this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024

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What's the best graphics card thats worth getting to upgrade an older PC? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My PC is getting on a little, it's running on an i7-4790k, 16gb ddr4, and a GTX 970. right now, it's struggling some in most games even though I don't play any triple A titles. What would be a sensible upgrade that wouldn't get totally bottlenecked by the CPU?

In most games I'm playing the CPU is pinned at around 25% while my card is maxed at 100% 3d and vmem usage so I'm fairly sure it's just my card that's the main limiting factor.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Do you have an upgrade budget?
With a 4790k You're looking at PCIe 3.0,

a Radeon RX 6600, 6650 XT, or 7600 are all good 8GB VRAM cards for under $250 that will last for a long time at 1080p.

VRAM concerns really only occur at higher resolutions, so for you any modern card (2022 or newer) will be a massive upgrade. The 6600 can be had for $180 these days

But even you're not planning to upgrade CPU right now, i would just buy the best GPU you can fit in your budget, and do worry about bottlenecks. One day you'll upgrade CPU/MB/RAM and the GPU will fit right in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

In terms of value for money try last gen AMD, I have a 6700xt and it runs well on my 6 year old system. My bottleneck is mostly CPU now until I upgrade

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

If you're looking second hand :
Nvidia: 2060 or better
AMD : 6600xt or better.

I wouldn't bother with older generations at this point, I'd also be a touch hesitant to go with much newer, unless you're willing to bring the GPU forward to your next build.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Had a 2060 and 4790k, ran most games fine, and only in cyberpunk was i stuck with 40fps because of the cpu. Otherwise its a good combo

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You are me 1 year ago.

I have a 4790k w/16GB ddr 4 and I upgraded from a GTX 970 to a RTX3060 and had a lot of luck.

Something in that range would probably work well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That 3060 will work great in your next pc that has pcie4 or 5

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

So I thought about that, which was why I got it actually. An upgrade for that PC that would be a good stopgap on my next.

I just ended up giving that PC to my son and building a new one entirely, bought another 3060 for it as a good stopgap LOL

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Maybe a GTX 1660-Ti if you can find one for a good price?

Edit: An Intel Arc A750 might be the better value if you're buying new, though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

In that same vein; a 2060 super was what I recently upgraded an older ryzen system with. Completely worth it considering I got it for $140.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Or even see if you can find an RX 6600. Around US$200 right now, and should give decent performance without being horribly bottlenecked

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yeah i agree with this.

The RX 6600 is the best ultra budget (under $200) upgrade, though the RX 6650 XT and RX 7600 project to last longer as viable upgrades and are still under $250.

The 6600 is slightly weaker than the 5700 XT which is still a valid card today

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Can confirm. Had the same CPU, and a rx6600 without xt. Cyberpunk ran at 50 FPS in high details. At 1080p.

Great value card for this processor.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Gtx 3060 is a good card to run most games these days. If you're trying to upgrade on a budget.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry about getting bottlenecked by the CPU. If you're using maximum capacity, you'll always be bottlenecked by something.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Not that I'm worried at all, I understand you'll never get anything perfectly balanced. I'm more concerned by trying to closely match price and performance. I could buy a top of the range graphics card for £800 but it won't even sweat at the CPU desperately trying to keep up. I'd rather buy a cheaper card that's going to let me stretch my CPU without breaking the bank

I know I can get a better card that will let me better utilise my CPU and that my card is what's limiting me right now so as long as I can bridge that gap as best I can I'd be very happy

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I wouldn't worry too much about going overkill on the GPU. You could go for a $200-400 GPU and be in a great place for when you decide to upgrade the CPU. I wouldn't go crazy and get something like a 4090, though.