Question Is my setup too outdated to buy a GTX 4060 graphics card? Do I need to upgrade other components first?

[RolandDeschain19]

My current setup is a bit dated and I'm looking to upgrade but my budget is tight at the moment. The setup I current have js:
- Power Supply - OCZ 600W ModXStream Pro
- Processor - Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core, overclocked to 4 GHz
- RAM - 16GB DDR3
- Mottherboard - Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z Intel Z68
- Current Graphics Card is a 970
- Two Hard Drives, One HDD and one SSD

The main issues I'm worried about: not enough power for the new card, old motherboard not being able to support plugging in the new card and the CPU bottlenecking the new card. Also can someone tell me how the 4060 fares in terms of size when compared to the 970 so that I can figure out if it will even fit in my case? Thanks

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Getting 4060 or more powerful card with your currunt setup is not going to be great your cpu is over 13 years old since it brought out in 2010 and your PSU never even heard off and ddr3 is old. You need to save up money and Buy new CPU and motherboard and PSU before upgrading to 4060. Also 4060 comes in diffrent sizes some 192 x 120 x 41 mm and 163 x 117.6 x 39.5 mm and 199 x 120 x 41 mm just checked some gpu online and that what it says on the specs.

OCZ 600W ModXStream Pro will not work with 4060 since its very old PSU and not even good enough for it more idle for old computers and such.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Holy hell! Attaching ANY modern video card to that rig would just be pissing your money down the drain. I'd be willing to bet that your platform is already bottlenecking your GTX 970 because your CPU was already 3½ years old when the GTX 970 came out. There is no video card upgrade that would be a good choice on that platform at any price, period.

If you're looking at the RTX 4060, that means you have about $300 to spend (because that's what it costs). You would get ZERO benefit from it (and I DO mean ZERO) so you'd be literally pissing your money away. If you have a tight budget, that means you can't afford to be pissing your money away so I'm here to save you from doing that.

The good news is that using your $300 RTX 4060 budget for a platform upgrade instead would be a GIGANTIC performance improvement. Also, your GTX 970 wouldn't be bottlenecked anymore.

Here's what I'm thinking:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (Comes with Cooler) - $150
Motherboard: ASRock B550M Phantom Gaming 4 - $85
RAM: 32GB Silicon Power Gaming DDR4-3200 CL16 - $50
Windows SSD: Team MP33 256GB PCIe3 NVMe - $19
Total: $304

I'm assuming that you have Windows 10 already so I won't bother with that. This setup will make EVERYTHING better, not just your gaming. You're going to be literally shocked by how much faster EVERYTHING is. Moreover, the R5-5600 has a TDP of only 65W as opposed to the i5-2500K's TDP of 95W which will make things a bit easier on your old PSU.

The 256GB NVMe drive is more than large enough for Windows 10 and would make the overall difference between this platform and what you have even more dramatic. I ran Windows 10 for 5 years on a 128GB M.2 SATA drive and never encountered capacity issues so this 256GB drive will be good for future Windows upgrades.

This platform with your GTX 970 will out-game your platform with an RTX 4060 by a HUGE margin because your platform's gaming speed is limited by your i5. This means that NO video card would improve your gaming FPS, not even and RX 7900 XTX or RTX 4090.

I know that the AM4 platform has no upgrade path but, let's be honest here, you haven't upgraded in 12 years. Therefore, value for your dollar is far more important than an upgrade path that you probably won't use anyway. The Ryzen 5 5600 is unquestionably one of, if not the, best value gaming CPUs on the market today and has been since its inception. It is still considered to be a top-value gaming CPU in 2023. Feel free to fact-check that statement.

Since the launch of the AM5 platform, the prices of AM4 parts have just fallen through the basement floor even though they're still perfectly viable, modern parts (I'm still using AM4 myself) and that really lends itself to your specific situation.

To give you an idea of the difference in performance between those two CPUs, here are their Passmark scores:
Intel Core i5-2500K - 4123
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 - 21645

This is the upgrade you should perform and you'll be wildly happy with it, this I guarantee!

 

[Avro Arrow]

I wanted to add, if down the road (I don't know how long down the road), you're looking to spend $300 on a video card, I wouldn't recommend that RTX 4060. You (very rightly) seem to like longevity in your hardware and why wouldn't you? This is why you shouldn't get an RTX 4060. Having only 8GB of VRAM has already been shown to be a limiting factor in some games and this will of course only get worse over time.

The RTX 4060 is 3% faster than the RX 6700 (which is within margin-of-error and is considered a tie) but the RX 6700 (which is 27% faster than the GTX 970) has 10GB of VRAM instead of the 4060's 8GB (a 25% increase). It's also similarly-priced:
Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 Pulse 10GB - $280

When it comes to card longevity, VRAM is life. Having too little VRAM results in the card being unusable even if it has enough GPU horsepower. I know that you can tell because your GTX 970 is potent enough to play some semi-modern games at low settings but that 4GB hamstrings it just as much as 4GB of HBM hamstrings the R9 Fury (faster than the GTX 980 but slower than the 980 Ti) of which I own two.

You've probably noticed that I've only recommended Radeons and you're right. The reason is that, right now, GeForce cards are so overpriced and under-powered that unless you're buying an RTX 4090, they're not worth it. My RX 7900 XTX is faster than an RTX 4080 but costs $150-$200 less. Don't be afraid of Radeon cards, I've owned LOTS of them and they work just as well as the GeForce cards I had before them:

 

[strobolt]

The Ryzen 5 5600 is unquestionably one of, if not the, best value gaming CPUs on the market today and has been since its inception. It is still considered to be a top-value gaming CPU in 2023. Feel free to fact-check that statement.

I'm not saying that the 5600 is a bad choice, especially if you do a lot of threaded application work but strictly for gaming and general PC usage I would say that the $93 i3-12100F is even better value choice as it almost matches the 5600 in those areas and is ~50 USD cheaper which is a lot of money at this price point. As $90 B660 motherboard comes at ~the same price as the AMD B550 and other system components being interchangeable, the value is arguably better, discounting heavily threaded applications.

But I'd agree that GPU upgrade makes no sense with the current CPU. With either 5600 or 12100 you should then be able to go all the way up to 4070 in 1080p gaming before becoming CPU limited again and all the way to 4090 in 4k. But I'd consider a new PSU to include in that upgrade.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I'm not saying that the 5600 is a bad choice, especially if you do a lot of threaded application work but strictly for gaming and general PC usage I would say that the $93 i3-12100F is even better value choice as it almost matches the 5600 in those areas and is ~50 USD cheaper which is a lot of money at this price point. As $90 B660 motherboard comes at ~the same price as the AMD B550 and other system components being interchangeable, the value is arguably better, discounting heavily threaded applications.

But I'd agree that GPU upgrade makes no sense with the current CPU. With either 5600 or 12100 you should then be able to go all the way up to 4070 in 1080p gaming before becoming CPU limited again and all the way to 4090 in 4k. But I'd consider a new PSU to include in that upgrade.

Sure, he could go that way too but then he wouldn't be able to one day just drop in an R7-5800X3D. That was the reason I went the AM4 route. The OP is a bit of a minimalist when it comes to upgrades and having this option down the road to get a cheap and serious upgrade was worth the extra $50. Also, IIRC, the i3-12100 doesn't come with a cooler and can't be overclocked like the R5-5600 can. The cost of the cooler alone turns that $50 difference into a $30 difference at most.

 

[DSzymborski]

I guess what I would ask first is *why* you're upgrading, beyond the rig simply being outdated. What activity or activities are you currently doing on the PC that you wish you could be doing more effectively or what activity or activities do you wish do do that you can't currently at all?

That kinda determines what kind of upgrade you need. If you do more work-type things on your PC, a platform upgrade as suggested in here would probably get you more than any GPU upgrade. But if this is primarily a gaming rig that does fine for your non-gaming needs, then the build suggestion might be different.

Just throwing in a new budget GPU will not be a good use of your resources. The rest of the PC is too far behind to really take advantage of a 40-series GPU and somewhere around $100-$120 *will* be required for a new PSU if you care about the long-term health of your components. And you should, if budget is a concern.

Without knowing the exact position you were in, if I had a rig like that and I needed a quick upgrade and had a strict budget, I think I might do something like getting a used GTX 1070, which is a significant upgrade on the GTX 970 and can be found for around $100, frequently even less. And if I'm then going to save up for more significant upgrades later, I'd invest in a quality PSU that will last another decade and more. Then I'd next save for a platform upgrade.

Incrementally upgrading a PC can be a good strategy, but it works most effectively when the upgrades are timely. It's a rather expensive issue when you wait eight or nine years to *start* making upgrades. Once you're that far behind, you can no longer get your PC up to date by simply dropping in $200 or $300 worth of parts.

 

[strobolt]

Sure, he could go that way too but then he wouldn't be able to one day just drop in an R7-5800X3D.

Assuming those still exist 10 years from now when op is doing the next upgrade and it will not be better value to do again just a full platform upgrade like now

Also, IIRC, the i3-12100 doesn't come with a cooler and can't be overclocked like the R5-5600 can. The cost of the cooler alone turns that $50 difference into a $30 difference at most.

It does come with a cooler and quite ok one as well.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Assuming those still exist 10 years from now when op is doing the next upgrade and it will not be better value to do again just a full platform upgrade like now

Yes, but I always try to leave as many upgrade options as possible. I would've gone for AM5 but there's no way that it would fit inside $300 since it probably doesn't matter.

It does come with a cooler and quite ok one as well.

I wasn't aware of that but in that case, it's definitely a good option as well. In fact, I'd even say that the i3-12100F would be an even better option than that because there's no need for the IGP and it's only $93 instead of $115 for no performance penalty.

However, the i3s are only based on the idea that the OP only cares about gaming performance. I kinda doubt that because they're still using an i5-2500K and a GTX 970. For gaming performance, absolutely the i3s are a better value, but the R5-5600 is a better all-around CPU, at least according to Passmark:

i3-12100 - 13857
i3-12100F - 14264
R5-5600 - 21645

It's good that you brought up the i3-12100 because more options for the OP is a good thing. If gaming performance is all that the OP cares about, then yeah, the i3 would be the better choice.