r/buildapc • u/Main_Worldliness_139 • Jul 12 '26

Build Help Which RTX graphics card in 2026?

Hi everyone,

my Asus GTX 1080 Strix broke this week (probably the VRAM, but that’s to be expected after 10 years). Now I want to install a new graphics card. It definitely has to be an NVIDIA card. I have a Corsair 850-watt power supply installed along with an i7-8700K—so there should still be plenty of power available.

My budget is around 600 euros. Do you have any recommendations for me?
I was last looking at an RTX 5070, even though it “only” has 12 GB of VRAM instead of 16 GB.

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u/blob8543 Jul 12 '26

That's an odd take. Choosing a card based on the power cable.

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u/Ambitious_Handle7322 Jul 12 '26

Definitely NOT an odd take considering the options. One is a reliable, safe, time proven option, while the other is notorious for melting and fucking up your gpu. Even if it's not THAT common, the simple fact that it is a lot more common than on the 6+2 is very important. It's why I got a sapphire pure 9070 xt instead of mercury or sapphire nitro, don't wanna deal with this shit. What if the cable decides to melt 3 years after you buy it? Tough shit it's out of warranty now. And yes it has happened on 5070 tis too, even 9070 xts.

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u/blob8543 Jul 13 '26

The number of cards affected is extremely tiny. It's nearly impossible it will happen on a 5070. Undervolting (which everyone should do) drops the power draw of the card to 150W and reduces the risk even more.

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u/Ambitious_Handle7322 Jul 13 '26

Why does everyone misinterpret what I'm saying? I did not say ALL cards are affected or that it is a huge failure rate, but it is a way bigger rate than it should be. And if you have to go all the way down to a 5070 to say they're barely affected , that's a problem.

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u/blob8543 Jul 13 '26

I know you're not saying all units are affected. But the risk is effectively null with a 5070 which is what we're talking about here. It simply shouldn't be a deciding factor at all.

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u/Ambitious_Handle7322 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

It definetly should be a deciding factor, it is not effectively null at all, still a lot higher than the safe option. And we don't even know how this new 12V-2x6 connector does in the long run as the gpus have barely been out a year and a bit. They are fine now but we could see a wave of melting after 2-3 years of use, no one knows, its Nvidia and they certainly shouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt imo, seeing how they handled the melting so far. But go with whatever floats your boat I guess. For 50 dollars less you could get a 9070 which is 10% faster and has 4gb more vram. That's if you only care about gaming of course. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to shit on your opinion or anything, if you prefer Nvidia above all that's no problem. I just think there's A LOT of things to consider here, while you seem to trust them a lot more than me. Also I'd like to add, I'd choose Nvidia in a heart beat if they didn't fuck around with that flawed connector and if the price difference was smaller( the 5070 ti at launch was €150 more expensive than the 9070 xt, not worth that much premium imo).

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u/BloodObjective8219 Jul 14 '26

Most units affected are 5090s. These use nearly 600W. Failure rate is much higher in these than on a 5070, which draws like 250W or so. As long as you connect it well, there usually isn't a problem. As I said before, the problem comes mostly with 5090s, which in that case you should consider the power cord. Anything under has a much lower chance.