Upgrade or a whole new build?

HU just dropped a new video comparing the GTX 1060 and the RX 480 running on an i5 750 and a Phenom II 965, using an i7 6700 as a baseline to show what happens when you eliminate the CPU bottleneck.

GTX 1060 vs. RX 480 in 6 year old AMD and Intel Computers

Timothy Kim60 said:HU just dropped a video comparing the GTX 1060 and RX 480 on an i5 750 and a Phenom II 965 (using an i7 6700 as a baseline to avoid any CPU bottleneck)

GTX 1060 vs. RX 480 in 6 year old AMD and Intel Computers>

Interesting results for DirectX 12 and Vulkan. On the slower CPUs, Nvidia pulls ahead even though AMD gets more raw value—it seems the newer APIs help them way more when you aren't dealing with a CPU bottleneck.
Basically, AMD takes a hit on weaker processors but gains a lot with DirectX 12 and Vulkan. Still, it looks like Nvidia actually performs better during a CPU bottleneck, which kind of backs up what AdoredTV said about AMD's issues with CPU overhead and how they use Vulkan to fix a problem Nvidia already solved in their hardware.

Anyway, if you overclock those older chips a bit, the bottleneck shouldn't be too bad. That i5 can definitely push past 3GHz easily enough.
Then again, the RX 480 and GTX 1060 are total overkill for 1080p anyway, so the bottleneck would likely be less noticeable on something like a future RX 470 or GTX 1050.

The overhead

Look, even an RX 470 (assuming it performs similarly to a 380X) isn't really meant for those specific CPUs. As you can see, in certain scenarios, those GPUs could offer 70-100% better performance than what those processors can handle—no amount of overclocking is going to fix that gap. For those types of processors, a card in the range of an R9 270 or a GTX 660Ti is the sweet spot. Sure, they might push a bit harder occasionally, but you’d end up with a totally unbalanced rig, especially since modern games are such outliers. Of course, there will be instances where even those cards hit a bottleneck, but again, those games are exceptions (for now), so you might get away with it.

I actually just read over on PC Gamer that a guy swapped out his i5 750 for an i5 6600k while using a 280X, and he saw a massive jump in performance in Doom.

Timothy Kim60 said:Just saw a thread on PC Gamer about some guy swapping an i5 750 for an i5 6600k while running a 280X. Apparently, he saw a decent performance jump in Doom.

Any idea if he was using Vulkan or what? A 280X should definitely see some gains there.

Look, I get it—an RX 470 isn't exactly top-tier hardware for those kinds of builds. But if we're talking around $533, it's a reasonable move for people looking to upgrade their current rig before dropping cash on a whole new PC. Still, those setups with a card like that (or even weaker) should be able to pull 1080p at 60 fps on at least Very High settings, depending on how much the CPU bottleneck hits you.
Personally, I'd rather grab that card for maybe $533 if I had the cash than waste over $333 on something like a 370. The next logical step down would be an RX 460, which should be a solid, balanced upgrade for that kind of setup.

evo

Oh man, seriously... this is one of those rare games that actually managed to kill off my old i5 750 and my 280x graphics card.

It wasn't until I swapped in a better CPU and updated to the Vulkan drivers that I finally saw anything above 60 fps, though it still dips below 50 in certain spots.

wiredotter14 said:...the next step down would be an RX 460, which I guess should be a pretty solid, balanced upgrade for a build like that.

Btw, an RX 460 is going to be way weaker than an RX 470. I have a feeling they might squeeze an RX 465 in there somewhere just to compete with the GTX 1050 or maybe to just grab that specific slice of the market.

Based on the specs, it looks like the RX 470 will only be about 10-15% slower than the RX 480.

Look, let's be real: the RX 470 is basically just a cut-down RX 480. And the RX 460? That's in a completely different league—spec-wise, it’s barely half of what the 470 offers. Still, it should sit right in the Pitcairn range, making it a decent pick for an old rig running something like a Phenom if you're just aiming for FHD gaming.

Honestly, who cares about that Phoenom? It can hold its own against a GTX 1060 just fine. There’s really no point in building an entirely new rig from scratch if he can't move this current setup; upgrading his existing build with a new CPU doesn't make much sense right now.

By the way, I highly doubt AMD has a real answer for the GTX 1060. I seriously doubt it. Nvidia pulled off something remarkable here—it’s hitting performance levels somewhere near a 780ti, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Kimberly Gomez34, why on earth would you pair a GTX 1060 with a Phenom? That’s just madness. Did you actually watch the video above? In most games, that CPU would end up bottlenecking the card by half.
BTW, the GTX 1060 is essentially the direct response to the RX 480.

Intel Core i3

The R9 270 is actually probably a bit too much for it in most games. It's likely not going to be more than twice as fast as a GTX 1650.