Question Low-end / mid-range gaming, Athlon 3000G or 3300X, with GTX 1650 D5 ITX GPU?

VirtualLarry

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To get up-to-date, skip to post #28.

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There's this MSI RX 570 8GB for ~$120 AR @ Newegg, only take a 6-pin PCI-E power connector, suggested PSU wattage 450W.


Then there's this ASRock RX 5500 XT 8GB card for ~$190, no rebate.


Which would be better for lower-end gaming, possible in a rig with a G3258 @ 4.0-4.2Ghz, with 8GB of DDR3, SSD.

What kind of games would I be able to play with that sort of rig? Anything modern at all? Apex Legends? Fortnight?
 
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AtenRa

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There's this MSI RX 570 8GB for ~$120 AR @ Newegg, only take a 6-pin PCI-E power connector, suggested PSU wattage 450W.


Then there's this ASRock RX 5500 XT 8GB card for ~$190, no rebate.


Which would be better for lower-end gaming, possible in a rig with a G3258 @ 4.0-4.2Ghz, with 8GB of DDR3, SSD.

What kind of games would I be able to play with that sort of rig? Anything modern at all? Apex Legends? Fortnight?

In Apex and Fortnight the RX5500XT 8GB is as fast as RX590.
In games using the Unreal Engine 4 the RX5500XT 8GB can be up to 50% faster than RX570 8GB . (example Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order).
In new games the RX5500XT seems to be in par with RX590.
Also to point out that in the future 5500XT will be able to use DirectML way faster than 570/580/590.

For 190 USD i would go for the 5500XT if you can afford the extra cost over the 570.




,
 

Guru

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May 5, 2017
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Tough choice, the RX 570 is better value of course, but it is starting to show its age and is getting worse in handling 1080p at decent enough settings.

Every card these days around $180-250 is kind of bad, not really great value. Again the RX 570 and 580 are the best value right now, but they are getting older and don't pack as much punch as the 5500xt.
 

AtenRa

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Even the new 1650 gddr6 is better performance per dollar than 5500XT. Shows how much AMD is slacking.

RX5500XT is in the same performance tier as GTX1660.

From newegg the cheapest RX5500XT 8GB is at $190 , there is also the ASROCK Phantom Gaming D at $180 after 20$ rebate
The GTX1660 6GB cheapest card is at $230, there is also the EVGA Ultra Gaming at $220 after 20$ rebate.

The cheapest GTX1650 4GB comes at $140 after a 10$ rebate.

Between those, the RX5500XT 8GB clearly is the best choice at $180
 
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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Used RX 580 or Fury. Also I would ditch the Pentium and get an i5 minimum.
 

VirtualLarry

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Also I would ditch the Pentium and get an i5 minimum.
That would likely add too much cost to the equation, unless you can get i5-4570K unlocked quad-cores for $20 on ebay now.

Newegg has some 92mm tower coolers from Rajintek for $11 right now, and they've got an MSI "Aero ITX" RX 560 2GB for $79.99 AP, would that be a worth-while card, keeping in mind an e-sports motif for these rigs? Can you play Fortnite on an RX 560 and a G3258? (I should check YouTube.)

I did manage to find some more / higher-capacity DDR3 RAM in my "scrounge box". It's a mixed asst., so no guarantee that it will work together on those boards, but I'm going to give it a shot. Should be able to get each box up to 8GB of DDR3, along with a 2GB GDDR5 RX 560, not to bad. I wish I could find some more refurbished GTX 1650 4GB cards, for roughly $120-130, those would fit the bill better, I suppose.

Edit: I also question the longevity of this board and VRMs, if I dropped a real unlocked i5 in there, it's an ITX board. :p
 
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mxnerd

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Err, 1080P, 1440P, and 4K @ "Ultra" settings? That's kind of a LOL, on a G3258 and a RX 560. Maybe a less crap site?
It could work if all you need is 720P and having an overclocked G3258. :)

However, you know I don't play games.

Just passing along what I found on the net.

FPS value is under 20 even for 1080P Fortnite.
 
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VirtualLarry

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FPS value is under 20 even for 1080P Fortnite.
At "Ultra" or "Low"?

I was basically aiming for a Fortnite box, more or less, prefer 60FPS at "any" quality setting, 720P OK too, given what I have to work with.

Now, I'm thinking maybe RX 570 after all (if PSU has 6+2-pin PCI-E plug, or maybe use that MSI 8GB RX 570 card, that only takes a single 6-pin PCI-E, and/or a dual-SATA/molex to PCI-E 6-pin adapter), or a GTX 1650 D6 model that doesn't even take a PCI-E power connector.

Certainly, I would expect, a 4GB GTX 1650 D6 model, to out-perform an RX 560 2GB GDDR5 model, although it should, if it costs nearly twice as much, too.
 

AtenRa

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At "Ultra" or "Low"?

I was basically aiming for a Fortnite box, more or less, prefer 60FPS at "any" quality setting, 720P OK too, given what I have to work with.

Now, I'm thinking maybe RX 570 after all (if PSU has 6+2-pin PCI-E plug, or maybe use that MSI 8GB RX 570 card, that only takes a single 6-pin PCI-E, and/or a dual-SATA/molex to PCI-E 6-pin adapter), or a GTX 1650 D6 model that doesn't even take a PCI-E power connector.

Certainly, I would expect, a 4GB GTX 1650 D6 model, to out-perform an RX 560 2GB GDDR5 model, although it should, if it costs nearly twice as much, too.

Personally i consider This MSI 570 8GB currently at $120 after 15$ rebate to be your best option for a new card right now.
Its also a single 6-pin for power.

 

tajoh111

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Mar 28, 2005
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RX5500XT is in the same performance tier as GTX1660.

From newegg the cheapest RX5500XT 8GB is at $190 , there is also the ASROCK Phantom Gaming D at $180 after 20$ rebate
The GTX1660 6GB cheapest card is at $230, there is also the EVGA Ultra Gaming at $220 after 20$ rebate.

The cheapest GTX1650 4GB comes at $140 after a 10$ rebate.

Between those, the RX5500XT 8GB clearly is the best choice at $180

The GTX 1660 became irrelevant after the 1660 super came out. On Newegg, there is a 1660 supers for 230 dollars straight up and are as low as $225 after rebate. The GTX 1660 super is a signficantly faster than a rx 5500 xt 8gb mirroring the difference between a rx570 and 5500xt 8gb which is about a 20-25% upgrade in performance. But with the rx 570 to 5500xt 8gb upgrade, your paying $70 for that 20-25% increase in performance. On the other hand, your paying $40 dollars more that extra 20-25% performance advantage for the 1660 super to 5500xt.

Add in that the 5500xt has bad overclocking potential due to memory bandwidth issues and the 1660 super comes out even more favorable.

As a result of this price difference, the 5500xt, particularly the 8gb variant, does not make sense. Buyer is better off sticking with the rx 570 8gb or getting the 1660 super.

There is a reason that most reviews were hohum for the 5500xt cards and even the reception on a pro AMD website like Anandtech were very cool.
 
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ZGR

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I would skip the GPU and get a proper CPU. That CPU is going to be terrible in most games. Even a 1030 will be overkill in some scenarios.
 
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VirtualLarry

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I would skip the GPU and get a proper CPU. That CPU is going to be terrible in most games. Even a 1030 will be overkill in some scenarios.
If I were to do that, I would do an all-new (refurb?) build.

This wouldn't be for AAA gaming in 2020. Stuff like E-sports, Rocket League, LoL, maybe Fortnite, probably not PubG (did they optimize that yet)? I don't know about Apex Legends either, whether that really needs a quad-core. But at 4.0 - 4.2Ghz, it's nearly almost at a slower quad-core level, as far as CPU power. The problem is going to be minimums.

There are some refurb GTX 1650 (vanilla) for $130 now, don't go buying them all on me. I was thinking of getting a "few", and dropping one into each of these two G3258 rigs. That, or the RX 570 / RX 580 cards (*like the aforementioned MSI with the 6-pin power connector).
 

DAPUNISHER

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If I were to do that, I would do an all-new (refurb?) build.

This wouldn't be for AAA gaming in 2020. Stuff like E-sports, Rocket League, LoL, maybe Fortnite, probably not PubG (did they optimize that yet)? I don't know about Apex Legends either, whether that really needs a quad-core. But at 4.0 - 4.2Ghz, it's nearly almost at a slower quad-core level, as far as CPU power. The problem is going to be minimums.

There are some refurb GTX 1650 (vanilla) for $130 now, don't go buying them all on me. I was thinking of getting a "few", and dropping one into each of these two G3258 rigs. That, or the RX 570 / RX 580 cards (*like the aforementioned MSI with the 6-pin power connector).
I have not seen anyone using the 3258 with Fortnite or PUBG, but I surmise it will be a bad time. Apex runs pretty well though, and rocket and LoL will be fine too. True legend of price to performance, you should keep one for hall of fame reasons. I still have a Celeron 300A for said reason. I also have a Celeron D for my hall of shame :p
 

DeathReborn

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I have not seen anyone using the 3258 with Fortnite or PUBG, but I surmise it will be a bad time. Apex runs pretty well though, and rocket and LoL will be fine too. True legend of price to performance, you should keep one for hall of fame reasons. I still have a Celeron 300A for said reason. I also have a Celeron D for my hall of shame :p

Fortnite is good enough with a G3258 + Radeon 460/750 Ti @1080p (~45fps) but PUBG is dropping to the 20s fps wise with a 750 Ti. There are videos on youtube of people using the G3258 with a variety of Kepler/GCN combinations.
 
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VirtualLarry

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This is what I ended up buying. I saw the i5-4570 SFF PC with 8GB / 500GB / Win10 Home for $110, and I figured, not a bad price, I'll keep the G3258 mini-ITX boards around, but I'll build the gaming PCs out of the i5-4570 PCs, and add some GTX 1650 LP cards, and bump the RAM up to 16GB in each of them, and add a 480/500GB SSD, and re-install Win10 fresh.

i5-4570, 16GB DDR3, 480GB SSD, and a GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 (LP, though it is), should be enough for Apex Legends and Fortnite, right? Probably GTA V too, and maybe some other more mainstream games as well. Though not at 1080P "Ultra" 60FPS, probably, due to the GTX 1650.

Haswell i5-4570 SFF pre-built OEM refurb PC, 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Windows 10 Home, $110:


GTX 1650 low-profile $160:


Patriot 16GB kit of DDR3-1600 $65:


Edit: To add, I didn't see any LP GTX 1650 D6 cards available. They're probably in the pipeline, but I don't think any of them have been released yet, the mfg's and retailers probably want to sell through their stock of vanilla GTX 1650 LP cards. Heck, most of them still have oodles of GTX 1050 ti 4GB LP and 1050 3GB LP cards floating around. Crazy is that those 1050 ti 4GB LP cards are MORE EXPENSIVE than the GTX 1650 cards. At least at Newegg. Amazon wanted $180 for the cheapest GTX 1650 LP card.

Edit: Gigabyte has a LP GTX 1650 GDDR6 card available, with four video outputs, including TWO HDMI2.0 ports.
 
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VirtualLarry

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The GTX 1660 became irrelevant after the 1660 super came out. On Newegg, there is a 1660 supers for 230 dollars straight up and are as low as $225 after rebate. The GTX 1660 super is a signficantly faster than a rx 5500 xt 8gb mirroring the difference between a rx570 and 5500xt 8gb which is about a 20-25% upgrade in performance. But with the rx 570 to 5500xt 8gb upgrade, your paying $70 for that 20-25% increase in performance. On the other hand, your paying $40 dollars more that extra 20-25% performance advantage for the 1660 super to 5500xt.

Add in that the 5500xt has bad overclocking potential due to memory bandwidth issues and the 1660 super comes out even more favorable.

As a result of this price difference, the 5500xt, particularly the 8gb variant, does not make sense. Buyer is better off sticking with the rx 570 8gb or getting the 1660 super.

There is a reason that most reviews were hohum for the 5500xt cards and even the reception on a pro AMD website like Anandtech were very cool.
Well, I also snagged a few "ITX-style" Gigabyte GTX 1660 ti cards, for ~$230 ea., *REFURB*. Hopefully, they won't have any problems.

But I thought getting the full-fat GTX 1660 ti models, for the cost of a ("new") GTX 1660 Super, was a deal. Just wish that it had been the dual-fan model. I can't find the listing at Newegg offhand, searching for the model number, but the Amazon.com reviews were mostly positive, only one negative review. A few mentioned that card cooling is largely dependent on case cooling, which makes a certain amount of sense, seeing as the card(s) I got only have a single fan. Most people claimed that they ran fairly cool, though. It does take a 6+2-pin power connector. So the same (roughly) power envelope as an RX 570, at least going by the power connector.

I already own several GTX 1660 ti cards, and they are decent little cards. All of mine thus far are dual-fan models, which I prefer, because sometimes if one fans goes, the card can "limp along" with a single fan for some time.
 

VirtualLarry

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Going back to the G3258 rigs, here's an interesting review comment from a GTX 1650 Super on Amazon:
default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png

Fortnite Player
5.0 out of 5 stars The Super is a huge improvement on the standard 1650
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2020
Style: Single FanVerified Purchase
Very pleased. Plays Fortnite at a constant 60fps 1080p at max settings and 30+fps 4k on high with only a 2 core Pentium CPU.

My question is, what CPU are they referring to, by "2 core Pentium CPU"? Are they talking about the G3258 there, or something newer, like a Skylake G4400, or even a 2C/4T Kaby or Coffee Lake?
 

mxnerd

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