GPU Upgrade & Compatability

[canilickit]

Hey guys,

 

I've decided to finally bite the bullet and upgrade my EVGA Nvidia GTX 1080 FTW. I'm looking at either getting the RTX 4070 or the Radeon 6950 XT - unfortunately my current motherboard is PCIe 3.0 so I'll have to upgrade that as well. I've done a few compatability checks and everything seems alright, I just want to post here to double check and ask for some recommendations. 

 

My current build is:

 

GPU: EVGA Nvidia GTX 1080 FTW

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

MB: MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 3200 MHz DDR4 32GB (8 x 4)

PSU: Super Flower SF-750F14MG 750 W

CASE: Phanteks Eclipse P500A

 

I'm planning to upgrade to these components:

 

GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 OR XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT Merc Speedster

MB:  MSI MPG B550 GAMING PLUS

PSU: Super Flower SF-850F14RG 850 W

 

My first question is about compatability and whether I should be worried about anything here (I included the case because I know the RX 6950 XT is BEEFY).

 

My second question is which GPU to upgrade to - I see that the RTX 4070 has DLSS3 and handles ray tracing a lot better than the 6950 XT. I mostly play competitive multiplayer games like Overwatch 2, V Rising and Diablo IV however I do enjoy the odd singleplayer experience as well (such as Red Dead Redemption 2 or Remnant: From the Ashes). I've been itching to try out ray tracing for a while now. I'll mostly be gaming in 1080P and 1440P as I don't have a 4K monitor yet. I also work in animation, with rendering and editing (Blender, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator) and I hear that the RTX 4070 handles productivity applications well.

 

Lastly, I don't really have much choice when it comes to the manufacturers GPU for the 6950 XT (the only one really available to me is the one I listed above) however I do have quite a few options when it comes to the RTX 4070. Out of the RTX 4070 lineup, which manufacturers card do you think will be best (Palit, Zotac, Asus, etc.) - if it's even the better option?

 

Any help would be super appreciated and thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Why_Me]

Update your current board's bios and add a Ryzen 5700X. Put the rest of the budget towards a gpu.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

21 minutes ago, canilickit said:

unfortunately my current motherboard is PCIe 3.0 so I'll have to upgrade that as well.

Completely pointless as you wont be limited with pcie gen3 unless you are using a 6500xt, even the 4090 doesnt take that much of a performance hit with pcie gen3

 

4070 is good at power efficiency, pretty much just a more power efficient 12gb 3080, wouldnt bother unless were talking high power bills or sff

 

6950xt also kinda eh, new pricing comes close to used 3090 pricing which is just outright superior, not to mention used 6900/6950xt floating around usually having abit of a discount over new

 

 

Id reccomend a used rtx 3090 over these two gpus cause its simply better in both gpu and vram, usually theyre around 700$ on ebay but you may be able to score a better deal on fb marketplace or other classifieds sites

[PcBeExpensive]

1 hour ago, canilickit said:

Hey guys,

 

I've decided to finally bite the bullet and upgrade my EVGA Nvidia GTX 1080 FTW. I'm looking at either getting the RTX 4070 or the Radeon 6950 XT - unfortunately my current motherboard is PCIe 3.0 so I'll have to upgrade that as well. I've done a few compatability checks and everything seems alright, I just want to post here to double check and ask for some recommendations. 

 

My current build is:

 

GPU: EVGA Nvidia GTX 1080 FTW

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

MB: MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 3200 MHz DDR4 32GB (8 x 4)

PSU: Super Flower SF-750F14MG 750 W

CASE: Phanteks Eclipse P500A

 

I'm planning to upgrade to these components:

 

GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 OR XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT Merc Speedster

MB:  MSI MPG B550 GAMING PLUS

PSU: Super Flower SF-850F14RG 850 W

 

My first question is about compatability and whether I should be worried about anything here (I included the case because I know the RX 6950 XT is BEEFY).

 

My second question is which GPU to upgrade to - I see that the RTX 4070 has DLSS3 and handles ray tracing a lot better than the 6950 XT. I mostly play competitive multiplayer games like Overwatch 2, V Rising and Diablo IV however I do enjoy the odd singleplayer experience as well (such as Red Dead Redemption 2 or Remnant: From the Ashes). I've been itching to try out ray tracing for a while now. I'll mostly be gaming in 1080P and 1440P as I don't have a 4K monitor yet. I also work in animation, with rendering and editing (Blender, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator) and I hear that the RTX 4070 handles productivity applications well.

 

Lastly, I don't really have much choice when it comes to the manufacturers GPU for the 6950 XT (the only one really available to me is the one I listed above) however I do have quite a few options when it comes to the RTX 4070. Out of the RTX 4070 lineup, which manufacturers card do you think will be best (Palit, Zotac, Asus, etc.) - if it's even the better option?

 

Any help would be super appreciated and thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would look for a used 7900 XT since it performs better than the 4070 and 6950 XT. For the manufaturer get the cheapest one known brand one. What country are you in btw? I would do what @Why_Me said and install a 5700 OR if you can spend a bit more money the 5800x3d will perform much better in 1080. If you primarily using 1440p though even a 5600 would be fine. I'm not sure how much the difference is between AMD and Nvidia in productivity but I don't think the gap would be huge between the 7900 XT and the 4070.

[SorryBella]

1 hour ago, PcBeExpensive said:

used 7900 XT

Already?

 

And yeah, id swap the board upgrade for a 5700 or 5600X3D if youre nearby a Micro Center that still stocks it. But realistically any 5000 series is a huge jump in gaming performance compared to the Zen 2.

[canilickit]

7 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

wont be limited with pcie gen3 unless you are using a 6500xt, even the 4090 doesnt take that much of a performance hit with pcie gen3

That's a huge relief on the budget at least - thank you.

6 hours ago, PcBeExpensive said:

I would look for a used 7900 XT since it performs better than the 4070 and 6950 XT. For the manufaturer get the cheapest one known brand one. What country are you in btw?

Unfortunately I live in South Africa so I don't have much choice when it comes to availability - anything tech related also has about a 100% mark up here. 

 

I really like the idea of upgrading the CPU though, and there's quite a few specials on them right now - I could actually get a Ryzen 9 5900X at its current price. I might have to give the GPU a skip for now then, I actually wanted a 30 series card but I can't find any here - even used.

 

7 hours ago, Why_Me said:

Update your current board's bios and add a Ryzen 5700X. Put the rest of the budget towards a gpu.

Would it be worth just getting the Ryzen 9 5900X then?

 

Thanks  for all the replies.

[Why_Me]

29 minutes ago, canilickit said:

That's a huge relief on the budget at least - thank you.

Unfortunately I live in South Africa so I don't have much choice when it comes to availability - anything tech related also has about a 100% mark up here. 

 

I really like the idea of upgrading the CPU though, and there's quite a few specials on them right now - I could actually get a Ryzen 9 5900X at its current price. I might have to give the GPU a skip for now then, I actually wanted a 30 series card but I can't find any here - even used.

 

Would it be worth just getting the Ryzen 9 5900X then?

 

Thanks  for all the replies.

 

[canilickit]

Thanks for all the help and responses. I think I'm definitely going to go with the 5800X3D and wait for either a price drop or till a second hand 30 series becomes available.