What vga to throw in this rig?

hmz

2[H]4U
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Jul 26, 2005
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I was thinking about upgrading to 10th get platform, but I got this i3 8100 rig with outdated Radeon R9 200 series vga. I haven't been playing in a long time and I really want to put some time to it.
I am thinking about..
Putting 32GB of ram
Getting a new vga that would be playable at 2560x1440 resolution (better not be power hungry due to this mATX case with limited airflow)
Maybe upgrade the cpu if needed?
 
It’s a 4 core 4 thread cpu in 2020 so midrange GPU at most. Something in the gtx1080 range maybe. Rx5600xt, RTX 2060 or 2060 super.

more ram is nice and can be carried to a new DDR4 platform so up to you.

If it were me I would upgrade the GPU for sure so do just that and see. If you have 16gb Ram now especially.
 
Well the good news is that if you do decide you want to upgrade that system you can go all the way up to 9th gen Intel CPUs and up to 8 cores and 16 threads with a i9 9900 or even the 9900K if you have a Z series board. Though you could get the 9900K with any compatible board but it will lack overclocking support kinda defeating the purpose of the K series CPU but it will work. As for a GPU for 2560x1440 gaming I'd suggest no less than a RTX 2060 Super or a RX 5700 for that resolution.
 
No need for 10th imo if you have a good board. 8700/9900 are still great CPUs. As for VGA, might want to wait for 30xx series. 1070 is a cheap stopgap until then.
 
I'd really try and find an 8700/8700K used for a reasonable price.
 
We don’t know the exact MB OP has, so without knowing I wouldn’t recommend a 9900k/9700k just because those with a Z270 MB wouldn’t hold up very well and might have stability issues in the long run (they are supported but given his CPU he probably has a cheaper board, and the phases on the MB might not hold up).

As for a GPU, with the 3000 series right around the corner from a visit, you could wait until then, but I doubt OP is going to want the high-end cards for 1440p. You could easily settle on an RTX 2070 or an AMD 5700 or 5700 XT and be very happy for a long time.
 
Without knowing the rest of your rig a RTX 2060 is a good safe option.
 
Without knowing the rest of your rig a RTX 2060 is a good safe option.

So simple yet so hard for some people. Just do this, OP. You'll notice a huge difference without breaking the bank.
 
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Limited airflow case, limit gpu tier or thermal throttling will kick your higher tier gpu to low/mid tier output.

Also I'd stick with Nvidia that has a heatpipe cooler.
Some of the 2060 come with seriously bad slabs screwed on them.
 
You could try an RX 5700 and click the "undervolt" button in the Radeon drivers. Or get an EVGA RTX 2060 KO or something.
 
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