GPU upgrade

HecticYak · April 20, 2020

I currently have a Ryzen 5 1600 overclocked to 3.85 ghz paired with an RX 580 8gb. I was just curious, if I were to upgrade my gpu, about how high-end of a card could I get before I run into a bottleneck with my current cpu? Thanks for the help.

Jurrunio · April 20, 2020

As long as you dont aim to go over 80-100fps, any GPU's fine.

Quadrum · April 20, 2020

I would say that anything above a 2080 might run into bottlenecking issues, but I’m really just guessing. A good way to approach it is to find build guides that use your cpu and get a gpu that’s about one step higher (ex. 2060 -> 2070)

LIGISTX · April 20, 2020

13 minutes ago, HecticYak said:

I currently have a Ryzen 5 1600 overclocked to 3.85 ghz paired with an RX 580 8gb. I was just curious, if I were to upgrade my gpu, about how high-end of a card could I get before I run into a bottleneck with my current cpu? Thanks for the help.

I would think anything over a ~2060 would be a waste of money with that CPU. A faster GPU will always give you more FPS regardless of CPU bottleneck, but there becomes a point where its hard to justify the few % gains a faster GPU will give you. With your CPU, a 2060 will be bottlenecked, but it won't be totally kneecapped and not worth it. A 2080 for instance, would be not worth it at all as it would likely only get a few % more FPS than the 2060 would.

The reason you will have a bottleneck regardless, say you have a 2060 with your CPU, and your friend has the same GPU but with a 9900k overclocked to 5.2 GHz. The 9900k WILL get more FPS, even with the same GPU. But, likely only ~5% more, possibly up to 15% more depending on the game. Bottlenecks always exist, you just have to try and figure out what makes the most sense for your setup.

Anyways, TLDR; I would think anything under a 2070 would be a "worthwhile" upgrade. A 2060 super may be a little too much, in terms of price to performance. 2060 super is a great card, but I worry your CPU would hold it back too much for it to be worth spending the extra money on over a normal 2060. Hopefully this made sense...