Hey guys my Gtx660 just died on me, thus putting me in the market for a graphics card in Vancouver Canada. The prices look horrible online so I got 2 questions... What's good for under $500 and where to find it? I might even be willing to go a bit higher as I want to put this card in my next gaming rig.

How do I tell if a card is going to fit my setup? I'm copying these specs off the invoice of my old pc. Some pics below. Any help much appreciated. Thanks!

USB 3.0 motherboard

Cooler master extreme 2 power plus 625w atx 12v power supply 20/24 pin 120mm fan

Intel core i5 3570 quad core processor 3.4ghz

https://ibb.co/bvONeG

https://ibb.co/j37FzG

SlayerS_BunkiE

Canada1707 Posts

January 26 2018 10:58 GMT

your gtx 660 lasted a couple days too long

prices have gone up 10-20% in the past week or so... but at least it hasnt doubled/tripled like what I am reading has happened south of the border...

anyway, you can still pick up a gtx 1070 for under $600 (plus tax), this is good value imo vs a gtx 1060 for under $400. the gtx 1070ti is also great value at under $700 ($100 more, 15-20% better)
but yeah if you cant go above $500 then an rx 480/580 or a gtx 1060 is ok value at these prices and will play AAA games on 1080p high at mostly 50-60fps. theres also less chance of it bottlenecking ur cpu (although you said you want to put this new gpu on ur next rig)

edit: dont have enuf time now to look into it more, but yeah do more research on ur power supply. it might not have enough amps on the 12v rail; altho it really should since it powered a gtx 660

nanaoei

3358 Posts

January 27 2018 17:45 GMT

youre probably not going to get a 580 at a reasonable price.

depending on what you play and how desperate you are, you might be fine with a
nvidia 1030 $90
radeon 550 $120
then consider the new nvidia volta series when it's out later this year.

both those cards should be fine for 1080p low to mid-low graphics for e-sports titles. (csgo, dota, league, sc2, rocket league, etc.)

as for where to find better cards, i'm sure you know about NCIX and newegg.ca
but you might have to gleam stuff off deal websites. there are some that track stock on popular cards for relatively good prices. up until a while ago, it might have been worth it to get b-stock on stuff like EVGA and have it ship over the states. not sure about the pricing situation now, but it seems worse than back then.

check reddit and see what is in your reasonable price range. i'd say a 1060 3gb isn't worth its price tag if it's more than ~$250-300 that's the measuring stick i'd use for 1080p gaming as that card plays everything fine on high.'

even further than that, you might want to ask friends and family to see if they're willing to part with some of their older cards they no longer use.
looking at stuff like geforce 980 or earlier on the cheap. ~$300 or so used.
other cards to look for in that vein in descending performance order are the
900 series, and the radeon late 400's to early 500's
760
670
750ti (much like 1030, but better) again, on the cheap. like 80-120 bucks. these cards run 1080p barely.

NovemberstOrm

Canada16217 Posts

January 28 2018 00:06 GMT

used 980 ti or 970 could be good choices

SlayerS_BunkiE

Canada1707 Posts

January 28 2018 12:51 GMT

On January 28 2018 09:06 NovemberstOrm wrote:
used 980 ti or 970 could be good choices

Its crazy annoying how much cheaper GPUs used to be. Before pascal came out (almost 2yrs ago) there were a couple flash sales that had a 970 at cad250 and 980ti at cad440. Plus bundled with pretty good newly released games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and the Division. Now its cad350-400 for a 1060/580 and ~cad600 for a 1070; with no free games.
Same goes with RAM. Prices have doubled. SSD prices also increased by 50-80%.
Well at least other components cost the same. And CPUs are actually better value now thanks to AMD actually providing competition with Ryzen.

Edit: sorry was just ranting... For OP, if you are comfortable with the used parts market, it is definitely an option considering that now is a really bad time to buy. Unfortunately, other people might have the same idea so old GPUs might no longer be a bargain. You might have picked one up brand new for almost the same price years ago.

andrewlt

United States7702 Posts

January 29 2018 16:25 GMT

If you're going to buy a new rig anyway, you may want to consider buying a prebuilt one right now. PC manufacturers are still pricing graphic cards somewhere near MSRP in their prebuilt machines, even ones you can customize. If you can't afford it at the moment, consider buying some cheap shit to tide you over until you can do so.

MassHysteria

United States3678 Posts

January 30 2018 23:24 GMT

I actually have a 660 that I just started thinking about replacing too. It hasn't acted up, but it has hiccuped slightly a few times to have made me think about it. I was at Fry's and thought it was just me being out of the loop when I got surprised at the prices.