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What's the best graphics card thats worth getting to upgrade an older PC? (self.buildapc)

submitted 8 months ago by DrownedRats to c/buildapc

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My PC is getting on a little, it's running on an i7-4790k, 16gb ddr4, and a GTX 970. right now, it's struggling some in most games even though I don't play any triple A titles. What would be a sensible upgrade that wouldn't get totally bottlenecked by the CPU?

In most games I'm playing the CPU is pinned at around 25% while my card is maxed at 100% 3d and vmem usage so I'm fairly sure it's just my card that's the main limiting factor.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry about getting bottlenecked by the CPU. If you're using maximum capacity, you'll always be bottlenecked by something.

[–] DrownedRats 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Not that I'm worried at all, I understand you'll never get anything perfectly balanced. I'm more concerned by trying to closely match price and performance. I could buy a top of the range graphics card for £800 but it won't even sweat at the CPU desperately trying to keep up. I'd rather buy a cheaper card that's going to let me stretch my CPU without breaking the bank

I know I can get a better card that will let me better utilise my CPU and that my card is what's limiting me right now so as long as I can bridge that gap as best I can I'd be very happy

[–] PlantJam 3 points 8 months ago

I wouldn't worry too much about going overkill on the GPU. You could go for a $200-400 GPU and be in a great place for when you decide to upgrade the CPU. I wouldn't go crazy and get something like a 4090, though.