price; what is the actual PERFORMANCE difference between low-end and high-end? It's not as tall as the price difference would normally indicate - look at the EVGA 1050Ti non-FTW cards (SC and Superclocked), for example; while both are priced lower than the MSI card [H] reviewed, they darn near equal it in performance - and neither has a 6-pin power plug. The Superclocked is the real fly in the MSI potion - it has dual fans, is the equivalent of the MSI in performance - yet costs $5USD less.
Saving money has value - why overspend for features you can't use yet (and depending on what you have in terms of hardware - such as your display) may not be able to use for a few years yet. 4K's not there yet for a lot of users - display prices are still too tall while quality is a crapshoot at even the middle-end of the current price curve.
 
The 1050Ti has no business being mentioned if the OP can drop $175 on a 470.

At that price, you're comfortably above a 1050Ti in both price / performance but not quite to the level of a $200+ 1060 / 480.
 
I would say the 470 is the answer.

Still you can find some low priced 1060's, I picked up an OC EVGA one for $239 with free gift for the EVGA PCIe adaptor and others actually got the 1060 cheaper than that. So nabing a great deal may also be the answer with either a Rx480 or GTX 1060.
 
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