Question Asking for a Mid-Tier GPU Upgrade Help

[TheOgre]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice on a (short-to-mid-term) GPU upgrade.

Right now, the main use of this PC is for audio recording/mixing, eventually rendering videos, and only sparingly playing games (but I do play them). So, I took advantage of the Black Friday sales and recently managed to upgrade my CPU (from a Ryzen 5 3500X to a Ryzen 7 5700X) and my PSU (from a Deepcool DA500 to a Corsair CX650F), thinking to extend the PC's longevity a little longer.

I know that now the bottleneck of my PC relies in its GPU (an Asus TUF 1650 Super OC). It still play some games, but not in a superb quality (I must give up some graphics quality to have a fluid gameplay in some titles). However, I must say I'm not a very avid gamer, and I don't play competitive or multiplayer games, prefering single player games with story mode (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Tomb Raider trilogy, Control, Horizon Dawn Zero...).

So, having all that info, which GPU would you buy for your PC, thinking about a nice graphic quality, and without needing an update for some time, without sacrifice a good cost/benefit ratio?

I thought about getting a 3060TI or a 6700XT, but don't know if they'd be overkill for what I'm looking for. And, talking about the 6700XT specifically, I got a good deal in a PowerColor Red Devil, but it's said in its official site that it requires a 700W PSU (where other 6700XT I'm seeing requires a 650W PSU), and I don't know if the CX650F would handle it satisfactorily.

Current PC Specs is in the signature!

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Not sure 100% on psu there, I think that power color is an overclocked model which is probably why they suggest that. The 3060ti trades blows with a 6700xt but basically will beat the 6700xt sometimes, however sometimes the 6700xt can compete with a 3070. The 3060ti should do better at ray tracing. Some new gpus are launching I’d suggest getting the best one you can afford so that it will be more relevant longer.

What resolution do you play at?

 

[TheOgre]

Not sure 100% on psu there, I think that power color is an overclocked model which is probably why they suggest that. The 3060ti trades blows with a 6700xt but basically will beat the 6700xt sometimes, however sometimes the 6700xt can compete with a 3070. The 3060ti should do better at ray tracing. Some new gpus are launching I’d suggest getting the best one you can afford so that it will be more relevant longer.

What resolution do you play at?

Yeah! The Red Devil is a little bit overclocked, but it's crazy how much more it's asking for the PSU (here, talking about rated spec, not exactly how much it really needs). However, I can get a 6650XT Red Devil too, it's moderately priced (a bit better than Sapphire Pulse - I'd like the Nitro, but it's out of stock here in Brazil).

For my studio usage, I'm planning to jump from my 21" FHD monitor to a 27" QHD monitor, so I think a GPU that good do moderate to good graphics in 1440p will be more than enough (don't need to play with everything max'ed, but some quality helps the playing imertion).

 

[ohio_buckeye]

You definitely want at least a 3060ti. The 6700xt might be slightly better but ray tracing will be better on the nvidia card. I’ve got a 6700xt but have an rtx 3080 on the way. That said the 6700xt is a good card. I got money for Christmas and I can sell the 6700xt so why not go faster.

But that said I can usually do high settings with decent fps on the 6700xt. Wouldn’t go for the 6650. Good card but not as fast as the 6700xt. You’ll want the most powerful gpu you can get to hold out for longer without having to turn stuff down. It may do well enough now but think about in a year will you still be happy or looking to upgrade? I figure the 3080 should last a couple of years for me at 1440p which I can use that time to rebuild a new pc, carry that gpu over then replace it in 2-3 years.

Edit: this gives you an idea. Looking at those numbers think what those will perform like with newer games in 1-2 years depending how long you are keeping this card.

View: https://youtu.be/sfQR2uz6mMI

 

[ohio_buckeye]

One other thing, just my opinion but if you are running a 650 watt psu with a card that wants that amount, you may consider a stronger psu. The closer a psu gets pushed to the limit the less efficient they will be and more likely to fail. I like to have a bit of extra capacity myself. And in the case of my 3080, my 850 watt rms should still handle it for a while.

 

[TheOgre]

One other thing, just my opinion but if you are running a 650 watt psu with a card that wants that amount, you may consider a stronger psu. The closer a psu gets pushed to the limit the less efficient they will be and more likely to fail. I like to have a bit of extra capacity myself. And in the case of my 3080, my 850 watt rms should still handle it for a while.

I made two calcs of the specs, at two different sites (and in the first one I exagerated some things to try to make the PC even more "hunger"), to try to see more closely how would be the consumption of the whole system:
OuterVision (using as reference a generic 6700XT): 577W
PCPartPicker (using PowerColor Red Devil 6700XT): 433W

 

[ohio_buckeye]

You can try it.

Have a look at this. It should give an idea where your psu stacks up. I personally have the Corsair rmx 850 watt unit, which was a bit pricey when I got it but it’s been a great unit.

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

 

[TheOgre]

You can try it.

Have a look at this. It should give an idea where your psu stacks up. I personally have the Corsair rmx 850 watt unit, which was a bit pricey when I got it but it’s been a great unit.

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

Tier B • Mid-range
Well... seems to be in the 'average' tier, not among the best, but also not down there.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Just have to be careful. Some folks buy cheap psus and wonder why their system blew sky high. I’ve fried ports on a motherboard using cheap power supplies.

 

[TheOgre]

Well guys. Updating info on this: after a few more days of research, when I finally decided to avoid getting the 6700 (non-XT) and was trying to decide between getting the 6700 XT (maybe the Gigabyte Eagle - for the price) or the 3060 TI (no specific model yet), yesterday appeared a (new) Asus KO Gaming RTX 3070 v2 OC for sale, cheapest 3070 I found so far here in Brazil, for about the same price as the other 6700 XT options I had: the PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT or the Sapphire RX 6700 XT. Bearing in mind that this model seems to be a more premium model (maybe only below TUFs and ROGs), and I could pay for it in installments for the same price, I decided to get it. The recommended power requeriments for it is 750W, but I'll not overclock it (other than the stock OC) or the CPU, and using the OuterVision and the PCPartPicker calculators for an estimated system consumption, my 650W would handle smoothly the whole system.