new gpu

LoganBlocks3 · December 19, 2023

Hey all! I was thinking about upgrading my gpu, which is WAY overdue. I was mainly looking at the used market because Im on a very tight budget. Right now, I have a evga nvidia 670, ryzen 3 3300x, 32 gb ram, and a corsair rm750. My monitors are: 1 (1080p 27" 75 hz), 1(1440p 27" 170hz), and 1 (ultrawide 34" 3440x1440p 165 hz). obviously, given the rest of my system, my GPU is WAYYY underpowered and my CPU is not great either. I am mainly a gamer. Anyway, any suggestions for best value used gpus under $150? I am willing to turn down my 2 1440p monitors to 1080p, by the way. Also, will my cpu bottleneck a gpu like the 6600? I am willing to stretch the budget up to maybe like $220, but only if I get significant performance gains. I would also prefer amd so that I can seamlessly do surround despite teh different resolutions, but I can easily be convinced otherwise. also, would a gpu above $150 used bottleneck my cpu? should I try to get a 6600 and a new cpu?

YoungBlade · December 19, 2023

Whether or not the R3 3300X will be a bottleneck for an RX 6600 depends on what games you're playing. I think the two would make a good pairing, as the RX 6600 is about as powerful as a GTX 1080, and the GTX 1080 was commonly paired with the i7 6700K, which has comparable performance to the 3300X.

As for what the best GPUs on the used market are, the RX 6600 is a fair choice. The RX 5700XT can often be found for around $150 as well - it is faster for basic rasterization, but lacks hardware raytracing. You may want to consider just getting the RX 6600 new, since it's available for $190.

If you step up to $220, unfortunately right now there's not much more out there. Around Black Friday, the RX 6650XT was available for just under $220, which would have been a nice improvement. It's now $240, which is dubious because then there's the RX 7600 for a little under $250.

As for the new CPU, I'd wait and see how the system performs with the new GPU first. You might find that, for the games you play and the settings you use, the GPU may still be the limiting factor.

Agall · December 19, 2023

1 hour ago, LoganBlocks3 said:

Hey all! I was thinking about upgrading my gpu, which is WAY overdue. I was mainly looking at the used market because Im on a very tight budget. Right now, I have a evga nvidia 670, ryzen 3 3300x, 32 gb ram, and a corsair rm750. My monitors are: 1 (1080p 27" 75 hz), 1(1440p 27" 170hz), and 1 (ultrawide 34" 3440x1440p 165 hz). obviously, given the rest of my system, my GPU is WAYYY underpowered and my CPU is not great either. I am mainly a gamer. Anyway, any suggestions for best value used gpus under $150? I am willing to turn down my 2 1440p monitors to 1080p, by the way. Also, will my cpu bottleneck a gpu like the 6600? I am willing to stretch the budget up to maybe like $220, but only if I get significant performance gains. I would also prefer amd so that I can seamlessly do surround despite teh different resolutions, but I can easily be convinced otherwise. also, would a gpu above $150 used bottleneck my cpu? should I try to get a 6600 and a new cpu?

I'm really confused on why you have 3 displays, sum total being dramatically more expensive than your system or your proposed budget.

I'd say get a drop in 5600(x) and RX 6650 XT at the minimum, otherwise you're not going to get acceptable performance on even a 1080p display.

In reality, you should probably get rid of 1 or 2 of those displays to get the budget to get a moderately powerful system. Driving 1440p UW is no slouch, an RX 6600 not even being enough for that.

1 hour ago, LoganBlocks3 said:

I am mainly a gamer.

Sell your 1080p and 1440p displays, keep the 1440p UW and get yourself a drop in CPU upgrade and the best GPU that'll fit within the rest of what you're willing to spend. Up to a 5800x3D and 7800 XT.