Upgrade graphics card or go with ps5?

[decto]

Many thanks, mate. He has actually asked about selling his cpu and gpus to put towards new hardware. I did think the current cpu might be a bottleneck.

My sons PC has a R5 2600 and I just dropped a 3060Ti in it. Technically a bottleneck if you are chasing super high FPS but not an issue at higher resolution with visual settings turned up as you'd want to play.

In Cyberpunk, with DLSS quality (upscaling) I get low 50's FPS @1440p with RT Ultra settings. I'd hardly consider that unplayable.

If I drop to high without RT but still with DLSS, more like 70 FPS. Lots of settings to play with in between, but these type of story games don't need 144Hz.

To consoles use upscaling to maintain frame rates and DLSS is a better version in supported games.

There was a CP2077 bug where 4 or 6 core CPUs weren't fully utilised but that is patched and it was still playable before that.

1700X will be fine, he could overclock on that board if needed. Upgrade the CPU and faster memory for a birthday in 6 months if he wants a bit more performance.

Reasons to get a PS5, he has a good number of friends with one and wants to play with them. Plug and play convenience.

 

[Woodsta888]

Nope.

3070 does (mostly) but not 3060ti

Well, lets read what professional reviewers say. If you need a hand reading bar charts just gimme a shout.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/kfa2_geforce_rtx_3060_ti_ex_review,32.html

Quote from PRO review.

This card can still run games at 4K but not with raytracing for sure; it will serve you well at WQHD and Full HD. The easy comparative product would be RTX 2080 SUPER and often even close to that RTX 2080 Ti. And that's not a bad spot to be game performance-wise.

 

[greatash]

My sons PC has a R5 2600 and I just dropped a 3060Ti in it. Technically a bottleneck if you are chasing super high FPS but not an issue at higher resolution with visual settings turned up as you'd want to play.

In Cyberpunk, with DLSS quality (upscaling) I get low 50's FPS @1440p with RT Ultra settings. I'd hardly consider that unplayable.

Is this in the open world driving/ in crowds though or at the start of the game where nothing is happening?

2600 was fine at the start and then when I hit the open world it had major stutters down into the 30s especially when driving and turning the camera around. Slightly better with the hex edit but still bad.

3700x can just about do above 50s while driving/in the CPU heavy areas..

 

[decto]

Is this in the open world driving/ in crowds though or at the start of the game where nothing is happening?

2600 was fine at the start and then when I hit the open world it had major stutters down into the 30s especially when driving and turning the camera around. Slightly better with the hex edit but still bad.

3700x can just about do above 50s while driving/in the CPU heavy areas..

I'm around 35 hours in, though mostly played on my PC which is 3700X with Vega 64. With high settings and a couple of things turned off (motion blur, film grain etc.) I get 55-70fps @ 1440p with Fidelity FX 80%

Just had another run on the R5 2600 / 3060 Ti for comparison.

Driving at speed in busy areas with RT Ultra default, I can get the FPS to dip to 45 but it's mostly high 40's to low 50's. If I get out and walk,run in the same area it's low to mid 50's at 1440p DLSS Auto
Dropping down to 1080p high DLSS Balanced I get 50-55fps driving around, 55-65fps walking about.

R5 2600 at default clocks.
ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 (Cheapest B450 I could get at the time)
2 x 8GB 3200 C14 (8pack B-die)
Zotac 3060Ti (base)

I'd agree there is some CPU bottleneck in this specific game but it's still plays just fine on my R5 2600.
The 1700X is only around 5% behind the 2600 in IPC and frequency, though a mild all core OC on the 1700X would fix that.

If it is laggy then the crowd settings can be turned down, though all the above is with defaults.

Edit: Added DLSS

 

[Timber]

This is starting to be less and less the case unfortunately

Absolutely. It used to be the case that PC games were much cheaper, but in the current Live Service/Multiplatform era there is little difference in price. Indeed as consoles move towards all-digital ownership there is even more synchronicity (i.e. no physical or secondhand console games). I've just been looking at the top-selling games on Steam of 2020 (by revenue) and there is little difference in price between the platforms. Indeed sometimes even the PC version is more expensive (RDR 2 normal or Ultimate or Monster Hunter World). The sales/promotions have matured on console digital storefronts too so often the discounted prices are very similar (again Steam sales used to be great). Even MTX are often very similar in price (i.e. TESO Crowns same price).

The bigger difference is the library and what's available (i.e. generally more on PC).

I think the PC has lots of advantages particularly around free multiplayer and the size of the library but price of games isn't one.

If you are willing to use a VPN

But the same is true of Live and PSN?

Personally I don't think there is a bad choice as there are very good reasons to own either. Obviously if you're already a PC gamer then there are probably better reasons to upgrade the GPU.

 

[heartburnron]

This is starting to be less and less the case unfortunately

I'm frequently seeing so called sales on pc, like the current steam winter sale offering games at console prices - I no longer see the large 70% discounts on AAA games

sometimes it's even worse, I bought Ac Valhalla and watch dogs legion from epic yesterday cause it's on sale at 30% discount and a few hours later I saw they're on 50% discount on psn for the ps5, so that annoyed me

Yes I agree that the big PC game sellers like Epic, Steam, Origin, etc can be as expensive as console games but there still bargains to be had if you shop around some of the smaller shops or wait for a few months after the games release date. If you want brand new games and are willing to take the chance of pre-ordering then CDKeys is the place to go. The earlier you pre-order the better the price usually. Here are some examples of prices I have got new AAA titles from there for:

Cyberpunk 2077 - £35.99
Horizon Zero Dawn - £35.99
Red Dead Redemption 2 - £34.99
Doom Eternal - £32.99

These were all between £40 and £50 on release date or to pre-order on other sites at the time. CD Keys are almost always the cheapest and their customer service is brilliant - highly recommended.

Edit: Another example - Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga can be pre-ordered form CD Keys right now for £23.99. It's £40 - 50 to pre-order for consoles...

 

[decto]

Yes I agree that the big PC game sellers like Epic, Steam, Origin, etc can be as expensive as console games but there still bargains to be had if you shop around some of the smaller shops or wait for a few months after the games release date. If you want brand new games and are willing to take the chance of pre-ordering then CDKeys is the place to go. The earlier you pre-order the better the price usually. Here are some examples of prices I have got new AAA titles from there for:

Cyberpunk 2077 - £35.99
Horizon Zero Dawn - £35.99
Red Dead Redemption 2 - £34.99
Doom Eternal - £32.99

These were all between £40 and £50 on release date or to pre-order on other sites at the time. CD Keys are almost always the cheapest and their customer service is brilliant - highly recommended.

Doom Eternal was £12-15 a couple of weeks back. I paid just over £20 for the version with all the dlc etc.

 

[varkanoid]

So my son has some Christmas money burning a hole in his pocket. £400 collected from birthday and Xmas.

His current pc is -
Aorus x470 ultra
Ryzen 7 1700x
16gb ddr4 2400mhz
Psu 600 watts
2x Radeon rx560 4gb gddr5

He’s looking to upgrade his graphics card, maybe to a rtx 2060 super, or maybe a 3060ti. Would the cpu be a bottleneck on either of these graphics cards? Or, would a ps5 actually perform better for gaming? Cheers for any help.

I recently got a RTX Super 2060 for both my son's PC's. They have i5 8500 16gb RAM. They had GTX 1060 before. Both game at 1080p 75mhz. Picked them up for under £200 each. Its hard now but if you can get one 2nd hand it will be a good upgrade. My eldest (nearly 11) has got into video editing and streaming with his Youtube channel.

 

[heartburnron]

Doom Eternal was £12-15 a couple of weeks back. I paid just over £20 for the version with all the dlc etc.

Yeah, that goes to my point where if you can wait a few months past a release date, you can usually pick up all games for under £20.

 

[Nexus18]

Without a doubt the PS 5.

This video says it all, better performance and in some areas, graphics are even better.... then throw in the epic PS exclusives.

 

[gpuerrilla]

If he'll be happy with a ps5 then get one since they're cheaper and are better suited for games.

I'd only recommend pc gaming for people with specific requirements that a console can't accommodate. I game on a pc because a console simply doesn't fit my needs. They're cheaper but they can't physically do what I need.

Second this. If your son is well commited to PC gaming I would suggest he sells the 2x560's and pickup a 3070FE.