[SOLVED] Upgrading from 6 years old 970GTX

5900x

Commendable
Aug 18, 2021
81
18
1,545
Hello,

I'm on this 970GTX for years now and had an i7 2600(2nd gen, yup!) along with it until I finally slotted in a 5900x on B550m motherboard + 32gb ram recently so I'm ready to reel in the next 6 years. Given the hell going on with the GPU market now and hypothetically keeping the price discussion apart for now, I'm not exactly throwing away this card yet, far from it, It still keeps going (put 500hrs into Cyberpunk on it @60FPS 900p) and given the choice to wait for the market to settle I will, what would be a technically sound GPU to upgrade this old workhorse of a GPU?

Primary application: Gaming (1440p) + Streaming(1080p) (single PC)

A few of my thoughts:
Nvidia:
  1. In my region 3060Ti is the only available price option if the 970 dies tomorrow.
  2. 3070 is possible, 3080 would be the max I would go, 3090 seems an overkill.
  3. Got no ideas on the 20 series at all.
AMD:
  1. I'm thinking of 6700xt and may stretch to 6800xt at some point if I get dividends for the price difference.
  2. I don't completely trust the reviews and opinions but I do take some into consideration, so some are negative on the 6700xt while the real positive reviews start at the 6800xt and above. If anyone has live experience with the 6700xt I would love to hear.
Monitors: Two right now, 1080p(60hz) and 720p(75hz) both on the 970GTX, I would want to buy a 2K spec like the Gigabyte M27Q, so it would be total 3 on the new GPU.

I would appreciate some input in this matter. Thank you.
 
Solution
If anyone has live experience with the 6700xt I would love to hear.
currently using one and it is a very nice mid-tier option.
on every review and comparison i've seen it is on par with the RTX 3070.
one negative aspect of the RX 6000 series is their Ray Tracing support.
drastically inferior to the RTX 3000.

examples of usage:
@ 3440x1440p Cyberpunk 2077, Biomutant, & Horizon: Zero Dawn all average ~70-75fps.
mostly highest settings, though in Cyberpunk & Horizon some options like volumetrics are lowered.
RT enabled in Cyberpunk 2077 drops fps to ~25.

but this has just been a place holder card until i could secure a more powerful RTX 3000.
3080 Ti is on the way today!!!!!!!!!!
If anyone has live experience with the 6700xt I would love to hear.
currently using one and it is a very nice mid-tier option.
on every review and comparison i've seen it is on par with the RTX 3070.
one negative aspect of the RX 6000 series is their Ray Tracing support.
drastically inferior to the RTX 3000.

examples of usage:
@ 3440x1440p Cyberpunk 2077, Biomutant, & Horizon: Zero Dawn all average ~70-75fps.
mostly highest settings, though in Cyberpunk & Horizon some options like volumetrics are lowered.
RT enabled in Cyberpunk 2077 drops fps to ~25.

but this has just been a place holder card until i could secure a more powerful RTX 3000.
3080 Ti is on the way today!!!!!!!!!!
 
Solution

5900x

Commendable
Aug 18, 2021
81
18
1,545
currently using one and it is a very nice mid-tier option.
on every review and comparison i've seen it is on par with the RTX 3070.
one negative aspect of the RX 6000 series is their Ray Tracing support.
drastically inferior to the RTX 3000.

examples of usage:
@ 3440x1440p Cyberpunk 2077, Biomutant, & Horizon: Zero Dawn all average ~70-75fps.
mostly highest settings, though in Cyberpunk & Horizon some options like volumetrics are lowered.
RT enabled in Cyberpunk 2077 drops fps to ~25.

but this has just been a place holder card until i could secure a more powerful RTX 3000.
3080 Ti is on the way today!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks. Yes I do know that, but I believe the next revisions of FSR will be quite competent against DLSS along with Ray Tracing as I think AMD has the hardware for it they just need to build the software right.

How is the 2k perfomance of the 6700xt? And don't worry about the RT issues. The things I have read and see say AMD has better base rasterizer rendering than Nvidia.
 

5900x

Commendable
Aug 18, 2021
81
18
1,545
What @logainofhades said and if I may add, you should only look for Nvidia GPUs as they have an awesome codec for streaming that will help a lot (Nvenc).
Yes I have used it on the 970 at 720p because 2nd gen Intel cannot crunch it obviously. And the 5900x is quite capable for x264 now that I have it, so I'm not too worried for NVENC as I want to also hear about AMD codec.

There is also the SAM option for AMD CPU+GPU combo granted it doesn't do much now if anything at all but can be something to look out for in the coming years. But yes it's nice to have a NVENC to fall back on.
 

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Yea, with a 5900x, you shouldn't need the Nvidia encoder. I have an RX 6800 myself, but I only play WoW, and sometimes FFXIV, @1440p 60hz. I just wanted something that would last me awhile. WoW requirements go up, for every expansion, so I figure I have a good 2 expansions worth of performance.
 

5900x

Commendable
Aug 18, 2021
81
18
1,545
Ok then considering I could shell enough for a 3070 or a 6700xt, would either be enough to sustain for years to come? Or is it better to spend more for the next versions of these or wait till they get affordable (cliche)? I just mean if 3070 would do everything a 3080/90 would do albeit at a lesser impact and 6700xt would do a 68/6900 in the same pretense.

Laymans: I'm ok with a high setting, not everything has to be ultra.
 
Ok then considering I could shell enough for a 3070 or a 6700xt, would either be enough to sustain for years to come? Or is it better to spend more for the next versions of these or wait till they get affordable (cliche)? I just mean if 3070 would do everything a 3080/90 would do albeit at a lesser impact and 6700xt would do a 68/6900 in the same pretense.

Laymans: I'm ok with a high setting, not everything has to be ultra.

It is fine. I wanted to get 3070 before scalping and mining craze started. Now I'm sure that real goal for me is 3080 or adequate alternative with DLSS style upscaling when price will slide down enough for me. With 2060S in my rig and ongoing lockdown on illegal crypto operations I believe that will outlive most cryptoscammers. I can wait ;)
 
3070 or a 6700xt, would either be enough to sustain for years to come? Or is it better to spend more for the next versions of these or wait till they get affordable
considering that games are always becoming more demanding i wouldn't want to be stuck with a mid-tier card on 1440p or above for years to come.
while my RX 6700 XT did okay in the most demanding games i was still disappointed with ~75fps average with less than maxed settings.

just got my RTX 3080 Ti today and everything i've tried is easily hitting 120fps with highest possible settings @ 3440x1440p.
this i will be comfortable with for another couple generations of cards.
 
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