I’ve spent a big portion of at present staring on the 4K HDR glory of Nvidia’s shiny ‘new’ G-Sync displays, the Acer Predator X27 and the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ – sure, these exact same screens that have been introduced all the best way again in the beginning of 2017 and are solely simply making their option to market within the subsequent couple of weeks. More on these within the coming days.
Of course, although I used to be at Nvidia’s press occasion to have a look at displays, the inevitable ‘Is the great graphics card stock shortage lastly over?’ query got here up a number of instances over the course of the day. And the reply, from Nvidia’s personal mouth, was a convincing ‘Yes.’ Case in level: now you can decide up a 3GB GeForce GTX 1060 for as little as £189.98, or a GTX 1070Ti for a mere £400 (which is a rattling sight higher than the £600 it value just some months in the past).
We’ve seen costs steadily falling during the last couple of months, first with the GTX 1080 going back down to Black Friday price levels and second with Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards finally coming back in stock. Now, although, the value drop frenzy appears to have lastly percolated right down to different playing cards as nicely.
That Zotac GTX 1070Ti Mini is a very good steal, particularly when most common GTX 1070 playing cards nonetheless value within the £400-500 area. As its title implies, it’s a miniature GTX 1070Ti, so it doesn’t have as many followers as different, bigger GTX 1070Ti fashions, but when it’s something like Zotac’s GTX 1080Ti Mini, which I examined for our large Final Fantasy XV graphics card performance article, then it ought to just do tremendous. For extra data on how the cardboard performs usually, you’ll want to take a look at our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070Ti review.
The 3GB GTX 1060 is a little more of a chance. As we clarify in our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 review, 3GB of video reminiscence is a bit on the stingy facet these days, as ideally you’d really need no less than 4GB (comparable to on the GTX 1050Ti or entry-level AMD Radeon RX 580), if not the complete 6GB that dearer GTX 1060 fashions provide.
More reminiscence not solely improves efficiency in day-to-day titles, because it lets the cardboard entry extra bits of sport loads quicker, however it should additionally present a bit extra future-proofing within the long-term, too. It can be tremendous for 1080p gaming, however when you will discover the GTX 1050Ti – our present advice for best graphics card at 1080p – for £150 (such because the Palit Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB StormX), it feels such as you’re spending a bit of bit greater than you’ll want to with the intention to get an excellent 1080p expertise. Indeed, when the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 OC V1 may be discovered for £246, you don’t should spend that rather more now to make your cash go even additional.
Now is an equally nice time to leap into the GTX 1080 pool as nicely, with fashions such because the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Armour OC going for £460 and the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Windforce OC for £480. US costs aren’t fairly as tasty, sadly – the most cost effective being the $580 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Windforce OC or $600 PNY GeForce GTX 1080 OC 8GB, however no less than it’s higher than the insane $1400 worth factors that have been knocking round earlier within the 12 months.
