I haven’t shopped for a new desktop since I bought my Dell XPS 8900 in 2016. The specs on this one:
Intel Core i7-6700 @ 3.4GHz, 4 cores and 8 logical processors
16GB RAM
256GB SSD, Samsung 850 Pro
NVIDIA GTX 745 1GB
I don’t use my desktop much, since it isn’t strong enough to run games I’d like to play, and I work from home on my laptop 99% of the time. However, I do use it to run my Plex library for streaming to 4 different Roku devices every day, and when I do photography, it is pretty slow (Lightroom installed on the SSD, but files are on a 7200rpm HDD).
I recon a new card is my best bet - a modern card like a GTX 1660 benchmarks at 11540 while my GTX 745 benchmarks at 2216. I know a newer processor would help as well, especially for Lightroom - mine benchmarks at 8048 while a new i7-10700 goes to almost 17500 (100+ percent improvement), although the single thread difference goes only from 2304 to 2927 (less than 30%).
But, I can buy a new card for $229 and a new PC would set me back more or less $1500.
Oppo nerds hive mind, do you think I can just get me a GTX 1660, or maybe splurge up to $300 and get a RTX 2060 or RX 5600 XT (I prefer Nvidia but I’m not locked into it) , and play some COD MW on my 1080p 24" monitor? I know my Lightroom performance won’t increase without a new processor. I have the money for a new computer as well, but it’s in my fun stuff stash and I have too many hobbies and I am not sure what to spend it on. Then again, I hardly use this and I am sort of used to my Lightroom being slow.... ughh, decisions!
