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. 😊
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. 😊