Finally upgrading my gaming desktop. Should I go for a RX 9060 XT or an RX 6900 XT?

Posted by BlakeLocked@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 3 comments

Hey there! I'm in a bit of a pickle trying to decide my next purchase, and I wanted to get some feedback.

So, I lucked into a couple of great thrift store finds recently that have supplied me with a few extra TB of SSD space, and I've started building a nice little home server as a side project.

Now, foolishly, I didn't check to see if the new build's processor had integrated graphics before I bought the Micro Center parts bundle and got everything installed in the case, and so I'll need to slot a video card into it to get everything up and running. As a result, I'm thinking it's time I finally upgrade the GPU in my primary desktop.

That desktop's got a Ryzen 5 5600X processor, 32GB of RAM, and currently runs a GTX 1660 SUPER as the GPU. Built it in like 2022 when crypto made GPUs hard to find as an "I'm stuck at home and going crazy" project. As one does.

Looking at the offerings at the local Micro Center, it seems my best options for a new GPU are one of the following, based on my loose budget of "man, I don't want to spend $500 on a video card":

For context, I'm a fairly casual "let's work through the backlog first" gamer at the end of the day - not terribly concerned about maxing out my performance (if that wasn't clear already), and I've been blessed(?) with eyes that can't really clock the benefits of FPS jumps past like 80 or resolutions past good ol' 1080p. Think "a couple matches of Deadlock, some MSQ progress in FFXIV, and a stroll through Armored Core VI" as my monthly output, more often than not.

I currently run Windows 10, but I'm looking to make the jump to Linux soon - hence the shift towards AMD cards.

Obviously, either of these cards will be a huge jump from the 1660S - but I truly struggle to determine what makes a GPU better or worse when VRAM is equal and we're comparing a couple-year-old high-end card with a new mid-range card.

Should I just go for the newest thing off the shelf, or will I get better results if I upgrade from a 2019 card to a 2020 card?