GTX 1060 or GTX 1070

K

Hi Guys,

Following is my PC's configuration.

PSU:
Cooler Master RS-750-ACAA-A1 (Real Power Pro 750W)
Output Capacity: 750 Watts Continuous
Connectors:
PCI-E 8 Pin x 2
PCI-E 6 Pin x 2

MB:
ASROCK Z87 Extreme4
Slots:
3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4/PCIE5: single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x4 ) (PCIE4) / x4 (PCIE5)
- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
- 2 x PCI slots
- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
- Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™

RAM:
32GB (4 x 8GB G-Skill Ripjaws DD3-1600[F3-12800CL10S 8GBXL])

CPU
Intel i7-4770
On board Intel HD-4600

Drives:
2 x 120GB Samsung 840 SSD
1 x 1 TB Western Digital WDC10EZRX

The only games I play are Racing & City Building. FPS may be in future.
Primarily I use the machine for Photo Editing.

Also I "might" upgrade to a 2K monitor in an year or so.
Planning to keep this PC for another 7 years.

I am confused if I should go for Zotac GTX 1060 or with future in mind should I spend extra 14K and go for Zotac GTX 1070 ?

I think 1070 would be a better choice for that "2k monitor".

K

nac said:
I think 1070 would be a better choice for that "2k monitor".

Yep even I am having the same thought process, but in a corner of my mind I keep thinking 1070 is an overkill.

Kannan said:
Yep even I am having the same thought process, but in a corner of my mind I keep thinking 1070 is an overkill.

It's not overkill if you are not going to upgrade for 7 years after.

Considering modern games, even 1080 doesn't seem like an overkill after a while!

Sent from my ONE E1003 using Tapatalk

Even 1080 wont last 7 years..
can you imagine a single gpu released 7 years ago that still holds today

Nerevarine said:
can you imagine a single gpu released 7 years ago that still holds today

My 8800GT would like to have a word with you

. I have it on my old PC and still can run games like CS GO and Skyrim and handle 4k videos.

Seriously though, If you plan to "future proof" get the best card you can afford. It all boils down to this:

Either get the flagship and run it for 5 years. Or get a mid tier or entry level and upgrade every 2 years. Over a 5-6 year timeline, you are basically spending more or less the same.

A $500 flagship for 5 years, Play on ultra in year 1 and lower settings by the time you get to year 5.
A $250 graphics card every 2 years. Play on Medium-high settings throughout.

Better save money and get 1060. Sell it after 2-3 years and upgrade to another one.

anky said:
Better save money and get 1060. Sell it after 2-3 years and upgrade to another one.

+1 to this.

Use the money saved to buy a better PSU from Seasonic replacing that cooler master PSU.

warfreak said:
My 8800GT would like to have a word with you . I have it on my old PC and still can run games like CS GO and Skyrim and handle 4k videos.

Seriously though, If you plan to "future proof" get the best card you can afford. It all boils down to this:

Either get the flagship and run it for 5 years. Or get a mid tier or entry level and upgrade every 2 years. Over a 5-6 year timeline, you are basically spending more or less the same.

A $500 flagship for 5 years, Play on ultra in year 1 and lower settings by the time you get to year 5.
A $250 graphics card every 2 years. Play on Medium-high settings throughout.

Skyrim is a game released on 2011, your GPU released on 2007, the difference in years is 4, and 8800 GT was a high end card at that time..It cant even max out vanilla Skyrim
Similarly, CS GO is a source engine game released at 2012, yes it can max it out but source engine games are designed that way. Also, the year gap is not 7 years like I said...
Getting a higher end GPU for a longer period of time is not a good practice, if you cannot upgrade every 2-3 years and if u want to enjoy all extra benefits.. consider this, in a few years, there could be a new iteration of DirectX, and if you plan on buying a high end gpu for 5 years, it is possible that this gpu will not support it.. IMO its better to buy a mid-high end GPU that can still max out at required framerates, then after 2-3 years, sell it and buy another one..
Example :
A GTX 1060 now can max out all games, and after 2.5 years, sell it and get a different GPU.. instead of purchasing 1070 now at 40k for 4 years

Keep in mind, that if you can afford GTX 1070 tier gpu every 2-3 years, then by all means go for it

Nerevarine said:
Skyrim is a game released on 2011, your GPU released on 2007, the difference in years is 4, and 8800 GT was a high end card at that time..It cant even max out vanilla Skyrim
Similarly, CS GO is a source engine game released at 2012, yes it can max it out but source engine games are designed that way. Also, the year gap is not 7 years like I said...
Getting a higher end GPU for a longer period of time is not a good practice, if you cannot upgrade every 2-3 years and if u want to enjoy all extra benefits.. consider this, in a few years, there could be a new iteration of DirectX, and if you plan on buying a high end gpu for 5 years, it is possible that this gpu will not support it.. IMO its better to buy a mid-high end GPU that can still max out at required framerates, then after 2-3 years, sell it and buy another one..
Example :
A GTX 1060 now can max out all games, and after 2.5 years, sell it and get a different GPU.. instead of purchasing 1070 now at 40k for 4 years

Keep in mind, that if you can afford GTX 1070 tier gpu every 2-3 years, then by all means go for it

The 8800GT was NOT a high end card at all. It was the 8800GTX and 8800GTS. 8800GT was like what 1060 is today. Of course it couldn't "max out" skyrim but it serves its purpose well. But thats not the point I'm trying to make.

I said get the best card you can afford. That's a big if.

Consider the GTX 970 and a GTX 960. 970 was the "mainstream" and 960 was the "budget" card. Both were excellent and both had different target customers. But now both are older generation and a $240 GTX 1060 outmatches a $330 GTX 970. GTX 960 is not even considered in the benchmarks.

However, If I am in the second hand market, I will know that a gtx 970 selling at ~$200-250 now is a good investment than a ~$150 gtx 960. The point I am trying to make is better graphics card of a previous generation will get you better resale value compared to a entry-leve/budget card of a previous generation.

But it is a matter of choice which I leave upto OP.

tl;dr get the best you can afford be it 1060 or 1070.

I don't think that what happened between 9xx and 10xx card is something that you see so often. The difference this time is pretty huge, almost double!

warfreak said:
The 8800GT was NOT a high end card at all. It was the 8800GTX and 8800GTS......

eh? ..
*tpucdn.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_8800_GT/images/3dmark06_2048_1536.gif

Frankly speaking, 8800gt is a mistake that nvidia never repeated.
Mistake of releasing an affordable GPU that comes within spitting distance of your topmost GPU.

B

I was myself confused between 1060 or 1070, but it is an easier decision than the OP - I will be happy with 1080p Ultra and ~40k for a graphics card is just an overkill for me.

My current graphics card is a 3.5 year old Sapphire 7950 OC Twin Frozr or something. I can still play most new games on High settings (Deus Ex: Mankind Divided currently) and before this I enjoyed games on Ultra for a long time. I can certainly see the value in getting high end cards and I wish the 1070 were in my price range.