[SOLVED] Upgrading, what to pair with a GTX 1060 6GB?

[Para-Medic]

Hello all.

So I've been thinking of cleaning up my rig a little bit, my RAM is old (DDR3) and my CPU is starting to feel quite dated (i5-4460).

I'm currently running with a GTX 1060 6GB. Since money is a little tight I can't drop another few hundred on a new graphics card to do a full "upgrade", because I still feel content with this one, however my I feel RAM and CPU definitely need an upgrade.

However, I'm looking to upgrade to something possibly that could handle a higher end graphics card when I do upgrade that, which will be for sure in the future.

Any tips? I was looking at Ryzen 5 3600 and some i5 chips, I know some of the chips will be overkill but i'm thinking for the future for when I upgrade GPU.

I mainly just game and mess around on the computer, internet and stuff. Nothing crazy no streaming or anything.

I look forward to seeing your suggestions.

Thanks.

 

[John Chesterfield]

I'd go for a Ryzen 3600, a decent B450 board such as the Tomahawk Max and 16GB DD4 3200 and be done with it. That'd do you now and in the future with better graphics cards.

Best bang for your buck and a great performer.

 

[geofelt]

One option would be to replace your processor with a i7-4790K.
It will cost some $150 used on ebay.
Otherwise, you are looking at motherboard change as well as ddr4 ram.

You have a $200 graphics card.
One rule for a balanced gamer is to budget about 2x the cpu price for the graphics card.
By that metric, you could look at a $100 processor.

I have been impressed with the $125 intel i3-10100 which I installed in my son's pc.
It is quick.
You can add a h460 based motherboard for $75 and 16gb of ddr4 ram for $75.
I found it interesting in this review of the i9-10850K that the i3-10100 scored within 1% of the performance of a i9-10900K when gaming at 4k resolution with a rtx2080ti.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-10850k/17.html

Of course, this is not realistic.
At 1080P, it was comparable to a 3600X at 90% the performance of a I9-10900K.

The whole point is that once you have fixed the graphics card, the processor is not so significant.

 

[Para-Medic]

I'd go for a Ryzen 3600, a decent B450 board such as the Tomahawk Max and 16GB DD4 3200 and be done with it. That'd do you now and in the future with better graphics cards.

Best bang for your buck and a great performer.

Thanks for the input!

One option would be to replace your processor with a i7-4790K.
It will cost some $150 used on ebay.
Otherwise, you are looking at motherboard change as well as ddr4 ram.

You have a $200 graphics card.
One rule for a balanced gamer is to budget about 2x the cpu price for the graphics card.
By that metric, you could look at a $100 processor.

I have been impressed with the $125 intel i3-10100 which I installed in my son's pc.
It is quick.
You can add a h460 based motherboard for $75 and 16gb of ddr4 ram for $75.
I found it interesting in this review of the i9-10850K that the i3-10100 scored within 1% of the performance of a i9-10900K when gaming at 4k resolution with a rtx2080ti.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-10850k/17.html

Of course, this is not realistic.
At 1080P, it was comparable to a 3600X at 90% the performance of a I9-10900K.

The whole point is that once you have fixed the graphics card, the processor is not so significant.

I'm looking to upgrade motherboard as well. I did not mention the mobo in OP but it's dated.
Also I live in Canada, so the prices are different up here. That CPU you mentioned above is still $250+ used, but I'm not gonna lie I'm not a big fan of buying used equipment, I prefer new.

I guess you can say it's kind of a prep for when I do upgrade my card, it will be soon, just not now. I'd like to get some of these upgrades in the near future.

 

[mdd1963]

Even an R3-3300X offers about 95% of the gaming performance of the 3600 and at only $120, it would be an inexpensive placeholder before the next gen of Ryzen CPUs hit later this year... (Naturally, the R5-3600 is indeed a good option as well)

 

[Para-Medic]

Even an R3-3300X offers about 95% of the gaming performance of the 3600 and at only $120, it would be an inexpensive placeholder before the next gen of Ryzen CPUs hit later this year... (Naturally, the R5-3600 is indeed a good option as well)

Interesting, that chip seems to be sold out everywhere here in Canada at least.

 

[John Chesterfield]

Interesting, that chip seems to be sold out everywhere here in Canada at least.

Pretty much for the reason @mdd1963 said.

 

[geofelt]

I used this processor @$175:
https://www.newegg.ca/intel-core-i3-10100-core-i3-10th-gen/p/N82E16819118138
This DDR4 2666 ram@$77:
https://www.newegg.ca/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820231892?Item=N82E16820231892
2666 is the vastest supported by a B460 motherboard.

I do not see the motherboard I used, it was ITX anyway.
Here is a suitable MATX for $110:
https://www.newegg.ca/gigabyte-ultra-durable-b460m-ds3h/p/N82E16813145206

If you do not have a ssd, plan for one.
A m.2 pcie device is very fast.
Look for 256gb at least, preferably more.
Samsung 970 evo plus is fastest, but intel 660P is a good value.

 

[kelmen]

Just to share my similar exp:

I recently replaced my previous i5 4xxx to Ryzen 5 3600, and I still using the old gtx 1060 6gb . Just got running for 2 days .

One thing I'm quite concerning is the new CPU temp.
I don't like OC, prefer run stuffs on stock settings. I have been using Intel for so long until now. I prefer Intel as I pick those lower power consumption which should lead to lower temp, less wear longer durability, that's my preference.

Now this Ryzen which should consume low power, but it's temp been running 65 - 80 C, far higher that those I used.

I will research this further after I done about my RAM thingy.

 

[Para-Medic]

Just to share my similar exp:

I recently replaced my previous i5 4xxx to Ryzen 5 3600, and I still using the old gtx 1060 6gb . Just got running for 2 days .

One thing I'm quite concerning is the new CPU temp.
I don't like OC, prefer run stuffs on stock settings. I have been using Intel for so long until now. I prefer Intel as I pick those lower power consumption which should lead to lower temp, less wear longer durability, that's my preference.

Now this Ryzen which should consume low power, but it's temp been running 65 - 80 C, far higher that those I used.

I will research this further after I done about my RAM thingy.

Thanks for sharing.
The 3300x looks intriguing but it looks as if it's been sold out for a while.