Question Upgrade gpu or entire rig

[Djrandolfs12]

Hey guys I want to upgrade my rig and was wondering what you think. This is my current and is pretty dated at this point:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CQxFcb

I was considering dropping in a 2070 or 2070 super if I can find one used for $200 give or take, and upgrading my SSD to a fast 2TB that I could use on future builds. I chose this card because based on this bottleneck website I found:

https://pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/result/0Fn14o/3/graphic-card-intense-tasks/1920x1080/)

That’s about the highest I can go without running into a cpu bottleneck, can anyone confirm or deny this?

Also how is the used GPU market? I’ve never attempted to try before and am kind of leary to do so…


Anyways, down the line I’d really like to pump out a few grand for a 4K high FPS gaming build for single player AAA titles. I’m not really competitive, but the 4K oled monitor scene right now doesn’t seem like it’s ready yet so I’m holding off on spending thousands to do that just yet. (I love my LGC2 77” for ps5 and would be so happy to get a similar experience on PC)

On another note, if that GPU and SSD upgrade seems like a terrible idea, and doing an entire overhaul sounds more ideal in the short term, what would you guys suggest? Would I need to upgrade my monitor as well?

I’ve built 2 PCs before and don’t really know much, but have been watching tons of PCBuilder on YouTube and trying to increase my knowledge base before making a mega build purchase. Im really excited to learn and any info or recommendations you guys have doesn’t go unappreciated!

THANKS!

 

[jeremyj_83]

Hey guys I want to upgrade my rig and was wondering what you think. This is my current and is pretty dated at this point:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CQxFcb

I was considering dropping in a 2070 or 2070 super if I can find one used for $200 give or take, and upgrading my SSD to a fast 2TB that I could use on future builds. I chose this card because based on this bottleneck website I found:

https://pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/result/0Fn14o/3/graphic-card-intense-tasks/1920x1080/)

That’s about the highest I can go without running into a cpu bottleneck, can anyone confirm or deny this?

Also how is the used GPU market? I’ve never attempted to try before and am kind of leary to do so…


Anyways, down the line I’d really like to pump out a few grand for a 4K high FPS gaming build for single player AAA titles. I’m not really competitive, but the 4K oled monitor scene right now doesn’t seem like it’s ready yet so I’m holding off on spending thousands to do that just yet. (I love my LGC2 77” for ps5 and would be so happy to get a similar experience on PC)

On another note, if that GPU and SSD upgrade seems like a terrible idea, and doing an entire overhaul sounds more ideal in the short term, what would you guys suggest? Would I need to upgrade my monitor as well?

I’ve built 2 PCs before and don’t really know much, but have been watching tons of PCBuilder on YouTube and trying to increase my knowledge base before making a mega build purchase. Im really excited to learn and any info or recommendations you guys have doesn’t go unappreciated!

THANKS!

1st don't use those "bottleneck" calculators as they are complete bull. No matter how fast your system is there will always be a bottleneck somewhere in the computer. An i7-6770k is still going to be at least entry level for gaming on just about any GPU for the next 2 years or so.

I've never bought a used GPU so I don't know about that market. I do know that a new RX6700XT starts at $320, I have the ASRock Challenger that is $350 and its good, and the 6750XT starts at $380. Those are going to get you performance around that of the 2080Ti.

For an SSD it totally make sense to get one that you will take to a new build. Even if all you are doing is storing your game on it, that is something that can last quite a while. I'd look at the Western Digital Black SN770 2TB. It is going for $120 with a $10 promo at newegg.

PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $109.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-05-24 16:15 EDT-0400

 

[Eximo]

6700XT is about the best bang for the buck at the moment. If you like Nvidia, than an RTX3060 12GB at $310 is not a bad option.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9K4Ycf/msi-radeon-rx-6700-xt-12-gb-mech-2x-oc-video-card-radeon-rx-6700-xt-mech-2x-12g-oc

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/sM8bt6/zotac-geforce-rtx-3060-12-gb-gaming-twin-edge-oc-video-card-zt-a30600h-10m

If you can push for $400, then you could do a little bit better with the 6750XT.

You could also wait for the Intel A770 16GB to drop back down, $390 right now, but it was on sale a week ago for $340.

You can save a little with a PCIe 3.0 drive.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dBBG3C/crucial-p3-2-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct2000p3ssd8

 

[Djrandolfs12]

6700XT is about the best bang for the buck at the moment. If you like Nvidia, than an RTX3060 12GB at $310 is not a bad option.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9K4Ycf/msi-radeon-rx-6700-xt-12-gb-mech-2x-oc-video-card-radeon-rx-6700-xt-mech-2x-12g-oc

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/sM8bt6/zotac-geforce-rtx-3060-12-gb-gaming-twin-edge-oc-video-card-zt-a30600h-10m

If you can push for $400, then you could do a little bit better with the 6750XT.

You could also wait for the Intel A770 16GB to drop back down, $390 right now, but it was on sale a week ago for $340.

You can save a little with a PCIe 3.0 drive.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dBBG3C/crucial-p3-2-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct2000p3ssd8

Won’t these cards be hindered badly by my dated cpu?

 

[Eximo]

$200 range, A750 isn't terrible. Certainly do better than a GTX980.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/DMRYcf/intel-limited-edition-arc-a750-8-gb-video-card-99am3d

Or a 6600XT

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QRwypg/msi-radeon-rx-6600-xt-8-gb-mech-2x-oc-video-card-rx6600xt-mech2x-8goc

Actually $200, RX6600 is entry level these days, but still faster than a GTX980.

 

[Eximo]

Won’t these cards be hindered badly by my dated cpu?

Not really. The main thing the GTX980 is going to run into these days is only having 4GB of memory and relatively slow memory. That is truly entry level, like GTX1650 or RX6500XT.

At 1080p 8GB of memory is okay for medium/high settings, 12GB is way better. You would be able to run Ultra settings on many titles with the RTX3060 or 6700XT.

Once you increase the graphics settings enough, the CPU doesn't make a huge difference. Yes, you are going to be limited by it, but not hugely.


I still have a i7-7700k and a GTX980 happily running, I've considered getting the Intel cards for it, just waiting on the drivers. (I also run a Arc A380 so I have a feel for when it gets good enough to give to someone and not expect to troubleshoot)

 

[Eximo]

Bottleneck calculators exist to generate ad revenue. They have little incentive for making accurate information so long as the people that visit them can use them to justify purchases. There is no one size fits all calculation, somewhere they are mis-applying data to produce a difference.

 

[Eximo]

For instance, my system:

Core i9-10900F and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti build in Graphic Card Intense Tasks | Bottleneck calculation | PC Builds

Bottleneck calculation for Intel Core i9-10900F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti for Graphic Card Intense Tasks. Containing solutions how to resolve bottleneck.

pc-builds.com

My CPU is not the bottleneck at 1440p. At high/ultra settings on my most commonly played game I get sub 100FPS on a 144hz monitor. Increasing my CPU speed is not going to change that, I would need more GPU performance.

There are certainly games where the CPU would be the limit, but I wouldn't care because the FPS would be very high anyway.

So something like CS:GO where people regularly target 300+ FPS, your system might struggle, and no GPU improvement is going to help that. You would need more CPU.

I'm glad that one lets you choose the resolution, but really you would need to be able to select the game, the settings, and your system memory, and cooling....it goes on and on.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Bottleneck calculators exist to generate ad revenue. They have little incentive for making accurate information so long as the people that visit them can use them to justify purchases. There is no one size fits all calculation, somewhere they are mis-applying data to produce a difference.

I'm at a loss for words right now.

CALCULATOR RESULT​

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is too weak for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 on 640 × 480 pixels screen resolution for General Tasks.

 

[pete_101]

Won’t these cards be hindered badly by my dated cpu?

You said you watch a lot of PC Builder, in which case you know, he spends the money on the GPU over the CPU. There's a good reason for this, the CPU can run games at a certain speed, but if the GPU can't match it then you need to turn the settings down to get performance.
Your CPU still has life left in it, a bit of overclocking would help too, but your GPU and it's 4GB is just too weak for modern games, especially once you get above 1080p. At higher resolutions, the CPU is less important as it's the GPU doing all the extra work.

 

[thestryker]

You should absolutely not buy an Intel Arc based card for your system. Your system will not run resizable bar without a BIOS mod so the cards would be heavily hampered.

The 6700XT/6750XT would be your best choice for upgrades if you can afford the extra cost as they will carry on to a new system should you decide to build a new one.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Won’t these cards be hindered badly by my dated cpu?

I run a 4770k with an RX6700XT on my 3440x1440 monitor. Sure if I got a newer CPU I might be able to get a few more fps out of it, but I don't care enough to do that at the moment.

 

[USAFRet]

That’s about the highest I can go without running into a cpu bottleneck, can anyone confirm or deny this?

'bottleneck calculators' are pure junk science.
No relation to any reality.
Unrefined snake oil, not even the good stuff.
Ignore completely.
Tell all your friends.

 

[Eximo]

You should absolutely not buy an Intel Arc based card for your system. Your system will not run resizable bar without a BIOS mod so the cards would be heavily hampered.

The 6700XT/6750XT would be your best choice for upgrades if you can afford the extra cost as they will carry on to a new system should you decide to build a new one.

Somewhat true. They are slower without resizable bar, but if it is a modern game engine the difference isn't too bad. I have an A380 I tinker with and when I ran it on a 4th gen system performance in DX12 titles was perfectly adequate. The idea would be to keep the GPU and then use it for the next upgrade which will likely be CPU/Motherboard/RAM.

But to see a significant improvement we are talking another $400-500 in components. The idea of going after 4K gaming means a huge leap in cost to keep it relevant long enough. Something like $600-800 for a GPU plus the cost of the monitor. If you bought a brand new mid-range card today, it can run a lot of games at 4K, but newer games already require compromises, and in a year or two would be looking to upgrade anyway.

 

[thestryker]

Somewhat true. They are slower without resizable bar, but if it is a modern game engine the difference isn't too bad. I have an A380 I tinker with and when I ran it on a 4th gen system performance in DX12 titles was perfectly adequate.

It's not so much a matter of being slower as performance inconsistencies which cause stuttering/tanking frame rates. This will inherently be lower in places the architecture shines, but Intel's own folks have quite literally said if you don't have ReBar don't buy these cards. Without knowing a timeframe for replacing the entire system recommending Arc isn't really a good idea.