PC Graphics

[AnubisII]

Old rig! Hey guys I've got an Asus p8p67 deluxe with a I7 2600K CPU sporting Radeon HD 6950s in crossfire at the moment.

could i put in a RT6500 an run the newer games at 1080 or 1440 ?

I have a new build ready just waiting for the GPU market to return to normal.

[tenzo23]

With a 6500 XT and your setup you can probably play games comfortably at 1080 med settings. Higher resolutions and visual settings might struggle.

The problem is your motherboard only has PCIe 3.0 and along with the older Sandy Bridge CPU, you'll be bottlenecking the new video card.

This review saw up to -40% performance with PCIe 3.0 vs 4.0 and a modern CPU. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/rx-6500-xt-pcie-gen3-gen4-tested

[johnnyenglish]

You mean a 6500 non XT or XT?

Both won't be a great choice for your system.
Plus, you won't get near 1440p or 1080p smoothly, even the 6600XT is targeted at 1080p.

I would get *if at all possible for you* a RX480 or 580 second hand, I'm seeing some here where I live for like 200€

Note: Even if you get the RX or the 6500 you will still get a serious CPU bottleneck. I would wait for a ALL components upgrade.

[Robbert]

I think your main issue will be that an I7 2600k still runs on PCIe 2.0, and DDR3. A PCIe 3.0 GPU will definitely work in your system (I ran an Rx 580 in a similar system (with a 2700k)). However, don't expect stellar performance. 

I do think you can run most games at 1080p in that configuration - just not on highest settings. 1440p I don't think you'll be able to.

So, it is up to you what you want. In my opinion the GPU market is way too hot right now to be sensible to invest money into. But, if you happen to have a 6500(xt) and bought it at MSRP, I don't see why not.

If you don't have a 6500(xt), I would wait until the second half of this year. Things "should" calm down by then. If you don't want to wait, either try to find a used graphics card at a bargain price, or focus on other parts for now.
(but beware, AMD is switching sockets, for the first time in 5 years, the second half of this year)