Building A Gaming PC - Parts Advice Needed

LTT did a video recently giving some estimates based on the percentage increases that AMD provided in the presentation and XTX was actually pretty competitive with the 4090. Always behind, but within a few frames. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it often being reasonably ahead of the 4080 16gb (likely trouncing the 12gb version).

Only in rasterised rendering though. The ray tracing performance will likely still be subpar. FSR will probably still be necessary for hitting 60fps. Only seeing about 1.5x increase for RT performance is really disappointing, seeing as benchmarks seem to show RDNA2 as basically being a slideshow when RT is turned on.

Still, I reckon my next card will likely be with team red. I feel that Nvidia have really gone mad with power when it comes to their pricing and they really need to have competition. Not sure if I will go all out and get the XTX, but it is quite tempting, as it seems performance looks to be quite a step up for just an extra £100. Still want to hold off on seeing some benchmarks, so likely get one in the new year. Should hopefully still be able to get a decent amount for my 2080 Super to help with funding it.

I know right! The box minus the card is still flippin heavy.

Like you, my old 3080 Suprim was larger in length so this actually fits in my case better. I also like that this card is actually using screws points to fix into 3 case slots coupled with a thick rigid metal frame. It is holding more solid and I don't even need a stand to prop it up anymore.

Although I've always bought Nvidia, I really want AMD to succeed - I've been mulling up getting a new GPU/CPU to replace my 2070 super/3600 and the 4090 is pretty tempting at MSRP (my LG CX 4k/120 is really crying out for some 4k high fps loving). However, given the lack of stock and the stupidly high prices for AOB variants I may plump for AMD. Ray Tracing is the only thing stopping me but, fuck me, if I can hardly tell the difference to a Ray Traced shadow/reflection to some well programmed alternatives. I will probably hold out until the new year when all this craziness has diminished (just bought a PS5 of Fleabay so that will keep me occupied til then - not forgetting PSVR2 will keep my attention).

AMD has just released a new line of 7000 series cpu's with a new slot so new motherboard and ram needed, makes it cheaper to pickup stuff that's still better than the current consoles in the previous AMD 5000 series stuff if he counting the pennies. 5600x cpu or even 5800x3d is now options for decent prices on a first build.

7900XTX is a 4080 competitor

videocardz.com/newz/amd-confirms-rx-7900-xtx-is-rtx-4080-competitor-fsr3-may-be-supported-by-pre-rdna3-architectures

That’s going to be tough if he needs a screen and so on. Kind of depends what he wants to play, but I think a full system second hand is indeed your best bet. Would he be okay with a Steam Deck?

If he isn't in the need for a monitor and peripherals, he should be good to get a budget system at £700ish. Good news is that a budget system will probably be mostly fine at 1080p/60fps for the most part (with settings tweaking). If he could get his budget up to £800-900 than he could get quite a nice budget system that would do that even more comfortably, as well as not skimping on things like the motherboard, which could cause problems if he wants to add more storage in the future or might limit him on ports and what not.

He could probably get an I5 or similar AMD. Geforce 3050 is probably doable, although might be worth looking at something in the 20 series. I'm not hugely familiar with the AMD GPUs, but perhaps something in the 6000 series would be suitable.

I would probably just go with a 1TB SSD. Any smaller and he would likely want an HDD too, which would end up costing about the same. 1TB should be fine and he can get more drives later down the line, as long as the motherboard allows it. If he is mostly using it for games, he will want them on the SSD anyway.

RAM he should look for 3000MHZ and above, particularly if he is going AMD for the processor. 8GB would likely be fine for now. He could always get 8 now and get another 8 later on.

Not sure how familiar you are with PC building, but word of advice for you both is to not cut corners on PSU. You might think it is good place to not bother spending money, as you can get cheap ones that sound fine and they are obviously not the most exciting components. Making sure it is powerful and efficient though will save a lot of headache.

Edit: that one you listed seems pretty good. 3070 will be a fantastic card and should allow him to run most things at 1440p quite smoothly. I haven't been following processors, so not sure about that one, but would assume it is fine.

I've a 3090 to get rid of but that might be overkill.....

Brilliant guys, thank you. It's all a bit of a minefield really. I haven't gamed on a PC for 20+ years, and I didn't have a clue then, let alone now. He's quite keen to get a good system, and compromise on the monitor / keyboard / mouse etc initially with a view to upgrading them later. I've told him not to rush it, and slowly build the funds until he can get something that's worth saving for. I reckon in about 4 or 5 months, all going well, he should be sitting on 600 - 700.

Is the standard an AMD processor?

That's just an example that I saw on FB marketplace nearby. Think that was around 700 odd.

That's the thing I'm thinking. Maybe best just to get one that someone else is selling that suits his budget.

Yeah, that's what my head is kind of telling me.

It's a decent system assuming it's all in working order. VR capable if he ever wants to go that route. 4k TV will be a struggle but everything else should be fine. Fast hard drive for snappy general performance and boot times. He can still learn about building a tiny bit as new storage will be needed at some point. Maybe a used i7/i9 cpu and a 5070 or whatever in a few years. You'll need others to tell you if it's good value at that price though, I've no idea anymore.

What do people think?
www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/gigabyte/g34wqc
Currently got a 35" Acer without HDR or Freesync.

Yeah, you have to jump up to silly expensive monitors to get decent HDR. I did that, and my Samsung Neo G7 is great, but I can tell you they're then bollocks for day to day desktop use.