i dunno how it happened but somehow in between me getting this 1060 6gb in 2016 and now, I’ve lost the ability to numb my brain to the deluge of information like ‘the 6600 is only marginally worse than the 6650 so you should get a 6600 if you can’t budget the extra $100’ that is comparing modern graphics cards.
I’ve had this 1060 6GB for almost 10 years, I love it - it is and was a good card. Still chugs along reliably for most modern games - but unfortunately I’ve started to notice its age in the last few years (most recently with the stupid ass Dragon Ball Sparking Zero game my friend bought for me on Steam this Christmas specifically so he could play with me - imagine my shock and surprise when I’m getting like 10fps on all Low settings…). Almost a decade without upgrading is a long enough run for me though.
Anyways I’m basically clueless on the last decade of graphics cards and have no idea what is the economical & viable (I’d prefer to at least get 5+ years out of whatever I upgrade to - not saying it has to push Ultra High settings on some AAA 2029 release or anything, but I’d love it to at least perform decently with new releases for the next few years like the 1060 has.)
Here’s my current build:
| Current Build: | |
|---|---|
| Processor: | Ryzen 7 3700X |
| Motherboard: | ASUS B550-F |
| RAM: | 32GB DDR4 |
| GPU: | GTX 1060 6GB |
From the research I’ve done, an AMD card is probably my best bet although I am leery of them simply because I’ve only ever used nvidia cards but I’m not too worried about the software/driver/etc differences.
I would prefer not to spend more than like $500 on one but if it’s like 600-700 and you think it is truly the best card on the market, list it and I’ll consider just scrounging up the extra $$ for it - not like I have a girlfriend or boyfriend to spend it on
Anyways here’s the cards I’ve currently been recommended by friends and/or found in my searching. Have listed the price I found on Amazon for each:
| Potential Upgrade: | |
|---|---|
| AMD 7700 XT 12gb | $400 on Amazon |
| 6600 XT 8gb | $260~ |
Eager to hear your thoughts & opinions & suggestions nerds. Thanks.
Voodoo2
how does that compare to the intel hd graphics 4000 cause I’m thinking I might go with that
spoiler
that’s why i asked how it compared to intel’s integrated graphics from like 2010
Easy powerful upgrade would be a 5700x3D cpu and a 7700XT gpu for gaming.
This would be an extremely balanced build for 1080/1440 and you should get away with 650w psu pretty easily.
You just might need to update the bios on the motherboard before you swap in the new cpu.
It seems like the 7700XT is probably the way to go. You think the CPU will bottleneck it to the point where a 5700X3D is needed or could I get away with the 3700X?
Don’t buy anything yet. Nvidia is probably going to announce the 5000 series soon (within the next 3 months). Even if you aren’t planning to get an overpriced Nvidia card, wait until they announce the release dates and then see if you can hold off on a purchase till then because retailers might lower prices on the previous generation of cards in response.
I watched this paradoxically titled video “Don’t Upgrade” a couple of weeks back. It actually has some good advice on where to aim at for value for money as far as the current/last gen cards go given that the incoming generation will not net you any noticeable benefits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5oG9xk79Vw
It’s a pretty good video in general and covers more than video cards, but IIRC there was some useful advice in there for what to do if you DO need to upgrade objectively old stuff. One caveat may be that “you should wait” until this that or the other happens as far as announcements for new shit comes out so the price drops on existing stock. That was definitely what I got from his talk on CPUs n shit.
tbh I can’t keep up either at the moment (or ever,) it’s like, at least a week of research for me personally when I’m deciding on a decision like that. I used to build crazy overclocked beasts of machines but it’s all so tiresome.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
If you do upgrade, I would recommend an AMD card just because AMD GPUs are known to work flawlessly on Linux and Wayland especially. NVIDIA works ok on X11, but has a lot of issues on Wayland. If you don’t know what those are, those are essentially your two options for getting graphics on Linux; Wayland is the more modern one which most people, and most Linux distros, are moving towards.
Even if you are a Windows user, I imagine a lot of people will realise they want to switch to Linux in the coming years as Windows continues to enshittify, and you don’t want to end up reinstalling Windows purely because of poor hardware support.
If you’re wondering, gaming on Linux is nearly on par with Windows at this point thanks to Valve’s Proton, allowing Windows games to be run on Linux. I get great performance on popular Windows games by running them through Proton on Linux.
