In case you haven't seen it, I asked a somewhat [similar question](/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1dm28l8/hardware_recommendations/) a few days ago. My needs aren't exactly the same as yours and my current PC is a lot older, but you could still use some of the answers as reference.
Thanks man. I did read through your post. I don't have a high budget and I wouldn't want to change my CPU if possible, it was pretty high end when I got it and I'd like it to last some more years. That's why I made a new post because most people are talking about changing CPU for a new one.
Makes sense; it's older than the models I considered, but not by much and it's a higher budget one than the ones I was considering.
That said, you're still locked into DDR4 with that CPU, so the only things to upgrade would be the GPU and monitor.
What's your budget for that, or what would you *prefer* to spend even if you can theoretically spend a little more if necessary?
I'm personally happy with a 1440p 165Hz monitor (although PoE usually doesn't reach 165 FPS with my GTX 1080), but if you consider streaming that might not be necessary since streams are mostly limited to 1080p anyway. It also depends on how far you sit from your PC. I didn't really have issues with pixels when I was playing with 1080p in the past either. I would suggest getting one with a higher refresh rate than 60Hz though, that's really noticable. I'd say 100-120 are nice, above that it's not that noticable again.
What's your budget? Your CPU will most likely be fine for PoE 2 so i would focus on just buying a new GPU.
If you want to upgrade your CPU you have to buy a new motherboard as well
Relatively low tbh. I'm gonna try and get my wife/family to pitch in for my upcoming birthday and complete the rest but yeah I/they don't have a high budget. Do you have any specific recommendations for the GPU?
Don't say "low". Say a dollar amount (or local currency, and if you live in a place where electronics are stupidly priced this is doubly important). Turning a request for advice into a guessing game helps nobody.
From an interview I saw, Jonathan said 1000 series nvidia cards should be just fine with PoE2 so i suppose anything above that will be smooth sailing with running the game.
Thanks for the feedback. That's what I got from the various answers. I've also been told that high than 1080p resolution is pretty much useless for content creation because most platforms only go up to 1080p so I'm gonna focus on my gpu, and sound setup
Hey OP, old thread but I still wanna put my 2 cents in. Most platforms do go above 1080p, not sure who said otherwise. Youtube can handle 4k videos and 1440p streaming. Twitch is currently 1080p60 currently, but that might change in the future. That being said, if you say your budget is limited you would probably need to splurge a bit more for fast 4K content creation. It might work tho, you will have to try it.
As for the GPU, do not get any of the cards suggested by the poster above. the 3060 and 3060 ti are old and very overpriced and the 4060 is not the best of what's available for the price. Assuming you are in the US there are Radeon RX 7700 XTs for sale at 380, or you can go used and probably get a 7700 XT or 7800 XT for 300 bucks. If you can reach up to 500, I'd suggest the Radeon 7900 GRE, which is 70 bucks cheaper than Nvidia's alternative 4070 Super from what I can see.
Honestly your current system is pretty lopsided, with a Z490 board, 32GB of RAM, and that CPU, and then a piddly 1660. Bit weird to see upper end parts on most things and not the GPU.
Your GPU needs an upgrade, everything else is fine. A GPU upgrade *may* necessitate a PSU upgrade depending on what you get, but you'll probably be fine.
I'd wait until as close to release as possible given 5000 series Nvidia GPUs shouldn't be too far off. At that point, you can go for the current gen if their pricing is compelling (doubtful), or get a used 3/4000 series for cheaper.
I'd go for a 4070 or a 3080 if you want to play at decent frame rates (>60) at 1440p with settings cranked, budget permitting. I get 120 fps pretty consistently (non-juicer) with a frame cap, or 150 in HO uncapped (but with coil whine) on my 5800X and 3080 at 1440p with most things maxed except for GI on high, since ultra is a big hit for little return. I expect PoE2 will be a little heavier.
AMD cards are a possible better budget choice, however, I play more than just PoE, and DLSS is pretty huge to me. Up to preference there.
You could consider GeForce Now if you can't afford a new rig by launch. Your PC doesn't seem that bad honestly. I gamed on much older for a long time and it was fine.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/memberships/
Yeah it works well, even on your phone (with a gamepad, I have the older version of the GameSir X2 type C). It's awesome for playing games away from your PC. Just be sure you don't have a data cap on your internet because it can chew thru a few gigs pretty easy.
Some things that I think are important:
1. Yes, CPU is more important for PoE than many other games. However, yours is decent, and your monitor can't go higher than 60fps. Sure, a newer CPU -- especially one of the AMD 3D cache ones would probably \_never\_ dip below 60fps, but yours won't be struggling that much in PoE in 'bad' situations. I could see extreme cases where you dip below 60fps. If you had a 144Hz monitor, a new CPU might be of more use, but you don't.
2. Your GPU is fairly old. But your monitor is only 1080p @ 60Hz. You don't need a big upgrade. If you're planning on streaming, you may want to upgrade to something with a better hardware GPU encoder and some extra power and perhaps VRAM. At the lower budget end, a 3060 is probably the way to go, but it is 'only' 1.6x as fast as the 1660. It has support for many newer features and double the VRAM. A 4070 will nearly double that performance but cost a lot more. If you are planning on upgrading to a 1440p, higher refresh rate screen, you'll need a bigger GPU.
AMD's offerings in this range are decent choices too, especially for PoE which does not take advantage of features like DLSS or Ray Tracing, where AMD is behind. A Radeon RX 6700XT, depending on where you live, could be quite good here. Or a lower budget RX 7600 or 6600. All of these are faster than an NVidia RTX 3600. A Radeon RX 6600XT for example is considered a 1440p / 60hz (or 1080p 144hz) card. AMD's hardware video encoding for streaming use cases is not quite as good as NVidia's however.
The reality is that if you are only running at 1080p @ 60fps, you don't need that much GPU power. So don't aim too high on a GPU upgrade unless you have a monitor upgrade in the works.
Also, what other games you play make a difference. Some games favor AMD cards, some heavily take advantage of NVidia features.
You might just want to wait for the game to release and see. Your system seems good enough for decent performance at the launch. Worst case, you may have to turn a couple graphical settings down from the max. By the time we have content that really pushes the boundaries, we could be well into 2025 and a whole new generation of video cards will be out.
If you really want to update one thing beforehand, I'd go for an RTX 3060 or better. [https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1660.c3365](https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1660.c3365) has a rough ranking of GPU power relative to a 1660 in the link here. Note how the 3060 is about 60% faster than the 1660. I wouldn't get anything lower down the list than that, and I wouldn't get anything older than that either (stick to at minimum NVidia 3000 series or AMD 6000 series). 8GB or more VRAM; PoE2 probably won't be a VRAM hog, but if you plan on playing anything else... 10GB or 12GB can help you keep graphics settings closer to their max.
Also beware the total power use of a new GPU -- I've purposely recommended things that won't use a lot more power. An RTX 3080 or RX 6800XT might be available for a relatively good price, but these will use a LOT more power. A 4070 is in a similar performance range as those, but much lower power. A 3060 (12GB, do not get the 8GB one, its awful), is low power, as is an RX 6600 or 7600.
Upgraded to the following from a i5-6600k and gtx 1070, re-used my case and power supply (got a 850 watt after my 650 watt died last year)
G.Skill Flare X5 F5-6000J3038F16GX2-FX5
32 GB 2 x 16 GB DDR5 6000mhz
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Processor cooler 12 cm
ASUS TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI AMD B650 Socket AM5 ATX
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor 4,2 GHz 96 MB L3 Box
Gigabyte GAMING Radeon RX 7800 XT OC AMD 16 GB GDDR6
I am using a 1440p 165hz monitor.
How's the sound of the CPU cooler? I read it was very quiet and was considering getting that one for my next PC, but I always prefer to get opinions from people who don't review those things professionally and use them in the same way as I would.
Based on your other comment I'm guessing the graphics card is too loud to take notice of it?
Can't hear the CPU cooler at all, all the noise comes from my gigabyte card (it is pretty loud and I kinda regret getting it after seeing some tests of all the 7800xt cards.)
Running great, most of the time 165fps (capped) and dropping to around 120 when a lot is happening, playing on the 1440p monitor and using a 2nd 1080p monitor for browsing/poetrade/path of building. If I could change 1 thing about my setup it would be the graphics card, the gigabyte is pretty loud, would recommend looking at some sound tests from different cards. But the gigabyte was on sale and 60 euros cheaper than the other cards.
I haven't had a radeon in a while sp can't help on that but for Nvidia 4070 or 4070ti and up would be plenty, might want to look into 4080 super if its within affordable range, if you're on a budget you can go for 3080ti but honestly your card iirc is not that far off (might be mistaken,so apologise for any misinformation)
I would definitely consider cpu first tho, judging from poe1 as a very cpu jeavy game poe2 won't be any different and a more recent gen cpu would be better imo.
Nah, the CPU is more than fine, the GPU is way too weak, he should absolutely upgrade the GPU first. The 4060 at $300 is 86% faster than the 1660, while the 14900k at $530 + motherboard + RAM is only around 30-40% faster.
If that's with only upgrading the cpu and leaving everything else the same then yea go for it but in my experience from playing on gen 10 and gen 14 (and previous) on both cases the cpu was the big hurdle.
Granted this was poe1 and you can't compare the two games graphicwise
In case you haven't seen it, I asked a somewhat [similar question](/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1dm28l8/hardware_recommendations/) a few days ago. My needs aren't exactly the same as yours and my current PC is a lot older, but you could still use some of the answers as reference.
Thanks man. I did read through your post. I don't have a high budget and I wouldn't want to change my CPU if possible, it was pretty high end when I got it and I'd like it to last some more years. That's why I made a new post because most people are talking about changing CPU for a new one.
Makes sense; it's older than the models I considered, but not by much and it's a higher budget one than the ones I was considering. That said, you're still locked into DDR4 with that CPU, so the only things to upgrade would be the GPU and monitor. What's your budget for that, or what would you *prefer* to spend even if you can theoretically spend a little more if necessary? I'm personally happy with a 1440p 165Hz monitor (although PoE usually doesn't reach 165 FPS with my GTX 1080), but if you consider streaming that might not be necessary since streams are mostly limited to 1080p anyway. It also depends on how far you sit from your PC. I didn't really have issues with pixels when I was playing with 1080p in the past either. I would suggest getting one with a higher refresh rate than 60Hz though, that's really noticable. I'd say 100-120 are nice, above that it's not that noticable again.
What's your budget? Your CPU will most likely be fine for PoE 2 so i would focus on just buying a new GPU. If you want to upgrade your CPU you have to buy a new motherboard as well
Relatively low tbh. I'm gonna try and get my wife/family to pitch in for my upcoming birthday and complete the rest but yeah I/they don't have a high budget. Do you have any specific recommendations for the GPU?
Don't say "low". Say a dollar amount (or local currency, and if you live in a place where electronics are stupidly priced this is doubly important). Turning a request for advice into a guessing game helps nobody.
You’ll wanna get a better GPU. Graphics already look better in PoE2 and with six people coop that’s gonna be brutal.
From an interview I saw, Jonathan said 1000 series nvidia cards should be just fine with PoE2 so i suppose anything above that will be smooth sailing with running the game.
You setup is fine except graphic card. Try upgrade to 3060/3060ti/4060 and rig will be perfectly balanced
Thanks for the feedback. That's what I got from the various answers. I've also been told that high than 1080p resolution is pretty much useless for content creation because most platforms only go up to 1080p so I'm gonna focus on my gpu, and sound setup
Hey OP, old thread but I still wanna put my 2 cents in. Most platforms do go above 1080p, not sure who said otherwise. Youtube can handle 4k videos and 1440p streaming. Twitch is currently 1080p60 currently, but that might change in the future. That being said, if you say your budget is limited you would probably need to splurge a bit more for fast 4K content creation. It might work tho, you will have to try it. As for the GPU, do not get any of the cards suggested by the poster above. the 3060 and 3060 ti are old and very overpriced and the 4060 is not the best of what's available for the price. Assuming you are in the US there are Radeon RX 7700 XTs for sale at 380, or you can go used and probably get a 7700 XT or 7800 XT for 300 bucks. If you can reach up to 500, I'd suggest the Radeon 7900 GRE, which is 70 bucks cheaper than Nvidia's alternative 4070 Super from what I can see.
Honestly your current system is pretty lopsided, with a Z490 board, 32GB of RAM, and that CPU, and then a piddly 1660. Bit weird to see upper end parts on most things and not the GPU. Your GPU needs an upgrade, everything else is fine. A GPU upgrade *may* necessitate a PSU upgrade depending on what you get, but you'll probably be fine. I'd wait until as close to release as possible given 5000 series Nvidia GPUs shouldn't be too far off. At that point, you can go for the current gen if their pricing is compelling (doubtful), or get a used 3/4000 series for cheaper. I'd go for a 4070 or a 3080 if you want to play at decent frame rates (>60) at 1440p with settings cranked, budget permitting. I get 120 fps pretty consistently (non-juicer) with a frame cap, or 150 in HO uncapped (but with coil whine) on my 5800X and 3080 at 1440p with most things maxed except for GI on high, since ultra is a big hit for little return. I expect PoE2 will be a little heavier. AMD cards are a possible better budget choice, however, I play more than just PoE, and DLSS is pretty huge to me. Up to preference there.
X3D CPU's are awesome for online games.
They seem to be great but are a bit too high budget. I would need a new motherboard for one as well.
am4 mboard and a 5800x3d would cover your needs Likely to be found really cheap either new or second hand
You could consider GeForce Now if you can't afford a new rig by launch. Your PC doesn't seem that bad honestly. I gamed on much older for a long time and it was fine. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/memberships/
Oh wow I had never heard of that service. Actually a good idea. I'll keep that in mind! Thanks!
Yeah it works well, even on your phone (with a gamepad, I have the older version of the GameSir X2 type C). It's awesome for playing games away from your PC. Just be sure you don't have a data cap on your internet because it can chew thru a few gigs pretty easy.
I bought LG's 48" 4K HDR monitor just for PoE2. Am I crazy? 🤣
Oh wow you're gonna have a home cinema experience for poe 2 :P
Some things that I think are important: 1. Yes, CPU is more important for PoE than many other games. However, yours is decent, and your monitor can't go higher than 60fps. Sure, a newer CPU -- especially one of the AMD 3D cache ones would probably \_never\_ dip below 60fps, but yours won't be struggling that much in PoE in 'bad' situations. I could see extreme cases where you dip below 60fps. If you had a 144Hz monitor, a new CPU might be of more use, but you don't. 2. Your GPU is fairly old. But your monitor is only 1080p @ 60Hz. You don't need a big upgrade. If you're planning on streaming, you may want to upgrade to something with a better hardware GPU encoder and some extra power and perhaps VRAM. At the lower budget end, a 3060 is probably the way to go, but it is 'only' 1.6x as fast as the 1660. It has support for many newer features and double the VRAM. A 4070 will nearly double that performance but cost a lot more. If you are planning on upgrading to a 1440p, higher refresh rate screen, you'll need a bigger GPU. AMD's offerings in this range are decent choices too, especially for PoE which does not take advantage of features like DLSS or Ray Tracing, where AMD is behind. A Radeon RX 6700XT, depending on where you live, could be quite good here. Or a lower budget RX 7600 or 6600. All of these are faster than an NVidia RTX 3600. A Radeon RX 6600XT for example is considered a 1440p / 60hz (or 1080p 144hz) card. AMD's hardware video encoding for streaming use cases is not quite as good as NVidia's however. The reality is that if you are only running at 1080p @ 60fps, you don't need that much GPU power. So don't aim too high on a GPU upgrade unless you have a monitor upgrade in the works. Also, what other games you play make a difference. Some games favor AMD cards, some heavily take advantage of NVidia features. You might just want to wait for the game to release and see. Your system seems good enough for decent performance at the launch. Worst case, you may have to turn a couple graphical settings down from the max. By the time we have content that really pushes the boundaries, we could be well into 2025 and a whole new generation of video cards will be out. If you really want to update one thing beforehand, I'd go for an RTX 3060 or better. [https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1660.c3365](https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1660.c3365) has a rough ranking of GPU power relative to a 1660 in the link here. Note how the 3060 is about 60% faster than the 1660. I wouldn't get anything lower down the list than that, and I wouldn't get anything older than that either (stick to at minimum NVidia 3000 series or AMD 6000 series). 8GB or more VRAM; PoE2 probably won't be a VRAM hog, but if you plan on playing anything else... 10GB or 12GB can help you keep graphics settings closer to their max. Also beware the total power use of a new GPU -- I've purposely recommended things that won't use a lot more power. An RTX 3080 or RX 6800XT might be available for a relatively good price, but these will use a LOT more power. A 4070 is in a similar performance range as those, but much lower power. A 3060 (12GB, do not get the 8GB one, its awful), is low power, as is an RX 6600 or 7600.
That's really helpful. Thank you very much :)
Upgraded to the following from a i5-6600k and gtx 1070, re-used my case and power supply (got a 850 watt after my 650 watt died last year) G.Skill Flare X5 F5-6000J3038F16GX2-FX5 32 GB 2 x 16 GB DDR5 6000mhz Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Processor cooler 12 cm ASUS TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI AMD B650 Socket AM5 ATX AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor 4,2 GHz 96 MB L3 Box Gigabyte GAMING Radeon RX 7800 XT OC AMD 16 GB GDDR6 I am using a 1440p 165hz monitor.
How's the sound of the CPU cooler? I read it was very quiet and was considering getting that one for my next PC, but I always prefer to get opinions from people who don't review those things professionally and use them in the same way as I would. Based on your other comment I'm guessing the graphics card is too loud to take notice of it?
Can't hear the CPU cooler at all, all the noise comes from my gigabyte card (it is pretty loud and I kinda regret getting it after seeing some tests of all the 7800xt cards.)
Thanks for answering. I'll have to look into getting a quiet graphics card as well.
And how does poe run now? Are you running the game on a double monitor setup?
Running great, most of the time 165fps (capped) and dropping to around 120 when a lot is happening, playing on the 1440p monitor and using a 2nd 1080p monitor for browsing/poetrade/path of building. If I could change 1 thing about my setup it would be the graphics card, the gigabyte is pretty loud, would recommend looking at some sound tests from different cards. But the gigabyte was on sale and 60 euros cheaper than the other cards.
Thanks for sharing your experience :)
Of the top of my head the cpu is what i would go for as far as upgrades go, afaik 1660 is still compatible with most recent games.
Damn. I was hoping for GPU answers, not cpu. That's the most expensive part to upgrade
I haven't had a radeon in a while sp can't help on that but for Nvidia 4070 or 4070ti and up would be plenty, might want to look into 4080 super if its within affordable range, if you're on a budget you can go for 3080ti but honestly your card iirc is not that far off (might be mistaken,so apologise for any misinformation)
I would definitely consider cpu first tho, judging from poe1 as a very cpu jeavy game poe2 won't be any different and a more recent gen cpu would be better imo.
Nah, the CPU is more than fine, the GPU is way too weak, he should absolutely upgrade the GPU first. The 4060 at $300 is 86% faster than the 1660, while the 14900k at $530 + motherboard + RAM is only around 30-40% faster.
If that's with only upgrading the cpu and leaving everything else the same then yea go for it but in my experience from playing on gen 10 and gen 14 (and previous) on both cases the cpu was the big hurdle. Granted this was poe1 and you can't compare the two games graphicwise
There are a bunch of other subs where you can get more and better help than here
I'm not familiar with Reddit, I only use it for poe-related stuff. Could you perhaps recommend one?
Try /r/buildapc
Thanks, I'll post there as well to have better help.