Best Upgrade Choice for 1440p Gaming

[Caircath]

Good morning everyone,

I recently got a brand new 1440p monitor as a birthday gift and got to taste higher resolution gaming after being at 1080p for the last several years. Due to this upgrade I started looking for replacements for my GPU (2060 Super) to help get a few of my more modern games to 1440, but im having a hard time picking something out that will work. My current specs are:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 -10700 CPU @2.90GHz

GPU:RTX 2060 Super

MB: MAG B460M Mortar WIFI (MS-7C82)

PSU: 550 watts

RAM: 32 GB

Any suggestions would be very appreciated, thank you! 

[Millios]

How much are you willing to spend?
What country are we talking about?

And because it can be a factor what games do you play?

[ChrisLoudon]

5 minutes ago, Caircath said:

Any suggestions would be very appreciated, thank you! 

The backbone of your system is pretty solid and should keep the PC going for a while longer.

 

As @Millios asked, what's your budget and what region are you in?

 

Also, are you ok looking at the used market?

 

I still game heavily on a 3080ti paired with a 9900k and while its not a solid 4K setup, 1440p @ 120 is very doable on everything except some of the every newest AAA titles with RT which I tend to either keep and low or medium or off entirely.

 

What games do you play and what refresh rate are you looking to hit. Remember, you really don't need anything more than 120 (probably even 60) for the couch potato games especially if you are playing with a controller. KBM is a different story but your unlikely to be chasing a competitive advantage whilst playing CP2077.....

 

AMD is probably worth looking at. Although I'm an Nvidia man, most people on these forums will likely point you in their direction for good value 1080p and 1440p gaming if RT isn't a major factor although I will always say that DLSS is far superior to AMDs offering and even on my 4090 I turn it on if I'm struggling to hit 120fps at 4k and rarely notice anything negative.

[191x7]

What @Millios said.

 

Assuming your budget is at about ~300 USD, I would recommend the Radeon RX 9060XT 16GB.

 

[YoungBlade]

If you don't intend to upgrade your CPU and PSU, my recommendation from current cards would either be the RX 9060 XT 16GB or the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. This is because the i7 10700, while still a decent chip, is going to hold back a GPU faster than those in a lot of situations at 1440p. Additionally, GPUs above those also recommend higher wattage PSUs.

 

I just did an upgrade from the RTX 2060 Super to the RX 9060 XT for 1440p gaming, and made a post about it here. Do note that I maintained my OC for the 2060 Super for those benchmarks, so they have their results inflated compared to stock performance.

 

 

On the whole, I'm satisfied with the upgrade, but it wasn't as significant as I was hoping. I believe a part of that is down to my Ryzen 9 5900X, which isn't fast enough for the new card in some situations. Your 10700 will be in a similar boat, as its gaming performance is around the same - if not a bit slower.

[Caircath]

26 minutes ago, Millios said:

How much are you willing to spend?
What country are we talking about?

And because it can be a factor what games do you play?

I have a budget of around 300$ to 400$ American, and I play a wide verity of games but I would think the most intensive games I have would be Cyberpunk and Space Marine 2. 

Sorry I should have included that in my post. 

[Millios]

3 minutes ago, Caircath said:

I have a budget of around 300$ to 400$ American, and I play a wide verity of games but I would think the most intensive games I have would be Cyberpunk and Space Marine 2. 

Sorry I should have included that in my post. 

Then I agree with @191x7 on the 9060 xt (around 360 to 380 USD) but what @YoungBlade should also be considered

If you are willing to look at the used market then a used 3080 Ti or rx 6800xt wouldnt be bad as well

[Millios]

9 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

If you don't intend to upgrade your CPU and PSU, my recommendation from current cards would either be the RX 9060 XT 16GB or the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. This is because the i7 10700, while still a decent chip, is going to hold back a GPU faster than those in a lot of situations at 1440p. Additionally, GPUs above those also recommend higher wattage PSUs.

 

I just did an upgrade from the RTX 2060 Super to the RX 9060 XT for 1440p gaming, and made a post about it here. Do note that I maintained my OC for the 2060 Super for those benchmarks, so they have their results inflated compared to stock performance.

 

 

On the whole, I'm satisfied with the upgrade, but it wasn't as significant as I was hoping. I believe a part of that is down to my Ryzen 9 5900X, which isn't fast enough for the new card in some situations. Your 10700 will be in a similar boat, as its gaming performance is around the same - if not a bit slower.

There apparently is an "issue" where the 9060 XTs experience significant loses (at least the 8gig models) with previous PCIe gens
Would be interesting to see the difference on different PCIe gen slots but I dont thing any major outlet has covered it yet (HardWareUnboxed covered the difference on the 8 gig model only) to see how much they line up with your findings

[Caircath]

20 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Also, are you ok looking at the used market

Oh I am perfectly fine with the used market, been looking through eBay and Facebook marketplace trying to find decent-ish deals in addition to trying to check out some retailers. I am lucky enough to also live within a 30 minute drive to a Microcenter as well, so im not too restrained in choice.

My main monitor goes up to 120 and i'm not really a competitive gamer, I just like my games to look pretty and run smoothly so im not really looking for an edge over anyone except maybe the bandits in Oblivion. 

I was tempted to get an AMD card, since they seem to be going in the right direction in terms of VRAM expansion, since 8GB is okay for now but is quickly becoming an issue.

[YoungBlade]

14 minutes ago, Millios said:

There apparently is an "issue" where the 9060 XTs experience significant loses (at least the 8gig models) with previous PCIe gens
Would be interesting to see the difference on different PCIe gen slots but I dont thing any major outlet has covered it yet (HardWareUnboxed covered the difference on the 8 gig model only) to see how much they line up with your findings

Hardware Unboxed tested the 8GB model using PCIe 3, 4, and 5 vs the 16GB model using PCIe Gen 3. That's right - the results shown in the video have the 16GB model using the same PCIe Gen as you would find on 18 year old motherboards, and handily beating the 8GB card when it has access to 4x the PCIe bandwidth.

 

Steve said he did test it at Gen 4 and 5, but he didn't present the data because, apparently, it's all identical. In practice, for current games, only the 8GB model is hurt by older PCIe generations. The fact that mine is limited to Gen 4 doesn't matter, since I have the 16GB model.

[ChrisLoudon]

24 minutes ago, Caircath said:

I was tempted to get an AMD card, since they seem to be going in the right direction in terms of VRAM expansion, since 8GB is okay for now but is quickly becoming an issue.

Yeh, I think AMD are pretty good at the mid-range and mid-budget levels.

 

I would say that 8GB is NOT ok for now though. If you look at the HU and GN reviews, they pretty much put the nail if the 8GB coffin but I suspect there's a fair amount of over-exaggeration to content with as well.

 

My girlfriend is currently playing Jedi Survivor on her 3080ti setup and with DLSS set to quality and RT (medium I think) she's still north of 60fps at 4k. The only thing that causes slight stuttering is the 9900k and the poorly optimes game.

 

She was also playing CP2077 and while 4k was a no-go even with DLSS and minimal RT, 1440p, Quality DLSS and medium RT got her to 70fps which is perfect for a single player title like that.

 

3080ti has only 12GB of Vram.

 

Just a thought but if you can snag a good deal on the used market for something in that performance range then that's what I would do. Here in the UK a good used one is about £400.

[KidKid]

1 hour ago, Caircath said:

Good morning everyone,

I recently got a brand new 1440p monitor as a birthday gift and got to taste higher resolution gaming after being at 1080p for the last several years. Due to this upgrade I started looking for replacements for my GPU (2060 Super) to help get a few of my more modern games to 1440, but im having a hard time picking something out that will work. My current specs are:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 -10700 CPU @2.90GHz

GPU:RTX 2060 Super

MB: MAG B460M Mortar WIFI (MS-7C82)

PSU: 550 watts

RAM: 32 GB

Any suggestions would be very appreciated, thank you! 

What is your budget?

 

Maybe an RX 9060XT 16GB?

[Caircath]

1 minute ago, KidKid said:

What is your budget?

 

Maybe an RX 9060XT 16GB?

About 300$ - 400$ with a little wiggle room for a good deal.

It seems like the 9060XT 16GB is the fan favorite for this specific setup. Going to dig around and see if I can find a decent deal on one and maybe my brother might get an upgrade for his 1650 if I get lucky!

[OddOod]

Out of curiosity, what is the make and model of that 550W PSU? Also, is this a prebuilt or custom rig?

[Caircath]

16 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Out of curiosity, what is the make and model of that 550W PSU? Also, is this a prebuilt or custom rig?

It is a pre-buildt that I got about 6 years ago or so. Unfortunately im at work right now (shopping for GPUs instead of entering data lol) so I'll need to check once I get home.

[OddOod]

4 minutes ago, Caircath said:

It is a pre-buildt that I got about 6 years ago or so. 

Oooooh, that *might* be a problem. If it's Dell or HP or similar mega-integrator, it might have proprietary power which could prevent you from upgrading PSU without getting adapters

[Caircath]

14 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Oooooh, that *might* be a problem. If it's Dell or HP or similar mega-integrator, it might have proprietary power which could prevent you from upgrading PSU without getting adapters

Thankfully I avoided Dell and HP when I bought it, it was an MSI (which has its own issues) so I don't believe the PSU will be an issue if I need to replace it. If I do need too, I got an old 750W Corsair I can throw in to it but if I can avoid it, and the cable management that comes with it, I will.