Question Best GPU upgrade option ?

[MickWalker]

Hi, I am intending to upgrade the graphics card in my son's machine. It is currently running a 1GB Nvidia GEFORCE 710, on a AMD Ryzen 3 4100 CPU. The PSU is a CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES.

What is the best upgrade option for him? Budget is $400 or less. Any further information please don't hesitate to ask.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

I would suggest an RTX 4060. That R3 4100 will hold it back significantly though. You could buy a new or used Ryzen 5 5600 to go with it. Before you consider that though, you might also consider the power (and heat) limitations of that 450W CV power supply. That PSU is fine with the low power GT 710. But, you start adding more power hungry components and it could give you problems.

This PSU should keep that PC going with a few upgrades:
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Corsair)

GPU options worth considering:
RTX 4060
RX 7600
RX 6600

Hope this helps!

*Edit: For some reason I was thinking the Ryzen 3 4100 was a 1st-gen Ryzen CPU (remembering the 1st-gen FX 4100). It should do better than I originally thought. You don't necessarily need to upgrade it if you don't want to. While it's not the fastest CPU, some games will run just fine, while others that like more cores/threads will have some hiccups.

 

[lufeii]

I'd suggest RX 6600, brand doesn't matter too much, and it's very power efficient. You're going to be PSU limited if you use something that draws more power.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

I'd suggest RX 6600, brand doesn't matter too much, and it's very power efficient. You're going to be PSU limited if you use something that draws more power.

RTX 4060 uses a considerably less power than the RX 6600. However, the RX 6600 is far lower in cost compared to the RTX 4060, which leaves you with more than enough to upgrade the PSU.

 

[helpstar]

a used GTX1660 super if you wanna save some money

 

[lufeii]

RTX 4060 uses a considerably less power than the RX 6600. However, the RX 6600 is far lower in cost compared to the RTX 4060, which leaves you with more than enough to upgrade the PSU.

Different characteristics, I'd say. RTX 4060 will be more efficient watt/fps, but the maximum power draw is quite similar whereas RX 6600 will have a third to a quarter of the power draw of RTX 4060 at idle according to the reviews at TechPowerUp. Personally, I find it hard to justify the steep price of the RTX 4060 as well as the RX 7600, when just getting 8GB of VRAM and being somewhat limited by the other specifications of the system.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I would definitely recommend the RX 6600 for your son based on all the factors involved and I'll explain why:

List of Factors:

• Your son's CPU is an R3-4300
• Your son's PSU is a Corsair 450W CV Series
• Your son is currently using a GeForce 710
• Your budget is <$400

From what I've seen, someone here is recommending the RTX 4060, a card that would make absolutely no sense at all because there are so many cards that would be better for your son. Most are reds but there are a couple of greens that I would recommend over the RTX 4060. I'm going to ignore them because, ultimately, the RX 6600 is the best card for your son. I'll compare it to the RTX 4060 (which will be an easy win) to demonstrate why the RX 6600 is the best choice.

The RTX 4060 is 27% faster than the RX 6600, which is definitely nothing to sneeze at. It's a pretty big difference. However, the RTX 4060 is 57% more expensive than the RX 6600 which makes it a bad value unless your son's use-case demands something as potent as the RTX 4060 (in which case the RX 6600 XT, RX 7600 or RTX 3060 Ti would be better choices, in that order).

Here are the current lowest prices for both the RX 6600 and RTX 4060 according to PCPartPicker:
ASRock Radeon RX 6600 Challenger D 8GB - $185 at Newegg
PNY GeForce VERTO RTX 4060 8GB - $290 at B&H

Power consumption isn't an issue here because while the RX 6600 does indeed draw more power than the RTX 4060, from what I've been able to find, the difference never exceeds 10W which is completely insignificant.

When it comes to the performance difference between the RX 6600 and the RTX 4060, I seriously doubt that your son would notice the difference. Let's be honest here, if he's currently using something like a GeForce 710, it's a safe bet that he's gaming at a resolution no higher than 1080p (maybe even lower than that) and that the games he plays are not hardware-intensive. Compared to the GeForce 710, anything would be a massive upgrade and the RX 6600 wouldn't be bottlenecked by your son's R3-4300 like the RTX 4060 would.

It's a pretty easy win for the RX 6600 and the best part is that you can bank the $205 that you didn't spend today. In a generation or two, that $205 you didn't spend will get you a GPU that is superior to the RTX 4060 so you'll be ahead in the end anyway.

 

[Avro Arrow]

RTX 4060 uses a considerably less power than the RX 6600.

It does? Where did you get that information? They're only between 7-10W different from each other:

1080p Ultra - 10W different:

1440p Ultra - 7W different:

I have to question either your source of information or your definition of "considerable" because a difference of at most 10W is definitely not my definition of "considerable".

However, the RX 6600 is far lower in cost compared to the RTX 4060, which leaves you with more than enough to upgrade the PSU.

Regardless of whether the OP gets an RX 6600 or RTX 4060, the PSU they have will already be more than potent enough.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

It does? Where did you get that information? They're only between 7-10W different from each other

I must have had bad information. I think I was comparing a certain model of RX 6600 that had a TDP of 165W vs the 115W TDP of an RTX 4060. Now that you mention it, I have forgotten that TDP is not an indicator of power consumption.