Better GPU or better SSD?

[TechyTeach]

Budget (including currency): £400

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: GTA V, Minecraft (java - modded/shaders), Far Cry 3/Primal, Dying Light, some basic video editing tools for remote learning for pupils (I have done some screen recording for tutorials and teaching, and this would continue to be important)

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 (stock cooler, but debating an upgrade)

RAM: 3200MHz 16GB RAM - Can't remember the name, I think it's Corsair, CL-18

MOBO: MSI B450 Pro Carbon Gaming with Wifi

PSU - overkill Seasonic platinum tier 800W (It was on an exceptional deal and there were general shortages of other options at the time of purchase)

Case: Fractal Meshify C - two included case fans + 2 Noctua 120mm (configured as 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust (lined up with CPU) and two front intakes)

 

The above are all recent purchases - my old PSU blew and I needed a new system with a quick turnaround in early June - no time to wait for B550s or to properly investigate RAM etc. 

 

Storage:

1TB 7200rpm HDD - ~10 yrs old, forgotten name

1TB HDD/SSD hybrid -  FireCuda 1 TB ST1000LX015

 

Current GPU: Asus ROG Strix r9 380x 4GB

 

Displays - two 1080p basic options - one is a philips 221B from the v. early days of HD (2007/8?) and the other is an old Sharp Smart TV we replaced with a bigger model for the living room. Both are 60Hz standard, running off HDMI (I used a DVI-HDMI convertor)

 

My aim is to futureproof the system as far as possible - I would like to play 1440p in future, but have no budget for that kind of monitor for now. In the meantime, I want a system that will enable me to keep gaming without too many compromises on 1080p for 5yrs or more before considering an upgrade.

 

I am currently looking at the Gigabyte Windforce RX 5700XT 8GB for £350 on amazon however I'm not sure if this is overkill or will 1080p games begin to demand 8GB VRAM in the future?

 

My alternative option would be an Nvidia1660S (the 6GB GDDR6 versions ~ £220 at first glance), and then using the money I save on a 1TB proper SSD (It turns out my hybrid SSD is a bit crummy (I bought it as a compromise when SSDs were still fairly prohibitive in price))

 

After spending ages trying to work out which GPU is best, I haven't the foggiest where to start on SSDs. Linus talks about NAND and other bits which kind of go over my head.

 

Should I go for the 5700XT, or save on the GPU and upgrade the SSHD to something better? Is NVME worth it/affordable enough? I would want to go for 1TB storage again, as the other drives could be general bulk storage but I would like current projects/games to be able to take advantage of faster read/writes than an HDD. (I could compromise to 512GB if there were good balances to be found elsewhere)

 

An additional query, though this maybe belongs in another forum - having never had the budget to become an audio-visual connoisseur, would people recommend a higher refresh rate 1080p monitor for smoothness or a 60-75Hz 1440p monitor for fidelity and detail? I am not fussed about super speed frames or advantages in online play, I am more interested in an enjoyable viewing and playing experience. (I have included this thought as it may impact on the choice of GPU recommended)

 

Apologies if this is way too long-winded - it's my first ever forum post!

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

P.S. If you can magically recommend a monitor upgrade, SSD and decent GPU for less than £500 (I might be able to push the budget if a monitor were involved) that would be amazing! (but I imagine impossible)

 

 

 

 

[Hairless Monkey]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Storage	Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£109.99 @ Amazon UK
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card	£208.99 @ AWD-IT
Monitor	Acer Nitro VG240YU 23.8" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor	£249.99 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£568.97
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-03 20:22 BST+0100

Maybe something like this?

[TechyTeach]

Wow, thank you for the quick response!

I'd have to check with the bank manager (wife) about pushing up to £568 but that looks like a really good balance. 

Does having a 2-fan vs 3-fan GPU make a big difference to either performance or coolness/noisiness?

[Hairless Monkey]

2 minutes ago, TechyTeach said:

Wow, thank you for the quick response!

I'd have to check with the bank manager (wife) about pushing up to £568 but that looks like a really good balance. 

Does having a 2-fan vs 3-fan GPU make a big difference to either performance or coolness/noisiness?

I found similar cheaper monitors that could bring the total price down. Here is the list:

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#A=2,4,3,1,6,5&r=256001440&sort=price&page=1

 

Also, you should probably wait to buy a GPU until the next gen is released. At the very least, current GPUs may come down in price, or you could get something used for a good deal. Prices are a bit inflated right now because supply is down (and demand may be up with everyone home).

[TechyTeach]

5 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Also, you should probably wait to buy a GPU until the next gen is released. At the very least, current GPUs may come down in price, or you could get something used for a good deal.

Is that the general pattern with GPU prices? I wasn't sure if they would go down much or even go up as they get phased out of production. 

 

How future proof would you rate a 1660S for my purposes? (I don't tend to play the latest and greatest games until a couple of years have passed and they come on offer, so I can afford to be at leat 1-2 years behind the curve as it were)

[Chris Pratt]

32 minutes ago, TechyTeach said:

My aim is to futureproof the system as far as possible - I would like to play 1440p in future, but have no budget for that kind of monitor for now. In the meantime, I want a system that will enable me to keep gaming without too many compromises on 1080p for 5yrs or more before considering an upgrade.

That's a hard ask, but to do that, you should be looking at something like a 2070 super. The 5700XT at the very least. A 1660 super is decent for 1080p only and for now. 5 years down the road, you'll be struggling for 1080p, and it's completely out of the question if you have any hopes of 1440p gaming.

[TechyTeach]

11 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

That's a hard ask, but to do that, you should be looking at something like a 2070 super. The 5700XT at the very least. A 1660 super is decent for 1080p only and for now. 5 years down the road, you'll be struggling for 1080p, and it's completely out of the question if you have any hopes of 1440p gaming.

I was afraid that might be the case... 

[Hairless Monkey]

2 minutes ago, TechyTeach said:

I was afraid that might be the case... 

I think your best plan of action might be to get just the SSD now. Then later, once the new GPUs are launched, you can evaluate your best options for GPU and monitor. If you set some money aside in the mean time you might even be able to expand your budget a bit. 

[TechyTeach]

Yup, that sounds like the best option. I know you mentioned the 

41 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

This looks like it's PCI Gen 4. I think my B450 Mobo will only support Gen 3 - is it still worth it? Or would One of these be more appropriate?

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Storage	Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	£101.76 @ BT Shop
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£98.67 @ CCL Computers
Storage	Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£101.98 @ Laptops Direct
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£302.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-03 21:04 BST+0100

 

[Hairless Monkey]

2 minutes ago, TechyTeach said:

This looks like it's PCI Gen 4

It is not gen 4. It is, however, NVME. Of the ones you listed above, the Crucial P1 and the Kingston A2000 are also NVME and would be pretty good choices. The Sabrent Q is a bit faster for not much more money, so it's the one I tend to recommend.

 

I can't recommend the WD Blue drive, though, since it is not NVME and is not cheaper.

[TechyTeach]

 

10 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

It is not gen 4

I stand corrected! Thank you! I mis-read a bit of text on the label in a photo (gen 3x4 confused me...)

 

I'm going to sound really stupid here, but I thought M.2 and NVME were the same thing... Is NVME something special? i.e. all NVME are M.2 form, but not all M.2 are NVME?

[Hairless Monkey]

1 minute ago, TechyTeach said:

all NVME are M.2 form, but not all M.2 are NVME?

Like squares and rectangles. Not the whole picture, but this is true enough (you can run NVME over PCIe interfaces, as well).

 

M.2 can run in SATA mode or PCIe (NVME) mode.

 

Gotta be careful and look at your mobo manual when installing M.2 drives. In your case, you'll want to install your SSD into you M.2_1 port for the fastest speed, but your sata 5 and 6 ports will be disabled (page 17 of your manual).

[TechyTeach]

2 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Gotta be careful and look at your mobo manual when installing M.2 drives. In your case, you'll want to install your SSD into you M.2_1 port for the fastest speed, but your sata 5 and 6 ports will be disabled (page 17 of your manual).

Thank you so much for this pointer! I would have probably gone to plug and play then been confused why my old HDD didn't show up! XD I've gone for the Sabrent Rocket Q and will have to wait and see on the GPU front.

 

It doesn't sound like the RDNA2 or 3000 series are likely to be aimed at my part of the market, but fingers crossed they'll have a pricing knock-on effect at the very least! I'll definitely return to the forum in future if I look at second hand GPUs - wouldn't have a clue where to begin!

 

Thank you so much for all your advice, it makes a lot more sense to me now!

[Oswin]

is the £400 budget only for the GPU and ssd? if you are putting an OS on it i'd get a TLC drive instead of QLC

[TechyTeach]

It will be the boot drive, yeah. I have an OS licence (Win10 Home) on my current SSHD which I will transfer over when I install the NVME drive.

 

The budget is for the GPU and SSD. If I could squeeze a monitor in, I would push it up to nearer £500, but the £400 budget is for GPU and SSD and isn't really moveable at the moment.

[Oswin]

37 minutes ago, TechyTeach said:

It will be the boot drive, yeah. I have an OS licence (Win10 Home) on my current SSHD which I will transfer over when I install the NVME drive.

 

The budget is for the GPU and SSD. If I could squeeze a monitor in, I would push it up to nearer £500, but the £400 budget is for GPU and SSD and isn't really moveable at the moment.

remember to quote or mention  so that we may get notified of your reply

 

i'd go for something like this

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Storage	Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£101.98 @ Laptops Direct
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB THICC III Pro Video Card	£274.98 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£376.96
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-03 21:53 BST+0100

though dont expect crazy 1440p performance unless you can squeeze another £60 and get something like this

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Storage	Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£101.98 @ Laptops Direct
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Triple Dissipation Video Card	£358.00 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£459.98
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-03 21:56 BST+0100

or another alternative being:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Storage	Kingston A2000 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£56.81 @ CCL Computers
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Triple Dissipation Video Card	£358.00 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£414.81
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-03 22:09 BST+0100

 

 

[Hairless Monkey]

@Oswin

Kingston A2000 is TLC then. Very good to know. Thanks for the info.

[ProBottler]

14 hours ago, Oswin said:

XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Triple Dissipation Video Card

eh that card has below average thermal performance?
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/6kdrxr/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5700-xt-8-gb-gaming-oc-video-card-gv-r57xtgaming-oc-8gd
id go with this 

[Oswin]

2 minutes ago, ProBottler said:

eh that card has below average thermal performance?
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/6kdrxr/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5700-xt-8-gb-gaming-oc-video-card-gv-r57xtgaming-oc-8gd
id go with this 

i havent heard about the thermal performance problems of this card, any links?

Edited August 4, 2020 by Oswin

[ProBottler]

1 minute ago, Oswin said:

any links?

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3518-xfx-rx-5700-xt-thicc-ii-ultra-review-benchmark

[ProBottler]

sorry wrong model

 

[Oswin]

Just now, ProBottler said:

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3518-xfx-rx-5700-xt-thicc-ii-ultra-review-benchmark

isnt this the Thicc II ultra? i listed a triple dissipation, even then they have fixed the Thicc II and Raw II

[ProBottler]

7 minutes ago, Oswin said:

isnt this the Thicc II ultra? i listed a triple dissipation, even then they have fixed the Thicc II and Raw II

My bad