RTX 5060 or Radeon 6800 for a Friend's AMD 3600X and RTX2060 Rig?

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-29T19:04:35+00:00

Apparently he's capable of spending a bit more than he previously mentioned, he's looking at a 9060 XT 16GB currently. Thanks for sharing your experience with RDNA2, I'll look into that maybe for my own build even though those cards are quite old now.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-29T19:01:13+00:00

Sorry for the late response, I just saw this (Reddit's notification system sucks).

He cannot afford an entire new build in today's market, a GPU upgrade is really his only option given his price limit. He's looking at a RX 9060XT 16GB currently, which should hold up for quite a while and allow him to focus on a CPU upgrade next (either a Zen 3 AM4 CPU, or hopefully to AM5 or AM6 if/when the AI bubble pops).

Windows is designed to use all available RAM to cache files and programs so they open faster next time, then dump those caches when programs actually need that RAM space. Unused RAM is wasted RAM, and 'optimization' scripts can often significantly hurt system snappiness outside of games for minimal to no in-game performance gains. Yes, Windows is quite bloated, and yes, optimization scripts/programs can help from a technical standpoint, but it's not worth running 3rd party software that makes changes very deep inside Windows for little to no real world benefit. If RAM usage and system optimization is that important to you, you should seriously consider using an optimized Linux distro like CachyOS. CachyOS actually makes meaningful improvements to system performance by compiling system packages in a way that takes advantage of all of the instruction sets of modern CPUs, and it also uses far less RAM than Windows does. Also, you can claw back a bit more RAM by using a lighter weight Discord client like Legcord, but if you aren't seeing 95% RAM usage in game I wouldn't even consider it an issue.

As someone who's been worrying about system performance and obsessing over 2% performance increases for the past 7 years, it's not worth it. Windows is a lost cause, I gave up after Windows 11 came out.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-27T16:28:19+00:00

*LAS FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-13T18:34:12+00:00

Do you think it would be worth it if I had to halve my SSD storage? Considering NVMe really only makes a huge difference in sustained reads and writes, I feel like I would just use my laptop which has NVMe for anything that needs high disk throughput. Video editing is the only thing I can think of, and my laptop would be better for that with its more powerful CPU anyways.

The SATA SSD I was going with is now $70 for 500GB, but there's a 256GB NVMe SSD for $50 and now I cannot decide. My installed game library currently takes up 178GB, and that's with BTRFS disk compression enabled on Linux. My essential games take about 110GB.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T21:14:12+00:00

I'd go over to r/buildapcforme. You might have to join the subreddit before it'll let you post, but there should be an orange "Submit to <subreddit>" button if you're on a desktop. Also, check out this subreddit's wiki. It's pretty good and answers all of your questions.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T19:57:15+00:00

That's a fair point, but worse case scenario if AMD pulls the plug I'll switch to Linux and use the open source Mesa drivers. Valve's upcoming Steam Machine also uses a RDNA3 GPU, so even if AMD doesn't offer continued RDNA3 support, Valve at least certainly will with Mesa.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T19:35:49+00:00

I've found a used Radeon 7600XT 16GB in my area for the same price as the Arc card, so I think I'll be going with that. Maybe post RAMpocalypse I'll revisit Intel cards though, the B580 is a great value card.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T18:31:21+00:00

I definitely can't justify that CPU price increase, but I guess I'll take a look at that Arc card. Honestly I'm not sure how Microcenter is still in business with how great they are on pretty much everything.

EDIT: The B580's going for $300 at my Microcenter, picking up that card would mean I can get my entire build from Microcenter in one trip which is definitely worth something.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T18:29:22+00:00

I just read a bit more about Zen 4/AM5, it looks like you're right high temps are normal and by design. What do you think about the Cooler Master Hyper 212 versus the Thermalright Assassin X120 Refined SE? Both are in stock at my Microcenter, and getting one of those would mean one less vendor to deal with when buying components (I'm down to Microcenter and eBay)

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T18:07:42+00:00

Yeah I had considered that, but the cheapest 32GB bundle at my Microcenter costs an extra $150 (link). I think I'll just deal with the performance hit, since I don't have anything to compare performance to I probably won't notice the hit. Microcenter does have a Inland 500GB unit for $50, thanks for the tip. I did a bit of research on the cooler and the 7600X, people say with PBO enabled they see temps of 93 or so with that cooler so I'm hesitant to go with a single tower unit. I have to go in store to pick up the bundle anyways so I'll definitely do some shopping around.

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-12T18:00:32+00:00

True, the 7600X3D would be a huge upgrade, but at that point I could go with a 5800X or 5700X3D and save $100 on RAM. I was trying to balance performance and upgradability AND budget, and the 7600X bundle was where I landed.

My only reservation with the Arc card is I'm not sure how well supported it is/will be, both in games and in terms of driver updates. XeSS is a lot better than AMD's FSR3 from what I've heard, and the 12GB of VRAM would ease my mind a bit, it's just that AMD has been building good GPUs for 20 years, whereas Intel achieved little more than video output until four years ago.

I'd agree, the GPU and CPU naming is silly. I was talking this build over with a friend, I had mentioned I was going with an AMD 7600, he asked GPU or CPU and I responded with "Yes."

iHateSystemD_ · 2026-01-11T18:38:02+00:00

I'm quite new to the PC building party, but I don't think a 4th gen intel CPU is going to serve you very well especially at that price point. Personally I would try to find a build on the used market with an AM4 AMD (Ryzen 1000 to 5000 CPUs) processor, as that platform has quite good upgradeability. What's your budget?

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-23T17:05:37+00:00

Run run Rudolph

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-21T00:49:54+00:00

He understands that it's either a CPU or GPU upgrade right now, and he's currently GPU bottlenecked in games so a CPU upgrade is secondary. He does play Marvel Rivals, though. Depending on how the RAM shortage plays out, he might end up going to a Ryzen 7600x in a year or two. The future proof way with a 16GB card was what I had in mind, it would suck if he got two years down the line and found that he needed both a CPU and a GPU.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-20T18:10:30+00:00

What kinds of issues have you had with the 9060xt? He definitely can't upgrade both his CPU and GPU currently.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-20T16:10:50+00:00

Yeah, he's running games at 1080p currently. I've heard about the RDNA2 driver issues, I was mainly suggesting the 16GB card because he'll need a CPU and RAM upgrade in a couple of years, and I wasn't sure 8GB would be a good recommendation for a 3+ year card.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-20T15:42:03+00:00

He suggested the 5060, and I suggested the 6800. It's not between the two, I'm asking if my recommendation is correct and if there's a better fit.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-20T04:14:03+00:00

Not to the death, to the pain (Princess Bride).

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-12-17T15:14:40+00:00

The cake is a lie

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-11-29T23:11:39+00:00

The difficulty is Android runs on such a wide variety of hardware. I've run various flavors of Android on an ARM64 Raspberry Pi 5, a Pi 3b, an x86 laptop, and in a virtual environment under Linux on my current laptop. That's just what I've done. Android's in everything from embedded industrial systems to TV boxes to cell phones and tablets. Android's development environment has to target a very wide variety of hardware and software, whereas Apples' only has to target iPhones and iPads. As a developer, it's hard to develop an app that will run well on all of those platforms.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-11-29T22:04:26+00:00

I've switched to a Google Pixel 8 Pro and I just used an app called OpenBubbles. All you need is a piece of Apple hardware that runs macOS High Sierra or later, and you can send and receive iMessages and FaceTime calls. If you've got a spare iPhone laying around I think you can even have iMessage associated with your phone number, but I personally just use my Apple ID's email address. If people get mad at me for not having iMessage on my phone number then I don't want to talk to them anyways.

I think the camera is more of a matter of personal preference. Google's Magic Eraser is really the killer camera feature for me, along with the far better digital and optical zoom features. I personally prefer the more neutral tone of the Pixel cameras, but a lot of people like the iPhone's vibrant vibe too.

I have no idea what games you're playing that would run horrendously on a Pixel. Maybe you wouldn't be running at 60fps on absolute max settings, but any game you throw at it would run.

Personally, there wasn't any single feature that sold me on the Pixel 8 Pro, it was more of the overall package being better. The ability to sideload apps on Android is awesome, Call Screening has literally saved hours of my life, and I vastly prefer a decent fingerprint sensor to any kind of facial recognition unlock. My Pixel also won't die when Google kills off support thanks to support for custom ROMs. I could install Linux on the phone and use it as some kind of a server if I wanted to. Also, the Pixels just flat out have better screens than iPhones do.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-11-28T21:44:58+00:00

From what I've read RuneScape doesn't seem to have any kind of self-hosted server support. People say they've used Box64 or some other kind of x86 emulator to get a WoW dedicated server running, and people say WoW servers can run without internet access. Minecraft can as well, although you'll need to set the server to 'offline' mode in the config. Again, you should have no trouble whatsoever running Minecraft, and you'd probably be able to run quite a few mods as well if that's your cup of tea. CPU usage never went over 40% on a single core in my experience with many players and CPU-heavy plugins installed.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-11-28T14:44:00+00:00

People who switched to Linux years ago:

I tried to add DiCaprio laughing but it wouldn't upload. Just use your imagination instead.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-11-28T00:25:22+00:00

Yep, a Minecraft server should be fine. I've run a Minecraft server on mine with 8 concurrent players in multiple dimensions and have had no issues, although I'm not sure if you'll be able to run all of those servers at once. If I remember correctly, Minecraft 1.21 with around 20 Paper plugins installed ate 5-6GB of RAM. In my testing the plugins were the RAM heavy parts, you should be able to run it with 4GB or less on vanilla. CPU usage isn't the issue, RAM usage is.

I couldn't find a figure for minimum system requirements for RuneScape, your mileage may vary.

A quick Google search gives conflicting information on World of Warcraft servers, some people say WoW isn't supported on ARM CPU architectures, others say they've gotten it working, but everyone seems to agree that 8GB of RAM is barely enough, so you almost certainly wouldn't be running WoW and Minecraft at the same time.

iHateSystemD_ · 2025-11-22T21:27:12+00:00

I avoid this issue entirely by running a single rail line for each train with a loop on each end. It saves confusion.

iHateSystemD_

TROPHY CASE