Desperate need of GPU upgrade, what do you think of my choice?

[winkawak]

I built my first pc back in 2015 with GTX 970, mobo died back in 2021. Last year i built a new pc and its a small form using meshlicious case and 12700K cpu. Im still using my gtx 970 but its kinda bad right now when im trying to play RD2 or any new title at 1080p at high or max settings. 

 

I need to upgrade badly but with the rtx 40 series price tag i dont have the funds to drop that kind of money or support the price hike tactic. It also seems the new release of 4060ti is also not a good buy.
 

This brings to me 3060/3060ti, i mostly game at 1080p max/high setting’s preferred. My monitor is 1440p, i dont mind gaming in 1440p but will 3060/3060ti be enough to push modern games at 1440p high settings?

 

I also plan to do some VR gaming in the future, is 3060/3060ti enough?

 

 

[filpo]

1 minute ago, winkawak said:

his brings to me 3060/3060ti, i mostly game at 1080p max/high setting’s preferred. My monitor is 1440p, i dont mind gaming in 1440p but will 3060/3060ti be enough to push modern games at 1440p high settings?

 

I also plan to do some VR gaming in the future, is 3060/3060ti enough?

 

is your budget around 300 bucks? I might go for the 3070 or even push your budget up to get a 3080 used. Also whats your cpu? 

Used 3080: GAINWARD NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X GPU Graphics Card 4895147141084 | eBay

[RONOTHAN##]

First things first, look at some of AMD's offerings. The RX 6700 XT is faster than the 3060/3060 Ti in rasterization workloads (anything but ray tracing), ~$310, and has 50% more VRAM which can help a ton in the games that need it like The Last Of Us. 

 

If you really need a Nvidia GPU for some reason (say CUDA support), then yeah, the 3060/3060 Ti are fine for 1080p max, and the 3060 Ti can do 1440p fairly well so long as you aren't VRAM limited. 

[winkawak]

1 minute ago, filpo said:

is your budget around 300 bucks? I might go for the 3070 or even push your budget up to get a 3080 used. Also whats your cpu? 

Used 3080: GAINWARD NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X GPU Graphics Card 4895147141084 | eBay

12700K, around 300 is where i feel comfortable buying a last gen gpu. I have looked at 3070 but its in the 430 range, i feel if im getting the 3070 i mind as well go for 4070 for 170 more.

[filpo]

1 minute ago, winkawak said:

i feel if im getting the 3070 i mind as well go for 4070 for 170 more.

the 4070 does also have 12 gigs of vram. But if your going there then get a 6950 xt or a used 3080 (the 6950 xt performs better and the 3080 performs the same for less money on the used market)

 

2 minutes ago, winkawak said:

12700K, around 300 is where i feel comfortable buying a last gen gpu. I have looked at 3070 but its in the 430 range,

check the used market

ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (TUFRTX307008GAMING) | eBay

ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Amp Holo 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card - ZT-A30700F-10P 810012082037 | eBay

Nvidia Galax Metal Top OC RTX 3070 8GB GPU Note Description - Fast Shipping 4895147141671 | eBay

[winkawak]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

First things first, look at some of AMD's offerings. The RX 6700 XT is faster than the 3060/3060 Ti in rasterization workloads (anything but ray tracing), ~$310, and has 50% more VRAM which can help a ton in the games that need it like The Last Of Us. 

 

If you really need a Nvidia GPU for some reason (say CUDA support), then yeah, the 3060/3060 Ti are fine for 1080p max, and the 3060 Ti can do 1440p fairly well so long as you aren't VRAM limited. 

Never owned a AMD gpu before, AMD doesnt have ray tracing right? is rasterization similar to ray trace? I just checked userbenchmark it seems 3060ti is faster by a small margin

[manikyath]

GTX 970 representing here.. i've been casually looking for an uprgade for about two years now.. and it's looking more and more like my next card will be AMD.

 

word of advice from a fellow GTX970 procrastinator then: look at AMD's offerings, see what the prices on a decent card are, and go and compare reviews for what suits the budget on both sides. last time i bothered to compare the AMD offerings were just factually "less bad" than nvidia's. (i refuse to use "better" at this point.)

[winkawak]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

GTX 970 representing here.. i've been casually looking for an uprgade for about two years now.. and it's looking more and more like my next card will be AMD.

 

word of advice from a fellow GTX970 procrastinator then: look at AMD's offerings, see what the prices on a decent card are, and go and compare reviews for what suits the budget on both sides. last time i bothered to compare the AMD offerings were just factually "less bad" than nvidia's. (i refuse to use "better" at this point.)

Im in the se boat shopping for GPU lol, i have never owned a AMD, does it have ray tracing option? whats the main difference between amd and nvidia?

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, winkawak said:

Never owned a AMD gpu before, AMD doesnt have ray tracing right? is rasterization similar to ray trace? I just checked userbenchmark it seems 3060ti is faster by a small margin

AMD does have ray tracing, they're just not as good at it. Also UserBenchmark is a terrible site and should only be taken by a grain of salt (they have a tendency to be very anti-AMD for whatever reason).

 

 

I'd trust TechPowerUp's numbers much more than UserBenchmark's. 

[FI Fheonix]

7 minutes ago, winkawak said:

12700K, around 300 is where i feel comfortable buying a last gen gpu. I have looked at 3070 but its in the 430 range, i feel if im getting the 3070 i mind as well go for 4070 for 170 more.

Why would you buy a 12700K? Unless you REALLY want a i7. 13600K is significantly better has more cores and turbos to a higher clock speed.

[winkawak]

5 minutes ago, filpo said:

the 4070 does also have 12 gigs of vram. But if your going there then get a 6950 xt or a used 3080 (the 6950 xt performs better and the 3080 performs the same for less money on the used market)

 

check the used market

ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (TUFRTX307008GAMING) | eBay

ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Amp Holo 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card - ZT-A30700F-10P 810012082037 | eBay

Nvidia Galax Metal Top OC RTX 3070 8GB GPU Note Description - Fast Shipping 4895147141671 | eBay

Whats the recommended vram to get nowaday for modern games? Jesus 970 3.5gb were considered good, games now need recommendation of 12gb? Thanks for the suggestion but i try to stay away buying used electronics avoiding headache purposes.

[filpo]

Just now, winkawak said:

games now need recommendation of 12gb? Thanks for the suggestion but i try to stay away buying used electronics avoiding headache purposes.

I would say that 12gb for the newest AAA titles at 1080p is good. But if its more common games like FH5 and fortnite or destiny 2/apex then the 3070 is perfectly fine at 1080p. maybe even 1440p for those games

[winkawak]

2 minutes ago, FI Fheonix said:

Why would you buy a 12700K? Unless you REALLY want a i7. 13600K is significantly better has more cores and turbos to a higher clock speed.

12700k i feel can last me at least half a decade for all my want and future proof. 13600k is abit extreme and the requirement for cooling.

[winkawak]

5 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

AMD does have ray tracing, they're just not as good at it. Also UserBenchmark is a terrible site and should only be taken by a grain of salt (they have a tendency to be very anti-AMD for whatever reason).

 

 

I'd trust TechPowerUp's numbers much more than UserBenchmark's. 

by the graph its seems 3060ti and 6700xt is pretty much the same. Will 3060ti be enough to hit high/max settings at 1440p in the next 3 years?

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, winkawak said:

Jesus 970 3.5gb were considered good,

It was a problem back with those cards as well. GTA V for instance you really had to balance VRAM usage with the settings you were running to make sure you weren't going over that 3.5GB (max settings would use just about 4GB), and there were a fair amount of games that did need that extra VRAM. 

 

With modern AAA titles like The Last Of Us, Jedi: Survivors, and Hogwarts Legacy, the VRAM usage is insane. Those games aren't well optimized and it shows, they will use 9-10GB of VRAM if you turn texture quality up to high. It's expected to get even worse over time, so if you can invest in a card that has more than 8GB of VRAM, you probably should. You can still get by with just 8GB of VRAM, it's just difficult. 

[manikyath]

5 minutes ago, winkawak said:

Im in the se boat shopping for GPU lol, i have never owned a AMD, does it have ray tracing option? whats the main difference between amd and nvidia?

afaik AMD doesnt really have an answer to raytracing yet, but i honestly dont really give a darn. the only games where it matters are games where the devs blindly implemented RTX, and other than that didnt bother with a lighting engine at all. and besides - if you're not shopping for a top end card, games still chug with RTX on, so you get to choose between the same shitty lighting, or pisspoor FPS.

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, winkawak said:

by the graph its seems 3060ti and 6700xt is pretty much the same. Will 3060ti be enough to hit high/max settings at 1440p in the next 3 years?

They are. The 6700 XT is ~$100 cheaper though, so keep that in mind. 

 

For high/max settings in 3 years, I'd say no because of the VRAM issues. The 6700 XT is more likely to remain usable because of its extra VRAM. I could be wrong, but keep that in mind. 

[PDifolco]

8 minutes ago, winkawak said:

Im in the se boat shopping for GPU lol, i have never owned a AMD, does it have ray tracing option? whats the main difference between amd and nvidia?

They have RT but are 1 gen behind, my 7900xtx performs like my previous 3080 in CP2077 RT

But that's an extreme case of heavy RT, in most light RT games they do ok, though worse than Nvidia cards

In rasterization AMD offers better performance for cheaper, so the way to go at entry or mid tier 

[winkawak]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It was a problem back with those cards as well. GTA V for instance you really had to balance VRAM usage with the settings you were running to make sure you weren't going over that 3.5GB (max settings would use just about 4GB), and there were a fair amount of games that did need that extra VRAM. 

 

With modern AAA titles like The Last Of Us, Jedi: Survivors, and Hogwarts Legacy, the VRAM usage is insane. Those games aren't well optimized and it shows, they will use 9-10GB of VRAM if you turn texture quality up to high. It's expected to get even worse over time, so if you can invest in a card that has more than 8GB of VRAM, you probably should. You can still get by with just 8GB of VRAM, it's just difficult. 

Ah i see, that means 3060/3070 is also meets the bare minimum at 8gb. Im leaning more towards 6800xt now with 12gb

[winkawak]

5 minutes ago, manikyath said:

afaik AMD doesnt really have an answer to raytracing yet, but i honestly dont really give a darn. the only games where it matters are games where the devs blindly implemented RTX, and other than that didnt bother with a lighting engine at all. and besides - if you're not shopping for a top end card, games still chug with RTX on, so you get to choose between the same shitty lighting, or pisspoor FPS.

 true

[winkawak]

7 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

They are. The 6700 XT is ~$100 cheaper though, so keep that in mind. 

 

For high/max settings in 3 years, I'd say no because of the VRAM issues. The 6700 XT is more likely to remain usable because of its extra VRAM. I could be wrong, but keep that in mind. 

Yea im leaning 6700xt more now due to 12gb and about same performance as 3060ti. This might end up my first amd card ever. Price wise im seeing same for both on newegg around 350

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, winkawak said:

Yea im leaning 6700xt more now due to 12gb and about same performance as 3060ti. This might end up my first amd card ever. Price wise im seeing same for both on newegg around 350

OK, never mind, prices have dropped a ton for the 3060 Ti, you can find them for under $300 at this point:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-8gb-gddr6-pci-express-4-0-graphics-card-with-dual-fan-black/6519166.p?acampID=0&cmp=RMX&irclickid=XctWZ%3AxGJxyPUoUwiRzDy1aXUkF2SEXeNzYqUY0&irgwc=1&loc=PCPartPicker&mpid=79301&ref=198&refdomain=pcpartpicker.com&skuId=6519166

 

You can still get the 6700 XT for $310 though after a promo code on Newegg: 

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-radeon-rx-6700-xt-rx6700xt-cld-12go/p/N82E16814930059?Item=N82E16814930059&nm_mc=AFC-RAN-COM&cm_mmc=afc-ran-com-_-PCPartPicker&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=afc-ran-com-_-PCPartPicker&utm_source=afc-PCPartPicker&AFFID=2558510&AFFNAME=PCPartPicker&ACRID=1&ASID=https%3a%2f%2fpcpartpicker.com%2f&ranMID=44583&ranEAID=2558510&ranSiteID=8BacdVP0GFs-rP2ZErzyRJ0jTN6Krl4Fxw

 

Given the 3060 Ti is $45 less, it can make a little more sense if you're willing to drop texture quality to medium, in order to save VRAM, though I'd probably spend the extra on the 6700 XT (partially for the extra VRAM, partially because in my experience overclocking RX 6000 series cards is more fun). 

[winkawak]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

OK, never mind, prices have dropped a ton for the 3060 Ti, you can find them for under $300 at this point:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-8gb-gddr6-pci-express-4-0-graphics-card-with-dual-fan-black/6519166.p?acampID=0&cmp=RMX&irclickid=XctWZ%3AxGJxyPUoUwiRzDy1aXUkF2SEXeNzYqUY0&irgwc=1&loc=PCPartPicker&mpid=79301&ref=198&refdomain=pcpartpicker.com&skuId=6519166

 

You can still get the 6700 XT for $310 though after a promo code on Newegg: 

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-radeon-rx-6700-xt-rx6700xt-cld-12go/p/N82E16814930059?Item=N82E16814930059&nm_mc=AFC-RAN-COM&cm_mmc=afc-ran-com-_-PCPartPicker&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=afc-ran-com-_-PCPartPicker&utm_source=afc-PCPartPicker&AFFID=2558510&AFFNAME=PCPartPicker&ACRID=1&ASID=https%3a%2f%2fpcpartpicker.com%2f&ranMID=44583&ranEAID=2558510&ranSiteID=8BacdVP0GFs-rP2ZErzyRJ0jTN6Krl4Fxw

 

Given the 3060 Ti is $45 less, it can make a little more sense if you're willing to drop texture quality to medium, in order to save VRAM, though I'd probably spend the extra on the 6700 XT (partially for the extra VRAM, partially because in my experience overclocking RX 6000 series cards is more fun). 

thanks!

[winkawak]

And thanks everyone for helping

[WallacEngineering]

1 hour ago, winkawak said:

Never owned a AMD gpu before, AMD doesnt have ray tracing right? is rasterization similar to ray trace? I just checked userbenchmark it seems 3060ti is faster by a small margin

 

So user benchmark is flat-out wrong. Linus has pointed thatbout a few times.

 

Also AMD has Ray-Tracing and has since last gen RX 6000 series, but its not as good as Nvidia, meaning the performance hit when you turn it on is worse.

 

However, Ray-Tracing is still a gimmick and not important to most gamers at this point in time and will probably remain unimportant until RTX 6000 or RTX 7000 series-ish.

 

Rasterization is what you do right now on the GTX 970. No special features, just pure graphical horsepower and shit-loads of polygons.

 

"Polygons for Days? Polygons for Days!!! Don't forget about the Bayonets!!!"

 

AMD is simply a far superior value at every single tier right now and by anlong way, too. On top of that, RX 7000 series Ray-Tracing isn't too bad now, the RX 7900-XTX is only about 10-15% off the RTX 4080 in games with Ray Tracing enabled. So AMD is getting there.

 

But if you want to buy last gen, RX 6000 series Ray Tracing is far worse, so just stick to raster in that case (meaning leaving Ray-Tracing off).

 

The RX 6700-XT is by FAR the best value gaming GPU on the market right now. For the same price as Nvidia's new RTX 4060 NON-Ti, you get about 40% more performance and 50% more VRAM and its a VERY STRONG card capable of high refresh rate at 2560x1440p resolution with High/Ultra settings.

 

Nvidia Mid-Tier is garbage this gen but the 3060 12GB is a decent option from last gen, although the 6700-XT also kicks its ass for the same price.

 

So unless you truly REQUIRE Nvidia for some reason, 6700-XT, done deal.

 

Keep in mind these graphs are ULTRA settings which are extremely taxing and deliver hardly any more fidelity for a huge performance hit VS High Settings.