I recently started playing the new Ace Combat game, and my current graphics card struggles unless I turn the settings all the way down. Performance is smooth at low settings, but the visuals are distracting enough that I'd like to upgrade. My system has an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, a Ryzen 9 5950X, and 32GB of RAM, and the GPU is about five years old. I also upgraded to a 1200W power supply a few months ago. Is the graphics card the only component I need to replace? I'd prefer to stay well under $1,000, although I'm willing to spend more for a worthwhile upgrade.
3 Answers
I’d also recommend the RX 9070 XT. It’s currently one of the better value choices and should be a substantial improvement over the RX 6700 XT. Your Ryzen 9 5950X and 32GB of memory shouldn’t require an upgrade just for gaming at normal resolutions.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT looks like the strongest new-card option in this price range. It offers excellent performance without the same level of markup as some competing cards, and models can be found in the $700 range. Your 1200W power supply is more than enough, so the rest of your system should be fine for this upgrade.
If you specifically want Nvidia features such as its upscaling and ray-tracing ecosystem, a used RTX 4080 or RTX 4070 Ti Super could be worth considering. For straightforward rasterized gaming performance and a new card, though, the RX 9070 XT is probably the better value.
I upgraded to a 1200W power supply a couple of months ago, so power capacity should be covered. I’m also wondering whether these cards might drop in price during the next major sale.