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Worthwhile Budget GPU

pepp77

pepp77

pepp77

Soldato
Joined
13 Oct 2008
Posts
5,144
Location
SE London Born and Bred
In my computer at the moment I have a GT-710. I have this purely because my CPU doesn't include integrated graphics (Ryzen 5500) and I use my PC basically for work and as a file server.

I am considering getting a bit of an upgrade to the GT710 to allow me to play some games on the computer, but all the models and numbers completely befuddle me.

I've been looking at about the £150 price point and it seems to be for that money either something like a 6500XT or a GTX 1650 from brands I have heard of or there seem to be RX 580s for about £130 from random brands I have never heard of before ever.

My monitors are currently Dell 2412s (1920x1200) IPS displays with it seems 8ms response.

I'm not hugely into games and mainly play Civ VI, but that could be because I know the current card can't really handle anything and was bought just to get the PC up and working at the start of lockdown.

Any opinions greatly appreciated.
 
pepp77 said:
I am considering getting a bit of an upgrade to the GT710 to allow me to play some games on the computer, but all the models and numbers completely befuddle me.

I've been looking at about the £150 price point and it seems to be for that money either something like a 6500XT or a GTX 1650 from brands I have heard of or there seem to be RX 580s for about £130 from random brands I have never heard of before ever.
Click to expand...

6500 XT performs similar to a RX 580 in a PCI-E 4.0 board, but if it exceeds the VRAM performance drops off a lot. The GTX 1650 doesn't have this problem, so it performs more consistently, but is generally slower. Keep in mind both the 1650 and 6500 XT were considered pretty lacklustre on release and are already too slow to achievable decently playable FPS in some games. Brand new, I'd get a RX 6600, RTX 2060 12GB or Arc 750 (if you have rebar), no less (£250 or under).
 
Thanks, been looking a bit further and I can get a 6600 for £210 - bit more than I wanted to spend but internet says its more than a £50 performance increase.

Two models at that price are

As Rock Challenger and PowerColor Fighter

www.asrock.com

ASRock Radeon RX 6600 Challenger D 8GB

<b>Clock: GPU / Memory</b>, Boost Clock: Up to 2491 MHz / 14 Gbps, Game Clock: Up to 2044 MHz / 14 Gbps, Base Clock: 1626 MHz / 14 Gbps<br /><b>Key Specification</b>, 7nm AMD Radeon™ RX 6600, 8GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA™ 2 Architecture, DirectX 12 Ultimate, PCI® Express4.0 Support, 1 x 8-pin Power...
www.asrock.com www.asrock.com

Fighter AMD Radeon™ RX 6600 8GB GDDR6 - PowerColor

www.powercolor.com www.powercolor.com

Are either brand generally better than the other?
 
Last edited:
pepp77 said:
Thanks, been looking a bit further and I can get a 6600 for £210 - bit more than I wanted to spend but internet says its more than a £50 performance increase.

Two models at that price are

As Rock Challenger and PowerColor Fighter

www.asrock.com

ASRock Radeon RX 6600 Challenger D 8GB

<b>Clock: GPU / Memory</b>, Boost Clock: Up to 2491 MHz / 14 Gbps, Game Clock: Up to 2044 MHz / 14 Gbps, Base Clock: 1626 MHz / 14 Gbps<br /><b>Key Specification</b>, 7nm AMD Radeon™ RX 6600, 8GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA™ 2 Architecture, DirectX 12 Ultimate, PCI® Express4.0 Support, 1 x 8-pin Power...
www.asrock.com www.asrock.com

Fighter AMD Radeon™ RX 6600 8GB GDDR6 - PowerColor

www.powercolor.com www.powercolor.com

Are either brand generally better than the other?
Click to expand...
PowerColor have been making AMD cards a lot longer than ASRock and are generally considered one of their better AIBs. TechPowerUp reviewed the Fighter and the cooler seems decent enough. Quiet, has a zero fan mode and adequate temperatures. About all you can ask for from a lower-cost model.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/powercolor-radeon-rx-6600-fighter/35.html
 
Yeah I'd second powercolor as probably being more reliable just from them being a bit better established at this but the asrock is probably ok too. But you should compare the warranties offered as well in case there are any big differences which might matter to you.

I'd definitely agree with the 6600 being well worth it over the 6500 XT, it's like a 70-80% performance difference between the two cards IIRC, not even close.
 
I have an RX6600 with a 1080P Freesync Monitor - Performs very well, perfect for my resolution and requirements.

Anything below it, is generally a huge drop in performance realistically, quite a gap.

Shame it’s over budget, but I would say the right choice in the long run.
 
Had the card in a little while and have just finally played my first actual game on it. Rise of the Tomb Raider. Playing at native 1440p with all high settings and G-Sync (or whatever that thing is called that syncs FPS to Hz) on, it sat there happily playing away at 75 FPS.

That'll do me.

Thanks everyone.
 
pepp77 said:
In my computer at the moment I have a GT-710. I have this purely because my CPU doesn't include integrated graphics (Ryzen 5500) and I use my PC basically for work and as a file server.

I am considering getting a bit of an upgrade to the GT710 to allow me to play some games on the computer, but all the models and numbers completely befuddle me.

I've been looking at about the £150 price point and it seems to be for that money either something like a 6500XT or a GTX 1650 from brands I have heard of or there seem to be RX 580s for about £130 from random brands I have never heard of before ever.

My monitors are currently Dell 2412s (1920x1200) IPS displays with it seems 8ms response.

I'm not hugely into games and mainly play Civ VI, but that could be because I know the current card can't really handle anything and was bought just to get the PC up and working at the start of lockdown.

Any opinions greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
If it was Amazon you saw the RX 580 models on, the reason they are cheap is because they have a lesser stream processor count at 2048, they still work well going by the YouTube reviews and are new items (copper heat pipe versions seem more reliably new) rather than old mined boards and chips. Real world difference in most games is around 4-5 FPS compared to UK bought legit branded cards.
 
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