Upgrade or wait?

[Wype]

Budget (including currency): ~400$ Cad (I'm ok with used parts)

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming (mid/high settings), Photoshop, plex server/File server, VMs, hardware encoding required

Other details:

Current build : Heavily upgraded Lenovo S30

- Xeon e5-1650 @3.20ghz

- Lenovo s30 mobo with modded bios to boot on nvme ssd (with pcie adapter)

- 32gb of ddr3 ecc ram

- Zotac Gtx 1060 mini 3gb

- 1tb ssd nvme WD SN550

- 1tb HDD WD blue @7200rpm

- 6tb hdd Seagate barracuda @5400rpm

- (5x) 4tb Seagate barracuda @5400rpm working in parity Storage Space

- Lenovo PSU 650watts gold

- Fractal design define r5

- Windows 10 pro

- Dual 1080p60hz monitors + 4k hdr TV

 

Spare parts:

- 180gb ssd Intel sata 3

- (2x) 1tb hdd @ 7200rpm

- Nvidia Quadro K4000 3gb

- Lenovo s30 case (mid atx)

 

Current performance:

Between 30 to 60fps in current AAA games at mid settings with fsr (cyberpunk, horizon,...) and between 100 to 150fps in esport games at mid high settings (valorant, cs go, lol,...)  while running 1 or 2 (small print) VMs and handling 1 to 3 plex transcoding.

Work well in photoshop (will chug with the new neural filters though)

This computer is permanently running.

 

 

OK so I have been running this config since 2013 and upgraded a "bit" along the way.

Unfortunately it's starting to show its age in gaming and so I have been planning to upgrade.

 

First thing that build is pretty much maxed out in term of possible upgrades.

 

Now I'm confronted to multiple choices, I could get a ryzen 5 3600x + compatible mobo and 16gig for around 250$ cad.

I could upgrade my current build with those but I'm not sure it's worth it performance wise. 

 

2nd choice would be getting those + an ssd and psu and mount a second pc (using my spare case and the gtx 1060) for gaming only and keep my current build for my server oriented tasks (plex + file server + vm.. ).

 

3rd would be to keep my current build, upgrade the gpu to a 3060 or a Rx6600 and wait for new CPU and ddr5.

 

4th hold current build and replace cpu/mobo/ram/gpu all at once.

 

I'm aiming for 60fps at high/mid settings.

 

Your thought?

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

[BiG StroOnZ]

I like choices 3 and 4 the most. I would do a combination of them, meaning, wait for Raptor Lake/Zen 4 to launch and do a full scratch build all at once with the new stuff when it arrives. And if you can snag an RTX 3060 or RX 6600 for a good price in the meantime, it will show a sizeable improvement over your 1060 3GB (despite being bottlenecked by your CPU quite a bit). 

[Wype]

44 minutes ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

I like choices 3 and 4 the most. I would do a combination of them, meaning, wait for Raptor Lake/Zen 4 to launch and do a full scratch build all at once with the new stuff when it arrives. And if you can snag an RTX 3060 or RX 6600 for a good price in the meantime, it will show a sizeable improvement over your 1060 3GB (despite being bottlenecked by your CPU quite a bit). 

Thank you for your answer! Those were both my goto choice.

 

Quick question though : Rx6600 can be found around 400/450$ while the 6600/6650xt can be found for around 530/550$, is the performance worth the 100$ more? (rtx 3060 are still at 600$or more in Canada)

 

Also I have been using Nvidia card for the last 15years, do the Rx6600 has an equivalent to NVEnc and does it perform well ? (need it for plex hardware transcoding).

 

Thank you

[BiG StroOnZ]

1 hour ago, Wype said:

Thank you for your answer! Those were both my goto choice.

 

Quick question though : Rx6600 can be found around 400/450$ while the 6600/6650xt can be found for around 530/550$, is the performance worth the 100$ more? (rtx 3060 are still at 600$or more in Canada)

 

Also I have been using Nvidia card for the last 15years, do the Rx6600 has an equivalent to NVEnc and does it perform well ? (need it for plex hardware transcoding).

 

Thank you

 

You're very welcome.

 

As far as the price disparity between the 6600 and 6650 XT, if you can afford the extra $100 I would say it's worth it as the 6650 XT is a solid 20% faster than the 6600. The 6650 XT is even 15% faster than an RTX 3060, so for around $530-550 it's a relatively good choice.

 

 

From the research I could find, AMD GPUs are fine to go with, but typically if you are only concerned with Plex 1080p transcoding. If you want to go up to 1440p or 4K Plex transcoding, then the recommendations seem to favor NVIDIA. AMD has its own NVENC alternative called VEC (Video Encoding Engine), but there seems to be mixed opinions on it. Where generally people say that NVIDIA offers the better solution. Here are some videos on the topic:

 

 

 

[Wype]

12 hours ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

 

You're very welcome.

 

As far as the price disparity between the 6600 and 6650 XT, if you can afford the extra $100 I would say it's worth it as the 6650 XT is a solid 20% faster than the 6600. The 6650 XT is even 15% faster than an RTX 3060, so for around $530-550 it's a relatively good choice.

 

 

From the research I could find, AMD GPUs are fine to go with, but typically if you are only concerned with Plex 1080p transcoding. If you want to go up to 1440p or 4K Plex transcoding, then the recommendations seem to favor NVIDIA. AMD has its own NVENC alternative called VEC (Video Encoding Engine), but there seems to be mixed opinions on it. Where generally people say that NVIDIA offers the better solution. Here are some videos on the topic:

 

 

 

Thanks! I'll dig into that.