Solved Need advice on graphics card

SlicEnDicE · Oct 10, 2025

spapakons said:
So the graphics card might, for example, render 120fps and convert that to 60fps for the monitor to display.

Technical details...but this is not how a GPU works. It does not convert nor average anything. It simply just blits out data to the screen as fast as possible except when when V-sync is enabled. It is called a swapchain. When V-sync is on, the image shown will either be the next fully rendered frame in the GPU or the previous (same frame) again until next frame is completed on the card. The GPU also try to sync the rendering of frames with the display. This saves resources on the card and gives it more time to prepare next frame and be ready to swap buffer when previous frame has been completed. If you don't enable sync, then the swapchain will be switched middle of blitting to screen and that will be visible as screen tearing in fast paced games (the previous and current frame difference is so big that it is visually noticeable because half of previous and half of next frame got rendered to screen).

spapakons · Oct 10, 2025

Nevertheless, a game "stuck" at 60fps is perfectly playable. You don't need any better graphics. If you want more performance make sure in nVidia 3D Settings you select "high performance" instead of "quality" and in the game graphics settings lower or even disable the most complex effects. Also play at 1080p, no need to play at 144-p or 4K. There is no need to have everything to high or ultra. Exaggeration is bad, as I said in my previous post. I insist it will be a WASTE OF MONEY buying any faster graphics card. Today's players value game graphics much more than gameplay and how fun is the game. Back in my day (oh, oh I sound like and old grump now...) the computer graphics were limited and developers could not impress us solely by the game graphics. The had to concentrate on gameplay and make the game really interesting to win the competition. Now they just make the game graphics as realistic as possible and they don't care for anything else. I don't know about others, but I don't like everything too realistic. Sometimes I prefer funnier cartoon like graphics like old arcade games than super duper realistic. I want to play a video game, not an interactive movie!

SlicEnDicE · Oct 10, 2025

spapakons said:
Nevertheless, a game "stuck" at 60fps is perfectly playable. You don't need any better graphics.

I fully agree for the 60fps part. Better graphics is a personal preference and there are as many opinions as there are players.

Helmut · Oct 10, 2025

You would be looking to RTX 5050, RTX 5060, RTX 5060 Ti. VRAM 8 GB or 16 GB.
That is TDP range of 130-180 watts, your current one being 120 watts. Therefore some considerations have to be made there as regards PSU and cooling.

You have obviously looked prices up anyway as regards budget.

Being limited to 60 Hz probably means you have Vsync on, whether that is On/Off depends on the game visuals, either could be best.

The place where gains are to be made in FPS is in understanding the Graphics settings of any game. Some features and their levels are essentially invisible and people waste CPU & GPU in rendering something they cannot see.

WoW is just not my style of game, however the same things apply to any game.

TairikuOkami · Oct 10, 2025

spapakons said:
Nevertheless, a game "stuck" at 60fps is perfectly playable.

I actually limit FPS to 48 (LFC), perfectly fine for any game, including COD. No lagging or stuttering at all. 30 is the noticeable limit.

spapakons · Oct 10, 2025

Just make sure there is no frame rate limit in the game graphics options or in nVidia Control Panel. To improve performance, select "high performance" instead of "quality" in nVidia Control Panel, 3D settings. Also lower some effects, especially the more complex one. Setting everything to ultra will slow down the game. Even at 25fps the game would be perfectly playable. Just think about it, PAL video is at 25fps and it doesn't lag or stutter at all. So 60fps is more than excellent.

PS: Old grumpy again... If your first graphics card is a 256KB VGA (yes, you read that right) with 320x200 resolution at 256 colors, and most games were even worse at 320x200 at 16 colors (EGA mode), then anything at least 640x480 with 16 million colors looks like a dream. You don't care for anything higher. That in layman terms is most casual online games. Appearance is not everything. Even good MS-DOS or 80's arcade games with their primitive graphics can be fun and addictive. Try playing an arcade game in MAME emulator or an MS-DOS game in DOSBOX and you will see what I mean.

One of the many arcade games I like to play, Toki:

There is also a remake for Windows with modern graphics:

Who said you need an expensive gaming computer and latest graphics card to have fun? Think again!

SlicEnDicE · Oct 10, 2025

spapakons said:
Even at 25fps the game would be perfectly playable. Just think about it, PAL video is at 25fps and it doesn't lag or stutter at all. So 60fps is more than excellent.

You're comparing apples to oranges now. A video and a game is not the same thing. Playing at 25fps is ok for a strategy game, but for something that is action packed, it isn't. Sometimes even 60 is too low. It all depends on the title.

In SC:GO you're dead before your screen has even updated the enemy, if you're playing at 60fps. There's a reason why these players try to achieve several hundreds of fps in that competitive game.

hdmi · Oct 10, 2025

Logical Increments PC Buying Guide

Helping you build a PC, at any budget.

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hdmi · Oct 10, 2025

I used to play WoW a very, very long time ago (10 hours+ per day on average) on a European PvE server. I bought the game on release day (February 11, 2005 in Europe). I also bought both The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King on release day, and I finally quit WoW for good before the 2nd half of 2009 (and never looked back).

archfoto · Oct 10, 2025

For what it is worth, I use an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, with 64GB of ram to edit 4K 60 in real time with an i9 12th Gen processor. It didn't work with only 32GB of system ram, but works way better with 64GB! And it can be had at BestBuy for $329.99. Good luck!

bobkn · Oct 10, 2025

archfoto said:
For what it is worth, I use an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, with 64GB of ram to edit 4K 60 in real time with an i9 12th Gen processor. It didn't work with only 32GB of system ram, but works way better with 64GB! And it can be had at BestBuy for $329.99. Good luck!

Useful information, but probably not relevant to a gamer.

And $330 isn't a low price for 64GB (2 X 32GB) of DDR5. I hope that it was transfer rate/low latency RAM.

Dell XPS 8950 | SSD & RAM Upgrades | crucial.com

Find compatible upgrades and system info for Dell XPS 8950. Discover RAM and SSD compatibility, slots, and max capacity.

www.crucial.com

archfoto · Oct 10, 2025

bobkn said:
Useful information, but probably not relevant to a gamer.

And $330 isn't a low price for 64GB (2 X 32GB) of DDR5. I hope that it was transfer rate/low latency RAM.

Dell XPS 8950 | SSD & RAM Upgrades | crucial.com

Find compatible upgrades and system info for Dell XPS 8950. Discover RAM and SSD compatibility, slots, and max capacity.

www.crucial.com

Hi Bobkn -
It isn't the ram that is $330 at BestBuy, but the video card is selling for that (within $500). The ram was a lot less. I don't really know anything about gaming, but this video card has worked for me, along with the ram increase to run 4K-60 video in real time for rendering and running rendered video. I originally configured the computer with 32GB DDR5, 2x 16GB, at 4400MHz, and added 2 more 16GB modules of same to get to my goal, as there were two more slots left.

spapakons · Oct 10, 2025

Also not relevant to a gamer, but as a comparison between old and new nVidia cards, my former GTX 1050 Ti could render 4K videos at 5-7fps. My new RTX 3050 can do 4K videos at 20fps+. I believe the 1660 is somewhere in the middle. So there is room for improvement but I recommend to adjust the graphics settings first before buying a new card.

bobkn · Oct 10, 2025

archfoto said:
Hi Bobkn -
It isn't the ram that is $330 at BestBuy, but the video card is selling for that (within $500). The ram was a lot less. I don't really know anything about gaming, but this video card has worked for me, along with the ram increase to run 4K-60 video in real time for rendering and running rendered video. I originally configured the computer with 32GB DDR5, 2x 16GB, at 4400MHz, and added 2 more 16GB modules of same to get to my goal, as there were two more slots left.

$330 isn't bad for a 12GB RTX 3060. But the way your post was written, you seemed to be referring to the RAM.

Using 4 slots on a DDR5 motherboard can work, but it may be problematic for those trying to use high speed RAM. If you check the QVL (qualified vendors list) for RAM for your motherboard, you'll probably see a lot more RAM qualified for 1 or 2 DIMM operation than for 4.

spapakons · Oct 10, 2025

bobkn said:
$330 isn't bad for a 12GB RTX 3060. But the way your post was written, you seemed to be referring to the RAM.

Using 4 slots on a DDR5 motherboard can work, but it may be problematic for those trying to use high speed RAM. If you check the QVL (qualified vendors list) for RAM for your motherboard, you'll probably see a lot more RAM qualified for 1 or 2 DIMM operation than for 4.

I don't know what applies to new motherboards, but as far as I know you can achieve dual channel mode with either two same speed same size modules or four same size same speed modules. I have even done it with two high capacity and two lower capacity modules. As long as all four are same speed they can still work in dual channel mode. So populating all four slots with the maximum capacity and speed you get maximum possible RAM and dual channel, so also maximum performance. If unsure stick to well known brands for best compatibility.

archfoto · Oct 10, 2025

bobkn said:
$330 isn't bad for a 12GB RTX 3060. But the way your post was written, you seemed to be referring to the RAM.

Using 4 slots on a DDR5 motherboard can work, but it may be problematic for those trying to use high speed RAM. If you check the QVL (qualified vendors list) for RAM for your motherboard, you'll probably see a lot more RAM qualified for 1 or 2 DIMM operation than for 4.

Sorry for the ram price confusion. Rereading that, it wasn't clear. I also had a budgetary limit on expenditure, and bought similar ram from Crucial, as Dell said they couldn't provide the exact same ram speed as was ordered with the computer, and wanted a lot more money, besides. I do remember that I had to struggle getting the computer to recognize the new ram and had to go thru some procedures to get that to happen. It finally recognized the new ram, after a bit of nail-biting. Hopefully, it will remain happy for the rest of its lifetime.

spapakons · Oct 10, 2025

If you don't buy a RAM kit for dual channel, as in case you have two modules and want to buy two more but the same model is not available, just make sure at least is the same speed (frequency). Not need to be the same manufacturer, just same speed. The new modules can also be of higher or lower capacity than the older ones. Motherboard will sync all modules to the lowest common clocking. I have done that many times.

archfoto · Oct 10, 2025

spapakons said:
If you don't buy a RAM kit for dual channel, as in case you have two modules and want to buy two more but the same model is not available, just make sure at least is the same speed (frequency). Not need to be the same manufacturer, just same speed. The new modules can also be of higher or lower capacity than the older ones. Motherboard will sync all modules to the lowest common clocking. I have done that many times.

The original system ram that came with the machine with 4400 MHz is still in the original slots, and new ram wasn't available in that speed, so I added 2 ram modules at 4800 MHz. I have read that the slowest ram determines the speed of all the ram. Anyway, it seems to be compatible.

bobkn · Oct 10, 2025

spapakons said:
I don't know what applies to new motherboards, but as far as I know you can achieve dual channel mode with either two same speed same size modules or four same size same speed modules. I have even done it with two high capacity and two lower capacity modules. As long as all four are same speed they can still work in dual channel mode. So populating all four slots with the maximum capacity and speed you get maximum possible RAM and dual channel, so also maximum performance. If unsure stick to well known brands for best compatibility.

The problems occur with fast RAM.

For example, I had an X570 (AMD) motherboard. I started with two DDR4 3800 DIMMs. They were from the QVL for the board, but only with 2 DIMMs.

I added two more identical DIMMs. I had to back the frequency off to 3600Hz to get stable operation.

With a Z690 board, I was automatically prevented from using XMP when I had 4 DIMMs installed.

There may be no issues when running at default speeds.

bobkn · Oct 10, 2025

archfoto said:
The original system ram that came with the machine with 4400 MHz is still in the original slots, and new ram wasn't available in that speed, so I added 2 ram modules at 4800 MHz. I have read that the slowest ram determines the speed of all the ram. Anyway, it seems to be compatible.

What does CPU-Z say about the RAM frequency?

(It reports the clock frequency, which is half the data transfer rate for all flavors of DDR.)

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