I cant decide on between 3060 12GB or 4060 8GB

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

Originally, I wanted a 3070 because its cheap and theres a chance my PSU can handle it.
I have a Seasonic 620w PSU.. And I heard the 3070 needs 650w. A lot of people told me my PSU is bad and to not risk putting a 3070 on it because it CAN run it, but there will be issues, especially on high loads during multimedia work.

So my options are 3070, 6700xt, 3060 12gb, or (god) 4060.
and the first 2 are out because of my PSU. the 3060 12gb is a bit more expensive compared to the 4060 8gb in the used market. And games wise, the 4060 is a bit better, but they say its bad for video editing because of the 128bit bus.
while the 3060 12gb is overall okay, its a bit too pricey and hard to find used in my area. The 4060 is plenty though, and we all know why lol.

Im leaning towards the 4060 cause them ingame frames are inticing, but im worried about the video editing side of things
for context, im rocking a 1660ti 6gb right now.

[dizmo]

I'd probably lean 6700XT for the VRAM. I won't buy another 8GB card.

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

Originally, I wanted a 3070 because its cheap and theres a chance my PSU can handle it.
I have a Seasonic 620w PSU.. And I heard the 3070 needs 650w. A lot of people told me my PSU is bad and to not risk putting a 3070 on it because it CAN run it, but there will be issues, especially on high loads during multimedia work.

So my options are 3070, 6700xt, 3060 12gb, or (god) 4060.
and the first 2 are out because of my PSU. the 3060 12gb is a bit more expensive compared to the 4060 8gb in the used market. And games wise, the 4060 is a bit better, but they say its bad for video editing because of the 128bit bus.
while the 3060 12gb is overall okay, its a bit too pricey and hard to find used in my area. The 4060 is plenty though, and we all know why lol.

Im leaning towards the 4060 cause them ingame frames are inticing, but im worried about the video editing side of things
for context, im rocking a 1660ti 6gb right now.

Your PSU can handle any of those with ease.   The power requirements are for a fully built out system as a conservative measurement.   They can't know what you have, so err on the side of max CPU draw in addition to the GPU .  Like a 14900k and 3070 needs 650.

 

Get what you want, but not a 60 series .

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

3 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

The power requirements are for a fully built out system as a conservative measurement.

im running:
4x8gb 3200mhz ram sticks (Hyperx Fury RGB)
1 m.2 ssd 2tb
1 m.2 ssd 2tb (on a PCIe Adapter)
2 HDDs
2 SSDs
3 monitors
a crapton of USBs plugged in
6 noctua fans
ryzen 7 5700x
gtx 1660ti

[PDifolco]

9 minutes ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

Originally, I wanted a 3070 because its cheap and theres a chance my PSU can handle it.
I have a Seasonic 620w PSU.. And I heard the 3070 needs 650w. A lot of people told me my PSU is bad and to not risk putting a 3070 on it because it CAN run it, but there will be issues, especially on high loads during multimedia work.

So my options are 3070, 6700xt, 3060 12gb, or (god) 4060.
and the first 2 are out because of my PSU. the 3060 12gb is a bit more expensive compared to the 4060 8gb in the used market. And games wise, the 4060 is a bit better, but they say its bad for video editing because of the 128bit bus.
while the 3060 12gb is overall okay, its a bit too pricey and hard to find used in my area. The 4060 is plenty though, and we all know why lol.

Im leaning towards the 4060 cause them ingame frames are inticing, but im worried about the video editing side of things
for context, im rocking a 1660ti 6gb right now.

Nah you're overreacting about your PSU, any card of the list will work fine

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

2 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Nah you're overreacting about your PSU, any card of the list will work fine

im asked that same exact question in the PSU department of this forum and they told me to not risk it.
And thats why Im here, gathering 2nd opinions lol.

So my PC wont go kaboom?

[OddOod]

13 minutes ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

Seasonic 620w PSU

Is that a Seasonic S12II 620W model? If so, be aware that is a potentially problematic PSU. The [letter]12 series is the only group of models that are SS branded that are under B Tier

 

[Hinjima]

28 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Your PSU can handle any of those with ease.   The power requirements are for a fully built out system as a conservative measurement.   They can't know what you have, so err on the side of max CPU draw in addition to the GPU .  Like a 14900k and 3070 needs 650.

 

Get what you want, but not a 60 series .

The PSU is a Seasonic S12II and its not a good one.
The wattage is fine, the PSU is not.

[PDifolco]

11 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

The PSU is a Seasonic S12II and its not a good one.
The wattage is fine, the PSU is not.

Ok it's not a very good PSU but not an horrible one neither, and putting in a 60 class card won't make it explode

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

4 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Ok it's not a very good PSU but not an horrible one neither, and putting in a 60 class card won't make it explode

so im guessing that means its too risky to put a 3070? and I should just go with a 3060 or 4060?

[Hinjima]

6 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Ok it's not a very good PSU but not an horrible one neither, and putting in a 60 class card won't make it explode

Probably not.  But I personally would not continue using it.

The original post was about a 3070, not a 3060 or 4060.

[Hinjima]

3 minutes ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

so im guessing that means its too risky to put a 3070? and I should just go with a 3060 or 4060?

Well, its been working fine so far so you should be fine.

I would recommend looking into a PSU upgrade soon though.

[PDifolco]

2 minutes ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

so im guessing that means its too risky to put a 3070? and I should just go with a 3060 or 4060?

3070 is only 220W, 50W more than a 3060, and a 620W PSU is powerful enough for that

[CharlieChicken]

I was personally rocking RTX 3070 Ti with 550W PSU at one point. I undervolted it because it was hot and loud. If I remember correctly, it drew just under 300W stock, but I got it to 230W with undervolting. RTX 3070 is even less power hungry. Its a solid option for 1080p gaming, can't speak for video editing. 8GB of VRAM is unfortunately not enough for higher resolutions. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

6700xt obvious choice here and if its somehow not used expect a 6800(xt) at the same price which steamrolls it

 

overreacting on the psu, becomes a valid concern only with the 80 class cards and up, you can probably sell it for 20-30$ and upgrade to a used rm850x or equivalent for ~50$ though s there really isnt a reason not to upgrade the psu anyways when used is so cheap and far superior to any similarly priced new 650w bronze pos

[Dedayog]

3 hours ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

so im guessing that means its too risky to put a 3070? and I should just go with a 3060 or 4060?

No.  Stop making conclusions two steps further.

 

The PSU is good, nor is it bad.

 

It is extremely rare for a PSU to make a PC go kaboom.  A 3070 won't, a 3080 wouldn't.  The PC may restart if load exceeds available power.

 

It just means it isn't as high quality as others, but it'll do the job just fine.

 

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

4 hours ago, Dedayog said:

No.  Stop making conclusions two steps further.

 

The PSU is good, nor is it bad.

 

It is extremely rare for a PSU to make a PC go kaboom.  A 3070 won't, a 3080 wouldn't.  The PC may restart if load exceeds available power.

 

It just means it isn't as high quality as others, but it'll do the job just fine.

 

oh thank you!
this sounds very reassuring!
I'll try and get the 3070 then

[starsmine]

59 minutes ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

oh thank you!
this sounds very reassuring!
I'll try and get the 3070 then

I would not buy any 8GB GPUs in 2025. 

While there is no reason to worry about a 3070 with your PSU, a 4060 still uses less watts. 

and in terms of 24/7 use (not that you are) every watt is at least an extra dollar a year.

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

23 minutes ago, starsmine said:

I would not buy any 8GB GPUs in 2025. 

While there is no reason to worry about a 3070 with your PSU, a 4060 still uses less watts. 

and in terms of 24/7 use (not that you are) every watt is at least an extra dollar a year.

i dont play modern heavy games
my main games currently are helldivers 2 and marvel rivals
maybe some R6 Siege and CoD Warzone
thats about it

[Gianluca Angeli]

8 GB of vram are fine if you're buying a 200$ card. Reviewers complain about it because they are putting them on 350-400$ new cards. 

 

If you can save at least 50$, just get a 3060 ti. 

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, Tomoya Okazaki13 said:

i dont play modern heavy games
my main games currently are helldivers 2 and marvel rivals
maybe some R6 Siege and CoD Warzone
thats about it

H2 and rivals ARE new modern games tho.

 

Get the amd then.

[starsmine]

57 minutes ago, Gianluca Angeli said:

8 GB of vram are fine if you're buying a 200$ card. Reviewers complain about it because they are putting them on 350-400$ new cards. 

 

If you can save at least 50$, just get a 3060 ti. 

I dont like this argument either. 
even at 200$ new card I expect to be able to play games that come out in 2026 at high-very high at 1080p without overflowing the buffer. 8GB can not do that today with 2025 games without dumping textures or stuttering. Not even talking about ultra, not even talking about QHD or UHD. 

The low end have historically at least been able to do that at the lowest common resolution, which today is FHD. 10GB can do this, which yes puts you at a weird bus size of 160bit, which isnt conducive for 200$ cards. 

Its a shame that even though the JEDEC standard has 12Gbit(1.5GB), no memory manufacture put those into mass production. could have gotten cheap 9GB 96bit 200 dollar cards. 

Also the 3060ti is an 8GB card. 

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

8 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

H2 and rivals ARE new modern games tho.

 

Get the amd then.

key word being "currently", i eventually drop them
and as much as I want to get AMD stuff, i work multimedia so I cant drop the bias that adobe and blender has on nvidia's stuff...
also they 6700xt and 3070 are practically the same price used where im from, so might as well go for the 3070 to get a good balance on work and game
8GB sucks i heard, but i dont think i'll be playing heavy modern games soon
 

[U2ername]

If you play nothing that will shaft 8GB of VRAM, the 3070 is a good GPU.

I mean some of us buy new GPU's just to play Skyrim for the 67th play through with a bit better textures.

[Tomoya Okazaki13]

34 minutes ago, U2ername said:

If you play nothing that will shaft 8GB of VRAM, the 3070 is a good GPU.

I mean some of us buy new GPU's just to play Skyrim for the 67th play through with a bit better textures.

i can just lower settings if the GPU cant handle high settings
im a retro game kinda guy
Played some modern games, but mostly i play retro games (or retro styled modern games)