1080p 144Hz Gaming - GPU and Upgrade Plan

[infernuz]

My PC:
Ryzen 5500
AsRock B550M PRo4
Team 8GB x 2 DDR4 3200
GTX1050Ti
Samsung Evo 870 SATA SSD
DeepCool PQ-M 850W
Asus VX238H 23inch 1080p 60Hz

Games I play most: DOTA 2, CS:Source, GTA V
Games I plan to play: MSFS 2020, Red Dead Redemption 2, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, Cities Skylines 2...

Question:
1. What is the borderline cost effective GPU I can buy for 1080p 60Hz? I am considering RX6700XT but still confused whether I am spending too much and better off with RX6600?
Prices in my country (converted from JPY) - RX6600-$216, RX660XT-$280, RX6650XT-$310, RX6700XT-$350 ***my max budget is the RX6700XT price***

2. I want high refresh rate later on so I am aiming to upgrade my monitor to a 1080p 144Hz. If I go this path, is my thinking correct that going RX6700XT will be the wiser option? If I stay to my current 1080p 60Hz, then circle back to Q1.

My staggered upgrade plan:
December 2023 - GPU > 1080p 144Hz monitor > 64GB DDR4 3200 (overkill but I want to future proof) > change case to Lian Li O11 Dynamic or NZXT H9
Q1 2024 - NVME SSD 1-2TB Gen4x4, R5 5600X or 5800X3D used

After this, I am ready to suspend my PC upgrading for a long time
Appreciate your advise and opinions.

 

[Tech_fanatic]

An RX6700XT is a much better choice as compared to the rx 6600 series because it not only has 50% more vram but also has proper 16 lanes pcie connector. A rx 6600xt only has 8gb vram and a 8x pcie lane. For $70 extra dollars its absolutely worth it considering some games of today easily use up 8gb + vram even on 1080p. For example forza horizon 5 at 1080p with a mix of high and ultra settings uses up 10gb vram on my system.

 

[infernuz]

An RX6700XT is a much better choice as compared to the rx 6600 series because it not only has 50% more vram but also has proper 16 lanes pcie connector. A rx 6600xt only has 8gb vram and a 8x pcie lane. For $70 extra dollars its absolutely worth it considering some games of today easily use up 8gb + vram even on 1080p. For example forza horizon 5 at 1080p with a mix of high and ultra settings uses up 10gb vram on my system.

Thank you. Can this GPU go easily on 1080p 144Hz for most? I was mistaken this for 1440p so I though I may be wasting money because my display is 1080p only.

 

[dgianstefani]

Get a 4060 for $300, $350 6700 XT is 10% faster in raster and 10% slower in RT, but uses 220 W compared to 110 W, and has no AI hardware for DLSS/DLAA/frame generation.

 

[Macro Device]

DotA2 is reported to have MAJOR issues with AMD cards (and no real solution for that despite the problem is ongoing for basically forever) so I'd go nGreedia if I was you. RTX 3080 is absolutely enough for 1080p144. 3070/4060 series or 3060 Ti is okay for 1080p60, yet you will be forced to lower textures settings in some titles (not many of them, yet they already exist) because 8 GB is not quite enough.

If you end up buying AMD (with 6700 XT as the only sane option) don't expect DotA2 to run at DX11 normally. Use Vulkan. And yes, Vulkan works awful in this game. Not sure if you will be happy.

//my data is valid as of two months ago but I doubt AMD fixed their DotA2 fuck-ups

 

[Tech_fanatic]

Thank you. Can this GPU go easily on 1080p 144Hz for most? I was mistaken this for 1440p so I though I may be wasting money because my display is 1080p only.

That depends on the games you play If they are esports titles then yes. I don't play dota 2 so can't say about that but in csgo, valorant and other fps titles this card will easily give you 240+ fps at 1080 with a decent cpu. Go for Nvidia if you really want RT performance as this card seriously sucks at RT (AMDs 1st gen RT). Other than that this card will easily match rtx 4060 ti in non-RT game scenarios. In short if you can do without RT get the 6700XT.

 

[dgianstefani]

That depends on the games you play If they are esports titles then yes. I don't play dota 2 so can't say about that but in csgo, valorant and other fps titles this card will easily give you 240+ fps at 1080 with a decent cpu. Go for Nvidia if you really want RT performance as this card seriously sucks at RT (AMDs 1st gen RT). Other than that this card will easily match rtx 4060 ti in non-RT game scenarios. In short if you can do without RT get the 6700XT.

6700 XT doesn't match 4060 Ti in non RT, it's 10% slower, while using 100 W more power, lot more than that if FG is turned on.

In RT it's almost 30% slower.

 

[Frick]

Get a 4060 for $300, $350 6700 XT is 10% faster in raster and 10% slower in RT, but uses 220 W compared to 110 W, and has no AI hardware for DLSS/DLAA/frame generation.

This is HIGHLY dependant on local prices though.

 

[evernessince]

My PC:
Ryzen 5500
AsRock B550M PRo4
Team 8GB x 2 DDR4 3200
GTX1050Ti
Samsung Evo 870 SATA SSD
DeepCool PQ-M 850W
Asus VX238H 23inch 1080p 60Hz

Games I play most: DOTA 2, CS:Source, GTA V
Games I plan to play: MSFS 2020, Red Dead Redemption 2, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, Cities Skylines 2...

Question:
1. What is the borderline cost effective GPU I can buy for 1080p 60Hz? I am considering RX6700XT but still confused whether I am spending too much and better off with RX6600?
Prices in my country (converted from JPY) - RX6600-$216, RX660XT-$280, RX6650XT-$310, RX6700XT-$350 ***my max budget is the RX6700XT price***

2. I want high refresh rate later on so I am aiming to upgrade my monitor to a 1080p 144Hz. If I go this path, is my thinking correct that going RX6700XT will be the wiser option? If I stay to my current 1080p 60Hz, then circle back to Q1.

My staggered upgrade plan:
December 2023 - GPU > 1080p 144Hz monitor > 64GB DDR4 3200 (overkill but I want to future proof) > change case to Lian Li O11 Dynamic or NZXT H9
Q1 2024 - NVME SSD 1-2TB Gen4x4, R5 5600X or 5800X3D used

After this, I am ready to suspend my PC upgrading for a long time
Appreciate your advise and opinions.

The 6700 XT is the best value GPU on the market right now. 12GB of VRAM is also going to ensure the GPU is actually able to play games coming out this year and into the future.

64GB of RAM is giga overkill. You don't need that much, 32GB will be good for the next 8 to 10 years.

Otherwise everything else looks good.

Get a 4060 for $300, $350 6700 XT is 10% faster in raster and 10% slower in RT, but uses 220 W compared to 110 W, and has no AI hardware for DLSS/DLAA/frame generation.

The 6700 XT is undoubtedly the better choice for the OP. The 4060 already struggles in some AAA games due to it's small 8GB of VRAM and tiny 128 bit bus and that will only get worse over time. The card is DOA.

Stock to stock the 6700 XT is 14% faster in raster and 6% slower in RT. Your numbers are comparing a stock 6700 XT to an OC model 4060, which is not quite apples to apples. Mind you RT performance is meaningless for the 4060 because it simply does not have enough VRAM to have a good experience in RT. Resident Evil 4 was straight up crashing on 8GB cards with RT enabled and has severe texture swapping issues with that little VRAM and it's by far not the only game that'll have obvious texture swapping issues with such a small VRAM buffer. The 4060 is not a 4060 but a 4050 and should be at best $200. It absolutely is not worth the money given the issues it has right out of the gate.

OP has / is upgrading to a 1080p monitor, which is a resolution at which all upscaling technologies perform poorly. DLSS is not worth anything at this resolution. Frame generation is worthless for anyone below 70 FPS or above 120 FPS. It's extremely niche and comes with it's own set of downsides like a reduction in quality, increased input lag, and artifacts. DLAA is nice to have when the game's inbuilt AA is poor but absolutely a minor feature and nothing you'd consider as a feature you buy a GPU for. You can get alternative AA in games simply by using an injector or other lossless scaling program that supports it (like magpie or lossless scaling).

DotA2 is reported to have MAJOR issues with AMD cards (and no real solution for that despite the problem is ongoing for basically forever)

Source?

 

[Hyderz]

if are going to for 64gb ram might as well grab a 3600 kit since that is the sweet spot for 5800x3d if thats what you planned to upgrade later on.
sounds like you want to do a big upgrade in december.. i'm not sure about japan have big sales on pc parts but amazon have black friday sale in december... might be worth checking it out
japan's pc parts prices can be notoriously high.. from what i've seen in yodobashi but ive heard tsukumo is the place to go

 

[infernuz]

Ok now I am going more confused. After reading a response about Dota 2 issues, I searched randomly about this and found some posts about this. This kinda worry me if majority is true if I went for the 6700XT part. I am aware that the AMD has better raw performance on the price point I mentioned compared to NVIDIA.

@Hyderz
Is the setup easy with these OC RAMs? Will double check with QVL for sure but it's gonna be my first time to go XMP on RAM. Yes some local shops do run seasonal sales and just now on a summer sale, I was able to upgrade my 10 year old PSU to DeepCool PQ850W for $90 (from $110).

 

[dgianstefani]

Ok now I am going more confused. After reading a response about Dota 2 issues, I searched randomly about this and found some posts about this. This kinda worry me if majority is true if I went for the 6700XT part. I am aware that the AMD has better raw performance on the price point I mentioned compared to NVIDIA.

It doesn't though. That's the point. It's $50 more for 10% in each direction slower/faster, depending on whether the game uses modern lighting or not.

 

[pavle]

Till december the prices will go down and I believe you can just buy RTX 4070 and upgrade nothing else and you'll be fine for quite some time.

 

[wNotyarD]

DotA2 is reported to have MAJOR issues with AMD cards (and no real solution for that despite the problem is ongoing for basically forever) so I'd go nGreedia if I was you. RTX 3080 is absolutely enough for 1080p144. 3070/4060 series or 3060 Ti is okay for 1080p60, yet you will be forced to lower textures settings in some titles (not many of them, yet they already exist) because 8 GB is not quite enough.

If you end up buying AMD (with 6700 XT as the only sane option) don't expect DotA2 to run at DX11 normally. Use Vulkan. And yes, Vulkan works awful in this game. Not sure if you will be happy.

//my data is valid as of two months ago but I doubt AMD fixed their DotA2 fuck-ups

From the titles op mentioned, only MSFS could be a hassle to run with a 3070 at 1440p144, so anything at 1080p60 should be a breeze.
For later 1080p144 8GB vram should still be a non-issue (provided there's no RT involved), but the R5 5500 could hold some things back.

OP has a good PSU, that's a good starter. PCIe 4.0 capable mobo, so running a x8 card (I'm looking at you, 4060) will be fine. Will get some more ram later, but it's not crucial right now (although 32GB should be plenty).
So, provided that OP can get a 4060 at the same price as a 6700XT, it may be a good option due to being newer and power efficient (well, and some issues Radeon may have. GeForce isn't without it's share, but that's another discussion). Otherwise, bite the bullet and get the 6700XT. I recommend upgrading the R5-5500 to a R7-5800X3D down the line, if the motherboard can safely handle it.

 

[evernessince]

Ok now I am going more confused. After reading a response about Dota 2 issues, I searched randomly about this and found some posts about this. This kinda worry me if majority is true if I went for the 6700XT part. I am aware that the AMD has better raw performance on the price point I mentioned compared to NVIDIA.

@Hyderz
Is the setup easy with these OC RAMs? Will double check with QVL for sure but it's gonna be my first time to go XMP on RAM. Yes some local shops do run seasonal sales and just now on a summer sale, I was able to upgrade my 10 year old PSU to DeepCool PQ850W for $90 (from $110).

You can google anything with "issue" tagged to the end and come up with results. For example "DOTA 2 Nvidia issues" or "DOTA 2 Nvidia crashes". This is why I asked for the source because if it's a wide-spread issue as the other user purports, it should be easy to find a high quality source. From what I can see, there are less AMD users on reddit encountering issues than Nvidia users but that could be down to the install base of Nvidia being higher. For either side the rate of occurrence seems within normal range for any game. Moreover, there doesn't appear to be an article written on the topic or even a general "AMD DOTA issues" thread, which you typically see started when enough users encounter issues. It appears to be just random occurrences at the same rate as any other game.

It is up to Beginner Micro Device to prove his claims first.

It doesn't though. That's the point. It's $50 more for 10% in each direction slower/faster, depending on whether the game uses modern lighting or not.

As highlighted above though, that's again a misleading argument in two ways. First, it's a 14% difference in favor of the 6700 XT. You are again quoting OC 4060 vs stock 6700 XT. Second, the 4060 is not capable of using RT due to it's VRAM size and bandwidth.

So really in terms of performance it's entirely in 6700 XT's favor and it will only continue to tilt that way as time passed. You cannot in good conscious be recommending someone how wants to keep the build a long time the 4060, it does not have enough VRAM now let alone in the future. Any review on the 4060, like from HardwareUnboxed or GamersNexus, supports this conclusion.

Till december the prices will go down and I believe you can just buy RTX 4070 and upgrade nothing else and you'll be fine for quite some time.

He's playing a lot of eSport titles at 1080p high refresh. Buying a 4070 but not upgrading the CPU would be a huge mistake as those games are heavily CPU bottlenecked and not GPU.

In addition, the 4070 is only 28% faster while being 71.42% more expensive. Even if the price comes down, it still will not bridge that massive cost gap. It's also extremely unlikely that just the 4070 would decrease in price in a market scenario where that happens. Other GPUs would lower in that case and the correct recommendation is for the OP is to select whichever GPU provides the best value for him at that time. Again though I'd not recommend him spending all his budget on a GPU given his resolution, game selection, and current CPU.

 

[Macro Device]

It is up to Beginner Micro Device to prove his claims first.

I'm sorry to disappoint you but my only sources of information are Steam threads and a couple friends who still play DotA2. I know they can be labelled "voices in my head" quality sources. I'm fine with that.

Yet the crashing/hanging issue is real and I really hope OP won't get into this trouble. I also suggested how to work it around. Probably GPU clock limiting can help, too.

 

[evernessince]

I'm sorry to disappoint you but my only sources of information are Steam threads and a couple friends who still play DotA2. I know they can be labelled "voices in my head" quality sources. I'm fine with that.

Yet the crashing/hanging issue is real and I really hope OP won't get into this trouble. I also suggested how to work it around. Probably GPU clock limiting can help, too.

It's fine to relay your own experiences or that of your friends. The problem comes down to the fact that you implied that users broadly have experienced issues and for a significant period of time.

Your original statement was the following:

DotA2 is reported to have MAJOR issues with AMD cards (and no real solution for that despite the problem is ongoing for basically forever)

There's a massive difference between your new statement of 'my 2 friends with AMD cards have issues' to your original statement that specifically states the issue is both major and persistent.

I'm not saying your friends are wrong of course but you definitely mislead the OP in regards to the issue and caused undue concern. Your original statement should have been the one you just provided.

 

[tommesfps]

@infernuz :
1.) How do you feel about your gaming experiance in DotA2/CSGO/GTA5 with your current setup (GTX 1050TI) ? Do you optimize settings to get 60fps, or do you play below 60fps but with increased graphics detail?

2) How likely would it be for you to get a used graphics card from ebay like RTX 2070(Super)?

3) Do have any specific monitor model in mind for 1080p144 to be your upgrade?

 

[infernuz]

64GB of RAM is giga overkill. You don't need that much, 32GB will be good for the next 8 to 10 years.

if are going to for 64gb ram might as well grab a 3600 kit since that is the sweet spot for 5800x3d if thats what you planned to upgrade later on.

The reason behind that thinking is when I built my Ivybridge i3 setup 10 year ago, 4GB was the ideal, 8GB was the recommended and 16GB was the maximum of my motherboard. Last year, I was forced to upgrade to 16GB because memory usage was higher compared years ago obviously. Since my setup was too old and DDR3 1333 kits are not cost effective, I somehow thought that I should have maxed the 16GB of my motherboard when prices are still reasonable. That is why I want to max out as early as now and not worry later on since my upgrade is very seldom. Of course if it is still ridiculous then I am fine for 32GB.

After above conversation, I guess I have to decide and go for the RX 6700XT. Hopefully I do not encounter those issues in DOTA 2 and do best to do clean installs as much as possible. (DDU on driver update)

@tommesfps

1. In DOTA 2, there are times that frame drops a bit for unknown reason. Usage for both CPU/GPU is balanced with more in GPU. This occur whether I maxed settings or go low. Other games I set the settings to get at least 50 or even 60FPS over quality. I was somehow satisfied because previously on my i3 3245, the GTX 1050Ti usage was almost below 30% average while CPU was almost 90%.

2. Unfortunately the pricing in the used market for RTX 2070 Super is ridiculously high as of this moment.

3. Nothing specific as of now. Later on maybe I'll go with the cheapest known brand.

 

[Hyderz]

The reason behind that thinking is when I built my Ivybridge i3 setup 10 year ago, 4GB was the ideal, 8GB was the recommended and 16GB was the maximum of my motherboard. Last year, I was forced to upgrade to 16GB because memory usage was higher compared years ago obviously. Since my setup was too old and DDR3 1333 kits are not cost effective, I somehow thought that I should have maxed the 16GB of my motherboard when prices are still reasonable. That is why I want to max out as early as now and not worry later on since my upgrade is very seldom. Of course if it is still ridiculous then I am fine for 32GB.

Well you said it yourself since you seldom upgrade, might as well grab 64gb and don't have to worry about it later on. DDR4 is at the end of it's life cycle once intel next platform comes out with ddr5 and amd stops making 5000 series cpu DDR4 manufacturing will definately stop and companies will go full speed for DDR5.

 

[tommesfps]

The reason behind that thinking is when I built my Ivybridge i3 setup 10 year ago, 4GB was the ideal, 8GB was the recommended and 16GB was the maximum of my motherboard. Last year, I was forced to upgrade to 16GB because memory usage was higher compared years ago obviously. Since my setup was too old and DDR3 1333 kits are not cost effective, I somehow thought that I should have maxed the 16GB of my motherboard when prices are still reasonable. That is why I want to max out as early as now and not worry later on since my upgrade is very seldom. Of course if it is still ridiculous then I am fine for 32GB.

After above conversation, I guess I have to decide and go for the RX 6700XT. Hopefully I do not encounter those issues in DOTA 2 and do best to do clean installs as much as possible. (DDU on driver update)

@tommesfps

1. In DOTA 2, there are times that frame drops a bit for unknown reason. Usage for both CPU/GPU is balanced with more in GPU. This occur whether I maxed settings or go low. Other games I set the settings to get at least 50 or even 60FPS over quality. I was somehow satisfied because previously on my i3 3245, the GTX 1050Ti usage was almost below 30% average while CPU was almost 90%.

2. Unfortunately the pricing in the used market for RTX 2070 Super is ridiculously high as of this moment.

3. Nothing specific as of now. Later on maybe I'll go with the cheapest known brand.

So you are hyped to upgrade your graphics card soon? From opening post I read "December 2023", is this info obsolete now? Would it make sense to you @infernuz to upgrade graphics card and monitor at the same time, or even monitor first to get a feeling of how a 144hz monitor effect your overall gaming experiance?

 

[evernessince]

The reason behind that thinking is when I built my Ivybridge i3 setup 10 year ago, 4GB was the ideal, 8GB was the recommended and 16GB was the maximum of my motherboard. Last year, I was forced to upgrade to 16GB because memory usage was higher compared years ago obviously. Since my setup was too old and DDR3 1333 kits are not cost effective, I somehow thought that I should have maxed the 16GB of my motherboard when prices are still reasonable. That is why I want to max out as early as now and not worry later on since my upgrade is very seldom. Of course if it is still ridiculous then I am fine for 32GB.

I think that's fair. I'd say go ahead and get that 64GB. RAM is cheap right now so it won't destroy your budget while taking care of any concerns you might have.

 

[infernuz]

So you are hyped to upgrade your graphics card soon? From opening post I read "December 2023", is this info obsolete now? Would it make sense to you @infernuz to upgrade graphics card and monitor at the same time, or even monitor first to get a feeling of how a 144hz monitor effect your overall gaming experiance?

Sorry I had difficulty understanding this. So it's better for me to get the 1080p 144Hz to see the feel, before making decision for 6700XT (whether I still need it or I can go 1 step down like 6650XT if satisfied). Is this the point? Sorry for the poor comprehension.

My decision for the 6700XT after research and above convo, is my assumption that it will give me more constant 60-144 fps on the games I play. That is something I cannot appreciate immediately with the 1080p 60 monitor I have right hence it's better to do same time monitor/gpu upgrade, or monitor first?

I think that's fair. I'd say go ahead and get that 64GB. RAM is cheap right now so it won't destroy your budget while taking care of any concerns you might have.

Well you said it yourself since you seldom upgrade, might as well grab 64gb and don't have to worry about it later on. DDR4 is at the end of it's life cycle once intel next platform comes out with ddr5 and amd stops making 5000 series cpu DDR4 manufacturing will definately stop and companies will go full speed for DDR5.

Thank you! 64GB on the wishlist now

 

[wNotyarD]

Sorry I had difficulty understanding this. So it's better for me to get the 1080p 144Hz to see the feel, before making decision for 6700XT (whether I still need it or I can go 1 step down like 6650XT if satisfied). Is this the point? Sorry for the poor comprehension.

Not a chance it'd be better to upgrade your monitor first. Your current 1050Ti can hardly push 1080p144, unless you play older games and/or reduce settings to the point of getting unpleasurable to reach such frame rates. Sure that a faster card earlier than a faster monitor will probably lead you to screen tearing, but that's the way things go if you can't match both in a single move.

 

[infernuz]

Not a chance it'd be better to upgrade your monitor first. Your current 1050Ti can hardly push 1080p144, unless you play older games and/or reduce settings to the point of getting unpleasurable to reach such frame rates. Sure that a faster card earlier than a faster monitor will probably lead you to screen tearing, but that's the way things go if you can't match both in a single move.

So the best move is to upgrade both together at the same time to appreciate the improvement and fluid animations. Going 6700XT while delaying the monitor purchase will result to screen tearing and not smooth animations even if I can go beyond 60FPS. Is this correct?