I’m new here and thought this might be the right place to ask about GPUs.
Preface: I haven’t built a PC from the ground up for many years.
I’m building a new system for one of my daughters, who is a digital artist, writer, and novice animator. She also wants to play Red Redemption 2. I’m going with an i7-12700K and 32 GB of system RAM. My budget for a GPU is $400 max. I’ll go with either Nvidia or AMD.
I’ve looked at both, I’m just confused and need experienced recommendations.
Thanks!
I’ll cast my vote for a used 6800 or 7700 xt
Depending on what software she uses for drawing and animating I’d suggest sticking to nVidia. Applications outside gaming that take advantage of GPU acceleration will work with nVidia cards but AMD GPUs tend to be either slower or don’t provide any acceleration at all… depending on the application.
Red Dead 2 is old enough that even a 2060 6GB will deliver 60fps at 1080p with high settings.
3060 12gb is commonly 160-190 bucks and has enough vram for editing tasks. It has a decent bit of power for what its worth. If you want slightly more vram then go with the 6800 that @skunkfunk recommended for around 330, which has 16gb instead of 12gb. For more speed your best bet is the 3080 10gb, which you can usually find for between 350 and 380 dollars. Pretty great deal. I’d point you more towards the 3060 than either of the others, though. It’s cheap, pretty fast, and has decent vram. 20-24gb vram stuff tends to be a lot pricier in this space and I don’t think it is really attainable with a decent gpu attached to it, so if you want something with more than 16 gb of vram your options are pretty nonexistent without sacrificing a lot on performance or getting lucky.
Thank you. I don’t know what she uses for animations but, for drawing , it’s mainly Krita, which has never been an issue. Hmm, yes, you are right when it comes to Nvidia support in apps.
I’ve looked at the 7700 XT, it’s on the maybe list now. Thank you for your input.
Wow Krita looks like it can support some pretty cool stable diffusion integration features. Stable diffusion can work with AMD GPUs but setup is a pain and performance isn’t as good… If she’s interested in playing with AI image generation a 3060 12gb would be just enough to get into it.
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For regular use Krita should work just fine with AMD GPUs
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Don’t use Krita much but I’m just bringing up a build with a 7700 XT. Let me know if there’s anything particular you’d like checked.
Not sure where you are located in the world, but perhaps looking for a used 3080ti would be an option? It has more horsepower than the 3060, and 3060ti. As long as it hasn’t been used for mining you should be good to go. I have bought used graphic cards for several years with no issues. 
Hopefully you’ve allocated enough watts, for the system PSU
Heavy end of budget – 3080Ti [used]
Inbetweeners – 3060Ti to 3080; 2070 Super to 2080Ti
Light end of budget – 2060/3060 12GB variants; 2070
Shoestrapping budget – 2060 6GB
SFF friendly variants – 2060KO / 3060Ti
if the compute part of graphic is the most important thing in the system. U might want to change the procesor to somthing less powerfull. and get a more beefy gpu like a 4070. video ram is king so the 4060 ti with 16 gb vram also might be a option.
Amd cards are nice have nice rastering performance, But cuda is a thing.
Intel is not on top of his game. And with the new am5 platform you have a platform that is more future proof i think. combine it with a ryzen 5, and if she wants to upgrade she can always put a ryzen 9 in it next year or the year after.
toutch imput if got a prolite ilyamaha i can draw a bit on it. But not like people are doing on ipad’s or do’s wacom boards. that is next level, But if draw imput is important. I hate to say it but then apple + ipad is amazing. But red death redemtion not sure if that is posible then. But i think a nice scanner is better then drawing on a computer screen anyway. Best way is to use dslr. with a nice lens. But capturing drawings. that is a difrent story.
A good example for what kind of hardware software needs. Puget systems website is a good resource
rendering animaitons take’s time i had my system om 100% for weeks just for a 5 min animation. layers you know. A good videocard really helps with this. I’m using a 4070 super happy with that one. the 4060 really felt like i had to less vram for what i was doing. I also like to use Unreal Engine. and then 32 gb ram is not a lot. If i fire up blender. i absolutly use my ryzen 9 16 core’s, If she is also doing this for a study. you need to build a brutal system sorry. And she should be really gratful
All good suggestions,
IMHO
for conpatibility, power , and size and obviously bang for buck
A safe and long term purchase, the best suggestion would be the
Nvidia 4060 Ti 16GB
I realize this is suggesting green over red, but dollar for dollar it’s a safer and more powerful alternative where she won’t have to worry about compatibility
There are plenty of choices on Amazon (prime) including standard, and low profile
IMHO