What should I upgrade?

[aDistraction]

Budget (including currency): No budget for now, I just want to see decent parts for a good gaming experience.

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Im trying to run MSFS2020 at max graphics, should be enough info.

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): my current parts 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PnpFDq (ram and monitor may be inaccurate, I know ram is 16gb and ddr4 though)

[191x7]

That Ryzen 2600 is severely bottlenecking your 3060Ti. You need a way stronger CPU. Luckily for you, you just need to update your bios to the latest and put in a cheap Ryzen 5 5600 or Ryzen 7 5700X. One of those will allow the GPU to work as it should (achieve full potential) and your system will be well rounded.

[Supersonicwolfe]

16 minutes ago, aDistraction said:

Budget (including currency): No budget for now, I just want to see decent parts for a good gaming experience.

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Im trying to run MSFS2020 at max graphics, should be enough info.

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): my current parts 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PnpFDq (ram and monitor may be inaccurate, I know ram is 16gb and ddr4 though)

Grab a 5800X3D if you see them on sale, but at minimum you should have a 5600 with that GPU

[aDistraction]

13 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

That Ryzen 2600 is severely bottlenecking your 3060Ti. You need a way stronger CPU. Luckily for you, you just need to update your bios to the latest and put in a cheap Ryzen 5 5600 or Ryzen 7 5700X. One of those will allow the GPU to work as it should (achieve full potential) and your system will be well rounded.

Alright, thanks for the advice

[191x7]

13 minutes ago, Supersonicwolfe said:

Grab a 5800X3D if you see them on sale, but at minimum you should have a 5600 with that GPU

I would not put a 5800X3D on the motherboard he has. That would be just asking for trouble.

[Queen Chrysalis]

I would try overclocking that first.  The 2600 can hit 4.2GHz with 1.4125 volts pretty reliably, and sometimes you can get 4.3GHz with a 1.425 volts.  With a 3060ti that may do the trick and would cost you nothing.  That way you could just hold on to your money, as the 3060ti is a fast GPU that you should not have to upgrade for a while, and the 2600 is a little slow, but if you can get it going fast enough to not bottleneck your GPU, then there's no issue.

 

Otherwise a 5600 or 5700x are acceptable value, the 5800x3d is way too expensive for a CPU that's outpaced by much cheaper alternatives on newer architectures.  

[Supersonicwolfe]

4 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

I would not put a 5800X3D on the motherboard he has. That would be just asking for trouble.

True, so upgrade the mobo to a newer B550/x570 mATX probably should also be on the list.

[Queen Chrysalis]

2 minutes ago, Supersonicwolfe said:

True, so upgrade the mobo to a newer B550/x570 mATX probably should also be on the list.

No, don't bother.  That motherboard can handle a 5600 or 5700x, at that point you'd be spending $350 on a year and a half old CPU plus IDK how much on a new motherboard for an old socket to pair with a 2-year-old midrange GPU.  

 

Just spend $140 on a 5600 or $185 on a 5700x for almost identical performance.  Or try OCing your 2600 and just waiting until the whole system needs to be replaced.

[aDistraction]

Thanks for all the help, ill try overclocking it first, then consider buying a new cpu

[Queen Chrysalis]

6 minutes ago, aDistraction said:

Thanks for all the help, ill try overclocking it first, then consider buying a new cpu

I've found 1.4125v to be stable for 4.2GHz, but if it's crashy you can go as a high as 1.45 without too much concern.  Try raising voltage in increments of 0.0125v.  4.3GHz may also be doable, but again, you'll probably need at least 1.425v.  Precision boost will use as much as 1.5v for short periods of time, but for a consistent manual overclock, I'd avoid going higher than 1.45 volts.

 

If you buy a new CPU, be sure to update to the latest BIOS before you swap the chip out.  Either of those new chips would be plenty fast without any overclocking.

[191x7]

16 minutes ago, Supersonicwolfe said:

True, so upgrade the mobo to a newer B550/x570 mATX probably should also be on the list.

Nope. That's not a good idea. It would mean spending a few hundred more without getting anything meaningful.

 

11 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

No, don't bother.  That motherboard can handle a 5600 or 5700x, at that point you'd be spending $350 on a year and a half old CPU plus IDK how much on a new motherboard for an old socket to pair with a 2-year-old midrange GPU.  

 

Just spend $140 on a 5600 or $185 on a 5700x for almost identical performance.  Or try OCing your 2600 and just waiting until the whole system needs to be replaced.

I agree with everything except overclocking the 2600.

It's a bad overckocker and OC-ing it can't bring it nowhere near the strength needed to feed the GPU the op has.

 

4 minutes ago, aDistraction said:

Thanks for all the help, ill try overclocking it first, then consider buying a new cpu

The 5600 is should be from 40% to 60% stronger per core.

The 5700X is the same, just additional 2 cores more. Games are nearing the threshold where 6 cores might not be optimal...

No amount of 2600 overclocking can get the 2600 more than 15% and that not even close to what you need.

Also, Ryzen 5000 has a way better memory controller meaning RAM of 3000MT/s or faster isn't a stability issue.

[Queen Chrysalis]

21 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

It's a bad overckocker and OC-ing it can't bring it nowhere near the strength needed to feed the GPU the op has.

Dpends on the resolution.  The 3060ti is a little faster that the 1080ti IIRC.  I have a 1600 with a very OC'd 1070ti at 4k and it's nowhere near bottlenecking it.  When I was using that tower with my 1440p monitor, it still wasn't an issue.  The 2600 is definitely slower than the 5600, but we're not talking about a 3080 here, this is a 3060ti.  I have a friend who's really into MSFS running an 8700k with a 6800xt, which IMO is about the same level of disparity, if anything, I'd put the 6800xt further ahead of the 3060ti than I would the 8700k ahead of the 2600.  It's at least worth a shot.  OP will probably need to upgrade, but trying is free, and it might be close enough.

[The_Mole]

Ok, got you a faster CPU, doubled the RAM, turned the 3.5" HDD into an M.2 SSD and turned the two SATA SSDs into one with 500GB more total capacity.
Ditched the CPU cooler, as for 65W, the box cooler will suffice.

Swapped the keyboard for a comparable one that's half the price.

Bumped your PSU to 80+ Gold, added a mainboard that's one gen newer and has a price.
Ended up 50 bucks cheaper.
As the 3060 had no price, I added a 3070 that is available.

 

Here you go:
 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Ftdv9r

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($166.00 @ Amazon) 
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
• Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($67.98 @ Amazon) 
• Storage: TEAMGROUP MP33 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($107.99 @ Newegg) 
• Storage: Patriot P210 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.99 @ B&H) 
• Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Rev 2.0 GeForce RTX 3070 LHR 8 GB Video Card  ($544.99 @ Newegg) 
• Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($69.98 @ Amazon) 
• Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
• Monitor: Dell S2522HG 24.5" 1920 x 1080 240 Hz Monitor  ($149.99 @ Dell Technologies) 
• Keyboard: Corsair RGB MK.2 Low Profile RAPIDFIRE Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($99.99 @ Best Buy) 
• Mouse: Logitech G203 Prodigy Wired Optical Mouse  ($35.95 @ Amazon) 
• Headphones: HP HyperX Cloud Stinger  Headset  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $1512.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-13 19:04 EST-0500

 

 

[191x7]

6 hours ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Dpends on the resolution.  The 3060ti is a little faster that the 1080ti IIRC.  I have a 1600 with a very OC'd 1070ti at 4k and it's nowhere near bottlenecking it.  When I was using that tower with my 1440p monitor, it still wasn't an issue.  The 2600 is definitely slower than the 5600, but we're not talking about a 3080 here, this is a 3060ti.  I have a friend who's really into MSFS running an 8700k with a 6800xt, which IMO is about the same level of disparity, if anything, I'd put the 6800xt further ahead of the 3060ti than I would the 8700k ahead of the 2600.  It's at least worth a shot.  OP will probably need to upgrade, but trying is free, and it might be close enough.

I guess you skipped most of the recent Hardware Unboxed videos.

Nvidia GPU-s are way harder to drive than (new) AMD, the same performance range requires an about 20% stronger CPU. Way easier to bottleenck.

And we're talking 1080p here. The zen+ is terrible for sub-1440p.

As for your friend, the 8700K is the equivalent of a Ryzen 5 3600X and the 6800XT is easier to drive than a 3070Ti but stronger than a 3080, and your friend might be using 1440p or 4K which would make the bottleneck almost non existant.

 

6 hours ago, The_Mole said:

Ok, got you a faster CPU, doubled the RAM, turned the 3.5" HDD into an M.2 SSD and turned the two SATA SSDs into one with 500GB more total capacity.
Ditched the CPU cooler, as for 65W, the box cooler will suffice.

Swapped the keyboard for a comparable one that's half the price.

Bumped your PSU to 80+ Gold, added a mainboard that's one gen newer and has a price.
Ended up 50 bucks cheaper.
As the 3060 had no price, I added a 3070 that is available.

 

Here you go:
 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Ftdv9r

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($166.00 @ Amazon) 
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
• Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($67.98 @ Amazon) 
• Storage: TEAMGROUP MP33 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($107.99 @ Newegg) 
• Storage: Patriot P210 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.99 @ B&H) 
• Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Rev 2.0 GeForce RTX 3070 LHR 8 GB Video Card  ($544.99 @ Newegg) 
• Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($69.98 @ Amazon) 
• Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
• Monitor: Dell S2522HG 24.5" 1920 x 1080 240 Hz Monitor  ($149.99 @ Dell Technologies) 
• Keyboard: Corsair RGB MK.2 Low Profile RAPIDFIRE Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($99.99 @ Best Buy) 
• Mouse: Logitech G203 Prodigy Wired Optical Mouse  ($35.95 @ Amazon) 
• Headphones: HP HyperX Cloud Stinger  Headset  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $1512.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-13 19:04 EST-0500

 

 

My friend, the OP already has the parts, it's not a new build that he's doing - he's just looking at what can be improved with simple/cheaper upgrades.

[Queen Chrysalis]

4 hours ago, 191x7 said:

using 1440p or 4K which would make the bottleneck almost non existant.

Correct.  I actually missed the 1080p240 monitor in OP's parts list, assuming the desire for a high-end GPU was born of a high-res monitor.  In that case I rescind all advice related to keeping the 2600 around.  

[The_Mole]

5 hours ago, 191x7 said:

My friend, the OP already has the parts, it's not a new build that he's doing - he's just looking at what can be improved with simple/cheaper upgrades.

Oh, didn't catch that in the first place. Sorry.