What gpu should i get?

[M1ch4L]

I want to upgrade my pc (for mainly fps games) but im not that experienced in this topic. Thats why i wanted to get some feedback. Currently i have:

-CPU - I5-9600KF

-GPY - GTX 1660

-16 GB RAM

-MOTHERBOARD - TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING

I want to know if i should upgrade my pc or is it time to get a new one? After some own research i was thinking about buying RTX 3060 but like i said im not that experienced so idk. My budged isnt the lowest but it isnt also the biggest. Thank you in advance. :>

[Luxzio22]

For a start, you can clarify a bit more about your needs, budget and what other components, if any, you may be willing to upgrade.

1. Which resolution are you gaming at? 1080p? 1440p? Or the old reliable 720p?

2. Are you considering only upgrading the GPU? Many games today are very CPU-reliant and a CPU upgrade could help improve performance much more efficiently than a GPU upgrade since you might be CPU-bottlenecked.

3. Which games are you looking to play and what framerates are you hoping to achieve? If you're playing something with insanely high framerates like Rainbow Six Siege or Doom Eternal, you might not even need an upgrade. Are you looking to use more ray-tracing in games?

 

Cards around RTX 3060 12GB price-range in the US market are the AMD RX 7600 8GB which has slightly lesser non-RT and much worse RT performance but is cheaper, the RX 6700 XT 12GB which has better non-RT performance, is slightly worse in RT, is more power-hungry and the RTX 4060 8GB which is better in non-RT and RT performance. The only thing to consider with the 4060 is the lower VRAM but that shouldn't be concern if you aren't doing something very reliant on it like AI-stuff or hardware-accelerated software non-gaming software.

 

But even then the CPU might be a better part to upgrade so please do answer the above questions so we can help you better.

 

[M1ch4L]

7 hours ago, Luxzio22 said:

For a start, you can clarify a bit more about your needs, budget and what other components, if any, you may be willing to upgrade.

1. Which resolution are you gaming at? 1080p? 1440p? Or the old reliable 720p?

2. Are you considering only upgrading the GPU? Many games today are very CPU-reliant and a CPU upgrade could help improve performance much more efficiently than a GPU upgrade since you might be CPU-bottlenecked.

3. Which games are you looking to play and what framerates are you hoping to achieve? If you're playing something with insanely high framerates like Rainbow Six Siege or Doom Eternal, you might not even need an upgrade. Are you looking to use more ray-tracing in games?

 

Cards around RTX 3060 12GB price-range in the US market are the AMD RX 7600 8GB which has slightly lesser non-RT and much worse RT performance but is cheaper, the RX 6700 XT 12GB which has better non-RT performance, is slightly worse in RT, is more power-hungry and the RTX 4060 8GB which is better in non-RT and RT performance. The only thing to consider with the 4060 is the lower VRAM but that shouldn't be concern if you aren't doing something very reliant on it like AI-stuff or hardware-accelerated software non-gaming software.

 

But even then the CPU might be a better part to upgrade so please do answer the above questions so we can help you better.

 

1.Currently i am on 1440p but i am planning to get new monitor 1080p

2.I could upgrade anything for better performance, i just heard that gpu is most important for games

3.Valorant, lol, overwatch, the finals, fortnite, cs2 (most of competetive shooters) but sometimes i like to play other games like cyberpunk or gta too.

[Luxzio22]

5 hours ago, M1ch4L said:

1.Currently i am on 1440p but i am planning to get new monitor 1080p

2.I could upgrade anything for better performance, i just heard that gpu is most important for games

3.Valorant, lol, overwatch, the finals, fortnite, cs2 (most of competetive shooters) but sometimes i like to play other games like cyberpunk or gta too.

1. So you're planning to downgrade monitor resolution from 1440 to 1080p to get get higher framrerates? What refresh rate are you hoping to achieve? I think it would be best to decide everything else based on that. 

2 and 3: Unfortunately I don't play them but most competitive shooters are built and optimized for insane framerates already so I think you should only proceed with upgrading once you have decided on the resolution+framerate you want to achieve and finding out what the bottleneck is in your current system. 

 

So I recommend you run your most played games on your current system at your desired resolution and graphics settings and check the framerate, CPU and GPU usage with Afterburner (tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H23FSEybZsk).

If you see your CPU usage is 90% or higher but GPU usage is lower, then that game is CPU bottlenecked meaning the CPU isn't powerful enough and is holding back performance at those settings. If the GPU usage is high but CPU usage is low then the GPU is the bottleneck and it means the GPU isn't powerful enough at those settings. 

If both are high then both the CPU and GPU are struggling to run the game.

You can also check RAM usage but since you have 16GB already I don't think you'll be limited in that regard unless you're doing something intensive in the background like streaming or rendering.

 

Different games will behave differently so remember to test on all the games where framerate / better performance is important to you.

Once you have a better idea of where your hardware limitations / bottlenecks are, it will be much easier to decide what part to upgrade. Given how balanced and relatively powerful your current system is, I think you should be able to play esports games without much issues at all so I think it'll be worth upgrading only if you have both a strong desire for a particular performance level (ie framerate and graphics settings) and understanding of current limitations. 

This chart may be a bit outdated but it contains GPU performance numbers in CS2, though do keep in mind they're running it without a CPU limit: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/counter-strike-2-benchmark-test-performance-analysis/5.html