I'm reviving an older gaming rig that I lent to a friend for a year or two. I've been mostly gaming on my Macbook during that time, but I want to upgrade the graphics card to dive into some new games I've missed out on, like Arc Raiders, Bodycam, Hell Let Loose, and Stalker 2. Previously, I enjoyed playing games like RUST, PUBG, CS:GO, GTA V, SKYRIM, and FALLOUT at around 120fps on high settings. I'm searching for the best upgrade option that will allow me to maintain at least 60fps going forward. My specs include Windows 10, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, a Samsung 750 EVO 500GB SSD, an Intel Core i5-6600K running at 3.50GHz, and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM.
3 Answers
Keep in mind that if you're playing something like Escape from Tarkov, which is heavily CPU-dependent, upgrading just your GPU won’t necessarily get you to 60fps. I’ve got a 9600X paired with a 7900GRE and still dip below 100fps even at medium settings on 1080p.
Anything more modern will help out, honestly. I switched from a GTX 970 to a 6750XT and saw about a 3x performance increase! The 3060Ti is also a good option; it's similar but has 8GB of VRAM. It should handle 1080p at high settings quite well, but some newer UE5 games might require more VRAM or could struggle a bit.
I've never used AMD cards. Is there a big difference between them and Nvidia? Thanks for the info!
You might want to consider grabbing a used RTX 2070 or an AMD 5700XT. If you're looking for something more powerful, I’d suggest looking at a new platform alongside a newer GPU. That said, those options will give you a solid performance boost over the GTX 970.
I had a 1070 before and it ran like a dream! Sold it due to some financial issues though.
Thanks for the suggestions! What do you mean by needing a 'new platform'? Just curious!
That's a fair point. Maybe I shouldn’t focus only on the GPU upgrade. Thanks for the insight!