Whats the top GPU I can pair with my i5 6500 and not bottleneck WOW
I usually pick from here:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
I look at the best performance for $ relatively to my budget.
Just as a forewarning you won’t get any of the GPUs @ MSRP though. You’re looking at paying at minimum 50% over MSRP due to the massive scalping going on.
Prices are coming down but still higher then I would pay unless you really need one.
I like this site for showing the hierarchy.
Maybe the 5x590 or 1660??
Honestly, the i5 6500 is going to be the bottleneck even if you get something like a GTX 1650 mobile.
At 1080p I’m running on a Ryzen 5000 mobile with a GTX 1650 at 60-80fps at full quality. In raids it dips to 40fps at times. I paid like a few hundred for the laptop.
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i’m running a radeon rx 6600xt with a lowly ryzen 7 2700 with 16gb ram and LFR raid feels smooth to me
i wouldn’t go lower than that class of gpu tho
Well guess im out then cuz that card is out of my budget. 
what is your current card?
you can always drop graphic settings until the game feels smooth
r9380x
Im at 5 now
ah… is it the 4gb ram version? that’s probably what is slowing things…
found this on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275285975198?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=kDP9dymcTSS&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
An R9 380x?
You might have some major obstacles upgrading. Is it a pre-build system? Your motherboard might be not be able to handle a major upgrade. Your RAM might be a big bottleneck too. You might have a power supply issue.
If you can get specific on the PSU, Motherboard and RAM it’ll go a long way here. If it is a prebuilt, you might very well be stuck with what you have.
So an 8gb card is what I need?
r9 380x is a pcie 3 x16 card so the motherboard is pretty recent… just gotta find ones that uses less than 190 watt
and yes 8gb minimum
Is it homebuilt? Or a pre-built like a dell or alienware? If you put the system together yourself there will be options. If it’s a prebuilt you will run into some problems. A lot of companies add proprietary parts and connectors that make upgrading nearly impossible.
We really need to know the exact motherboard. Depending on the variables, especially if it’s a prebuilt, the 1151 socket on his 6500 could be on a newer board, or an older board. The PSU might be completely inadequate as well.
Point is, you really need to know what MB you’re dealing with before you can say go by a particular GPU.
I built it myself for Legion so its upgradable for sure. The board is capablel of doing the i7 7700 and I am considering that as an option.
Its a Gigabyte H110M-A-CF board.
The PSU is 550 wats
I honestly don’t get any GPUs that don’t have at least 12gbs of VRAM now. I’ve played games where it maxes out the 8GB.
That’s what I needed. Pretty much any GPU on the market will fit into the PCI, so no problem there. If it’s a smaller case you might want to measure how many MM you have in between the front and back of the case. Some cards are unnecessarily large.
There will be a point where your RAM and CPU bottleneck so there’s no point throwing a 3070 in there. You won’t gain anything. I Assume you have a non-stock CPU cooler in there? The RAM will be an issue before the CPU will, so I wouldn’t go up to an i7 unless you can get one really cheap. It won’t make much of a difference.
I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t be able to add a 2060, 2070 or 5700 xt. Find what you’re comfortable paying. Your 550 watt psu shouldn’t have any trouble. As long as your PSU has an 8-pin, and it fits, you will be good to go.
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8gb ram should be ok assuming his monitor is 1080p
the only concern is the PSU. it’s over 5 years old. hopefully it’s a quality brand. i would upgrade that next
RAM isn’t as important as you think it is. My old 980 TI’s (6gb) ran neck and neck with my 1070’s (8gb) on mostly equal systems. The 980 TI had a bigger bus and that made up for the lost 2gb. It’s not so much the GPU ram but how quick the info is getting processed.
Back in the old days, they used to slap stupid amounts of ram on graphics cards just to jack up the prices. Didn’t make a bit of difference in performance because the bus was too slow, but people bought them anyways. Benchmarking was pretty non-existent back then.
I do agree about the PSU. It should be ok. I’ve gotten 10 years on a lot of power supplies. As long as it’s well vented and not OC’d it should be fine. I’d feel better if it was a 650 or 750, but that’d be overkill.
Just keep it cool. Airflow makes a lot of difference.
i’n gonna say the more video RAM the better, especially in newer games where texture sizes are bigger… even in 1080p
i’m hoping that Dragonflight wont require me to upgrade to enjoy what i’m enjoying right now
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