Fastest GPU For i5 7600

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:15

Hey Guys
What is the fastest nvidia RTX 20 Series GPU for use with an i5 7600? I need to avoid wasting money by getting something that will just be bottlenecked by the CPU. Any advice appreciated.
Snaily

StarShock · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:24

It depends on the game and resolution you want to play at, in less CPU bound games or at higher resolutions you wouldn't be losing much performance with any card. But I would say that for the most part, if you're determined to go for the 20 series, I'd stick to the lower end ones, 2060 or 2060 super as you'd likely be limited by having only 4 threads in a lot of games and throwing extra GPU power at it won't do much.

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:31

Thanks Starshock. Appreciate it.

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:34

StarShock said:
It depends on the game and resolution you want to play at, in less CPU bound games or at higher resolutions you wouldn't be losing much performance with any card. But I would say that for the most part, if you're determined to go for the 20 series, I'd stick to the lower end ones, 2060 or 2060 super as you'd likely be limited by having only 4 threads in a lot of games and throwing extra GPU power at it won't do much.

I'll be playing a whole range of games from multiple genres. Most likely Gears 5 and Cyberpunk 2077 will feature prominently. I like to play at resolutions as high as possible. Maybe even up to 4K with graphics settings lowered.

NovaKill4 · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:11

What monitor do you have? and are you plaiing on upgrading it?

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:19

NovaKill4 said:
What monitor do you have? and are you plaiing on upgrading it?

Hi.
I have a couple. (Being used separately on different PC's)
LG 27UD58 27" 3840x2160 IPS 4K FREESYNC Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
and
Philips BDM4065UC 40" 4K 60Hz Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
No plans to upgrade at present.
The LG is freesync so not suited to nvidia cards?

NovaKill4 · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:51

SnailyTime said:
LG 27UD58 27" 3840x2160 IPS 4K FREESYNC Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Black

SnailyTime said:
The LG is freesync so not suited to nvidia cards?

You could get an AMD card, i think the rx 5700xt is between the 2070 super and 2080 super in performance but cheaper than both.
At that level you should be able to play 4k at 60hz with most settings cranked up and when the framerate does dip below 60fps then freesync will smooth everything out.

4K8KW10 · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:54

NovaKill4 said:
You could get an AMD card, i think the rx 5700xt is between the 2070 super and 2080 super in performance but cheaper than both.
At that level you should be able to play 4k at 60hz with most settings cranked up and when the framerate does dip below 60fps then freesync will smooth everything out.

No, RX 5700 XT is around RTX 2070 performance, or between RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 Super is leaps and bounds ahead.

Stephanie Peterson · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:58

Yeah the 5700xt is a few % behind the 2070 super, and a much better choice of card for this chaps build if he has a freesync monitor.
Although it will be bottlenecked somewhat by the cpu so maybe the 5700 non XT would be best.

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 16:54

Great. Thanks for your input guys. So would an RX Vega 7 be pointless with my CPU? Also I hear the console bods talk about "Ray tracing" when discussing their next gen machines. Ray Tracing is also mentioned on the product pages on the nvidia cards but no mention on the AMD cards product pages. What is "Ray Tracing"? And do I need it?

StarShock · 14 Aug 2019 at 17:19

SnailyTime said:
What is "Ray Tracing"? And do I need it?

ray tracing is a very clever piece of tech that makes the lighting and reflections in a game look and act much more realistically and its the 20 series big selling point. Unfortunately there are only a handful of games that have implemented it and there is a huge hit to performance making it largely pointless at this stage. Maybe in couple card generations, but right now it feels like a bit of a waste.

As for the consoles I'll believe it when I see it, I saw a thing talking about how the PS5 will have ray traced sound... great so that's just fancy surround sound then.

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 17:39

StarShock said:
ray tracing is a very clever piece of tech that makes the lighting and reflections in a game look and act much more realistically and its the 20 series big selling point. Unfortunately there are only a handful of games that have implemented it and there is a huge hit to performance making it largely pointless at this stage. Maybe in couple card generations, but right now it feels like a bit of a waste.

As for the consoles I'll believe it when I see it, I saw a thing talking about how the PS5 will have ray traced sound... great so that's just fancy surround sound then.

Got it! Thanks Starshock. So how about an RX Vega 7 with my i5 7600? Would it be worthwhile at least some of the time?

StarShock · 14 Aug 2019 at 17:49

On a 4k monitor yeah you'll be gpu limited way more often than not. That being said I'm not a huge fan of the vega 7, even with the recent price drop a 5700xt offers better bang for your buck.

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 18:02

Ok great. Appreciate your help thanks

Stephanie Peterson · 14 Aug 2019 at 18:12

SnailyTime said:
What is "Ray Tracing"?

A complete waste of time and money at the moment.

I would get the 5700xt over the big vega, yes V7 is a big boy but i think navi will eventually show a clean pair of heels to the old GCN architecture. Plus it seems that the 5700xt has some good overclocking in the tank.

Your going to be cpu limited regardless, but the 5700 will be a good card for your next build (which will prob be an AMD cpu anyway)

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 19:57

Stephanie Peterson said:
A complete waste of time and money at the moment.

I would get the 5700xt over the big vega, yes V7 is a big boy but i think navi will eventually show a clean pair of heels to the old GCN architecture. Plus it seems that the 5700xt has some good overclocking in the tank.

Your going to be cpu limited regardless, but the 5700 will be a good card for your next build (which will prob be an AMD cpu anyway)

Thanks Stephanie. Difficult to make my mind up to be honest. I notice the V7 has 16gb onboard memory also. Would that be of any use to me do you think? Also OCUK seem to be out of stock of most of the 5700XT cards atm.

StarShock · 14 Aug 2019 at 20:40

SnailyTime said:
I notice the V7 has 16gb onboard memory also. Would that be of any use to me do you think?

Nope. Unless you plan on doing some complex scientific simulations or trans coding 16k raw footage

the vega 7 is a repurposed data centre card. Pretty sure they only sold them because the navi cards were delayed and they needed to release something. They are in fact officially discontinued but the stock hasn't all sold yet.

SnailyTime · 14 Aug 2019 at 21:10

Got ya. Thanks for all your help guys. 5700XT here I come!