Recommend me a GPU

[OliverQueen]

Want to put a GPU in a system that putting together out of some spare bits laying around (predominantly as a Plex server but for the wife to pay some games on when she feels like it).

Main system components are a i7 8700K, Z370 Asrock Fatality board, 32GB DDR4 3200, generic OEM Samsung 512GB NVME Gen3 (along with full load out of SATA drives for Plex storage)

She will be using primarily the living room TV as a display which is a 4K 60Hz panel (not HDR) which image does look good at 1080p in games.

She will mostly be wanting to play Diablo 4 (she plays Diablo Immortal on her iPad Pro presently which I want to get her away from as costing a fortune in microtransactions!) which has a minimum GPU of a GTX660 (which I have one of those & a GTX660ti sat on my shelf).

Obviously on a bigger screen with less pixel density, she won't be happy playing at 720p low at 30fps so really want to get at least 1080p High at 60fps.

I took a jump from one of the GTX660's to a RTX2070 (no longer have that card though) so skipped everything in between as wasn't really playing games then myself & don't really know the real life performance of the card available during the time between.

Don't really want to spend out on a new RTX3060 or RX7600 (not going to consider 40 series cards) for the amount of time she will probably use the machine.

Budget is as little as possible as the main use for the machine is as a Plex server so can use the iGPU for that, but wanted to give her a reasonable experience in game.

I was thinking along the lines of a RX570 (if newest available drivers are mature enough as know they had some issues in the past) or a used GTX1070/1080 (if prices aren't too high) but without being able to test them before hand, I don't want to take the plunge then find that don't do job required (in same way I don't want to buy a 20xx card as that would be overkill for her needs to some extent).

I did consider getting myself a RTX4090 & using my RTX3080ti in the system but would be bottlenecking myself big style with my 9900K so would rather wait until I build a new system for myself to do that hence why don't want to spend too much (could be a month or could be another 2 years before I get round to building one).

 

[OliverQueen]

What's the budget?

As little as possible & prefer used over new/current as for the reasons in the original post.

If you go to YouTube and type: Diablo 4, the name of the card and 1080p, it'll give you an idea before you buy.

It will yes, but if using it with current hardware will give skewed results as using hardware that is 6 years old which will be running at essentially PCI4.0 8x speeds will/can give differing results. I know what a RTX3080ti can do on the same platform as was using it with a non-K 8700 until a few weeks back & she doesn't need (nor does my wallet!) anything like that. I also prefer to get real recommendations from those that maybe are playing the same game on similar generation hardware already (which there may be available to watch on YouTube but I haven't seen anything come up other than later gen platforms with the slightly older cards during the time already spent looking already)

 

[OliverQueen]

Yeah, I get what you mean, but the PCI-E generation won't matter with any of those cards and your CPU is unlikely to bottleneck any of them significantly either. This uses a Ryzen 5 3600, for example, which is pretty much the same:

Diablo 4 - GTX 1060 | RX 570 4GB | RX 580 | RX 5700 | Ryzen 5 3600 | Detailed Benchmark

Diablo IV 4 Release - RX 570 4GB | RX 580 8GB | GTX 1060 6GB | RX 5700 | Ryzen 5 3600 | Performance test | Fps test | Detailed Benchmark | Gameplay | 1080p |...

www.youtube.com

Will take a look at that video. Thank you.

Just had a quick look thru the video & it does essentially clarify my initial thoughts. the GTX1060 6GB (can get for £80 used with warranty) was on the list but can get a 1080ti for not a bad price given the performance (used & maximum of the £200 I could stretch to with trading stuff in/selling privately). The 1080ti would give a bit more longevity to the system in non-RT stuff should she want to play other games that need more graphical horsepower, but I would be then be creeping towards RTX2070 & RTX3060 used prices (£240 & £260 respectively although the additional VRAM on the 1080ti would be more beneficial with larger textures that tend to be in todays games tbh).

 

[OliverQueen]

Unless you're getting a warranty I wouldn't buy a 2070 or 1080 Ti used for those kind of prices, because the 6650 XT performs pretty similar and you can buy it brand new. £260 is a new price now for a 3060 12GB.

The RX 570 / GTX 1060 level for £70/£80 makes sense, I think, because you can't get anything new that performs like that and the RX 6400/6500 don't perform very well on PCI-E 3.0 because they only have 4 lanes.

The used place I would get them from (has a name that rhymes with a more common word for "fornication") automatically give a 2 year warranty on all goods sold. I wouldn't pay anywhere near the prices they charge for a private sale used card.

Didn't realise that new prices for a 3060 12GB were so low TBH so yet another option & more thinking required... The 1060 6GB is looking more favourable now as she will be inheriting my 3080ti (unless used prices for those go back through the roof for some strange reason) & 9900K system when I get round to building a new one.