Best Graphics card for I5 2500k

Telf

Telf

Telf

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Hi all,

First post here!

I have a pretty old PC. It was fairly decent when i built it but it's now old, I'd like advice on what graphics card to stick in it. At the moment I've no intention of building a new PC as tbh I don't want to!

Anyway here are the specs:

I5 2500k @3.3 Ghz
Mother board Z68AP-D3
8 GB Ram

It currently has a GTX 1060 8GB

I used to be up on all PC hardware but I've been on a PS5 for a few years.

Any advice appreciated.

Paul.
 
I would over clock the 2500k to 4.5ghz (or more, but 4.5ghz is easily achievable)
Also stick on another 8gb ram to make 16gb
Best GPU id run on it is a 3060 12gb/2070 or 6600/6600xt/7600 without running into significant CPU bottlenecks (all of these GPUs are roughly double the performance of the 1060)
The bonus is that all these GPUs above are also relatively low power so a PSU upgrade can probably be avoided (though I caveat that you haven't told us what PSU you have)
 
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tamzzy said:
I would over clock the 2500k to 4.5ghz (or more, but 4.5ghz is easily achievable)
Also stick on another 8gb ram to make 16gb
Best GPU id run on it is a 3060 12gb/2070 or 6600/6600xt/7600 without running into significant CPU bottlenecks (all of these GPUs are roughly double the performance of the 1060)
The bonus is that all these GPUs above are also relatively low power so a PSU upgrade can probably be avoided (though I caveat that you haven't told us what PSU you have)
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thank you,

Its a corsair CX650M, the processor is water cooled I just never bothered Overclocking it. I think I intended to at the time but didnt bother in the end.
 
Telf said:
thank you,

Its a corsair CX650M, the processor is water cooled I just never bothered Overclocking it. I think I intended to at the time but didnt bother in the end.
Click to expand...
Excellent. No need to change the PSU then
And the cooler will handle the higher power draw of the overclocked 2500k.
 
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it does have an SSD, I suppose I can squeeze a bit of life out of it then think about building something new
 
yeah if you're doing it on the cheap then this would be my choice buying used examples:

RAM: Extra 2x 4GB sticks = £5-10
GPU: RX6600 (non-XT) = £100-120

you do lose between 5-15% performance on the 6600 though, because you only have PCIE 2.0 on your system
(the 6600 only has 8 PCIE lanes)

if you can't stomach that then consider getting the nvidia 2060 super or 2070 or 3060 12gb (but know that these are relatively more expensive than the 6600)
 
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Telf said:
I'd like advice on what graphics card to stick in it
Click to expand...
RX 6600 is 72% faster than a 1060 (there's no 8GB version of this card, are you sure that's what you have?!) according to TPU's GPU database and costs around £180. it also has relatively low power consumption (~130 watts) so shouldn't trouble any PSU.

RTX 4060 is 118% faster and costs around £250. The power consumption is similarly low as the 6600 (~130 watts).

RX 6750 XT is 159% faster and costs around £300. It is capable of 1080p and 1440p gaming and realistically the highest level of performance I'd be looking at for your PC.

If you're willing to upgrade your CPU, it would cope a bit better in the most demanding newer games to have 8 threads instead of 4 (e.g. 2700K, 3770K, Xeon E3-1280).
 
tamzzy said:
no idea, saw loads of posts earlier on the deals website for a lot cheaper than £180
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For one of the big deals it looks the orders are getting cancelled (listing error), the other one I think has ended, but worth keeping a look out as nothing can beat the 6600 for that price. I can only imagine they'd be temporary clearance deals until they're out, wherever they pop up.
 
Tetras said:
For one of the big deals it looks the orders are getting cancelled (listing error), the other one I think has ended, but worth keeping a look out as nothing can beat the 6600 for that price. I can only imagine they'd be temporary clearance deals until they're out, wherever they pop up.
Click to expand...
either way i'd still be recommending getting a used specimen
no need to waste good money for an ageing system
 
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