Surprisingly 2080 ti didn't make it but it's 300W, 360 when properly unlocked so no love. In that case 4060
Probably a little too expensive for this list. That said, I think this market is odd...as it's essentially the below-console market, which you could argue will soon go away (or will start to struggle considerably; think a xbox series s). I *personally* wouldn't suggest buying into it at all, as arrogant as that may sound. The performance isn't high-enough to guarantee a good 1080p experience in all games, and that's without touching upon the 8GB buffer of these products. It's worth saving up a few more bucks for a 2080 ti if you can't wait a little bit.
Firstly we have a (4nm?) 7600 refresh coming, and that will probably have 16GB and actually compete with a current console while being the cheapest 'new' product in the market.
Later, a low-end Blackwell will likely be 6144 shader processors and likely compete with the PS5 pro, the 4nm Navi 32 successor, and Battlemage. Lots of people will buy these or (then) cheaper 7800xt.
Later than that, I have to believe AMD has a 3nm APU planned that is ~1536(3072sp) that will essentially replace the former while their next gen discrete is similar to Blackwell.
As I've said before, I think 2080ti is the way to go being that they can be found for half the price that a 4060 ti 16GB launched. In the past I think an argument could be made for newer lower-end cards because of power consumption, card size, and performance improvements beyond the dollar depreciation of the former gen, but in reality those are often not huge factors anymore UNLESS you buy into Huang's Law (that you buy a new generation for improved features, not raw perf[/$] improvements), which I
personally do not; AMD has shown with FSR/AsFuckMoFo just how much bullshit that marketing speak truly is. There might be scenarios you think you need a smaller card, but there are literally TONS of small cases out there now that support a full-size GPU (with or without using a riser cable). As for power, any decent card now uses two 8-pin connectors...the same as 2080 ti. It used to appear as a (relatively) unwieldy monster, but given how the market has shifted to bigger cards that use more power, it actually isn't anymore.
While I understand that software development takes time and resources, I'll always put my dollar toward what is tangible, as with software a free alternative will generally become available eventually. This is why I've long-supported AMD's overall value, as over time the stronger inherent performance/$ (or adequate VRAM buffer per product) has shown to have staying power beyond the gimmicks nVIDIA typically shows off to sell their products
when they are new (but then don't age well for the next gimmick). nVIDIA is very good at capitalizing on people's short attention spans and fomo, while 2080 ti keeps on truckin' for most settings people actually play games.
I understand that some people dislike old stock for some reason, but I've never been one of those people. If you hate buying used, or think because a new generation is released that old products cease to exist for some reason, please do spend twice as much money for similar performance. I won't stop you. I will, however, laugh quietly to myself as you fall into Huang's trap.
The 'secret' in all of this is that 2080ti gains 20% performance from overclocking, which doesn't show up on most charts. Maybe W1Z can revisit this with a current high-end CPU and driver improvements, as you have to remember when comparing products that original tests done on 2080ti are now very old. Even between 2080 ti reviews drivers helped performance quite a bit.
Some people think "Well, I could overclock a 3070/3070 Ti/4060 Ti." Sure, you could overclock that (arguably insufficient) 8GB card that costs more money, but it also overclocks like shit, because Samsung for Ampere and locking down 'overclocking' on Ada to 10%, and they will in-fact perform worse in many cases. Even 3080 10 or 12GB isn't a tangible improvement. I'm glad W1z keeps 2080ti on the current testing list, as most people don't stop and realize that it still does in-fact exist and isn't at all a bad option. Sure, it launched at $1000, but now can sometimes be found for 1/4 of that. That is because it's old; it was the first card with that performance level (and DLSS). That performance level, however, is still extremely relevant (as is DLSS) because Moore's Law is effed.
(using 8700k)
(using 9900k, which would add ~4-5% in most scenarios you would use a 2080ti)
I'm generally curious, what are peoples' demarkation line? Is it more than 8GB? It has it; 11 ain't that far from 12. Is it DLSS? It has it. It won't do native 4k in some titles, but it's the lowest-end product DLSS will make the output decent. Maybe you have to use 'balanced' over 'quality', but that's really not that big of a deal considering the next step up is quite a bit more money, while many products below it are again not sufficient for 1080p.
The only user I would suggest to think twice are people that use 1440p native and don't want to ever use DLSS Quality, which is in-fact a fairly weird scenario (lower native rez than 1080p). If I were them, and also a value shopper, I would wait until N4x/Battlemage/PS5pro launches and scoop up a discounted 7800xt. It is destined for a lower-end market, just like N22 evolved (6700xt went from $479->$320 over a relatively short period)...people just don't realize it yet because it's currently the best value out of the gate. When those upper-midrange cards launch next year prices are going to drop across the board, and the prices of those products themselves may end up being a relatively good value (especially to people that don't overclock and/or are on an older platform). nVIDIA may try to hide this by launching the 4080 TI at $1000-1200, but in reality pretty much everything 4080 and below is going to drop in price by one whole tier. That means 7800xt will go from being a decently-priced option to an extremely good value for those looking to buy new. It's very possible that card may become the 'new' 2080 Ti, as it also can gain ~20% performance overclocking and should keep up with a ps5 pro, while nVIDIA won't have any direct competition for it until Blackwell. Your options will likely be 4070 fighting the 7800xt, the 4070ti fighting N4x/BM, and 4080 fighting (a continously price-dropping) N31. All of the nVIDIA options are going to look VERY bad unless they either drop their prices substantially OR people buy into the marketing hype (until once-again the 5000-series dev-bought features will make them want to upgrade their AD104s and lower). They are certainly hoping for the latter.
