[SOLVED] MoBo died on an 8 year old PC, one of the drives has died too so I just bought new gear for 1.8K USD excluding GPU - question:

Jun 20, 2020
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I don't play games at all, I do heavy office work stuff (like 40 Chrome tabs open) plus occasional Adobe Premiere 4K content editing and occasional Photoshop.

The gear I just bought:

Case
Fractal Design Meshify 2 Black Solid
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3,7GH 100-100000065BOX
RAM
G.SKILL - DDR4 32GB (2x16GB) TridentZ RGB Neo AMD 3600MHz CL16 XMP2
MOBO
Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI) AM4 DDR4 HDMI/DP M.2 ATX
HDD
  1. Samsung 980PRO 1TB Gen4.0x4 NVMeMZ-V8P500BW
  2. Crucial MX500 2TB Sata3 2.5'' 560/510 MB/s
  3. Crucial MX500 2TB Sata3 2.5'' 560/510 MB/s
Power Supply
Fractal Design Ion+ 760w 80PLUS Platinum
COOLER
Noctua NH-D15

As you can see the above decent setup is missing a GPU. I am left with my 8 year old Radeon HD 7700 and frankly I don't know what to do...on one hand this crappy old card still does what I want it too (I have a 27" 1440p IPS Dell monitor) but on the other, its about 13 generations old compared to todays 3070's. The prices of new GPU's are completely ridiculous and it especially doesn't make sense to buy one for me who does not play games (I'll be getting a PS5 soon anyway for myself and the kid)
Question: Do I stick the ancient Radeon HD7700 in the shiny new Asus motherboard right next to the PCIE gen 4 M.2 Samsung 980 Pro and the super fast RAM and CPU (compared to the old GPU) or do I look for a used 3-4 year old GPU and if yes - which one for this setup?
 
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Solution
I've done my share of overclocking back in the early 90's on TNT's and TNT 2 Ultra's and I've spent countless hours playing Quake, Doom Halflife and Atari and Amiga earlier. Since I got the new setup today I'm thinking maybe I could at least look at how Cyberpunk2077 looks and I certainly wont be able on that 1GB Radeon will I? A slightly better GPU would benefit my Adobe Premiere work too so its not like its literally 0 difference if I don't play aything. Besides, if I was to get an upgraded GPU maybe I'll start playing something. My question is: What could I upgrade to with significant gains but without breaking the bank - say 300 bucks.

CP2077 won't even run on that. However TBH if CP2077 is your goal then the GPU you will...
Jun 20, 2020
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If you're literally never doing any gaming than the difference between an old HD7700 and a new 3070 is literally 0.

I've done my share of overclocking back in the early 90's on TNT's and TNT 2 Ultra's and I've spent countless hours playing Quake, Doom Halflife and Atari and Amiga earlier. Since I got the new setup today I'm thinking maybe I could at least look at how Cyberpunk2077 looks and I certainly wont be able on that 1GB Radeon will I? A slightly better GPU would benefit my Adobe Premiere work too so its not like its literally 0 difference if I don't play aything. Besides, if I was to get an upgraded GPU maybe I'll start playing something. My question is: What could I upgrade to with significant gains but without breaking the bank - say 300 bucks.
 

carocuore

Respectable
Jan 24, 2021
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95
1,840
Question: Do I stick the ancient Radeon HD7700 in the shiny new Asus motherboard
Yes.

Youre right but on the other hand, I spent a lot of money on all the new gear and sticking with an extremely outdated single, crucial component might not be all that rational?
What's the point? if it's working and compatible with the rest of the parts then everything's ok, if you want something -newer- get an used 750Ti or a 1050Ti, it won't be much of an improvement if all you do is open corp spyware chrome though.

I'm thinking maybe I could at least look at how Cyberpunk2077 looks and I certainly wont be able on that 1GB Radeon will I
Then do get a better graphics card instead of a console. But it seems like a huge waste just for one game.
 
Jun 20, 2020
16
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What's the point? if it's working and compatible with the rest of the parts then everything's ok, if you want something -newer- get an used 750Ti or a 1050Ti, it won't be much of an improvement if all you do is open corp spyware chrome though.

Then do get a better graphics card instead of a console. But it seems like a huge waste just for one game.

Hey, thanks for the tips. I just might open some more of those chrome tabs and get both the console and a GPU and play CP2077 on both.
 
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Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
I've done my share of overclocking back in the early 90's on TNT's and TNT 2 Ultra's and I've spent countless hours playing Quake, Doom Halflife and Atari and Amiga earlier. Since I got the new setup today I'm thinking maybe I could at least look at how Cyberpunk2077 looks and I certainly wont be able on that 1GB Radeon will I? A slightly better GPU would benefit my Adobe Premiere work too so its not like its literally 0 difference if I don't play aything. Besides, if I was to get an upgraded GPU maybe I'll start playing something. My question is: What could I upgrade to with significant gains but without breaking the bank - say 300 bucks.

CP2077 won't even run on that. However TBH if CP2077 is your goal then the GPU you will want to be able to run it decently is going to cost you.

Now when it comes to Adobe Premiere then yes a better GPU can help, if you use GPU encoding, however you will have a CPU thats a very strong encoder. Again it comes down to what can your budget stomach. $300 is not going to get you a GPU that will encode video better than your CPU.

$300 may get you into a used GPU these days. My local Microcenter has nothing in the $300 range, Newegg has nothing in stock at all. If they did the cheapest RTX 3060 which is $329 should do CP2077 decently with settings turned down. The problem is getting it. Patience and time....
 
Solution
Jun 20, 2020
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CP2077 won't even run on that. However TBH if CP2077 is your goal then the GPU you will want to be able to run it decently is going to cost you.

Patience and time....

Thats most likely the route I'll take in case I won't find a used RX 570 8GB which would be a significant upgrade towards my old HD 7700.
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Good point. Thought I'd get a GPU too to launch a game or two as long as I'm getting a decent new PC setup. What would you look for besides an RX570 in my place?

Newegg does a lottery for new GPU purchases, IMO the RTX 3060 is the best way to spend $330 GPU wise, should be useful for many years. They have a bunch at that price. You may not get it immediately but thats what I would do to try and get one.

Used GPUs that are similar in performance are MASSIVELY OVERPRICED right now. People are asking $600+ for a used RTX 2080.
 
Jun 20, 2020
16
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Newegg does a lottery for new GPU purchases, IMO the RTX 3060 is the best way to spend $330 GPU wise, should be useful for many years. They have a bunch at that price. You may not get it immediately but thats what I would do to try and get one.

Used GPUs that are similar in performance are MASSIVELY OVERPRICED right now. People are asking $600+ for a used RTX 2080.
I just spoke to a former studend of mine who works for a country wide distributor here in Poland, a 3060 shows a $1.054 price and there is zero availability of any GPU's at the moment. Grey market prices are a lot worse here than in the US from what I can see, an available 3070 at a reputable store costs $1.818. I was able to get the system I listed in the OP for $1.343 from the distrubutor guy but GPU's seem to be completely unobtainable here. I will look into that Newegg store although I doubt I will be able to get anything being abroad, thank you for your help though.
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
I just spoke to a former studend of mine who works for a country wide distributor here in Poland, a 3060 shows a $1.054 price and there is zero availability of any GPU's at the moment. Grey market prices are a lot worse here than in the US from what I can see, an available 3070 at a reputable store costs $1.818. I was able to get the system I listed in the OP for $1.343 from the distrubutor guy but GPU's seem to be completely unobtainable here. I will look into that Newegg store although I doubt I will be able to get anything being abroad, thank you for your help though.

Sorry didn't realize you were not US, yeah that gets tough. I mean in the US its hard enough to find them, but some places I'm sure are worse.