[SOLVED] Which GPU is the better deal out of the six I've listed ?

[Avanis]

Hello, since GPU prices are all over the place, I need some help choosing which GPU to buy for a new PC

The PC is going to be used for heavy 1080p gaming (mostly the current games, such as GTA V, COD Warzone and newer games, photoshop, and video editing.
Not looking to get into 1440p anytime soon.

Gonna pair the GPU with a:

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
16GB RAM 2X8

Here are the prices;

1. ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ROG Strix Gaming 6GB GDDR6 - $540
2. ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL EVO OC edition 6GB GDDR6 - $670
3. GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING OC 8G - $795
4. ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 (2 fans)- $795
5. ASUS Radeon RX 5600 XT TUF GAMING OC Edition 6GB GDDR6 - $795
6. AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 ELITE 12G - $890

There are other GPUs too but you don't wanna read a 50 GPU list, I didn't buy anything yet so I'm open to suggestions, thank you!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are these new, or used graphics cards?

If they are new then I'd say the 2060 is the best deal as it affords much better 1080p performance than the 1660 Super, and nearly the same performance (Minus a small incremental performance gain from the newer architecture on the 3060, but not as substantial as other 3000 series cards over their previous gen counterparts) as the 3060, for significantly less. For price vs 1080p performance, I think that's likely the best choice IF these are new cards with full warranty. If not, then none of them are worth the money because if something goes wrong you might as well have just lit your hundred dollar bills on fire and thrown them out the window.

 

[Avanis]

Are these new, or used graphics cards?

If they are new then I'd say the 2060 is the best deal as it affords much better 1080p performance than the 1660 Super, and nearly the same performance (Minus a small incremental performance gain from the newer architecture on the 3060, but not as substantial as other 3000 series cards over their previous gen counterparts) as the 3060, for significantly less. For price vs 1080p performance, I think that's likely the best choice IF these are new cards with full warranty. If not, then none of them are worth the money because if something goes wrong you might as well have just lit your hundred dollar bills on fire and thrown them out the window.

Hey, yes these are new GPUs with warranty, I was also considering the 2060 until I saw all the other GPUs and couldn't decide which one to go with, appreciate your input, thank you!

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you are in the US, you might also want to consider the EVGA RTX 2060 KO Ultra gaming, which is less expensive than those other cards and offers very good 1080p performance and even pretty good medium settings 1440p performance.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083GGYNQ6?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Review here:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-geforce-rtx-2060-ko-ultra-gaming

 

[jacob249358]

Hello, since GPU prices are all over the place, I need some help choosing which GPU to buy for a new PC

The PC is going to be used for heavy 1080p gaming (mostly the current games, such as GTA V, COD Warzone and newer games, photoshop, and video editing.
Not looking to get into 1440p anytime soon.

Gonna pair the GPU with a:

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
16GB RAM 2X8

Here are the prices;

1. ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ROG Strix Gaming 6GB GDDR6 - $540
2. ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL EVO OC edition 6GB GDDR6 - $670
3. GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING OC 8G - $795
4. ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 (2 fans)- $795
5. ASUS Radeon RX 5600 XT TUF GAMING OC Edition 6GB GDDR6 - $795
6. AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 ELITE 12G - $890

There are other GPUs too but you don't wanna read a 50 GPU list, I didn't buy anything yet so I'm open to suggestions, thank you!

Honestly, all those prices are pretty bad even for the shortage. If you don't mind not being able to do ultra settings on 1080p and getting used (if your careful you will be fine) a 1650 super on eBay is like $350 and then try and get the 12GB VRAM 2060 or the 16GB VRAM 3070ti both expected in January or try and get one of the 3000 series around msrp

 

[larsv8]

Please don't buy any of those cards at those prices.

 

[Karadjgne]

At 1080p, you'll be mostly cpu bound. Fps is a function of the cpu afterall. If the cpu can only handle 100fps in a game and you can get 100fps at ultra settings with a 2060, you'll get the same 100fps with a 3090.

The difference is when you can only get 80fps with a 1660 or the full 100fps with a 2060. And that's going to be All on the actual game. In CSGO or Rainbow 6, you'll be well above a 144Hz refresh with fps, so the actual gpu really won't matter, but playing Cyberpunk 2077, it's graphically demanding enough that having a 2060 will be a benefit over a 1660, and a 3070 will be a benefit over a 2060, allowing the gpu to catch up to what the cpu is putting out.

So your choice of gpus will entirely depend on 3 things. Availability, budget and game style. Discounting 1 and 2, if all you play is LoL or CSGO type games, a 2060 has you covered all day long. If you prefer more gpu bound games, upto a 3070 is what you'll need to decide on.

 

[Darkbreeze]

and getting used (if your careful you will be fine)

You willing to guarantee that? As in, when there's a problem, YOU fork out the cash to reimburse the OP for the failed or faulty card? I didn't think so.

There is NO way to "be careful" when buying a used component UNLESS you happen to know the person you are buying from. That is the ONLY way, and even then, it still might be a risk unless you know them well enough that you would feel ok inviting them to Christmas dinner at your mother's house. Otherwise, you are simply rolling the dice. There is no way, at all, ever, to know that what you receive is going to work, at all, or that it won't die in two weeks, and aside from EVGA's add on warranty program that allows a card to retain it's warranty in the event you sell it to another person at a later date, none of these manufacturers continue to honor the warranty after the original purchaser passes the card on to a third party whether by purchase or gift.

If you think the Ebay buyers protection plan will cover you, think again. I don't know HOW MANY, but it's MANY, members we've seen who've been down this road and been told, "The card "worked"" and that's all that was promised. So if it "worked" when you got it, but two days later it stopped working, you are on your own. It's bad advice. Sure you CAN get a card that works, and you can find some good deals, but again, it IS a risk, and a big one, especially in this age of second hand cards that have been used HARD for mining, or have been overclocked nearly to death, or have simply elapsed the warranty and developed issues and that seller is now simply trying to recoup some of their initial expense so they can purchase a new card that doesn't have problems. Hell, card might even work fine under SOME conditions, but then 30 min to an hour in, you suddenly have problems. Too many possible scenarios to even cover a fraction of them.

 

[Darkbreeze]

if all you play is LoL or CSGO type games, a 2060 has you covered all day long. If you prefer more gpu bound games, upto a 3070 is what you'll need to decide on.

Huh? LOL

A 2060 is capable enough for the majority of 1440p games at medium to high settings. At 1080p, I haven't encountered a single game that couldn't be played at high to ultra settings, with maybe the exception of one or two extremely demanding games that might require moving one or two sliders slightly to the left. If it was a 1440p or higher target then I'd agree that with a 2060 you are going to have to make a lot of concessions for some games, but not for a single 1080p monitor. I can't agree with that. Generally speaking 95% of games at 1080p Ultra are going to stay north of 60fps with an RTX 2060. In my experience, and from what I've seen others relate anyhow.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Please don't buy any of those cards at those prices.

If you want to buy a card now, ANY card, you ARE going to pay astronomically inflated prices. That is simply the way it is and there ain't no way around it. If there was, everybody would be doing it and then we'd be right back where we are anyhow. The only thing that is going to change this is a major increase in supply. And that is not likely to occur anytime in the near foreseeable future, and for a variety of reasons, all of which are compounding the problem. Not just with graphics cards, but with MANY chip related devices or products. It is what it is.

 

[jacob249358]

You willing to guarantee that? As in, when there's a problem, YOU fork out the cash to reimburse the OP for the failed or faulty card? I didn't think so.

There is NO way to "be careful" when buying a used component UNLESS you happen to know the person you are buying from. That is the ONLY way, and even then, it still might be a risk unless you know them well enough that you would feel ok inviting them to Christmas dinner at your mother's house. Otherwise, you are simply rolling the dice. There is no way, at all, ever, to know that what you receive is going to work, at all, or that it won't die in two weeks, and aside from EVGA's add on warranty program that allows a card to retain it's warranty in the event you sell it to another person at a later date, none of these manufacturers continue to honor the warranty after the original purchaser passes the card on to a third party whether by purchase or gift.

If you think the Ebay buyers protection plan will cover you, think again. I don't know HOW MANY, but it's MANY, members we've seen who've been down this road and been told, "The card "worked"" and that's all that was promised. So if it "worked" when you got it, but two days later it stopped working, you are on your own. It's bad advice. Sure you CAN get a card that works, and you can find some good deals, but again, it IS a risk, and a big one, especially in this age of second hand cards that have been used HARD for mining, or have been overclocked nearly to death, or have simply elapsed the warranty and developed issues and that seller is now simply trying to recoup some of their initial expense so they can purchase a new card that doesn't have problems. Hell, card might even work fine under SOME conditions, but then 30 min to an hour in, you suddenly have problems. Too many possible scenarios to even cover a fraction of them.

"Yeah, Im gonna venmo a stranger a couple hundred dollars when they tell me they bought a broken card on ebay" (sarcasm) its called advice. If you don't use ebay a lot check these things before you buy. Seller rating and reviews. Get specific details about the product's history. Make sure you can return it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I use ebay very often actually, just not for buying graphics cards or motherboards.

Seller rating and reviews.

Most sellers are individuals with few or minimal prior sales, besides which if they've sold 100 rubber chickens and 40 paper flags it doesn't mean that in this case that the graphics card they are trying to sell you is going to be as happy of an experience as those others were. And the ones who DO have a substantial number of sales are likely going to be dealers or scalpers, neither of whom I'd believe a single word that came out of their mouths because they are going to say whatever is necessary in order to coach you into the sale. This is a known practice.

Beyond that, the fact that over and over and over again we've seen, relatively intelligent people, coming here to ask "how can I fix this POS card I bought on Ebay that the seller refuses to take back and Ebay won't support me on", says that regardless of any other considerations or precautions you might take, you are STILL rolling the dice with these kinds of purchases ESPECIALLY since we know the market is flooded with damaged or ex-mining cards. And beyond even that, is the potential for purchasing stolen cards, which is a big thing now too. Again, not only will you not get a warranty on such a card but you might also get a visit from the police if you attempted to get support on a card with a serial that was part of a stolen shipment. That is less likely, but still a thing. A verifiable thing. In fact, just recently, in the news again for this exact issue.

Get specific details about the product's history.

Again, you can believe what somebody you don't know the first thing about TELLS you, but anybody who does is simply asking to be misled. You can be sure NOBODY is EVER going to say, "Yeah, this card was used 24/7 for the last 12 months for mining bitcoin". Or "Well, it was seriously overclocked and ridden hard for ten hour gaming sessions the last six months until it started having problems". Nobody. Ever. Gonna say that, even though it's likely true.

And as far as being able to return it, you are again throwing yourself on the mercy of the (Highly suspect) Ebay policies. If the seller refuses to play ball, that is the only recourse you have, and too many times (And I've experienced this myself with OTHER products) Ebay simply refuses to back up their own policies if the seller says the product worked and whatever happened was your fault. Did you install the card? Yes. Well then you did something wrong and caused it to be damaged. End of my responsibility. But it HAD to be installed to know it didn't work. Too bad, not our problem.

 

[Karadjgne]

Huh? LOL

A 2060 is capable enough for the majority of 1440p games at medium to high settings. At 1080p, I haven't encountered a single game that couldn't be played at high to ultra settings, with maybe the exception of one or two extremely demanding games that might require moving one or two sliders slightly to the left. If it was a 1440p or higher target then I'd agree that with a 2060 you are going to have to make a lot of concessions for some games, but not for a single 1080p monitor. I can't agree with that. Generally speaking 95% of games at 1080p Ultra are going to stay north of 60fps with an RTX 2060. In my experience, and from what I've seen others relate anyhow.

Umm that's what I said. For 1080p Op would be covered by a 2060 easily, it's only a select few seriously graphics demanding games like Ashes or cyberpunk that'd require upto a 3070 to be playing at ultra settings, especially if you went with RT and a 4k DSR, which Geforce Experience likes to do if you have the power to do it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Seems I must have misunderstood you then.

 

[Karadjgne]

It's ok, it happens. Get in a rush, skip a word or 3, think you got the gist of the whole thing, a little distracted, no worries 👌.

But if you misunderstood, I must then question the wording and understandability of my answer. Not everyone speaks Aspy longhand. 😂

 

[jacob249358]

I use ebay very often actually, just not for buying graphics cards or motherboards.



Most sellers are individuals with few or minimal prior sales, besides which if they've sold 100 rubber chickens and 40 paper flags it doesn't mean that in this case that the graphics card they are trying to sell you is going to be as happy of an experience as those others were. And the ones who DO have a substantial number of sales are likely going to be dealers or scalpers, neither of whom I'd believe a single word that came out of their mouths because they are going to say whatever is necessary in order to coach you into the sale. This is a known practice.

Beyond that, the fact that over and over and over again we've seen, relatively intelligent people, coming here to ask "how can I fix this POS card I bought on Ebay that the seller refuses to take back and Ebay won't support me on", says that regardless of any other considerations or precautions you might take, you are STILL rolling the dice with these kinds of purchases ESPECIALLY since we know the market is flooded with damaged or ex-mining cards. And beyond even that, is the potential for purchasing stolen cards, which is a big thing now too. Again, not only will you not get a warranty on such a card but you might also get a visit from the police if you attempted to get support on a card with a serial that was part of a stolen shipment. That is less likely, but still a thing. A verifiable thing. In fact, just recently, in the news again for this exact issue.


Again, you can believe what somebody you don't know the first thing about TELLS you, but anybody who does is simply asking to be misled. You can be sure NOBODY is EVER going to say, "Yeah, this card was used 24/7 for the last 12 months for mining bitcoin". Or "Well, it was seriously overclocked and ridden hard for ten hour gaming sessions the last six months until it started having problems". Nobody. Ever. Gonna say that, even though it's likely true.

And as far as being able to return it, you are again throwing yourself on the mercy of the (Highly suspect) Ebay policies. If the seller refuses to play ball, that is the only recourse you have, and too many times (And I've experienced this myself with OTHER products) Ebay simply refuses to back up their own policies if the seller says the product worked and whatever happened was your fault. Did you install the card? Yes. Well then you did something wrong and caused it to be damaged. End of my responsibility. But it HAD to be installed to know it didn't work. Too bad, not our problem.

This whole reply and the one before is the reason used is much cheaper. Its called risk to reward. You determine the risk and reward and then make a decision

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, you can save a lot of money by not putting oil in your car when it needs it, or by not changing it periodically like you're supposed to, but that too is not advisable. So, it's fine. If you are ok with the risk I wouldn't be the one to tell you not to do it, I just like people, who might NOT be aware of the risks, to BE aware of the risks, so that if they get bent over at least they can't say it was because they didn't know it was a potential outcome.

 

[cryoburner]

Probably worth asking, what sort of hardware are you gaming on now? It could be useful to have a better idea of how much of a potential upgrade each piece of hardware would be. If you already have something like a 1060, then some of this hardware might not be enough of an upgrade to be worth upgrading to, while if you were on something like integrated graphics, then you might even get a reasonable performance boost out of something a little lower-end, at least as a temporary measure to hold you over until prices improve. It's also possible that you might not get all that much benefit out of a CPU upgrade, depending on what sort of processor you have now.

In general, it may not worth buying more graphics hardware than you need right now, as the prices tend to be real bad at the moment, though it's hard to say how long it will be before they substantially improve. If the prices you listed are US prices, then they are upward of double what these cards launched at. For example, a 1660 SUPER could be had for as little as $230 when it launched 2 years ago, and the 3060 was a card intended to sell for as little as $330 when it was announced early this year (though prices were already on the rise by that point, so I don't think any ever actually sold for that price). Some of these models might be slightly more premium versions that would have been priced a bit higher, but generally all versions of a particular card tend to perform within a few percent of one another, with the differences mainly coming down to the quality of the cooler affecting how much noise they make and how warm they get. And that may not be worth paying a premium for.

As far as used hardware goes, a lot of the value comes down to how comfortable one is with potentially losing the money they are spending. While it's probably not worth the risk for higher-end components costing several hundred dollars, it might be a more reasonable option for lower-end parts. Even the prices of most used hardware will be pretty bad right now though.

You can be sure NOBODY is EVER going to say, "Yeah, this card was used 24/7 for the last 12 months for mining bitcoin".

Considering Bitcoin has only been profitable to mine on specialized hardware for years, I would agree that no one is likely to say that. : P

 

[Karadjgne]

Lol, yeah. Just how many K-sku cpus do you see on ebay that say 'never been overclocked'. What a bunch of bs. I always assume they have, just as assume a gpu has been used for mining unless it's an obvious no-way situation like a GT1030 etc. Assuming that, look at the rest of the description and decide on just how truthful and realistic the description is. If the owner actually writes some sort of detailed history etc then a non-miner is possible. If part of a sli pair, figure them seeing overclocking and you'd not want the primary card etc. I also want a picture of the actual product, not a stock photo stolen from a vendors website.

 

[jacob249358]

Well, you can save a lot of money by not putting oil in your car when it needs it, or changing it periodically, but it too is not advisable. So, it's fine. If you are ok with the risk I wouldn't be the one to tell you not to do it, I just like people, who might NOT be aware of the risks, to BE aware of the risks, so that if they get bent over at least they can't say it was because they didn't know it was a potential outcome.

not putting oil in your car enough (which will most likely result in hundreds or even thousands of dollars) is a great comparison to buying a used GPU

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes it is. I've known Darkbreeze for many years, we've argued quite often, even somewhat heatedly at times, but there's one thing he's taught me that's invaluable. Don't bother arguing, it's not worth it. No matter what you think you know, doesn't matter because in the end, he is Right. No two ways around it. He can and will dig up any and all relevant info and/or data and make you feel stupid. Trust me, he's done it to me on multiple occasions. Take it for granted, when he says a thing, the chances of him being wrong are exponentially tiny. 😁. He's got years of knowledge and experience and there's very few ppl with as round an education. If he says used gpus are a heavy risk, consider that Gospel.

 

[Darkbreeze]

not putting oil in your car enough (which will most likely result in hundreds or even thousands of dollars) is a great comparison to buying a used GPU

I would think it was, especially these days, since both scenarios could result in the loss of hundreds or thousands of dollars out of your pocket, whether it's an engine or a graphics card. I realize it's hard to believe that graphics cards cost as much as remanufactured engines these days, but the fact is that, loosely, they do. So, I fail to see where the comparison isn't apt, but again, it's not really all that important and certainly we've discussed this point beyond it's usefulness to the thread's original focus. So, we've both made our opinions on the matter known and offered our reasonings, 'nuff said.

 

[jacob249358]

Yes it is. I've known Darkbreeze for many years, we've argued quite often, even somewhat heatedly at times, but there's one thing he's taught me that's invaluable. Don't bother arguing, it's not worth it. No matter what you think you know, doesn't matter because in the end, he is Right. No two ways around it. He can and will dig up any and all relevant info and/or data and make you feel stupid. Trust me, he's done it to me on multiple occasions. Take it for granted, when he says a thing, the chances of him being wrong are exponentially tiny. 😁. He's got years of knowledge and experience and there's very few ppl with as round an education. If he says used gpus are a heavy risk, consider that Gospel.

I don't think he's right to compare not putting oil in your car and buying a used GPU. Here's why. If you follow the steps I mentioned in a previous reply it's VERY UNLIKELY you get scammed or get a faulty GPU. On the other hand, if you don't put oil in your car which probably costs between $2,000-$30,000 it will MOST LIKELY damage it. I have not further comments on this as its beyond the meaning of the thread and I've repeated my opinion

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you follow the steps I mentioned in a previous reply it's VERY UNLIKELY you get scammed or get a faulty GPU.

LOL.

 

[helper800]

LOL.

Regardless of his naiveite on used products, your comparison of the opportunity cost of buying a used graphics card to car engines was poor at best, false analogy at worst. If you do not put new oil in an engine it will fail, but as you stated it, there was a possibility that it will not fail thus saving you money as compared to the subjective risk of purchasing a used graphics card. A used card the vast, vast majority of the time will either be dead, work fine, or, in the minority, be somewhere in-between.

Just to be clear, I agree with the majority of your points about buying used cards on ebay, or otherwise.