A couple of days ago, Nvidia’s PR truth-bending went into overdrive in its investor day report. One small nugget of truth stuck with me though, and that was Nvidia claiming 90% of all GeForce graphics card owners have performance below the level of a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.
This essentially means any GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card or weaker, indicating the lion’s share of Nvidia’s customers isn’t anywhere near the top-end GPUs which typically gain the most attention. For all the talk of Nvidia’s dominance in terms of top-end performance, for most gamers, it would seem this irrelevant.
Where this thinking led me though is what people think mid-range graphics cards are. It sounds like a bit of a daft question but only because Nvidia and AMD are both guilty of marketing $300-$400 graphics as mid-range. No doubt it’s all in an effort to make potential customers who go for a weaker GPU feel as they’re cheaping out, and it probably works to a degree.
In terms of Nvidia graphics card, I’ve long thought of the x60 range as the epitome of mid-range. The graphics cards where price meets performance in a comfortable ratio. The GeForce RTX 2060 kind of upended this thinking though, and it’s difficult to argue a $400 graphics card that costs more than a PS4 Pro is ‘mid-range’, a term pretty much interchangeable with ‘average’. Nvidia has flipped the mid-range on its head with this generation, adding a premium-tier RTX x60 range on top of a cheaper x60 GTX family.
So which modern graphics cards do you consider mid-range graphics card? And what do you think mid-range GPU pricing should be? Get voting and let us know why below!
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Well I class my PC as mid range as it's the best I can afford at the moment as like a lot of people out there I'm very limited on my budget.
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Now there is a real debate right there... Can't believe i missed this one out.
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its never too late
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Personally I consider midrange to be around 250USD, I would say full range of 200-300USD is midrange. So currently this is 1060 3GB(maybe) or 6GB, 1660 and 1660Ti for nVidia and RX580 and RX590 for AMD, though I could be wrong, I didn't exactly check prices. Below that you do get to what I count low end even though...
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... RX570 for example is really close to RX580, but they kind of don't fit in same group price wise. And above that I would consider things to be higher end. Though this is taking only price and not performance, as mentioned RX570 is pretty close to midrange and same could be said for 1070 performance wise vs 1660Ti.
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Still for midrange offerings, one I would most recommend is 1660, especially if you feel like dipping into overclocking.You can get it pretty close to 1660Ti. Or 1660Ti if you want nice long lasting midrange card without overclock.RX580 does deserve mention for great value, but it kind of is last gen and tier lower...
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... than 1660Ti. But then again, price is lower as well, which makes it great value. But still getting RX580 or 1060 isn't too terrible, they just likely will not last you as long, but will also not cost you as much.
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If we are talking about gaming GPUs, then 1060 easily, but if we refer as modern GPUs then i wold say something like gtx 1050 or even 1050 ti :/
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I always think of it as the xx70 top mid range, xx60 mid range and xx50 low mid range. Those were the perfect cards for pretty much any budget gamer
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In agreement with Jon here thinking of the x60 range as being the midrange (but as he says the current Nvidia generation has altered that). $250-300 USD please.
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1050Ti is midrange imo
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1050s and 1060s maybe
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mid-end gpu should be able to pull off 1080p 60fps in most games perhaps with a few tweaks. 1080p being the widest adopted resolution and most people spending about 200-300$ on a gpu should be considered mid range.
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what no rx480/470? its still the same architecture just a core boost for the 500 series
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I would consider anything that can play AAA titles at minimum 2k with a steady 60+ fps with a price point of around roughly $400 to be the start of a high end graphics card. Basically higher quality 1070's, the 1070ti, and Vega 56 and up. I think the very high quality 980ti, especially the watercooled ones or high overclock threshhold ones can still hit this pretty well too. Anything beyond this is enthusiast territory. Below this is where id consider mid-range starts.
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WTF? -6 and destroyed my positive thumb up for this comment? 1. It is an opinion. 2. If you disagree speak up on why at the very least. 3. Are we 7 years old here? Yeah, heck of a community you got here, for the last couple months I have seen mods that are very troll like and members that display disgusting behavior, I get it you need the money so free4all, but I am done supporting this site and am beyond done dealing with the disrespectful toxicity of the community.
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In case anyone is wandering about Gtx 1060 3gb,do NOT buy this card...it's awful i have the compute performance but it's heavy limited with the 3GB of ram.I mean for example in the division 2 i have 73-75 fps and once every 2 3 mins it drops to 20 fps.I had to set the resolution scale to 85% and mix low with med for...
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..somehow stable performance,it's annoying cause if i unlock the framerate it goes up to 90 but it drops,and it's not the only title...same for apex legends,battelfield V,nfs payback and so on...I've learned my lesson my next card will have at least 8gb VRAM..and if you have 8gb system memory it would be alot worse.
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Im almost at the point when i will throw it out the window...but,im waiting on navi 1st
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When you do decide to throw it out the window, please record it. I want to see a graphics card explode into a million pieces from the fall.
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Maybe its the windows update problem? I was gonna say make sure you turn down textures, but you are also having problems with apex legends. I dont know anything about that game but I assume its not demanding.
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The issue is most likely related to VRAM usage more than anything. If that's too high or exceeds the amount of VRAM you have, it's best to tone down the textures. The Higher resolution textures the more Vram is used, from my understanding.
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Yes, but does apex legends have high res textures? Its odd a 3gb card is stuttering there.
I used a 2gb 960 for a good 3years, and like you said, texture quality is what eats up vram and causes stutter. Some games are also coded better - ie swap memory during "down times" and/or use desktop memory for textures to free up VRAM for tasks that need the "fast memory". Big impact for the VRAM limited
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Back when i had gtx 960 4gb i never had drops i played games that sayed to require more like shadow of mordor, doom2016, battlefield 1 and maby i had drops like from 60-80 to 40-60 but never had it drop down all the way to 20 from 90, maby you should try older drivers for your 1060
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My 2gb 960 served me well. I still game on it every now and then. When it is fully retired, it will go on display in honor of its service :)
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i think rtx 2060 6gb can be a good mid end card.
i think price should not be more than 250$.
In Pakistan rtx 2060 6gb is 500$.
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Same here in EU rtx 2060 500 and rtx 2080 around1000. Crazy prices.
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RTX 2060 is mid-range card at a high-end card price but it's not worth it IMO.
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pakistan me best abhi rx470 570 580 hi hai baqi sab overpriced hai
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I'd say it's a card that can comfortably play any current game at 60fps, high settings on majoritys resolution, 1080p in this case. That's purely performance wise.
Overall, with the above included, it should have die size at least half of the biggest possible and cost reasonably, in between 200-300$, but more in range of 200-250$.
It's a mainstream card. It should be accessible to most while still providing you with nice visuals today and at least 2-3 years in the future.
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Currently I'd put the GTX 1070/Vega 56 level of performance as the mid-range..... and I think that level of performance should cost around the $200 mark.... I think GTX 1080 performance should be upper mid-range, and should cost around $250
If we're still calling GTX 1060/RX 580 "mid-range", IMO it shows just how pathetic this latest generation of GPUs is price/performance wise.
Still nothing to be excited about for the majority of gamers.
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Personally I've yet to spend over $200 for a GPU. That lands me square in the mid range of cards but I don't feel all that limited in my performance. Next PC I build will definitely be higher spec though.
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There are two GTX 1070 in the voting chart.
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The other one is probably meant to be Ti.
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"10% overclock" on i5 4570. wdymmmm
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So stock clock on i5 4570 is 3200 MHz with 100 MHz FSB. I currently run my FSB @104 MHz (4%OC) and then CPU can get up to 3745.6 MHz using turbo boost which counts as 17% OC.
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Mid-low range: 1050; mid-range: 1050Ti; mid-high range: 1060 (6gb); high range: 1070; high-enthusiast-range: 1080; enthusiast-range: 1080Ti
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Midrange I guess means mainstream. A card that meets the needs of a majority of PC gamers for its time. These days that probably still means 1080p60@high, though it might be 1440p60@high in the near future.
Though that means price too doesnt it? Because if tomorrow, a GPU that does 4k60 was released for $200-$300, Im pretty sure that card suddenly becomes mainstream and we all start gaming @4K
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A mid-range GPU, which has a die size that is half(50% or 1/2) of the biggest die size possible in production on that process node without reaching too high power consumption or too poor yield rates(optical limit).
In short a GPU with a die size half of the optical limit of the process node.
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wonder which one fits that description...
Oh, could it be the GTX 1080?! YES IT DOES! FFS, it should be 250$ max! Not to mention the rest of those hundreds of versions of the same gpu...
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the gt 1080 should have been 300$ in 2016...
The gtx 1660ti is a more expensive GPU to Nvidia than the gtx 1080 ever was(outside the peak of the mining craze) and the MSRP of the gtx 1660ti is 290$ and NOT 700$(743$ in 2018 adjusted to inflation from 2016) like the gtx 1080... -_-
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I'm going to speculate here(and keep in mind, it's nothing more than speculation) and say that 90+% of people couldn't care less about comparative die size and are far more interested in comparative price/performance...... yes something can be said about value for money in raw materials, however I don't believe raw material cost should be the end-all be-all of GPU or any technology pricing for that matter, a higher material cost means nothing if it doesn't do more for the end user.
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Which in my opinion made Vega 56/64 fairly poor values...... they were top notch materials wise, but that didn't translate into enough of a performance gain in games to make it a better value than the far cheaper to produce 1070/1080 at similar and often lower prices(at the time)
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it's not just raw material cost, it has R&D, production, material, taxes, bills and volume expected to be sold behind it...
But I'm saying what OBJECTIVELY is a mid-range GPU and more accurately a mid-range chip, regardless if it's a GPU, CPU, some random micro-controller or a custom, personally designed chip for non-profit, personal usage...
Now what price should mid-range GPUs be priced in, I'd say 200-250$, especially that 200$ price range and both AMD and Nvidia have admitted in the past that the overwhelming majority of people buy GPUs under 200$(and from tons of different sources be it articles, polls and so on) that I've gathered over the years along with many sources saying as well, 80-85% of people buy GPUs that are 200$ or less, so that should be where the mid-range shouldBe
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I get what you're saying, and overall I agree, the 10 series was incredibly overpriced on launch, it cost nowhere near what they were charging to produce..... my point of contention is that even if a gpu costs more to produce, it should have either the performance gains or price to make it worthwhile, otherwise, the more overpriced GPU that cost less to produce can sometimes end up being the better value to the end user.
Also I agree that mid range GPUs should be in the $200-$250 range.
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Absolutely agreed, I've never even thought of the opposite, I guess you are referring to AMD's HBM(1 or 2) super expensive, packed with Fp16 and Fp64 cores, FirePro GPUs in disguise. They are just what I described, workload GPUs.
They cost a ton due to the HBM2 memory and interposer, they have the same Fp16 and Fp64 to Fp32 core ratio as Quadro or FirePro GPUs and in general, they are just that FirePro GPUs marketed for gaming... AMD seems to have given up on the gaming specced GPUs, so they should be punished by us, by not buying their products, until they do what Nvidia has been doing since Kepler and release a gaming oriented architecture and gaming speced GPUs.
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But I can understand them too, for 9 long years they had superior architectures and yet nobody bought them as much as Nvidia. At best AMD got to 50% market share and that was during the hd5000 series, when they had about 1 year head launch, DX11 first and superior architecture at the same time to reach just 50%, while Nvidia the moment they are equivalent to AMD, not even better easily get 70-75% market share, regardless of value, quality, or anything. So AMD is a business after all and they are focusing on servers/datacenters/big companies first now and gaming secondly, but hey they if they are going to ignore us, so should we, except that if we do, Nvidia will become a monopoly... so damn it.
A duopoly is almost as bad as a monopoly.
Strangely... Intel come help us in the GPU market XD