Question What do I upgrade first?

[Headonastick]

So I'm in a bit of a muddle as to what to upgrade next, motherboard, graphics card or CPU. I'm on a very tight budget and will be buying on the used market, the PSU is brand new, forced to buy one after my Antec started buzzing. Any suggestions welcome!

System specs;
Intel i5 8400
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16Gb
Gigabyte H310M DS2
MSI GTX 1060 6Gb
VGA GT Gold 750w
Samsung Evo 240Gb SSD
Seagate Firecuda 2Tb
Western Digital 1Tb drive.

 

[Lutfij]

IMHO, I see you upgrading your entire platform. How much do you have at your disposal? Where are you located? Second hand parts is a kind of an iffy scenario, unless you know how to identify a bad product when you see one.

 

[Headonastick]

Well it will have to be a bit at a time, probably around £150 a time. The motherboard, CPU and graphics card where all second hand and are about four years old, well to me they are! I'm quite savvy with bits and pieces, the only things I bought new where the PSU and case.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

If you ask me, i would upgrade the GPU first. and the monitor if you want.

The RX7600 and RTX4060 seems to be the ideal choices.

Maybe after their release, the 6750XT might have price cuts.

The 8400 can still do 60fps gaming on the latest games...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Well it will have to be a bit at a time, probably around £150 a time.

Doesn't seem enough for any significant upgrade.
You could increase ram from 16GB to 32BG.

 

[ilukey77]

If you ask me, i would upgrade the GPU first. and the monitor if you want.

The RX7600 and RTX4060 seems to be the ideal choices.

Maybe after their release, the 6750XT might have price cuts.

The 8400 can still do 60fps gaming on the latest games...

100% this save your money and go the gpu first !!

 

[Headonastick]

I think I'd better start squirreling some money away! I'm not a hardcore gamer as such and am happy with 1080p just want a bit extra quality graphically.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I think I'd better start squirreling some money away! I'm not a hardcore gamer as such and am happy with 1080p just want a bit extra quality graphically.

a RX 6600 will be an ideal, best-bang-for-buck upgrade right now, especially since the 7600 just came out, so its price should drop. It has about 95% of the performance of a 3060 for 2/3 the cost

 

[ilukey77]

a RX 6600 will be an ideal, best-bang-for-buck upgrade right now, especially since the 7600 just came out, so its price should drop. It has about 95% of the performance of a 3060 for 2/3 the cost

6650xt if you can still find them they are more in line with the 7600 there is a bit of a bigger gap between the 6600 and the 7600 but 6650 to 7600 is almost identical !!
unlike the 3060 ti and 4060ti

 

[Headonastick]

So I've decided to go for a GPU upgrade (managed to smuggle £265 away), a friend has a 3060ti for sale and wants £240 for it or I can just about manage an obviously brand new RX 7600, read review after review and just can't decide. I've had Nvdia for the last 12 years so am comfortable with the drivers etc but I'm always reading how bad AMD drivers are, any last minute advice?

 

[ilukey77]

So I've decided to go for a GPU upgrade (managed to smuggle £265 away), a friend has a 3060ti for sale and wants £240 for it or I can just about manage an obviously brand new RX 7600, read review after review and just can't decide. I've had Nvdia for the last 12 years so am comfortable with the drivers etc but I'm always reading how bad AMD drivers are, any last minute advice?

stop listening to Nvidia Fanboys spew BS about AMD drivers ..ive currently own a 7900xtx , 6900xt , 6700xt and a 6650xt and not a single driver issue with any of them !!

people still complaining about AMD drivers are
1. Nvidia fanboys talking BS !!
2. people still crying about early 5000 series drivers ( which were terrible or so ive read )

My last advice which is kinda moot at youre price point is steer away from 8gb cards 12gb - 16 gb min 16gb is the best at a lower price point for future proofing ..

6700xt is a 12 gb card not sure if you can find one of them at youre price point /region but a very good buy..

 

[Lucky_SLS]

The 3060ti and the intel arc A770 are great choices. So is the newly launched RX7600. If you want to have some amount of ray tracing in your games, go for the 3060ti. But 240 pounds is still a bit high for a second hand one. 200 seems about right.

Intel Arc GPU Re-Review: New Drivers, New Performance?

Ever since Intel Arc GPUs launched, driver updates have kept coming with the promise of solid performance gains. It's now time to test those claims and see...

www.techspot.com

AMD Radeon RX 7600 Review: Incremental Upgrades

A sideways step from the RX 6650 XT.

www.tomshardware.com

New A770: Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming D Arc A770 8 GB Video Card https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...aming-d-arc-a770-8-gb-video-card-a770-pgd-8go (£253.48 @ Ebuyer)

 

[Headonastick]

I'm going to try and sneak an extra £100, wifes going to her sisters for a week in July so I'll give myself an extra £100 to spend which should get me an RX 6700XT or perhaps a used 3070 I think 🤔

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If you don’t care about ray tracing I’d start the 6700xt. I think the 12gb vram will help it be relevant longer vs 8gb cards.

 

[Headonastick]

So I've come up with this although I've got another 8/9 days to change my mind (again!), any thoughts/advice?

Gigabyte Z690M DS3H
Netac DDR4 3200MHZ 32GB
Intel i3 12100F
Radeon RX 7600 MECH 2X CLASSIC
ID-COOLING SE-224-XTS White CPU Cooler

I thought it might be better as Lutfij suggested to just do a bit of a full upgrade, the parts that I take out can be sold and spent on beer while she is away!

 

[Lucky_SLS]

All in GPU upgrade for 350 quid: RX6750XT - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...hallenger-pro-oc-video-card-rx6750xt-clp-12go

or later upgrade to 13700k. the MSI Z690 Pro-A has USB bios flashback

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-13100F 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£101.98 @ Novatech)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (£42.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7600 8 GB Video Card (£257.29 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £571.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-20 14:26 BST+0100