Best GPU for an i-7 3770k?
- Thread starter Zarax
- Start date
What resolution do you play at and what games do you play?
The 7970 is still reasonable at 1080P for most older/eSports style titles.
However anything modern such as a Rx5500xt or above from AMD, or an Nvidia GTX1650 super or above will offer noticeable improvements.
The 7970 is still reasonable at 1080P for most older/eSports style titles.
However anything modern such as a Rx5500xt or above from AMD, or an Nvidia GTX1650 super or above will offer noticeable improvements.
Thanks but I would like something new, let's just pretend that we can get MRSP.
Two very different questions here:
1) what is it POSSIBLE to upgrade to?
2) what is is WORTH upgrading to?
To answer #1: what is possible...
You will continue to see some benefits all the way up to some very recent GPU's - more-so with the Radeons than the top end nVidia cards as the top end nVidia cards place a very high load on the CPU and a quad core CPU won't cope.
In theory there's almost no limit on the Radeon, but anything over a 6700XT would probably still offer no noticeable gains.
On the nVidia cards I think you'd be maxed out somewhere between a RTX2060 and an RTX2070 SUPER, either smaller and smaller returns with the higher cards and much over a RTX3060Ti you may even see negative returns!
To answer #2: what is worth upgrading to?
When I looked at this for my 3770K (and HD7970!) a couple of years ago, I decided that a GTX1070 was probably the sweet spot in terms of value, although a GTX1080Ti would still offer reasonable benefits, but at a silly price premium.
I was still debating what to go for when the GTX1660SUPER came out, it seemed to offer a slightly better sweet spot with all the latest features + GDDR6 and a great price (£220).
1) what is it POSSIBLE to upgrade to?
2) what is is WORTH upgrading to?
To answer #1: what is possible...
You will continue to see some benefits all the way up to some very recent GPU's - more-so with the Radeons than the top end nVidia cards as the top end nVidia cards place a very high load on the CPU and a quad core CPU won't cope.
In theory there's almost no limit on the Radeon, but anything over a 6700XT would probably still offer no noticeable gains.
On the nVidia cards I think you'd be maxed out somewhere between a RTX2060 and an RTX2070 SUPER, either smaller and smaller returns with the higher cards and much over a RTX3060Ti you may even see negative returns!
To answer #2: what is worth upgrading to?
When I looked at this for my 3770K (and HD7970!) a couple of years ago, I decided that a GTX1070 was probably the sweet spot in terms of value, although a GTX1080Ti would still offer reasonable benefits, but at a silly price premium.
I was still debating what to go for when the GTX1660SUPER came out, it seemed to offer a slightly better sweet spot with all the latest features + GDDR6 and a great price (£220).
New. Oh right, that is much tougher because the way prices have panned out but a 1660 super
Thanks, this is pretty much what I was thinking. 2 years ago I picked an RX590 for my own identical build and so far I'm pretty happy with it, I was considering either a RTX 3060 or a RX 5700XT.
You mentioned Horizon Zero Dawn, but now what res or FPS/refresh rate you were aiming for, just max settings.... I assume 1080P? 60FPS min?
Hardware Unboxed did some good reviews on older CPU's and some of the newer GPU's - there was obviously some drop off regardless of GPU, but some of the RTX cards had REALLY pronounced reduction to the point that the new flagships were behind even previous gen mid-range cards (in a handful of examples).
For the purposes of comparison, a 3770K will be at least a few percent lower than a Ryzen 5 1600X (which I think is used in most of the reviews)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G03fzsYUNDU&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLEIJhunaW8
I think you're probably pitching it about right with a RTX3060 although I'd be tempted by a 3060Ti as a max on the RTX side... but honestly, I think that's probably over-spending on a 3rd gen i7.
The appropriate shopping list should be a GTX1060 6Gb (£200-ish), GTX 1070 8Gb (£300-ish) - note NOT the GTX 1060 3Gb (very different card!!).
I think you'd be slightly overspending anything above those, e.g. a RX 5600XT (for ~£400), but if you're spending as much as that, then might as well get something for the "next PC" and as you suggested, go for a RTX3060 for around £500... RX 5700 XT's are decent cards, but you're competing with miners still and £600 for one of those is just silly, even with an old CPU you'll probably be better off with the RTX3060.
Above that you could double your spend for only marginal increases in performance and your 1% lows (stuttering) will probably still be pretty noticeable.
Please appreciate that patching such an old CPU with a modern GPU is a bit of a journey into the unknown, other than those Hardware Unboxed reviews... I've still got my 3770K, but it's running in my son's "xbox replacement".... with a GTX1050Ti (>60fps on Fortnite on a 60Hz TV) and the only other stuff he plays is Roblox + Minecraft, so we're not asking too much of it!
Hardware Unboxed did some good reviews on older CPU's and some of the newer GPU's - there was obviously some drop off regardless of GPU, but some of the RTX cards had REALLY pronounced reduction to the point that the new flagships were behind even previous gen mid-range cards (in a handful of examples).
For the purposes of comparison, a 3770K will be at least a few percent lower than a Ryzen 5 1600X (which I think is used in most of the reviews)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G03fzsYUNDU&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLEIJhunaW8
I think you're probably pitching it about right with a RTX3060 although I'd be tempted by a 3060Ti as a max on the RTX side... but honestly, I think that's probably over-spending on a 3rd gen i7.
The appropriate shopping list should be a GTX1060 6Gb (£200-ish), GTX 1070 8Gb (£300-ish) - note NOT the GTX 1060 3Gb (very different card!!).
I think you'd be slightly overspending anything above those, e.g. a RX 5600XT (for ~£400), but if you're spending as much as that, then might as well get something for the "next PC" and as you suggested, go for a RTX3060 for around £500... RX 5700 XT's are decent cards, but you're competing with miners still and £600 for one of those is just silly, even with an old CPU you'll probably be better off with the RTX3060.
Above that you could double your spend for only marginal increases in performance and your 1% lows (stuttering) will probably still be pretty noticeable.
Please appreciate that patching such an old CPU with a modern GPU is a bit of a journey into the unknown, other than those Hardware Unboxed reviews... I've still got my 3770K, but it's running in my son's "xbox replacement".... with a GTX1050Ti (>60fps on Fortnite on a 60Hz TV) and the only other stuff he plays is Roblox + Minecraft, so we're not asking too much of it!
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It isn't a "might be"... running a RX6600XT in an older system leaves it "completely gimped"... in some instances it will give up 20% or more in performance.... possibly even higher than that if you were to try using Resizable BAR ("Smart Access Memory"), although I doubt that is worth the effort on a 6600XT given it has half the memory bandwidth and a quarter of the "infinity" cache...
6600XT isn't terrible: it's a decently efficient card and once the price drops at least 60%, it will be a worthy successor to the GTX1050Ti as a compact card that is capable of a bit of light gaming in the next generation of HTPC's... until then, it's just eye-wateringly expensive for what it is. Even worse value than the top-end flagships and at least the higher-end Radeons use PCI3 16x!
What is the budget?
Well, this is a very good upgrade - going from HD 7970 to 6600 XT will net 2.5 times the performance.
You will also lower the GPU power consumption from the hot, loud and hungry HD 7970 250 watts to something more modest like 160 watts on the new 6600 XT.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Well, this is a very good upgrade - going from HD 7970 to 6600 XT will net 2.5 times the performance.
You will also lower the GPU power consumption from the hot, loud and hungry HD 7970 250 watts to something more modest like 160 watts on the new 6600 XT.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £384.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)
The video shows AMD graphics cards offer much better performance with lower end systems which is very interesting. The RX 6600XT might be just the ticket when paired with an Intel i5 or i7 as you can actually buy one and it will out perform higher tier Nvidia parts.
It’s a shame the graphics card market is still in taters.
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No but their parent company caseking.de should have you covered
Ouch, I thought we had it bad in the UK.
The market is yet to understand that AMD Radeon is the premium quality brand and products, while NVidia GeForce is the lower quality mainstream offering.