[SOLVED] What should I get to upgrade to a dedicated graphics card?

[OhHeyItsMel]

Hello, I built my first PC a month ago with a Ryzen APU (3200g) with plans to get a dedicated card for the holidays. Well my brother-in-law has incredibly gifted me a graphics card for my birthday! It's Christmas in July!! Now I need to choose!

I will play games like Civ. 6, Planet Coaster, the Sims, etc. I'm a fan of RTS and Simulation and want something that will perform well with these type of games. There are so many options and this is the first GPU I've ever purchased so I'm looking for help. I would like very much to stay under $180(US). Any suggestions, advice would be appreciated!

Note: I'm not particularly attached to either brand AMD vs Nvidia--change my mind?


EDIT: OOPS forgot to share my specs!

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB 2.5
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR400MicroATX Mid
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 500 W 80+ Certified ATX

 

[sizzling]

What is the full pc spec including make and model of psu’s and the gpu?

 

[OhHeyItsMel]

omg thanks.. I totally forgot to put the specs

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB 2.5
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR400MicroATX Mid
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 500 W 80+ Certified ATX

 

[RTX 2080]

I'd get a Nvidia GTX 1650 Super, its the best all-around current-gen card you can get in my opinion for under $180.

I'm waiting for someone to suggest you an AMD card. RX 570/580/590 are old and very power hungry. The current-gen Navi cards still suffer from bad drivers and black screen issues even a year after they were released. I'd get an Nvidia card 100%.

 

[OhHeyItsMel]

I'd get a Nvidia GTX 1650 Super, its the best all-around current-gen card you can get in my opinion for under $180.

I'm waiting for someone to suggest you an AMD card. RX 570/580/590 are old and very power hungry. The current-gen Navi cards still suffer from bad drivers and black screen issues even a year after they were released. I'd get an Nvidia card 100%.

Thank you I will look into that. Thanks for the reply!

One quick follow up: Is there any particular brand you'd recommend?

Edit: how's this one? I like that it has 2 HDMI instead of multiple DPs because I don't use that connection type. And it has decent reviews..
https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeF...=Nvidia+GTX+1650+Super&qid=1595777512&sr=8-12

 

[RTX 2080]

Thank you I will look into that. Thanks for the reply!

One quick follow up: Is there any particular brand you'd recommend?

Edit: how's this one? I like that it has 2 HDMI instead of multiple DPs because I don't use that connection type. And it has decent reviews..
https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeF...=Nvidia+GTX+1650+Super&qid=1595777512&sr=8-12

That one is the regular 1650 which you do NOT want to get, make sure the word "super" is in the title. The GTX 1650 is a significantly slower card than the GTX 1650 super even though there isn't a very significant price difference between the two.

At this price/performance level, I doubt if you'll notice a whole lot of difference between the major brands, although I have heard good things about the slightly higher-priced MSI variant.

 

[cryoburner]

Yeah, make sure you look for the "SUPER" version, as a 1650 SUPER can be over 30% faster than a regular 1650, while costing about the same. You can find a number of 1650 SUPER cards listed on PCPartPicker...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=476&sort=price

I'm waiting for someone to suggest you an AMD card. RX 570/580/590 are old and very power hungry. The current-gen Navi cards still suffer from bad drivers and black screen issues even a year after they were released. I'd get an Nvidia card 100%.

Claims of "bad drivers" and "black screen issues" for Navi cards seem to be greatly exaggerated. Still, I would agree that the 1650 SUPER is arguably the better option in this price range at this time. Up until its release, the RX 570 and 580 owned the sub-$200 segment, but being a somewhat older design, their power draw and heat output is rather high compared these newer cards offering similar performance. The newer 5500 XT is competitive on that front, but its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface can hurt performance on PCIe 3.0 motherboards in games that exceed its VRAM, which is a concern for the 4GB model. Plus, pricing isn't particularly competitive, with the 4GB models typically costing more than a 1650 SUPER, and the 8GB models generally starting around $200. I get the impression that AMD is not bothering to price these cards as competitively as they normally would due to them focusing their 7nm production on their Ryzen CPUs, upcoming console APUs, and higher-end GPUs.

As for two HDMI ports, it looks like only this 1650 SUPER offers that, and it happens to be one of the most expensive models...

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/yG...nced-video-card-rog-strix-gtx1650s-a4g-gaming

For that kind of price difference, you are probably better off picking up a less expensive model with a DP to HDMI converter if you want to hook up a second screen using that connection, as those can be found for around $10 on sites like Amazon.