[SOLVED] GPU that makes the most sense for my current build

[severian2012]

Hello,

My son accidently spilled water on my PC and it killed my GPU (rx 580) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to replace it with my price point around $400. I wasn't planning on upgrading my PC for another few years, however this incident accelerated the timeline for a new GPU. I mostly use my PC for gaming, usually single player games (currently playing Elden Ring) and my i3 8100 will not cut it without a GPU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NtPvDq

My question is this, given my current build how much of an upgrade should I make at GPU? I'm trying to find the sweet spot of getting a replacement card that makes sense given my current specs but will also still be viable when I invest in a new CPU, PSU, monitor in a few years. I've been leaning towards an rx 6700 with the understanding there may be some bottlenecking, but I am a novice pc builder and this may be a dumb idea. I suppose another option would be to buy a used/cheaper equivalent to my old 580 and kick the buying of a better GPU down the road.

Just looking for any opinions from more well informed people than myself before investing a bunch of money.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You could actually squeeze a little more performance out of that platform if you went with an i7(same socket) and swapped the rams to a dual channel DDR4-3200MHz kit, since you already have a Z series chipset.

If you intend to invest on a new platform, don't bother spending on a GPU now, provided you can wait for a little while(a couple of months). FYI, you will need to reinvest into a new PSU when you go for a GPU at this point of time. The RX580's tend to draw a good amount power from the PSU, with your 550W across a 5 year span, will be somewhat deteriorated.

Used GPU's would already be mined to oblivion by now so that's a moot investment as well.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I'm trying to find the sweet spot of getting a replacement card that makes sense given my current specs but will also still be viable when I invest in a new CPU

it always depends on what you plan on doing with it.
what resolution you plan on using, what type of video processing you do, what ingame settings you want to be able to use, what fps you'd like to see in games, etc.

I've been leaning towards an rx 6700

i used an RX 6700 XT for a little bit and it's performance was disappointing.
got almost the same results as my old GTX 1080 Ti.

if you're planning on getting a mid>high end CPU in the near future i would aim for at least an RTX 3070 Ti or RX 6800.

if you can find something used like an RX 5000 or RTX 2000 for cheap right now it may be a good idea to just use that and wait for the RTX 4000 series to drop in a bit.

 

[severian2012]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You could actually squeeze a little more performance out of that platform if you went with an i7(same socket) and swapped the rams to a dual channel DDR4-3200MHz kit, since you already have a Z series chipset.

If you intend to invest on a new platform, don't bother spending on a GPU now, provided you can wait for a little while(a couple of months). FYI, you will need to reinvest into a new PSU when you go for a GPU at this point of time. The RX580's tend to draw a good amount power from the PSU, with your 550W across a 5 year span, will be somewhat deteriorated.

Used GPU's would already be mined to oblivion by now so that's a moot investment as well.

Interesting, so you're suggesting that upgrading the CPU to an i7 may be a better bet right now, then invest in a new GPU/PSU combo down the road.

Stupid question, would the iGPU in the i7 be good enough to play anything without a proper GPU? I don't need crazy performance, just something that would play the games with average settings. Again right now I am playing Elden Ring.

 

[severian2012]

it always depends on what you plan on doing with it.
what resolution you plan on using, what type of video processing you do, what ingame settings you want to be able to use, what fps you'd like to see in games, etc.

i used an RX 6700 XT for a little bit and it's performance was disappointing.
got almost the same results as my old GTX 1080 Ti.

if you're planning on getting a mid>high end CPU in the near future i would aim for at least an RTX 3070 Ti or RX 6800.
if you can find something used for cheap right now it may be a good idea to just use that and wait for the RTX 4000 series to drop in a bit.

No video processing, really just for gaming. I usually play at high settings. I am not looking for great performance just that they have a decent fps at normal settings. If I do a major upgrade in a few years I will be looking for more high end stuff. Right now I just want something to get by, but I would like to keep my future plans to upgrade in mind with any purchase now.

 

[Lutfij]

Stupid question, would the iGPU in the i7 be good enough to play anything without a proper GPU?
Nope

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I am not looking for great performance just that they have a decent fps at normal settings...

a replacement card that makes sense given my current specs but will also still be viable when I invest in a new CPU, PSU, monitor in a few years

something that will still be viable in a few years will need to be pretty high end now.

if you get something now just to get by with ~medium settings and <100fps then you will be getting even less performance with newer games a few years from now when/if you do upgrade the rest of the system.

in this type of situation i would either get a nicer new series card now that will still be powerful enough later
or just get an older mid-range used card now to get by and wait until you're building the new setup to get a new nicer card.

 

[cryoburner]

If you intend to invest on a new platform, don't bother spending on a GPU now, provided you can wait for a little while(a couple of months).

Except their graphics card is no longer functional and they have nothing to use now. Integrated graphics certainly isn't going to cut it for demanding games. And aside from possibly Intel's new line of cards, which will likely have various software quirks for quite some time after launch, it's going to be more than a couple months before new options become available, unless they intend on spending $700+ on top-end, enthusiast level graphics hardware, which would be overkill for their 1080p 75Hz display. Most likely, Nvidia and AMD won't be launching any new cards in the $400 range or below until early next year. Maybe we'll see some further price adjustments of existing products in the interim though.

i used an RX 6700 XT for a little bit and it's performance was disappointing.
got almost the same results as my old GTX 1080 Ti.

But you were coming from what had been a top-end card several years ago, whereas an RX 580 would have been in the mid-range at the time. A 6700 XT is typically only going to be around 25% faster than a 1080 Ti, so it makes sense that it might have underwhelmed you. An RX 580, on the other hand, only offers around half the performance of a 1080 Ti, so the relative performance difference of a 6700 XT would be much larger, offering around 2.5x the performance in graphically-demanding games (assuming the CPU can keep up), which would be a much more noticeable difference. And again, they are looking at cards positioned around $400, while the 3070 Ti and RX 6800 tend to be priced in the $600+ range.

Interesting, so you're suggesting that upgrading the CPU to an i7 may be a better bet right now, then invest in a new GPU/PSU combo down the road.

Stupid question, would the iGPU in the i7 be good enough to play anything without a proper GPU? I don't need crazy performance, just something that would play the games with average settings. Again right now I am playing Elden Ring.

No, even on an i7 from that generation, I wouldn't expect to get playable performance in demanding games like that, if they even manage to run at all. The integrated graphics won't be much better than what you have on your i3, and both offer only a small fraction of the performance of an RX 580, probably not much more than 10% of what that card could do. The only way you might get playable performance on integrated graphics would be if the resolution/render scale were turned down to something like 640x360 (if the game even supports resolutions that low), and even then its questionable. It would be kind of pointless to upgrade the CPU without getting a new graphics card along with it.

For now, your existing CPU is arguably "alright", or at least good enough to get playable performance out of most of today's games. It would likely hold a faster graphics card back in many cases, and even probably held the RX 580 back in some titles heavily utilizing more than four threads, but it should still be usable. And if you did decide to upgrade it alongside the graphics hardware, unless you found some good deal on the used market, the i7s compatible with that generation of motherboard are not all that attractively priced. It doesn't make much sense to spend something like $300 to get a "new" i7-8700 when an all-around faster i5-12400 with a new motherboard could be had for less.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

A 6700 XT is typically only going to be around 25% faster than a 1080 Ti,

not even 25%. <10fps more in every game.
also with terrible RT performance, dropping frame rates in half.

An RX 580, on the other hand, only offers around half the performance of a 1080 Ti, so the relative performance difference of a 6700 XT would be much larger

and will still give rather low performance vs what else is currently available on the market.
if the OP is planning on using this card through their planned upgrades a few years down the road they will be seriously lacking in game performance at that time.

 

[severian2012]

For now, your existing CPU is arguably "alright", or at least good enough to get playable performance out of most of today's games. It would likely hold a faster graphics card back in many cases, and even probably held the RX 580 back in some titles heavily utilizing more than four threads, but it should still be usable. And if you did decide to upgrade it alongside the graphics hardware, unless you found some good deal on the used market, the i7s compatible with that generation of motherboard are not all that attractively priced. It doesn't make much sense to spend something like $300 to get a "new" i7-8700 when an all-around faster i5-12400 with a new motherboard could be had for less.

Thanks for the replies.

So it looks like an iGPU is not an option. Also it seems that I should probably be upgrading my PSU in about two years as well. So if I want to do any gaming I will need a "Bridge" GPU for the time being. Honestly a full upgrade is probably more than likely two years out at a minimum. I feel like I have two options:

1. Stay with the status quo and get another 580 or equivalent (Looks like around $150 - $200).
2. Upgrade to something like a 6700 ($400) to see some performance improvement now. \

This one seems suspiciously low
https://kulidad.com/products/red-de...tm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping

I can then look at i7/i5 CPUs in two years when I get a new PSU which should get me some performance improvement off the new card as well. So this wouldn't be a huge upgrade but staggering out the purchases like this seems to make sense and my current motherboard can handle it.

One benefit of going with the cheaper option is that I could probably get a 1440p monitor with the money saved, although paying a few hundred to stay right where I'm at now just doesn't feel great.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

One benefit of going with the cheaper option is that I could probably get a 1440p monitor with the money saved, although paying a few hundred to stay right where I'm at now just doesn't feel great.

an RX 580 @ 1440p is going to be pretty low performance.

This one seems suspiciously low...

GPU prices have been dropping pretty fast the last couple months.
RTX 3070 for ~$500, 3060 for ~$400.
$300 for an RX 6700 XT is lower than usual but if the retailer has good return/refund policies i'd probably go for it.

just keep in mind that you'll probably want to upgrade again when you rebuild the system a couple years down the line.

what power supply are you currently using?

 

[severian2012]

what power supply are you currently using?

My PSU is

Corsair CX550 (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

and it's about 4 years old.

So right now I am thinking I will try to get the best card I can in $400 range and then do a CPU/PSU upgrade in about 2 years. Then maybe another GPU upgrade a few years after that. That would give me around 4 years on the new card which I think would be worth it. I am really just looking to be able to play most new games with solid performance for the next few years. I usually end up playing games two year after they come out anyway.

Any concerns with using my current PSU with a RX 6700 level card?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Any concerns with using my current PSU with a RX 6700 level card?

a lot of them require a 650w power supply.

 

[geofelt]

You have a budget of about $400.
And you need a gpu of some sort.
It jumps out at me that you are playing a game that is likely single thread cpu limited, more than fast action gpu limited.
To that end, consider upgrading your I3-8100 to a I3-12100.
The i3-8100 has 4 processing threads and a single thread passmark rating of 2242. A i3-12100 costs $130 with 8 threads and a single thread rating of 3550.
Here is a review:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i3-12100-12100f-review/5
You will need a lga1700 motherboard which will be about $100.
Here is an example of a B660 asrock:
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162048
Your DDR4 ram can be reused.
The 12100 has HD730 integrted graphics which is some 15% stronger than the HD630 on the 8100.
You could try that first.
If you need a discrete gpu, a GTX1660 Super would be $220:
https://www.newegg.com/evga-geforce-gtx-1660-super-06g-p4-1068-kr/p/N82E16814487479?quicklink=true
All still under your $400 budget.

 

[cryoburner]

You have a budget of about $400.

And you need a gpu of some sort.

It jumps out at me that you are playing a game that is likely single thread cpu limited, more than fast action gpu limited.

To that end, consider upgrading your I3-8100 to a I3-12100.

The i3-8100 has 4 processing threads and a single thread passmark rating of 2242. A i3-12100 costs $130 with 8 threads and a single thread rating of 3550.

Here is a review:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i3-12100-12100f-review/5

You will need a lga1700 motherboard which will be about $100.

Here is an example of a B660 asrock:

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162048

Your DDR4 ram can be reused.

The 12100 has HD730 integrted graphics which is some 15% stronger than the HD630 on the 8100.

You could try that first.

If you need a discrete gpu, a GTX1660 Super would be $220:

https://www.newegg.com/evga-geforce-gtx-1660-super-06g-p4-1068-kr/p/N82E16814487479?quicklink=true

All still under your $400 budget.

They might benefit from a CPU upgrade for many of today's modern games, though if one is going to spend $130 on an i3-12100 for gaming, they might as well spend another $20 to move up to an i5-12400F with 50% more cores and threads, provided they have a graphics card and feel they can do without the integrated graphics (which the "F" processors lack)...

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pQNxFT/intel-core-i5-12400f-25-ghz-6-core-processor-bx8071512400f

The integrated graphics might be convenient for debugging graphics card issues, though the 12400F should have a lot more longevity for gaming, and would likely keep the system relevant longer, making the extra $20 well worth it, even if it drives up the budget a little more. A 4-core, 8-thread processor might be an improvement over a 4-core, 4-thread one, but there are already some games running into the limits of such processors, and that's only going to become more of an issue over time as developers increasingly target the new generation of consoles and drop support for the nearly decade-old models with their much less capable CPUs. The i5-12400 (non-F) with integrated graphics might also be an option, though at current prices, the benefits of paying an additional $45 or so for a weak IGP that might not ever see much use seems a bit questionable for a processor in this price range.

Also, while a 1660 SUPER for $220 might be a reasonable option as a moderate upgrade over an RX 580, it's now possible to get an RTX 2060 for not all that much more. The 2060 is a bit faster still, and actually tends to outperform the newer 3050, despite currently being available for less. Compared to the 1660 SUPER, the 2060 also adds RTX and DLSS support. DLSS upscaling could help maintain usable performance in future, more demanding games, and while the RTX raytracing support on the 2060 might be a little weak relative to higher-end cards, it might be worth enabling in some titles in combination with DLSS, particularly as raytraced effects become more common...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=436,514,446

 

[severian2012]

Went with a RX 6700 which I got for $300 which seemed too good to pass up. This will let me play games now and should hopefully let me see an decent performance increase over my old RX580, even with the i3 limitations.

The plan is to use this on my current build then look to upgrade the CPU and PSU in another two years, then maybe upgrade the GPU again a few years after that if necessary. That would give me 4 or so years on this new card which seems worth it for the price. Not sure when I would want to invest in a new monitor. I currently have a 1080p. Maybe after the CPU upgrade in a few years?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I currently have a 1080p. Maybe after the CPU upgrade in a few years?

have been running mostly 1440p for ~6-7 years and gaming @ 1080p on anything over 24" just looks blurry and pixelated to me now.
i think it's just your eyes getting adjusted to something over time that is the biggest factor.
if you're still comfortable with 1080p gaming then stick with it until you get a better GPU that can handle ≥1440p with better frame rates and settings.

 

[severian2012]

have been running mostly 1440p for ~6-7 years and gaming @ 1080p on anything over 24" just looks blurry and pixelated to me now.
i think it's just your eyes getting adjusted to something over time that is the biggest factor.
if you're still comfortable with 1080p gaming then stick with it until you get a better GPU that can handle ≥1440p with better frame rates and settings.

Well unfortunately the RX 6700 purchase fell through. However I tried my RX 580 again on a whim and it appears to be working, maybe it still had some moisture in it? Now I have around $400 that I have already set aside for parts to spend.

After hearing everyone's input, I'm now wondering whether I should try for another RX6700 level card or upgrade my CPU with something like a i5-9600KF. I would rather not replace my motherboard but I guess if the value proposition made sense I could.

I would like to start gaming in 1440p but I think I would need to get a new GPU to see any benefits, even if I did upgrade to the i5. I'm leaning towards trying for another GPU because I still don't quite trust my RX580, but going to a i5 may be a bit cheaper/smarter option for now. Seems like I would see a more immediate impact with a new GPU with my i3 over a new i5 with my current RX580, but I guess I don't know.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

wondering whether I should try for another RX6700 level card or upgrade my CPU with something like a i5-9600KF.

i doubt the i3-8100 can even provide enough frames to a ≥RX 6700 range card to notice much of difference in more demanding games.
sure you could turn up the in-game settings higher but still probably only get ≤40fps average.

i would be looking for a more powerful CPU for sure.
and if upgrading the CPU i would definitely be getting a 12th gen or even wait a bit for the 13th gen to release.
performance over 9th gen is HUGE.

you'll also definitely need a new motherboard in that situation.

maybe just save up for a bit and do a total system upgrade?

 

[severian2012]

maybe just save up for a bit and do a total system upgrade?

This might be the best option. Now that I know my rx580 is at least usable The need is not as immediate.

A i3-12100 costs $130 with 8 threads and a single thread rating of 3550.
Here is a review:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i3-12100-12100f-review/5
You will need a lga1700 motherboard which will be about $100.
Here is an example of a B660 asrock:
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162048

They might benefit from a CPU upgrade for many of today's modern games, though if one is going to spend $130 on an i3-12100 for gaming, they might as well spend another $20 to move up to an i5-12400F with 50% more cores and threads, provided they have a graphics card and feel they can do without the integrated graphics (which the "F" processors lack)...

I am thinking of going with a new CPU/Motherboard upgrade now. the prices on the i5-12400F seem reasonable and even with a new motherboard it would be under $300. I can just live with the rx580 for the time being. I'm a little nervous as I've not replaced a motherboard or a CPU at this point but all the other parts seem compatible.

I guess I don't know why there is not a big price difference between a 9th gen and a 12th gen i5?

 

[cryoburner]

However I tried my RX 580 again on a whim and it appears to be working, maybe it still had some moisture in it?

Yeah, that was probably what happened. It might be worth running the RX 580 for a few weeks or so to verify that it continues to work fine and that nothing was damaged before deciding on what components to upgrade.

Depending on what processor you go with and what the prices are like when you go to buy, if the cost of moving up to the non-F version with integrated graphics happens to not much more (like $20 or so), then you might consider that as well. That way, if the card were to experience a delayed failure, you would at least have something to fall back on to while deciding what to do for a graphics card. These prices can often hop around depending on sales at certain retailers and whether the CPU is in short supply at some of them.

I guess I don't know why there is not a big price difference between a 9th gen and a 12th gen i5?

The prices of moderately old CPUs often don't drop as much you might expect, since they are still considered viable products for those wanting to upgrade a system from that generation without replacing the motherboard. And usually, there won't be as much stock of those processors after they have been out of production for a while, so the limited supply can keep prices up, especially on the new market. On the used market, pricing can be better, though from a look on eBay, a "pre-owned" i7-9700k is still typically selling for over $200, while an i5-12400 should be all-around faster and easier to cool. A 12400 should even outperform an i9-9900K from that generation in most workloads, which is kind of crazy considering that was around a $500 processor when it launched less than 4 years ago. The 12400 has 6 cores with 12 threads, while the 9900K has 8 cores with 16 threads, but the 12400's performance per core is higher, allowing it to outperform the 9900K at light to moderately threaded workloads, and even roughly match it at heavily-multithreaded ones.

 

[spentshells]

the title says solved, but it's not

you're i3 has got to go

You'll want to find a used i5 and buy an amd 6600

Thats really the only viable option for you.

You'll need at least 6 threads to game with any card above what you already had.

the 8600k might be found for a reasonable price. the i7's from that gen are stupid costly and barely outperform modern i3's in many cases they don't.

6 cores at 4.5 ghz... this should be easily achievable when paired with a AMD6600 would improve you experience by 50%. You should be able to achieve this with 400 USD. You'll also want to overclock the ram as much as you can. 3000mhz is a nice target and shouldn't be an issue to achieve.