Advice on GPU upgrade

[AsRock]

No such thing as a 4 GB 1080.

I read it as he had a r290 gpu at the time of the original post.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I read it as he had a r290 gpu at the time of the original post.

Yeah, that's what I read too.

 

[DaemonForce]

Rx 6700, 6750, 6800, or the likes in 7000 line

That's up to you. If the role of the card is just gaming, go 6000 series if you can.
The prices hiked way too high right after Turkey day so good luck with that.
If you're going to be doing any kind of streaming, NDI capture to a machine with competent streaming technology.
A 7000 series card is enough to do it all locally. A 9070 series card knocks it out of the park at lower bitrates.
On a single system your options for content are quite limited so I'm assuming that's the real question in there.
These are all still very competent gaming cards.

 

[Dr. Dro]

That's up to you. If the role of the card is just gaming, go 6000 series if you can.
The prices hiked way too high right after Turkey day so good luck with that.
If you're going to be doing any kind of streaming, NDI capture to a machine with competent streaming technology.
A 7000 series card is enough to do it all locally. A 9070 series card knocks it out of the park at lower bitrates.
On a single system your options for content are quite limited so I'm assuming that's the real question in there.
These are all still very competent gaming cards.

He does not recommend anything that isn't an AMD GPU, he does not read the posts or takes into consideration the requirements of users, he will always recommend an AMD GPU without fail, no need to put that much thought into it.

 

[Scattergrunt]

He does not recommend anything that isn't an AMD GPU, he does not read the posts or takes into consideration the requirements of users, he will always recommend an AMD GPU without fail, no need to put that much thought into it.

Some people have bias that they can admit, some don't. He uses AMD, he obviously likes AMD, he's gonna recommend AMD based on his experiences and outlook.. I don't know where he reigns on the bias part, but I'm sure there's more to it than that but he has a preference for AMD, definitely. It would help if he went into *why*

Get a better card now, then upgrade the platform later.

Seconded! Speaking from experience. As long as its compatible, a better card will do wonders even if its noticeably bottlenecked (my RTX 2080S was pretty bottlenecked by my i5-8400, at least noticeably until I upgraded to a Ryzen 5800X & a whole new Mobo.)

Something like the 5060/70/Ti.

Blackwell isn't particular efficienct compared to Ada or sometimes even Ampere. Prices are up in the air too.. used deal seems better imo.

DLSS4 came down the older NVIDIA gpu's too iirc (please correct me if I am wrong).

You should be fine with an RTX 3060 or 3060ti. Anything more would be overkill for that older CPU. DDR3 is cheap right now. If you've got 2x8GB and your board has pair of empty RAM slots you could install another 8GB or 16GB kit, which could be helpful in some games.

Leaning towards 3060 because the 3060Ti might be a bit overkill for a 4770k. It's still capable but you might run into issues with a 3060Ti (presumed). Either 8GB or 12GB ver should be fine.

DLSS would also be a compelling deal over FSR, especially because FSR4 isn't available to older radeons, and we don't know for sure if it will come to older radeons (probably just RX 7000 at best). Me personally I don't mind dropping DLSS but I can see a argument for it especially on a tight budget (I do not know OP's budget)

 

[Dr. Dro]

Some people have bias that they can admit, some don't. He uses AMD, he obviously likes AMD, he's gonna recommend AMD based on his experiences and outlook.. I don't know where he reigns on the bias part, but I'm sure there's more to it than that but he has a preference for AMD, definitely. It would help if he went into *why*

We've had numerous disagreements in the past over brand loyalty. But to be exactly clear, it's not that recommending AMD almost all the time is a problem. It's that at least speaking for myself, I feel like I owe an explanation as to why someone I'm encouraging to spend their hard earned money on something should do so.

 

[Scattergrunt]

We've had numerous disagreements in the past over brand loyalty. But to be exactly clear, it's not that recommending AMD almost all the time is a problem. It's that at least speaking for myself, I feel like I owe an explanation as to why someone I'm encouraging to spend their hard earned money on something should do so.

Yea I understand, that's what I was trying to say too. Elaborate why, like you and some other people do. I try to explain why I recommend something when someone asks unless its a pretty obvious choice / decision. (if someone comes to me about adobe or blender or etc, I'm gonna recommend NVIDIA to them because CUDA. AMD isn't super bad here, they're just not as price effective at all, for example)

Generally, he comes off as someone who doesn't like to type long stuff, so maybe that could be why. But it would be nice if he gave some reasons over NVIDIA for this situation. VRAM could be an argument / reason to side with AMD, if OP wants to keep the card for a fair bit. Resell value could push him to NVIDIA.. etc etc. It can go both ways imo. That's at least how I looked at it when I deal hunt. I always try to think of the future too.

 

[Contra]

I mostly suggested Nvidia due to DLSS.

I guess a 6700XT or similar performance range should be fine.

DLSS/FSR won't help if you are CPU limited

 

[dgianstefani]

Blackwell isn't particular efficienct compared to Ada or sometimes even Ampere. Prices are up in the air too.. used deal seems better imo.

Blackwell is more efficient at every tier than Ada, let alone Ampere.

DLSS/FSR won't help if you are CPU limited

DLSS Frame Gen absolutely helps when CPU limited.

 

[Scattergrunt]

Blackwell is more efficient at every tier than Ada, let alone Ampere.

View attachment 395050

Double checked, I might of been mistaken about efficiency and mistook it for wattage while gaming.. I've had a bit of a tough morning. (too much caffeine, getting the sniffles, yada)

If we go by that angle instead, the Blackwell cards are not super impressive. The 5070 uses more wattage for about ~10% more performance at best (The uplift was worse before but I think I heard some rumblings about drivers helping, or something, I dunno.) 5070Ti uses almost the same wattage as a 4080, and unsurprisingly, is almost identical to a 4080 in performance.

5090 consumers 25% more power for 30% more performance very roughly, so its.. fine.

Still though, in OP's situation, I still wouldn't recommend a 50 series card above a xx60Ti. 5060, maybe, if its a good price. But simply don't know enough about the card.

I don't think OP should buy Blackwell, or even Ada debatably, because of pricing. Used seems to be the best option.

DLSS Frame Gen absolutely helps when CPU limited.

It's here or there.. basic framegen from either NVIDIA or AMD should work fine. I don't personally know how FG impacts CPU limited situations so I can't comment on how its impact is like. Logic says it should be fine though. As far as I remember, the work on the CPU is minimal

 

[lexluthermiester]

DLSS/FSR won't help if you are CPU limited

Not true at all. DLSS & FSR are executed mostly on the GPU, the CPU workload is very minimal.

@cooltownaz
The 4770k is still a decent CPU, depending on the game. It's still capable of a reasonable experience at 1080p.
The following was a set of performance runs with an RTX4090 with all settings on max for each game.

Jay also did a run of tests that showed some surprising results.

So yeah, your 4770K is getting on in years but is still usable. Considering that most games are GPU bound, a solid GFX card is the more important part for you right now. Buy a solid GFX card now and when you update the base platform(and you'll want to do that next), you'll see an instantly upgrade to your GFX performance as well because the GPU will be better utilized.

That having been said, I'm going to restate my suggestion that you get the best GPU you can afford. NVidia would be my recommendation because of overall performance, including raytracing. However, Radeon cards offer solid performance too for older gen cards, just not the raytracing.

When you do upgrade, an AM4 board with a Ryzen 3700X or 3800X or on the Intel side a socket 1151 with a 9700k or 9900k would be a massive upgrade.

Blackwell is more efficient at every tier than Ada, let alone Ampere.

View attachment 395050

The OP is not going to buy a $700+ GPU to plug into a 4770K based system. Whether or not Blackwell is better is irrelevant to the what the OP is looking to do.

 

[dgianstefani]

The OP is not going to buy a $700+ GPU to plug into a 4770K based system. Whether or not Blackwell is better is irrelevant to the what the OP is looking to do.

Get a better card now, then upgrade the platform later.

No sense buying a "balanced" GPU and then realising it still needs upgrading when you eventually shift to a modern platform.

Something like the 5060/70/Ti.

Money spent twice to buy the same "balanced" part isn't savings.

 

[Scattergrunt]

The OP is not going to buy a $700+ GPU to plug into a 4770K based system. Whether or not Blackwell is better is irrelevant to the what the OP is looking to do.

The 5060Ti's pricing is not looking compelling either. Frankly, I don't think OP should worry about new gen cards. They're likely out of his price range anyway if I had to make a reasonable assumption (again, I do not know his budget though.)

CPU bottleneck may be inevitable but a 3070 at most seems to be the FARTHEST I would push that, depends on the games though really. From my own personal experiences I've gotten better framerates in CPU bottleneck situations on more intensive games (such as CP2077) by cranking up settings carefully to increase GPU workload. Worked well. if OP is playing newer games, this could be a way to help mitigate that. But I don't know what OP is playing. Just speaking from minimal experience here, so there's certainly ways to manage a CPU bottleneck situation. Not always the cleanest solution, but based on the game, it could help.

I think in used categories there's a lot of good options for OP though. 3060 is the sweet spot still, imo.

 

[lexluthermiester]

@dgianstefani
Yeah, it's still not relevant. Unless the prices on the 5060 is going to be VERY attractive, the OP will likely be buying something used.

 

[dgianstefani]

@dgianstefani
Yeah, it's still not relevant. Unless the prices on the 5060 is going to be VERY attractive, the OP will likely be buying something used.

Unless you know something the rest of us don't, you shouldn't assume their budget.

$300-800 range in suggestion is reasonable, and is in fact the range where the vast majority of pc gamers spend.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Unless you know something the rest of us don't, you shouldn't assume their budget.

Their budget range is implied by the fact that they're holding on to a 4770k. It's not an assumption or a judgment, it's a conclusion based on the merits of the stated situation by the OP.

 

[dgianstefani]

Their budget range is implied by the fact that they're holding on to a 4770k. It's not an assumption or a judgment, it's a conclusion based on the merits of the stated situation by the OP.

Assumptions.

OP has an old high end system so you think they want to upgrade to a slightly less old low end system?

Everyone who doesn't upgrade frequently has a low budget? Please.

 

[Scattergrunt]

Unless you know something the rest of us don't, you shouldn't assume their budget.

Its conservative; based on assumptions. All of us do not know his budget. However, if they're rocking a 4770K in 2025 and still haven't done a platform upgrade, they probably aren't able to buy something like a 5070 or 5070Ti. As they would of easily been able to upgrade platform & even the GPU awhile ago, probably without needing to ask either. But yea you're right about that.

Lets leave it at that, and put that on the coat hanger for now till OP can get back to us (and hopefully, with a number to his budget)

 

[dgianstefani]

So yeah, your 4770K is getting on in years but is still usable. Considering that most games are GPU bound, a solid GFX card is the more important part for you right now. Buy a solid GFX card now and when you update the base platform(and you'll want to do that next), you'll see an instantly upgrade to your GFX performance as well because the GPU will be better utilized.
That having been said, I'm going to restate my suggestion that you get the best GPU you can afford. NVidia would be my recommendation because of overall performance, including raytracing. However, Radeon cards offer solid performance too for older gen cards, just not the raytracing.

The OP is not going to buy a $700+ GPU to plug into a 4770K based system. Whether or not Blackwell is better is irrelevant to the what the OP is looking to do.

You seem to contradict yourself here.

 

[lexluthermiester]

$300-800 range in suggestion is reasonable

$300? Sure. $800? Get out of here with that nonsense. IF they had $800 to spend they wouldn't be holding on to a 4770K.

and is in fact the range where the vast majority of pc gamers spend.

We're not here to help "the vast majority of pc gamers". We're here to help ONE person wanting to upgrade an older machine.

Everyone who doesn't upgrade frequently has a low budget? Please.

They've got a 4770K. That says a lot. Quit trying to sell new hardware and be more objective.

Now if we presume that they're just looking for the best GPU they can pair with that setup and it's NOT going to be their main system, then an RTX 2070 or 3060 would do just fine.
If they're planning for the future and this IS their main system, then yes, something newer and more power is what should be considered. But if they're holding on to a 4770K because their budget is limited, that's a thing we need to account for in our recommendations.

So trying to push them to a card that would likely be outside their budget is a waste of time and energy.

You seem to contradict yourself here.

YOU are failing at context, yet again. Stop with this ego driven power-stuggle crap. I don't care and doubt anyone else does either.

Lets leave it at that, and put that on the coat hanger for now till OP can get back to us (and hopefully, with a number to his budget)

Yeah, that's likely a good idea.

 

[dgianstefani]

$300? Sure. $800? Get out of here with that nonsense. IF they had $800 to spend they wouldn't be holding on to a 4770K.

We're not here to help "the vast majority of pc gamers". We're here to help ONE person wanting to upgrade an older machine.

Assumptions.

OP has an old high end system so you think they want to upgrade to a slightly less old low end system?

Everyone who doesn't upgrade frequently has a low budget? Please.

Again, a range of $300-800 is not unreasonable when you don't know someone's budget. However much you want to assume that you do.

Noone is "pushing" or "selling" anything, that's your projection, what's being offered is a range of good options at different budgets, since, again, we do not know OP's budget.

It's likely the best possible time for the foreseeable future to buy a high end GPU, tariffs aren't going to make them cheaper.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Again, a range of $300-800 is not unreasonable when you don't know someone's budget. However much you want to assume that you do.

Noone is "pushing" or "selling" anything, that's your projection, what's being offered is a range of good options at different budgets, since, again, we do not know OP's budget.

It's likely the best possible time for the foreseeable future to buy a high end GPU, tariffs aren't going to make them cheaper.

Their budget is implied by the base hardware they qualified on in their opening statement. However, as was suggested;

Lets leave it at that, and put that on the coat hanger for now till OP can get back to us (and hopefully, with a number to his budget)

This wisdom should be observed.

 

[Marcus L]

The OP registered, posted and done a vanishing trick anyway, it's been 9 days and they have not logged on since creating the thread, I suspect they have found what they are looking for or just sticking with what they have, in any case a 5070 class of GPU on a 12 year old DDR3 platform is nuts and no one in their right mind would be spending $800 on a GPU to pair with a 4770k, the OP even mentioned a 1080 or similar performing AMD card, so that should tell you all you need to know about their budget for a GPU <$200 would be a fair assumption as they just want something more current and better able to handle modern games, anything 5070 or upwards is laughable and would not only require $800 for the GPU but like another $150+ for a PSU when the OP came asking about 1080 ffs

 

[Ruru]

It's a valid differential especially when the computer being upgraded is 12 years old

Though Nvidia has way more driver overhead. For a rig that old, that's a thing to keep in mind.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Though Nvidia has way more driver overhead. For a rig that old, that's a thing to keep in mind.

It really depends. Not to mention, DLSS will offset it