I've been using a GeForce GTX 1080 for about five years, but newer games are starting to cause performance problems, especially titles with ray-tracing requirements such as DOOM: The Dark Ages. I originally wanted an RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, but I can't find one anywhere, and several sellers have told me they no longer have that model. My budget is around €550, with €600 as the absolute maximum. My current system uses a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G and DDR4 memory. Since this is my first upgrade from a prebuilt PC, I'm unsure which modern GPU would be a good replacement and whether choosing a more powerful card would create compatibility or CPU bottleneck problems.
3 Answers
Your Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G will work with a modern graphics card, but it can limit frame rates in CPU-heavy games, especially at 1080p or if you're aiming for very high refresh rates. It doesn't mean you can't upgrade the GPU—just expect the card not to reach its full potential in every game. A Ryzen 7 5700X3D would be a strong later upgrade if your motherboard supports it, since it keeps you on the AM4 platform.
If you can find one for under about €550, an RX 9070 GRE would be substantially faster than the 4060 Ti. A standard RX 9070 may also fit just above your €600 limit and would be an even bigger jump. Check the exact price, power-supply requirements, and physical card size before buying.
AMD is worth considering here. Nvidia is useful if you specifically need features such as stronger ray tracing, CUDA, or DLSS, but AMD cards often provide more raw gaming performance for the money. Also keep in mind that DOOM: The Dark Ages appears to be demanding and poorly optimized in some situations, so even a new GPU may not run it perfectly without adjusting settings.
I understand that some games depend more on the CPU than others. I haven't noticed serious CPU-related problems so far, so I may upgrade the graphics card first and replace the processor later if necessary.