Question Asking for a Mid-Tier GPU Upgrade Help

[Diogrus]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice on a (short-to-mid-term) GPU upgrade.

Right now, the main use of this PC is for audio recording/mixing, eventually rendering videos, and only sparingly playing games (but I do play them). So, I took advantage of the Black Friday sales and recently managed to upgrade my CPU (from a Ryzen 5 3500X to a Ryzen 7 5700X) and my PSU (from a Deepcool DA500 to a Corsair CX650F), thinking to extend the PC's longevity a little longer.

I know that now the bottleneck of my PC relies in its GPU (an Asus TUF 1650 Super OC). It still play some games, but not in a superb quality (I must give up some graphics quality to have a fluid gameplay in some titles). However, I must say I'm not a very avid gamer, and I don't play competitive or multiplayer games, prefering single player games with story mode (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Tomb Raider trilogy, Control, Horizon Dawn Zero...).

So, having all that info, which GPU would you buy for your PC, thinking about a nice graphic quality, and without needing an update for some time, without sacrifice a good cost/benefit ratio?

I thought about getting a 3060TI or a 6700XT, but don't know if they'd be overkill for what I'm looking for. And, talking about the 6700XT specifically, I got a good deal in a PowerColor Red Devil, but it's said in its official site that it requires a 700W PSU (where other 6700XT I'm seeing requires a 650W PSU), and I don't know if the CX650F would handle it satisfactorily.

Current PC Specs:
AsRock B450M Steel Legend | AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | Noctua UH-12S Redux (Dual Fan) | Team Group T-Force Delta RGB TUF Gaming 32GB (4x 8GB DDR4 3200Mhz 16-18-18-38) | Asus GTX 1650 Super TUF Gaming OC | Team Group T-Force Cardea II M.2 NVMe 512GB | WD Red SA500 NAS M.2 SATA 500GB | Seagate Barracuda 2TB | Corsair CX650F 80 Plus Bronze | Pichau Gadit X RTB | Scythe Kaze Flex PWM 120mm 1200RPM (intake) (x3) | DeepCool RF120 120mm (exhale) (x3) | Pichau Ultraview Full HD IPS 5ms 75Hz 21" | Redragon Tiger II M709 | Logitech K120 ABNT2 | Logitech F310 | Kingston HyperX Wrist Rest | Glorious Slim Mini Wirst Pad | AKG K92 | JBL One Series 104 | Presonus Eris Sub8 | Ragtech One-UP Nitro 2000VA UPS

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I always recommend the 6700XT if someone says mid tier.
Its a solid mid tier... right on middle of mid tier, with the 6800 (non XT) which i call the unicorn GPU, as you will never find it at MSRP, the upper echilon of mid tier, and the 6800XT at the start of upper tier.

6800 XT has actually been on sale a few times this week, but they usually go pretty quickly. Asus was selling one for $530 but it's out of stock now. Amazon still has one in stock from XFX for $591, though you have to choose the one sold and shipped by Amazon and it's not coming for a month. Still, $11 more than 6800 for 6800 XT is pretty nice IMO.

https://www.amazon.com/XFX-Speedster-MERC319-Graphics-RX-68XTALFD9/dp/B08TJ2BHCQ

 

[aigomorla]

its a XFX tho... i am not expecting them to survive the aftermath coming soon from the coin bubble.
They were already in shaky grounds, and they got busted hardcore in China for tax evasion.

XFX China website shuts down after Chinese Customs Office seizes 5840 illegally mislabeled XFX graphics cards worth 3M USD - VideoCardz.com

XFX China in serious trouble According to the report from MyDrivers, the Chinese Customs have seized thousands of illegally imported XFX Radeon graphics cards. Shipment of seized XFX graphics cards, Source: Chinese Custom Office XFX is a division of Hong Kong-based Pine Technology Holdings...

videocardz.com

 

[Diogrus]

Tomorrow probably will be the day I'll define what the next move will be, but dang! I didn't pay attention before, but fortunately I took a closer look at the specs of the Red Devil 6700 XT, and it has the exactly same size of the max allowed GPU length my case can handle, which could be a trouble due to the weight of the board. And the GPU support I already have here much probably will not fit in the case together with the GPU.

What do you guys do regarding it? Do you use a support, or maybe those vertical-mount adapters?

 

[Tech Junky]

What do you guys do regarding it?

Easiest would be put the case on its side.

 

[Diogrus]

Easiest would be put the case on its side.

I think I don't get it. What do you mean? Changing the case?


EDIT
Well... after a while thinking about it, I think I finally get it (and that wasn't so hard to understand, but it simply not passed through my mind in that moment).


Yes, it may be a solution! I'll need to improvise with some kind of silicon feet to avoid letting it sliding in the desk, but may be a solution. Tomorrow I'll open the "messy side" to take a look at the physical structure of the case, to see if it'll handle the weight of the whole PC.

 

[Diogrus]

Well guys. Updating info on this: after a few more days of research, when I finally decided to avoid getting the 6700 (non-XT) and was trying to decide between getting the 6700 XT (maybe the Gigabyte Eagle - for the price) or the 3060 TI (no specific model yet), yesterday appeared a (new) Asus KO Gaming RTX 3070 v2 OC for sale, cheapest 3070 I found so far here in Brazil, for about the same price as the other 6700 XT options I had: the PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT or the Sapphire RX 6700 XT. Bearing in mind that this model seems to be a more premium model (maybe only below TUFs and ROGs), and I could pay for it in installments for the same price, I decided to get it. The recommended power requeriments for it is 750W, but I'll not overclock it (other than the stock OC) or the CPU, and using the OuterVision and the PCPartPicker calculators for an estimated system consumption, my 650W wuold handle smoothly the whole system.

 

[aigomorla]

... im not a big fan of the 3070...
I have a 3070ti and i honestly don't like it, but am stuck with it, because i mined on it, and got a expensive as heck waterblock for it.

I don't really game on it tho, i game on a 3090, but my overall feelings on the 3070 is MEH... its too expensive for what it is. I hope you really got the card for cheap.

But i have a lot of grief with nvidia only giving us 8gb of ram on a 700 dollar video card.
Well mine paid itself off when mining was big, but if i had no ROI expected, i definitely would not have gotten it.

I still think the 6700XT would of been a better card, but i guess its too late now.

As i said before Nvidia is a safe approach, as they have better matured drivers, and they are extremely fast at releasing them at game launch.

I also feel you should upgrade your PSU.
To me if something recommends 750W, id personally push it up to 850W, so you don't tax your PSU during a long game session, but that is just me.

Personally i don't cheap on the PSU in any builds.
Its the single piece of computer hardware that can take out every last component in your PC if it goes out, and often times is grossly overlooked when people have system instability, thinking all PSU's are made equal.

 

[Shmee]

Congrats on the 3070! While I agree with Aigo, that the 3070 cards are usually not a good buy, if it is the same price as the 6700XT in Brazil, then it is probably the one to get, being a bit faster, though it does have less memory.

As for the PSU, I agree that a decent 650W should be ok, as long as it is not too old. I am not sure how good that corsair CX650F is, as I haven't looked at reviews for it, but I know corsair usually has PSUs ranging from decent to high-end excellent.

 

[Diogrus]

... im not a big fan of the 3070...
I have a 3070ti and i honestly don't like it, but am stuck with it, because i mined on it, and got a expensive as heck waterblock for it.

I don't really game on it tho, i game on a 3090, but my overall feelings on the 3070 is MEH... its too expensive for what it is. I hope you really got the card for cheap.

But i have a lot of grief with nvidia only giving us 8gb of ram on a 700 dollar video card.
Well mine paid itself off when mining was big, but if i had no ROI expected, i definitely would not have gotten it.

I still think the 6700XT would of been a better card, but i guess its too late now.

As i said before Nvidia is a safe approach, as they have better matured drivers, and they are extremely fast at releasing them at game launch.

I also feel you should upgrade your PSU.
To me if something recommends 750W, id personally push it up to 850W, so you don't tax your PSU during a long game session, but that is just me.

Personally i don't cheap on the PSU in any builds.
Its the single piece of computer hardware that can take out every last component in your PC if it goes out, and often times is grossly overlooked when people have system instability, thinking all PSU's are made equal.

I think I understand. But why do you think the 3070 isn't good? Low performance relating to price? Or only due to the amount of memory? Regarding the last point, yes, it was something I thought a lot about, and I planned 'til the end to get a RX 6700 XT (at least), as it has 12GB.

However, the reality here in Brazil is a bit different, because hardware tends to be way expensive, but sometimes you end up finding a good deal, especially when you can find an store that sells its itens without interest when buying in installments. At first, I was planning to get that Sapphire Pulse RX 6700, which seems to be nearly close to the 3060 TI in performance (forget about ray tracking here), but I found one 3070 - a somewhat beefier model - at the same price of one of the 6700 XT models I was looking at (Sapphire Nitro+ 6700 XT), which made me thinking a lot, especially taking into account that the RX 6700 XT still tends cheaper than the 3070 out there. Not to mention its size, a two fan card is way more friendly for my case (and its air flow), and the higher warranty from Asus (three years, agains one year from Sapphire).

And, in my case, as I'm coming from a 1650 Super, there's only so little models in the current lines that would give me less performance than it, and 8GB is a huge upgrade (when I bought the 1650 Super, the 2XXX family was already there, with way more performance, memory, power requeriments).

But yeah. Choosing something without testing is always a question of trial and error. Maybe I didn't do the better choice, and I hope I don't regret of it in the near future.

About the power consumption, I've seen in Asus site that that recommended PSU is based in a fully overclocked system, which isn't my case. I'll probably undervolt my 5700X, and even maybe the 3070, and every other site I spec'ed the system (Newegg, OuterVision, PcPartPicker) was bringing me something between 450 to 550 of max power consumption, probably managing to let the system run in with a power slack. And, in the reviews I've seen for the Corsair CX650-F, it's said it's like a "premium" bronze-tier PSU, with some features that could be seen in a silver-tier PSU. If I decide to go higher in CPU or GPU, I know I'll need to upgrade the PSU, but I hope the CX650-F holds its own for now, as I just upgrade to it.

Congrats on the 3070! While I agree with Aigo, that the 3070 cards are usually not a good buy, if it is the same price as the 6700XT in Brazil, then it is probably the one to get, being a bit faster, though it does have less memory.

As for the PSU, I agree that a decent 650W should be ok, as long as it is not too old. I am not sure how good that corsair CX650F is, as I haven't looked at reviews for it, but I know corsair usually has PSUs ranging from decent to high-end excellent.

Yeah! That less memory thing was what bugged me the most to finally decide. But I went to more reliability and warranty, and thinking in 1440p (max).

And I believe the CX650-F will hold its own. The reviews I've seen, even tho they point to one or another small issue, are pretty favorable to it.

 

[aigomorla]

But why do you think the 3070 isn't good? Low performance relating to price?

Both... Its typically a expensive as heck video card for marginally better performance but not quite a 3080 where its price point was supposed to be at. If it had 10GB i would of been less grumpy about it, but even then 12GB would of been better.
You need more ram as you load more things and play at a higher resolution.
8GB is about good for a 1440p. If you don't intend of going 4k i guess a 3070 is a good buy, but at 4k having 8GB will be a bottleneck.

and the higher warranty from Asus

ASUS has no thing called warrenty... its called they make you mail the card in and then refuse your RMA saying you broke it when they toss'd it across the room.
Look up reddit on ASUS RMA.
You'll get depressed as its horrible.
Don't ever expect ASUS to honor your warranty unless its a ROG / STRIX brand.
And even then, it will still be a lottery to see if they will honor it.

I'll probably undervolt my 5700X, and even maybe the 3070,

This is very marginally in power savings.
Were not talking laptops here, where a few wattage will extend your battery and lower heat.

And, in the reviews I've seen for the Corsair CX650-F, it's said it's like a "premium" bronze-tier PSU, with some features that could be seen in a silver-tier PSU.

Bronze Tier will always be at Bronze Tier, even if they say its good enough for silver tier.
It has to do with overall efficiency on the PSU that makes tiers.
Its bronze, so id say its acceptable, but if your system starts seeing some instability, mostly in the form of shutdown or reboots, id first look at your PSU.

 

[Diogrus]

Both... Its typically a expensive as heck video card for marginally better performance but not quite a 3080 where its price point was supposed to be at. If it had 10GB i would of been less grumpy about it, but even then 12GB would of been better.
You need more ram as you load more things and play at a higher resolution.
8GB is about good for a 1440p. If you don't intend of going 4k i guess a 3070 is a good buy, but at 4k having 8GB will be a bottleneck.

Got your point! Well... I don't plan to go higher than 1440p in a foreseable future, so I only hope the 3070 (or whatever else , if I decide not stick with it before even opening the box) hold its own 'til my next build in 20XX.

ASUS has no thing called warrenty... its called they make you mail the card in and then refuse your RMA saying you broke it when they toss'd it across the room.
Look up reddit on ASUS RMA.
You'll get depressed as its horrible.
Don't ever expect ASUS to honor your warranty unless its a ROG / STRIX brand.
And even then, it will still be a lottery to see if they will honor it.

Dang! I wasn't aware of that. Let's say we're so used around here to being f**ked with companies that don't even have warranty (only the obligatory three months), that I always looked at companies like Asus, or Galax, or Gigabyte, which have three years warranty, as the epitome of quality and after sales.

I'm aware that the universe of sales of a certain hardware is much larger than what we can think when seeing posts from those who is angry regarding issues (which must be the minority), but yes, when the number starts to increase, it causes a certain discomfort.

This is very marginally in power savings.
Were not talking laptops here, where a few wattage will extend your battery and lower heat.

Yeah! I know. By undervolting the CPU and GPU we're be talking about just a few watts. But what makes me a little calmer is that I've seen lots of reviews about other 3070s (from Asus and other brands), more high-end stuff, overcloking... and almost always, the consumption of the entire system (similar to mine) is around 400-450W. So, I believe the PSU I have here now will hold its own with the system, with a little slack of power.

Bronze Tier will always be at Bronze Tier, even if they say its good enough for silver tier.
It has to do with overall efficiency on the PSU that makes tiers.
Its bronze, so id say its acceptable, but if your system starts seeing some instability, mostly in the form of shutdown or reboots, id first look at your PSU.

Totally agreed! Even tho it has some parameters that could be rated as a Silver Tier, it still is a Bronze Tier. And, at PSUcultists Tier list, it's rated Tier B with gold highlight (but still, it's a Bronze Tier PSU). But I'll definitely keep my eyes on any instability, knowing that much probably it'll be present due to lack of power. Thanks for the tip about it.