GPU recommendations (based on what's in stock anywhere!)

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woodson

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Master Geek
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#284549 29-Apr-2021 14:10

I built a machine for a friend a while ago - PC was for general use, some Inkscape and other light graphics work. Specs were a 10th gen i3, 8gb of RAM and I added a GTX1030 so that she could hook up three monitors. (yes massive overkill, but that's what was requested).

A year on, and now she's also into light gaming (lots of Ark and some Sims, apparently), and her partner wants to surprise her with a GPU upgrade. Whether or not it's needed is another question, I'm not a gamer, so I don't know if Ark is hardware intensive or not (surely Sims can't be though?!).

Anywho...what kind of mid-range cards are out there that can actually be had for sale. A bit of searching suggests that the 1660 Super is available with (trustworthy) retailers. Is this a solid choice?

Thanks in advance for any advice. 😀

xpd

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#2699665 29-Apr-2021 14:22

Ark is very heavy for graphics, so would look at something fairly decent but with shortages at the moment, getting a half decent card is pricey.

Sims 3 is an odd one, loves to run poorly no matter what card you use. Sims 4 however runs on anything (my daughter using just on board video for her copy)

Im on a 1650GTX but an old (4th gen i5) CPU, I get about 60fps from games like Grand Theft Auto 5, bottlenecks at 60 on Overwatch.

Def buy new, avoid 2nd hand these days due to the good old mining situation - I'd say min. 4GB video RAM, but others would say 8GB. Depends what screen resolution she runs at......

Also look at upgrading her PC to 16GB RAM, things just tick along better. :)

XPD / Gavin

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ratsun81

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#2699811 29-Apr-2021 18:37

You are quite likely to bottleneck most modern GPU's with an i3,

The 1650 and 1660 range is probably right in the sweet spot for that CPU. Plus prices and availability suck right now.

As already said 16GB is a good call, especially if not already running in dual channel mode.

woodson

234 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 14

#2700026 30-Apr-2021 10:55

Thanks very much for the tips and advice, folks 😀