Thinking of GPU upgrade for older system with R9 Fury

[Shmee]

So I am thinking of getting something for my sister for her birthday, possibly a new GPU, she is currently running a Sapphire R9 Fury with an X79 motherboard/4930k/16GB DDR3. I was considering the RX 6600 deal for under $200. From what I hear, her Fury card is still performing fairly well, but she noticed in BG3 the warning to update drivers, and of course there are no further driver updates for Fiji and earlier.

So my question is, how much would something like an RX 6600 help? I wouldn't want there to be too much of a bottleneck, though I know at least it would have updated drivers, and I could also upgrade the RAM to 32GB to hopefully help. She also expressed interest in more SSD storage space. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Micro Center has some good deals on refurbished cards

 

[Shmee]

Yeah there is no MC near here though. I could do something like Ebay though if I wanted a used card on the cheap. Would probably go the new route in this situation though, for GPU at least. So likely Amazon, Newegg or maybe Central Computers, which is a local chain nearby.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I can't recommend ARC because even if the bios on that board can be modded to enable rebar, ARC has been lackluster in recent games. Needs DXVK for many older games, and the CPU driver overhead is too high to make sense to pair with a decade old CPU.

Best Buy has the best price for a quality 6600 and 7600 IMO. I have had most brands of AMD RDNA 2 and XFX is the best build quality without a jacked up price tag going along with it.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/xfx-sp...black/6495949.p?skuId=6495949&utm_source=feed

While it doesn't compute with the bigger bar better Ferengi math, I'd spend the extra $50 and gift her the 7600 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/xfx-sp...0-graphics-card-black/6545506.p?skuId=6545506

 

[Shmee]

Ah yes, I had forgotten about considering Arc cards. However, if I were to buy a new GPU at this time, it would likely want to be using an x8 link or greater, as she currently has a PCIe gen 3 board. I think this might cause issues for the 7600 with an x4 link? One option over the 7600 would be to try to find a 6700XT for around that price, less than $300 should be doable.

At the moment though, it looks like the more urgent matter is more SSD space. She is starting to run out of room, particularly on her SSD. So the birthday gift will probably be an MX500, either 1TB or 2TB. She has said that the space is more pressing issue, and that the Fury is currently doing well enough.

 

[static shock]

Buy an used RX6800. Certify the former owner didn't try to modify and overclock the card.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

if I were to buy a new GPU at this time, it would likely want to be using an x8 link or greater, as she currently has a PCIe gen 3 board. I think this might cause issues for the 7600 with an x4 link?

The RX 7600 uses 8 lanes. IIRC only the 6500 is limited to 4 lanes.
Though considering how 8GB is getting short nowadays even for 1080p in many games, I would too try to find 6700XT 12GB or the 6750 GRE 10GB.

Or if Nvidia is an option, I would consider the RTX 3060 12GB. Performance is significantly lower than the 6700XT, but it's becoming quite the future proof card thanks to the 12GB VRAM and you can sometimes find very cheap refurbished models.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I think this is RAD for the price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/176639156559

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I would not spend my own money on old mining cards. Especially the ones that could have been through multiple booms. Nor do I recommend it to others in the U.S.. A fair number of those remanufactured Polaris cards that were used for mining, the ones that are so proliferate on marketplaces, are failing months after purchase.

Tech tubers test them for a few days tops then put them away. Use it to game, including those all day sessions with friends on weekends and get back to us in 6 months. If the card lasts that long.

 

[Shmee]

No GPU upgrade for the time being, though I did clone her OS drive to a 2TB SSD. I put the old 500GB SSD in her laptop, which I cloned over from it's HDD.

 

[Seba]

Now you have to put that HDD in an external enclosure to complete the reusing components path.

 

[igor_kavinski]

No component left behind to rust away!