[SOLVED] Should I upgrade my graphics card now or will my CPU bottleneck?

[sephorian]

I currently have an i5-6600k and a GTX 1060 6gb. Motherboard is an ASUS Z170-AR.

I'm planning on eventually doing a full new build but it's going to take me a while to save up.

I'm considering upgrading my graphics card first to a 3060 or something of a similar price range. I can afford to buy one now.

I'm just wondering if I do upgrade, will I see a significant upgrade to my FPS in games? I've compared both cards using some of the online tools and it seems like a 3060 would be a massive upgrade in terms of frames.

My concern is that my CPU may act as significant bottleneck - is that true? Am I better off waiting and starting with a new build?

 

[5900x]

The 3060 is a big upgrade for 1060 yes by itself, but with that cpu might not make "massive" gains. At the current price of the gpu market, won't you get a current gen cpu+mobo in the same or little more price of a 3060? That would probably be a massive upgrade I think, might hold out for the gpu few months down the line to see how things go. My vote is for new build.

 

[sephorian]

The 3060 is a big upgrade for 1060 yes by itself, but with that cpu might not make "massive" gains. At the current price of the gpu market, won't you get a current gen cpu+mobo in the same or little more price of a 3060? That would probably be a massive upgrade I think, might hold out for the gpu few months down the line to see how things go. My vote is for new build.

Thanks for the reply.

From memory, upgrading to a new motherboard & CPU means having to buy a new Windows 10 licence - is that still the case?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the reply.

From memory, upgrading to a new motherboard & CPU means having to buy a new Windows 10 licence - is that still the case?

Depends where it came from originally.

If preinstalled on a system like Dell or HP, probably need to buy new.

Otherwise, it is likely transferable.
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

 

[madmatt30]

If you want a comparison then drop games resolution to 720p with your current 1060.

What youll then do is force rhe cpu to be the limiting factor.

What you get at 720p fps is going to more or less equal to what a 3060 will do at 1080p (assuming that's what resolution you're playing at)

 

[sephorian]

If you want a comparison then drop games resolution to 720p with your current 1060.

What youll then do is force rhe cpu to be the limiting factor.

What you get at 720p fps is going to more or less equal to what a 3060 will do at 1080p (assuming that's what resolution you're playing at)

Yeah sorry I should have mentioned that I'm playing at 1080p.

That's really interesting, I'll give that a go. Cheers.

 

[madmatt30]

Yeah sorry I should have mentioned that I'm playing at 1080p.

That's really interesting, I'll give that a go. Cheers.

It's a quick and cheap method of forcing a cpu limitation.

While not particularly accurate its going to give you an idea of whther its a worthwhile upgrade while still paired with that cpu.

1080p is 2.2 x more pixel count than 720p while the 3060 is anywhere between 70 and 100% stronger on actual pixel pushing power than a 1060 depending on the actual game.

Its also improved vastly in other ways when it it comes to texfures / lighting etc so its at least going to give you a very good idea of performance .

 

[Alex20022009]

The 3060 is a nice gpu and an intel core i7 10700k will bottleneck perfectly the gpu
For that system i recommend 16gb of ram if you can, go for 32 gb

 

[rcald2000]

Hello sephorian. Which games do play or wish to play after the upgrade? What are your full specs? (8 components, including the CPU cooler). How much money do you have right now to upgrade your system? Do you live in the US region or other? If US, do you live within reasonable driving distance of Micro Center?

What I would do: I'd strongly consider upgrading my platform, by selling the current CPU/motherboard as a kit, and using the proceeds to purchasing a new DDR4 motherboard and accompanying CPU. For example, on Ebay, I see the i5-6600K and accompanying Z170 chipset motherboards selling for $150 - $200 USD.

Then I would purchase a B550 motherboard (e.g. MSI B550-A Pro) and an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (CPU purchase only if I could still find new for $341 or less) OR Z690 motherboard (MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi DDR4 or GIGABYTE Z690 UD DDR4) and an Intel core i5-12600K. Micro Center currently sells the 12600K for $250 USD and offers $20 off an accompanying motherboard at time of purchase.

Ebay: completed / used / US only listings "i5 6600k motherboard"
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...te=1&LH_ItemCondition=3000&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1

Addendum: I would do the above IF I wanted to play new triple-A titles. If I was content with playing five year old titles, then maybe I would consider sticking with my existing platform for the time being.

Might as well: If the current budget allowed, I would also consider purchasing a NVMe SSD (1TB minimum, but 2TB would be a premium option). But if I could afford to simultaneously purchase one additional item, after the CPU and motherboard, then I would prioritize a new GPU over storage. But since graphics cards generally cost much more money than SSD's these days, I'd try to at least purchase a 1 TB unit to give myself a premium gaming experience. It's absolutely a phenomenal upgrade over a traditional hard drive (HDD).

FYI: You would absolutely keep your existing RAM kit and move it to your new build. But if you buy into a new Intel motherboard, just be certain to select the DDR4 variant, as many of those boards offer both DDR4 and DDR5 versions. AMD Ryzen only supports DDR4, so it's not a concern on that platform.

You should watch both these videos to get quickly up-to-speed on the latest CPU platforms:

View: https://youtu.be/LzhwVLUVork

View: https://youtu.be/cNVJYOkm6zs