Upgrading an AMD FX 8300 with a $200 GTX 1660 — What to Expect — 12 Games Tested

Today we're revisiting the classic $600 AMD FX-8300 build I did back in Feb 2017. Does installing a GTX 1660 bring new life to the FX 8300, or is it time to bury this CPU in the past?
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— 6 Levels of GTX 1660 Graphics Cards —

These 3 cards are listed in order of performance, however they aren't actually that far apart in general. Under $200 for the first card, just over $200 for the Super, and under $250 for the TI are the current going rates.

Yes, AMD made a LOT of different 8 core FX models... this isn't a complete list either, but it's 5 of the more common models you can find today.

Do I actually think you should buy those? Of course not, unless you get a crazy cheap deal and have a use for one. These are listed mostly so you can easily check out of curiosity and to just see what the current trending prices are.

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[MrTcheMan]

I love how you consider the financial situation of many people. The price of Hardware here in Brazil is inhumane. I'm still using a Phenom II x4 945. Even a crappy FX 8300 would be an upgrade for me :)

[ufodeath]

Whoever said Tech is "out of touch" with budget gaming needs to watch this video XD

[brentjones]

Me: FX8150, 8gb 1600, RX580 8gb.

My daughter: R5 1600AF, 32gb 3200, RX580 4gb.
She got a nice Fornite gaming pc and im still stuck with the FX.

[jtownnn]

I just upgraded from an x58 platform to a z490. I know exactly what you're talking about with the improvements in 'desktop experience'.

[Joshua]

THAT IS WHY I LOVE THIS CHANNEL HE IS HONEST. AND GIVES YOU REAL WORLD ADVICES.

[stevie]

I run a FX8350 with the Super clocked GTX1660. Everything in the video is so true! My rig plays all the current games, but not brilliantly. I can't really afford to upgrade, but the computer does the job and plays the games I like really well. It dosent set the world on fire and it is a bit laggy but as said in the video it is better than nothing.

[MrStimp]

I have an FX 8370 system & can confirm most of these results with my 1660Ti. I can add Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 runs great @ 1080p Max details. 144 fps on my Aopen 27HC1R with 1% lows around mid 90s fps.

[Brian_Buckley]

Literally, just 3 hours ago sold an FX8320 Watercooled/16gb1600/GTX970 4gb/256gb ssd/1tb HDD for $430
Din't have to lie, didn't have to exaggerate, it is what it is! It does what it is advertised to do! My exact words were "Will play Recent AAA titles at Reasonable frame rates" REASONABLE, FX is REASONABLE.

[hellbound]

My Rig:
FX-8350
16gb 1866mhz
RX 5500xt OC 4g

I swapped out my gtx 1050ti with the one listed above at I was amazed at how much the 1050ti was holding it back. I'm hitting a sold 60frames on Resident Evil 3 remake and over a 100frames on Borderlands 2. And over 70 frames in World War Z.

That said. I'm seeing very sold gaming laptops with rtx 2060 for under 1k. So I might not be replacing it entirely 😉

[marlonmangubat]

I really like the way he makes sensible recommendations for people who does not always have means to go all out in upgrading from an old PC to a new one like me. This especially makes sense when you have more hardware that you can use to upgrade, like your current RAM among others, as opposed to getting an entirely new system, sans GPU, for an interim upgrade, especially now that finances are tight due to the pandemic. Hopefully you will come up with more videos like this in the future, that very many people will really find useful. This coming from a Phenom 965 user with GTX 750 TI.

[Bdot]

My old Fx build today, is awesome to someone who doesnt have one. Very true! I am giving my Fx build to my aunt, who has been running an old intel build since 2007! I know she will appreciate it a lot!

[Zaegen]

These kind of videos from you....you explain thing so well. pure gold, I might say.

[MaxUgly]

I think this chip aged well because software evolved to use the eight (arguably four) "cores" as it aged. While the latency was terrible, multithreaded DAWs like FL Studio really started to actually run better on my old 8350 as updates that split fx and instrument channels between cores were released.

Tech, I always hear you argue for the future proof solution and I think this is one of the best examples for that approach.

[inkysteve]

I've got a very large collection of stars, I'm running out of space to store them all. Amazon don't sell star storage and I'm going to have to buy some new shoes to get the boxes. Or I could just store them in the sky.

[rangersmith]

I gamed on an FX-8350 with an R9-290 for a couple of years before upgrading to an i7 6850K and then to Ryzen 7 1700. Honestly, the FX-8350 was doing fine in FFXIV, my go-to game, but I wanted to use a 3440x1440 display, and I needed more GPU power for the resolution, thus more CPU power to back it up. If I had limited my play to 2560x1080, the FX chip with a better GPU, like an RX-580, would still be enough today. Tech is 100% right; nobody should build an FX machine in 2020. But if you have no PC at all, you may be able to find a built FX PC for a bargain price, and it just might get you through until your financial circumstances brighten.

[dogsplantscarsneatstuff]

Thank you Jason. Your practicality in trying to make the best of a bad (or not great) situation is what computing (or anything for that matter) is all about. You do well in switching gears from low, middle and high end systems.

[hrayz]

My main system is a Ryzen 2700X, 64GB ddr4-3133, Radeon Vega64 (undervolted, ram o/c). My backup system is my old FX8370 @4775MHz, 16GB ddr3-2100, Radeon RX-580-8GB.
My main system I usually run in 4K, the backup runs in 1080p.
I hardly can tell the difference in day-to-day use. Desktop is snappy on both, videos play great.
Most games are 60fps smooth (but that's 4K vs 1080p...)

[ghibodeus]

I recently upgraded my overclocked fx 8320 to an “old” r5 1600 first gen, and it’s way better for everything, even at stock frequency. Computing and games are smooth, unlike before, and the money spent for ram, cpu and mobo combined can be easily regained through the immense power savings on the electric bill in two years time (in Italy electricity is expensive)

[Bdot]

I am still running a Fx 6300 with a Gtx 970 and surprisingly held me up well for the past 4 years ive had it! Now i have a 3600 and Rtx 2060 build coming soon! Ill never forget you Fx series !

[bungalowfeuhler]

I’m still rocking my fx-8350 here in late 2023. Was using a 1050ti happily for years. Just swapped it out for an RX590 and I cannot believe the frame rates I’m getting at Ultra settings. It helps that I use 1080p monitors and don’t give a damn about 4K. But I’m also using it for all kinds of cool VR stuff. I’ve yet to find a game that doesn’t stay at a minimum of 45fps and most are well over 60.