[SOLVED] Upgrade from AMD Readeon R7 200 Series

[deepseadave]

I want to upgrade my graphics card. Looking to spend around £200 to £300

The aim is to increase FPS for Fortnite as high as possible within the limits of my existing system and budget.

Existing card: Card name: AMD Radeon R7 200 Series

My PC System: Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM Available OS Memory: 16334MB RAM

Monitor: Dell Alienware 25 Monitor - AW2521HF

I realise that some combinations would create a CPU bottleneck.

For example I looked at the RTX 2060S (for £329.99) as on userbenchmark said that would give me a 100% score. But on pc-builds it says that combination results in a average bottleneck percentage of 29.67% and therefore "Your processor is too weak for this graphic card on 1080p resolution".

The GTX1660 Super has a bottleneck percentage of 15.92%

The GTX1650 Super has a bottleneck percentage of 7.34% (Graphic card and processor will work great together on 1080p resolution)

I do not know how important the "bottleneck percentage" is as this is all new to me.

But looking https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html it seems to me with my CPU the GTX 1650 Super is my best bet and it's available online for around £188.99

But if getting the GTX 1660, RTX 2060 or RTX 2060 Super is going to make a decent difference and this "bottleneck percentage" isn't that important then I'd like to know.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DSzymborski]

The bottleneck percentage is made up. No seriously hobbyist uses that, so there's no need to care about anything sites like that say.

What is your exact PSU? That's the most crucial bit of information for any GPU upgrade. There's no R7 200 card, R7 200 is a full series of cards that range from about 30W to 150W, so the GPU provides no clue as to what level PSU you have in there already.

I would not buy any GPU right now until the Ampere cards have hit the market and we've seen the price pressures.

 

[King_V]

Absolutely fully agree with DSzymborski - bottleneck calculators are not useless, only because they are WORSE than useless. Complete garbage, and you should never trust anyone's advice who tells you to use a bottleneck calculator. There is no such thing as a perfect balance between CPU and GPU, and the term "bottleneck" is misused to the point

Likewise, as he stated as well, knowing the brand and EXACT model of PSU is very important. The wattage rating is one thing, and efficieny rating another, but the QUALITY of the PSU model in question is absolutely important.

The first link in my signature goes into detail on that.


Now, as to what CPU and video card combination to use, it most often boils down to:

• Resolution
• Refresh Rate
• If your monitor has FreeSync, GSync, or neither

And then:

• What games are you playing?
• What is your performance goal?

I looked up your monitor - it's 1920x1080, FreeSync and G-Sync compatible, and the refresh range is 48-240Hz, and has LFC (low framerate compensation), so, in can adjust down to an effective 24Hz.

So, the question is, once we know what games you're playing, what are you shooting for?

• Low details with ultra-high frame-rates?
• High details at 60 fps (or some other specific frame rate?)
• Max details AND ultra-high frame rates?

Knowing this will help to determine what GPU you need to meet the goals, and if the CPU will be a problem.

Just a reminder - in one game, the GPU could be holding you back, and the CPU is waiting on the GPU. In another game on the same system, same CPU and GPU, it could be the CPU that holds it back and the GPU waiting on the CPU.

 

[deepseadave]

The bottleneck percentage is made up. No seriously hobbyist uses that, so there's no need to care about anything sites like that say.

What is your exact PSU? That's the most crucial bit of information for any GPU upgrade. There's no R7 200 card, R7 200 is a full series of cards that range from about 30W to 150W, so the GPU provides no clue as to what level PSU you have in there already.

I would not buy any GPU right now until the Ampere cards have hit the market and we've seen the price pressures.

Thanks for clarifying that.

I'm not sure what the exact PSU is, seems I might have to open it up to check that. My system model is MS-7816, I got it from Mesh Computers, it's quite old I bought in 2014. Will get the exact PSU and update.

But as you say I may as well hold off until those new cards are released and see how it affects prices.

thanks
D

 

[King_V]

Sounds like a plan - also, if you can get the information from the power-specs label. How many amps for the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rails. There may be multiple 12V rails.

I can't say I've heard of Mesh Computers, though.

 

[Math Geek]

bottleneck is such a misused and almost completely misunderstood concept. there will ALWAYS be a bottleneck in some way or another.

for instance in your case if you get a strong gpu, then it means that your cpu will be able to run 100% and not have the gpu run as high. you'll get every frame your cpu is able to ask the gpu for. will the gpu run at 100%? no it won't, it will be able to do everything asked of it without running flat out though which is not a bad thing.

on the other hand, if you get a weak gpu, then your cpu will be able to ask the gpu to do more than it can. so your gpu runs at 100% trying to keep up and your cpu gets to slack off while it waits for the gpu to finish and then tells it to do more.

depending on the game and other factors, the "bottleneck" will be in one place or another. your hdd/ssd is also a source of "bottleneck" as your ram is much faster and has to wait for the hdd/ssd to pass it the data it needs. and so on and so on. most people try to balance the system so the bottleneck is passed back and forth but that's not the easiest thing to do since so many factors effect overall performance.

unless your trying to use a $100 cpu with a $1200 gpu or vice versa, then it's not really worth worrying about. for instance i have a 3700x but only bought a 1650 super. i needed more cpu resources than gpu so i went that way. i know my gpu works harder in game than my cpu but it's not a big deal to me. it's just part of how the parts work together. but when i need extra cpu power for my vm's and other stuff, i know it is there.

so i made sure i had enough cpu power for my needs and gpu power for those needs. they are not totally "balanced" but they cover my needs.