Upgrading GPU

[ShazzoBazzo]

Budget (including currency): ~$500 USD

 

Country: USA

 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Overwatch 2, Halo Infinite, Black Ops 3, Battlefield 4, Davinci Resolve, Unity, Blender, OBS

 

Other details: 

My current specs: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dvRhTn 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($136.97 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($37.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  ($65.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($37.49 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card 
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case  ($64.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair TX550M 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC F8 31 CFM 80 mm Fan 
Monitor: Acer GN246HL 24.0" 1920 x 1080 144 Hz Monitor 
Mouse: Logitech G203 Lightsync Wired Optical Mouse  ($29.99 @ Dell) 
Headphones: SteelSeries ARCTIS 5 (2019 Edition) 7.1 Channel  Headset  ($98.74 @ Amazon) 

 

Not listed on the site: NiZ plum keyboard 110keys, Artist 12 Pro drawing tablet

 

Looking to upgrade my ~5 year old GPU to catch up with some of the more modern games. Satisfied with a constant 60fps on high settings in the games listed, not planning to upgrade my monitor to 4k resolution in the future.

All help is appreciated.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by ShazzoBazzo

[Dukesilver27-]

Since you only have a 550W PSU, you'd want to upgrade PSU as well.

6700XT only a bit below 3070, but around $100 cheaper, well worth it.

A high quality PSU to meet the recommended PSU spec.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/prQd9r
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($419.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Total: $499.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-18 22:25 EDT-0400

 

 

[Queen Chrysalis]

1 hour ago, Dukesilver27- said:

Since you only have a 550W PSU, you'd want to upgrade PSU as well.

6700XT only a bit below 3070, but around $100 cheaper, well worth it.

A high quality PSU to meet the recommended PSU spec.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/prQd9r
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($419.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Total: $499.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-18 22:25 EDT-0400

 

 

A 6650xt would still be an enourmous upgrade over the 970 (nearly tripling fps in most stuff) for about $270 and would not require a PSU upgrade:

 

Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (GV-R665XTGAMING OC-8GD) - PCPartPicker

 

In the end this would be about $230 cheaper while still being massively faster than what you have.

 

But in al reality, davinci resolve LOVES nvidia GPUs for cuda and tensor cores, it'll greatly accellerate your renders and real-time scrubbing.  12GB of VRAM helps with this a lot too.

 

New 3060s are kind of a crap deal on price, but a used one can;t be very old and there are plenty ot be had for an excellent price on ebay.  It also would still be totally fine with your current PSU.

 

EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC GAMING 12GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (Open Box) | eBay

 

I would get this if you are serious about using resolve a lot.  It'll still game at 2 to 3 times the framerate fo your 970, and will tear through exports and real time scrub very well.

[Dukesilver27-]

15 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

 

But in al reality, davinci resolve LOVES nvidia GPUs for tensor cores, it'll greatly accellerate your renders and real-time scrubbing. 

 

New 3060s are kind of a crap deal on price, but a used one can;t be very old and there are plenty ot be had for an excellent price on ebay.  

Oof, I actually didn't see the Blender and other productivity workloads stuff, my bad.

In that case, going with Nvidia is better, as you said.

 

However, seeing as 3060 is not a good deal, also as you said, I'd recommend finding used a 3070 or a new 3060 Ti, and a 650w750w PSU.

If you're not comfortable with the risk of getting used GPU, then I wouldn't. High risk high reward.

A bit over budget,  please don't cheap out on PSU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jKdvfv

Video Card: Zotac GAMING Twin Edge OC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB Video Card  ($439.99 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $529.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-18 23:40 EDT-0400

[Queen Chrysalis]

9 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

Oof, I actually didn't see the Blender and other productivity workloads stuff, my bad.

In that case, going with Nvidia is better, as you said.

 

However, seeing as 3060 is not a good deal, also as you said, I'd recommend finding used a 3070 or a new 3060 Ti, and a 650w750w PSU.

If you're not comfortable with the risk of getting used GPU, then I wouldn't. High risk high reward.

A bit over budget,  please don't cheap out on PSU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jKdvfv

Video Card: Zotac GAMING Twin Edge OC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB Video Card  ($439.99 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $529.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-18 23:40 EDT-0400

Hardly high risk.  If a GPU works it works.  They don't degrade like cars, a lot of our aversions toward used products is based in learned experience with cars.  10-year old GPUs still work fine and brand new ones are dead off the line, time doesnt really matter much, but that being said an ampere GPU is at most 2 years old.  If it doesn't work you get your money back.  eBay is super customer-sided with the money-back guarantee.  But really I've never had one show up dead.  As long as the seller isn't a moron with packing it'll be fine (even if they are it'll still probably be fine). 

 

Also the Superflower Legion Pro GX 650 is $60 on newegg and a 650w is plenty for a 3070 or 3060ti.  

 

The other thing is, 12GB of VRAM is a big deal for 4k editing as it allows for whole frame rendering at once on the VRAM, which the 3060ti and 3070 cannot do, but all 3060s and 12gb 3080 can.