Upgrade from 1660Ti for 1080P Gaming

[Donnie Fisher]

I'd agree with the comments of getting a 9060 XT. Its newer generation features, typically uses less power than older gens for the same output. It also plays nicer with older generations of motherboard slots compared to some of the competition. Your 3600 cpu will be fine for the moment for your uses.

A jump to the 5700X or 5800X would make a difference to an extent, but not as much as the GPU.

You might be able to squeeze some more performance out of your normal system ram. you list it as 2133MHz, which is the default base speed of ddr4. A lot of ram can ( and is designed to ) run at faster speeds such as 3000, 3333, 3666. In your BIOS settings, there may be an option to enable XMP or DOCP for the ram. If you click to enable it, the system might automatically set the faster speed and timings, save those and reboot. Making your ram run faster can yield a bump in performance too for a grand cost of £0.

 

[nheather]

you list it as 2133MHz, which is the default base speed of ddr4. A lot of ram can ( and is designed to ) run at faster speeds such as 3000, 3333, 3666. In your BIOS settings, there may be an option to enable XMP or DOCP for the ram.

Thanks, I'd overlooked that, running at 3000 MHz now.

Motherboard : MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: 2 x 8GB DDR4 3000 MHz
PSU: Corsair TX 650

 

[Quartz]

I agree with all the comments about getting the 16 GB RX 9060 XT. If you find some extra money under a cushion, look at getting a Ryzen 5700X3D CPU or upgrading the RAM to 32 GB.

 

[nheather]

I agree with all the comments about getting the 16 GB RX 9060 XT. If you find some extra money under a cushion, look at getting a Ryzen 5700X3D CPU or upgrading the RAM to 32 GB.

My son has just updated his PC, which means there is 16GB (2 x 8GB) sitting unused which I could nab. But that would mean filling all four slots - is that okay, I think I read somewhere that it is better to run with two sticks than four.

 

[throwaway4372]

My son has just updated his PC, which means there is 16GB (2 x 8GB) sitting unused which I could nab. But that would mean filling all four slots - is that okay, I think I read somewhere that it is better to run with two sticks than four.

not worth adding the extra two sticks

 

[Tetras]

My son has just updated his PC, which means there is 16GB (2 x 8GB) sitting unused which I could nab. But that would mean filling all four slots - is that okay, I think I read somewhere that it is better to run with two sticks than four.

Running 4x 8GB shouldn't be too much trouble, but it depends on the CPU's memory controller and the motherboard. It is possible that XMP/DOCP won't work and if you end up running the memory very slow due to this (or other instability) it won't be worth it in many games. That said, I'd personally find 16GB hard to live with, so would be more inclined to just try it and see.

What part does the CPU play?

It is complicated. It depends on:
- The game.
- The resolution/detail settings.
- The driver overhead (nvidia/AMD/Intel and the different architectures all vary with this).

This is one of the best recent videos I've found on the topic:

My personal opinion is that 1080p is not a good resolution to have this problem, since you can hit a CPU bottleneck easily in newer games and with newer graphics cards. Is it still worth upgrading a 1660 Ti? Yes, I believe so, but going higher than your budget (e.g. a 9060 XT 16GB or 5060 Ti 16GB) is definitely not something I would do without upgrading the CPU too. A 5700X3D is really what I'd want to have, if you go any higher than that.

 

[Quartz]

I think I read somewhere that it is better to run with two sticks than four.

That's true but you may find significant benefit from 32 GB. You likely won't be able to run them at full XMP speed but even stock speed is faster than swapping to a drive.

 

[Journey]

Don't forget you can still sell your 1660 Ti for £80-100 that'll get you most of the way to a 5700X3D or enough to get a normal 5700X, even after buying the RX 9060 XT 16GB.

 

[TrojanWhore]

Are you thinking of future proofing should I want to go to higher resolutions in the future or is 8GB too little for 1080P?

8GB is already too little in at least some games (I already thought it was too little when the 3070 came out, although I did eventually cave and bought a 3060ti because at that point I'd been waiting almost 2 years for an upgrade from 1070 and couldn't find a 6800XT!).
I'd be hard pushed now to even buy a 12GB card; 16GB minimum personally!

 

[nheather]

Don't forget you can still sell your 1660 Ti for £80-100 that'll get you most of the way to a 5700X3D or enough to get a normal 5700X, even after buying the RX 9060 XT 16GB.

That’s good to know, I hadn’t thought of that, didn’t think there would be any demand for them.

 

[nheather]

So thinking of stretching my budget to get

5700X3D
9060 XT 16GB

Leave my RAM for now, but more than likely get 32GB DDR4 3600 a bit later.

Does that sound like a reasonable mid-system?

 

[Journey]

That’s good to know, I hadn’t thought of that, didn’t think there would be any demand for them.

There's always people looking for a decent low price GPU's, since you can't buy one of those new these days. I build a system a couple weeks back for someone who gave me a bunch of parts they bought/retrieved from various sources used, Ryzen 3700, 16GB DDR4, SSD, GTX 1070 etc. so they could get their son a cheap PC think the guy spent £160 all in, with a naff case that he go for free. Machine was pretty awesome in the end to be honest, for the outlay, given you can barely buy any single item for that price and has a whole system that will play most PC games with 1080p at reduced settings, and back catalogue stuff at max most of them time.

Just be careful not to overpay for a 5700X3D, as they are going up in price hard cap for me would be £135 used, after that point you might as well sell your Motherboard/CPU/RAM combo for ~£100 and buy a cheap B650, and a 7500F with even just 16GB DDR5 for a shade over £200.

 

[Freddie1980]

My specs are

Motherboard : MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: 2 x 8GB DDR4 2133 MHz
PSU: Corsair TX 650

All running stock, nothing is overclocked.


Cheers,

Nigel

Your CPU is being held back by your memory speed, Zen 2's sweet spot is 3200 Mhz or 3600hz so maybe consider picking up some 2nd sticks and enabling EXPO in your motherboards BIOS.

 

[nheather]

Your CPU is being held back by your memory speed, Zen 2's sweet spot is 3200 Mhz or 3600hz so maybe consider picking up some 2nd sticks and enabling EXPO in your motherboards BIOS.

I found that I was running the RAM at the wrong speed, had not enabled the profile, it is now running at 3000MHz.

 

[nheather]

My motherboard is pretty old, but I'd prefer not to change it.

It is an MSI B450 Tomahawk Max and from what I understand, if I update the BIOS firmware it will support 5000 series CPUs. I presume that means I could install a 5700X3D, and later some 3600 RAM to go with it - but is my presumption correct, is there anything I should look out for.

I don't want to change the motherboard.

 

[mickyflinn]

My motherboard is pretty old, but I'd prefer not to change it.

It is an MSI B450 Tomahawk Max and from what I understand, if I update the BIOS firmware it will support 5000 series CPUs. I presume that means I could install a 5700X3D, and later some 3600 RAM to go with it - but is my presumption correct, is there anything I should look out for.

I don't want to change the motherboard.

Your assumption are correct although 3200mhz memory is just as acceptable.


Always read the bios notes before updating as some boards require you to update the bios in a certain order.

 

[Journey]

My motherboard is pretty old, but I'd prefer not to change it.

Any reason why? It's a couple of hours job/hobby which gives you a good chance to thoroughly clean all the nook and cranny's of the case and the fans etc.

If you end up over spending on an old platform to get a 5700X3D then stick with a 5700X or 5600(X) not worth paying the frankly daft £180+ that places want for the 5700X3D.

As you said your B450 Tomahawk is a well respected 2nd gen AM4 board, and as such will be recognised by potential buyers, and easy to move on at a higher cost, I've seen them sell for £130 with RAM and an R5 3600, that £130 will buy a B650 board and 16GB DDR5, and you then have way cheaper 7500F/7600/9600X to look at. Putting you on a new platform with a new a warranty, and better performance for everything, and PCI-E 4.0 which you don't have now.

 

[nheather]

Any reason why? It's a couple of hours job/hobby which gives you a good chance to thoroughly clean all the nook and cranny's of the case and the fans etc.

If you end up over spending on an old platform to get a 5700X3D then stick with a 5700X or 5600(X) not worth paying the frankly daft £180+ that places want for the 5700X3D.

As you said your B450 Tomahawk is a well respected 2nd gen AM4 board, and as such will be recognised by potential buyers, and easy to move on at a higher cost, I've seen them sell for £130 with RAM and an R5 3600, that £130 will buy a B650 board and 16GB DDR5, and you then have way cheaper 7500F/7600/9600X to look at. Putting you on a new platform with a new a warranty, and better performance for everything, and PCI-E 4.0 which you don't have now.

All great advice. I'm just conscious of requirement slip - I started out looking at whether there was cheapish GPU that I could add to my current system to improve my 1080P gaming.

Until recently, I've been happy playing games, knowing that I'm not hitting massive FPS or high quality but content, even with my RAM running a lot slower than it should have been. Then I got Horizon Forbidden West and it defaulted to 'low' graphics settings and even to my low expectations the graphics looked poor. Which got me wondering whether I should get a modest graphics update, maybe a £250 4060.

Since then, it has grown, very valid advice, I'm not denying that, but now I'm looking at a better GPU, a CPU, RAM and possibly a motherboard. And my thought of maybe spending a modest £250 has now become £700 or more.

As for second-hand I've never been that lucky. I'm advised what my gear is worth, but no one wants to pay that, and I'm told what I should be paying but no one wants to sell at that, so I generally end up buying new, and my old stuff sits in drawers until it is so old it gets taken to the tip.

 

[Tetras]

And my thought of maybe spending a modest £250 has now become £700 or more.

There's no harm in e.g. just getting the 9060 XT 16GB (very good reason to pay the extra for that over the 8GB versions), nicking your son's RAM and trying it out. Worst that'll happen: it doesn't give you the performance uplift you were hoping for and you decide on the CPU / platform upgrade then.

 

[Journey]

All great advice. I'm just conscious of requirement slip - I started out looking at whether there was cheapish GPU that I could add to my current system to improve my 1080P gaming.

I get that, but when you are doing things on a budget long term view is almost as important the cost. If you spend £180 on a 5700X3D that is a waste of money. Pars listed below but with 32GB OF fast RAM, 16GB will be £30-40 less.

Data from a website that cannot be linked.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7500F 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI PRO A620M-E Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6200 CL32 Memory
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Video Card
~Total: £573

As for second-hand I've never been that lucky. I'm advised what my gear is worth, but no one wants to pay that,

Stick the bundle on FB/Gumtree and don't just sell it to the first people that come along, also price it higher and than you want then offer a lower price, people are generally happy if they think they got a deal. Or if you put in on MM here if you have access, you'd easily get £180 for those parts, even more so if yo have boxes and accessories for them.

Total spend would be £400 if you got £180 for your bits, and that includes a heatsink for £10 if you want it, and another £10 if you fancy a nice Thermalright tower jobbie.