[SOLVED] The next step from a GTX 1060 on an older pc

[M87dk]

2 years ago I upgraded my Acer Predator 3620 by replacing the power supply, CPU and GPU.

It is currently running a GTX 1060 3GB and I have been wondering how much further I can go with the GPU.
Getting a 6GB version of the GTX 1060 is an obvious choice, but is the motherboard of the 3620 able to run anything better than that?
When I upgraded it 2 years ago, the 1060 seemed to be the only choice, but I am not sure.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Well, it's not necessarily what card your mobo can handle, rather what PSU to have to power an upgrade, and how strong your CPU is to push the new GPU to it's max.

The 1060 6gb is not a good choice. It essentially offers about a 5% increase in performance but only when the game need more than 3gb to run, and for the most part very close in FPS.

What PSU/CPU did you upgrade to?

The CPU you currently have is possibly going to bottleneck a GPU that we would consider enough of an upgrade to suggest. Ideally you need to skip 2 generations to ensure you have enough of a leap in performance to justify the spend on a GPU. This would put you around a RTX3060 mark, which would not be balanced with your current system.

On top of all that, you have a worldwide GPU shortage, and ridiculous pricing.

If I were you, I'd check this buy for now. Stick with your current system for 6 months, and in the meantime, save about a €1000 dollars, for a platform upgrade, along with (hopefully cheaper GPU prices by then).

Just my two cents

 

[logainofhades]

It appears that your system came with a 500w PSU. That should be fine with something like a 1660s/1660ti, or 2060 KO. Prices as they are, though, is going to make upgrading way more expensive than it should be.

 

[punkncat]

I have a couple of questions, actually.

Looking back on a search for this indicates that it has an i7 3770? You mention having upgraded the CPU and could imagine the system came in various component level. So you upgraded from what, to what?

I mirror keith12 in regard to what PSU is currently in the system.

Quite likely that you can upgrade to pretty much anything you can find and that your PSU will support. It wouldn't take much card to be 'better' than the 3GB model of the 1060. I am not sure that a lateral move to a 6GB model would be much improvement, but that could be dependent on how much memory the games you are playing want.

The big thing here is that a 3rd gen i7 (assuming that is what you have) isn't going to be strong enough to put a lot of demand on a much higher tier card than what you have now. Considering the market condition, a decent GPU is going to cost far more than it's value unless you stick with cards under 4GB of memory. Even they are marked up.

IMO would keep an eye out for a deal, be careful of things that sound too good to be true. Might consider looking at the upgrade from the other angle, being doing the main system components. You could build a really nice rig for the cost of GPU right now.

 

[InvalidError]

The 1060 6gb is not a good choice. It essentially offers about a 5% increase in performance but only when the game need more than 3gb to run, and for the most part very close in FPS.

If a game needs more than 3GB, which is a lot of them these days unless you play with everything at low-ish details, the difference is going to be a whole lot more than 5%. RX5500 4GB vs 8GB, there is a difference up to 70% between the two when details are turned up enough for 4GB to become a problem, especially when it is limited by a 3.0x8 PCIe connection.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

If a game needs more than 3GB, which is a lot of them these days unless you play with everything at low-ish details, the difference is going to be a whole lot more than 5%. RX5500 4GB vs 8GB, there is a difference up to 70% between the two when details are turned up enough for 4GB to become a problem, especially when it is limited by a 3.0x8 PCIe connection.

Admittedly, I didn't phrase that very well. Specifically, the performance increase for the 6gb card over the 3gb card when mem is a restriction.