Question Which GPU to choose ?

[bruno16757]

Hello all. So here is my current system.

Ryzen 7 2700x
Asus prime b450m-a II
16gb ddr4 2100mhz
256gb ssd m.2 + 2tb hard drives
rtx 3050 8gb oc asus
Aura case
1000 watt Msi psu
22inch dell monitor- 1680x1050 no hdr

I'm getting back into playing aaa games. These are the cards I was looking at. All Canadian prices and include taxes and shipping.
or should I wait for the rx 9060?
Predator BiFrost Intel Arc A770 Overclocking Graphics Card | 16GB GDDR6 256-bit 18 Gbps | PCIe 4.0 | Dual Fans | Customize RGB Lighting Colors & Effects | TPD 250W | 1 x HDMI 2.1 & 3 x DisplayPort 2.0- 621.49

ZOTAC Twin Edge GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB 128-Bit GDDR7 PCI Express 5.0 x8 DLSS 4.0 Graphics Card ZT-B50610E-10M- 664.88

PNY XLR8 GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ATX Graphics Card RTX4060 8GB XLR8 DUAL FAN REFURBISHED -491.99

MSI Gaming RTX 5060 8G Shadow 2X OC Graphics Card (8GB GDDR7,TBA-bit, Extreme Performance: TBA MHz, DisplayPort x3 2.1a, HDMI 2.1b, NVIDIA Blackwell Architecture)- 497.19

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 XT GAMING OC 16G Graphics Card, 3x WINDFORCE Fans 16GB 128-bit GDDR6, GV-R76XTGAMING OC-16GD Video Card- 531.09

ASRock Radeon RX 6600 Challenger D 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card RX6600 CLD 8G (go older?) - 348.59
-
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 x8 ATX Graphics Card 11324-01-20G- 446.34

 

[CountMike]

Hello all. So here is my current system.

Ryzen 7 2700x
Asus prime b450m-a II
16gb ddr4 2100mhz
256gb ssd m.2 + 2tb hard drives
rtx 3050 8gb oc asus
Aura case
1000 watt Msi psu
22inch dell monitor- 1680x1050 no hdr

I'm getting back into playing aaa games. These are the cards I was looking at. All Canadian prices and include taxes and shipping.
or should I wait for the rx 9060?
Predator BiFrost Intel Arc A770 Overclocking Graphics Card | 16GB GDDR6 256-bit 18 Gbps | PCIe 4.0 | Dual Fans | Customize RGB Lighting Colors & Effects | TPD 250W | 1 x HDMI 2.1 & 3 x DisplayPort 2.0- 621.49

ZOTAC Twin Edge GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB 128-Bit GDDR7 PCI Express 5.0 x8 DLSS 4.0 Graphics Card ZT-B50610E-10M- 664.88

PNY XLR8 GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ATX Graphics Card RTX4060 8GB XLR8 DUAL FAN REFURBISHED -491.99

MSI Gaming RTX 5060 8G Shadow 2X OC Graphics Card (8GB GDDR7,TBA-bit, Extreme Performance: TBA MHz, DisplayPort x3 2.1a, HDMI 2.1b, NVIDIA Blackwell Architecture)- 497.19

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 XT GAMING OC 16G Graphics Card, 3x WINDFORCE Fans 16GB 128-bit GDDR6, GV-R76XTGAMING OC-16GD Video Card- 531.09

ASRock Radeon RX 6600 Challenger D 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card RX6600 CLD 8G (go older?) - 348.59
-
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 x8 ATX Graphics Card 11324-01-20G- 446.34

That CPU is going to be a bottleneck for heavy games specially when you take that relatively low resolution into account where CPU does most work.
Unless you are planning substantial CPU upgrade (5600x at least) Rx 6600 or eventually Rx 7600 would be most sensible upgrade.

 

[dark_globe]

don´t buy old cards like rx 6600
(this would only give you marginal performance uplift over your current rtx 3050)
you should also avoid 8gb video cards from nvidia like RTX 4060/5060/5060Ti
if you want nvidia the cheapest i would go with their current line-up is 16gb version of rtx 5060Ti .

the cheapest meaningful upgrade overall
would be the intel arc 580 with 12gb of VRAM and around 50% more
performance compared to rtx 3050 -
however if you have money to spare than 5060Ti (16gb) is much faster
(around 30% faster than the arc 580) .

keep in mind your processor may be a bottleneck in some games ,
especially using such low (sub full-hd) resolution as you are .
although it is an 8c/16t cpu it has outdated/slow single core performance
therefore swappping it for something like the ryzen 5600x would be a good idea
(you would need to update your motherboards bios before you upgrade).

 

[LOGAN54321]

I think you were given very good advice in the post above!


PCPartPicker Video Card Comparison

Video Card	Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB Video Card	Asus DUAL OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card	Intel Limited Edition Arc B580 12 GB Video Card	Asus PRIME GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Video Card
Price	$613.99+	$719.00+	$359.00+	$637.44+
Rating	3 Ratings, 3.3 Average	7 Ratings, 4.4 Average	9 Ratings, 4.9 Average	1 Rating, 4.0 Average
Manufacturer	Sapphire	Asus	Intel	Asus
Part #	11335-04-20G	[ul][li]90YV0JJ1-M0AA00[/li][li]DUAL-RX7800XT-O16G[/li][li]90YV0JJ1-M0NA00[/li][/ul]	[ul][li]31P06HB0BA[/li][li]INT-31P06HB0BA[/li][/ul]	[ul][li]prime-rtx5060ti-16g[/li][li]90YV0MH3-M0NA00[/li][/ul]
Chipset	Radeon RX 7700 XT	Radeon RX 7800 XT	Arc B580	GeForce RTX 5060 Ti
Memory	12 GB	16 GB	12 GB	16 GB
Memory Type	GDDR6	GDDR6	GDDR6	GDDR7
Core Clock	1700 MHz	1295 MHz	2670 MHz	2410 MHz
Boost Clock	2544 MHz	2520 MHz		2602 MHz
Interface	PCIe x16	PCIe x16	PCIe x16	PCIe x16
Color	Black / Red	Black	Black	Black
Frame Sync	FreeSync	FreeSync	None	G-Sync
Length	280 mm	280 mm	272 mm	304 mm
TDP	230 W	263 W	190 W	180 W
Case Expansion Slot Width	2	2	2	2
Total Slot Width	3	3	2	3
Cooling	2 Fans	2 Fans	2 Fans	3 Fans
External Power	2 x PCIe 8-pin	2 x PCIe 8-pin	1 x PCIe 8-pin	1 x PCIe 8-pin
DisplayPort 2.1 Outputs		3	3
DisplayPort 2.1b Outputs				3
DisplayPort Outputs	2
HDMI 2.1 Outputs		1	1
HDMI 2.1b Outputs				1
HDMI Outputs	2

Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-23 02:46 EDT-0400

 

[VizzieTheViz]

I’d only get an 8GB card if you don’t plan on upgrading your monitor any time soon, if you want to play AAA games at even a slightly higher resolution VRAM might become bottleneck in new AAA games.

5060ti 16GB or 9060XT 16GB are good upgrades especially at your monitor’s resolution. ARC B580 would be good too and probably more affordable.

 

[Gururu]

That CPU is going to be a bottleneck for heavy games specially when you take that relatively low resolution into account where CPU does most work.
Unless you are planning substantial CPU upgrade (5600x at least) Rx 6600 or eventually Rx 7600 would be most sensible upgrade.

This is something to consider first if budget permits. Your CPU is 6+ years old and most GPUs are overpriced right now so you won't get the most out of one. If you can't budget that but can afford a $600 GPU then I don't know what to say 🤔.

 

[bruno16757]

Thanks for the replys. I will wait until the new Rx comes out and price of it.

 

[Eximo]

For posterity as well. Anyone considering Intel GPUs should take note that driver overhead is still quite significant. They do not perform as well on older hardware as most of the reviews you see which use current or last gen CPUs.

Zen 3 and Alderlake/Raptorlake and up is best.

 

[Why_Me]

Ryzen 7 2700x
Asus prime b450m-a II
16gb ddr4 2100mhz
256gb ssd m.2 + 2tb hard drives
rtx 3050 8gb oc asus
Aura case
1000 watt Msi psu
22inch dell monitor- 1680x1050 no hdr

I'm getting back into playing aaa games. These are the cards I was looking at. All Canadian prices and include taxes and shipping.
or should I wait for the rx 9060?
Predator BiFrost Intel Arc A770 Overclocking Graphics Card | 16GB GDDR6 256-bit 18 Gbps | PCIe 4.0 | Dual Fans | Customize RGB Lighting Colors & Effects | TPD 250W | 1 x HDMI 2.1 & 3 x DisplayPort 2.0- 621.49

ZOTAC Twin Edge GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB 128-Bit GDDR7 PCI Express 5.0 x8 DLSS 4.0 Graphics Card ZT-B50610E-10M- 664.88

PNY XLR8 GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ATX Graphics Card RTX4060 8GB XLR8 DUAL FAN REFURBISHED -491.99

MSI Gaming RTX 5060 8G Shadow 2X OC Graphics Card (8GB GDDR7,TBA-bit, Extreme Performance: TBA MHz, DisplayPort x3 2.1a, HDMI 2.1b, NVIDIA Blackwell Architecture)- 497.19

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 XT GAMING OC 16G Graphics Card, 3x WINDFORCE Fans 16GB 128-bit GDDR6, GV-R76XTGAMING OC-16GD Video Card- 531.09

ASRock Radeon RX 6600 Challenger D 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card RX6600 CLD 8G (go older?) - 348.59
-
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 x8 ATX Graphics Card 11324-01-20G- 446.34

CPU & RAM before anything else.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($167.86 @ Vuugo)
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($69.99 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $237.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-23 15:43 EDT-0400

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If you can, I would opt for the 5060ti 16gb instead of the 8gb. You may wait until the 9060xt cards come out as they are supposed to be a bit cheaper but hopefully comparable to the 5060ti 16gb.

Also, I would suggest if you have the budget or are looking at upgrades, upgrade your cpu to at least something like a Ryzen 7 5700x, and also swap the ram out for 32gb ddr4 3200 or 3600. Those things would really complement the new gpu and perk up your system quite a bit.

 

[Eximo]

The 9060 XT has a significant advantage when plugged into older systems. AMD went ahead with a full x16 PCIe connection, vs the 8x of the older 7600 XT and current 4060 Ti and 5060 Ti. Should perform better even in the old PCIe 3.0 x16 slot of that B450 board.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Good point. I’m using a 5060ti 16gb and it’s not a bad card but then again I’m using a ryzen 7 7700 in a b650 board, so not limited to pci e 3.

 

[bruno16757]

So update on my graphics card. I sent away my older motherboard and got it back today. MSI sent me a b550m board. So I have to get a new cpu and ram now. Ryzen 5800 was thinking and 3200mhz ram. Than I can a better GPU. I'll send back the older motherboard to Amazon.

 

[CountMike]

So update on my graphics card. I sent away my older motherboard and got it back today. MSI sent me a b550m board. So I have to get a new cpu and ram now. Ryzen 5800 was thinking and 3200mhz ram. Than I can a better GPU. I'll send back the older motherboard to Amazon.

5700x is negligibly slower than 5800x but much easier to cool. Still twice as fast as your 2700. 5800x needs a lot of cooling,, last one I had needed a 360 AIO to keep in check at full performance.
3600MHz with low Cl is best for that setup but not much more expensive.

 

[dark_globe]

Good point. I’m using a 5060ti 16gb and it’s not a bad card but then again I’m using a ryzen 7 7700 in a b650 board, so not limited to pci e 3.

it´s much less of a problem for 16gb edition to have pcie lanes cut to x8 even if put into an older pcie slots
because 8gb version is dancing around that frame buffer limit too often
and often needs to communicate with
motherboards pcie interface in order to access more memory (even if only for a moment)
and than it becomes a bandwidth issue even in 4.0 slot and even more so in 3.0 slot .

i second the ram suggestion - best for ryzen 5xxx is 3600MHz/cl16
5700x is a great cpu , i´m cooling it with 25 dollar cpu cooler and PBO enabled - no issues .

 

[Third-Eye]

Hello all. So here is my current system.

Ryzen 7 2700x
Asus prime b450m-a II
16gb ddr4 2100mhz
256gb ssd m.2 + 2tb hard drives
rtx 3050 8gb oc asus
Aura case
1000 watt Msi psu
22inch dell monitor- 1680x1050 no hdr

I'm getting back into playing aaa games. These are the cards I was looking at. All Canadian prices and include taxes and shipping.
or should I wait for the rx 9060?

Short answer:
Wait for the RX 9060 XT to release, but first upgrade your CPU to a Ryzen 7 5700x or 5700x3d, upgrade ram to 2x16GB DDR4 3200 or 3600, and consider a 1080p or 1440p 144Hz display once you have the GPU upgraded.


Long Answer:
If you don't plan to, don't have the budget for, or don't want to upgrade to a new platform like AM5 for a Ryzen 7000/9000 series CPU, you should first upgrade the CPU before a faster GPU. I would also check the model of your PSU, because 1000 watt seems odd for such a low power system and could mean it's a very old model or that it wasn't very good to begin with and may need to be swapped.


So for the first upgrade, I would get a 5700x at minimum and a 5700x3d if the budget permits it, as well as either a 120mm single tower cooler (if I don't already have one) for the 5700x, or for the 5700x3d I'd get the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 series dual 120mm tower cooler. This upgrade would also possibly require a BIOS update if that hasnt been done already.

The second upgrade, I would swap to DDR4 3200, which should give about a 10+% performance uplift in addition to the CPU upgrade. You don't need super great ram with the x3D CPU, but you will still want at least a 2x8GB 3200 CL18. 2x16GB for 32GB would be better for newer games.

The third upgrade, I would get an RX 9060 XT 16GB and a new PSU if needed.

The fourth upgrade I would do after or at the same time as the GPU, would be to get an 1080p 144+Hz or 1440p 144+hz display.

Some newer games perform really poorly on older CPUs, and it's mainly because the games are poorly optimizated, and that can really only be brute forced fixed with a faster CPU on a new platform. Monster Hunter Wilds and Stalker 2 are two games that perform really awful on lower end or older system.

 

[bruno16757]

Short answer:
Wait for the RX 9060 XT to release, but first upgrade your CPU to a Ryzen 7 5700x or 5700x3d, upgrade ram to 2x16GB DDR4 3200 or 3600, and consider a 1080p or 1440p 144Hz display once you have the GPU upgraded.


Long Answer:
If you don't plan to, don't have the budget for, or don't want to upgrade to a new platform like AM5 for a Ryzen 7000/9000 series CPU, you should first upgrade the CPU before a faster GPU. I would also check the model of your PSU, because 1000 watt seems odd for such a low power system and could mean it's a very old model or that it wasn't very good to begin with and may need to be swapped.


So for the first upgrade, I would get a 5700x at minimum and a 5700x3d if the budget permits it, as well as either a 120mm single tower cooler (if I don't already have one) for the 5700x, or for the 5700x3d I'd get the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 series dual 120mm tower cooler. This upgrade would also possibly require a BIOS update if that hasnt been done already.

The second upgrade, I would swap to DDR4 3200, which should give about a 10+% performance uplift in addition to the CPU upgrade. You don't need super great ram with the x3D CPU, but you will still want at least a 2x8GB 3200 CL18. 2x16GB for 32GB would be better for newer games.

The third upgrade, I would get an RX 9060 XT 16GB and a new PSU if needed.

The fourth upgrade I would do after or at the same time as the GPU, would be to get an 1080p 144+Hz or 1440p 144+hz display.

Some newer games perform really poorly on older CPUs, and it's mainly because the games are poorly optimizated, and that can really only be brute forced fixed with a faster CPU on a new platform. Monster Hunter Wilds and Stalker 2 are two games that perform really awful on lower end or older system.

thanks for the reply.
also my PSU is very new, its this MSI MAG A1000GL PCIE 5 Gaming Power Supply - Full Modular - 80 Plus Gold Certified 1000W - Compact Size - ATX PSU

going to get 5700x and 3600mhz 32gb ram
and wait until the rx 9060 xt comes out.
and for the monitor i will wait until i have the graphics card

 

[Third-Eye]

thanks for the reply.
also my PSU is very new, its this MSI MAG A1000GL PCIE 5 Gaming Power Supply - Full Modular - 80 Plus Gold Certified 1000W - Compact Size - ATX PSU

going to get 5700x and 3600mhz 32gb ram
and wait until the rx 9060 xt comes out.
and for the monitor i will wait until i have the graphics card

That 1000 watt PSU is overkill for your system even with the upgrades, but at least you are set for even better upgrades in the future. You could run up to a 9800x3d and RTX 5080 or RX 9070 XT without any power issues.