| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor | $155.50 |
| CPU Cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler | Purchased For $0.00 |
| Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | Purchased For $0.00 |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory | Purchased For $0.00 |
| Storage | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | Purchased For $0.00 |
| Video Card | Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card | $925.00 |
| Case | Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case | Purchased For $0.00 |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS PLUS 850 Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $129.00 |
| Monitor | Gigabyte G34WQC 34.0" 3440 x 1440 144 Hz Curved Monitor | $390.00 |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $1599.50 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-16 05:42 EDT-0400 |
Ignore prices: I’m going to buy from different stores and I couldn’t bother inputing prices manually actually went and edited prices, also removed unnecessary bits as they were causing some confusion haha
This part list fits my budget and it’s unlikely I will make changes to it, unless there are big issues with compatibility in which case the only change I can make is to go for a 7800XT instead to open up some of the budget to fix those issues.
Objective is playing AAA games at 3440*1440 100+ fps (ideally 120+), high-ultra with no RT and hopefully no FSR; what I’m keeping from current build are RAM and MoBo (plus case, CPU cooler, fans, and drives, but these shouldn’t cause any issues). I listed current drives, fans, etc. just to get a somewhat accurate total power draw to pick the right PSU.
I know about case GPU length restrictions, that’s why there’s a slim fan in the list that will be mounted front bottom, to accomodate the long GPU (Fractal’s website says maximum GPU length with front fan is 315mm, standard fan is 25mm deep, 7900XT is 320mm and the slim fan is 16mm deep, so I should have 4mm of wiggle room!).
My main doubt is about huge bottlenecks with either RAM or MoBo. I’m keeping those and I’d rather not change them, because that would mean having to get a 7800XT instead (I know, for example, that a faster and lower CL RAM will give me slightly better FPS, although my current sticks are running at 3466Mhz and CL18, so not too bad, but I’m not looking to min-max to the last minute detail), unless such dated parts would cause huge bottlenecks that would make that GPU a total waste.
PC will be used exclusively for gaming.
Thanks for any and all suggestions!
edit: after a bit more researching, I ditched the AOC U34G3XM and picked this Gigabyte after watching the video by Hardware Unboxed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5FunMmbztw
The only bottleneck I see is the PCIe on the motherboard, which is only 3.0 x16, while the 7900XT is 4.0 16x. Not the end of the world, though, so I will pull the trigger in the next few days. Thanks everyone for your help!
If you’re going to build a PC on an end of life mobo platform, why not max out the CPU though? 3800x3d is right at $300 right now and that extra speed and more importantly the extra cache is going to give you some more overhead before your build starts feeling dated.
Simply because I have a budget that I really can’t stretch further than this! Getting a 7900XT is already going to punch a huge hole into my pockets, and since I’m going to play games at 3440*1440, according to this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81kAorV30Vc) (skip to 10:05 to see the averages) the differences between 5600x and 5800X3D are definitely interesting, especially for some games, but overall, at my target resolution there is a difference between 10% (1440p) and 6% (4k).
If I were to want to close that gap and get a 5800X3D I’d have to go for a 7800XT instead (to not further raise the budget) and at that point I’d be losing much more performance than I’d be missing by getting a 5600x w/ a 7900XT, since, on average, a 7800XT gets 50-60fps at 4k, while a 7900XT gets 60-80fps at 4k. At 4k I’ll get 6% less FPS with the weaker CPU, but I’d get 25%+ less FPS with a weaker GPU!
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!
I really think you’re going to find some titles (especially those built with unity from what I’ve found) are so poorly optimized from a cpu side you’re going to see more of a gap than what is shown there in real life experience when you startt pushing your settings. If not now, then it’s absolutely going to show it’s age in the next couple of years. I’ve always been a fan of shaving money on the GPU because I can always just upgrade just the card given their pace of release, but especially going with an end of life platform you would be completely rebuying(and rebuilding) the whole machine. More just personal preference of pain now vs pain later, but if your budget can only handle so much or if you can see yourself building a new setup in the next couple of years then go ahead. The x3d is an absolute beast if you do decide to spring for it though. I love mine.
Makes sense, unfortunately it’s all a game of balance between CPU and GPU when you have a fixed budget, and a 5800X3D paired with a 7800XT won’t give me 120+ FPS at 3440*1440 (on average, max FPS at 4k is 60, so around 100 FPS at 3440*1440), a 5600X with a 7900XT probably yes (on average, max FPS at 4k is 80, so around 133 FPS at 3440*1440). At this resolution, I feel like investing in a better GPU is the better choice, also for longevity.
Plus, I think it will be easier to upgrade CPU than to upgrade GPU, were I to need it, for example in the next six or eight months: in that time frame I can easily save for a brand new 5800X3D (which is around $300, especially if I can sell the 5600X), while saving for a 7900XT ($900) is a whole different feat, even factoring in a potential sale of the used card.
If I were in the USA I would’ve gotten a 5600X3D because that’s basically a 5800X3D for much less, it’s a shame it’s a MicroCenter exclusive, guess they don’t have enough of them to sell worldwide.
I surely hope not haha, I can totally see a motherboard and RAM upgrade, and at that point a CPU upgrade as well, down the line, but I hope I can keep the 7900XT for a bit longer than that! To be quite honest, the amount of newly released AAA games that I’d like to play has been decreasing in the past few years, so I’ve been feeling less inclined to upgrade, and with this new PC I can play 100% of my backlog and also 100% of the yet-to-be-released games I’m looking forward to (though I’ll admit that’s a very short list), so hopefully it will last me a while.
Thanks for the suggestions though!