GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

I’d actually aim even higher—maybe a GTX 1660 Super. Then, for about $75, you could just grab a Xeon with 4 cores and 8 threads from a site like AliExpress to fit your motherboard's CPU support list. Toss in an upgrade to 16GB of RAM if you haven't already, and you've got a rock-solid PC for serious AAA gaming.

Would you recommend these NVIDIA options over the RX 5500 or the RX 5600? Perhaps I have overlooked something here.🙂

The RX 5500 XT is a poor choice, and the RX 5600 offers even worse value compared to the GTX 1660 Super. Plus, his CPU would end up being a bottleneck (though depending on the title, he might see some stuttering with either one anyway).

Hey everyone!
My old graphics card (Sapphire RX 480, 8GB) finally kicked the bucket—just two months after the warranty expired, of course, because why wouldn't it? 🤦...
I’m looking at picking up the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT
I've heard some chatter about driver issues, but honestly, I feel like half the people complaining just don't know how to install drivers properly!?

Anyway, I wanted to check if my current power supply can actually handle it. I'm thinking it should be fine, but what do you guys think?
Here's the rest of my build:
MSI B150M Pro
i5-6402P 2.8 GHz 2 x Kingston 8 GB DDR4 HyperX Fury ANTEC VPF550
2x Kingston 8 GB DDR4 HyperX Fury
ANTEC VPF550, 550W, 80+ Bronze
250GB SSD
500GB HDD
DVD-ROM
2x fans (120mm/90mm)

I realize the 5700 XT is total overkill for my CPU, but I'm planning to swap out the CPU, motherboard, and RAM as soon as I scrape enough cash together.
If anyone has a better suggestion, please let me know. Also, if I'm remembering right, AMD should be dropping a new card pretty soon, so maybe it makes more sense to just hold off?

AMD is dropping a more powerful card soon, but I don't think anything else in that tier is coming out anytime soon.

Are you talking about AMD drivers in general or just for this specific card?
They definitely had issues with the 5700 series, but I think things are mostly sorted now. Plus, half the time people just don't know how to perform a proper clean driver install.

If I were you, I'd just grab a card now before the whole supply chain mess from the pandemic hits again.
That power supply should be fine; it pulls a bit more than an RX 580.

BTW, heard this one is pretty solid too.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/graphics-card-example

I have a Sapphire 5700 XT nitro+

Drivers are more or less okay regarding black screens, crashes, and that kind of stuff. Some games crash on me regularly; for instance, Battlefield 5 always crashes right after finishing the war story. The game saves my progress, but then it just crashes.

Some games run "weirdly." For example, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare runs at 90+ fps for me, but it isn't smooth. There is constant stuttering, and FreeSync doesn't help at all.

But there are some things I don't quite understand. I am fairly sure you would get a better framerate at 1080p resolution with an RTX 2070 than with the 5700 XT. For some reason, lowering the resolution to get better performance doesn't work here at all. This means those tricks like 80% resolution scale plus image sharpening don't make sense. Simply put, you lower the resolution and the games use fewer resources, so you end up with the same or even lower fps than at a higher resolution.

Here is a screenshot benchmark for Far Cry New Dawn, for example. 1280x720 vs 2560x1440

View on imgur

A friend with an RTX 2070 at 1080p has an average fps of 109. 😬

Maybe the problem is my CPU (Ryzen 5 2600X), I really don't know. But if it is weird, it is weird.

Yeah, that’s definitely the headache right there...
Honestly, I was really banking on hitting 1440p. Have you noticed in other games how changing the resolution doesn't actually change much!? Usually, that's a CPU bottleneck, but in this case, I'm thinking it might just be terrible optimization in Far Cry? I was checking out some benchmarks online (for Far Cry New Dawn) using the exact same setup and they show pretty much the same results... Do you regret not grabbing an RTX 2070 instead?

Which RTX 2070 would you guys suggest for me? From what I can see, the price is basically the same as the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT, so I don't have much of a choice.

I don't regret it at all. I’m getting over 60 fps in most games at 1440p on ultra/high settings. So, for that resolution, it’s actually a solid choice. Regarding the resolution thing, I think it holds up because many reviews mentioned that you can get close to RTX 2080 performance by just lowering the resolution scale and using some sharpening, with very little visual difference.

I tested it in a few titles, and dropping the resolution doesn't really change much for me.

And Far Cry is a strange beast, especially Primal. It's weird—you'll be sitting at 48 fps while the GPU is only at 60% and the CPU is at 50%. It just doesn't make sense, I guess. 😬

I basically bought this card because my old 7970 died on me; I hadn't actually planned on it. I was thinking about waiting for a flagship, but well, it is what it is.

Far Cry isn't a reliable benchmark because the engine just struggles to utilize hardware efficiently. It’s essentially a massive bottleneck for your system.

watch from 14:10

I’m leaning towards grabbing the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT, though I might eventually hunt down a Red Devil since they tend to run a bit cooler.
I’ve got another question for you guys, too. I’m looking at picking this up from Micro Center and I noticed they’re offering an extended warranty through "Partum"... Since I'm dropping serious cash on a high-end card like this, I definitely want to bump that warranty up to 5 years. Does anyone know if this is actually legit? I don't want to deal with some shady scam and end up throwing my $67 right out the
!

The extension is handled through insurance. These types of schemes have only recently started appearing—for instance, I’ve got a unique warranty displayed on my monitor right now. Whether they actually deliver when things go south or just offer empty promises, we won't know until someone's hardware actually dies during the coverage period.

It might be worth looking into what people's experiences have been with laptop insurance, since those kinds of policies have been around much longer.

So, the graphics card on this rig you helped me put together about five years ago finally kicked the bucket. Since then, I've tossed in an SSD and another 4GB of RAM to keep things moving.

1 x Zalman Z1, USB3.0 black, 2x120mm
1 x XFX R9 270A 2GB DDR5
1 x AMD FX X6 6300 3.5Ghz (4.1GHz) box
1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+
1 x LC POWER LC-CC-95, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x XFX TS 450W, 80+ Bronze
1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III)

Any suggestions for a new GPU? Just looking for something that's at least as decent as the one that died on me.

Grab a GTX 1070 on Craigslist for like $600-$267

granitegardener said:grab a GTX 1060 on Craigslist for like 600 bucks$267

Seriously, anyone else got ideas???

The 1060 is a significant step up from what you're running right now, but honestly, I wouldn't suggest anything less than a major upgrade from that R9 270. You could look at an RX 570/580 or maybe a GTX 1060/1650 Super, though you might run into some CPU bottlenecking in more demanding titles, so I wouldn't push much higher than that. Unless, of course, you're planning on swapping out your entire rig pretty soon.

Hey, would it be possible to upgrade the GPU on this build? Any specific recommendations?

You definitely can—but could you let me know what kind of budget we're working with here? Also, what's the deal with your power supply? I'd need to know the specific model and its wattage.

Larry Ortiz5 said:You can, sure. But tell me what your budget looks like and what kind of power supply you're running. I need the specific model and the wattage...

Power supply is a Corsair CX 500. Budget is around $500, maybe stretching to $667 if I have to... but if there's something decent for $500, that would be ideal.

swiftridge29 said:Power supply is a Corsair CX 500. Budget is around $500, maybe stretching to $667, but if there's anything decent up to $500, that would be great.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/graphics-card...m_medium=click

https://www.newegg.com/p/graphics-card...m_medium=click

Pricing is pretty much proportional between them. For 1080p, either one works just fine.

You're better off picking up the GTX 1650 Super over the 5500XT; overall, it's the superior choice and even cheaper than the 4GB version of the 5500XT.