Question GPU advice for today's prices

rasdane

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Jan 20, 2017
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Looking for GPU advice please:

I built a gaming PC for myself a few years ago (R5 3600 with a 2060 Super). I continue to be very happy with that machine for my own needs, and kind of stopped paying attention to new products, as all I was hearing was how inflated GPU prices have been since the pandemic.

Flash forward a few years. My kid is now old enough to want their own machine – so am dipping my toes back in the PC waters.

We got an R5 5600 at a decent price ($150 at MicroCenter). But now it’s time to pick a GPU.

He’ll be playing on a 1080p/144 hz monitor, primarily games like God of War, Control, and Red Dead 2, and wants to hit framerates high enough to make the most of the display.

He’s been focusing on NVIDIA cards, as he likes the idea of DLSS and Ray-tracing… But we’re by no means ruling out something from AMD. (Personally, I can’t tell when ray-tracing is on.)

I was looking on PCPartPicker. As of today, it looks like there are good 3060’s available right around the $400 mark. But there’s also a 3060ti for $470 (after a rebate). There’s also a 6700xt for the same $470.

At the end of the day, I’m the one who’ll pay for the damn thing, so my instinct is to go for a 3060. On the other hand, $470 would stretch the budget, but wouldn’t break it. Is a 3060ti overkill for our needs? Or would we be stupid for not picking one up at $470?

Another option is to wait, and hope prices will drop further once new cards from both “teams” are announced later. But my understanding is this would probably mainly affect more high-end GPUs, as the 1080p=focused cards wouldn’t drop for a quite a while. Am I correct in thinking that?

I’ve always had good advice here before, so thank you in advance. 😊
 

Karadjgne

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2070Super, 2080Super, 3060, 3060ti. That's good for 1080p/144Hz and will even handle a 4k DSR in some games for added clarity and detail.

1st gen DLSS and Raytracing isn't anything to write home about, the DLSS helps a little at the cost of some detailing. RT, yeah, that's iffy with a 2000 series. Minecraft looks fantastic, and it can add some real depth to other games too, but fps takes a major hit. 2nd Gen is far better for both. It's a trade off, with single player games it's not a big deal, especially if they aren't fps demanded, but I'd not run RT on multi-player games at all as there's enough fps hits with all the Ai and player info.
 
If you are willing to go amd check out the rx 6600. Why not pull the 2060 super and give to him then you could get the 6600? The 6600 is just behind the 3060, but can be found around 300 bucks. Though for a 144 hz display on either of those cards you may need to reduce details. I’ve got a 144 hz 1080p monitor myself and am running an rx 6700xt. That’s closer to a 3060ti on the nvidia side. You said you have Microcenter nearby. The one near me is out of stock atm, but had this. Looks like they’ve got one open box for 424.

https://www.microcenter.com/product...ual-fan-12gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card?ob=1

As far as prices dropping who knows? I saw something today suggesting as miners put their cards into the market that amd and nvidia are scaling back on orders from tsmc(if that’s the proper acronym). So the time to buy might be now. If you are wanting to save money you could take a chance on a used card, but you probably won’t have warranty. But it looks like on eBay used 6700xt cards are going for 400ish. Just depends what you want to spend on it. If going for a new card though, in my opinion the bang for the buck is the rx 6600 at the moment. Look at Microcenter as well again, one of their 6600 cards they are advertising get Saints row and forspoken with the purchase of the card.
 

punkncat

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As a side mention, Best Buy has been getting the FE 3xxx models back in stock at MSRP and many of the retailers are following suit. Often the 'partner' cards are a bit more expensive based on the features they are supposed to offer. In my personal opinion, if you were going to spend for the 3060ti, you may as well cough up the extra $30 for a 3070.
 
I can definitely agree with the guy above. Later this year or next year new cards should be arriving. So you want to get the best card you can comfortably afford. This year’s 3070 will probably be next years 4060. That’s how it worked as far as performance when nvidia released the gtx 970, then the 1060 later on. But it all depends what you want to spend.
 

Karadjgne

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I can definitely agree with the guy above. Later this year or next year new cards should be arriving. So you want to get the best card you can comfortably afford. This year’s 3070 will probably be next years 4060. That’s how it worked as far as performance when nvidia released the gtx 970, then the 1060 later on. But it all depends what you want to spend.
Nvidia has basically been doing that since the 200 series, each successor is roughly equivalent to 10 up of the prior gen, so a 690 is roughly the same as a 780 or a 970 or 1060. That leaves room for new flagship models of indeterminate strength, Ti models etc. It's handy for consumers, as anything less than 2 steps up, really isn't much of an upgrade. So if you had a 690, at minimum you should be looking at a 980ti, 1070ti or better etc.
 
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rasdane

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To close the loop:

At the end of the day, we decided to stick to the original budget (which was $400 for the GPU), and make the most of that money we could.
I got a 3060 ti (the MSI Ventus 3x LHR) for $405 on ebay. It rankles me to pay MSRP for anything used, but that's the world we live in.
Even though it's the LHR model, I'm sure it's been in a mining rig, which isn't great. But we'll give it a good clean, replace paste and thermal pads, and hope for the best.

Thank you all again for the advice. It's much appreciated.