PC upgrade opinion

[Lord Pikey]

Hi all,

Im getting frustrated trying to play RDR2 on my 6 year old pc. So i started wondering if i can just upgrade the graphics card but then i went down the rabbit hole . There is a lot of man maths ahead.

I already have a Nvidia Shield but it doesn't currently do RDR2 on geforce now. If i went down the stadia route then id have to buy RDR2 again and then any other games will nearly always be more expensive than steam and using activation keys.

So i currently have a 6 year old pc i built that still runs perfectly but now cant handle the latest games, its spec:

intel 4670k with a mild oc
msi z87 gaming mboard
g skill 8gb ram
760 OC 4gb

and then a 650w psu, ssd and a hdd.


correct me if i am wrong, but i only need to replace the top 4 items. Using ebays current tech discount code today i can do the following for a shade under 500€

Gigabyte B450M DS3H
G sKill 16kg ddr4 3000 cl16
ryzen 5 3600
msi radeon rx5500 XT

When i read up on budget or mid range builds some websites place more enphasis on the card rather than the cpu, which i understand but at what point does having a really powerfull card get hampered by a slow cpu. Basically should i swap the ryzen 5 3600 to a 2600 and upgrade the card to a nvidia 2060S.

im out of the game for so long, and i dont want to spend a lot for the casual gaming that i do. im hoping to sell the old parts for 250€ if i can.

Edited by Lord on Tuesday 26th May 08:21

[xeny]

Personally I don't think the Ryzen 3600 is enough of a win over an OC Haswell i5.

I'd replace the GPU (which tend to become obsolescent faster than CPUs), possibly add some RAM, and see what the result is. If you're still unhappy with the performance then do the CPU, RAM, motherboard.

As an added benefit, the situation with the the Matisse refresh rumours may become a little clearer while you're doing the GPU upgrade and B550 motherboards will launch on the 16th of June, potentially driving down B450 prices.

[stevesingo]

In my limited experience, the GPU card and RAM are more important for gaming.

My son's PC has Ryzen 5 1400 (3.2Ghz) on a Gigabyte A320-S2H mother board, so pretty basic on the scale. Coupled with 16Gb 3200Mhz RAM and a RTX 2060 Super, it runs COD MW at 75 FPS on 1440p monitor with all game graphics settings set to high. CPU load is in the region of 70% when playing.

[Lord Pikey]

Thanks for the input. Iv managed to get another 8gb stick of ram for 15€.

So, what graphics card would you say is the best bang for buck around 350 / 400

[Lord Pikey]

Thanks for the input. Iv managed to get another 8gb stick of ram for 15€.

So, what graphics card would you say is the best bang for buck around 350 / 400

[stevesingo]

Depends on your monitor 1080p/1440p 60/144Hz. No point going mad if you only have 1080p 60Hz monitor.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#X...

I have a RTX 2060 Super. Works well enough.

[dmsims]

Card prices have gone up recently

Next generation is around the corner

Have you considered selectively lowering some settings in the game ?

[Lord Pikey]

dmsims said:

Card prices have gone up recently

Next generation is around the corner

Have you considered selectively lowering some settings in the game ?

I have. It's at 1080 with pretty much the lowest settings and the frame rate is only 20 most of the time

[Jinx]

RDR2 hits GPUs pretty hard and CPUs in the built up areas. Your four thread i5 is going to struggle as is the 760 (really need 6 threads or more so an i7 minimum from that generation). If you can get a cheap 4770 then that coupled with a good mid range card (nVidia 1660Ti or AMD 5600XT or 5700) would get you up to a pretty good standard.
A new build might be worth it - but I would wait to see what the B550 boards (released June) do to prices.

[xeny]

I looked at the hardware requirements.

https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption2/p...

Minimum Specifications:

OS: Windows 7 - Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K / AMD FX-6300
Memory: 8GB
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 2GB / AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB
HDD Space: 150GB
Sound Card: DirectX compatible

Recommended Specifications:

OS: Windows 10 - April 2018 Update (v1803)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-4770K / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Memory: 12GB
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB
HDD Space: 150GB
Sound Card: DirectX compatible

so you're not even at minimum spec for the GPU, but not too far off recommended spec for the CPU.

When you add the 8GB, if you're existing 8GB is a pair of 4GBs you'll want to re-arrange to get dual channel RAM across the full 16GB.

[deckster]

Lord said:

Thanks for the input. Iv managed to get another 8gb stick of ram for 15€.

So, what graphics card would you say is the best bang for buck around 350 / 400

Agree that RAM and GPU upgrade is the way forward. With 16GB you should be OK for RAM, so we're down to which GPU.

At that price point, the RTX2060 is the way to go. A very solid performance increase over your 760 at a reasonable cost. If you can stretch to the Super then even better but whether the ~15% boost is worth another £80 is debatable.

The extra RAM and new GPU should make even RDR2 playable at least, although it's not going to fly. But if you upgrade the CPU, you'll need to replace the motherboard and RAM which is basically the same as building a completely new PC. Which is good fun, but probably more than you were looking to spend!

[Shadow R1]

Keep in mind about the ram speed, not just the amount of it.

The grap card will make the biggest difference to that machine, I wouldn't bother changing the cpu\board yet.

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2504?vs=24...

Useful site to compare cards, see whats on offer for the budget you have and game on.

[Lord Pikey]

Thanks chaps. I’m following a few used rtx 2060s and Rx 5700 on eBay. I’ll see what I can grab in the next few days. I don’t get much time these days so this seems like a cheap way to stay currentish

[dmsims]

Jinx said:

Your four thread i5 is going to struggle as is the 760 (really need 6 threads or more so an i7 minimum from that generation).

8 thread Xeon

[Lord Pikey]

Just a quick message to say thanks for all advice chaps. Rx 5700 and the extra 8gb of ram arrived . Running rdr2 in 4k in ultra/ high ish manages 30fps. I'm going to do the bios upgrade that brings the card upto a xt varient and then tune the settings for around 60 FPS.


Once again, thanks

[stevesingo]

Interesting that you can flash a 5700 to with 5700XT bios, so I googled it and found this.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/flashing-amd-ra...

Looks like a 10% increase in GPU performance is on the cards.

Be mindful of temperatures though.