Need Help on Deciding on a GPU

LChewie1 on 06/07/2024 - 02:17
Last edited 06/07/2024 - 14:30 by 1 other user

Just trying to decide which GPU would be the best value and some help would be greatly appreciated.

My specs are:

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x
Current GPU: 1660 super
Ram: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO SL 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3600Mhz C18
Motherboard: b550m ds3h
SSD: crucial t500 1tb
SSD 2: some random 1tb SATA SSD

My budget for a graphics card is around $1300 but depending on the deals I would be willing to spend slightly more. I'm very conflicted between a 4070 super, 4070 ti super, or an AMD card such as a 7900xt. I'm looking to pursue computer science at university in the near future and have an interest in things that I've heard nvidia is far superior in. Not too sure how true and how big the difference of everything is though. Even with the obvious CPU bottleneck I'd have I don't really mind as it can always be fixed later.

I also only have a rubbish 550w power supply not sure if that would need to be upgraded. Currently I only have a 1080p monitor but I'd love to move up to a 1440p monitor when or soon after upgrading my specs. Some friends said there would be a significant price cut during Black Friday and also have deals that could include CPUs and motherboards too which would be a bottleneck in my system.

I'm not very knowledgeable about this stuff so I don't know how much money I could save and if it's worth waiting all that time. I have a job and get a small amount of money and don't really have many other expenses, so money isn't necessarily a problem, just that I don't want to spend too much money unnecessarily. Of course, I know these GPUs are quite expensive but as you can tell I don't upgrade my GPU often and if a $1300 purchase will save me from upgrading for the next 6 years then that sounds great to me.

All help and thoughts are greatly appreciated so thank you in advance.

• • 

    Chewie1 on 06/07/2024 - 05:40

    +1

    Sorry I wasn't very clear in the post. My main use of the pc would be for gaming since I'm still only in year 11 but for sure in the future I would have more money to get whatever upgrades are needed. Just looking for a very long lasting gpu which would allow me to comfortably game in 1440p in any game which would also be able to be used for my future university work and other personal projects. Thank you for your help

• 

  Gregmond on 06/07/2024 - 08:40

  +2

  At 1080p there isn't a lot of difference in all the top end cards if you look at somewhere like Tom's Hardware. 1440p starts to separate them.
  Nvidia is always better at Ray Tracing, but my experience is that it looks amazing, but runs slower, so you try it for 30 mins then turn it off.
  I had a variety of Nvidia cards until I got my current card (Gigabyte 6900XT) and whilst it isn't perfect, it has not let me down and does a superb job on my 34" 1440 monitor. I also much prefer the AMD drivers, it does everything in the one tool including Fan and overclocking if you want it.
  You need to replace that power supply with something like a Corsair 750W or similar at least. 850W would be better. Get a decent psu. Something from the A or B tier on this list preferably https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/
  Personally I would recommend going a little higher and for around $1400 you can get a Radeon 7900 XTX that will do anything you need for a few years to come. Most of the retailers (Umart, Mwave, Pccasegear etc) have a 7900 XTX for around that price.
  If you don't want to go quite that high, then I would suggest the Radeon 7900 XT, not quite as good, slightly better than the 4070 Super, but cheaper so you could get a better power supply and that for around $1300.
  One other thing, stay away from Userbenchmarks for comparrissions, they are renowned for hating on AMD.
  Goodluck.

  • 

    Chewie1 on 06/07/2024 - 16:45

    I was definitely looking at the 7900 xt and xtx but wasn't sure due to a few reasons. Due to my limited income I'm not very interested in 4k gaming as most monitors ive seen are much more expensive and would only give me 60hz which is fine for 4k but I play competitive games more often than singleplayer. This means im likely just gonna stick with 1440p and from what ive seen raytracing would be usable with fps counts that are playable in most games with the 4070 ti super. I've also seen that nvidia is better in tasks such as rendering and other things which I will likely be using in the near future, and if nvidia would give a faster experience in that and also provide similar gaming performance for a slightly higher price I would be willing to spend a bit more. Do you have any experience in rendering or things like that just curious on how big the difference really is. Thanks for the help

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  Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 06/07/2024 - 10:22

  +4

  Something like the below would be excellent bang for buck. Sell the 1660 on ebay to recoup some cash. 5600x isn't much of a bottleneck at all imho. +1 for only buy a quality PSU as per cultists tier list linked above.

  ~$719 XFX Quicksilver Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB (Best bang for buck IMHO - 8 series AMD coming is ~12 months)
  ~$259 Acer Nitro ED270U S3 27inch WQHD 180Hz (Can spend more or go bigger if you like)
  ~$139 Corsair RM750e 750W (A-Tier)

  ~1100 Total

  • 

    Chewie1 on 06/07/2024 - 16:47

    +1

    Any card would definitely be a huge upgrade for mine and im not necessarily concerned about the bottleneck but I just feel like if I was to spend such a large amount of money on a card I would rather just go all out and never have to upgrade until im much older and money isn't as scarce. Thanks for the part recommendations though I will definitely look into them.

• 

  garetz on 06/07/2024 - 14:04

  -2

  Your gpu suits your cpu, if you were to get a new gpu the bottleneck would make it not that great of a purchase.

  can your current gpu not play the games you currently want to play ?
  I would get the new screen first, and go from there, the screen resolution and your current fps determines what you should upgrade to.

  • 

    Chewie1 on 06/07/2024 - 16:51

    yeah the bottleneck wouldn't be ideal but at this point any game made in the past couple years can barely reach 60 fps on 1080p everything minimum graphics. Currently playing cyberpunk and with a little tuning and mods I reach on average about 70-75 frames in good areas and low 60s or high 50s in bad areas. It's still playable but having choppy gameplay while also looking terrible is something ive grown tired of after 5 years. Having a 1440p monitor right now would just make everything unplayable. Thank you for the feedback

    • 

      garetz on 06/07/2024 - 21:01

      -2

      since the cpu will be heavily bottlenecking your new gpu, you know that your frames will be very limited still right ? That's the entire problem with bottlenecking.

      If you know your current gpu will not work at 1440p, and ill tell you what, i had a 1660 super and it played fine at 1440p, which means your real issue is the cpu not the gpu.

      • 

        Chewie1 on 06/07/2024 - 21:23

        my 1660 super is a garbage single fan one which reaches 87 degrees under load on average so its almost always thermal throttling and it runs this hot on any game except the easiest of games to run. Even with the bottleneck its nothing I cant fix later and I dont want to cheap out on the gpu and end up having to replace it just cause my current cpu isnt ideal with it.

  • 

    barge-in hunter on 06/07/2024 - 18:08

    +3

    Your gpu suits your cpu

    A 5600x and a gtx 1660 is not a good match.

    I run a 5600 with a rtx 2070 super - and my gpu is a bit of a bottleneck in some 1080 games.

    Op, you’ve got plenty of spare cpu capacity for a better gpu, without much (if any) bottlenecking.