Need help: potential PC upgrade or should I buy a new PC?
Posted by RemarkableRepair811@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 26 comments
Given the current situation, I’d like to invest a bit in my PC, but I’m in a fairly complicated situation that I don’t really understand well.
My current setup:
CPU: Intel i5-9600
Motherboard: MSI Z390-A PRO
Current GPU: RTX 2060
GPU I’m considering: RX 7800 XT 16 GB
Usage: mainly gaming
RAM: 2x8 GB DDR4
To be honest, I really don’t know much about this and I’m not sure what the best move would be. Are there still good-value prebuilt PCs available, or should I upgrade individual components instead?
Should I also change the CPU and motherboard?
If upgrading individual components is the better option, I’d really appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks in advance!
tiga_94@reddit
why 7800xt? why not 9070 or 5070 ? or maybe 9060xt or 5060ti 16gb, these have better ray tracing and upscalers and such
TheDreadfulSagittary@reddit
You can certainly just change the GPU, but to a degree you will be held back by your older CPU and RAM. If you should do a wider upgrade / new PC depends on what you think you'd want to spend.
Also for a 7800 XT I'd be sure you're getting a good deal, otherwise I'd sooner take a 9060 XT 16GB or RX 9070. Mostly because AMD introduced much better upscaling tech that they'll using going forward, which the older GPUs won't be able to use.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
hello, what's most likely to be a good deal ? I don't have an idea of which one is overpriced / underpriced between the 7800 xt & 9060 xt ?
TheDreadfulSagittary@reddit
It depends on what price you were seeing for the 7800 XT. I saw in your other comment you're buying in France, if you were looking at the new price of a 7800 XT (616 on PCPP) that is absolutely not worth it, you can get a RX 9070 for the same price and about 25% faster.
If you were looking at used 7800 XTs, I'd have to see what the prices on those are. But they'd have to be about the same or less in cost to a 9060 XT 16GB (430). A 9060 XT is a little bit slower, but the newer tech is worth it in the long run imo, especially if you are used to using DLSS with your current Nvidia card.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
hello, for the 7800xt I can find some for 500-600 non-used / 400 used
just went for a few searches and found an rx 9070 for 550 non-used can you just confirm it's a good deal ? ngl I'm trusting you guys here going all blind and yeah I'm perma using dlss
TheDreadfulSagittary@reddit
Yeah 550 is a good deal I'd say.
Important to know with AMD cards is that its only recently they made their version of DLSS, which is FSR, as good as DLSS. That is FSR4, which only works with a 9000 series card. Older cards have FSR3, which in comparisons is noticeably worse quality.
Because FSR4 is new not as many games have it yet, especially older titles might not upgrade to a new version. For those you'd only have older FSR, but also hopefully with how strong the GPU is you don't need upscaling for an older title.
Your similar option for sticking to Nvidia would be a RTX 5070.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
found a rtx 5070 for 590 non-used, idk what's the difference honestly I don't have a preference for any of both, just want to make the best deal and enjoy gaming tbh, which one should I go for ?
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
5070 is awesome. neither cards will let you down. you wont know the difference. just get one quickly and enjoy yhe gaming.
if you happen to play story mode games or RPGs like RDR2 which support Ray Tracing, Nvidias card will just look superior. AMD cards are on par with raster performance and FSR is catching up to DLSS in frame-gen. Really depends on what you like
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
what are the best components I could get if I go for the 5070 ? CPU & motherboard ? will check the prices for both and go for the cheapest honestly
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
since you have ddr4 ram already,, go for an AM4 cpu + mb. one example is R7 5700X + MSI B550M-VC/VDH. gets you wifi and and upgrade path to 32GB ram if you want.
TheDreadfulSagittary@reddit
In raw performance a 9070 is about 10% faster than a 5070, just that the software on the 5070 is still better and what you are used to. Both are a good experience, so it would be mostly down to what you'd prefer, more raw performance or better software you're already used to.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
what are the best components I could get if I go for the 9070 ? CPU & motherboard ? will check the prices for both and go for the cheapest honestly
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
this 9070 sounds solid. make sure all the components are present incuding the box. might be a good idea to have it tested some way though
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
yup, there is everything, invoice + warranty, but the rtx5070 at 590 makes me hesitate
crazyjerryyy@reddit
The 7800 XT is a solid upgrade and definitely worth it for gaming. Your i5-9600 will bottleneck it in some CPU-heavy titles though, so you'd get the most out of it with a CPU/mobo upgrade down the line.
My take: swap in the GPU first since it's the biggest performance jump you'll see right away. If you start feeling the CPU bottleneck, grab a Ryzen 5 5600 and a B550 board — budget friendly and a massive improvement over the 9th gen Intel. That combo should squeeze everything out of the 7800 XT without needing to redo the whole build.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
hello, thanks for the answer ! Could you enlighten me about the kind of prices I have to expect from those components ? for the budget I'm willing to put is there any other options with a good price/quality ratio ?
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
i have no clue about France tbh... you can compare prices with microcenter and bestbuy maybe? I would not pay more than 500-600 USD for a new 7800XT but I may be wrong. a good deal might be the new 9060XT for €550-ish? thats something you can try with your current setup and THEN decide if you wanna upgrade you MB and CPU. what PSU are you running?
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
I don't know about the PSU honestly, have to check
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
as long as its 650W and Gold rated you should be good to go. Clean power to your components is essential. Otherwise allocate some budget for a decent rated PSU. something around 850W will future proof you in case you upgrade from the 5070 to a prospective 7080.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
hmm 7800xt used with warranty costs 400, non used 500-550, 9070 is about 550-600 non-used and 9060xt found one at currently 380 non used
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
solid advice! I am on R7 5700x and AM4 components are just as pricey and it can be tough to find a good deal.
if OP has the funds for it and the power supply, can go AM5 with X3D chips for gaming. all in all the 9th gen intel is not da worst
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
hello, what I was told about the 9th gen was that it wasn't really better than the 7th one, so I'm quite lost with the choice of the next processor..
Naive_Cardiologist_6@reddit
google bottleneck calculator. needless to say you cpu is a bit dated. but you can get decent performance upgrades with more recent hardware. ram is hella expensive, sticking with DDR4 is a decision that you will have to make. moving to an i5 12600/12400 will get you into the LGA1700 socket and the motherboard and ram upgrades will cost a pretty penny. but you will undoubtedly have more control over your spending vs buying another pre-built. the 2060 is a good card, doesnt perform on new titles like it used to. so the questions are: where do you live? do you have pcpartpicker fired up? what are you playing? and how much is your budget?
TheDreadfulSagittary@reddit
Online bottleneck calculators are pretty useless, have to find a real benchmark if you want somewhat useful info.
RemarkableRepair811@reddit (OP)
hello, I live in France, opened PCPartPicker 6 months ago but honestly It kind of discouraged me because I was being advised to get more RAM sticks 32 GB and prices had gone up...
the kind of games I am playing right now aren't asking for much (lol & valorant) but I mostly adapted until now to what my pc could run. I'd like to try some elden rings & a lot of solo games that asks for a good config.
I'd say my budget is 1300€
PCPartpicker recommended me those:
gigabyte gaming oc radeon rx 7800xt 16gb
intel core i7-9700k 3.6 GHz 8-core
thanks for the answer !
Corruptshark123@reddit
My personal opinion would be that it's probably about time to change some parts. Probably stuff like the CPU.
I just bought a new pc and waiting on the parts to be delivered. But before i had a RTX 2060, I5-10600KF and also DDR4 16GB ram. All used for gaming, so pretty much the same specs as you i think.
I can tell you the specs of my new pc and how it feels if you want something to compare a bit with (once its delivered and i build it).