The Best Graphics Cards 2016: TechSpot's top picks for every budget

Ive got a Palit GTX1070 and I have to say that gaming at 1080p is absolute perfection.

It replaced my aging GTX770 which if im honest also done the job just fine. I highly recommend the card.

That being said im looking to upgrade next year from my current Core i5 2500K, 8GbDDR3 to the next gen CPU with DDR4 memory.
 
Ive got a Palit GTX1070 and I have to say that gaming at 1080p is absolute perfection.

It replaced my aging GTX770 which if im honest also done the job just fine. I highly recommend the card.

That being said im looking to upgrade next year from my current Core i5 2500K, 8GbDDR3 to the next gen CPU with DDR4 memory.
Your 1070 is a bit overkill for 1080p gaming.... you can comfortably game at 1440P with it as well...
 
Ive got a Palit GTX1070 and I have to say that gaming at 1080p is absolute perfection.

It replaced my aging GTX770 which if im honest also done the job just fine. I highly recommend the card.

That being said im looking to upgrade next year from my current Core i5 2500K, 8GbDDR3 to the next gen CPU with DDR4 memory.
Don't upgrade just for the sake of upgrading. If the system is performing to absolute perfection as you mentioned, leave it as is.You're likely better off investing in a new monitor to get more out of your card, rather than upgrading your CPU & RAM.
 
Don't upgrade just for the sake of upgrading. If the system is performing to absolute perfection as you mentioned, leave it as is.You're likely better off investing in a new monitor to get more out of your card, rather than upgrading your CPU & RAM.
Im considering a new 4K TV in an attempt to game at 1440p, and push my card but apparently the response timings TV wise still leave a lot to be desired.
 
Graphics performance have gone totally banana.
I respect some need the highest performance, but for most, casual gaming can be done on lower end hardware.

I have a Gigabyte GTX750Ti Windforce edition in my rig. I do not game, but my missus uses the computer for HOMM 5 and 6, and both are played just fine on a 1080p monitor in High Detail. Framerates rarely dip below 50fps and the card is dead silent.

As for 2016/17 games most can easily be played on most low/midrange cards if one is not set on ultra quality. And you save money and noise....
 
Im considering a new 4K TV in an attempt to game at 1440p, and push my card but apparently the response timings TV wise still leave a lot to be desired.
Samsung TVs are not that bad in general.

Have you considered a 21:9 monitor? It will give you great immersion while still not being as heavy as 4K.
 
Samsung TVs are not that bad in general.

Have you considered a 21:9 monitor? It will give you great immersion while still not being as heavy as 4K.
Well I have 2 27" monitors just now but there 16:9. Truth is I do most gaming on my 43" LG TV for the screen size. I can only imagine what a monitor that size would cost. Well outside my price range I imagine. ;)
 
Graphics performance have gone totally banana.
I respect some need the highest performance, but for most, casual gaming can be done on lower end hardware.

I have a Gigabyte GTX750Ti Windforce edition in my rig. I do not game, but my missus uses the computer for HOMM 5 and 6, and both are played just fine on a 1080p monitor in High Detail. Framerates rarely dip below 50fps and the card is dead silent.

As for 2016/17 games most can easily be played on most low/midrange cards if one is not set on ultra quality. And you save money and noise....
If I cared about saving money, I'd be reading more books or playing chess. Gaming is a hobby, not a necessity... so I sure didn't get into it to save money. If someone has a better rig than you, that doesn't mean it's overkill.

HOMM V system "requirements":

Pentium 4/Athlon XP or better
CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
OS: Windows 2000/XP
Video Card: 64 MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant video card (NVIDIA GeForce3+ / ATI Radeon 8500+)
DirectX version: DirectX 9.0c or higher (included on disc)
Free Disk Space: 2 GB

So you're assuming that "As for 2016/17 games most can easily be played on most low/midrange cards if one is not set on ultra quality" based on THIS game? Try running Crysis or Metro 2033 and get back to us.
 
And now we have this.

Final words;
So which one of these would I buy? That will likely boil down to whatever is on sale at a given time but I’ll step right into and say the RX 480 8GB. Not only has AMD proven they can match NVIDIA’s much-vaunted driver rollouts but through a successive pattern of key updates have made their card a parallel contender in DX11 and a runaway hit in DX12. That’s hard to argue against.
 
And now we have this.

Final words;
So which one of these would I buy? That will likely boil down to whatever is on sale at a given time but I’ll step right into and say the RX 480 8GB. Not only has AMD proven they can match NVIDIA’s much-vaunted driver rollouts but through a successive pattern of key updates have made their card a parallel contender in DX11 and a runaway hit in DX12. That’s hard to argue against.

What you've clearly missed is the first sentence "whatever is on sale at the moment".... and as the 1060 is selling a bit cheaper on Newegg, I'd go 1060... his sole basis for recommending the 480 is it's performance in DX12 - which is irrelevant for almost every title (he actually admits this in his article).
 
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