Upgrading from a 3060

[EmilN]

Hi!
Due to a noisy graphics card (no, it's not full of dust, just a bad ACER OEM RTX 3060), i've decided i need an upgrade. I am happy with the performance of my 3060, but i do want to upgrade to futureproof, as well as feel like my money is well spent. I want something in a low to medium price range.  I play a broad specters of games, from FPS to simulators, both high and low on GPU demand. Any advice based on my curent spec? I know everything except my cpu and gpu is overkill in my build, this done knowing i'm upgrading in the close future.

 

System specs:

• CPU
  Intel i5-12400F
• Motherboard
  ASUS PRIME Z790-P (V2)
• RAM
  G. Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6400 2x16GB
• GPU
  Acer OEM RTX 3060
• Case
  be quiet! Pure Base 50DX TG
• Storage
  Kingston NV2 SSD - 1TB
• PSU
  Corsair RM650 Gold
• Display(s)
  MSI MAG 3421CQR E2
  Philips Momentum 24M1N3200VA
• Cooling
  be quet! Pure Rock 2 FX CPU Cooler
  Standard case fans
• Keyboard
  XTRFY TKL
• Mouse
  Razer Naga PRO
• Sound
  Steelseries Nova 7

   

  

[podkall]

17 minutes ago, EmilN said:

I want something in a low to medium price range.

That's very vague of you.

 

18 minutes ago, EmilN said:

as well as feel like my money is well spent.

GPU market in shambles, can't buy anything without spending GPU price + almost half of the GPU's price again

 

19 minutes ago, EmilN said:

Corsair RM650 Gold

Also gives you slim options for non-power-hungry GPUs

[RandomLegoBrick]

honestly man, you may want to just wait it out for a while. the 3060 is still a very capable card. you are not going to get anything that provides meaningfully better performance without spending $650+ (4070/super, 5070, 9070/xt)

 

if you are the tinkering type, you can look into replacing the fans on your current card.

[Tetras]

50 minutes ago, EmilN said:

I want something in a low to medium price range.

Not possible to get a good upgrade at that price I'm afraid. The 3060 was a good card (or the newer ones are bad, either).

 

You could see how the 5060 and 9060 perform, but I suspect you would be both underwhelmed and down 4GB of VRAM, so that doesn't seem too attractive.

[ANARCHY]

I too am running a 3060 12Gb, bought 1,5 year ago, i think the 4060 was just out, couldn't swing that, old PC died, but honestly, it's a reasonably capable card.

 

I would stick it out a while, the GPU is a mess right now, news stuff hard to get and expensive, second hand market is not even doing that well, maybe keep this until it really fails, hoping that AMD does better on GPUs in the meantime, looks a bit that way, and that NVidia is actually supplying more cards in the meantime as well, maybe the second hand market will improve there.

 

Personally i hate the 8Gb GPUs, we're still finding out what the 5060 is doing vs the 4060, but coming from a 3060 it's an improvement alright, but personally i think i'd go for an AMD 9060 right now, maybe they will come in a 12Gb/16Gb version ?
In any case, if you don't have to, i wouldn't anything right now and wait for the AMD 9060 regardless.

[WereCat]

keep the 3060

 

if you absolutely have to upgrade then rx 7800 xt

[strange13930]

1 hour ago, EmilN said:

Hi!
Due to a noisy graphics card (no, it's not full of dust, just a bad ACER OEM RTX 3060), i've decided i need an upgrade. I am happy with the performance of my 3060, but i do want to upgrade to futureproof, as well as feel like my money is well spent. I want something in a low to medium price range.  I play a broad specters of games, from FPS to simulators, both high and low on GPU demand. Any advice based on my curent spec? I know everything except my cpu and gpu is overkill in my build, this done knowing i'm upgrading in the close future.

 

System specs:

• CPU
  Intel i5-12400F
• Motherboard
  ASUS PRIME Z790-P (V2)
• RAM
  G. Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6400 2x16GB
• GPU
  Acer OEM RTX 3060
• Case
  be quiet! Pure Base 50DX TG
• Storage
  Kingston NV2 SSD - 1TB
• PSU
  Corsair RM650 Gold
• Display(s)
  MSI MAG 3421CQR E2
  Philips Momentum 24M1N3200VA
• Cooling
  be quet! Pure Rock 2 FX CPU Cooler
  Standard case fans
• Keyboard
  XTRFY TKL
• Mouse
  Razer Naga PRO
• Sound
  Steelseries Nova 7

   

  

Wait for the 9060 xt to release and see how it performs.

[jaslion]

Keep the card for now and well wait. Prices are GARBAGE atm.

 

Whats your budget? The best value cards currently are like 700$+ :p.

[Salted Spinach]

7 hours ago, EmilN said:

I am happy with the performance of my 3060, but i do want to upgrade to futureproof, as well as feel like my money is well spent. I want something in a low to medium price range...

You are being quite vague.

 

Although the GPU market is bad, what can be considered a good buy still heavily depends on how much they are selling for in your particular country. 

 

Instead of "low to medium price range", you will have to come up with an idea of how much you are willing to spend.

 

Go take a look at the prices of cards in your area/country and tell us about several that seem good and has a price you can afford. We can then tell you which of them is a better value for money based on comparative price and performance

 

If you really want to "futureproof" coming from a 3060, the lowest you should be getting is a 4070 or 7800XT

[needshmeed]

On 4/19/2025 at 7:16 AM, EmilN said:

Hi!
Due to a noisy graphics card (no, it's not full of dust, just a bad ACER OEM RTX 3060), i've decided i need an upgrade. I am happy with the performance of my 3060, but i do want to upgrade to futureproof, as well as feel like my money is well spent.

If you are sure it's just the fan, it could be a simple fix: applying lubricant in the right place.

[TatamiMatt]

Also make sure to populate all the fans slots on the front of your computer to keep positive pressure to force more and fresher air into the GPU