Topic: The PC Gaming Thread

[tinner777]

Thanks lads, not sure on video card as I was under impression they are hard to get, I can get the original  EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO ULTRA GAMING 6GB for £400, but if something else is available, I'd have no problem getting a bigger PSU, I have more storage waiting in my old pc.

Thanks again

[adruk87]

Thanks lads, not sure on video card as I was under impression they are hard to get, I can get the original  EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO ULTRA GAMING 6GB for £400, but if something else is available, I'd have no problem getting a bigger PSU, I have more storage waiting in my old pc.

Thanks again

Same money you can get a 3060, depends how much you want to stretch your budget, saw a 3070 for £599, still seems overpriced though. Think MSRP was 499 but i'd have to check.

Plus you can get a Ryzen 5600x for 30 more than your spec. I'd be looking at redoing your spec from scratch and see where you're up to.

[Graeme]

Morning all, after a bit of advice on a PC build. It will be my lads Christmas present so buying the bits over the coming months to spread the cost.

So far I’ve got…

Asus Prime B660M-A WiFi D4 Motherboard (£86.08)
Crucial P5 Plus 1000GB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD (£80.74)
MSI Radeon RX 6500 XT MECH 2X 4GB OC Graphics Card (£144.99)

I’ve built many PC’s over the years, but not so much recently so I’m a bit behind the times on some of the technology such as water cooling, RGB lights etc. With regards to RGB lights, the motherboard has RGB headers, but beyond that I don’t know what else would be needed to have the likes of a CPU fan, case fans, RAM etc all lit up. Is it very plug and play or is the more to it?

The PC is only for some light gaming so doesn’t need to be specced too highly.

[Darren G]

From personal experience I'd say fuck the 6500xt off and go with nvidia. I've owned 3 AMD cards over the years and they've all been an epic pain in the arse. Some people have a smooth ride but a lot have nothing but problems. If you want to play GPU roulette then go ahead, but I'd strongly recommend looking at an Nvidia alternative. Just my personal opinion like.

[ToneLa]

Dualsense is a simply awful controller, and somehow they managed to actually make it worse for PS5, I had a third party controller for the whole of my time with PS4, my PS5 is essentially a paperweight as they won't introduce 3rd party peripherals.

You are literally my opposite, but you can get third party controllers!

Scuf Reflex pro for example
https://www.ign.com/articles/best-ps5-controller

[Andy @ Allerton!]

From personal experience I'd say fuck the 6500xt off and go with nvidia. I've owned 3 AMD cards over the years and they've all been an epic pain in the arse. Some people have a smooth ride but a lot have nothing but problems. If you want to play GPU roulette then go ahead, but I'd strongly recommend looking at an Nvidia alternative. Just my personal opinion like.

Seconded

[has gone odd]

Seconded

Thirded.

Though will say the price of cards at the moment is still beyond a joke, especially as my "ancient" and easy to find cheap 1070ti is still chewing up modern games with ease (at 2k). If you want fancy RTX or 4k goodness then go all in, not fussed myself.

[Graeme]

Already got the card when I posted, his gaming laptop is AMD and he’s had no problems and the new card is specced comfortably for what he needs it for.

Since posting above I’ve also picked up and MSI Gaming keyboard/mouse combo and some Kingston Fury Beast RAM so just need CPU/Cooler/Case/PSU now.

[Riquende]

I'm back on the PC build trail for later this year after seeing the availability of GPUs rocket up. My main problem now is deciding where to land between graphical power and power consumption. I bought my current 850W PSU (Corsair HX Platinum) just a couple of years back and would rather just throw it into a new build (all my other boxes are SFF so I have no alternative use for a full size power supply). I was looking at the 3080 12GB or ti, but maybe they're overkill, and a 3080 would better fit the bill.

It's a similar, linked, conundrum with choosing a CPU. I'm happy to just go all out for a 12900k, but am I then potentially pushing the system too much if I go for a higher-TDP GPU as well?

The rest of the system will involve powering a tower cooler, 4-7 case fans, an NVMe boot drive and an 8tb mechanical. From all the online calculators, it seems 850W should be okay for that setup, but I'm not sure how much overhead I'll have and whether power spikes will end up being an issue.

[ToneLa]

aim a wee bit higher wi the psu, stick it on a surge protector and you're golden

[Kashinoda]

I'm back on the PC build trail for later this year after seeing the availability of GPUs rocket up. My main problem now is deciding where to land between graphical power and power consumption. I bought my current 850W PSU (Corsair HX Platinum) just a couple of years back and would rather just throw it into a new build (all my other boxes are SFF so I have no alternative use for a full size power supply). I was looking at the 3080 12GB or ti, but maybe they're overkill, and a 3080 would better fit the bill.

It's a similar, linked, conundrum with choosing a CPU. I'm happy to just go all out for a 12900k, but am I then potentially pushing the system too much if I go for a higher-TDP GPU as well?

The rest of the system will involve powering a tower cooler, 4-7 case fans, an NVMe boot drive and an 8tb mechanical. From all the online calculators, it seems 850W should be okay for that setup, but I'm not sure how much overhead I'll have and whether power spikes will end up being an issue.

This PSU calculator is very accurate:
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

I found it to be within 5 watts of my actual reading here:
https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=282270.msg17649236#msg17649236

Based on those specs 850W should be fine.

I would say on the 3080 side though, the 3080 Ti isn't worth the extra heat, power and cost. I upgraded myself because it cost me less than I could get for my 3080 at the time... but it's unwieldy really. I hate that these cards are becoming power sappers.

[Riquende]

I hate that these cards are becoming power sappers.

It was actually reading something about the RTX 40 series looking like having even greater power requirements that got me looking into all this again in the first place. Then I saw this Linus video and it did get me pondering whether the custom PC market will start to disappear if more companies follow Apple's lead with things like the Mini. Is the future of computing tiny boxes linked to eGPUs via high capacity cables like thunderbolt?

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/LFQ3LkVF5sM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/LFQ3LkVF5sM</a>

It's already the case that component prices are far higher than their equivalents from 5-10 years ago. If we end up at a point where everyone wanting to build a PC needs to start buying 1200w power supplies to account for their components, then how sustainable a hobby is it really?

[Kashinoda]

It was actually reading something about the RTX 40 series looking like having even greater power requirements that got me looking into all this again in the first place. Then I saw this Linus video and it did get me pondering whether the custom PC market will start to disappear if more companies follow Apple's lead with things like the Mini. Is the future of computing tiny boxes linked to eGPUs via high capacity cables like thunderbolt?

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/LFQ3LkVF5sM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/LFQ3LkVF5sM</a>

It's already the case that component prices are far higher than their equivalents from 5-10 years ago. If we end up at a point where everyone wanting to build a PC needs to start buying 1200w power supplies to account for their components, then how sustainable a hobby is it really?

Yeah it's getting a bit silly, I wanted competition in the GPU space but the result is pushing the silicon to it's limit to brute force every inch of performance. The same thing has already happened on the CPU side. nVidia, AMD & Intel all make efficient chips but they're throwing it out the window for marginal percentages and bragging rights.

If you're future proofing for 4000 series then maybe get a 1000w then Though I hate the recommendation in principle! Might be worth getting platinum or titanium with the rising energy costs, though I expect this is priced in already.

On the eGPU front, I don't think it's that viable at the moment as you'll get bottlenecked at the high end - at least this was the case when I was shopping last year. I think in theory Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 have enough bandwidth to handle the higher end cards, but there's added latency on the controller itself so you will be leaving performance on the table.

EDIT - Seems bandwidth is still miles off, TB3 is only 4 PCIe lanes.

https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/egpu-scaling-benchmark-w-cooler-master-eg200/13/

[kaesarsosei]

Hi all, I need to get two graphics cards and am more budget constrained than anything else and would appreciate any input or expecially where to buy cards.

Card1 - budget £150. I have a Freesync monitor which I believe works better with AMD graphics cards so I am leaning towards Radeon. I bought this new last year and it has a Radeon 5900G CPU which does the gaming for me reasonably well but now I would like to upgrade since graphics cards are apparently falling in price. I use the PC mainly for gaming but don't play the most recent games at all so I don't need cutting edge performance by any means. Basically just the best value AMD graphics card for that kind of money - could maybe stretch very slightly more than £150 if there was a big jump in performance/value around there.

Card2 - budget £100. Don't care which manufacturer, and this is for a really old (ie 8+ years) PC where the Radeon 6950 packed in. Everything else in the machine still works and it was still ok for gaming before it broke so a decent value graphics card will give my son a reasonable PC. Also needs it for some sort of graphics design work for school but I suspect any graphics card that can cope with games will do that.

[Darren G]

Nvidia will run fine with freesync provided it's 10 series onwards.  No idea what card you might want at those prices though. Possibly a GTX 1650 or a cheap 1660 might suit your need for "Card1". 

[hixxstar]

Where do you guys play online games ? .... Steam ? or other sites..

i got...
Windows 11 64 bit
Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX - 32 Gb DDR4
12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 Gb Gddr 6
27" iiyama Blackhawk
Speakers Creative T60

[[new username under construction]]

4090 insanely fast and insanely expensive....entire range really, gong to hold out for something good from AMD as Nvidia seem to be taking the piss now

[gazzalfc]

EVGA pulling out of nvidia and the GPU market completely is huge and will reduce competition as well

[Kashinoda]

Where do you guys play online games ? .... Steam ? or other sites..

i got...
Windows 11 64 bit
Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX - 32 Gb DDR4
12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 Gb Gddr 6
27" iiyama Blackhawk
Speakers Creative T60

The status quo is Steam unless you absolutely have to. Mostly everything goes on there now with some exceptions like Fortnite and COD (though that's returning with MW2).

[Kashinoda]

nVidia can fuck off really.

[Malaysian Kopite]

nVidia can fuck off really.

In one. Planned to wait until the 5000 series anyway but I doubt it’ll get better by then.

[Kashinoda]

In one. Planned to wait until the 5000 series anyway but I doubt it’ll get better by then.

Well it might end up like the 2000 series which no one bought, leading to a cheap 5000 launch. Who knows, nVidia said yesterday that "the age of falling GPU prices are over" and cited some absolute bullshit reasoning. I think they've just lost their marbles.

I hope AMD becomes competitive on features this generation, namely RT performance and further improvements to FSR which has already closed the gap a lot - though DLSS3 looks like great tech. They're moved their GPU design to a chiplet approach like they did with Ryzen so their cards will be a lot cheaper to produce.

Be nice if Intel actually fucking release their cards too, need as much competition as possible.

[Darren G]

Main problem with AMD cards has - and always has been - the software and driver issues.  God knows how many drivers and Radeon software updates that I've gone through since getting the 5700xt, but both are still dodgy as fuck. 

[Skeeve]

I hope AMD becomes competitive on features this generation, namely RT performance and further improvements to FSR which has already closed the gap a lot - though DLSS3 looks like great tech. They're moved their GPU design to a chiplet approach like they did with Ryzen so their cards will be a lot cheaper to produce.

The kind of stuff that dlss3 looks a little dodgier than the previous versions, are extra fps worth it if they come with additional latency or other issues.

Depending on how much you play older games, the real star of their new or updated features might actually be rtx remix, that could breath new life into so many games.

[Skeeve]

Main problem with AMD cards has - and always has been - the software and driver issues.  God knows how many drivers and Radeon software updates that I've gone through since getting the 5700xt, but both are still dodgy as fuck. 

Maybe I have just been lucky with the 6800m in my laptop, but I have had no major issues with the drivers for it, unlike the negative experience I have had in the past with both amd and nvidia cards.

[has gone odd]

Can anyone please recommend some good multiplayer games that can suit 5+ players co-op? Struggling to find many, New World was one but MMOs are just a bit meh these days. Most games are 4p co-op, some even 3! Burnt out with Icarus and Valheim which were both decent, for a while.

Currently stuck playing shite old RTS games!

[dalarr]

Currently stuck playing shite old RTS games!

Careful there, young man. Some of us have fond memories of those old shite RTS games. I play some of them, occasionally, to this day.

[Skeeve]

Can anyone please recommend some good multiplayer games that can suit 5+ players co-op? Struggling to find many, New World was one but MMOs are just a bit meh these days. Most games are 4p co-op, some even 3! Burnt out with Icarus and Valheim which were both decent, for a while.

Currently stuck playing shite old RTS games!

What about Forza Horizon, some of the Tom Clancy games like Rainbow Six Siege might also support enough for you too?

[has gone odd]

Sorry I loved C&C back in the day but modernish space RTS, like Sins of a Solar Empire, are as exciting as an Excel spreadsheet! That said, they are still very popular, just need a few more new ones.

Cheers at the Tom Clancy suggestion, will look into it. Know Division and Wildlands were 4 player Co-op but one of them, in the series, might fit the bill.

[KillieRed]

Can anyone please recommend some good multiplayer games that can suit 5+ players co-op? Struggling to find many, New World was one but MMOs are just a bit meh these days. Most games are 4p co-op, some even 3! Burnt out with Icarus and Valheim which were both decent, for a while.

Currently stuck playing shite old RTS games!

Halo Master Chief Collection. Have never played HALO, but this is up to 8 players in a group.

I really like The Division 2. You can get 4 players in your immediate group, but there are Raids and Countdown where that rises to up to 8 players.

[[new username under construction]]

So the 4090 is up to 75% faster than a 3090ti! Cool, I'm still not paying the daft ass prices!

[Kashinoda]

The 4090 is actually value for money, so to speak.

Whilst the '4080' 12GB is 10%~ faster than the 3080 and is launching at £950? 

[[new username under construction]]

Oh yeah, hell of a card but still not paying it I think AMD might have something

[Schmidt]

And here I am still waiting for the price of the 3080 ti to not be stupid.

[Kashinoda]

Unlaunching The 12GB 4080
By NVIDIA on October 14, 2022 | Featured StoriesGeForce RTX GPUs

The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing.

So, we’re pressing the “unlaunch” button on the 4080 12GB. The RTX 4080 16GB is amazing and on track to delight gamers everywhere on November 16th.

If the lines around the block and enthusiasm for the 4090 is any indication, the reception for the 4080 will be awesome.

[Skeeve]

They only just noticed that deliberately trying to confuse people might be confusing.

Makes you wonder who has exerted pressure on them, seems highly unlikely that the social media mockery would have been enough.

[Darren G]

Unlaunching The 12GB 4080
By NVIDIA on October 14, 2022 | Featured StoriesGeForce RTX GPUs

The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing.

So, we’re pressing the “unlaunch” button on the 4080 12GB. The RTX 4080 16GB is amazing and on track to delight gamers everywhere on November 16th.

If the lines around the block and enthusiasm for the 4090 is any indication, the reception for the 4080 will be awesome.

Pricks.  "confusing" eh?  I guess the corporate speak to English translation would be: "we tried to pull some nefarious bullshit, but it turns out the consumer base isn't as stupid as we hoped".

 Nvidia: Great products for the most part, but an absolute shithouse of a company.

[Max_powers]

Needed to build me a new rig since my old laptop battery is toast and the laptop is poorly optimized.

Got me a secondhand 3060 Ti for cheap and Intel 12600K on sale. I think I can get this build completed for $ 1300 CAD ($1000 USD).

Not bad I say. I only want flawless 1080p gaming with some future-proofness and I think this will do, probably a bit of overkill if anything. 

A bit of a gamble with the used card (probably a miner) but it's worth it. It was 40% of the cost of a new one.  I don't think the cost of parts is now that bad if you don't care to a game in 8k at ultra settings and whatnot. Availability still sucks tho.

[Devon Red]

I'm upgrading my mobo, CPU and RAM on an 8 year old PC. Upgraded the GPU and storage a couple of years ago so don't need this yet.

I'm stuck between a Ryzen 5 5600 build or an i5 12400f build. Prices come out slightly higher for the i5, mainly due to mobo prices. I'm just trying to work out if paying the extra for a B660 board would be worth it for futureproofing? B550 boards seem like a dead end from here.

Any advice welcome. 

[Graeme]

Built my lad an i5-12400 build for Christmas with the B660. He's chuffed with it. Not sure what current prices are like but this is what I paid about 6 months back..

Asus Prime B660M-A WiFi D4 (£86.08)
Intel i5-12400 (£173.99)