Choosing Graphics Card

[matteoxyz]

Thanks for your responses! I am considering between GTX 1060 6GB and rx 480 8GB now. Leaning to invidia. I should have listed the specs of my PC.
Intel i5-2400 quad core 3.1ghz 2nd gen
8gb RAM DDR3
500GB HDD
Win 10
Motherboard : MSI H61MA-E35(B3)

I'm wondering if it is worth spending so much, though. RX 460 4GB is half the price of the aforementioned ones and could probably provide a decent experience, I guess?

[CookieMonsta]

Thanks for your responses! I am considering between GTX 1060 6GB and rx 480 8GB now. Leaning to invidia. I should have listed the specs of my PC.

A couple of points you have to consider. While the 1060 is a superb card, its borderline impossible to find a good model from a good manufacturer at the price range you want, by all means if you want to splurge extra then its one hell of a card. The 3gb 1060 may be good on paper but it will become a useless paperweight in the future since the 3gb of RAM will limit the card long before the GPU power becomes an issue for modern games, you will be basically paying a lot of money for a powerful card that becomes crippled once games exceed 3gb of ram consumption.
Basically, if you intend to keep the card for 2+ years then the RX 480 8gb is much better balanced for that price, if you want absolute cheap then the 460/470 are the best picks which would provide acceptable performance for FFXIV.

If it makes your decision easier, absolutely nothing will help with Idyllshire lag because thats a CPU issue not GPU. The full reason is complex but even the best CPUs + GPUs will still lag in idyllshire cuz of the sheer number of bodies there.

[matteoxyz]

I'm gonna get this one: Look at this on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/262570900611

Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1060 WindForce OC 6GB GDDR5 Graphics Card HDMI DP

Is this a decent brand/model?

It costs $415 AUD/$318 USD

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Thanks for your responses! I am considering between GTX 1060 6GB and rx 480 8GB now. Leaning to invidia. I should have listed the specs of my PC.
Intel i5-2400 quad core 3.1ghz 2nd gen
8gb RAM DDR3
500GB HDD
Win 10
Motherboard : MSI H61MA-E35(B3)

I'm wondering if it is worth spending so much, though. RX 460 4GB is half the price of the aforementioned ones and could probably provide a decent experience, I guess?

If you can swing it, I highly recommend getting a SSD. For MMOs especially, you'll significantly increase load time speeds. It's not mandatory by any means though. Just thought I'd mention it.

As for the card, RX 460 will struggle with higher settings even at 1080p while the GTX 1060 can handle near max without difficulty. So that's your choice there, really. I would stick with the 1060 since it'll future proof you better.

[Rinari]

If you can swing it, I highly recommend getting a SSD. For MMOs especially, you'll significantly increase load times. It's not mandatory by any means though. Just thought I'd mention it.

As for the card, RX 460 will struggle with higher settings even at 1080p while the GTX 1060 can handle near max without difficulty. So that's your choice there, really. I would stick with the 1060 since it'll future proof you better.

Good call on SSD. It is the part that will make the most difference for most people! I barely see load screens. A lot of the chugging people blame CPU for is actually HD->GPU texture loading, which is much faster with SSD. A decent 500gb SSD is around $150 now. A cheaper card (like RX 460) with an upgrade to SSD will provide a better overall experience. Upgrading to SSD is kindof involved though... drive cloning and all.

I can say 1060 GTX is overkill for running FFXIV max at 1080 (what I do) and probably 1440 as well (gotta get new screen to try it). FFXIV isn't exactly pushing the limit graphically. Of course, if you're upgrading GPU, you want it to run well for games that come out a year or two from now, not just some years old MMO.

One thing to consider with Nvidia is that they loan out engineers to big name games to make sure those games get optimized for Nvidia. In a way, it's a shady practice, but it does result in a lot of the more popular games simply running better on Nvidia cards with all else being equal. I don't know if FFXIV did that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Sometimes Nvidia even gets bonus features (like Witcher 3 hair effects). Also if you're thinking of getting VR gear soon, Nvidia is better prepared for that.