Hey yall, with card prices getting out of hand these days and my 1080 nearing the end of its viability, im looking to upgrade my GPU by making a responsible decision that invests in the guture but also isnt $2000. Buying a 5060 feels like a poor future investment but a 5080 prices are absurd. My 1080 is still running without issue but I’ve exhausted the batch of older games Im interested in and would like to play some newer games with non-dismal settings. For example, I bought Stalker 2 and even with optimized settings, im only getting 45fps. Its playable but could and should be a much better experience (slava Ukraini). That being said, i just played through elder ring on high and had no issues. Im not asking for 200fps in 8k, but my monitors are sad from my card bottleneck.
I also have 2 computers. My old rig with 2018 cpu slots and my wife’s new computer with ddr5/current cpu slots. Id likely be trying the new card in my old rig to see how my CPU bottleneck is and if thats bad, I’ll just toss it on hers. Note: she’s running a 1080 as well because i used to have SLI 1080s until games stopped supporting it and built her a computer around it in 2024
My rig Specs:
GTX 1080
i7-6700
500gb SSD
32gb DDR4
Wife’s rig Specs:
GTX 1080
i5-12400
2tb SSD
32gb DDR5
Anyway, like I stated before, looking for a card thats a lot of bang for your buck and will let me play current games into the future. Will spend up to ~$1K and ray tracing means nothing to me. Open to any company that’ll fit in the slot.
For my old rig, the only thing I can upgrade really is my GPU. If I upgrade my CPU, I need a new mobo. If I get a new mobo, I might as well invest in a DDR5 slot mobo, so then I need a fresh pack of at least 32gb DDR5. its a fun spot to be in. I’ve stopped playing competitive games so I assume thats where win11 is more important. Been playing a ton of single player lately.
A used AM4 mobo/CPU would allow you to reuse your existing memory and storage, and could be a significant bump in performance. A Ryzen 5 5600 supports DDR4 and would more than double your CPU performance.
Even new you can generally find a CPU/mobo for <$200 usd
If you have ~1k to spend, spending $800 instead and getting a CPU bump would probably be a better bang/buck upgrade. If you put a 9070xt/9060xt or 5060ti/5070 you’ll be very CPU bottlenecked. You probably already are in some games with your 1080
If thats the case the plan is to just pop the new card into my wife’s computer with a much more current cpu
Why do you need a new mobo? You just need a newer CPU, they’re like $150. You can get a 9070xt+CPU for under $1,000. Sounds like you want a new PC all together.
If you’re really set on it and you have a microcenter nearby, you could probably get a CPU+MOBO+RAM for the price of just the RAM.
Sockets historically don’t support more than 1 or 2 generations. OP’s is not any different. Based off their current 6700 they would be gen 1 LGA 1151 so the best they could hope for is a 7700K which is barely a gain over the 6700. As per GN, “If you’ve got the previous generation, unless you really want the new features, just stick with it.”
Newer cpus wont fit in my cpu slots. Shape changed between then and now.
Got it, if you have a Microcenter nearby you can usually get a free MOBO with the purchase of a processor.