Graphics card upgrade advice

Ranger07 · Tuesday at 14:16

Hi Folks

My son wants to upgrade his OCUK built gaming PC with a faster graphics card. He has around £1k to spend.

The specs are-
OcUK Tech Labs AMD Ryzen Midi Tower Gaming PC
Kolink Modular Power 700W 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply
Kolink Void RGB Midi Tower Case
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor
Palit GeForce GTX 1660 StormX 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Kingston A400 240GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 64MB Cache Hard Drive
Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm
ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz

I know the new Nvidia cards are just around the corner so we will wait for that.

Presumably the 4080 will drop in price when the new cards are available ?
We would consider the 5080 if in the ballpark price wise.

Would the PSU need upgraded from 700w ?
Is the motherboard and processor still good enough ? I really don't want to go down the road of changing these as well if it can be helped.

JediFragger · Tuesday at 14:19

Ranger07 said:
I know the new Nvidia cards are just around the corner so we will wait for that.

Agreed, no one can really advise you effectively until the new cards have launched tbh. You'll def need to update the cpu/ram/psu though imo.

Bidley · Tuesday at 14:20

Honestly pairing a £1k GPU with a 3600 in 2025 would be a mistake, even at 4k (unless the 5060 costs £1k, which I'm not sure even Jensen would allow).

JediFragger · Tuesday at 14:23

You could always stick to the lower end like a 5060/Ti so you'll get less of a bottleneck and more life out of the system without having to change a load of stuff. Not out til at least March though, poss later.

Guessing he plays at 1080p?

Gray2233 · Tuesday at 14:28

You can pick up a 5700X3D for around the £130 mark, I'd bump up to 32gb of RAM and a 1tb + SSD while you're at it too.

You'd still have a good £800 + to spend on a GPU.

I wouldn't have much faith in that PSU either tbh, but it should be fine for a current/upcoming gen mid range card.

JediFragger · Tuesday at 14:37

^^Yeah, and 800 might just be enough to get a 5070Ti. no one is sure yet.

Ranger07 · Tuesday at 15:26

JediFragger said:
^^Yeah, and 800 might just be enough to get a 5070Ti. no one is sure yet.

Gray2233 said:
You can pick up a 5700X3D for around the £130 mark, I'd bump up to 32gb of RAM and a 1tb + SSD while you're at it too.

You'd still have a good £800 + to spend on a GPU.

I wouldn't have much faith in that PSU either tbh, but it should be fine for a current/upcoming gen mid range card.

This sounds like a good option, thanks guys!

With my lack of knowledge I would have just let him get a £1k card which sounds like a mistake so glad I asked here first.

Brutal biff · Tuesday at 15:27

Does it have to be an nvidia can get a 7800xt for less than 500 plus plenty of money left over for a 5700x3d and 32gig of ram and a new power supply maybe even enough change for a 2tb nvme be a nice upgrade

Rob_B · Tuesday at 15:34

Pretty much as above, wait for the new cards to be released as they're so close. Then update your BIOS (if needed), chuck in a 5700X3D and a new PSU and spend the rest on the GPU.

For context, my 5700X3D is GPU bottlenecked in CP2077/Horizon:FW @ 1440p high/ultra settings with a 7800XT so you'd hope with ~£700 to spend you will get an even faster card.

harmattan · Wednesday at 13:39

Second on going for a 5700x3d if you can spend a bit more.

The new midrange graphics cards realistically in your budget (Radeon 9060, RTX 5060) won't be out until late Feb-March, but I'd still wait on them.

The rest of the build looks reasonabl, but would spend an extra ~£40 on 32GB memory.

kute · Wednesday at 13:41

I'm not so sure they will really drop in price. All logic is out the window with GPUS for some reason. I think the 5080 will just cost like 30% more.

Ranger07 · Thursday at 09:26

Edit- Found the kit using a configurator

Ranger07 · Thursday at 13:39

Toying with this basket, can any of you confirm this would be the best upgrade route-

1 X Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMW32GX4M2Z3600C18) - £64.99
SKU: MY-4CK-CS

1 X AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Eight Core 4.1GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £199.99
SKU: PRO-AMD-01799

1 X Asus ROG Strix 850w Platinum 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply - £179.99
SKU: POW-ASU-03790

1 X Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro+ Vapor-X 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £679.99
SKU: GX-3A6-SP

Grand Total: £1,132.96

coupe69 · Thursday at 15:58

Perhaps better advice could be given if we knew what resolution and refresh rate your son plays at. For example, a 7900XT would generally be considered overkill for 1080p 60Hz gaming.

Ranger07 · Thursday at 19:03

coupe69 said:
Perhaps better advice could be given if we knew what resolution and refresh rate your son plays at. For example, a 7900XT would generally be considered overkill for 1080p 60Hz gaming.

Looking to improve his rig as much as possible, his next upgrade will be a 4k monitor

eeii · Thursday at 19:30

Ranger07 said:
Toying with this basket, can any of you confirm this would be the best upgrade route-

1 X Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMW32GX4M2Z3600C18) - £64.99
SKU: MY-4CK-CS

1 X AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Eight Core 4.1GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £199.99
SKU: PRO-AMD-01799

1 X Asus ROG Strix 850w Platinum 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply - £179.99
SKU: POW-ASU-03790

1 X Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro+ Vapor-X 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £679.99
SKU: GX-3A6-SP

Grand Total: £1,132.96

Looks good to me.however the new graphics cards are coming out very soon……

varkanoid · Thursday at 21:11

Ranger07 said:
Looking to improve his rig as much as possible, his next upgrade will be a 4k monitor

Also it might be worth checking what BIOS version that motherboard has. It's got something like 20 updates some with stability improvements etc. Maybe required for the 5700x3D maybe not but its worth checking and looking at what the updates give you.

ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING | Motherboards | ROG Global

Best AMD AM4 B450 Ryzen ATX gaming motherboard with advanced cooling, Aura Sync, SupremeFX, dual M.2, Intel LAN, and USB 3.1 Gen 2

rog.asus.com

Ranger07 · Thursday at 21:42

varkanoid said:
Also it might be worth checking what BIOS version that motherboard has. It's got something like 20 updates some with stability improvements etc. Maybe required for the 5700x3D maybe not but its worth checking and looking at what the updates give you.

ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING | Motherboards | ROG Global

Best AMD AM4 B450 Ryzen ATX gaming motherboard with advanced cooling, Aura Sync, SupremeFX, dual M.2, Intel LAN, and USB 3.1 Gen 2

rog.asus.com

Yeah, I’m going to benchmark the system then update the bios and install the new components.

Sounds like it might be better to hold off on the graphics upgrade but I’m going to get the other items ordered and installed.

Gray2233 · Thursday at 21:58

Ranger07 said:
Toying with this basket, can any of you confirm this would be the best upgrade route-

1 X Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMW32GX4M2Z3600C18) - £64.99
SKU: MY-4CK-CS

1 X AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Eight Core 4.1GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £199.99
SKU: PRO-AMD-01799

1 X Asus ROG Strix 850w Platinum 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply - £179.99
SKU: POW-ASU-03790

1 X Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro+ Vapor-X 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £679.99
SKU: GX-3A6-SP

Grand Total: £1,132.96

Overkill on the PSU, it's a great unit but the platinum certification isn't worth it, you'll never save enough money on your electric bill over a good gold rated unit to make up the difference.

There's some excellent gold rated PSU's for under £100 that would be more than ample for a 7900XT.

Here's a few examples:

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Asus TUF Gaming 750W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-061-AS) = £79.99
1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.95
1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £89.99

Total: £262.92 (includes delivery: £7.99)

heatonpkmassive · Thursday at 23:14

Gray2233 said:
Overkill on the PSU, it's a great unit but the platinum certification isn't worth it, you'll never save enough money on your electric bill over a good gold rated unit to make up the difference.

There's some excellent gold rated PSU's for under £100 that would be more than ample for a 7900XT.

Here's a few examples:

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Asus TUF Gaming 750W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-061-AS) = £79.99

1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.95

1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £89.99

Total: £262.92 (includes delivery: £7.99)

Definitely do that ^^^