Monster Hunter World: Can I upgrade just my GPU, or will my other parts be a bottleneck?

JohnJSal

Active Member
So I just started playing MHW last night, and it seems to run smoothly on my setup, but I don't have enough VRAM to run it in anything but Low graphics mode. I assume setting it to Medium or higher will make the world explode? I have 2GB of VRAM, and Medium+ seems to require 3+.

Anyway, I'm wondering if upgrading only my GPU would help with this, or if doing so might cause the rest of my system to be a bottleneck.

Also, I'm thinking instead of doing a big, expensive upgrade (I usually upgrade all parts at once), I could just find a cheaper GPU that's maybe a year or two old. Would that work, or is the game too new for this?

Any suggestions on a card? I'm thinking maybe something in the $50 range, just to see if this will improve the graphics. Not sure if I'm aiming too low here though.

Thanks!
John

Edit: LOL. Okay, I'm browsing GPUs on Amazon, and the $50 thing is looking ridiculous now. Perhaps $200 is the lowest! But the question remains, even if I do this (something in the 1050-1060 series), will the rest of my system be a problem?
 
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OmniDyne

Active Member
Monster Hunter recommends at least the i7-3770, which it appears you have, so I think you're fine there, even in more recent titles.

I'm seeing AMD RX 580's for below $200. You could even go RX 570 or GTX1660 and see a drastic improvement.

If you have a little more money to spend, I'd at least go GTX 1660ti or AMD RX Vega 56 or look for a used GTX 1070.
 
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JohnJSal

Active Member
Monster Hunter recommends at least the i7-3770, which it appears you have, so I think you're fine there, even in more recent titles.

I'm seeing AMD RX 580's for below $200. You could even go RX 570 or GTX1660 and see a drastic improvement.

If you have a little more money to spend, I'd at least go GTX 1660ti or AMD RX Vega 56 or look for a used GTX 1070.

Thanks for the suggestions. What about this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M25X363/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

Is the 1050 Ti any good? The price seems decent.

My main issue with spending money isn't that I can't afford a more expensive card, but it seems wasteful to spend $300+ on one component when I'm not upgrading any others. I don't want its potential to be held back. Or would the only thing that could hold it back be the CPU? Because I just noticed, like you said, that my processor is still the recommended one, even though it's about seven years old!
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
Is the 1050 Ti any good? The price seems decent.

The 1050 Ti would be a lateral movement. It's possible you'd see worse performance

I don't want its potential to be held back. Or would the only thing that could hold it back be the CPU? Because I just noticed, like you said, that my processor is still the recommended one, even though it's about seven years old!

At 60FPS the 3770 still isn't much of a bottleneck, although performance will largely depend on the game.
 

JohnJSal

Active Member
There are two version of the 1060: the 3GB and the 6GB. Either would be a big improvement, but they're discontinued so you won't find any retail at a reasonable price. The 1660/ 2060 took its place.

Thanks. I think I'm giving up on the budget approach. I'll go with either the 1660 Ti or 2060. The 2070 remains a distant possibility, but I'll probably choose one of the other two. One review I read said that the 1660 Ti is basically the same as the 1070, which is disappointing, since that is an older generation, even if it was one of the best at the time. Maybe the 2060 is the better balance. Hopefully nothing else in my system will hold it back.
 

JohnJSal

Active Member
There are two version of the 1060: the 3GB and the 6GB. Either would be a big improvement, but they're discontinued so you won't find any retail at a reasonable price. The 1660/ 2060 took its place.

You don't mean the 2060 is no better than the 1060, though, right? I hope not!
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
One review I read said that the 1660 Ti is basically the same as the 1070, which is disappointing, since that is an older generation

It's not disappointing at all, in my opinion. The 1660 Ti is over $100 cheaper than the 1070 was and can actually outperform it.

You don't mean the 2060 is no better than the 1060, though, right? I hope not!

The 2060 is significantly faster than the 1060, by over 50 percent. The main benefit of the 2060 is that it's RTX (ray tracing) capable. Hence the RTX 2060 moniker. Although it could be (and has been argued) that ray tracing isn't worth the performance impact, on the 2060, at least; we're talking 30+ percent performance losses. The 2060 is more powerful than the 1660 Ti, by a decent margin.

I mention the 1660 Ti or RX Vega 56 as minimums because of moderate pricing and their ability to maintain an average 60 FPS through the vast majority of modern titles.
 
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beers

Moderator
Staff member
I read said that the 1660 Ti is basically the same as the 1070, which is disappointing,
What specific reasons make that disappointing? It's pretty common over the years for Nvidia to release new cards that match a tier above them from a previous generation.
 
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