GPU's again, still undecided

[Dune]

I still can't decide what GPU to get with my new machine (Ryzen 9 3950X on gigabyte mobo). What I want (3070) is hard to get, so should I continue to wait (forever) or buy something else instead? And what would be good enough for non-gamer, but doing modeling and rendering?
So once again, I's like some opinions...
I can have:
a gigabyte GF 1050 4GB for around €350, or
a MSI GTX 1650 4GB for €399, or
a gigabyte GTX 1660 super OC 6GB for around €669 (which is also twice as much), or
a gigabyte RTX 3060 12 GB vision or eagle for around €760
I tend to opt for the first, so I can upgrade later, but maybe first is a very bad choice, and it's better to have a twice as expensive one anyway. Any ideas?

[Nala1977]

i am running 2x geforce nvidia 1080 in SLI for quite a while, can play 100% of the games around plus can render and they are pretty decent gpus.
To me there is absolutely no reason to throw so many money at modern GPU unless you are a heavy GPU render user, the whole market blew out of proportions with prices and stock availability.

I would advice you to get 2x gpus and put them in sLi and spend few, but that is just depending what you need the GPU for.
I dont know when and IF gpu will be implemented in Terragen and in what degrees, so i just think its quite overkill to get a 3000 serie, unless the previous series give you issues with your 3950x, which i doubt.

[KlausK]

What Nala1977 said - I would not

I really think buying old technology combined with a high end cpu is not what will keep you happy for a long time.
Not because of Terragen - the development cycle is much too slow to get you in trouble (like Nala1977 mentioned)
- but with the rest of the pipeline.
ZBrush, Speedtree, Marvelous and maybe even LightWave (surely Blender) and not to forget all the software dealing with
Materials and Rendering nowadays are all using the GPU more and more.

The Pandemic and the Bitcoin- (and all the others) hype will be over at some point but, prices won`t go down in the foreseeable future.

But I wrote all this in the other thread(s) already, I guess. Since your thinking (about hardware) seems to be predominantly determined
by "good enough" (this one comes up again and again) I would imagine I am not a good advisor for your decision process, haha.
I always like to add the extra headroom. Once the money is gone, it`s ok anyway. So why not spend it on the best you can get atm?
Saving for a big journey instead? - but WHEN will that be happening again? (just a joke at the times were living in...)

CHeers, Klaus

[Dune]

Thanks, Klaus. Yes, I know it's been discussed before, and I'm very slow in deciding. But I have to consider the waiting time (will it be 6 months or more than a year), and the price and specs I really need. A pity if I buy an expensive GPU now and in half a year a much better (3070) will be available again, for less money perhaps. On the other hand, a 3060 Eagle or Vision would probably be good enough for a long time... without the need to upgrade again to 3070 or higher. Doubt, doubts, sorry guys.
The RTX 3060 12GB is about the only one available here.

[KlausK]

No problem. I did not want to sound impatient or annoyed. Who am I to tell... Sorry if I made that impression.
It is a very difficult decision process, and you have valid arguments for sure.
And what a turn of events anyhow in the industry. There was short supply before Corona but now it`s just crazy.

Maybe buying a good GPU second hand might be something to consider in the meantime?
We have something similar here in CH like ebay called ricardo and there are very good deals to make quite often.
Sure, no warranty or support, but a lot of people over here do buy new stuff as it hits the market and resell after a year or two.
I have been lucky when buying this way (0: knockonwoodfingerscrossedandwhathaveyou).
I think, it  could be a long time waiting before the market eases again.

CHeers, Klaus

[Kadri]

... But I have to consider the waiting time (will it be 6 months or more than a year), and the price and specs I really need. A pity if I buy an expensive GPU now and in half a year a much better (3070) will be available again, for less money perhaps. ...

Ulco not sure what you mean. If you mean that you will buy a GPU only 6 months or so later just wait and look around then.
In 6 months there could be newer cards different prices etc.

We bought a card for my son last year. When we bought it it was the best from a price-performance aspect. It was not the fastest or expensive but it was great for that price. Now there are much better ones from a price-performance aspect. Now i use his card and he does have another one. That is faster but more expensive. Everything changes so fast.

I use Topaz AI, Hitfilm and newly Davinci resolve etc. Most of these use more of the GPU. So a faster card could help you for those workloads too. I use actually only one metric when i want to buy something new. Just how much money want you to give for that item. Then buy the fastest and best (fast and more Ram etc.) you can buy for that money.

[WAS]

My only suggestion right now is to be sure it's at least 6GB for DAZ and other software. 4GB is on the low end these days, and I've noticed some crashed in Blender, Character Creator and stuff coming from GPU and only thing I can think of is the fact I only have 4GB and it's doing a lot of raw real-time rendering with pretty large textures. Can't imagine it's just chipset errors, and must be just memory faults.

[Kadri]

My only suggestion right now is to be sure it's at least 6GB for DAZ and other software. 4GB is on the low end these days, and I've noticed some crashed in Blender, Character Creator and stuff coming from GPU and only thing I can think of is the fact I only have 4GB and it's doing a lot of raw real-time rendering with pretty large textures. Can't imagine it's just chipset errors, and must be just memory faults.

Jordan, i wouldn't buy anything lower then 8 gb Ram especially if you want to go to a 4k monitor and in general.
4 gb is certainly dead for me. I have a 6 gb card but it could be problematic in the near future.

If you want to use GPU rendering in some other apps more is even much better of course.

[WAS]

I have a 4k UWD (3440x1440) with RX 580 4GB, which is actually why I stated it. It runs fine except for Character Creator and occasionally in Blender if I mis type in like subdivs for software view (not render) and put it too high. Certainly can't play high settings in most modern games at 4K but with changing shadows down and post-processing can play most fine enough. Besides RTX focused games. They seem to have just bad AMD support in general.

With the 1080p monitor things were much better for gaming and stuff. Just not for 3D stuff. Such limited space, and scrolling full renders on screen is highly frustrating and annoying for quality control. Also color profile with True Color on this 4K is amazing. Such better viewing for art and creation. Though gotta be careful of brightness, as the extra range means I can easily make things too dark or too bright for more standard monitors.

8GB - 16GB would be best, but the price points right now are absolutely deplorable.

Just whatever you do don't get a 4GB card. First of all they are rip-offs. The price cut for 2GB of RAM from 6GB models is laughable, and when the chipset is capable of 4K streaming, now only limited because of asset storage, it just doesn't make sense. Like owning a sexy hot-rod, but you can't take it on the highway.

[Kadri]

I have a 4k UWD (3440x1440)...

Which one?

[WAS]

The LG 34UM95. Pretty nice for price I got it. Color is 8bit+FRC 1.07B. Pretty cool technology actually to simulate colours outside it's gamut to give you "True Colour" 10bit colours without actually having the capability. The 1.07B is the colour range, or 1.07 billion colours.

Draw back of this is, though, FRC only works at maximum hz, anything else and it cannot function (So if I have to lower resolution to 1080p for a game or something, it'll look like absolute garbage), and the screen will be very blue-ish and muddled. Additionally the monitor must be connected via USB to the computer to understand what colours it needs to display utilizing the True Color software.

[Kadri]

Looks like a nice monitor. Tempted to buy a 4k too...but have no money these days

[WAS]

Yeah, I'm actually not sure what happened. I looked online just now and this monitor is going for 400-600 used. I got it for 100 used at a pawn shop (2019-2020 cusp somewhere around there) and they are notorious for pricing above used prices. So I'm confused why it's so expensive now. I would have suggested finding one used. o.O

[Dune]

Thanks guys. So, I guess the €400 or so extra is worth it to get this gigabyte RTX 3060 12GB Eagle/Vison or Gaming. Vision would probably have the best specs (by the name of it), which I will check.

[Kadri]

In general i don't like the series with xx60 from Nvidia. The difference of these from the lower models are mostly not much.
xx70 or higher are better most of the time. But the price factor, especially these days, is bad of course.
Look around for some info about "best GPU for video and rendering" for example.
And have a look for some benchmarks Ulco.

It can get frustrating sometimes. If i have looked at the right benchmarks my sons GPU ( RTX 2070 Super) for example
is kinda faster then the RTX 3060. But there are other factors like a newer manufacturing process, less power need...and 12 versus 8 gb ram.
In the end i would prefer the RTX 3060 but would wait and buy a 3070 most probably.