Not sure if this is the right section, but...

[SilentGameTestR]

What would be considered a good price for an rtx 2060 6gb or 8gb super nowadays given the age and stuff?

Stepped away from pcs and that for awhile, so i never did get a graphics card i was after when i last made a post, but ive got a lot of time off at the moment and want to start looking at my computer again. I no longer have a gpu, so i urgently need one to be able to use it.

Think i mentioned my computer runs an i5 12400F and while i just want to use it for general and light editing, i do want to start playing some games again, more specifically i want to finally try Doom TDA even on a 6gb card i know runs it, just low settings.

I no longer have the budget i did last time, but can afford up to the cheapest new 3050 6gb which is like £150-160, but im going used for better options. I dont know what games use RT, never noticed on my Series S, so i dont care for it other than to try Doom.

It was either an RTX card or pay less and try out a 1660ti and put Doom off for awhile longer.

 

[Tetras]

From sold prices on the popular place, it looks like a 2060 6GB is around £100 and the 8GB Super: £130.

A 6600 XT or 3060 12GB are around £150.

I'd definitely avoid the 3050 6GB.

Judging by the benchmarks here (scroll down half way for Doom), you don't need a super powerful card to use RTX in Doom Eternal, though I don't know if Doom TDA is the same in that respect:

AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review - Great for 1080p Gaming

AMD's Radeon RX 6600 is an excellent choice for 1080p Full HD gaming. As our review shows, the red team's latest release has enough power to achieve 60 FPS at maximum details, yet doesn't require much power to do so. It's actually the most energy-efficient graphics card we ever tested, which...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[tamzzy]

3050 6gb which is like £150-160

don't get the 3050 6gb...this is NOT a 3050 with less VRAM, it's a really really bad card

i don't know how long you've been away from computer parts, but to put it into perspective from the GTX 10-series
- the 3050 8GB is the equivalent of the 1070
- the 3050 6GB sits lower than the 1060 3GB!

for comparison, the 2060 is the equivalent of the 1080

 

[TrojanWhore]

Would have thought a 1080ti could still be a good shout, they can be had in that price range, although the are getting a bit long in the tooth (and draw more power).

Judging by the benchmarks here (scroll down half way for Doom), you don't need a super powerful card to use RTX in Doom Eternal, though I don't know if Doom TDA is the same in that respect:

Doom 2016 and Eternal were incredibly well optimised for their time and how good they looked (at least on a surface level)
From what I understand, TDA is a bit of a different beast (although still not awful in the scheme of modern games)

DOOM: The Dark Ages Performance Benchmark Review - 40 GPUs Tested

DOOM: The Dark Ages is coming soon, offering an amazing first-person shooter experience with fantastic graphics. The game introduces the brand-new id Tech 8 engine, which improves support for ray-tracing. In our performance review, we examine its graphical fidelity, VRAM usage, and how well it...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Gray2233]

Would have thought a 1080ti could still be a good shout, they can be had in that price range, although the are getting a bit long in the tooth (and draw more power).

The 1080ti doesn't have RT hardware, I believe that's a hard requirement for The Dark Ages?

The Intel B580 can be had for around £200 or less and should net 60fps + with some settings dialled back if going new, if he's on a 12400F he should have REBAR support.

 

[TrojanWhore]

The 1080ti doesn't have RT hardware, I believe that's a hard requirement for The Dark Ages?

The Intel B580 can be had for around £200 or less and should net 60fps + with some settings dialled back if going new, if he's on a 12400F he should have REBAR support.

You're right, it does require it. I'd overlooked that... B580 would be a great fit, at least for modern games (not sure if they've fully fixed the issues ARC had with older titles).
Even outside of that requirement, it's probably pretty much as fast anyway for less power, so a much better option!

And I kinda like that cooler:

Intel ARC B580 12GB PCI-Express GDDR6 Limited Edition Graphics Card

Order Intel ARC B580 12GB PCI-Express GDDR6 Limited Edition Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

 

[tamzzy]

i think you guys are forgetting that OP only has a budget of up to £160

 

[TrojanWhore]

i think you guys are forgetting that OP only has a budget of up to £160

True, if they can stretch a tenner though, B570 is (I think) probably as good or better shout than a 3060

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sparkle-intel-arc-b570-guardian-oc-10gb-gddr6-graphics-card-gra-spk-03924.html

 

[Gray2233]

True, if they can stretch a tenner though, B570 is (I think) probably as good or better shout than a 3060

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sparkle-intel-arc-b570-guardian-oc-10gb-gddr6-graphics-card-gra-spk-03924.html

If the OP can't stretch I think that's probably the best he's going to do, even second hand prices for RT capable cards that would run the game decently are quite high from looking around.

 

[tamzzy]

the b570 definitely trades blows with the 3060 12gb
though depending on what "editing" OP may mean that he needs/wants CUDA and the nvidia ecosystem
(not the 3060 8gb - the 8gb version is ~20% slower - i hate how nvidia pulls this shizzle to confuse unsuspecting customers)

 

[Joxeon]

but can afford up to the cheapest new 3050 6gb which is like £150-160

Forget about that card, its about as fast as a gtx 1060.

 

[SilentGameTestR]

Thanks for replies. Haven't had chance to get back on.

Step away from computers as in, I was getting fed up of it for a couple months or so and had other things going on. Ive slowly kept upto dat as such, but ive been playing console more.

My budget restraints are because of being out of work for an operation and my flex 5 4700u laptop has generated a lot of issues, so I need a cheap replacement, and so for now I am looking at the upto 160 used budget option. If it wasnt for my laptop id have gotten an RX 7600 8gb which ive seen on sale new for 200. However like past posts, under 200 and used cards are stop gaps for game recordings I want to get back into doing.

I will eventually get a gtx 1080 even if it is on its final game ready driver support and a gtx 1660/ti or super etx. Id buy, record then sell towards the next.

As for Doom TDA, its annoying that it requires RT, but I want the cheapest RT supported card to try it out and compare it to my Series S. I have never completed a Doom game, so I dont know much about eternal other than a few levels I played.

While all these card options are good choices and will be used for testing various games, they will be paired with an i5 12400f which i havent had much use of yet, but also regretting not getting a cpu with integrated graphics, so I might change it. So I guess they need to not bottleneck or be bottlenecked, atleast not drastically.

Edit: I forgot to mention. I still use Filmora for my video editing which isnt exactly demanding nor do I know if cudas etc matter for. I use basic apps for sound effects, music experimenting and other creativity. Ive been debating whether to put my brief notes from a month of a gaming development course back into practice with the unreal/unity software.

 

[SilentGameTestR]

What makes the RTX 3050 a bad choice be it 6gb version or 8gb for Doom TDA?

Reason i ask is, since my last reply i purchased a gtx 980 as it was one of the cards i wanted to finally try, and also test what its capable of nowadays too, but ive also purchased an Aspire 15 laptop with the Ryzen 7 8840HS which is a model with dual channel 16gb ram and while i didnt buy it with intentions of playing games although the 780M is miles better than vega 7, i did just fire up TDA and while the vram is automatically set between 6.6gb and 6.9gb with either low or medium settings, for a game that was displaying 18fps upwards of 25fps or within 20-30. i found it very playable.

Without going on my xbox, i cant remember if TDA is as fast paced like the others, but with the 780M is does seem a little slower and so if i can play the game with those graphics, then a 3050 with better RT performance and dedicated vram should be a good budget buy to experience that game more properly surely? One regret of selling an RTX 3060 laptop before was i never got to use the RT for a game that needed it.

 

[Tetras]

What makes the RTX 3050 a bad choice be it 6gb version or 8gb for Doom TDA?

They're just really slow cards (even when they were released) and bad value for the money. The 6GB version is useful if you're stuck without a power connector and need a board powered card.

but with the 780M is does seem a little slower and so if i can play the game with those graphics, then a 3050 with better RT performance and dedicated vram should be a good budget buy to experience that game more properly surely?

Difficult to compare a desktop card with a 780M, especially when factoring in one game and ray tracing, but TPU's database puts them roughly at equal performance. From what I'm aware of with integrated graphics, they vary in performance hugely depending on the game and the driver optimisations, way more than what desktop cards do.

 

[SilentGameTestR]

They're just really slow cards (even when they were released) and bad value for the money. The 6GB version is useful if you're stuck without a power connector and need a board powered card.


Difficult to compare a desktop card with a 780M, especially when factoring in one game and ray tracing, but TPU's database puts them roughly at equal performance. From what I'm aware of with integrated graphics, they vary in performance hugely depending on the game and the driver optimisations, way more than what desktop cards do.

Thats fair enough. They are just entry level cards really i suppose. I wouldnt buy a new 3050, unless the savings werent that great over a used one.

Yeah i know, even the dedicated gpus in laptops arent really comparable as they are just weaker versions of the desktops with limited power options. I was just surprised it did a decent job considering its RT is weak. Good job this laptop has 16gb ram to aid it as i cant imagine 8gb. I didnt look too deeply into the Ryzen 7 other than to compare it to my old 4700u and the 8640hs. wanted to make sure i got my monies worth, so im unsure what the max vram the 780M can support as im thinking, this laptop has upgradeable ram, so at some point down the line i could upgrade it to 32gb or whatever it supports and maybe it can use more than the 6.9gb limit the game currently gives me

 

[Tetras]

I was just surprised it did a decent job considering its RT is weak.

RDNA3's ray tracing isn't that bad actually, admittedly they didn't crack it until RDNA4, but it is passable/usable.

For the Doom games specifically, they seem to have used it very well (or the usage is just.., light?) and even with ray tracing enabled the 6600 (RDNA2's ray tracing is bad) does well and beats the 3050 8GB and 2060, though it does have a ~25% starting advantage in raster versus the 3050 8GB.

Good job this laptop has 16gb ram to aid it as i cant imagine 8gb. I didnt look too deeply into the Ryzen 7 other than to compare it to my old 4700u and the 8640hs. wanted to make sure i got my monies worth, so im unsure what the max vram the 780M can support as im thinking, this laptop has upgradeable ram, so at some point down the line i could upgrade it to 32gb or whatever it supports and maybe it can use more than the 6.9gb limit the game currently gives me

From the performance reviews for Doom on TPU, I don't think that VRAM capacity is an issue (except for it consuming RAM, that is).

Not sure what the max allocation is, maybe depends on the laptop. A google suggests 4GB is a common limit in the BIOS, but 8GB exists. I can't imagine a 780M would be able to use much more than 8GB and still give you playable FPS.

 

[SilentGameTestR]

RDNA3's ray tracing isn't that bad actually, admittedly they didn't crack it until RDNA4, but it is passable/usable.

For the Doom games specifically, they seem to have used it very well (or the usage is just.., light?) and even with ray tracing enabled the 6600 (RDNA2's ray tracing is bad) does well and beats the 3050 8GB and 2060, though it does have a ~25% starting advantage in raster versus the 3050 8GB.


From the performance reviews for Doom on TPU, I don't think that VRAM capacity is an issue (except for it consuming RAM, that is).

Not sure what the max allocation is, maybe depends on the laptop. A google suggests 4GB is a common limit in the BIOS, but 8GB exists. I can't imagine a 780M would be able to use much more than 8GB and still give you playable FPS.

I dont know what uses RT to be fair, so when i had the 3060 laptop, i wont have even known if it was being used as i usually just leave settings as they are if i dont know what im doing or rather, what they mean. Xbox id imagine is automatic. I think Doom games are just generally well optimised. its the impression i get, although eternal wasnt as forgiving on weaker systems from my experiences.

I had a quick look at my bios and while its a nice looking bios, i couldnt see and option for allocated vram. Task manager says it has 512mb dedicated memory, but also says gpu memory 8.2gb, shared gpu memory 7.7gb. Like most ryzen apus ive had, i assume its automatic allocation given the lack of option in the bios. I will double check. I agree, the 780M probably cant use more than 8gb vram, i am just curious whether the 6.9gb limit the game shows is because of my current configuration or the limit even if i had 64gb ram installed.

This is my first pc experience with the game, so i dont know much about it from a hardware point. with the xbox, its just automatic.