It’s been just over 2 years since I last worked on building/upgrading a computer, in what was then my new office workstation. One of the main reasons for this is that I now have a company-sponsored MacBook Pro, and so my office and home computers are mostly used for gaming, or if I’m tinkering with any non-work hobby projects.
That being said, the downside of maintaining two computers at two different locations (home and office) means that I have to spend my upgrade money wisely. The biggest thing I’ve been looking to upgrade in the office PC for the past two years has been the graphics card. After two years of insane prices, GPU prices have dropped to a reasonable level, so I started the year by purchasing an RTX 3060.
This meant that I could migrate the GTX 1660 ti to the home PC. With these switches, I decided to run the UNIGINE Benchmarks, to see what the effects would be.
For some context the home PC, which had a GTX 1060, had a score of 7355 with an average frame rate of 55 on the “1080p medium settings”, and not enough VRAM to run the “1080p high settings”.
The office PC with the GTX 1660 ti, had a score of 11153 and an average frame rate of 83 on the “1080p medium settings”, and a score of 8111 with an average frame rate of 60 on “1080p high settings”.
The home PC with the GTX 1660 ti has a score of 11009 with an average frame rate of 66.03 on the “1080p medium settings”, and a score of 8108 with an average frame rate of 60.64 on “1080p high settings”.
The office PC with the RTX 3060 has a score of 13685 with an average frame rate of 102.36 on the “1080p medium settings”, and a score of 10419 with an average frame rate of 77.93 on “1080p high settings”.
| Score | Avg Frame rate | |
| Home PC with GTX 1060 – 1080p med | 7355 | 55 |
| Home PC with GTX 1060 – 1080p high | N/A | N/A |
| Home PC with GTX 1660 ti – 1080p med | 11009 | 66.03 |
| Home PC with GTX 1660 ti – 1080p high | 8108 | 60.64 |
| Office PC with GTX 1660 ti – 1080p med | 11153 | 83 |
| Office PC with GTX 1660 ti – 1080p high | 8111 | 60 |
| Office PC with RTX 3060 – 1080p med | 13685 | 102.36 |
| Office PC with RTX 3060 – 1080p high | 10419 | 77.93 |
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the performance improvement by just adding a decent graphics card to the newer PC, and migrating the older card to the older PC. I now have two machines that can probably handle most modern games, and the newer PC can probably handle things for another few years before more upgrades are needed.
I will probably keep “down-cycling” in this way, moving hardware from the newer PC to the old one as I upgrade, although I can’t see myself upgrading the office machine any time soon.
Alternatively I might spend the next year or so saving up to build a newer PC in 2024, and give the older one to my oldest son, who will soon be needing his own gaming machine.
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