Graphics Card Suggestions for (light) Gaming

redhed17

redhed17

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Hello, I have a PC that I am quite happy with for image editing. A few years ago I bought a basic graphics card for connecting to a new monitor, and needed Displayport which the motherboard didn't have. All works fine, and I'm happy. :) Gaming did not come into my thinking at the time.

After not playing any games on PC, (console person ;) ) I started to get into a game called Cities: Skylines. I doubled the memory to 32Gb to make the game play reasonably as it started to slow down and glitch with mods and assets. Anyway, I was watching a video on YT about the falling of graphics card prices 9for new and older) back to close to reasonable levels, and thought about upgrading my graphics card.

So, what am I after? I would like opinions on what graphics cards can be added to improve the Cities: Skylines game, but also have HDMI 2.1 for HDR content to the TV. I am not sure that my set up can take full advantage of the current generation of cards. Hopefully some people here can educate me on what is and isn't possible with my set up. I don't plan on adding anything other than a graphics card if I can get a good improvement on what I have now. I don't intend to play any other games,

Here's the spec of what I have now;
Gigabyte Z97-D3H
Intel Core i5-4690
Crucial 512Gb SSD
32Gb RAM DDR3L-1600 UDIMM (4x8Gb)
4GB Sapphire Radeon RX 550 PULSE, 14nm Polaris, 512 Streams, 1206MHz GPU, 7000MHz GDDR5, DP/HDMI/DVI-D DL (just to give as much info as possible) ;) :LOL:
Win 10 Pro

Budget depends on what options I can add to get an improvement to Cities: Skylines and HDMI 2.1 to the TV for HDR, with what I already have, and I will see what I can afford.

Thanks anyone who has got this far, and thanks to anyone who takes the thought and time to reply. :)
 
A lot will depend on the resolution you want to game at. The obvious choice is an RTX3060, which I think will give you up to 1440P gameplay. You could look at a Radeon XT6600 which will allow up to 1080P but not higher. Expect to pay around £250 for the 6600 and £300 for the 3060 if you keep your eyes open. Both should take up most of the strain of gameplay.

I have a 6600 that I've been using for a year for light image processing work that I'm considering moving on - let me know if that's of interest.
 
ancient_mariner said:
A lot will depend on the resolution you want to game at. The obvious choice is an RTX3060, which I think will give you up to 1440P gameplay. You could look at a Radeon XT6600 which will allow up to 1080P but not higher. Expect to pay around £250 for the 6600 and £300 for the 3060 if you keep your eyes open. Both should take up most of the strain of gameplay.

I have a 6600 that I've been using for a year for light image processing work that I'm considering moving on - let me know if that's of interest.
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Hi Toni, thanks for taking the time to reply. :) Atm, I am playing Cities: Skylines at 1600x900 on a 1440p monitor, and it looks OK, but not at a high frame rate, but again OK.

Whilst an increase in resolution would be nice, smoother would be nice, but a card would need to have Displayport and HDMI 2.1 ports and able to do 4k HDR. And also be able to display to both ports at the same time, as I sometimes duplicate and extend the screens, which I assume any card can do, if what I have now can do it. ;)
 
Paulie-W said:
Whatever you decide on. Pay attention to the power supply needed. And the connectors.

For what it`s worth, I`m running a 3050 (yeah I know), but low power, and does all I need it to do. C1 2020, PS CC, Steam games (Valheim, Witcher, COD etc) All run fine at 1080 and or 1440.

Click to expand...
Hi Paul, thanks for replying. I didn't even think about the power supply, :oops: :$ and potentially needing more power. I assumed my set up may not be able to use a newish GPU because of the motherboard for some reason. This is why I am trying to get some advice and information here before potentially jumping in. I think the power supply is over 10 years old, and I'm not sure about the rating of it. I don't think it would even have the connectors for a GPU that needs its own separate power lead. :thinking: It's good to ask questions. :LOL:
 
open the PC and look at the PSU. Write down the model number and i might be able to help out on what GPU you could run with it
 
You may also wish to consider the cpu. These games can often be demanding on the cpu and yours is quite an old one now. In your situation I would run monitoring software* whilst playing the game to see how much of the gpu and cpu are being used.

*MSI afterburner can display real-time % information for gpu and each core of the cpu to see where the issues are coming from and it’s free!
 
Problem is that the only CPU-only upgrade is to an i7-4790 which won't really add a huge amount. After that it's a complete CPU, mobo & RAM replacement.
 
Snapsh0t said:
Problem is that the only CPU-only upgrade is to an i7-4790 which won't really add a huge amount. After that it's a complete CPU, mobo & RAM replacement.
Click to expand...
Agree but there’s no point in buying a new gpu if the old one is already cpu limited.
 
A good little bit of software is HWiNFO64. I use it mainly for temperature monitoring, but it also has usage ratings for CPU and GPU with sticky min/max and avg readings, so easy to see if there's a bottleneck after you've played the game.

My graphics card is a GTX 1660 Super and it does a good job at 4k/2k at medium to high settings and at 1080p you can max out settings in pretty much most games. It can even do VR, but not on max settings. OC have it in stock at a reasonable price: LINK

If you want ray tracing then I believe you'll need an RTX line card. This is a good site for seeing benchmarks, it's not the ultimate indicator but handy as a rough guide: GPU Benchmarks

As mentioned, make sure your PSU has an 8-pin power connector (or two for some cards). It can sometimes be a 6+2 connector from your PSU. The less powerful graphics cards can be powered form the motherboard, but I would aim for the more powerful ones.
 
After some of the comments above, I have monitored the computer performance via Task Manager, and it seems that the CPU is virtually maxing out, and the GPU running at around 50% whilst running Cities: Skylines. Seems for the game at least, the GPU is not the problem for performance. :oops: :$ Looks like a simple GPU upgrade could have minimal benefits unfortunately. :(

Not sure I have the will or the finances to consider a major computer upgrade for CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Power Supply and possibly GPU. :( For almost everything I do the computer does what I want/need.

Thanks for all of you who have commented.
 
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redhed17 said:
After some of the comments above, I have monitored the computer performance via Task Manager, and it seems that the CPU is virtually maxing out, and the GPU running at around 50% whilst running Cities: Skylines. Seems for the game at least, the GPU is not the problem for performance. :oops: :$ Looks like a simple GPU upgrade could have minimal benefits unfortunately. :(

Not sure I have the will or the finances to consider a major computer upgrade for CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Power Supply and possibly GPU. :( For almost everything I do the computer does what I want/need.

Thanks for all of you who have commented.
Click to expand...

Saved yourself a few hundred at least, so still a win I guess. I would assume that this game will have a fair amount of algorithms etc, so would make sense to be cpu heavy. Unless just badly optimised?

Is your processor the i5-4690 or does it have a "K" at the end like i5-4690k? If so then it can be overclocked to get you some extra power.
 
JohnStewart said:
You could always look at upgrading the processor and keeping the motherboard the same. The "top spec" processor that your MB supports is the i7-4790k, which should give about 20% better performance, and more in multi core applications. https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4690/2384vs2311

You could pick up a second hand one for about £60 - £85 from Ebay.
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That's a good shout, although I'm sure that game is predominantly single core dependent (and its efficiency of the other threads is questionable apparently). Do you reckon you would see noticeable gains with the i7-4790k for this particular game? Clocking the 4790k I reckon would certainly improve the single core performance though.
 
This is snagged from my Steam acc, if it helps at all :)

  • MINIMUM:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows® 7 64 Bit | Windows® 8.1 64 Bit | Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit
    • Processor: Intel® Core™ I7 930 | AMD® FX 6350
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake)
    • DirectX: Version 9.0c
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 4 GB available space
  • RECOMMENDED:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 bit
    • Processor: Intel® Core™ I7 2700K | AMD® Ryzen 7 2700X
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 4 GB available space

© 2015-2021 and published by Paradox Interactive AB, CITIES: SKYLINES and PARADOX INTERACTIVE are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB in Europe, the U.S., and other countries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners.
 
The i5-4690 is not the 'k' version. I decided I didn't want to go near overclocking, so saved a bit of cash at the time. ;)

Somebody here was selling PC parts a few months ago, and I nearly bought their i7 processor they were selling, as it was compatible with my motherboard. :rolleyes:

I had a quick tot up last night on an online retailer, and it was looking at about £1k before refinements of getting the gear that works together the best. :oops: :$ The only things I could salvage from what I have would be the case and the hard drives. That's a lot of e-waste. :( :rolleyes: As well as being a lot of money. :LOL:

Never say never, but not at this exact moment. :(
 
Have you looked into a MB, Chip and Ram deal?
There are a few suppliers doing them.
 
Before you spend any money....this site is worth a look

www.systemrequirementslab.com

Requirements Test

Check your system requirements. Can I Run it? Test your specs and rate your gamimg PC.
www.systemrequirementslab.com www.systemrequirementslab.com

It will scan your system and compare against the minimum and recommended config for any game you select. It will advise on what to upgrade. You can also compare your GPU against a proposed upgrade.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Before you spend any money....this site is worth a look

www.systemrequirementslab.com

Requirements Test

Check your system requirements. Can I Run it? Test your specs and rate your gamimg PC.
www.systemrequirementslab.com www.systemrequirementslab.com

It will scan your system and compare against the minimum and recommended config for any game you select. It will advise on what to upgrade. You can also compare your GPU against a proposed upgrade.
Click to expand...
That`s actually pretty cool. I like it (y)
 
JonathanRyan said:
Before you spend any money....this site is worth a look

www.systemrequirementslab.com

Requirements Test

Check your system requirements. Can I Run it? Test your specs and rate your gamimg PC.
www.systemrequirementslab.com www.systemrequirementslab.com

It will scan your system and compare against the minimum and recommended config for any game you select. It will advise on what to upgrade. You can also compare your GPU against a proposed upgrade.
Click to expand...

That's a nice site. Happy with these results as well! lol


1661808819136.png
 
redhed17 said:
The i5-4690 is not the 'k' version. I decided I didn't want to go near overclocking, so saved a bit of cash at the time. ;)

Somebody here was selling PC parts a few months ago, and I nearly bought their i7 processor they were selling, as it was compatible with my motherboard. :rolleyes:

I had a quick tot up last night on an online retailer, and it was looking at about £1k before refinements of getting the gear that works together the best. :oops: :$ The only things I could salvage from what I have would be the case and the hard drives. That's a lot of e-waste. :( :rolleyes: As well as being a lot of money. :LOL:

Never say never, but not at this exact moment. :(
Click to expand...

I think from memory my current setup was less than £1k, although I did already have the graphics card but then I did buy a new case and primary storage so that somewhat offset that.

My previous processor was the i7-3770k which was a pretty epic processor at the time, but I moved to AMD this time as the Ryzen 5 5600X had good single core performance, especially for the price.
 
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