Need Help Deciding on Upgrades

[KyberMike]

Budget: $300 USD

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft (usually vanilla with shaders), Fortnite (low/medium graphics), Marvel Rivals (maybe)

Other details: &nbspMy monitor is capped to 144Hz 1080p, my goal is basically just to hit or exceed that fps limit. I’ll be using this setup for the next ~2 years or so. I’m happy with my peripherals, so no need to upgrade those.

 

Current build: Dell Optiplex 9010 SFF

• Intel Core i7-3770

• Radeon HD 7500 Series GPU

• SATA hybrid drive

• 16gb DDR3 Ram

It’s not a powerhouse by any means, but the CPU/ram is solid enough. The GPU is terrible (20fps in fortnite, shaders are completely unusable in minecraft). 

 

I want to primarily focus on upgrading my GPU for this build. Currently I’m considering an RX 6600, the cheapest I’ve found is $220 from Newegg. The games I play aren’t super demanding, so this would work. 

 

However, I also could get an Arc B580 for about $310 (cheapest I’ve found that’s actually available). I think this would last a lot longer and also is just a lot more powerful than the 6600, but I can’t decide if it’s worth almost $100 more.

 

I’ll also need an external PSU to make a new GPU work, as well as a PCIe riser/extension cable. My storage sucks at the moment, so if I went with the 6600, I could spend some money on a SATA SSD (no nvme/m.2 slot on my motherboard unfortunately).

 

So basically, should I go for the B580 (better performance and longevity), or the 6600 (less power but also SSD)? Or if there are other similarly priced cards with better/equivalent performance, I’d appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

 

[Tetras]

6600 should perform quite well with that system, the Arc needs rebar to work properly and you almost certainly don't have it (Intel recommends 10th gen or newer).

 

13 minutes ago, KyberMike said:

I’ll also need an external PSU to make a new GPU work, as well as a PCIe riser/extension cable. My storage sucks at the moment, so if I went with the 6600, I could spend some money on a SATA SSD (no nvme/m.2 slot on my motherboard unfortunately).

Could you not get a low profile card that doesn't need a power connector?

[jaslion]

47 minutes ago, KyberMike said:

Marvel Rivals (maybe)

Not happening cpu is waaaaaay too underpowered.

 

47 minutes ago, KyberMike said:

get an Arc B580 for about $310 (cheap

Works like absolute garbage when not having pcie 4.0 and rebar.

 

Best advice here is to stop, save up a little more and buy a whole used gaming pc. You can get rx6600 class gaming pcs around 350-400$ that already have a 6 core 12 thread cpu too like a ryzen 2600 or up or a i5 10400 or up and those will play all games you listed.

 

You'll spend more getting this optiplex to a badly functional state than just saving up a bit more and going full proper first.

 

Genuinly you can have a gtx 1660ti + i5 10400 system for under 300$ you just gotta look local used/ebay. Recommended similar ones many times before. Yes bit slower on the gpu BUT it actually is balanced and will play the games you want pretty well.

 

Spend 100$ more and you can even get like rtx 3070 class stuff sometimes somehow

[KyberMike]

@Tetras okay, didn't realize that with the b580, so thanks!

 

all the low-profile cards i've seen are either way out of my price range (4060 and 5060 are both $480+) or significantly underpowered (3050 6gb, rx 6400 4gb) compared to the 8gb rx 6600.

[KyberMike]

4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Spend 100$ more and you can even get like rtx 3070 class stuff sometimes somehow

Okay! i'll start looking around on FB marketplace and ebay. thanks!

[Tetras]

4 minutes ago, KyberMike said:

@Tetras okay, didn't realize that with the b580, so thanks!

 

all the low-profile cards i've seen are either way out of my price range (4060 and 5060 are both $480+) or significantly underpowered (3050 6gb, rx 6400 4gb) compared to the 8gb rx 6600.

I was thinking of something more like a 1050 or 1650. They're not great and unsuitable for most AAA games, but should be WAY better than what you have.