GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Ronald Bishop58 said:Picked this up yesterday.

Hope I didn't screw myself over here. Any experts want to weigh in—did I grab a decent card? 🙏

Total: $1249
$540

It's a solid mid-range card—price seems fair for the current market, too. Plus, those transverse cooler fins look pretty slick, whereas the longitudinal ones are absolute garbage.

Heh, they won't even start dropping those "mid-range" cards until summer—and who knows what kind of ridiculous prices they'll slap on them... lol

wanderingbison9 said:They haven't even dispatched the card yet—Friday's slipping away...☕

Anyway, my Kindle showed up too. I’m picking it up tomorrow—it’s Friday the 13th, and I'm superstitious as hell...

Sounds like you're headed for a "honey, just put that sandwich on the table" kind of weekend...😁

Man, you don't know the half of it. Got home, realized I totally miscounted the power cables and only have one 8-pin from my old PSU. I absolutely lost it—😠 tore the whole room apart. Tomorrow morning, instead of grabbing coffee, I'm heading straight to Micro Center and I'll be out in minutes with:

Fractal ion + 2 Platinum 860 w - ~$483
https://www.fractal-design.com/produ...um-860w/black/

And since the old one is already making a racket:

https://www.microcenter.com/noctua-nf-a20-pwm...59314/product/

No messing around!!!

velvetlynx3 said:Man, you don't even know the half of it. I get home, realize I totally miscounted my power cables and actually only have one 8-pin from my old unit, and I absolutely lose my mind. 😠 I ended up tearing my entire room apart looking for more. By Saturday morning, instead of grabbing coffee, I headed straight to Micro Center and walked out minutes later with this:

https://www.fractal-design.com/produ...um-860w/black/

Since my old one is already making this weird buzzing sound:

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A20-PWM-Fan/dp/B08S6XGZ7Y/product/

No messing around here!!!

Honestly, a 650W Corsair RM650x would've been plenty cheaper, plus it comes with a 10-year warranty!

Alexander Moore67 said:A 650W Corsair RM650x would’ve been cheaper too—plus you get a 120-month warranty!

Look, I already ran a 620W unit before. This one is Platinum and also carries that 120-month—basically 10-year—warranty. It's brutal. I personally stick to power supplies that last at least that long.

And I'm not dropping huge cash just for some weak 650W setup or an Nvidia 12 v connector. For me, this 860W was just a "whatever, why not" kind of buy.🙂

@Mad Ant: What's the deal with a 620W power supply that only comes with a single PCI-E cable? Is it a modular unit where you just misplaced the other cord, or what?

I’m currently being held hostage by a FedEx package; my GPU has been sitting in Washington, D.C. since yesterday, but now they’re claiming I requested to push back the delivery date🤦 Hopefully, it actually shows up tomorrow...

wanderingbison9 said:@velvetlynx3/">@@velvetlynx3: what kind of 620W power supply only has one PCI-E cable? Is it modular and you just lost the other one?

This HP bundle is driving me insane—the GPU has been sitting in Washington, D.C. since yesterday, but now they’re claiming I requested a delivery change🤦 Hopefully it shows up tomorrow...

I've got a modular CoolerMaster PSU that's over 15 years old—back then, the 6-pin was king, and it came with one 8-pin plus three 6-pins.

Anyway, I would've lost my mind and just gone picked it up myself😁

With those 8-pin connectors, those two extra pins are really just "sense" pins rather than actual power conductors; they basically just tell the card that the cable can handle a higher current load. You might actually get away with using a 6-pin connector since some graphics cards don't even bother checking for those two specific pins, but given that you're working with an older power supply that likely has multiple rails, I wouldn't really risk it if I were you.

Yeah, I’d happily go pick it up myself if I actually knew where the 10950 Houston (express) distribution center was located—is it somewhere near San Jose? Honestly, they did the exact same thing when I placed an order for a friend; it seems to be their standard operating procedure, perhaps because they don't have any other way to log internal shipping delays into their database.

wanderingbison9 said:With those 8-pin connectors, those two extra pins are just "sense" pins—they don't actually carry current. They just tell the card that the power supply can handle the extra load. It probably would have worked even if you just used a 6-pin, since some cards don't even check for those two pins, but given how old that PSU is, it likely has more rails, so I wouldn't risk it.

Yeah, I’d go pick it up myself if I actually knew where the 10950 Houston (kspres) distribution center was—is that near San Jose? Honestly, they did the exact same thing when I ordered something for a buddy; that's just their modus operandi. It's like they don't have any other way to log internal shipping delays in their system.

Don't sweat it—I already tried. Only the RGB logo lights up; the card doesn't even show up in Device Manager, and it isn't throwing any warning screens like some others have before...

velvetlynx3 said:No need to worry, I’ve already given it a shot, and the only thing that happens is the RGB logo lights up; the card doesn't even show up in the Device Manager, nor does it throw any of those warning messages like some of my previous cards used to...

👍 So, my RTX 3060 finally arrived, and now I'm just sitting here waiting for it to acclimate to the room temperature before I dive in. 🙂

wanderingbison9 said:👍 My RTX 3060 finally showed up—just letting it sit for a bit before I tear into it. 🙂

🎉🎉🎉

The card turned out to be wider than I had anticipated, which led to a bit of a headache while I was rearranging my PC components because the hard drive was getting in the way. What a hassle.
Performance-wise, things are mostly where I expected them to be, though a few specific tasks are only about 1.5x faster when I was really hoping for a 2x or 2.5x jump, so that’s a slight letdown. It isn't all just pure math, of course, but I don't really feel like everything has become drastically faster; perhaps you'd only truly say the software is flying once you step up to an RTX 3080. My old GTX 1060 is still acting like a total zombie, refusing to fade into history since its performance stays surprisingly consistent in certain areas.
What’s really bothering me, though, is that GPU-Z shows the card running on PCIe 3.0 instead of 4.0, even though CPU-Z, Device Manager, and several other tools report that the slot is operating in 4.0 mode. I'm using an MSI MAG X370, and I heard some BIOS versions used to support 4.0 before they supposedly removed it, but if that's the case, why do so many programs still insist the PCIe slots are at 4.0? Is there anything I can actually do here, considering I can't find any option in the BIOS to manually toggle the PCIe generation?

wanderingbison9 said:The card ended up being wider than I thought—had to do a whole painful surgery on my case layout because the hard drive was getting in the way. What a headache.
Performance is pretty much what I expected, though a few specific tasks are only about 1.5x faster instead of the 2-2.5x I was hoping for. A bit of a letdown. It’s not all just raw math, but I don't really feel like everything has drastically sped up—maybe you'd actually feel the software flying once you hit an RTX 3080. My old GTX 1060 is still a total zombie; it refuses to die or become irrelevant since performance stays identical in certain areas.
What's really bugging me is that GPU-Z shows the card running at PCIe 3.0 instead of 4.0, even though CPU-Z, Device Manager, and everything else says the slot is in 4.0 mode. I'm using an MSI MAG X370, and apparently some BIOS versions had 4.0 support and then they pulled it—but if that's the case, why do so many programs still report the slots as 4.0? Is there anything I can do? I can't find any option in the BIOS to manually switch the PCIe generation.

It's weird how they changed their minds and didn't even leave an option in the BIOS—not even for Gen 1, 2, or 3... I haven't been keeping up, does anyone know why they messed around with the PCIe specs like that?

velvetlynx3 said:It’s pretty strange how they flipped their decision, especially since there isn't even an option in the BIOS to toggle it for lanes 1, 2, or 3... I haven't been following this closely, but does anyone actually know why they were messing around with the PCIe settings like that?

The most likely reason is probably this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment..._support_from/

Here is the history of the BIOS updates:

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-co...PRIME-X370-PRO

I’m guessing that once they hit BIOS version 5220, they stopped mentioning "removes Gen 4 support when using Ryzen 3000 CPUs" because it’s just assumed now... talk about being lucky, right?

Though, looking back, I suppose I was actually quite fortunate that I didn't pick something like a 6650XT, otherwise I would have been stuck dealing with a GPU running at PCIe 3.0 x8 speeds.🤦

I ran a Blackmagic RAW speed test and the results confirmed it: 42 fps on x8 versus 66 fps on x16, so there is definitely a measurable impact there...

wanderingbison9 said:The GTX 1060 is basically a zombie at this point—it just refuses to die! It’s wild how it still holds its own in certain things, staying relevant way longer than anyone expected.

That GTX 1060 though🙏
Honestly, my card feels like it’s got a second wind after I finally swapped out the CPU that was clearly bottlenecking it. Such a difference!

If you're smart about tweaking your settings, it can still handle most newer titles at 1080p without looking totally terrible, I guess.

I'll probably look into upgrading once something like an RX 6650 XT or similar drops down to maybe $300 or so. Until then? I'm sticking with what I've got!

I've got a GTX 1060 too, man.

If you aren't obsessing over maxed-out settings and insane frame rates, it actually holds up pretty well at 1440p... tested it myself.

wanderingbison9 said:Likely reason:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment..._support_from/

Here’s my BIOS update history:

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-co...PRIME-X370-PRO

I'm guessing after BIOS version 5220 they stopped mentioning "c.Removes Gen 4 support when using Ryzen 3000 CPUs" because it's just common knowledge now—lucky me...

Honestly though, I'm glad I didn't grab something like a 6650XT—would've been stuck dealing with a PCIe 3.0 x8 GPU🤦.

Ran a BMD raw speed test and yeah, it's still x8 at 42 fps versus x16 at 66 fps—so there's definitely a connection...

Yeah, I remember—better to have solid 3.0 than unstable 4.0, but why the hell did they pull the option to force 1, 2, or 3...

velvetlynx3 said:Yeah, I recall thinking a solid 3.0 was much better than dealing with an unstable 4.0, but does anyone know why they decided to scrap the option to force lanes 1, 2, or 3?

I don't recall that ever being an issue 🤔

Zachary Nguyen2 said:Man, I’ve got a GTX 1060 too.

I actually ended up grabbing mine for like $110 on Marketplace. Honestly, I was hoping to lowball them even more, but man, nobody was even biting.