My PC is getting on a little, it’s running on an i7-4790k, 16gb ddr4, and a GTX 970. right now, it’s struggling some in most games even though I don’t play any triple A titles. What would be a sensible upgrade that wouldn’t get totally bottlenecked by the CPU?
In most games I’m playing the CPU is pinned at around 25% while my card is maxed at 100% 3d and vmem usage so I’m fairly sure it’s just my card that’s the main limiting factor.
Do you have an upgrade budget?
With a 4790k You’re looking at PCIe 3.0,a Radeon RX 6600, 6650 XT, or 7600 are all good 8GB VRAM cards for under $250 that will last for a long time at 1080p.
VRAM concerns really only occur at higher resolutions, so for you any modern card (2022 or newer) will be a massive upgrade. The 6600 can be had for $180 these days
But even you’re not planning to upgrade CPU right now, i would just buy the best GPU you can fit in your budget, and do worry about bottlenecks. One day you’ll upgrade CPU/MB/RAM and the GPU will fit right in.
Maybe a GTX 1660-Ti if you can find one for a good price?
Edit: An Intel Arc A750 might be the better value if you’re buying new, though
Or even see if you can find an RX 6600. Around US$200 right now, and should give decent performance without being horribly bottlenecked
Yeah i agree with this.
The RX 6600 is the best ultra budget (under $200) upgrade, though the RX 6650 XT and RX 7600 project to last longer as viable upgrades and are still under $250.
The 6600 is slightly weaker than the 5700 XT which is still a valid card today
