What GPU for my son's rig?

He gonna deadpan you with "But will it run Crysis?"

Hahaha as long as he NEVER learns about that curse of a game I might be able to avoid that. Im gonna have to go all illuminati on his little ass haha
 
Ive held out. I think im gonna get him a Ryzen 3100 or 3300 chip next 2 weeks or so when they drop. Im having trouble finding sapphire rx580 8gb cards. Im probably just gonna slap a 1650 super and he can play his 1080p games for the next 4 years. By that time I can toss a better card in it or build a new rig.

Microcenter has returned cards all the time some less open box than users sell here.
 
I found a VEGA 56 Red Dragon Power Color for 160 should I buy it? I will buy it right now if I get enough recommendation.
 
I found a VEGA 56 Red Dragon Power Color for 160 should I buy it? I will buy it right now if I get enough recommendation.
IMO assuming its in perfect working condition.....thats a good buy. I paid 300 and change for my vega64 and i love mine....A 56 should be nearly the same thing, especially one with good cooling.
https://www.newegg.com/powercolor-radeon-rx-vega-56-axrx-vega-56-8gbhbm2-2d2hd-oc/p/N82E16814131740 it looks like some of them have black screen issues? Hmmm so weird since i have yet EVER had a black screen happen. Is it an honest seller?
 
IMO assuming its in perfect working condition.....thats a good buy. I paid 300 and change for my vega64 and i love mine....A 56 should be nearly the same thing, especially one with good cooling.

Its from Microcenter in my local area - open box. Someone bought it brand new and probably wanted to get something faster or realized they didnt want to pay much for a GPU... who knows.

Watched hardware unboxed comparison to a 5600xt and I didnt realize just how much damn power the Vega 56 uses... Yikes! Not that worried about it but for my kid, I was looking at 3 to 4 years of usage for my kid @ 1080p 144hz (because that monitor is just laying around my house for like 2 years now doing nothing), but that power usage is high.

Steve @ HU also made a good point that they have basically abandoned the Vega stuff and are putting all their effort into the RDNA stuff which makes sense. I dont know I will keep looking. But I will keep this card on my hot list for the next 24 hours.
 
Its from Microcenter in my local area - open box. Someone bought it brand new and probably wanted to get something faster or realized they didnt want to pay much for a GPU... who knows.
oh so you good to go if it has issues?.....that sounds pretty good. :) Its at least 25% faster than the best rx590...so i cant see how you would take much of a lose re selling it if need be.
 
oh so you good to go if it has issues?.....that sounds pretty good. :) Its at least 25% faster than the best rx590...so i cant see how you would take much of a lose re selling it if need be.

That is a good point.
 
Its from Microcenter in my local area - open box. Someone bought it brand new and probably wanted to get something faster or realized they didnt want to pay much for a GPU... who knows.

Watched hardware unboxed comparison to a 5600xt and I didnt realize just how much damn power the Vega 56 uses... Yikes! Not that worried about it but for my kid, I was looking at 3 to 4 years of usage for my kid @ 1080p 144hz (because that monitor is just laying around my house for like 2 years now doing nothing), but that power usage is high.

Steve @ HU also made a good point that they have basically abandoned the Vega stuff and are putting all their effort into the RDNA stuff which makes sense. I dont know I will keep looking. But I will keep this card on my hot list for the next 24 hours.

The vega 56 has a ton of headroom to save power via undervolting. Shoot if you decide you don't want it LMK.
 
Youre gonna laugh and this is not an elitist comment either, but all I know is the ultra high end of GPUs.

I try to keep up with the low/mid range through conversation but have no direct experience. All I do is the super high end stuff like 2080ti's

I want to build my son a rig
Gonna be a 3600 and some ram blah blah

But the GPU confuses me. He wants to play Roblox, Lego Worlds, and various other steam titles etc... that is for his 6 to 7 year old age range. Minecraft etc...

I know an APU is probably the best for what he wants to do and I havent ruled it out as a way to save money, I was curious what lower end GPU is better and that can grow at least 2 years with him.

His PC is a reward for doing good in school and chores and home stuff etc... he gets to use it when he does good and doesnt get to use it when he acts bad.

Should I get just an APU - I want more cores for him though as games and stuff will perform better overall than a quad core but not against the idea totally of quad.

Whats the real difference in in the 1650 vs rx570 vs 1660 vs 1650ti vs 1050ti etc... all these low end cares are really confusing or do they all perform about the same?

What GPU would you recommend?

1080p ONLY but I am giving him one of my 144hz panels. My Asus MG248Q that uses Freesync but both amd and nvidia support freesync now.

thanks

For proper Freesync support, buy AMD. We need more information, like what power supply is in that computer? I would say picking up and RX 5700 would be the best option at 1080p, 144hz but, a 5600XT would work, as well. On my 3 computers, I am using a Vega 56 with a 64 bios flashed to it, 1080p 144hz 27 inch Freesync panel and it works very well.
 
For proper Freesync support, buy AMD. We need more information, like what power supply is in that computer? I would say picking up and RX 5700 would be the best option at 1080p, 144hz but, a 5600XT would work, as well. On my 3 computers, I am using a Vega 56 with a 64 bios flashed to it, 1080p 144hz 27 inch Freesync panel and it works very well.


gpu was snatched. I never committed because even when these came out I was hesitant and fell asleep for 2 hours. Ill.just wait and snatch the first 5700 or even rx580 or 1650 super thats on open box. No worries.
 
You don't really even need a dedicated gpu for those. My son plays lego games on a 3rd gen i3 AIO pc without problems. I would throw something like a 1650 in it. I use a 1050ti on one of my pc's and it rocks at 1080p so you have no need to over spend for those.
 
I found a VEGA 56 Red Dragon Power Color for 160 should I buy it? I will buy it right now if I get enough recommendation.

If you can buy that, DO IT! That is an incredible price and no, the power consumption is not all that significant, even after 3 to 4 years. That is one thing I would do, immediately, even though I do not need one because, that would be like buying a 2070 Super for $180. :D

gpu was snatched. I never committed because even when these came out I was hesitant and fell asleep for 2 hours. Ill.just wait and snatch the first 5700 or even rx580 or 1650 super thats on open box. No worries.

Ah crap, I did not see this until after I responded, oh well.
 
If you can buy that, DO IT! That is an incredible price and no, the power consumption is not all that significant, even after 3 to 4 years. That is one thing I would do, immediately, even though I do not need one because, that would be like buying a 2070 Super for $180. :D

Yeah I fell asleep for a short but and its snatched up. But microcenter had cards like this all the time, maybe not 56s, but good cards always going open box.
 
I think that for such games 750ti is well suited for the near future. 580 have old drivers and soon it will no longer be supported
 
I think that for such games 750ti is well suited for the near future. 580 have old drivers and soon it will no longer be supported
lol :eek: rx580 and vega are both GCN architecture and both will be supported with drivers for quite some time. Will they be getting even more optimized for existing older games? Unlikely as usual....But they will be supported for a few years to go. I have owned and used both of these...they are in fact terrific cards for the right money
 
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AMD still makes and sells Vega designed GPU's, driver support is not going away. Their newest APU has a Vega GPU even. I would not worry about driver support for at least 3 years.
 
I think that for such games 750ti is well suited for the near future. 580 have old drivers and soon it will no longer be supported

1588871283456.png


The 750ti? As in the card that launched in like 2014? They're not even on the same continent dude.
 
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I have my daughter (17) on a MSI B350m Gaming Pro with a 1600 AF in default with Oloy DDR 4 3600Mhz ( 2 x 16Gb) on XMP profile 1 = 3332Mhz / Power Color Red Dragon RX 580 8Gb on Corsair CX 650M .. I bought her a 43" Samsung 4K TV with HDMI 2.0 18Gps 4k cable and she loves it .
 
I have my daughter (17) on a MSI B350m Gaming Pro with a 1600 AF in default with Oloy DDR 4 3600Mhz ( 2 x 16Gb) on XMP profile 1 = 3332Mhz / Power Color Red Dragon RX 580 8Gb on Corsair CX 650M .. I bought her a 43" Samsung 4K TV with HDMI 2.0 18Gps 4k cable and she loves it .
good for you:) Give them kids healthy hobbies
 
I have my daughter (17) on a MSI B350m Gaming Pro with a 1600 AF in default with Oloy DDR 4 3600Mhz ( 2 x 16Gb) on XMP profile 1 = 3332Mhz / Power Color Red Dragon RX 580 8Gb on Corsair CX 650M .. I bought her a 43" Samsung 4K TV with HDMI 2.0 18Gps 4k cable and she loves it .
That was probably when 1600AF wasn't selling for $150!!! Not worth it at that price when you can get a 3600 for $20 more. Or hold out for the 3300x which seems to be a great low end gaming CPU for $120. Does she game at all? What kind of input lag does the TV have? I have a 4k curved samsung and input lag is horrible if not in game mode, but still noticeable in game mode.... in minecraft, can't imagine how bad it'd be with a real FPS.
 
Get him an old high end Pentium 1 with an early days GPU and soundcard. ISA, PCI, serial, etc. Give him some FreeDOS, Windows 98, Linux. Let him experiment with a more simple machine that gets him closer access to the metal.

He's a kid, so he doesn't know what AAA is yet. Let him have the full PC upgrade experience.

Games are a test of computational power, not the actual end-goal of human technology, but he won't know what he has unless he sees the ultimate foundation and history of computing first hand.
 
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That was probably when 1600AF wasn't selling for $150!!! Not worth it at that price when you can get a 3600 for $20 more. Or hold out for the 3300x which seems to be a great low end gaming CPU for $120. Does she game at all? What kind of input lag does the TV have? I have a 4k curved samsung and input lag is horrible if not in game mode, but still noticeable in game mode.... in minecraft, can't imagine how bad it'd be with a real FPS.

I got the 1600 AF early for $85 .. She does play games as she has a Xbox 1 S also and she was playing Sims on the PC and I think BF 1 she has on PC also ..but she's only been up and running for 2 weeks with PC and all I heard from her was about the fan profile on RX 580 was ramping to high and used AB to make a quite one as Sims really made it spin up .. other than that noting said.
 
Yeah, I imagined you didn't pick one up @ $150... Don't know who in their right mind would. Glad to hear, and food to know no she knows what a fan profile is, lol. My daughter(s) plays Minecraft a little bit of Sims and they both have RX 560's that work ok. My son has an RX 570 and it runs most everything pretty good (1080).
 
Ive been looking high and low for a good used 580 but.... I found a open box Powercolor 5600xt red dragon for 231 at Microcenter. I got a little more gpu than he needs because I do not want to get another gpu for at least 3 or 4 years and he will stay at 1080p the whole time anyways.
 
Ive been looking high and low for a good used 580 but.... I found a open box Powercolor 5600xt red dragon for 231 at Microcenter. I got a little more gpu than he needs because I do not want to get another gpu for at least 3 or 4 years and he will stay at 1080p the whole time anyways.
shoot man i think you did pretty well. That card should be fairly even performance to my vega64 or a vanilla 5700. 231 and its returnable via local if issues come up...thats a decent buy
 
Get him an old high end Pentium 1 with an early days GPU and soundcard. ISA, PCI, serial, etc. Give him some FreeDOS, Windows 98, Linux. Let him experiment with a more simple machine that gets him closer access to the metal.

He's a kid, so he doesn't know what AAA is yet. Let him have the full PC upgrade experience.

Games are a test of computational power, not the actual end-goal of human technology, but he won't know what he has unless he sees the ultimate foundation and history of computing first hand.

Its a shame because I had all that stuff up until last year and got rid of all of it. Im an anti hoarder per se.
 
Man it gets better
Got a 5600xt for 231

B450 Gigabyte matx refurb for 30 bucks

Brand new 3600 non x for 159.00

256gb Inland Premium nVME for 44

Kick ass rig for my kids next 3 to 4 years. 400 dollars basically.
 
Man it gets better
Got a 5600xt for 231

B450 Gigabyte matx refurb for 30 bucks

Brand new 3600 non x for 159.00

256gb Inland Premium nVME for 44

Kick ass rig for my kids next 3 to 4 years. 400 dollars basically.
If kids only knew! Sounds like a pretty solid build :) Dang thing even outperforms my current rig in some areas:eek:
 
If kids only knew! Sounds like a pretty solid build :) Dang thing even outperforms my current rig in some areas:eek:

Yeah tell me about it. Well I plan on using it some off and on over remote desktop to churn out some video conversions when I dont want to use the power hog 3960x.
 
the rx570/580 (8GB) is a decent choice....i really loved mine when i had it. If you could score a used one with warranty for about a hundred or so would be nice.
so much this but make sure the kiddo can play mad city on 10 graphics
 
2060 KO of course, got to play that RTX Minecraft. That should last 2 years or more and take advantage of new tech being used in tomorrow games. Less time you will have to waste with drivers hopefully vs AMD card.
yooo thats what i'm getting :)
 
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I slap builds like this together for my buddies kids.
Keeps my hand on gear.
Problem is managing expectations, the list cited is common for kids 5-12.
I saw kids over the past couple years throwing each other their gamer tags instead of meeting up at a 7-11.
The cool kids all get on Discord now.

Either way there is the graphics quality camp, and the FPS camp.
It’s an opportunity to teach a kid how to setup various games so they run on the build they have.
APU is ok to start, I find them underwhelming.
460/560 / 1050 are bare minimum so they can get into Fortnite & GTA in their tween years.
They seem to get stuck there before Cod, BF, Pubg, Apex.

minecraft seems t9 be something that spans 5-12, I think anyone planning an rtx build for that is insane and overcompensating.
 
Both kids play 1080/60, very respectable settings in most titles (R6 and Monsterhunter mostly), using bios modded (undervolted) 8gb RX480s. Many to be had under 100 from the usual sources. There was a flood of these when crypto crashed.
 
Man it gets better
Got a 5600xt for 231

B450 Gigabyte matx refurb for 30 bucks

Brand new 3600 non x for 159.00

256gb Inland Premium nVME for 44

Kick ass rig for my kids next 3 to 4 years. 400 dollars basically.

Lucky kid! That system should last a good long while!
 
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