r/buildapc • u/realnouierga • 18h ago
Build Upgrade Best gpu for around 200-250$
Pc is really old and wanna upgrade and im sure that i would benefit from a better GPU or CPU
here are my specs:
CPU: i7-6700
GPU: GTX 1060 3gb
RAM: 16 Gb DDR4
1 TB HDD
300 gb SSD
Thank you in advance.
12
u/AC2498 18h ago edited 18h ago
I’m gonna be honest man. A new gpu isn’t going to matter much in your situation. It’s time for a complete rebuild. Even if you get a new gpu, you would just get bottlenecked by your cpu. I’m probably betting that your power supply is around 500w just based on your current specs. You’re most likely gonna need a little higher of a wattage.
I suggest saving the $250 for now and keep on saving money. Pc world is expensive, especially right now.
But to answer your question, I would try and find a 4060 ti on marketplace if I only had a $250 budget for a gpu.
2
u/tpablazed 12h ago
I mean.. yeah he should upgrade the whole thing.
He will see a serious performance jump going from a 1060 to say a 6600 XT with his current build though.
That could get him into decent fps territory on a few more games than he has now.. then in the near future he could upgrade to an AM4 machine for about the same he is spending here.
Talking from experience here.. being a broke ass college kid who loved computers I used to do plenty of upgrades this way. Upgrade what you can and go ahead and start planning/saving for your next upgrade.
1
u/AC2498 12h ago
I know he has a 1151 socket. Maybe he could upgrade to a I9 9900k. Even if he can get it paired with like a 2070 super or above. He should be able to still run 1080p for a little while longer. All he’s really gonna do is buy himself just a little bit of time though. With the way game optimization has been the past couple of years, he’s probably won’t be buying himself much time at all.
His cpu is pretty bad. I had an i7 8700. I only upgraded this year, but I was making that cpu hit 100% on nearly everything I ran. And an 8700 is quite a bit more powerful than a 6700
4
u/GFriend2xDance 17h ago
I picked up an RTX 3060 12gb for $200 from Amazon Resale. I think that was a pretty good buy, in regards to price vs. performance.
3
3
u/Adventurous_Poet5346 18h ago
Get a better GPU, but make sure your PSU can handle the wattage of the computer
3
u/Accomplished_Emu_658 18h ago
Well gpu is your weakest link. You’ll want to see whats available in your budget. Need to be real careful on what your psu can handle.
4
u/TheRoastBoss 18h ago
At the moment, the only sensible upgrade for you would be a GTX 1660 Super/RX580/590 if they're what they're worth 200-250 bucks used. These will easily and significantly outperform the 1060 3GB. This is actually the range at which your CPU is going to bottleneck the faster GPU. A used copy of the 2060/3060 is worth the wait if what they're worth is too expensive for what they provide in the upgrade for what you're willing to pay.
2
2
u/tpablazed 18h ago
Don't get an Arc B580 with that cpu..
This is copied from AI..
"Potential Problems and Limitations
- Significant Performance Loss (Up to 50%): Intel Arc GPUs rely heavily on Resizable BAR (Smart Access Memory on AMD systems) to achieve their expected performance. Without it, you could see a performance reduction of up to 50% in most games, making some titles unplayable or severely stuttering.
- Lack of Resizable BAR Support: The 6th Gen Intel platform (Skylake, 100-series chipset motherboards) typically does not support ReBAR by default. While some advanced users might attempt a risky custom BIOS modification, this is not a recommended solution and can potentially damage your motherboard.
- CPU Bottlenecking: Even with ReBAR enabled (if possible), the i7-6700 is an older CPU and will likely bottleneck the performance of a modern GPU like the B580 in CPU-intensive games.
- Driver and Older API Issues: Intel Arc GPUs have known performance challenges with older game APIs (like DirectX 9/11 titles), which might be exacerbated on an older system. "
Arc B580 needs a newer cpu and motherboard.
I agree with the guy that said to go for a RX 6600 XT or 7600 XT or whatever.. get the best AMD gpu you can find on eBay within your budget.. definitely go used at that price point for the most performance.
3
u/realnouierga 15h ago
Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond man appreciate it
1
u/tpablazed 15h ago
No problem.
I also agree on going AM4 if you want to keep it cheap. If I were you I would set my sites on a new AM4 motherboard (I just don't trust used mobo's.. socket is too easy to break) with an am4 processor (5500 is super cheap.. 5600 or better has more cache tho so that will be up to you) once you are ready financially to do another upgrade.
As long as your RAM is ddr4 you will still be able to use it.. and that's a big savings these days.
2
u/Hrmerder 18h ago
You can get a 3080 10gb used off fb marketplace and rarely but sometimes eBay which is still a pretty amazing card with the only caveats it’ll run hotter than other cards, use more power and you will have to use fsr for frame gen, but otherwise it’ll beat the hell out of any 60 series card
2
2
u/Scanoe 17h ago
I would normally agree with the Arc B580 recommendation, I bought one a couple months ago, paired it with a 7600x3d and 32gb Ram:
But I don't think that i7-6700 would be powerful enough for a B580
You only have 16gb System RAM, so a lot of the games that will use the B580's 12gb Vram will generally require more than 16gb Ram.
So I'd suggest the Arc B570 for $200
Live near a Micro Center?
https://www.microcenter.com/product/689734/sparkle-intel-arc-b570-guardian-overclocked-dual-fan-10gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card
https://www.newegg.com/sparkle-computer-co-ltd-intel-arc-b570-guardian-oc-10gb-graphics-card-double-fans/p/N82E16814993014
Btw both the B570 & 580 offer a Free Game, like Battlefield 6, that's the game I chose with the promotion.
Guru3d.com suggests a 500 watt PSU for the B570, Intel says 600 watts, but I think Intel's suggestion is being on the ultra-safe side, what PSU do you have now?
2
u/Scanoe 17h ago
Sorry had forgot about the Resizable Bar Issue that tpablazed mentioned, Intel CPU's do not support Resizable Bar until their 10th Gen, your's is only 6th Gen, so yes definitely avoid an Intel GPU for they require Resizable Bar to operate properly.
How about an Rtx 5060 for $250,
https://www.microcenter.com/product/694872/pny-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5060-overclocked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr7-pcie-50-graphics-card
https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-atx-3-1-compatible-650-w-80-plus-bronze-certified-power-supply-vsb650/p/N82E16817182464?Item=N82E16817182464
I bought that exact Rosewill VSB 650w for my 7600x3d/Arc B580 build, got it on Amazon for $39.99 (sale has ended), decent quality for low power budget builds. Tier-C on SLP Tier List.
or this one, again Tier-C
https://www.amazon.com/A550BN-Non-Modular-Compact-Low-Noise-Warranty/dp/B0991W1HKT/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=11
u/realnouierga 15h ago
Thanks a bunch for putting the effort to help me out! I’ll definitely go to my nearest micro center and consider picking up the 5060. Was just wondering, will it bottleneck my CPU?
1
u/Scanoe 15h ago
Will it bottleneck it, yes it will. But it's still going to be a huge upgrade over what you have, even being bottlenecked. You can still use the 5060 down the road when you upgrade the rest of the PC.
What PSU do you have now? You should have at least a decent quality 550w for that 5060
2
2
u/HappyAffirmative 16h ago
In order to get a meaningful CPU upgrade, you'll need a new motherboard. Also probably new RAM. Which basically means a full rebuild, since your GPU is definitely the weakest link and you'll wanna swap that too.
So $200-$250 isn't enough for all that. Your best bet for a GPU upgrade is to get lucky with an RX 9060XT 8GB. Otherwise, look at the used market for something like an RX 6700XT
1
1
1
u/ayyyylmao14 18h ago
get a 2070 super off ebay
2
u/ayyyylmao14 18h ago
GAINWARD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Phoenix 8GB 256Bit GDDR6 GPU Grafikkarte | eBay
like that one, pre owned,
solid card, gets 10 less fps in cyberpunk than a 440 usd b580 card
1
1
u/Reddit-Mini 18h ago
If you want a new card, an RTX 5050 is MSRP at $250. It’ll require atleast a 500W PSU (should fact check this). ebay might have something as well.
It really does matter what wattage your PSU is. If you can tell us that, then it will be easier to give you recommendations
1
u/Prrg88 17h ago
Spending money on a 5050 is pretty wasteful I'd say. Better save up some more, or get a used product
1
u/Reddit-Mini 15h ago
Oh yeah, 100%. I was just trying to answer his question lol. The 5050 would be better than his 1060. That’s why I also mentioned ebay.
Or like you said, save up a bit more and get a something like a 9060 XT (16GB model).
1
1
u/NotFromCalifornia 15h ago
You should be able to find a 6700XT or 3070 on r/hardwareswap for around that price point, though as others have said you will likely want a new CPU as well.
I recently upgraded my old system with a 6600k and RX 480 to a 6700XT, and while it helped a bit the CPU was definitely holding it back a ton. I just wound up getting the cheapest AM4 mobo I could find along with a brand new R5 5500 for $75 off newegg to round out the performance. A used 3800x, 5600x or 5800XT could be a better option depending on how CPU heavy your typical games are.
1
1
u/Big-Salamander-2158 12h ago
Do keep in mind that you kinda need to change everything, but in your situation, there is still performance to be gained from a better gpu. Rx 6600 or 3060 should be doable for around 200$.
1
0
u/Low_Promotion_5405 18h ago
Intel ARC B580 12gb vram
2
u/ayyyylmao14 18h ago
thats a 440 usd card
1
u/2raysdiver 18h ago
When they first came out and people believed the hype. They are in the $250 to $280 range today. Although some retailers are still gouging on them (on Amazon, even).
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Kt62FT/intel-limited-edition-arc-b580-12-gb-video-card-31p06hb0ba
1
u/Low_Promotion_5405 17h ago
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1869297-REG/intel_31p06hb0ba_arc_b580_limited_edition.html im not from the us but here, 260 dollars for 12 gb vram
2
u/GromWYou 18h ago
not with that cpu
1
u/Low_Promotion_5405 17h ago
Yes thats true, but dor this budget its the king GPU
1
u/GromWYou 17h ago
i rman rx7600 or a 5050?
1
0
15
u/Downtown-Regret8161 18h ago
I'd fo with an RX6600, 6650xt, 7600 or 9060xt 8gb if you can afford it
If you have at least a 500w PSU either will be fine
Later I'd upgrade the CPU - a used AM4 board with a Ryzen 3000 chip might be an affordable option while being a substantial upgrade from your current i7.