First build with my son

[ApexDestroyer]

Help me help my son on his graphics card upgrade.

He saved up and has finally built his PC. Below is what he put together. The only old part is the GPU that he put in my old Phenom II work PC.

We just need help selecting the best budget GPU. Any help would be appreciated! 

This is his first PC build and he is very proud of it. He doesn't have a lot of money to spend on the GPU.

 

Budget (including currency): sub $300 US

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: various games, Fortnite, Rocket League, COD

Existing Setup:

MB -  GIGABYTE B550M DS3H

PSU - EVGA 600w

CPU - Ryzen 5 3600

GPU - GeForce GT 1030 Phoenix Overclocked Single-Fan 2GB GDDR5

HD - Crucial 2.5" SSD

RAM - G.Skill 16GB (2 x 8GB) Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600

MONITOR - Acer KA272 1080p Freesync 

[Prodigy_Smit]

Currently prices are way high so if you wait for sometime you can get a much better deal. But this is good for right now.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Video Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB AERO ITX OC Video Card	$293.39 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$293.39
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-04 00:00 EST-0500

 

[richodude]

I would buy used from ebay heres what i recommend

 

r9 290 ~ $100

gtx 1070 ~ $180

gtx 1070ti ~ $250

 

all are about the same bang for the buck just depends on how much power you need

[GoodEnough]

prices are really wack right so your best bet is to probably get a used 1660 ti (https://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti-6GB-GDDR6-Graphics-Card-XC-Black-Gaming/124512996937?epid=24035377902&hash=item1cfd8d8e49%3Ag%3ABhgAAOSwlvpf8odR&LH_BIN=1)

[GoodEnough]

3 minutes ago, richodude said:

r9 290 ~ $100

gtx 1070 ~ $180

gtx 1070ti ~ $250

prices are nowhere near that good anymore lol (for the 1070 i mean)

[richodude]

i bought mine in november at that price. i even seen em as low as 175!

[BiotechBen]

an RX480 or 580 would also be good budget options as well, those can be had for under 150 usually (for the 480). 

[MadAnt250]

41 minutes ago, ApexDestroyer said:

Help me help my son on his graphics card upgrade.

Used may be the best option if you cannot not find anything new for the correct price, so...

35 minutes ago, richodude said:

r9 290 ~ $100

gtx 1070 ~ $180

Or a used GTX 970 ~ $100, or 980 ~ $150, or a GTX 1060 6GB ~ $150. Just be a little patient and you can snag something for a good price.

I really wish there was some new stuff available for the correct price but used may be the way to go for now.

[ApexDestroyer]

Thanks for the help! 

He is up and running now with his old card so he can wait if that's the best option. What card / price point should we wait for?

 

Would it be better to take advantage of the free sync monitor he has with a Radeon or does it really matter? 

[Prodigy_Smit]

Just now, ApexDestroyer said:

Would it be better to take advantage of the free sync monitor he has with a Radeon or does it really matter? 

It would be very good to use free sync.

Just now, ApexDestroyer said:

What card / price point should we wait for?

Wait for the 5600xt for sub 300 or at 300$

Also quote people so they see replies.

[BiotechBen]

If he isn't going to be playing super demanding games, the USD$200 mark for a half decent card is the way to go, he shouldn't need anything higher than a 970 or thereabouts for esports and fortnite type games. I'm running an RX480 8GB reference for battlefield 1 and Battlefront 2 at 1080 60fps ultra settings and it doesn't skip a beat.... I got mine for $130 which was a bit of a deal.  Usually they go for more in the $150 range.

[ApexDestroyer]

3 hours ago, Prodigy_Smit said:

It would be very good to use free sync.

Wait for the 5600xt for sub 300 or at 300$

Also quote people so they see replies.

Thanks! 

[ApexDestroyer]

1 hour ago, BiotechBen said:

If he isn't going to be playing super demanding games, the USD$200 mark for a half decent card is the way to go, he shouldn't need anything higher than a 970 or thereabouts for esports and fortnite type games. I'm running an RX480 8GB reference for battlefield 1 and Battlefront 2 at 1080 60fps ultra settings and it doesn't skip a beat.... I got mine for $130 which was a bit of a deal.  Usually they go for more in the $150 range.

Right now he's just playing Fortnite type games but I'm sure he will eventually mature to bigger and better games. But he can always upgrade when he gets to that point. He's only 13 so hell prolly want to up in in about 2 years. 

[BiotechBen]

Unless he wants to go AAA titles at max settings, a 1060 6GB or rx 480/580 8GB should do him well for quite a while. I only say more than 4GB because I've seen mine spike to

5-6GB on occasion. 

[ApexDestroyer]

On 1/4/2021 at 1:32 PM, BiotechBen said:

Unless he wants to go AAA titles at max settings, a 1060 6GB or rx 480/580 8GB should do him well for quite a while. I only say more than 4GB because I've seen mine spike to

5-6GB on occasion. 

Is there a big difference between the 480 and the 580 for fortnite type games? 

[Middcore]

Just now, ApexDestroyer said:

Is there a big difference between the 480 and the 580 for fortnite type games? 

No. The 580 is basically the 480 with slightly higher clocks and power limit. 

[ApexDestroyer]

Basically, any new GPU is non-existent. After researching, I found that the RX 580 8GB was an ideal card for bit mining so any used one would be a high risk.

I did find a few of the 4GB version (sold as new) being sold by a computer dealer that pulled them out of the HP Omens. It a single fan version and looks very OEM but at $200 I think it's worth a shot. Once I get it, I'll stress test it to make sure there aren't any issues. Hopefully I won't run into any driver issues with it being straight out of an HP. 

 

I think it should be good enough for now and he can upgrade it again when prices go down. 

[Middcore]

There is nothing inherently risky about buying a card that's been used for mining. Miners who actually know what they're doing with multi-GPU mining rigs undervolt their cards and take care of them. The danger would be some dumb kid trying to mine on one card in their spare time with no research.