GPU upgrade bottleneck check

[woo124]

Hi,

 

I have the following setup:

OS
  Windows 10 Home 64bit

■CPU
  インテル(R) Core(TM) i5-11400F プロセッサー ( 6コア / 12スレッド / 2.60GHz / TB時最大4.40GHz / 12MB )

■RAM
  16GB memory [ 8GB×2 ( PC4-25600 / DDR4-3200 ) / dual channel]- I plan to upgrade this to 32G shortly

■Power Supply
  700W 電( 80PLUS(R) GOLD )

■GPU
  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 / 12GB ( DisplayPort×3 / HDMI×1 )

■Motherboard
  Intel(R) B560 chipset ( Micro ATX / SATA 6Gbpsport×4 / M.2slot×2 )
■case
Mini Tower case
 

I am thinking of upgrading the GPU to either 4060Ti or 4070.

1. Could somebody please let me know if this upgrade will cause any significant bottlenecking somewhere?

2. Is there any alternative GPU that you'd rather suggest? (the one that would actually fit in my setup physically and in terms of Power Supply) 

3. Would my planned RAM upgrade to 32G be worth it (ie not meaningless)? I am upgrading it because I have many tabs open on Chrome, and sometimes it seems to slow down a bit. If I start playing games on top of it, I assume it will only get worse.

 

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

 

Thanks in advance.

[191x7]

9 minutes ago, woo124 said:

Hi,

 

I have the following setup:

OS
  Windows 10 Home 64bit

■CPU
  インテル(R) Core(TM) i5-11400F プロセッサー ( 6コア / 12スレッド / 2.60GHz / TB時最大4.40GHz / 12MB )

■RAM
  16GB memory [ 8GB×2 ( PC4-25600 / DDR4-3200 ) / dual channel]- I plan to upgrade this to 32G shortly

■Power Supply
  700W 電( 80PLUS(R) GOLD )

■GPU
  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 / 12GB ( DisplayPort×3 / HDMI×1 )

■Motherboard
  Intel(R) B560 chipset ( Micro ATX / SATA 6Gbpsport×4 / M.2slot×2 )
■case
Mini Tower case
 

I am thinking of upgrading the GPU to either 4060Ti or 4070.

1. Could somebody please let me know if this upgrade will cause any significant bottlenecking somewhere?

2. Is there any alternative GPU that you'd rather suggest? (the one that would actually fit in my setup physically and in terms of Power Supply) 

3. Would my planned RAM upgrade to 32G be worth it (ie not meaningless)? I am upgrading it because I have many tabs open on Chrome, and sometimes it seems to slow down a bit. If I start playing games on top of it, I assume it will only get worse.

 

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

 

Thanks in advance.

Are you on 1080p or 1440p?

 

The RTX 3060 12GB has enough VRAM for texture quality in 1080p, and that GPU can still game quite nicely in 1080p.

If you want to upgrade it, for a GPU that would offer a significant performance increase (and thus be worthy of an upgrade), you'd need either a CPU that wouldn't bottleneck the card on 1080p (meaning you'd need a platform change—the board, CPU, and probably the RAM) or you'd need to upgrade to a 1440p monitor.

 

What's your upgrade budget? Maybe a ~300$ 1440p monitor and a ~500$ Radeon RX 7800XT would pass?

[woo124]

Thanks for the reply. I am on 1440p.

My budget is up to $1000, but I'd rather not spend any more than necessary.

Also, CPU swap is not really an option for me.

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, woo124 said:

1. Could somebody please let me know if this upgrade will cause any significant bottlenecking somewhere?

There is no easy answer to this, since it depends on the games you play and how CPU or GPU intensive they are. You typically want a GPU "bottleneck" (i.e. GPU used as close to 100% as possible)

 

If you see GPU usage well below 90%, that would mean you are CPU limited. Unless that causes performance to be unacceptable, it's not a major concern.

 

Quote

3. Would my planned RAM upgrade to 32G be worth it (ie not meaningless)? I am upgrading it because I have many tabs open on Chrome, and sometimes it seems to slow down a bit. If I start playing games on top of it, I assume it will only get worse.

This also depends on the games you play. More modern titles can certainly benefit from 32 GB. If you also have lots of tabs open, it certainly won't hurt to have more. If I had to buy a new (gaming) machine, I definitely would not go below 32 GB in 2024/2025.

[191x7]

1 hour ago, woo124 said:

Thanks for the reply. I am on 1440p.

My budget is up to $1000, but I'd rather not spend any more than necessary.

Also, CPU swap is not really an option for me.

You can afford a platform that wouldn't bottleneck a new card, why is the CPU+MBO swap not an option?

For $1000 you can get a Ryzen 5700X3D, a B550 motherboard, a Radeon RX 7900GRE and you'd get to keep your RAM (and upgrade it too).

[woo124]

@Eigenvektor

Thanks for your input. That makes sense.

Since I'd naturally want some future proofing, how about for graphics intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 or upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds?

[TatamiMatt]

Just now, woo124 said:

@Eigenvektor

Thanks for your input. That makes sense.

Since I'd naturally want some future proofing, how about for graphics intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 or upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds?

7800xt with FSR on i was able to routinely hit 100-20fps at 1440p, sometimes dropping to 80/90 fps with max settings or near max, i cant remember which. This was also without using FSR at almost native. So id say you could easily go with around that price point for quite a good experience for everything.

[woo124]

21 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

You can afford a platform that wouldn't bottleneck a new card, why is the CPU+MBO swap not an option?

For $1000 you can get a Ryzen 5700X3D, a B550 motherboard, a Radeon RX 7900GRE and you'd get to keep your RAM (and upgrade it too).

Not too sur e what MBO is.

Well, there are many reasons. Mostly, I haven't done a lot of pc fiddling and would rather not spend a lot of time with it. I just thought RAM upgrade and GPU upgrade would be done more easily than cpu swap.

Also, I want to get the most out of what I have already, and I feel that I haven't gotten enough out of my current PC. I think there is more potential for it. 

[TatamiMatt]

1 minute ago, woo124 said:

Not too sur e what MBO is.

Motherboard

[191x7]

9 minutes ago, woo124 said:

Not too sur e what MBO is.

Well, there are many reasons. Mostly, I haven't done a lot of pc fiddling and would rather not spend a lot of time with it. I just thought RAM upgrade and GPU upgrade would be done more easily than cpu swap.

Also, I want to get the most out of what I have already, and I feel that I haven't gotten enough out of my current PC. I think there is more potential for it. 

MBO / MoBo / motherboard.

 

With the I5 11400f on 1440p, you'd top out at about an RTX 4060 Ti 16GB or Radeon RX 6700XT 12GB / Radeon RX 6750XT 16GB.

All of them are not worth the upgrade (you'd spend a lot more than you would gain).

 

Is a Radeon RX 6800 available to you?

 

[woo124]

Thank you all for your thoughts, especially 191x7.

10 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Is a Radeon RX 6800 available to you?

That sounds like a good suggestion, but one problem is that when I looked it up, a lot of the results seem to mix up RX 6800 with RX 6800 XT, so it is kinda hard to assess how good RX 6800 is.

 

Taking a step back, what I am trying to do is the following:

1. I want an upgrade from RX 3060 that is big enough to warrant the upgrade. (a little bit more than a minor upgrade where I would see 10-15% performance boost)

2. I want to get somethat is fairly close to or comparable to PS5 Pro.

Do you think RX 6800 would accomplish those goals?

 

Of course, to do it the "right way," I'd have to consider rebuilding by rig by upgrading the CPU, MBO (plus the case and the Power supply as well, most likely)

I still think I can get a bit more out of my rig, so I will try to stick with it for now.

[191x7]

9 minutes ago, woo124 said:

Thank you all for your thoughts, especially 191x7.

That sounds like a good suggestion, but one problem is that when I looked it up, a lot of the results seem to mix up RX 6800 with RX 6800 XT, so it is kinda hard to assess how good RX 6800 is.

 

Taking a step back, what I am trying to do is the following:

1. I want an upgrade from RX 3060 that is big enough to warrant the upgrade. (a little bit more than a minor upgrade where I would see 10-15% performance boost)

2. I want to get somethat is fairly close to or comparable to PS5 Pro.

Do you think RX 6800 would accomplish those goals?

 

Of course, to do it the "right way," I'd have to consider rebuilding by rig by upgrading the CPU, MBO (plus the case and the Power supply as well, most likely)

I still think I can get a bit more out of my rig, so I will try to stick with it for now.

The PS5 GPU is a Radeon RX 6700 10GB equivalent. The PS5 Pro GPU is supposedly close to a Radeon RX 7800XT. The 7800XT is the new generation of the RX 6800, the 7800XT performs like a 6800XT.

A 6700 10GB is weaker than thr 6700XT and 6750XT, those are weaker than the RX 7700XT and the 6800 is a bit stronger than that.