[SOLVED] What’s the most optimal upgrade path ?

Andr3y6

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Feb 23, 2020
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Hello guys after nearly 2 years of “upgrading” my GPU it’s time again for some upgrades. As I mentioned above 2 years ago I bought second hand GTX 1080 to pair with my Ryzen CPU, now that i switched to 1440p gaming I tend to notice that in most of games either one of two are struggling so I guess it’s time for some upgrades. The games I play are mostly Battlefields new CODs CSGO and league atm. In Battlefields my CPU struggles in COD its my GPU so I'm not sure what to do, so any help will be appreciated ! My budget is about 350/400€ plus the parts that I will replace I can sell .
PC specs:
CPU : ryzen 5 3600x
CPU COOLER : Arctic liquid freezer ii 360 ( I believe)
RAM : Corsair Vengeance RGB pro 16gb of ddr4 3200mhz (2x8gb)
MOBA: Gigabyte Aorus Elite v2 b550
GPU: Palit super jetStream GTX 1080
PSU : 650w seasonic gold rated
That’s all i guess any help would be appreciated
 
Solution
Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer tends to like many threads.

You need to find out which.
------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

Games like CSGO are cpu centric, and depend on the performance of the single master thread.

Run cpu-Z bench on your 3600x and look at the single thread...
Hey there,

Your mobo is actually a very decent one. It has 12+2 power phases and can handle any 5xxx CPU. Another option is The 5800x3D if it's close in price to the 5700x.

For GPU, The RX6650XT, which has a good price to performance ratio (as does the 3060ti). Both decent at 1440p, up to high settings 144hz/fps. (edit: game dependant)
 
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Andr3y6

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Sorry for late reply stuck at doctors office 😅 on my local markets I can find rtx 3070s for 350/400e and some rx6700s but the more important question to me what should i upgrade first cpu or gpu or is that question irrelevant since at some point ill have to get both ? And ill check the market for cpus tho im pretty sure 5800x3d didnt arrive here yet i live in EU tho my country isnt part of the union
 

Andr3y6

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Feb 23, 2020
16
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Hey there,

Your mobo is actually a very decent one. It has 12+2 power phases and can handle any 5xxx CPU. Another option is The 5800x3D if it's close in price to the 5700x.

For GPU, The RX6650XT, which has a good price to performance ratio (as does the 3060ti). Both decent at 1440p, up to high settings 144hz/fps.
Yup made an investment when my old one bricked 😄
 
For GPU, The RX6650XT, which has a good price to performance ratio (as does the 3060ti). Both decent at 1440p, up to high settings 144hz/fps.
you missed that he has gtx 1080, what kind of upgrade advice is this? same goes for 3060ti, both advised GPUs are for 1080p gameplay...older games at 1440p...but mainly they barely have any performance upgrade from 1080 at all..so price/performance ratio isnt really great as you just throwing out money from window to get basicly same performance with an extra ray tracing

either 6750XT or rtx 3070 or better
 
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you missed that he has gtx 1080, what kind of upgrade advice is this? same goes for 3060ti, both advised GPUs are for 1080p gameplay...older games at 1440p...but mainly they barely have any performance upgrade from 1080 at all..so price/performance ratio isnt really great as you just throwing out money from window to get basicly same performance with an extra ray tracing

either 6750XT or rtx 3070 or better

No, I didn't miss that. What I was suggesting was, if the OP went with a 5700x/5800x3d, along with either of those GPU's they would get a decent bump in performance.

I can assure you the 3060ti is powerful enough for 1440p and not as you'd like it to be with just older games. Now, I'm not saying maxing out every detail setting for whatever game, but as a general rule it's just a few percent behind a 3070/ti. The 3060ti is more akin to a RTX2080 Super in terms of performance, which is a substantial enough increase in performance. The 1080 vanilla is barely enough for 1080p 60hz in some AAA games right now.

Given the budget, does a 3070 come in to the equation?
 

Andr3y6

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Feb 23, 2020
16
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No, I didn't miss that. What I was suggesting was, if the OP went with a 5700x/5800x3d, along with either of those GPU's they would get a decent bump in performance.

I can assure you the 3060ti is powerful enough for 1440p and not as you'd like it to be with just older games. Now, I'm not saying maxing out every detail setting for whatever game, but as a general rule it's just a few percent behind a 3070/ti. The 3060ti is more akin to a RTX2080 Super in terms of performance, which is a substantial enough increase in performance. The 1080 vanilla is barely enough for 1080p 60hz in some AAA games right now.

Given the budget, does a 3070 come in to the equation?
Yes as i said i found alot of them between 350-400e
 
No, I didn't miss that. What I was suggesting was, if the OP went with a 5700x/5800x3d, along with either of those GPU's they would get a decent bump in performance.

I can assure you the 3060ti is powerful enough for 1440p and not as you'd like it to be with just older games. Now, I'm not saying maxing out every detail setting for whatever game, but as a general rule it's just a few percent behind a 3070/ti. The 3060ti is more akin to a RTX2080 Super in terms of performance, which is a substantial enough increase in performance. The 1080 vanilla is barely enough for 1080p 60hz in some AAA games right now.
3060ti is about 50% more powerfull in fps..that means if hes getting 30fps with 1080, he will get 45fps with 3060ti, if he gets 60fps then it will get upgraded to 90fps

he doesnt mention what fps target hes aiming ... but 50% fps upgrade isnt really much

Given the budget, does a 3070 come in to the equation?
RX 6700 XT then, its 400eur new, much higher fps then 3060ti
rtx 3060ti sells for 430eur new
RX 6700XT mops floor with 3060ti
 

Andr3y6

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Feb 23, 2020
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as for cpu, 5700x costs 190eur and 5800x3d costs 329eur
both old cpu and gpu can be sold on ebay for 100-150eur each..so depends on how much you get, then youll know which cpu you could buy
well i want looking new here we have a big problem new gpus are realllyyyy realllyyy over priced so ill try to get second hand that i can ofc check if everything is alright
rx 6700xt are as well between 350e to 400e same as rtx 3070s well optimally id like to get high refresh rate since i have 2k 165hz monitor but im aware to reach those id have to spend alot more so im trying to squeeze as much as i can
cheapest rtx 3070 new in store is 850e so yeaaa
 
Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer tends to like many threads.

You need to find out which.
------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

Games like CSGO are cpu centric, and depend on the performance of the single master thread.

Run cpu-Z bench on your 3600x and look at the single thread performance rating.
You should get a number like 502
The 5600X would be 643.
https://valid.x86.fr/bench/rsf5p1/1

If you decide that the graphics card is your limiting factor, then a gpu upgrade is in order.
Tom's gpu hierarchy chart will tell you the approximate strengths of different cards.https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

When you upgrade a gpu, make it a big jump or you may be disappointed if you do not see magical results. When upgrading a nvidia gpu, I recommend sticking with a nvidia upgrade.
The graphics infrastructure is different, and there can be a learning curve(ditto on amd to amd)
3070 would seem to fit.
Your 650w psu should be sufficient:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm
Be aware that modern cards can have high transient power spikes.
What model of 650w seasonic do you have?

As to the ram upgrade, 16gb should be ok so long as you are only playing a game.
But, if you are multitasking and running other aps like streaming, then 32gb is in order.
Unfortunately, just adding 16gb is not likely to work well.
Ram must be matched, particularly for ryzen.
Ryzen performance is dependent on ram speed, so a 2 x 16gb 3600 speed upgrade is what you would want.
 
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Solution
but 50% fps upgrade isnt really much

Well, 50% is a pretty decent uplift IMO :)

In terms of the OP's upgrade options. They have been specified, given the budget.

They could go with a CPU upgrade, which may yield a slight bump in FPS. R 5xxx are typically 10-25% faster with the same GPU. At 1080p, the CPU is key. Along with a GPU upgrade to any off the 3060ti/6700xt/3070, they would all bring a big increase too. But with a 350-400€ budget, both aren't possible. So it's one or the other. Both would be great.

The OP can sell his current CPU and GPU to offset the cost, which may bring both the CPU/GPU purchased together, more viable.
 
Sorry for late reply stuck at doctors office 😅 on my local markets I can find rtx 3070s for 350/400e and some rx6700s but the more important question to me what should i upgrade first cpu or gpu or is that question irrelevant since at some point ill have to get both ? And ill check the market for cpus tho im pretty sure 5800x3d didnt arrive here yet i live in EU tho my country isnt part of the union

Are these prices new, or second hand?
 

Andr3y6

Commendable
Feb 23, 2020
16
2
1,515
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.
coincidentally i just did this this morning with new cod mw II https://ibb.co/QJ9wVRt https://ibb.co/c8r18DS https://ibb.co/ScbVMzr which in this case its obvious that gpu is the "problem" csgo really doesnt matter since i do have stable 300-400 fps constantly, tho battlefield 1 and 2042 are recking my cpu sometimes even bfv as well
 
Wow… ok just stop. Forget the 6650 and 3060ti. Really.

These days the 1080 as well as the 3060, 6650xt, and 3060ti should be considered 1080p cards. Period.

Will they do 1440p? Sure. Will they do it well? Probably not. Remember that these are now the outgoing products and they weren’t(except the 1080) really geared for 1440p. So unless you aren’t short on cash I would not recommend ANY of those cards for 1440p. They might even do ok today but what about in a year or so? Then you may be needing to upgrade again.

That said, in my opinion the minimum cards for 1440p should be the 6700xt, 6750xt, the 3070, or above. I hear Intel arc is doing better, so if there’s a significant price difference, maybe take a look at the arc a770.

Myself I’m at 1440p and I’m using an rtx 3080. I know it used to be a 4K card but I’d say these days it’s basically a higher end 1440p card. Even the 4070ti is essentially a 1440p card due to only 12gb vram.

So either way, 6700xt, 3070 or higher is where you want to be I think. After that a cpu upgrade to zen 3 would give a bump in fps also.

I say all this as someone who bought a 6600xt at launch, used it then sold it during mining, later owned a 6700xt. 6700xt was a great card I just got money at Christmas this past year and got a good deal on my 3080 then sold the 6700xt for almost what I paid. Hence the reason I’m using the 3080.
 
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