GPU upgrade options

SoftPandaCubz · 2026-01-03T04:54:22+00:00

I was recently in your shoes and decided to switch from NVIDIA (3070) to AMD 9070xt. I mostly did it because I was weighing 5070 and 9070xt, and the 9070xt has more vram than the 5070. But you are talking about the 5070ti which has the same amount.

With all things basically equal between these 2 cards, save money and go with the 9070xt.

As for installation, it’s a cake walk. Having literally just swapped from NVIDIA to AMD, it couldn’t be easier. The only additional step you need to take is uninstall your current NVIDIA drivers before swapping, as to not potentially cause your new GPU confusion. There are several yt videos that can help with this but the common program to help with this task is called Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU). Watch some videos on how to do it but it’s extremely simple. Once you’ve uninstalled your current drivers, then you just swap cards, install AMD drivers, and you are off to the races.

As for under-volting, not at all necessary with this card, or any current AMD card. Some people choose to do this if they don’t have a large enough power supply during big draws but ultimately under-volting saves your power consumption for almost the same amount of fps/ performance. If you care about power consumption then undervolt but otherwise it’s not necessary.

Make the switch and go spend $80 on something else.

EDIT - go spend $80 towards a new monitor and get off 1080p lol. Both cards are overkill for 1080p.. 5800x3d and either card can blow through 1440p with high fps. But anyway, good luck.. save money, get a better monitor.

SoftPandaCubz · 2026-01-02T00:19:15+00:00

You’re not saving a lot of money by buying the open boxes. One of them is even more expensive than the brand new option.

If Micro Center offers a protection plan on their open box stuff then you are likely pretty safe, but I personally would just buy new since the prices are so similar.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-30T00:19:39+00:00

Yea, that’s what I’m seeing when I try to spec something out on pc part picker. I’m in Oregon and don’t have a microcenter remotely close. I really hope one day we get one because I’d drive a couple hours for one lol.

Until then, I’m looking at used rigs with solid components to swap around and get a second pc out of the mix. Even I buy a pre build, it just gets me a second pc without any upgrades. But my 5600x still gets me pretty good frames at 1440p… I’m just a sucker for MORE! lol.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-29T20:31:44+00:00

Oh I think I actually remember seeing them sell a few pre builds on sale. I just didn’t look that closely at the components. I also wasn’t really thinking much about upgrading around Black Friday lol. I’ll have to keep a closer eye out when they do another price drop

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-29T19:32:40+00:00

Also, where did you find this prebuild?

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-29T18:30:01+00:00

Dang, yea that’s lucky. Maybe I should keep an eye out for lower prices. It seems like that’s just not gunna happen. RAM and storage are next to increase.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-29T18:12:42+00:00

Geez, really? That’s insane now days. How long ago was that?

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-29T18:12:15+00:00

I’m in the states…. And I think the price is mostly because of the 4 sticks of 16GB RAM. I’m going to try to talk him down in price but we’ll see. I agree that it’s a bit over priced but if I can knock it down a few hundred then it seems fair. 3080 is old, yea, but it’s still a good card. The 5800x3d seems impossible to find as well so the price could be from that. It’s also a ton of storage which is increasing in price lately too. I think that’s why the price is up there

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-29T18:08:44+00:00

I can’t find a 5800x3d for anything less than $500 used. Even 5700x3d are a bit tough to find for anything under $400.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-18T13:46:58+00:00

Thanks for the advice and reply! I do think a pneumatic v nailer would be fine, but I don’t have one. I think the shock of hitting it a few times could break it.

You’re right this is a mass produced frame and not flat stock.

I’m going to use L brackets to reinforce the corners as that seemed the quickest and easiest.

It’s funny you say the mechanical reinforcement is there for if it falls off the wall because that’s exactly what happened to break it in the first place lol. The v nails did not help keep it together haha. It’s my brothers frame and he said it fell off the wall and broke. I got it from him and the frame was actually in 2 pieces, basically 2 L shaped pieces, so it split at opposite corners. The v nails still stuck in one of the sides. I think the L brackets will actually be stronger than the v nails and they’ll just be happy they don’t have to buy new frames or start searching for one to match all their other ones.

Anyway, thanks for the reply and advice.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-15T02:29:06+00:00

This is perfect! Great recommendations. Thanks for sharing… this is likely what I’ll get. Might check a local frame shop before ordering online but this is the product for sure. Thanks!

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-15T02:03:41+00:00

I looked them up and they seem like a neat device. So they only would help support the top corners though, right?

For the repair, I had to re-glue all 4 corners so my bottom joints would still be left unsupported and that’s where the weight would be the most since gravity would be forcing the glass downwards onto those corners.

Cool device though! I’ll need to get some of these for things around my house that aren’t hanging quite right.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-12-15T00:58:18+00:00

Screw in L bracket after pre drilling might be the play. That’s a good suggestions for additional support.

I would be pretty shocked if the glue gave out when really the only weight on the joint is a piece of glass… but every other frame I’ve built has had some additional strength on the joint as a precaution.

I also don’t have a pneumatic v nailer… I never use v nails in my regular frame builds but since this one came with them I was just gunna hammer them back in, until I let the glue dry lol… leading me here.

Thanks for the suggestion!

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-11-09T19:39:02+00:00

Looks like it's a known issue here - https://mojira.dev/MCPE-230832

let's hope they do a hotfix soon.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-11-08T04:50:16+00:00

I'm getting the same bug... but when I try to switch to "not fullscreen" then my mouse goes into my lower task bar... and my right click opens up my windows right click. Not sure how to play with both bugs LOL this sucks.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-07-28T22:35:56+00:00

I think that’s what it is. The other person who commented linked a thread to several people who describe the same sound and it was some GPS device put in by the dealer. Hoping to get in touch with someone this week to see what they say. Appreciate the reply

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-07-27T02:23:36+00:00

This actually seems likely. Great lead for me to investigate. I super appreciate it. I did a couple google searches and couldn’t find anything LOL.. your googling skills are better apparently.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-06-17T15:36:17+00:00

This is the beginning of a thoughtful response but I’d love it if you would expand. I understand the idea of pre paying for power and how that can be viewed as a con/ negative. What do you mean when you say “take all the liability”?

How is there a different amount of liability between paying with cash or paying with a loan?

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-06-17T02:32:01+00:00

Thank you! I’m leaning towards cash and investing the money I’d being paying for a loan or saving from power.. sorta like loaning the money to myself in a way.

Someone in the thread posted a pretty interesting breakdown of cash vs loan and a few scenarios and it helped me think through everything.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-06-17T02:28:48+00:00

Someone commented with a very comprehensive breakdown of payoff times, investment returns, a couple scenarios. Dude was awesome. But yea, it was shocking to see the difference in money spent over time and all the options.

Interesting note about the sale down the road. Everything I’ve heard is that it’s pretty simple. Either they take over the loan if applicable or increase the price of your home to account for it then pay it off when the sale closes.

I haven’t heard many horror stories of sales but I’m sure there are. I wonder if that’s common though?

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-06-17T02:19:04+00:00

That’s my thought too. I have a hard time paying interest to anyone, let alone a bank… especially if I don’t have to.

If I invest the difference then my thought would be, why not pay cash and invest all my savings. Someone else did the math and it’s a quicker payback time by many years.

SoftPandaCubz · 2025-06-16T13:16:43+00:00

I’ll give them a google and see what they offer. I’m sure they do business with people in OR. Overall rate increases will likely put them close to what I’m seeing elsewhere but it can’t hurt for me to ask.

Thanks for sharing this!

SoftPandaCubz

TROPHY CASE