Paring a GPU to a i5 6500. Missed a deal on 2070 super for $180

[ShayOh]

So I am looking to pair a GPU for my son's new, low-end gaming desktop. (i5 6500, 16GB ram, OEM mobo)
The budget is about $150, which I offered for the 2070 super but declined, and it was sold.
Anyway, I am a very savvy shopper and, in the past, got far better deals than any scrapyard wars.

So far, any card below the 2070 or 2070 super online has had trash pricing and was way overpriced to value (As Linus mentioned in a recent video)

My question is, giving I can find another 2070 super for about $180, what would be a reasonable price for a 2060 or 2060 super? What would be the tradeoffs?

What I am trying to achieve (at least for the next year until his next birthday) is solid, high settings, 144 Hz, and 1080P Minecraft experience. With DLSS is ok; no RT is needed.

[YoungBlade]

Minecraft is almost entirely bound by single-core CPU performance and RAM speed. Also, an SSD is crucial for traveling, as it vastly improves the speed at which chunks can load in. The GPU generally doesn't matter much, even at high settings. My own RTX 2060 Super is never the bottleneck in vanilla Minecraft, even with the settings cranked as high as they go. The Ryzen 9 5900X is the bottleneck, that and the DDR4-3333 memory speed.

 

If you don't need RT, you can get away with a very meager GPU when pairing it with an i5 6500 for Minecraft. The problem is going to be that it'll be hard to get an i5 6500 to run Minecraft at 144fps consistently.

[filpo]

7 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

What I am trying to achieve (at least for the next year until his next birthday) is solid, high settings, 144 Hz, and 1080P Minecraft experience. With DLSS is ok; no RT is needed.

I'd say stretch the budget a little bit and get a 6600ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card (RX6600 CLD 8G) - PCPartPicker

7 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

My question is, giving I can find another 2070 super for about $180, what would be a reasonable price for a 2060 or 2060 super? What would be the tradeoffs?

A good price used? Probably 150

 

There's this 2070 super for 175 GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card - GV-N207SWF3OC-8GD 889523019122 | eBay

[SimplyChunk]

3 minutes ago, filpo said:

There's this 2070 super

That's not a super that's the plain 2070

[ShayOh]

6 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

Minecraft is almost entirely bound by single-core CPU performance and RAM speed. Also, an SSD is crucial for traveling, as it vastly improves the speed at which chunks can load in. The GPU generally doesn't matter much, even at high settings. My own RTX 2060 Super is never the bottleneck in vanilla Minecraft, even with the settings cranked as high as they go. The Ryzen 9 5900X is the bottleneck, that and the DDR4-3333 memory speed.

 

If you don't need RT, you can get away with a very meager GPU when pairing it with an i5 6500 for Minecraft. The problem is going to be that it'll be hard to get an i5 6500 to run Minecraft at 144fps consistently.

I see. not the answer I was hoping for haha. yea, I guess it's time to see about a new desktop rather than a GPU upgrade.

[SimplyChunk]

13 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

With DLSS is ok

You'll only get DLSS in bedrock (windows 10 edition).  not java.

[ShayOh]

Just now, ChonkerFox said:

You'll only get DLSS in bedrock (windows 10 edition).  not java.

it will be the bedrock edition, DLCs.. playing online and so on.

[SimplyChunk]

honestly an 8GB AMD RX580 would be a great pairing for an i5 6500  Or a GTX 1070/1070ti

[ShayOh]

1 minute ago, ChonkerFox said:

honestly an 8GB AMD RX580 would be a great pairing for an i5 6500  Or a GTX 1070/1070ti

I'm afraid though that i5 6500 would not be enough for the Minecraft experience I was looking for.

I mean it's not solely for Minecraft. He will be using my Steam account  (which I haven't in years, as you can see in the screenshot)

[Agall]

19 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

it will be the bedrock edition, DLCs.. playing online and so on.

A new build with an i3 12100f/13100f is as cheap as you can get when it comes to the best single threaded performance in 2023. You'd have to jump to a Ryzen 7600 or 13500 (double the price) to get the next price tier. In terms of GPUs, either RX 580's or a new RX 6600 8GB are the best options in my opinion. You could always opt for the regular SKUs of those CPUs and see if the integrated graphics are plenty, or just using the GTX 960 to start given the games they actually play.

[ShayOh]

1 hour ago, Agall said:

A new build with an i3 12100f/13100f is as cheap as you can get when it comes to the best single threaded performance in 2023. You'd have to jump to a Ryzen 7600 or 13500 (double the price) to get the next price tier. In terms of GPUs, either RX 580's or a new RX 6600 8GB are the best options in my opinion. You could always opt for the regular SKUs of those CPUs and see if the integrated graphics are plenty, or just using the GTX 960 to start given the games they actually play.

Yea, but a new build wouldn't be $150-200. even prebuilt with these processors start at around $400.

If pairing the i5 6500 with a GPU won't make any difference in Minecraft game performance, then we might as well scrap the whole idea and get him a different birthday gift. Currently, he does have an Xbox One X with Minecraft, so it's not like he can't play the game at all.
but if I can get him a graphic card that will help a little and will let him play some games on my Steam library and next year buy a new computer and move the GPU over then it's worth it. I guess. maybe not.