Upgrading GPU for an old PC to extend it's life a bit!

Brumboy · 2025-01-15T13:55:38+0000

Hi so this current build is my partners and I'm looking to upgrade the GPU in it to extend it's life. She plays Overwatch 2 & Marvel Rivals. Her monitor is a work one that's 1440p/60hz but she can use a 1080p/144hz one as well.

CPU - Intel Core i3-8100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard - Asus PRIME B360M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
PSU - EVGA 450 BT 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
GPU - Asus Phoenix GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card

I've been looking at GPU's that would work with her setup (PCIE slots & Wattage for the 450W PSU) and the only ones I can find that would be best in slot are the 3060 6GB & 6600 8GB. Is that right or can her PC handle a more powerful one (that would be used for a new build in 2-3 years time).

PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Thanks!

GeorgeStorm · 2025-01-15T14:08:33+0000

PSU will be limiting that's for sure, I would also potentially look at seeing if you could get a cheap i5 9xxx or i7 8xxx chip 2nd hand, both a clock and core bump might help give a bit more life for <£50

mickyflinn · 2025-01-15T14:12:35+0000

450w PSU is enough for the 6600 and the 3060 with your I3 but wouldn't go above that in terms of GPU but If you intend to upgrade the CPU your cutting it close .

Brumboy · 2025-01-15T14:13:45+0000

GeorgeStorm said:
PSU will be limiting that's for sure, I would also potentially look at seeing if you could get a cheap i5 9xxx or i7 8xxx chip 2nd hand, both a clock and core bump might help give a bit more life for <£50

I will run some tests to see what the GPU and CPU % numbers look like, I believe it's GPU limited but I will double check.

Which ones are less than £50?!

Brumboy · 2025-01-15T14:15:08+0000

mickyflinn said:
450w PSU is enough for the 6600 and the 3060 with your I3 but wouldn't go above that in terms of GPU but If you intend to upgrade the CPU your cutting it close .

Yeah that's the thing. Do we get a decent GPU that will be bottlenecked by the current CPU but it will be used in the next build so that's okay.

Interesting, so the 3060 is a viable option too?

Finners · 2025-01-15T14:44:32+0000

Brumboy said:
I will run some tests to see what the GPU and CPU % numbers look like, I believe it's GPU limited but I will double check.

Which ones are less than £50?!

You haven't mentioned what RAM you have either, especially if you've only got 1 stick that would be a limiting factor.

I may have a i7-8700 in my spares box, I can check at the weekend if you want to chuck up a wanted thread.

Tetras · 2025-01-15T14:49:47+0000

Brumboy said:
and the only ones I can find that would be best in slot are the 3060 6GB & 6600 8GB. Is that right or can her PC handle a more powerful one (that would be used for a new build in 2-3 years time).

They're both fairly low on power, but the 6600 8GB is waaaay faster than the 3050 6GB version (I assume the 3060 is a typo there). The 3060 12GB is faster than the 6600, but it does have higher power usage. The 4060 uses similar power to the RX 6600 (~120/130 watts), but is faster (and hence, more efficient).

The 3050 6GB's main benefit is that it is slot powered and doesn't need a power connector (though, I'm not sure if they all are).

mickyflinn · 2025-01-15T14:51:19+0000

Brumboy said:
Yeah that's the thing. Do we get a decent GPU that will be bottlenecked by the current CPU but it will be used in the next build so that's okay.

Interesting, so the 3060 is a viable option too?

Your going to be bottlenecked in some respects anyway I think you could get away with a 3060 but some PSU are temperamental with power spikes .

GeorgeStorm · 2025-01-15T16:01:22+0000

Brumboy said:
I will run some tests to see what the GPU and CPU % numbers look like, I believe it's GPU limited but I will double check.

Which ones are less than £50?!

Prices on cex around £30-60 so if you use vouchers bought at 85% then that would be even cheaper, or I think you'll be able to find stuff on ebay as well. 8700 might be worth looking at, clock speed, core and threads all increased to hopefully give a little extra oomph.

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T08:35:30+0000

Finners said:
You haven't mentioned what RAM you have either, especially if you've only got 1 stick that would be a limiting factor.

I may have a i7-8700 in my spares box, I can check at the weekend if you want to chuck up a wanted thread.

Oops - TEAMGROUP Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 CL14 Memory

That'd be great actually thank you!

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T08:36:54+0000

Tetras said:
They're both fairly low on power, but the 6600 8GB is waaaay faster than the 3050 6GB version (I assume the 3060 is a typo there). The 3060 12GB is faster than the 6600, but it does have higher power usage. The 4060 uses similar power to the RX 6600 (~120/130 watts), but is faster (and hence, more efficient).

The 3050 6GB's main benefit is that it is slot powered and doesn't need a power connector (though, I'm not sure if they all are).

Yeah I saw the benchmarks. No point getting the 3050!

Last thing I want is to overload the PSU so the 6600 is a good point. The 4060 is slightly out of budget for now!

Thanks for the information

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T08:37:34+0000

mickyflinn said:
Your going to be bottlenecked in some respects anyway I think you could get away with a 3060 but some PSU are temperamental with power spikes .

I'd rather not risk that. BUT if I turn down the graphics and limit FPS to where the GPU usage is no more than 80%, that should be fine?

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T08:38:37+0000

GeorgeStorm said:
Prices on cex around £30-60 so if you use vouchers bought at 85% then that would be even cheaper, or I think you'll be able to find stuff on ebay as well. 8700 might be worth looking at, clock speed, core and threads all increased to hopefully give a little extra oomph.

I didn't even think of CEX! Thanks for reminding me

Yep 8700 may be a good shout. There are the 9400, 9500, 9600 as well. Is it worth going for them? Or sticking with the 8 series

Subliminal Aura · 2025-01-16T08:41:51+0000

Are you budgeting for a new 3060/6600?

I thought the 3060 would be dirt cheap on the 2nd hand market?

mickyflinn · 2025-01-16T09:01:11+0000

Brumboy said:
I'd rather not risk that. BUT if I turn down the graphics and limit FPS to where the GPU usage is no more than 80%, that should be fine?

Yes or Undervolt it .

If you can just cough up and buy a 750w to 850w PSU gold rated and then your good for 10 years and not restricted on GPU choice.

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T09:11:22+0000

Subliminal Aura said:
Are you budgeting for a new 3060/6600?

I thought the 3060 would be dirt cheap on the 2nd hand market?

The 6600 can be had for about £160. The 3060 is £250 so that's a bit out of budget

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T09:12:04+0000

mickyflinn said:
Yes or Undervolt it .

If you can just cough up and buy a 750w to 850w PSU gold rated and then your good for 10 years and not restricted on GPU choice.

I have zero experience with swapping/installing a PSU so I wouldn't even attempt to try that to be honest!

mickyflinn · 2025-01-16T09:24:45+0000

Brumboy said:
I have zero experience with swapping/installing a PSU so I wouldn't even attempt to try that to be honest!

Friend /someone local to help ?

It's easy you just follow/exchange like for like. You can't put cables into the wrong slots unless you drive them in. Take pics and videos before and mark the cables to be extra sure.

Otherwise just get the Rx 6600 for £180 but you're still going to have to connect the 8pin pcie cable from the PSU.

Brumboy · 2025-01-16T09:51:50+0000

mickyflinn said:
Friend /someone local to help ?

It's easy you just follow/exchange like for like. You can't put cables into the wrong slots unless you drive them in. Take pics and videos before and mark the cables to be extra sure.

Otherwise just get the Rx 6600 for £180 but you're still going to have to connect the 8pin pcie cable from the PSU.

I will look into it then

I can install memory, graphics card, hdd/ssd (m.2/sata). I think I can install a CPU. But PSU scares me haha

Yeah I've priced:

6600 - £155
8700 - £55
16GB memory - £22

With 80-85% CEX voucher exchange comes to about £200 which seems fairly good value for an upgrade that - on paper would be 2-3x the performance. So hopefully giving 3-5 years more life

GeorgeStorm · 2025-01-16T10:04:24+0000

Brumboy said:
I didn't even think of CEX! Thanks for reminding me

Yep 8700 may be a good shout. There are the 9400, 9500, 9600 as well. Is it worth going for them? Or sticking with the 8 series

The 8700 is 6 core with hyperthreading whereas the i5 9xxx are 6 core without hyperthreading, so probably say the 8700 is the way to go as the potential higher clockspeed and extra threads will probably beat the generational bump but not 100% sure. 9400/9500 are dirt cheap though if you wanted to save £20