GPU upgrade

[pathless_persona]

I currently have a 580X and finally planning to upgrade after a very long time. I'm aiming for a 9070 or 5070. (Mostly because that's what on open box sale at micro center). Which one will be the better option. Further more they also have a 3060 but it's the 8GB version. 

For more details I currently have a 5600X cpu and an older EVGA 750 Watt power supply. I'm thinking I might have to update my power supply since I got it right before Nvidia 3000 series came out. From what I remember there was a new power connector for those or something along those lines.

Thanks for the help in advance. 

[filpo]

8 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

older EVGA 750 Watt power supply.

what's the specific model? This'll decide whether you have to replace it or not

 

8 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

From what I remember there was a new power connector for those or something along those lines.

if the GPU does need a new power connector it will come with the adapter in the box. That said, depending on how old (and what model) your psu is you might have to replace it 

 

9 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

I currently have a 580X and finally planning to upgrade after a very long time. I'm aiming for a 9070 or 5070. (Mostly because that's what on open box sale at micro center). Which one will be the better option. Further more they also have a 3060 but it's the 8GB version. 

For more details I currently have a 5600X cpu and an older EVGA 750 Watt power supply. I'm thinking I might have to update my power supply since I got it right before Nvidia 3000 series came out. From what I remember there was a new power connector for those or something along those lines.

Thanks for the help in advance. 

What resolution do you play at, what games do you play, any video editing/productivity work. Motherboard and ram specs?

[MC Morrado]

You also have a Radeon RX580 (8GB)? What a weird coincidence. 

 

Personally I would go with an Intel Arc B580 as it has almost the same if not slightly lower power consumption with 12GB of VRAM. I build using performance per watt. Personally, I wouldn't buy a graphics card that uses more than 200 watts so I don't fry something electrical-related in the walls of my grandmother's house.

[pathless_persona]

2 hours ago, filpo said:

what's the specific model? This'll decide whether you have to replace it or not

 

if the GPU does need a new power connector it will come with the adapter in the box. That said, depending on how old (and what model) your psu is you might have to replace it 

 

What resolution do you play at, what games do you play, any video editing/productivity work. Motherboard and ram specs?

Motherboard I believe it's the phantom B550 by ASRock. ram it's 32 gigs of DDR4 3200Mhz. With this upgrade I am planning to also start playing at higher resolution. Im going from 1080 to 1440. And I'm also learning how to draw on my drawing tablet and later I'll tackle blender. 

For the games it's mostly JRPGS like Persona 3 reload, Digimon, and sometimes FPS with my friends. I've been staying off the triple A games since my GPU is starting to struggle. 

For my PSU I will have to dig through my orders. I don't remember off the top of my head. 

Thanks!!!

[pathless_persona]

41 minutes ago, MC.Morrado said:

You also have a Radeon RX580 (8GB)? What a weird coincidence. 

 

Personally I would go with an Intel Arc B580 as it has almost the same if not slightly lower power consumption with 12GB of VRAM. I build using performance per watt. Personally, I wouldn't buy a graphics card that uses more than 200 watts so I don't fry something electrical-related in the walls of my grandmother's house.

That's the other route I've thought about. But idk much about the Intel arc gpus. I heard they were decent but they were missing a lot of optimization support from the game developers. 

[filpo]

32 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

For my PSU I will have to dig through my orders. I don't remember off the top of my head. 

It should say the model name on the power supply itself (however, it may be obstructed if the psu is facing the 'tempered glass' panel side) 

I only ask since if it's D or below on this list, i'd replace it. if it's C but more than 6 years old I'd then also replace it 

34 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

I'll tackle blender. 

RX 9070 is pretty shocking at blender compared to the RTX 5070 taking about 65% more time on average. How intense will it be and will it be regular use of blender? 

36 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

Motherboard I believe it's the phantom B550 by ASRock. ram it's 32 gigs of DDR4 3200Mhz. With this upgrade I am planning to also start playing at higher resolution. Im going from 1080 to 1440. And I'm also learning how to draw on my drawing tablet and later I'll tackle blender. 

If it's light blender work then go for the RX 9070. It'll be better than the 5070 (albeit not by much, but it does have more vram) and still decent at blender (about on par with an rtx 3060 12gb) 

How much is the 9070 and the 5070 at the open box sale at your local microcenter?

[MC Morrado]

29 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

That's the other route I've thought about. But idk much about the Intel arc gpus. I heard they were decent but they were missing a lot of optimization support from the game developers. 

If you're not using your PC for gaming and instead focusing on animation or drawing commissions above all else then I say you're better off with something like an M4 iMac. Microsoft Office, Adobe services, etc are all officially supported on Mac OS. There's also a version of Blender running natively on Apple Silicon.

 

My personal laptop has been an M1 MacBook Air since 2021 because it just works. I only use Windows for gaming and college stuff because school software only runs on Windows, everything else I do on Linux. Operating systems don't matter as much as they used to anymore now that almost everything is done inside a web browser or cloud-based service. I'm not a Windows user, I'm a Windows hostage.

Ubuntu might be your best option for running Blender because Linux development by Blender's developers is a first class citizen put above Mac or Windows.

 

My next gaming PC will run on Bazzite because my current Windows 10 gaming PC is unable to upgrade to 11.

CPU: Intel i7-3770

RAM: 32GB DDR3-1600

GPU: AMD Radeon RX580 (8GB)

Storage: 1TB SATA SSD

[pathless_persona]

2 hours ago, filpo said:

It should say the model name on the power supply itself (however, it may be obstructed if the psu is facing the 'tempered glass' panel side) 

I only ask since if it's D or below on this list, i'd replace it. if it's C but more than 6 years old I'd then also replace it 

RX 9070 is pretty shocking at blender compared to the RTX 5070 taking about 65% more time on average. How intense will it be and will it be regular use of blender? 

If it's light blender work then go for the RX 9070. It'll be better than the 5070 (albeit not by much, but it does have more vram) and still decent at blender (about on par with an rtx 3060 12gb) 

How much is the 9070 and the 5070 at the open box sale at your local microcenter?

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2, I have this one. And the work in blender will be on the lighter side. 

The 5070s start from $494 and the the 9070s start as low as $539. 

ASRock AMD Radeon RX 9070 Challenger Triple Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCIe 5.0 Graphics Card. That's the one for $539

 

MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 SHADOW 2X Overclocked Dual Fan 12GB GDDR7 PCIe 5.0 Graphics Card. This is the 5070 that's $494.

Edited October 30, 2025 by pathless_persona

[filpo]

3 hours ago, pathless_persona said:

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2, I have this one. And the work in blender will be on the lighter side. 

I'd say you're fine with not replacing it then 

 

3 hours ago, pathless_persona said:

The 5070s start from $494 and the the 9070s start as low as $539. 

I'd just go for the RX 9070 for more VRAM (since then maybe you can give even more AAA games a try) but honestly at these prices either is just as good as the other since the 5070 is so much better at blender

 

3 hours ago, pathless_persona said:

ASRock AMD Radeon RX 9070 Challenger Triple Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCIe 5.0 Graphics Card. That's the one for $539

 

MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 SHADOW 2X Overclocked Dual Fan 12GB GDDR7 PCIe 5.0 Graphics Card. This is the 5070 that's $494.

Does the amd card fit in your system? If so then maybe go for that one (could be cooler, though both cards are quite efficient) 

Since the 9070 has more vram (and it's only light blender work) I'd go for that 

[SimplyGone]

9 hours ago, pathless_persona said:

Further more they also have a 3060 but it's the 8GB version

I wouldn't bet on an 8GB card for longevity.  AAA games are so VRAM hungry these days.  I have a 12GB card and I've heard of things like the last of us 2 flooding 16Gb cards maxed out in 1080p

[pathless_persona]

14 hours ago, filpo said:

I'd say you're fine with not replacing it then 

 

I'd just go for the RX 9070 for more VRAM (since then maybe you can give even more AAA games a try) but honestly at these prices either is just as good as the other since the 5070 is so much better at blender

 

Does the amd card fit in your system? If so then maybe go for that one (could be cooler, though both cards are quite efficient) 

Since the 9070 has more vram (and it's only light blender work) I'd go for that 

I'll also get a new case. I still have an old NZXT case. The front panel doesn't even close properly anymore. 

[filpo]

3 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

I'll also get a new case. I still have an old NZXT case. The front panel doesn't even close properly anymore. 

What's the size constraints on the case? Something like this would work well and look good IMO https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fc88TW/montech-xr-atx-mid-tower-case-xr-b

How old is your current PSU?

[pathless_persona]

On 10/31/2025 at 4:17 AM, filpo said:

What's the size constraints on the case? Something like this would work well and look good IMO https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fc88TW/montech-xr-atx-mid-tower-case-xr-b

How old is your current PSU?

I currently have a full tower, but I am planning to downsize to a mid size case. I was looking at montech I also looking at lian li lancool series like the 217, 216, 207. 

[filpo]

3 hours ago, pathless_persona said:

I currently have a full tower, but I am planning to downsize to a mid size case. I was looking at montech I also looking at lian li lancool series like the 217, 216, 207. 

The 217 and 216 aren't that small at 55L, the 207 is better at 45L but IMO the Montech XR is better value and is the same price (as it looks better imo and seems to be easier to build in)

[pathless_persona]

On 11/1/2025 at 11:28 AM, filpo said:

The 217 and 216 aren't that small at 55L, the 207 is better at 45L but IMO the Montech XR is better value and is the same price (as it looks better imo and seems to be easier to build in)

Yeah I ended up getting the montech case. I even got a 10 dollar discount when checking out. Thanks for the help. My upgrade is completed.