I've got a 2060 gpu in my desktop and I want to upgrade to atleast a 3060. I've been using pc partpicker to check compatibility. Is there anything else I need to check before I buy a new card? Like I've got a Asus B560-plus motherboard and it seems that the 3060 card is compatible. Anybody got advice on any other sites or software to check so I don't fuck it up? I've replaced most things on my pc except gpu and motherboard.

Nah, you should be fine. The only other real consideration would be power supply requirements. If you're already running a 2060, a 3060 should be fine.

Good to know, thanks!

Any tool is just going to blindly read the TDP, add up the TDPs, then add some wiggle room to say if it's ok or not. The 2060 has a 160w tdp, the 3060 has a 170 watt. You'll probably be fine unless you were really skimping before. Neither are particularly high power draw cards.

That said the 30 series has a reputation for really high transient spikes of power. Those spikes can easily exceed 200% of the normal power draw. If you have a high quality power supply it shouldn't be an issue. But if you skimped on the wattage and quality that could be an issue.

But if you're worried if a GPU is compatible with your motherboard then don't. PCIe is backwards and forwards compatible. Unless you're trying to run a 5090 on the first pcie board you shouldn't have any issues. And even if you did PCIe version compatibility probably aint it. It's probably only power.

While your question has already been answered, i would like to add

Pcie is very compatible, its both backwards and forewards compatible (sure it wont be as fast but it will work)

Pretty sure you should be able to do something like takeing a rtx 5090 and a dremmel and puting it in a gen 1 pcie x1 slot

(Wether you cut the back of the x1 slot or cut the rtx 5090 is up for reader interpritation)

You'd be making a mistake upgrading to a GPU that is already over 5 years old. Have you considered a 9060 XT 16GB? They are listed for about the same price as 3060, are way faster than a 3060, and are current generation. They are also 160W TDP, exactly the same as 2060.

Physical dimensions? Some of these cards are pretty long and/or pretty tall. I've run into space constraints in smaller cases. Different manufacturers have different layouts, so that's a specific card check.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/ has physical dimensions in the details, but not on the main table.

Worth checking bottleneck calculators whenever doing upgrade of CPU or GPU. Apart from that, nothing huge going on. Maybe confirming your PSU has the required wattage and plugs too if it's a significant GPU upgrade.

Also I tend to skip a Gen or two. Bang for buck, I imagine not seeing much difference in a 20xx to 30xx and would just keep saving to 40xx.

No prob! Happy building!

Power Connectors, that's the main bit...bit me in the ass on my last upgrade... I went from an RTX2070 to an AMD RX9070XT....went from a 6 and 8 to 3 8-pin connectors... Power Supply didn't have an option... so new power supply to go with my new video card. :)

Buy a used 5090 off amazon. Buy 5090 off ebay that is being sold as "for parts not working". Recieve 5090 from amazon, unpack it. Repack the broken 5090 as the amazon 5090 and request a return with amazon. Return broken 5090, keep working 5090, get gift card from amazon for price of working 5090. Buy new mobo, 9950x3d cpu, 4qty gskill 24gb 8000 sticks for 96gb 8000 of total ram, 4tb ssd. Orrrrrr do the 5090 trick for each pc component and upgrade whole build for the price of the silicon-less for parts ebay price on all used like new components.

This is stealing.

Seconding @theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world, don’t accidentally sleep on AMD GPUs - they offer better performance dollar-vs.-dollar than Nvidia; are much better supported in Linux (if you ever get sick of Windows 11), and you also wouldn’t be rewarding the biggest architect of the current PC component pricing crisis!

In terms of what to check for, compatibility wise:

• GPU dimensions (new card isn’t longer/wider/thicker than your current system can support)
• Power requirements; ensure your existing PSU has enough of the right connectors (6/8 pins), and that it meets the new GPUs recommendation

Either way, happy gaming!

This is stealing

Not just performance per dollar but also performance per watt.

Maybe I can add but not all GPUs of the same model are built the same. Some are built without fuses and other protection circuits and could fail earlier. Northwestrepair makes videos about these GPUs taking about some of the different manufacturers. Maybe join his discord if you want to get more info?

Why are they the same price as a5 year old card?

Yea but some things nvidia is better for as far as i know Like Video editing etc

Given the price bracket, I would be surprised if OP was doing anything more than gaming - but for general video editing, the 9060XT would out-perform the 3060 Ti. Only once applications start heavily demanding CUDA cores (Adobe suite, predominantly After Effects), would the GeForce card pull away.

This 100%. I upgraded from an RTX2060 to an RTX4060 then 6 months later sold that and bought an RX9070.

I now feel like I have a card that will last me for a long time rather than a bandaid upgrade that'll do another 1-2 years.

OP, the only thing you need to worry about compatibility-wise is if your PSU (power supply unit) is enough. You can look up TDP (total draw power) for your CPU and prospective GPU and if it's less than your PSU with some headroom (100w or so usually) you're good to go. I believe pcpartpicker shows you power requirements anyway if you want to just plug your whole build in there.

I just game and watch media. With some 3d modeling on fusion 360 but my current graphics card handles most of that fine it's just like arma and stalker 2 I'd like my system to be able to run them better

Perfect good to know, the power draw should be find for my current psu but I didn't know they might have different connectors

I went with Nvidia cause that's what I'm familiar with but I'm definitely adding this one to my list to look up now. I just went thru a website that ranked the GPUs and picked on that was better than mine. I've still been looking thru the details of them to make a better purchase.

Just make sure if it has two connectors you have two ports on the PSU for it, DON'T use the daisy-chain cable (the one with multiple end ports on it) for both ports.. The PSU has those separated to different power rails to help against power draw on any one connection.

A 3060 is not going to run STALKER 2 much better than your current GPU. The problem there is unreal engine 5. You really need to be getting the most current generation for this, specifically, and definitely not a 5 year old card.

Prices have not come down at all on older generations. First you could mine cryptocurrency with them, now you can run AI on them.

I've got a medium size case so longth I've got a spare 6-8" and depth probably 3". I kinda figured I'd be covered but I should check anyways

I checked my PSU capacity and I think it's like 400watts I gotta double check but I think I needed an extra 40 watts for the rx 9070

Oh yeah, 400 prob wouldn't be enough. I have an XFX Swift 9070 and it'll pull up to 245w. Most CPUs are 65w to 120w IIRC.

atleast

Not a word. Never been a word.

Can’t Amazon just check the serial number for the returned graphics card lol.

Lol guess I gotta upgrade that too, tho that's not too worrisome. I got more than enough physical room to grow

Makes sense, I'm not too up to date ok card specs and what models are good. I'm thinking of going with an AMD 9060 now or something around there

You could find some benchmarks of STALKER 2 or other games you play on 9060 XT and compare to 3060 benchmarks. Be aware there is a 9060 XT 8GB and a 9060 XT 16GB. It will be very worth it to get the model with 16GB VRAM.

Thank you so much for this! I need to use that website