About pc gaming and upgrading your GPU, is it a good time?

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do you guys think right now is a good time to be upgrading your graphics card? I'm currently on a rx580 (equivalent of a 1060) and planning to upgrade to prepare for new releases (clair obscur, rise of the ronin, lost soul aside, death stranding 2, onimusha etc)
 
The best time to upgrade is when you feel like it!
I also upgraded to an RTX 4070 last year.
 
From recent news and all, most people have been noticing pretty serious problems with the 50 series from melting cables to blackscreens and completely bricking the GPU itself, if you want to buy something, buy the 40 series, i recommend the 4070 super, should keep you around for a good while before needing to upgrade again
 
I'm currently on a 1070 still, and as that isn't meeting minimum specs for some releases, I'd say yes if you're wanting to play the latest and greatest (or old stuff at better settings!)
 
From recent news and all, most people have been noticing pretty serious problems with the 50 series from melting cables to blackscreens and completely bricking the GPU itself, if you want to buy something, buy the 40 series, i recommend the 4070 super, should keep you around for a good while before needing to upgrade again

this or maybe a 3080 or radeon equivalent. for what the newer gpu's cost and the not very impressive gains you get from them if you got any RTX you will likely be set for a while
 
That card is 8 years old dude
it only started to not run stuff this year with monster hunter wilds, stuff i've played before been working fine (re4 remake, elden ring, final fantasy 7 remake, etc)

i'll probably go for a 6650xt because nvidia is way too expensive
 
do you guys think right now is a good time to be upgrading your graphics card? I'm currently on a rx580 (equivalent of a 1060) and planning to upgrade to prepare for new releases (clair obscur, rise of the ronin, lost soul aside, death stranding 2, onimusha etc)
If you can do this, do it! See my signature, i'd do it if i had the $$$ for it. (I'd change EVERYTHING) :P
 
I would wait until the new AMD GPUs are officially released/announced (February 28th). Worst case scenario, they aren't any better than the mess that has been the Nvidia 50-series GPUs, but if they work well and are priced right, they could be a really great buy -or- cause the prices of Nvidia cards to be re-evaluated. Win-win either way.
 
As long as you're not planning for the top-of-the-line stuff, there's no reason not to. Only those with more bucks than brains would pay $1k+ just for a GPU. If you shop around, you could find a 30-series card for less than $500. I found a 3060 on Newegg for $400:


If you're dead set on Team Red, here's a 6600 for $300:


But, please, for the love of all that is good, do NOT encourage GPU price inflation by paying top dollar!
-McD
 
Whatever you do don't buy the 5000 series cards. It's probably going to be Nvidia's worst generation ever.
 
It really depends on what resolution and your budget. If your resolution is 1080p and your budget is limited, then I recommend sticking with a 1080p resolution, as that will allow you to upgrade reasonably without having to resort to "low" and "medium" graphics options.
If your resolution is 1440p or higher, then you will need to make concessions if your budget is limited.

I'm not going to recommend specific components but rather things to consider that will hopefully help you come to a decision or at least help narrow down your choices:
Resolution - honestly 1080p is fine if you have a limited budget. Don't get pressured into increasing your resolution if you don't have the budget, as increasing the resolution will also cause your GPU requirements to increase (unless you are fine resorting to "low" or "medium" graphics settings).

Storage - again, if your budget is limited, SATA SSD's are fine. You do not NEED an NVME drive, especially considering there are only a handful of games that support Direct Storage. That said, it would be beneficial to purchase a motherboard that supports an available NVME slot for future proofing your upgrade. Which leads us to...

Motherboard - You can easily get lost down a rabbit hole when it comes to motherboard specs (chipset, I/O, # of SSD slots, PCIe version, etc). If you are on a budget, might as well stay within PCIe gen 4 for SSD and GPU speed. However, there are some motherboards that may offer at least one of the two that won't break your budget, but you'll need to decide which one you want, PCIe gen 5 for SSD speeds or PCIe gen 5 for the latest graphics cards. If I had to choose between the two, I would go with gen 5 for the GPU slot.

CPU - If your monitor supports higher than 60hz, it will be worth getting a CPU powerful enough to be able to deliver frames that your monitor supports. But if your budget is limited, sicking to a CPU that will support 60 FPS is what you'll want to focus on.

GPU - If you are sticking with a 1080p resolution due to budget limitations, you can't go wrong with an AMD card. While Nvidia cards are great (I own an RTX 4080), you can easily exceed your budget with them. If you are trying to stick to a modest budget, I would not consider fancy effects, such as ray-tracing, to be part of your goal, as while they are nice, they are currently a luxury feature and not a required one. The other features such as DLSS, while great, are available in other flavors such as XESS and FSR. This mindset will allow you to focus your GPU purchase decision on performance rather than luxury features.

I hope this info helps you get a better idea of what kind of upgrade you are looking at. Best of luck and enjoy the fun of upgrading your rig! Share some pics of what you have under the hood when its all set up!

Power Supply - There are sites that have calculators on how much wattage you'll need. Essentially you'll want to have a couple hundred extra watts above over your estimated total wattage usage.
 
it only started to not run stuff this year with monster hunter wilds, stuff i've played before been working fine (re4 remake, elden ring, final fantasy 7 remake, etc)

i'll probably go for a 6650xt because nvidia is way too expensive

I jumped from 1060 Gt to 6600 and then to 6700 (600 died and I returned it by warranty) and the difference is noticeable. Despite 4th gen CPU lol.
 
I would not consider fancy effects, such as ray-tracing, to be part of your goal, as while they are nice, they are currently a luxury feature and not a required one.
This isn't always the case. There are games on the market already that do, in fact, require ray-tracing. The latest Indiana Jones game, for instance. Having said that, I fully agree with your whole post. Wasn't that long ago that even 1080p was just a dream.

I would like to reiterate my earlier point. One doesn't need to shell out half a year's pay just to brag about how they can play Cyberpunk at 16k max settings with 2880fps etc etc. Unless one simply MUST compensate for some other...shortcoming...and can't afford a giant truck. O_o
-McD
 
I'd maybe wait until the hype for the 50 series dies down and then maybe pick up an older GPU, you don't need the latest and greatest unless you REALLY love pathtracing
 
Honestly hard to say. Games today are just so unoptimized. Upgraded last year and it feels like the wall is already coming up on me.
 
I would also add that we don't know any of the other specs on OPs system, which could make a big difference in some instances.

The 6650 XT may be a decent purchase, but your other specs could either suggests other options, or be a big limitation on performance with a new card.
 
I would also add that we don't know any of the other specs on OPs system, which could make a big difference in some instances.

The 6650 XT may be a decent purchase, but your other specs could either suggests other options, or be a big limitation on performance with a new card.
r7 2700x
16gb ram
 
r7 2700x
16gb ram
That CPU unfortunately rules out the Intel Battlemage cards, although those might be really expensive or not even available where you are, anyways. It shouldn't hold anything else back too much, and you can always upgrade later with AM4 :)

I would say that the 6650 XT isn't a bad card, but it has low VRAM (8GB) which could cause issues in the future with some games. A lot of big studio games are already using 8GB or more even at 1080p, so if there was an option to buy a 7600 XT or a used 6700/6750XT, that would be safer.

If you could find a used 3060 TI for the same price as a 6650 XT, it also has 8GB, but would be a faster card.
 
Using a Geforce Ti 1050 here. Other than the VRAM is a little low and doing upscaling (and 1 newer game doesn't run) i have had no issues. I see no reason to change.

If GPU's are decently priced again then maybe upgrading is an option.
 
If GPU's are decently priced again then maybe upgrading is an option.
Good luck with that. In my observations, prices always go up, and not down. And it was the same for the last generation of humanity, as well.

When I was a boy, the middle-aged men of the family would complain about how prices had doubled or tripled since they were kids. Now, I'm middle-aged, and prices have again doubled/tripled. I feel certain that in another half century, prices will have yet again doubled and tripled.

-McD
 

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