Wow🙏 That’s such a killer response! Thanks so much. I decided to stick with 1080p since I'm switching over to a 27-inch monitor at home—it's gonna be sitting on a pretty deep desk. On my current 24-inch setup, the icons already feel a little cramped, you know?
What you suggested seems totally reasonable either way.
I think I'll keep an eye on the prices for a bit, and I'm sure something in that ballpark will pop up eventually.
Since I'm just hanging out waiting for those new mid-range cards to drop next year, I figured I’d jump in here and see if anyone has some solid upgrade advice.
My current setup: CPU - Intel Core i3-8100 GPU - GTX 1060
What's coming next: CPU - Intel Core i5-11400 (ordering this any day now!) GPU - I think I'll hold off for a bit—basically using this time to go down an absolute rabbit hole on YouTube watching benchmarks and trying to figure out the best move without totally overspending.
I'm mostly doing 1080P gaming on a 144 Hz monitor. Honestly, the more I read about this stuff, the more confused I get! I'm really looking for that sweet spot where the CPU and GPU are balanced so I'm not just throwing money away. As the Frames Per Second climb, it feels like the load shifts from the card to the processor and you hit that bottleneck thing. I'm definitely no expert, but my gut tells me that for 1080P, there's probably no point in buying a beastly high-end card because the CPU will just end up capping the performance anyway. I get that bottlenecks matter more at higher frame rates and it might not even affect the actual experience, but since I'm just a casual, occasional gamer—and I actually handed my old rig over to my son who basically just plays Minecraft—I don't want to waste cash.🙄
Logic suggests I shouldn't be aiming for anything much beefier than an RTX 3060 RTX 3060 RTX 3060
or maybe even some used 5700XT.
All I really want is to roughly "double" my current Frames Per Second compared to what my GTX 1060 is doing now.
Does it make sense to wait for the last round of mid-range cards from Nvidia and Intel? It looks like the market is getting flooded with used cards lately, and prices seem to be dropping.
I'm in no rush, though. My GTX 1060 still holds its own pretty well, even if I have to tweak some settings.
Zachary Nguyen2 said:It might drop a bit, but probably only by like ten bucks at most.
Yeah, that’s basically what I was thinking too. I don't recall the 3600 ever dipping below the $100 mark, and now the 5600 is sitting around $120 or so. I think I'm gonna just grab one in the next few days.
crimsonstag84 said:Ryzen 5000 series prices dropped by about 10-15% at the local stores last week—finally some 😁 good news! 5600G: $155 5600: $165 5700G: $245 5700X: $270 5800X3D: $440
You could grab a 5600G + a B550 board + 16GB of DDR4 3200 for maybe around $300... then a whole PC with a decent power supply, a case, and a 500GB NVMe would run you about $450. And the best part? It’s all ready for me to just drop in a 5800X3D and something like an RTX 4080 later on. Not bad at all, right? 🍿
Is there any sign that these might dip even lower, or do you think now is actually the perfect time to just pull the trigger on a 5600?
So, I’m kind of mulling over a system upgrade—my gut is telling me to go for a "future-proof" setup and just stick with 1080p, maybe picking up a high-refresh gaming monitor instead.
I was thinking about a 27-inch 1080p screen, but then I start reading stuff online saying 27 inches at 1080p is... well, kind of borderline when it comes to image quality and seeing those pesky pixels, you know?
At my job, I use a 27-inch 1080p monitor all day and honestly, I don't really notice the resolution being an issue. I mean, okay, nobody's exactly running AAA games at the office, but still...
For the actual upgrade, I'm looking at jumping from a Ryzen 3 1200 to a Ryzen 5 3600, and swapping out my RX 580 8GB for something like an RTX 3060 or something in that ballpark.
I've been eyeing this monitor here:
Do you guys have any better suggestions? Also, I’d totally appreciate some advice on the GPU side of things too.
This would be the final upgrade for this specific platform, so I really want it to hold up for the next few years.
Budget? Man, I’m just trying to keep things somewhat reasonable. I haven't set a hard number yet.
Man... my son basically took over the gaming mantle from me, but honestly? His generation doesn't really care about anything beyond Roblox or Fortnite... I guess he’s perfectly happy with what we’ve got right now.
Meanwhile, for $600, AMD has those 1050Ti cards sitting at around 6,300 points.
So, given how absolutely insane prices have been lately—if this isn't some kind of scam—I’d say around $1,800-ish feels like a fairly fair price for a 2060.
wiredotter14 said:I'm holding out for the next generation to swap my GTX 1650—hoping to find something at least in the ballpark of an RTX 3080 but for way less cash.
That sounds like overkill to me. I picked up my GTX 1650 back in 2018 when it was basically... the absolute sweet spot for price versus performance. I think I paid maybe $200ish?
Honestly, I can't complain about it one bit—it's been holding up pretty solid for 4 years now. There isn't really a game I can't play comfortably, even if I have to tweak the settings a little.
+ also, I'm running a low-end Ryzen 3 1200 on a Gigabyte B450 that I've updated, so I could probably just pop in something like a 5600, which would be a massive jump. I bet the GTX 1650 would breathe a little easier with a stronger CPU too, I guess.
Adam Moore3 said:So I’m just sitting here thinking—but honestly, like wiredotter14 mentioned earlier, maybe it's smarter to just hold out for something newer if we want a real performance boost. I mean, it would still be a pretty decent jump from an RTX2060 🤔
For $600 definitely🙏 Though I gotta say, that price tag looks a little sketchy to me.. I really need to upgrade my CPU first... there's just no point until I do.
Honestly, I feel like the whole thing is just way too inflated—and yeah, those prices you see on Craigslist? Totally predatory, basically just designed to fleece people who don't know any better.
Look, my main priority is just making sure the kid can play Fortnite, and he’ll definitely be able to do that. Besides, I’m more of a casual gamer anyway😁
Honestly, I don't really want to start any drama, but if there are actually these crypto-mining fanatics out there willing to drop that much cash on a used GPU, who am I to judge?
A buddy of mine is into mining and says an RX 580 with 8GB of VRAM is pulling in about $3.50 in pure profit a day based on current ETH rates.
I might think about it, but by the time I make up my mind, maybe this whole hype cycle will have passed already🤣
Does anyone have a gut feeling on when things might actually stabilize? Like, when are we finally going to see GPUs back at somewhat normal prices?🤔
I'm hearing nothing before summer... if even then🐔
So, I’ve got this RX 580 with 8 GB, and honestly, looking at eBay right now, prices are just going absolutely nuts—I'm seeing used ones listed for up to $1000😲😲.
If there's actually someone out there willing to drop that kind of cash on a card like this, I’m seriously thinking about just selling it, grabbing a cheap 4 GB model instead, and pocketing the extra two grand for... well, better days ahead, I guess!
Richard Nelson84 said:Explicit GIFs have never been allowed on this forum. We dealt with that exact same issue back when I was a moderator.
Example2 Example2
It makes zero sense to let forum members nominate moderators. If we actually started picking mods based on user suggestions, you’d just end up right back here in the PZK or the ban corner, complaining that the new mod is biased and only looking out for the people who voted them in!
Let’s be real: managing this forum isn't exactly a walk in the park. A new moderator needs some breathing room to find their footing. If we can give a new administration or the President a 100-day grace period to settle in, we can certainly afford to give our new moderator the same courtesy! 😬
If you want this forum to actually stay moderated properly, start reporting every single controversial post you see. That is hands down the best way to make it happen!
So, I guess Louise Hay had no clue about any of that—seriously! While she was in charge, those explicit GIFs were just floating around everywhere as long as they stayed in the link, you know? Maybe she just wasn't looped in, but man, it was definitely happening during her term.🐔
When you aren't being insulted, you're getting criticized by the moderation team. It all kicked off because someone was trying to test out how strict things are using GIFs. It’s not even about the GIFs themselves—it’s more about the principle of the thing. But hey, if the admins decide GIFs are banned (even though they weren't an issue just a little while ago), then fine, no GIFs. Period.
Honestly, my time spent having actual, constructive debates on this forum is pretty much over—mostly because there are so few people left here I can actually have a decent conversation with. Every single thread gets absolutely spammed with trolls, hate speech, and xenophobia almost immediately... it's just exhausting. And the constant fighting? Man, it wears me down, I just don't have the energy for it anymore. I'd much rather just hop into a chat room, hash things out properly, and move on with my day.
If I could say one thing to the moderator, it would be to maybe tighten up the discipline a bit. Like, maybe steer the good discussions back on track and just shut down those vague, repetitive threads right at the start. Maybe then the whole place might actually breathe enough for someone to *want* to write something meaningful again. Until then, I'll pass.
Anyway, that's my two cents. I'm done with this thread.
Just because you start a thread doesn't mean you're actually starting a discussion. Seriously, people keep digging up these old, dead topics, but then the people reviving them can barely string together more than three coherent words. It’s kind of ridiculous, honestly.
Most of the time, these threads get bumped with nothing but an "interesting topic..." or just a random smiley face.👍
Rachel Richardson... I mean, let's be real, those 100,000 posts of yours probably aren't all the result of deep, constructive debates. I'm not saying you don't have smart things to say—not at all!—but you definitely contribute quite heavily to this whole half-baked way of communicating. It just creates these endless, messy loops that never seem to resolve, which makes everything such a chore to read, especially considering what the actual topic was supposed to be about.
All this chatter happening inside specific threads feels way more suited for a chat room rather than a forum where threads should actually have a clear point and flow.
You're basically participating in and fueling these "debates" that aren't even really debates at all.
Maybe take a look at the posts in the adult sections below the chat room? Then tell me if you see any actual, productive conversation happening there.
Suggesting someone for a mod position when you honestly have no clue if they even want the job or wouldn't hate every second of it? Nobody has the spare time—or the patience—to deal with idiots all day. Just because someone writes pretty decent stuff based on some PDF guide doesn't mean they have the stomach or the nerves to go toe-to-toe with trolls.
I heard some mods were actually getting threatened, and I’m kind of wondering how much actual authority a moderator has in those spots (like partial bans or permanent ones?) Or do they have to check in with the admins before handing out the really heavy punishments?
Like, a warning in red letters at the top of a thread. Ignoring that? Maybe a one-week ban.
But threatening a moderator in a private message? That’s a straight-up permanent ban.
rustydrifter10 said:The real kicker is the explicit content itself. Google is super strict about this stuff and they could definitely penalize us if we aren't careful. Even on an adult-oriented PDF, you can get away with some mild eroticism or nudity, but once you cross the line into full-on pornography, you're asking for trouble.
I mean, looking back, people have shared a few GIFs in the chat room over the years—but, you know, within reasonable limits! It was always done with the old-school moderation's okay, and we made sure to post them as links rather than direct images. I guess Google wasn't breathing down our necks back then?
Anyway, whatever. If it’s the rule, it’s the rule. We'll follow it. And hey, I still stand by everything else I said earlier.
Just keep your private hookups out of the public threads. People used to do it before, and it was handled just fine back then.