I was talking to someone about upgrading and I’m wondering whether it would be worth it or not to upgrade a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super from 2019. I use two monitors so that’s another factor in what I may or may not upgrade to.
And if I do upgrade, what should I upgrade to?
Honestly, if it’s just a noise thing just use an app to lower fan speeds or depending on your case look to maximize air flow. In terms of improving performance from the RTX 2070s you really can’t do much with that budget although your monitor demands are not high so your current GPU is capable enough if you play around with settings. You can look at sites like TPU, Techspot, Toms hardware, logical increments that offer hierarchy of GPU performance (especially Toms) and then scour used markets for GPUs that offer a worthwhile upgrade to the RTX 2070s (at least 30% in performance) and match that budget. You can also hope the new intel GPUs shake up the market in terms of performance and grab one but without seeing independent test performance I can’t recommend one now.
It’s mostly a noise thing. I guess I can always tune it out.
I guess I’ll have to save up a little bit more then. Is NVIDIA RTX 4070 good right now?
Thank you!
I always urge people to wait till tax return time to heavily invest in new parts.
it’s a very good card. probably close to the limit at what your CPU can feed without holding back performance. For rasterization it can run any game at 1080p 60fps even with RT and run WoW on Ultra settings and high FPS on 1440p & high refresh monitors. That said it’s still kind of pricey and the RTX 5xxx top cards are coming out soon. Nvidia is “leaking” performance rumors through their usual channels and there should even be more information on them in january so hopefully we see price drops on higher end RTX 4XXX this winter for cards like the RTX 4070.
i have to pay each year
but in that case its also better to wait until you pay before making a bigger purchase
Pull up Task Manager and keep it up on your 2nd monitor. Click on the Performance tab and click on your GPU, so you can monitor your GPU utilization easily. Then just play WoW for a while. Any time your GPU usage hits 100%, it’s holding you back. Your GPU usage will be most likely to hit 100% while doing things like questing in the outdoor world but that might not necessarily be when performance matters most. Raiding and other group content will hit the CPU particularly hard. Your Resolution will be a huge factor.
By doing this, you can also see the effect that lowering in-game settings will have on your GPU utilization, to see if you would be okay with lowering some settings to hold you over for a bit. Also make sure that you’re not running out of GPU memory, as 8GB can limit you depending on the resolution that you game at.
One thing to consider is that the RTX 5000 series is scheduled to launch early next year. If you can hold out with your current card for another 6 months or so, you might be able to upgrade to something like a 5070 (actual cards that will be released have not been unveiled yet).
But if you want to upgrade now, I suggest trying to stretch your budget a bit and go for the “4070 Ti Super”. Unlike the regular 4070, 4070 Super, and 4070 Ti, the “4070 Ti Super” is actually based on the 4080, which is why it has 16GB VRam (others have 12GB), which should give it a lot more longevity.
same
if you know what the going rate is for the hardware, it’s easier to spot a deal when it comes up. Typically it’s close to when inventory is needed to be cleared out.
unless you have pressing need at this point, i’d wait. there’s stuff coming out soon which will give you more options and also shake up the pricing on existing products.
Personally, if I were you, I’d grab a 5700X3D and drop it into your motherboard (with BIOS update) for an easy in place massive upgrade to gaming.
Then get a new GPU when you have the opportunity.
5700X3D and RTX 4070 would make a good gaming build but I’d actually get a high refresh rate monitor otherwise the display is only showing 60fps. Then again, we are spending other people’s money and they may have other desires and needs.
dang, i missed the display. definitely upgrade that, i kind of figured everyone was grown out of 1080p/60 displays
Thanks to everyone for the insight! I’ve decided that, if I upgrade, it will be after finals, because it is an online class I am taking. Microsoft Word and all that.
Does anyone have any other recommendations for graphics cards?
Whatever you decide I would skip anything with less than 12GB VRAM. Ideally, in 2024/2025, a decent GPU should have 16GB.
Nvidia is notoriously skimpy on VRAM and my belief is that it is intentional as a form of planned obsolescence.
finish finals, see how the Intel battlemage GPUs impact the market. They may be the right card for you and/or they may force Nvidia & AMD to drop prices on cards that are close to the budget you previously mentioned.
as one reviewer put Nvidia’s mid range “Nvidia were attempting two things: one, to sell gamers on RTX features like ray tracing and DLSS instead of raw performance improvements, and two, to increase GPU prices overall and elevate the mid-range in response to gamers buying more expensive graphics cards”
Most notably the 4060 was a regression, and they absolutely wanted to upsell people on that model by sabotaging it.
well, like techreport used to say there is no bad PC hardware just bad prices (not universal but you get the idea) and it goes back to what the reviewer stated on Nvidia. For WoW @ 1080p 60fps and no RT the RTX4060 is more than capable. The card is about 15% faster than the RTX 3060 at 1080p in most gaming suites. Neither card will be great at 1440p in demanding games and both cards really can’t do any hardware demanding RT. From a business perspective (like the reviewer stated) Nvidia placed DLSS 3 over rasterization. AMD could have pressured Nvidia with pricing their GPUs accordingly but they decided they are fine with their low market share and higher margins. For the consumer, the real regression has been our price for performance across the board. We are paying an outrageous amount of money for add ons to GPUs that are being forced onto us. It’s why Intel offering a competitive product in the market is so important. Sure their cards do RT and they offer XeSS but when we the consumers have options, we get better price performance. When our options are limited, we get force fed cards like the RTX 4060 (fine card at $250 MSRP at launch but nuts at $300)
it feels like a regression because there’s a 33% drop in VRAM from the previous model - and if they are pushing DLSS3 frame gen, then more VRAM is even more important.
On top of that, it’s bad for optics. It never looks good to have less than last time.