GPU suggestions

Justcurious

Recently built a ryzen 2600x system with a aourus pro wifi b450 board, 32gb of 3000mhz ram, 240 gb SSD and running an r9 290x tri OC GPU. I'm looking to upgrade the GPU. I have been looking at the 5500 xt. What would be another option in that same sub $200 range or is the 5500xt I good option? Thanks in advance.

TheITDad

The 5500xt is a good option but with some quick benchmarking searches the gtx 1650 super may be better.  Still sub 200 but perhaps 3-5% better performance so not much but up to you really.  Look for sales because your talking only a few frames difference.

Justcurious

I've been looking at some benchmark videos on YouTube and I've seen that they are pretty close and that the Nvidia cards seem to be a bit more power efficient as well. As of late last night I've also looked into my r9 in today's market and they apparently still fair pretty good. Trying to decide now if I should keep it and upgrade ram or CPU or if I should stick with my ram and CPU and upgrade the GPU. So many decisions. Lol

TheITDad

Honestly right now I think the GPU will probably be your best upgrade.  The only cpu upgrade would be the R5 3600 and don't get me wrong thats a good cpu but the difference between the R5 3600 and the R5 2600x won't be felt as much as jumping up to a 5500xt/1650 super.  And even jumping up to 3600mhz speed ram won't yield the frame rate increase that you could get from getting a GPU upgrade.

Justcurious

Well I appreciate all your assistance. I will do some price checking on the 1650 vs 5500xt and also power draw. I know AMD is usually more power hungry, though cant be any worse than this 290x. I have a 1000 watt psu, so not too worried about having enough juice, but if i can bring the consumption down a bit, always a good thing. 

PowerSpec_MichaelB

Justcurious said:

Well I appreciate all your assistance. I will do some price checking on the 1650 vs 5500xt and also power draw. I know AMD is usually more power hungry, though cant be any worse than this 290x. I have a 1000 watt psu, so not too worried about having enough juice, but if i can bring the consumption down a bit, always a good thing. 

From my personal testing, the RX 5500 XT typically pulls around 120-140W under extreme extended loads, which conforms to the ATX specification's requirements of 75W from the slot, 75W from 6 pin ATX power. If you buy a card with an 8 pin ATX connector on it, it can technically pull 225W safely, but they will still top out around 120-140W.

As for the GTX 1650, you can find those without a 6 pin power connector that pull less than 75W from the PCIe slot, they are quite efficient. If your options are between a 1650 Super and RX 5500 XT 4GB, I would probably lean towards the 1650 Super. If you have the budget for the 8GB RX 5500 XT, it's roughly 10% faster than both options and may last a little longer with the extra VRAM as titles get more demanding in the future. Either way, both will be fine options for 1080p gaming. It's worth noting that the RX 5500 XT is currently eligible for AMD's Raise The Game 2 promotion, which includes some free games along with it: https://www.amd.com/en/gaming/raise-the-game. If that gets you extra value for your dollar, might be worth the investment.

Justcurious

I did notice they are coming with some extras right now. the 8gb 5500xt is what ive been eyeballing for $189-$199.