I need help with upgrading

[lulZghost]

Hi everyone.

 

I built my PC in 2016 with a MSI GTX 970 and a i7-6700. It worked very well, but the GPU is finally on it's death bed.

 

The most demanding games I play are (at 1080p 60Hz):

• Sons Of The Forest
• Anno 1800
• The Hunter COTW
• Battlefield 1

Those games are really struggling even at lower graphic settings

 

I don't need the top of the line card, so RX 7800 XT and 40 series would be overkill. But I also want something that lasts a while, I am fine with lowering graphics settings somewhat if necessary.

My PSU is a Thermaltake Berlin 630W, it has 8+(6+2) pin, so it should be still fine for new cards and I really want to avoid upgrading it.

CPU cooler is the BeQuiet Pure Rock, would be great if I could reuse it as well (it draws 150Watts, so 480W for the rest).

 

My budget is not strictly set but I was thinking 600-800€ max.

 

Do you have any recommendations which combo of GPU and CPU would be a future proof upgrade for me (again: 1080p at 60Hz and I don't need ultra graphics settings)?

If you can recommend a good mainboard as well (is possible compatible with my existing CPU cooler).

 

I would appreciate it if anyone has a good hint!

Thanks in advance!

[filpo]

8 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

BeQuiet Pure Rock

which one?

 

8 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

My PSU is a Thermaltake Berlin 630W

I'd replace it

 

8 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

Hi everyone.

 

I built my PC in 2016 with a MSI GTX 970 and a i7-6700. It worked very well, but the GPU is finally on it's death bed.

 

The most demanding games I play are (at 1080p 60Hz):

• Sons Of The Forest
• Anno 1800
• The Hunter COTW
• Battlefield 1

Those games are really struggling even at lower graphic settings

 

I don't need the top of the line card, so RX 7800 XT and 40 series would be overkill. But I also want something that lasts a while, I am fine with lowering graphics settings somewhat if necessary.

My PSU is a Thermaltake Berlin 630W, it has 8+(6+2) pin, so it should be still fine for new cards and I really want to avoid upgrading it.

CPU cooler is the BeQuiet Pure Rock, would be great if I could reuse it as well (it draws 150Watts, so 480W for the rest).

 

My budget is not strictly set but I was thinking 600-800€ max.

 

Do you have any recommendations which combo of GPU and CPU would be a future proof upgrade for me (again: 1080p at 60Hz and I don't need ultra graphics settings)?

If you can recommend a good mainboard as well (is possible compatible with my existing CPU cooler).

 

I would appreciate it if anyone has a good hint!

Thanks in advance!

Upgrade your platform

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€119.00 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€99.20 @ Galaxus) 
Memory: *G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€66.90 @ Alza) 
Video Card: *XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  (€364.00 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Jonsbo D31 MESH MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€67.89 @ Caseking) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart BM3 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  (€90.61 @ Galaxus) 
Total: €807.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-01 16:53 CET+0100

 

OR

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€119.00 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 GAMING X V2 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€99.95 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: *G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€66.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: KIOXIA EXCERIA G2 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€58.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Core Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card  (€247.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: Jonsbo D41 Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case  (€72.89 @ Caseking) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart BM3 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  (€90.61 @ Galaxus) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fans 5-Pack  (€22.90 @ Alza) 
Total: €779.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-01 16:58 CET+0100

[Dedayog]

A Ryzen 5600 + a 6650XT or similar $200/$250 card would be great for 1080P/60.

 

Where are you buying from?

[Tetras]

4 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

I don't need the top of the line card, so RX 7800 XT and 40 series would be overkill

 

4 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

Do you have any recommendations which combo of GPU and CPU would be a future proof upgrade for me (again: 1080p at 60Hz and I don't need ultra graphics settings)?

The problem with not buying a 7800 XT or 4070/4070 Super is that the cards below this are 2 things:

1. Underpowered (& starved of VRAM).

2. Overpriced.

 

There's two exceptions, the 6700 XT is still pretty good (if you can find one in stock, at a good price) and the 6800 non-XT/XT, but they're even rarer from what I've seen.

 

If buying means you keep your current CPU longer, I'd just do it.

 

That said, even a 6600 is a decent upgrade on your dead card, but I don't think it will have legs for 1080p in AAA games in the longer-term.

[lulZghost]

21 minutes ago, filpo said:

which one?

BeQuiet Pure Rock is just the name on the box (I still have it), but probably this one

 

21 minutes ago, filpo said:

I'd replace it

Is 630Watts not enough or any other reasons?

 

 

So the other components, I am not sure how much I should rely on such sites, but pc-builds bottleneck calculator says this combo of CPU and GPU is 24% bottlenecked by the processor. As alternative with the same socket it recommends the R9 5900X (270€ - 8% CPU bottleneck) or the R) 5950X (360€ - 3% CPU bottleneck). Those are the best options. Would you say those are worth the extra money?

[lulZghost]

18 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

A Ryzen 5600 + a 6650XT or similar $200/$250 card would be great for 1080P/60.

 

Where are you buying from?

I don't know, but probably some German / European online shop, as there are only eletronic stores with few but overpriced individual components

[lulZghost]

20 minutes ago, Tetras said:

That said, even a 6600 is a decent upgrade on your dead card, but I don't think it will have legs for 1080p in AAA games in the longer-term.

According to pc-builds.com this would be a 36% CPU bottleneck. I mean I could upgrade the card first and the rest later, but other cards like the 6700XT are almost 50%. And in general I would rather upgrade all at once

[Dedayog]

8 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

According to pc-builds.com this would be a 36% CPU bottleneck. I mean I could upgrade the card first and the rest later, but other cards like the 6700XT are almost 50%. And in general I would rather upgrade all at once

Upgrade all at once.  The 6700 is a weak CPU for todays games.

 

Ignore those calculators, do comparisons of the CPU;'s in the games you play, or similar titles.  Some calcs may be near but I wouldn't take them as gospel without some actual gameplay testing.

[filpo]

30 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

am not sure how much I should rely on such sites, but pc-builds bottleneck calculator says this combo of CPU and GPU is 24% bottlenecked by the processor. As alternative with the same socket it recommends the R9 5900X (270€ - 8% CPU bottleneck) or the R) 5950X (360€ - 3% CPU bottleneck).

Neither of these would be as good as the 5700X3d 

 

do NOT use bottleneck calculators. They’re full of big stinky sh*t

[Tetras]

28 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

According to pc-builds.com this would be a 36% CPU bottleneck. I mean I could upgrade the card first and the rest later, but other cards like the 6700XT are almost 50%. And in general I would rather upgrade all at once

It really depends on what you want in the longer-term.

 

A 6600 in your current build is a cheap upgrade for your dead card (& has low average power consumption, so your PSU should be good too) and is capable of playing most games just fine at 1080p/60, so you would likely get 2-3 years out of it before you finish everything it can play and start looking at new AAA games that will struggle. It is also RDNA 2, which from HUB's testing has a lower driver overhead with slow CPUs than competing nvidia cards.

 

A Ryzen 5600 & 6700 XT is a better longer-term bet and will get you greater performance and playability in newer games. I think it will last significantly longer in retaining playability than the 6600 will, even when we're talking about 1080p.

 

A 7800 XT or 4070 Super is what I consider a 'proper' gaming card, capable of 1080p and 1440p and with modest expectations, it should be good for 4-5 years.

[lulZghost]

41 minutes ago, Tetras said:

A Ryzen 5600 & 6700 XT is a better longer-term bet

I think this will be about it. But I am currently looking at some Ryzen 7 5700 CPUs, they have 8 cores / 16 threads instead of 6/12.

 

The 5700X costs 160€, the 5700 180€. The 5700X has a lower base clock but double the amount of L3 cache. I know more cores isn't necessarily for benefitial for gaming but I also do some 3d, gamedev and video rendering from time to time so it may be better there, right?

 

So this would be the list: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/3CsKRK, but I don't know about the RAM, it's what @filpo recommended. I always had 16GB and it was enough, but 16GB would be 40€ and for 70€ I get double so I might as well take it.

 

I could keep my PSU (630W), since GPU 230W + CPU 65W + Cooler 150W + Mainboard 70W + RAM 30W and according to Google SSDs draw 5-20W and HDDs 5-10W. It would be fine since I have two SSDs and one HDD. So in total about 585 Watts

[Tetras]

5 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

The 5700X costs 160€, the 5700 180€. The 5700X has a lower base clock but double the amount of L3 cache.

Definitely get the 5700X instead of the 5700. The 5700 is also limited to PCI-E 3.0, it is basically a 5700G with the onboard graphics disabled.

 

5 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

I know more cores isn't necessarily for benefitial for gaming but I also do some 3d, gamedev and video rendering from time to time so it may be better there, right?

It depends how much the CPU is being used versus the GPU, the 5700X3D is by far a superior gaming CPU than even the higher core count options, but between the 5600 and 5700X, you're mainly looking at workstation workloads to notice the difference.

 

3D is often handled by the GPU nowadays, so far as I know. Game development (coding) is usually mostly idle with occasional spikes for compiling. I think video work can be both CPU and GPU, depends on the app and what you're doing.

 

5 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

I could keep my PSU (630W), since GPU 230 + CPU 65 + Cooler 150 = 445 Watts

It isn't that simple I'm afraid.

[lulZghost]

5 minutes ago, Tetras said:

It isn't that simple I'm afraid.

What wattage would you recommend?

[Dedayog]

32 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

What wattage would you recommend?

Depending on if the PSU can supply the 630w, it's more than enough.

 

I run a 5600X3D + 6650XT on a 450w PSU.  

[Tetras]

53 minutes ago, lulZghost said:

What wattage would you recommend?

Nothing, I'd still try it.

 

I just mean, you can't just add up the TDPs.

 

Most of the CPUs/GPUs will exceed their TDP (e.g. TPU recorded spikes of over 300 watts for the 6700 XT and a 5700X can easily use double the TDP), so it really comes down to the quality of the PSU and how it responds to the load.

 

A great 600 watt PSU can power pretty much anything on the market, a bad one might have issues with really modest hardware.

[lulZghost]

1 hour ago, Tetras said:

Nothing, I'd still try it.

[..]

A great 600 watt PSU can power pretty much anything on the market, a bad one might have issues with really modest hardware.

After browsing a bit I found various answers. Some say it's not bad but also nothing exceptional, it can handle the 630W load well, but those reviews are from 2013 / 14. Someone said more recently that it burned down with new power hungry cards.

 

 

I tried some PSU calculators and they estimate from 475 to 599W, but I mean I'd rather spend a hundred euros on a new one than risk a fire