Hi, All. Hope all of you is doing great. My current machine which fortunately survived an earthquake in 2022 deserved an upgrade at last. My specs:
Ryzen 3 2200G
MSi B450M Pro M2 Max (All ICs are tested and still running fine)
2x4GB Teamgroup elite
500GB Seagate 2.5 SATA
450W Gamemax PSU
And my current upgrade plan is:
Ryzen 5 5500GT
2x16GB Teamgroup elite
500GB WD M.2 Nvme
600W Gamemax PSU
[edit: Additional sentences] I’m daily driving Debian and not really a gamer. So, this machine would only set for productivity. I’m open for upgrade recommendation with reasonable budget, as I’m still expecting my second child in a few months.
[2nd and 3rd edit] (Just noticed a few writing mistakes here and there. Writing on phone is difficult sometimes)
I don’t know how intensively you use Krita but I regularly crack the 8 GB memory mark, not accounting for other software and the OS running too. So perhaps at least double the Memory to 16 GB? Sometimes just having a few web browser tabs open already takes up 4 GB.
I normally recommend not buying a computer with lower specs than a modern smart phone.
Thanks for your advice, @Takiro . I fixed my writing mistake (again), so my upgrade plan suppose to be like this:
I have no idea that working on 7000px is still doing okay with my current setup as well. Also, I’m stick to using iGPU. But, I’m open for any dedicated GPU recommendation. I also considering my budget, because I’m expecting my second child in a few months.
So far, Krita needs no big GPU, since the main work is done by your CPU, and there the Single Thread Performance is important, the higher, the better.
But that you do not overly profit from a “big” GPU may change in the future, since there are developments in the direction of using the massive parallel processing power these can offer.
By the way, in case you want to compare CPU’s side by side or check their Single Thread Rating and other specs, you may want to visit:
It is probably the most reliable service around when it comes to benchmarks.
I’m using OpenSUSE. I have 24GB RAM and regularly hit the cap on high resolution paintings, to the point I had to install earlyoom to kill Krita because it’d completely freeze the system sometimes.
If you’re not experiencing issues and don’t see yourself needing to work on files with many masks / filters / transforms in the future then I wouldn’t touch the RAM now.
PSU
AFAIK Gamemax PSUs are not reliable. If you didn’t buy it already you could try to shop around for something more reliable. A bad PSU can wreck you entire computer.
SSD
Going from HD to SSD is good, just keep in mind M.2 can be finicky. A so-so SSD in a hot case or hot part of MOBO in a place with constant high ambient temperature will die in a couple of years. Don’t ask how I know that.
Also, the low budget versions can get very slow when full due the parts used.
GPU
Since you got new expenses soon and Krita’s thing is CPU, not GPU, I wouldn’t touch it now. It’s also the most easily replaced part, unless the iGPU is giving you headaches you can leave this upgrade for the future.
@bueuk: If you want to save money, buy quality from the outset. Because if you simply buy cheap, you usually have to pay for this cheapness by having to replace it several times and buy it again due to premature defects.
If you need an integrated graphics card in the CPU, then probably this is the optimal choice. If you have another GPU that you can use, and have the budget, going for a bigger CPU may be better (8+ cores).
I second the comment about the PSU. It doesn’t need to be an overkill power, but the quality is important.
The question has to be for what purpose is which drive type the better choice?
If you need it as your system drive where you install your OS, then you should go for a SSD, if you already have a SSD for your OS and want to have a place where you can save tons of pictures AND have the little but existent chance to restore accidentally deleted files, which is impossible for (at least almost all) SSDs, then currently HDDs are a good choice.
If you can tell us for which purpose your drive should be, we may be able to give hints.
Michelist
Blah Blah about drives
In between, you can get SSDs up to 64TB, so these have by far more space than the biggest HDD (26TB) on the market, but such a SSD costs up to $8000. But for $8000 you can get 7 26TB drives with 182TB for less, or 3x26TB = 78TB for ~$3300, respectively 3x22TB = 66TB for ~$1200. All these are Enterprise-Level drives, which have usually the best specs you can expect.
As an example, I have in my now 14-years-old Workstation two 480GB Samsung SSDs produced and re-labeled for HP at the same time, even today these perform better than a 2TB Crucial BX I bought two years ago, and which is broken in between, and are on the same level as the 2TB Intenso Performance SSD I bought as spare for the broken Crucial. Intenso and Crucial are about $120, the HP-Samsung were each over $1600 new and are sold today for about $250 used!
I already have a 2.5 inch mechanical drive. So, I’m going to dedicate it for a file storage. So, I’m going to add an SSD for OS, @Michelist .
I just remember that I probably need a dedicated GPU for video editing and rendering . So, I set my eyes for Asus/Asrock RX 6600 for a graphic card recently. Is it good?
It really depends on your budget… If you are getting a GPU card, then I would go for a stronger CPU, like 5900X (should be good perf/dollar).
Radeon RX 6600 is a good value GPU (midrange), but you should check specifically the support for your chosen video editing software and its recommended spec (e.g. how much VRAM they recommend). My favorite brand is Sapphire, but you can get unlucky with any model. Just go by the price and choose the best model in your preferred range (e.g. with best the cooling).
Does anyone know the current situation with ROCm regarding Vega graphics? I read that ROCm already dropped Vega support, but you can still buy APUs retail with Vega graphics (such as the Ryzen 5 5500GT)… so are you stuck with old ROCm versions and are out of luck with newer API support already?
But GPUs are a rather frustrating topic currently…the sub-$300 segment is really stale…the RX 6600 is basically the best option for Linux compatibility, but let’s face it, it’s essentially 2 generations old by now, and its compute performance has always been lackluster…on the other hand, with the AI hype companies lost interest in the affordable segment completely.
The new Intel Arc B580 is not really available below 300€ here, and linux Performance also seems a mixed bag still, not to mention its idle power draw is still very high, so it didn’t really change much either.
Looks like I decide a good option for this machine’s upgrade. Gotta be extra careful before shopping impulsively. Since I’ll skip changing the mobo and PSU, because they’re still doing OK. I’ll just replace necessary peripheral and save the rest for building a new machine in the future. I have zero problem with productivity with these regularly use apps such as Krita, OBS, and Kdenlive. So, the route I’ll pick is not going to be something crazy for current budget.
I have no idea when my mobo and PSU will last, so I’ll focus on upgrade:
CPU (stick to iGPU at the moment) between Ryzen 5 5500GT or 7 5700G
RAM maxing up to 2x16G (so I can just add another pair for future build)
Sata SSD for OS (seems to be a safer bet than Nvme).
[Edit] I fixed another writing mistake on my main post. Shame on me .
To be honest, I’m amazed how you are still okay with 8GB RAM and no SSD, even more so while using integrated graphics that eats some of those 8GB too…
I’m glad I went with 16GB back then, and the SATA SSD was also a huge upgrade to everyday performance, those two things are basically what kept my old PC usable until now…my RAM usage goes above 50% quite regularly, and it’s mostly lack of CPU performance that keeps me from painting in higher than ~4k resolutions, so with some Zen3 or better CPU I’d reach the limit of 16GB for sure…unfortunately intel keeps changing sockets even if there’s no technical reason, so no cheap upgrade for me…
So Zen3 CPU, 32GB RAM and any SSD seems like a very effective upgrade to me.
I actually thought about getting a Ryzen 7 5700G, but its iGPU would still be a significant downgrade from my GeForce GTX960, which is severely limited by its 2GB VRAM though…
Ouch, indeed! Although you’re probably referring to other apps than Krita, right? My last card that had really low VRAM was the venerable GTX 260, that one had only ~900MB It was such a strong card for its time (compared to everything else I had before), and I used it for about 8 years, which is crazy
If you’re on Intel platform now, wouldn’t it make more sense to go for AM5 next? I think nowadays you can find some sensible price options there, and it allows for a much stronger CPU later down the road.
Yes, for Krita it’s fine, but for everything else it’s on its last leg, especially since I went from a FHD monitor to QHD, it’s choking even on simple games…and it’s probably useless for Blender Cycles with CUDA too on anything non-trivial, even tough it’s still supported (in contrast to Vega, btw.)
I only used Blender for finding a good camera perspective on some dummy models though, but it shure would be useful for playing with lighting scenarios too, but it’s not really dramatically faster than my old CPU to begin with, not really an interactive viewport rendering
Yes, the 5700G idea was a few years ago already
Though AM5 is still a rather expensive platform, a mainboard that is not already kinda obsolete I/O wise is still at least ~200€…but looks like that’s going to stay that way, AMD or Intel…given how cheap some AM4 stuff and DDR4 is right now, I would still consider it if the Vega GPU wasn’t clearly outdated now or something or a cheap low-end GPU existed, but well…
Well, it’s not like Vega is NOT supported, it just doesn’t receive as frequent updates anymore. And it’s really only the case for Windows, on Linux everything is supported in the kernel, and there’s Mesa for fully open source support.
I think the previously mentioned RX 6600 is a nice choice, I’m not sure though if you consider the price low enough.
. So, I set my eyes for Asus/Asrock RX 6600 for a graphic card recently. Is it good?
It was such a strong card for its time (compared to everything else I had before), and I used it for about 8 years, which is crazy 
