NightReaver
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How much do used 2060s go for nowadays? I've seen 1080tis around $200 or less.
*Edit* right now in fs/ft there's both a 1080 (non ti) and 5700xt for under $200 shipped.
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Video Card for Minecraft
- Thread starter jfnirvana292
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*Edit* right now in fs/ft there's both a 1080 (non ti) and 5700xt for under $200 shipped.
mvmiller12
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5700XT is a really nice card, especially at that price.
NightReaver
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Yup, pretty much give and take vs the 1080ti. Both would smoke a 2060. Sure, you can get the 2060 for RTX, but idk if I'd trade that much raw performance for relatively low ray tracing performance.
applegrcoug
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Are you playing bedrock (minecraft for windows) or the java version? If memory serves, you now get access to both versions............I think anyway.
GoldenTiger
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Minecraft supports dlss too
for a 2060.jfnirvana292
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Sooo I have a 1660 in my pc that I could give him and I would give me an opportunity to upgrade my pc. So that is an option if that will be enough for shaders?
He plays both bedrock and Java.
He plays both bedrock and Java.
jfnirvana292
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Also used or open box is fine. He wont notice a difference lol
NightReaver
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Eh, test it out on your PC. See how it plays.
pendragon1
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yeah that^^. if you have the card, try it.
Sir Beregond
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I agree that GTX 1660 > RX 6500XT. RTX 2060 or a 2060 Super would be better than both.
Try it out and see if it meets your needs.
No for sure, you are right. Once you enter the used market the price barrier comes down considerably. If price is the only consideration I am sure that he can get something better than the 2060 for the price of a new 1660.
That said, the main reason I suggested a 2060 is because it has hardware-level ray tracing and the OP mentioned that the son's PSU is 500W. Honestly, he could probably get away with a better GPU than this but without knowing details such as the quality/age of the PSU I stuck with recommending a GPU that fits within the 500W PSU manufacturer recommendation. Technically, the 3050 has more modern ray-tracing support than the 2060 but I am yet to find one that recommends anything less than a 550W PSU (I mean, it would probably be OK, but I am deliberately being extremely conservative in my suggestion).
Sir Beregond
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Yep, ultimately if you don't care about RT, then I'd say get the used 1080 Ti. PErformance equivalent roughly to that of a 2080/2080 Super if I recall.
jfnirvana292
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Here’s the power supply, it’s actually 550watts. Prob not going to make a difference.
PC Power & Cooling Fatal1ty Gaming Series 550 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply
I am guessing that this is an old PSU then? I mean, I haven't heard the name Jonathan Wendel (Fatal1ty) in probably like 15 years.
I would love to recommend you a used RTX 3050 for your son's PC as it has the more advanced ray-tracing support, but I just don't know given that PSU. Between the supply being old and the possible power spikes that can come from the Ampere GPU's it might be best to stick with the RTX 2060. It might be worth it to ask this question in the PSU subforum: exactly what are the limitations of your PSU and what GPU can it safely handle? I know that PC Power & Cooling used to be a reputable brand but this was back in 2004 when I was on these forums. PSU's have changed a lot in the last decade and what used to be really great (eg. Shuttle PSU's) have not necessarily kept up with the technology of today and the major players that are now in the market making PSU's. I just think that it is worth it to be a little extra careful when it comes to using really old power supplies in new builds. I would hate for it to fail because of the advice that I am giving you and the GPU that you select.
mvmiller12
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5700XT would be a better buy, IMHO - Performance is on par and it's a much newer card that is much more likely to receive meaningful driver updates for longer than the 1080Ti.
jfnirvana292
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The price keeps creeping up on his “upgrade” so I was hoping not to need a new psu. It was purchased in 2012 so it’s 10 years old. Time flies! Do you think it’s absolutely necessary? Or could I squeak by for now?
jfnirvana292
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How would that compare to the 2060?
NightReaver
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Smokes it in everything non-ray tracing. It trades blows with a 1080ti, but newer.
Sir Beregond
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Good point, I agree.
OutOfPhase
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I play this with many littles and sometimes some bigs every day, and uncharacteristically -
We like vanilla, no shaders or ray tracing.
Sure, not what was asked, and all that - but given all the tradeoffs, the core game is still super fun and can run on a potato. There's some magic to me playing on my PC, a little using an iPad from the late Cretaceous period - and we see the same stuff, the game is really the same.
Whatever floats your boat of course. But I keep liking the old style. Yes, I'm old. But the kids like it too, because that is what they think of as "minecraft".
We like vanilla, no shaders or ray tracing.
Sure, not what was asked, and all that - but given all the tradeoffs, the core game is still super fun and can run on a potato. There's some magic to me playing on my PC, a little using an iPad from the late Cretaceous period - and we see the same stuff, the game is really the same.
Whatever floats your boat of course. But I keep liking the old style. Yes, I'm old. But the kids like it too, because that is what they think of as "minecraft".
There is actually a thread in the PSU subforum that already asks a question that is similar to your situation:
https://hardforum.com/threads/is-using-10-years-old-power-supplies-a-concern.1940737/
Please read it for yourself, but it looks to me like the general consensus is that if your 10 year old PSU was a high quality unit at the time and has good quality capacitors, and that it has been in a case with good cooling over its lifespan, that its performance could hold up quite well in 2023 (this isn't what I had thought originally). I know that PC Power & Cooling used to be some of the best PSU's out there but apparently they were bought out at some point and now they are just OK. I am not sure what side of that line your's falls on but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to run out and buy a new one. Maybe you will interpret the posts differently, but after reading this thread I would probably now lean in the direction of saying that you should be OK with a RTX 2060 and that 10 yr old 550W PSU, provided that your PSU still works well and that it has had good airflow over its lifespan. It also helps that you are going to be using a 65W CPU (which it sounds like you are). You are leaving yourself some headroom in terms of PSU utilization. I will PM some of the veteran members from the PSU subforum and see if they can chime in on this thread just to be absolutely sure.
So yeah, I guess my recommendations for you are as follows:
1. Keep your PC Power and Cooling PSU (provided that it still works fine and has been in a well-cooled case over its lifespan)
2. Pick up a used RTX 2060. A quick search on Ebay shows me that used RTX 2060's sell for the same price or less than new GTX 1660's (which is what you were originally going to buy). I particularly recommend the 2060 because it is going to have good ray-tracing support, which is the whole point of your upgrade (it seems to defeat the point of this upgrade to buy a GPU that either doesn't support ray-tracing or has poor support).
3. Go with whatever (65W) CPU and RAM you decide. I recommended that you look at an i3-12100 over the i3-9100 for upgradeability, but if price is going to be an issue than the i3-9100 is still reasonably modern (at least for gaming) and shouldn't be a significant bottleneck for the 2060, in my view.
Let's just see if I can get any of the PSU folks to comment here. Pending any further feedback regarding the PSU, I feel fairly confident in these recommendations and I hope that this is helpful to you.
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NightReaver
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Not really. If they're happy with shaders (try em first and compare to RTX, also depends on if you're playing bedrock/java), then you can get significantly more raw horsepower for literally everything else but ray tracing for the same cost or maybe less.
OK, that is a fair point, and it does look like the 5700XT sells for a similar price used to that of the RTX 2060.
That being said, the 5700XT recommends a 600W PSU which is even higher than the RTX 2060's recommendations for a 500W. Do you really think that a 5700XT can be safely run on a 10 year old PSU that doesn't meet the minimum recommended specs? (I am legitimately asking this question because I don't know). Given the information that I have right now, I still think that the RTX 2060 is the safest sweet-spot that balances budget, and performance (no PSU upgrade) and it comes with the added benefit of good hardware ray-tracing support.
NightReaver
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Huh, don't remember the 5700xt being such a power hog, but looking at these links:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2060-ray-tracing-turing,5960-8.html
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx_5700-rx_5700_xt,6216-5.html
a 5700xt seems to pull around 60w more during gaming. That would be something to factor in, yeah. Especially if the 500w psu even has the correct connectors for a 5700xt. I still don't think it'd actually tap out a 500w psu though, especially if the cpu is a lower power model.
jfnirvana292
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Ordered a refurbished 2060 for $230 plus tax.
jfnirvana292
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What kind of connector is required for the 2060? Looks like the 2060 uses 8 pin based on documentation. Hoping that my old psu has the right ones.
Edit: my old radeon looks like it’s using 6 pins but has 2 extra pins on the cable and would work?
Edit 2: would a psu such as this one in the screen shot be better than what I have or is it ok to run the old one until it dies without risking damaging the system etc?
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Yes, the RTX 2060 uses an 8-pin connector and yes, the 6+2 pin connectors on your existing 550W PSU will work fine for that connection.
If you are worried about this 10 year old PSU failing and you can afford a new one, then please feel free to buy a new one. That said, if it were me and if I was on a tight budget, I would probably feel comfortable using the 10 year old 550W with the 2060 and a 65W CPU knowing that my PSU was well-cared for and in a case with good airflow. There is always a higher risk of older components failing, so to each their own, but I don't see how the components that you are planning to use will exacerbate the risk of failure as you should be staying well within the limits of the PSU. It had sounded like you were on a very tight budget and that we were pushing your budget even recommending you to buy a used RTX 2060 and so I deliberately recommended you components that avoided the need to buy a new PSU.
If I had known that you were OK with upgrading your PSU I would have deferred to NightReaver's recommendation and recommended you get the RX 5700XT as it appears to be better value (used) than the 2060.
jfnirvana292
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Im on a very tight budget so the psu is only if absolutely necessary. Like using an old psu will fry the pc type of issue. So I’ll be using it. Thanks!
jfnirvana292
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jfnirvana292
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Honestly, that is great experience for him. Good on you for getting him involved with this at an early age. I got into hardware when I was in high school and I had a real struggle with the learning curve because there was nobody in my family that knew anything about computers. I had to teach myself the hard way and this site became a second home for me for several years back in 2004-2006. I always remember teens/kids that were 3-4 years younger than me posting here that knew so much about computers and it usually was because their parents had them working with hardware as young kids. Kids pick things up so easily and quickly, when you're adult and you have to learn these things from the ground up it is actually kind of scary and is just so much easier to live in the bliss of computer illiteracy and not delve into the technical aspects of computing.
jfnirvana292
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Thanks, he seems very interested in it so I’m trying my best to give him the best exposure as possible.