Simple Questions - April 08, 2026

[-]

DigFantastic7464@reddit

I built a nice new pc, but am looking at trying to make my old pc usable - it's a i5 2500k, 2x4gb ram with a hd 6850 GPU (only 1gb ram).

If I were to upgrade the GPU to a gtx1660 would it be worth it for $80 or so used? Just looking for something for my daughter to play stuff like roblox but don't want to throw away money if the CPU mobo is too ancient

Thanks

[-]

tare789@reddit

I have a similar PC of i7 3770, GTX970, 16GB RAM. It runs basic games perfectly - Overcooked, Moving out, TMNT. Older AAA games are ok at 1080p - Elden Ring, SF6. No issues with any basic tasks like browsing internet and streaming at 1440p.

[-]

DigFantastic7464@reddit

What operating system do you use?

This was running Windows 10 when I stopped using it last year and I tried doing a fresh install with Windows 11, only to find out that I can't install 11 due to not having TPM 2.0... I guess Windows 11 needs an 8th gen or newer cpu. Not sure what the option is since Windows 10 is no longer supported. Thanks

[-]

DigFantastic7464@reddit

thanks, yes, I think something like the GTX 970 would be a sensible upgrade and could get it used for under $60. I have two newer pcs AM5 and a I7 14700 so those do any heavy gaming. This would just be for a third pc for the kids group gaming since I have the rig and an old monitor. Thank you!

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

How well does it handle browser tasks at the moment? Modern browsers that would support Roblox generally are not going to run very well on such hardware.

[-]

DigFantastic7464@reddit

It stopped working, I think that one of the memory sticks went bad, but would run stuff like roblox just not at high settings. I'm going to try and get it operational before spending any money on it

[-]

t90fan@reddit

browser stuff will probably run bad today if it involves any video (i.e. Netflix/Youtube), especially beyong 1080p, because the old eGPU and iGPU don't support hardware decoding modern codecs like HEVC/VP9/AV1, so it will be doing the decoding on the CPU, and it's quite intensive

Updating the GPU will help a fair bit with that

But it is still a very weak machine

[-]

Necessary_Answer4004@reddit

Is the the Nvidia GTX 970 a reliable component for a server build? Do we like the unit or hate it?

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

It's a 12 year old GPU. if it's still working. It should be just fine for a display output.

But if your server is doing ANYTHING that requires GPU performance (encoding, rendering, games) then the 970 is going to be woefully underpowered.

[-]

Necessary_Answer4004@reddit

I think the only encoding itd be doing would be with some old 26+ year old tech that only r/PLC will be able to help me with... but one step at a time I guess. I'll throw my question out there anyway:
Do GPUs have anything to do with RS-232 encoding?

[-]

Protonion@reddit

Even a 2$ microcontroller has enough processing power for PLC logic and RS232 communication. Those will run on essentially any computer and do not use a graphics card at all. You don't have to worry about performance.

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

I don't believe so. Pretty sure the CPU would handle all of that.

GPUs are just better at math, the CPU does all the raw computing that would generate such mathematic information.

So if you're not generating math to be solved in some manner, the workload stays with the CPU.

[-]

Necessary_Answer4004@reddit

Thanks. So CPU is more important than GPU for my use cases.

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

VERY LIKELY. I haven't dealt with serial anything in ages so I could be wrong.

But the last time I did, PCIE was brand new and GPUs were strictly for drawing polygons faster. Unless someone has come up with a method of offloading the work load to a GPU, you should be fine just focusing on the CPU.

[-]

FartyTartMcShart@reddit

Am I being too optimistic in wanting to upgrade to a 5080 please?

My current setup is as follows:

Ryzen 5700x
B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
64GB DDR4
Seasonic Focus GX 850 80+ GOLD 850W

Currently running a EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra, but want to upgrade to a larger curved monitor and better res. gaming, but worried about spec and power draw. Any help appreciated. Thanks

[-]

Competitive-Pain8456@reddit

Would 7800x3d be overkill for europa universalis 5 and mostly grand strategy games in 2k?

[-]

Ex_Ni-Hi-Lo@reddit

I was planning on buying a new PC but with the way prices have gone I thought I might just upgrade my current CPU instead as it seems to be my main limiting factor. My PC building knowledge is pretty surface level, so any help would be appreciated.

I have an 'ASUS PRIME B365M-A' Motherboard currently with a 'Intel Core i5 9400' CPU. GPU is an 'AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT' and RAM is 'Crucial (2x16GB) 3200MHz CL22 UDIMM DDR4' if that matters.

My question is, what CPU options could I buy and have installed that would work with my system, also would I need a new fan for it? Price shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Thanks

[-]

kaje@reddit

You could get a higher-end CPU that's from the same 9th gen as what you have now. That's kinda meh. Get a new motherboard too so that you can get a newer CPU. You can reuse your DDR4 RAM with12th-14th gen CPUs.

[-]

Ex_Ni-Hi-Lo@reddit

Thanks, any recommendation for a new mothboard around the same size?

[-]

Vloxalion@reddit

am4 is the way to go imo since lga1700 is significantly hampered by ddr4 vs ddr5, the 5800x isn't far off from a 12900k. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijAyVshtok

5600/x from ebay, fb marketplace, r/hardwareswap for 100-140 (or 5700x/5800x for 150-180). could also do 5500x3d from aliexpress for 150-170 depending on if there's a sale and/or coupons but i'm seeing way over that right now with no ongoing site sale/coupons.

used b550m board from those places or amazon resale. or a new msi pro b550m-vc wifi for 100, but used options are likely better, though there is a very small chance with used that it was manufactured before the bios that supported 5000 series came out. any b550 board will run a 5600/x.

does your cooler support am4 and you still have the mounting hardware for it? if not then a single tower cooler will cool it well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3X7FQ3Y? or if you want an aio they start at 36 for a 240mm and 40ish for 360mm, they'd be overkill though. would also need a new cooler/mountinghardware if you go for lga1700.

ddr4 oc guide - not sure if those are 8gigabit or 16 gigabit dies, m8e or m16b are the number 2 and four dies for ddr4.

ancientgameplays has guide for overclocking/undervolting amd gpus like yours

excellent script for windows debloating / telemetry + ai removal / update disruption pausing <-highly recommend. run after feature updates because microsoft adds back in the ai and other junk

Goble4@reddit

Has Gigabyte fixed their thermal gel problem yet? One of their 3 fan 5060ti cards is sold for less than the competitions' 2 fanned models.

[-]

Necessary_Answer4004@reddit

Do you need to overclock a server PC?

[-]

VoraciousGorak@reddit

Considering servers are usually optimized around stability and power consumption, an overclock would go directly against the design principles of a server that aims for 24/7 uptime.

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

You shouldn't need to unless your uses are requiring additional performance that the hardware can't provide.

Narrowing down your use case would be the first step, then figuring out performance problems from there would let you know whether or not a overclock will work or if you're better off just getting new hardware.

Minecraft Java servers for example, the server client only uses a single CPU core. Mods or other additions can make use of additional cores. If your CPU performance can't keep up with the server clients needs, an overclock could help as you are boosting each cores individual capabilities. But if that's not enough to satisfy its needs, then you would need a better CPU with better single core performance.

[-]

LuHuLu_@reddit

Would a Intel Arc B580 fit in a Micro-ATX case?

[-]

Aleksanterinleivos@reddit

The GPU specs tell you how long it is. The case specs tell you what the max supported GPU length is.

[-]

Heracl0s2@reddit

In a laptop if you have 2 sticks of 8go, and one spare stick of 16go of the same speed, what problems can it cause to use a 16+8go setup outside of unstability, can it impact performances ?

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

Instability and performance issues are going to be the main problems. I doubt you would see any issues outside of memory intensive applications.

Anything that eats RAM is going to try and split its memory load between channels, and if one of them runs out of available space before the other, then it could slow your program to a unusual crawl.

[-]

Necessary_Answer4004@reddit

Are there any resources to compare 10+ year old tech? I need to compare components that are ancient for a build. (eg: AMD A4-5300 ; Intel Core i7-2600 ; etc)

[-]

t90fan@reddit

bear in mind that old benchmarks from back in the day kind of no longer apply because a lot of the security mitigation which came later for these ancient CPUs for vulns like SPECTRE and MELTDOWN completely crippled their performance (the hardware has unfixable flaws so they had to do workarounds in microcode which basically meant turning off lots of performance related optimizations)

We junked all our pre-2017 Intel servers at work because the impact was a solid 10-20%

[-]

Necessary_Answer4004@reddit

I am not planning to do any gaming. This is a build for a server or very light programming. I'm planning to run linux mint. How bad is it to use tech from the first half of the 2010s? If I'm not gaming and I'm using Linux, surely the performance of a 16gb ram 10 year old CPU and GPU won't be too great.

[-]

tare789@reddit

I’ve looked up YouTube videos of game FPS performance for a reference point. I used it more as like - is this GPU even capable of playing this game, rather than what FPS can I expect.

Search for like “Cyberpunk GTX970”

[-]

n7_trekkie@reddit

Techpowerup's GPU database dates back that far

[-]

thrwaway070879@reddit

Probably Passmark https://www.cpubenchmark.net and TechPowerup's database would be good places to start.

[-]

Southern_Long8745@reddit

Hello,

I would like some help. When playing CS2, my FPS is around 250, but when I get close to other players and there is shooting, it drops to around 150. It seems like with my build, the FPS in CS2 should be better.

What could be the issue? Could it be the CL48 RAM or the fact that I’m using only one RAM stick? Or could the problem be somewhere else?

My build:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 8400F GPU: PowerColor Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB RAM: Kingston 16GB DDR5 6400MHz (1x16 CL48) Motherboard: Sapphire Pulse A620AM Storage: SanDisk 512GB NVMe M.2 SSD PSU: Gigabyte GP-P650SS 650W

[-]

VoraciousGorak@reddit

Could it be the CL48 RAM or the fact that I’m using only one RAM stick?

Yes, both of those things. The 8400F is also one of the slower AM5 CPUs, with only 16MB cache.

Check to make sure your RAM is actually running at DDR5-6400, as it probably defaults to DDR5-4800. Your tweaking options are limited with that motherboard though.

[-]

Leather_Confidence@reddit

I dont play shooters, but this seems more like a broadband latency problem - slow internet. Do you use Wifi or ethernet cable?

Or try to cap your FPS to your monitor refresh rate.

[-]

Leather_Confidence@reddit

Very OT!

Can anyone suggest a way to mount a 120mm case fan to the end of an aircon vent hose?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71R3O21vAiL.AC_SL1500.jpg

I have a portable aircon unit, with the hose being fed out of a window. It doesnt vent hot air efficiently so I had the idea of mounting an old atx case fan on the end to draw the hot air through the hose.

I have figured out how to power the fan (USB to PWM adaptor, with an USB extension cable running to a mains USB adaptor), but getting the case fan to stay put at the end of the hose is a problem.

Any suggestions appreciated.

[-]

Protonion@reddit

About the only clean way to do it would be to 3D print a bracket that has the fan mounting holes on one side and on the other side a collar the size of the exhaust pipe. If you don't have access to a 3D printer then cardboard and cust tape is your best bet, won't be pretty though.

If it's one of those fairly big AC units that cool an entire room, then note that the volume of air that they're supposed to be blowing out is orders of magnitude more than a PC fan blows, and adding that fan isn't really going to do anything.

[-]

Leather_Confidence@reddit

No 3d printer, so that seems like it will have to be the solution.

The vent on the aircon doesnt seem to blow that hard - the plastic hose acted more like a heatsink until I put a thermal cover on it.

[-]

TheBobbyShot@reddit

Built in 2020, fans get super loud out of nowhere, since i have upgraded to a 3070 and added a few more fans. I downloaded fan control, set the following parameters, and for the first time in 6 years, my computer fans are running at a consistent pace. Does any of this look like a red flag? Looks like its all based off that CPU curve, but im not sure how accurate that is because it keeps bouncing from 88ish to 95ish and even with the fans running at full speed that temp stays the same. Thanks in advance!

[-]

Aleksanterinleivos@reddit

Just so you know you haven't linked a picture or anything, but you speak about "following" and "this" as if there should be one. So we can't really comment on anything we can't see.

[-]

TheBobbyShot@reddit

Yep i made the comment and then realized we can’t post pictures here :(

[-]

Aleksanterinleivos@reddit

You have to put them on Imgur etc and paste the link in the comment.

[-]

bestanonever@reddit

Maybe try cleaning up the PC and reapplying new thermal paste to both the GPU and CPU. That GPU has as much age as your PC, so the thermal paste must be dry by now.

[-]

Ljupchoo@reddit

Yesterday, I bought the Ryzen 5 5600, along with the in box stock cooler. The price difference compared to the 5600 X version is 20$ bucks where I live. I also saw a 5600X for the same price I paid for the 5600 just that it didn't come with the stock cooler. Did I make a huge mistake? I do have an old 2600 with it's stock cooler maybe I could've used that one on the 5600X.

[-]

bestanonever@reddit

It's the same performance at the end of the day, with a minimal edge of +-3% of the X version. Don't sweat it and enjoy your new CPU!

[-]

Ljupchoo@reddit

Got it, I will thank you!

[-]

Panda_of_power@reddit

I'm upgrading my game library SSD from 1TB to a new 2TB. Can I just put the new drive in my nvme enclosure, copy all files and replace physical drive on mobo? I'm sure steam will have to validate installs and everything, but is there anything I'm missing or is it really that simple?

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

You will need to adjust or confirm the letter of the disk drive in disk management after you swap them out, but that is it.

[-]

Panda_of_power@reddit

I appreciate the input!

[-]

Aleksanterinleivos@reddit

Assuming it's a secondary drive like it sounds, then yes it's as simple as copying every file and making sure the drive letter matches what i was before like the other person said. All the registry and other "hidden" stuff is on your main drive so don't need to think about that.

[-]

RunAndGuun@reddit

Have a SATA 1tb 860 EVO that has been sitting unpowered since late January last year. Is it still fine/useable? I think it has less than 100tb write on it.

Was wondering if I need to get a new ssd (I know prices are absurd) since I’m planning to install w11 when I give old pc to parents.

[-]

t90fan@reddit

run a chkdsk on it to see if its got data corruption

as you might have some data loss when using modern consumer-grade SSDs as cold (offline) storage like that - the type of flash they use offers a good cost/capacity ratio but poor retention.

the underlying hardware is fine though, they don't seize up like HDDs can if left for years - worst case scenario you just need to repair or reformat the partition

[-]

Protonion@reddit

SSDs may lose data from sitting unpowered for long times, but they don't get damaged/worn. That SSD is in just as good of a condition as it was when you unplugged it, the 1TB model is rated for something like 600TBW.

[-]

RunAndGuun@reddit

Alright hell yeah ty! I didn’t have any data in there and was gonna format before fresh install.

[-]

Luisyn7@reddit

Kingstom Fury Beast 2x16GB DDR5 6000Mhz CL36 for 337USD (converted from mexican pesos) to upgrade to AM5. Yes or no and why?

[-]

TemptedTemplar@reddit

If you're in a rush and absolutely need RAM in the next week, go for it. That's only like $40 off of the lowest price in recent weeks. (For 32gb 6000mhz)

If you are not in a rush, and can wait a few weeks. These prices are already down $100 or more from a couple weeks ago. Things are happening (good for consumers), and it's being reflected in market prices, it just may take a while to see massive change.

[-]

Raithskar@reddit

Have a 5070 Ti on the way. Have the latest driver issues been fixed, or should I go with an older version?

[-]

NotSodiumFree@reddit

I have an AMD setup that is currently running 32gb 6000m/t ram but its xmp. Its running the xmp and seems to be stable at 6000. I have the opportunity to get another 32gb set but expo for a good price. They are not even close in brand or anything so i wont run them together. Is it worth swapping sets for expo or is this an it aint broke dont fix it situation?

[-]

MarxistMan13@reddit

If you're stable at the XMP speeds, there is functionally no difference between them.

[-]

NotSodiumFree@reddit

thank you. I just wanted to make sure i wasnt losing out on stability or something that im not aware of.

[-]

n7_trekkie@reddit

No it's not worth it. You'll never see a performance difference, expo is just slightly more specific XMP profiles

[-]

shekurika@reddit

son of a friends wants a gaming pc. Mostly fortnite and minecraft on 1080p I think. Budget is ~$1200.

I do have an old 2070S that he can have for free. Should I use that one or would it be better to go with a 9070XT and save some on the rest of the components?

Also RAM is so expensive Im wondering if we can get away with 2x8GB for now and upgrade later (I dont wanna go 1x16GB cus no dual channel)

[-]

bestanonever@reddit

I'd use that GPU you already have. You'd save yourself some cool $700 and you can spend it on a nice NVME, modern CPU (I'd get an AM5 board with a regular Ryzen 7000 or 9000 series CPU).

Just try the games with that GPU on once you build it, if it's too slow, you can always buy a new one later but I don't think it's necessary for those games.

[-]

deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

[-]

AutoModerator@reddit (OP)

Hi there! Thanks for the comment.

We ask that posts and comments be in English so they can be understood by as many people as possible. Translations on Reddit are client-side, and not all apps or browsers support auto-translate. Currently many users (and moderators) aren’t able to read your comment.

Could you please submit a new comment in English?

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[-]

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/18nivp4/corsair_ddr5_form_over_function_again/

Several years ago they seemed to have problems.