GPU upgrade, worth waiting for Pascal?

[Muoteck]

I have GTX 560 Ti currently and I'm considering upgrading to 970 and buying new monitor for 1080p gaming (playing in 1680x1050 now). The thing is, new Nvidia cards are supposed to be released in 2016 and it looks like they will offer much better performance (and Nvidia will probably milk those for a few years s well). I'm not in any hurry to actually upgrade, as the current card still performs good .

So, should I wait and get some mid-range Pascal GPU when they are available (even if it costs a bit more - can easily save some extra $ until they are released) and possibly get 1440p monitor or just get 970? I'd like it to last another 4+ years.

[Denpepe]

I suggest waiting if you are not in a hurry, it's what I'm doing. I will add that even though I'm a fan of Nvidia I would not recommend getting a 970 at all since the equivalent AMD card is every bit as fast and has better Dx12 support which you will need to make your card last as long as possible.

[Lathais]

I would wait. The current nVidia line while not bad, is really getting outdone by AMD. First thing is DS12 support. While the 9xx series will support it, due to hardware architecture it can never fully support ASync Compute at the hardware level and will have to emulate that with software. Current AMD cards do, therefore will perform better with DX12. Since DX12's adoption rate looks like it is going to be much faster than previous versions, it would be a good idea to have a card that fully supports it. Pascal will, so I would wait for it.

Also, current AMD cards perform better than current nVidia cards, especially with the latest drivers. AMD was only ahead at higher resolutions before but with the latest drivers they are just plain performing better and in most cases cost less. nVidia cards are just not in a good spot right now.

[Muoteck]

Alright, thanks for answers. Much more sensible to wait.

I didn't really want AMD as it seems that a lot of people have issues with drivers lately. And I'd rather not have my PC burn after update

[Lathais]

Alright, thanks for answers. Much more sensible to wait.

I didn't really want AMD as it seems that a lot of people have issues with drivers lately. And I'd rather not have my PC burn after update

Well, nVidia had an issue earler this year that a driver update caused older cards to fry too. Both sides have driver issues. Period. If anything, in recent times, nVidia has actually had issues that affected a wider range of people than AMD. In general though, nVidia does release with stronger drivers, then AMD drivers catch up over time. This is evidenced by the new Crimson drivers for AMD which made cards that were performing worse than nVidia counterparts at 1080p start performing better. Whereas nVidia was already pretty otimized and can't get as much of an increase, AMD did.

I would not make your decision based on drivers, because both sides screw up. Best thing to do is just look at who is performing better at the time you are ready to purchase. Unless you use one of the features exclusive to one camp or the other, no real point in sticking to one brand. Currently, AMD wins, after pascal comes out, nVidia will likely be king again, then AMD will release something and go head-to-head until they do driver updates and possibly pull ahead again, until nVidias next series.

[KLPath]

While the 9xx series will support it, due to hardware architecture it can never fully support ASync Compute at the hardware level and will have to emulate that with software. Current AMD cards do, therefore will perform better with DX12. Since DX12's adoption rate looks like it is going to be much faster than previous versions, it would be a good idea to have a card that fully supports it. Pascal will, so I would wait for it.

Do you have a source on this? I've been checking on this every now and then for the last couple of months and it seems like it's still unknown if
pascal will support async compute in hardware. I keep reading things like "pascal was already taped out when this whole async compute
issue came about so it might not be included". I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just unable to find any kind of confirmation.

[Evildeffy]

Do you have a source on this? I've been checking on this every now and then for the last couple of months and it seems like it's still unknown if
pascal will support async compute in hardware. I keep reading things like "pascal was already taped out when this whole async compute
issue came about so it might not be included". I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just unable to find any kind of confirmation.

No-one knows but nVidia's engineers.
The reason he states for waiting is because it's an unknown, besides AMD has confirmed mass production to happen early Q2 2016 of their new line of GPUs as well so they should be available from end of Q2/beginning of Q3 if they keep their schedule.

Either way it's quite possibly worth it but if the OP cannot wait than getting a new card now it's pretty much AMD being the better buy up until the GTX 980Ti.
And even then the Fury/Fury X is good but it's a bit awkward since AMD has locked proper overclocking capabilities due to new technology.

[Deleted]

If you ever find yourself asking question "is it worth waiting for X" then answer is most likely yes, since you ask means you don't actually need upgrade. I've been asking myself that question for quite some time and am still running grx 260 216. so yeah go figure, turns out I want an upgrade but don't actually need one

[Bigvizz]

besides AMD has confirmed mass production to happen early Q2 2016 of their new line of GPUs as well so they should be available from end of Q2/beginning of Q3 if they keep their schedule.

Cite? I can't find any info on this the only release I see for 2Q of 2016 is the Zen CPU.

[Evildeffy]

Cite? I can't find any info on this the only release I see for 2Q of 2016 is the Zen CPU.

AMD Greenland GPU Coming Next Summer On 14nm – To Enter Mass Production In Q2 2016

[Bigvizz]

Thanks :-)

[Shinzou]

You have to take games into account as well.

There have been numerous major releases this year which performed very poorly on AMD cards. Even though the AMD cards performed better than the nVidia ones did on paper and some benchmarks, nVidia performed better in practice.

It took patches and driver updates weeks after release before AMD cards were able to improve. They still lagged behind nVidia a bit though.

[Evildeffy]

You have to take games into account as well.

There have been numerous major releases this year which performed very poorly on AMD cards. Even though the AMD cards performed better than the nVidia ones did on paper and some benchmarks, nVidia performed better in practice.

It took patches and driver updates weeks after release before AMD cards were able to improve. They still lagged behind nVidia a bit though.

Exaggerating a bit with "numerous"?

Also the latest patch/driver was what 1 week? And that was with Witcher 3 AFAIK so ...

If they really are numerous I'd like to know which exactly by you specifying a list.

[Remilia]

I imagine game works game or crappy devs like project cars. You know.... the stuff people shouldn't even be supporting. After all, who doesn't like tessellated light! I wish I was joking but that does exist in Fall Out 4 where light is tessellated texture and volumetric instead of using raycast / compute to get a more accurate and more importantly better performing for every graphics vendor.

[Evildeffy]

I imagine game works game or crappy devs like project cars. You know.... the stuff people shouldn't even be supporting. After all, who doesn't like tessellated light! I wish I was joking but that does exist in Fall Out 4 where light is tessellated texture and volumetric instead of using raycast / compute to get a more accurate and more importantly better performing for every graphics vendor.

I was more poking the fact of "numerous" games..

Numerous implies a great many games ... where it really wasn't.

The Witcher 3 (driver under a week), Project Cars (deliberately fucked for AMD by nVidia horny developer) and Fallout 4 (same as Witcher).

Batman: Arkham Knight I won't consider due to the fact it was fucked on PC for everyone regardless.

So if there are more games than this, sure list me the "numerous" amount of them.

Also Remilia.. if you can't support proper compute.. gotta do something to your strengths.. it's partially understandable due to nVidia's position.
But yes GameWorks is a blight upon any gaming community and should die the most painful horrible death possible.

[mrgreenthump]

Fallout 4 (same as Witcher).

Tbh Fallout 4 never was broken to begin with, the later driver just optimized a few things.