Suggestion on upgrading GPU?

smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Dec 3, 2016
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So I bought a NCASE M1 v1 back in the day along with a GTX 780 reference with blower. The GTX 780 has served me well but I recently upgraded my 1080p monitor to a 1440p Freesync ultrawide and the GTX 780 is starting to struggle.

I'm looking at a Vega 56, GTX 1070, or GTX 1080 as a replacement. My current power supply should be able to handle those since they are roughly the same TDP as the GTX 780.

My M1 only has one SSD in the front panel and a 4770k CPU on a top-down air cooler.

What would be a good replacement GPU? I'm leaning towards the Vega 56 due to the freesync monitor, but the GTX's seem to be a better value and a lower TDP. Are blower coolers still the way to go for the M1? Are there any blower (or AIB) coolers that are better than the reference cards?
 

Soul_Est

SFF Guru
SFFn Staff
Feb 12, 2016
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You are better off with a new Radeon RX 580 or Vega 56 card due to their support of Freesync.
 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
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I agree, with the FreeSync monitor I would go with the Vega 56. Just checking Newegg and prices for them are back to a reasonable level.
 

TheHig

King of Cable Management
Oct 13, 2016
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I have a Freesync 1440p 144hz monitor and ran it with an RX 480 Nitro and it was pretty easy to dial in settings to get the 90FPS that is the ceiling for my monitors freesync range. 30-90 to be exact. So 90 fps is pretty nice so depending on your display's sync range the 580 may do just fine at dialed in settings. Especially if you have a 60Hz panel, sync away and hold that 60 fps/sync synergy for some really smooth gaming with money saved.

However...

if you have high refresh monitor a 1070, or better yet, 1080 as folks here have suggested will get you 1440p with eye candy and high fps. I ran a 1070 and enabled 'adaptive sync or Fast sync' in the Nvidia control panel and fell in love with gaming at over 90fps up to 144fps (capped by adaptive sync at the monitor's refresh rate , fast sync will not cap to refresh rate)

TDLR:

60hz panel then the RX 580 freesync gets my vote for bang for buck gaming. Dialed in settings at 1440p though.

going for over 60 fps at 1440p? Then splurge on the Vega 56 or go all in on the GTX 1080 because you will need it especially with eye candy.

Cheers
 
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smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Dec 3, 2016
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My 1440p ultrawide is up to 75hz with FreeSync, or 60hz without.

Vega 56 is down to $420 in the USA now...

Might as well wait a few days and see what the GTX 1070ti reviews look like
 
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rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
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My 1440p ultrawide is up to 75hz with FreeSync, or 60hz without.

Vega 56 is down to $420 in the USA now...

Might as well wait a few days and see what the GTX 1070ti reviews look like

Yeah I have to agree, prices are down to reasonable levels for the Vega 56 but if they bring the 1070 Ti in at the rumored price ($420) I think I would have to go with the 1070 Ti. If the performance justifies it of course.