Topic: The PC Gaming Thread

[Max_powers]

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.

I am not sure it's worth future-proofing on the CPU front. Modern games are bottlenecked by GPU for the most part (except for things like the grand strategy genre sometimes). Even CPUs from 6-7 years ago still give you decent performance if paired with a decent GPU. A 12400 or 5600x can support a 3080 or 6900XT GPU without significant bottlenecks.

Still, you want a decent motherboard that has all your needs.

I recently built with 12600. I think I am gonna flip my PC  components individually in 5 years and just do a new build. The only components I think I will reuse are the Power supply, storage and  the case.

[kaesarsosei]

Anyone got a Steam Deck? There's 10% off them atm and I'm intrigued. But I'm probably mad because I would never take it out of the house.

[PaulV]

Anyone got a Steam Deck? There's 10% off them atm and I'm intrigued. But I'm probably mad because I would never take it out of the house.

I have one and I like it. It rather depends on what games you would want to play on it. Some competitive shooters are out due to anti cheat not working properly on it, and also I hate playing shooters with a controller. For casual non action games, it is great though, and good for playing in bed or on the sofa, rather than in front of a desktop pc.

[[new username under construction]]

Not sur eif it's PC specific but imagine it would be at the moment but love seeing a few Skyrim videos on youtube where people have plugged in ChatGPT to NPC's games about to get very interesting!

[Darren G]

Not sur eif it's PC specific but imagine it would be at the moment but love seeing a few Skyrim videos on youtube where people have plugged in ChatGPT to NPC's games about to get very interesting!

Hadn't heard about this so looked at youtube after reading your post.  I think that "interesting" is an understatement.  I'm kinda blown away mate. It'll be an absolute game-changer for RPGs if it can be widely implemented. 

[[new username under construction]]

Hadn't heard about this so looked at youtube after reading your post.  I think that "interesting" is an understatement.  I'm kinda blown away mate. It'll be an absolute game-changer for RPGs if it can be widely implemented. 

Yeah there are a couple I've seen, both do the same thing but one of them had inflection in the responses and the other kind of flat....regardless, as you say a game changer, immersion if they get it right will be off the scale. * As long as they weren't faked *

[kaesarsosei]

Hey all, question about adding a Graphics Card (Radeon RX6600) to my PC. I've opened up the case and it fits etc, but there is no power cable to plug into its 8-pin socket. Do I need to buy that separately and connect to the PSU?

I didn't have a Graphics card before, I was using the built in AMD 5600G CPU. My PSU is a Corsair 650W so I know there is enough power but I just don't seem to have a cable. Previous PCs I've had years ago always seemed to have excess cables inside the case doing nothing.

[Graeme]

What do you have spare coming off the PSU? You can get adapters to convert other power connectors into 8-pin. Most common is probably 2 x L4 Molex…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Matters-2-Pack-8-Pin-Molex/dp/B01DV1Z428


Or SATA versions of the same if it’s a modern PSU…


https://www.amazon.co.uk/CGTime-15-Pin-PCI-Express-Female-Adapter/dp/B075383P7T

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Youse are all wusses if you haven't ventured into Noita.

Scaredy cats

[stoa]

What's people's experience with Amazon Prime Day? Want to upgrade my GPU and want to see, if prices might drop a bit more as I'm aiming for an RX 7900 XTX. Have already found some stuff (at non-amazon vendors) that are slightly below 1K. Does Amazon usually have stuff like that on sale for Prime Day or do other vendors drop their prices with regards to Prime Day?

Have already gotten a sweet deal for a PSU on Amazon...

[ToneLa]

Prime Day is not 100% genuine nor the best opportunity for a bargain, using a that's very effective on the squares. You won't be aware of the previous price of an item so you'll be WOW! when they mark an item as discounted if it even is discounted.

I would say if you want to take advantage of it have a list of what you want at current prices and only purchase IF those exact items are indeed discounted

Find yourself a bargain rather than having it foisted upon you

Buyer beware

That said, GPUs can be had, yes, it's a big area as obviously the price of them has gone gaga, other tech sites like Overclockers might get in on the action and that is worth keeping in mind:

https://www.pcgamer.com/amazon-prime-day-graphics-card-deals/

[[new username under construction]]

Just install the Camelizer

https://camelcamelcamel.com/

[stoa]

Cheers guys.

[lobsterboy]

What's people's experience with Amazon Prime Day? Want to upgrade my GPU and want to see, if prices might drop a bit more as I'm aiming for an RX 7900 XTX. Have already found some stuff (at non-amazon vendors) that are slightly below 1K. Does Amazon usually have stuff like that on sale for Prime Day or do other vendors drop their prices with regards to Prime Day?

Have already gotten a sweet deal for a PSU on Amazon...

I wouldn't bother with Amazon for a GPU.
Their GPU prices aren't that great, even during prime day.
You would be better off using EBuyer, Overclockers or Scan.

[tinner777]

lads something to emulate switch, wii u etc..
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Ywvzmr
PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Ywvzmr

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  (Ł113.20 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Steel Legend Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (Ł135.57 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (Ł57.98 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (Ł19.39 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  (Ł269.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (Ł80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600 W1 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  (Ł45.83 @ Amazon UK)
Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe x1 Network Adapter  (Ł12.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Total: Ł734.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-08 07:45 BST+0100

Any feedback, as always, appreciated

[Graeme]

Only points I’d note…

1. You don’t need the TP-Link network adapter as the motherboard has Gigabit Ethernet.
2. If it’s a gaming PC, 480GB isn’t really going to cut it. Some newer games over over 100GB in size
3. That’s the fastest RAM the motherboard will support so there’s no scope to upgrade RAM in the future without upgrading the motherboard as well.

If you’re happy with the storage and RAM then I’d drop the TP-Link adapter and use the money to cover the difference between a 500GB SSD and 500GB M.2 as the latter gives a big performance boost.

[tinner777]

Thanks

[stoa]

Whatever you do guys don't get a PSU from Thermaltake... Their cables are a complete horror show. I think they're actually designed to hurt you. Fucking hell... Had to take them in and out multiple times today for troubleshooting and they have sharp edges and corners everywhere... Whoever designed those must have insanely thick skinned fingers...

[Malaysian Kopite]

Thinking of upgrading my 3600 for either a 5600 or 5800x3d (which is 3x as expensive with a cooler but I should be set for a while). I’ve got a 3070 and play on 4K when I can, anyone have any experience with this upgrade?

[stoa]

Just watched a video today from a german PC mag and they basically said, if you're playing in 4K it almost doesn't matter what CPU you're running as your FPS will basically limited by your graphics card. And it's basically what I've read everywhere else when I was doing my upgrade. Running an RX 7900 XTX with a Ryzen 9 3900X in 4K and having a quick test with MSI Afterburner it seems the theory holds water. I did the Cyberpunk-benchmark (didn't really adjust the settings so everything was on Ultra, no Raytracing) and got roughly 60 FPS with the GPU being at 99 percent load while the CPU was hovering around 30-40 percent. Same in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. So, not really sure whether an upgrade would be of much use for you.

[ToneLa]

Martysmods.com lets you use ReShade to inject software raytracing into most games

I find it pretty good. Overdid it with Xcom it tanked performance 

[Riquende]

As I'm now pretty sure I'll be building a new PC before the end of the year I've been looking into the current generation of GPUs... now admittedly I'm only looking at nVidia as I've had bad experiences with AMD kit, but wow, it's hard to find any reviewer with anything good to say about any of the RTX 40 lineup. The top end is vastly overpriced, the lower end is underpowered. And still overpriced. The ti models don't seem to exist to fill any sort of actual gap, so on.

By default, I've settled on a standard 4070 (I'm upgrading from a 1070) as it sort of seems the least-worst option in the range with a really good power efficiency saving over similar performance 30 series cards. As I'm 50/50 on building in my SFF case with a 750W PSU max I don't really want to start pushing the power consumption up too high.

Dunno what I'm going to do about my new HTPC when it comes time to get that sorted. Intel ARC maybe?

[Kashinoda]

Yeah the GPU market is shit, nVidia treat the consumer with disdain and AMD aren't agressive enough at various price points to be worth it (depending on your bracket).

Your other options I guess:
- 4070 Ti which will cost you 32% more (Ł770) for 23% more performance.
- 7900 XT which will cost you 25% more (Ł730) for 35% more performance (No DLSS3 equivilent, FSR2 isn't as good as DLSS2, weaker RT)

I think you'll see mad deals by the time the Black Friday guff comes around as the demand just isn't there, at least the CPU market is good 🤷

What are you going to use your HTPC for? I'm still rocking a 3200G APU on mine which has no issues with 4K content (with HDR via MadVR) or using Moonlight to stream  games at 4K from my gaming rig. You could get a 4600G or similar with a cheap motherboard and be fine I imagine.

[Riquende]

My HTPC isn't some low-power box like most people use the term for, it's really more my backup PC and is very similar components: same mobo, just a i7-7700 instead of a K and a 1050ti instead of a 1070. The reduced power requirement means it's only got a 450W PSU too, and worse (but fine) cooling in its worse (but fine) case.

I think I've picked out my spec for the new main PC, I'll pick up one of the new Raptor Lake refresh CPUs - they may not be much of an update over 13th gen but will be great for me.

So the basics will be:

i7-14700K
4070
32GB DDR5
Some 2TB NVMe thing & maybe a 2nd drive for the Steam library

I've got power supplies, coolers and fans I can reuse (if I get the 1700 cooler mounting kits) so not a problem there. The only real decision still to make is whether to try to stick it in a SFF case with an ITX mobo or just buy a new regular case and go ATX. I'm leaning towards the latter so I don't have to worry about squeezing a modern GPU into a smaller box as they're so much bigger now, and so I can use more of the Noctua 120 & 140mm fans I have otherwise spare. Plus it means I can keep my current PC intact and save the effort of pulling it apart.

Decisions, decisions... Planning to start purchasing around the end of October so a bit of time to work it all out.

[KillieRed]

⬆️⬆️⬆️

This is why I gave up pc gaming and bought an Xbox.

[stoa]

⬆️⬆️⬆️

This is why I gave up pc gaming and bought an Xbox.

You don't like fun?

[KillieRed]

I didn’t like having to upgrade my pc all the time!

Especially with my meagre technical knowledge.

[Riquende]

I didn’t like having to upgrade my pc all the time!

Especially with my meagre technical knowledge.

All the time?

This is an upgrade from a 7th gen system first built in 2016! It's only because some of the big hitters this year have started demanding hardware beyond my 1070 that I'm finally having to pull the trigger after delaying it 3 years.

If you're not that into tech stuff just stay away from small form factor builds and you really only have 2 decisions to make, and that's whether to go Intel/nVidia or AMD for the CPU/GPU. Everything else is just how much your budget stretches to.

[darragh85]

what is the recommended VR headset at the moment? is it still the Valve Index.

this is about the only thing in gaming that gives me the wow factor and makes me want it. Standard gaming peaked about 10 years ago. nothing really impresses me nowadays from a technical standpoint.  The cost of VR and a distrust of Meta are the only things stopping me at this point. Could easily fork out the bones of 3000 for a proper Valve Index set up.

[kev_goss]

what is the recommended VR headset at the moment? is it still the Valve Index.

this is about the only thing in gaming that gives me the wow factor and makes me want it. Standard gaming peaked about 10 years ago. nothing really impresses me nowadays from a technical standpoint.  The cost of VR and a distrust of Meta are the only things stopping me at this point. Could easily fork out the bones of 3000 for a proper Valve Index set up.

I've got the reverb G2 for DCS and love it, my friends I Fly with have got different ones between them and all said apart from the Varjo VR headsets that's probably the best one you can get. I think you can get the Varjo Aero for about a grand now too.

[Darren G]

The Meta Quest Pro is hands down better than the G2.

[Kashinoda]

The Meta Quest Pro is hands down better than the G2.

Likely is but it very much depends what you're playing.

I mainly use VR for WW2 era dog fighting (in War Thunder) and you really need absolute clarity in the sky; compression is always going to be a pain point when you need to spot a few pixels miles away . Il-2 Sturmovik isn't very playable on the Quest 2, though I appreciate things will be better on Quest Pro and 3. Games like Half Life: Alyx are absolutely great though, especially when you use it wirelessly.

If I knew anyone with an iPhone so I could scan my face I would have ordered Bigscreen Beyond ages ago I think, the bulk of VR really fucking sucks.
https://www.bigscreenvr.com/

[ToneLa]

Cleaned me PC fans out, used needle nose tweezers to get big lumps of dust out the fans and grills that compressed air or earbuds couldn't shift - well worth it, running about 10 degrees cooler now

[Armand9]

i dont have a gaming PC so i watch a twitch streamer for PC games i fancy but wont get to play - been watching Rogue Trader, game is fucking amazing

i realise it's also on the latest gen consoles but i won't be bothering with them unless/until they slash their prices, anyway, it's clearly a PC game and not well suited for consoles

[[new username under construction]]

Was there a VR thread? Because I am sure this applies to Consoles as well, just seen the Disney Holotile for VR etc

about 3 mins in if it doesn't start there

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/68YMEmaF0rs&amp;t=200s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/68YMEmaF0rs&amp;t=200s</a>

[wige]

Hello All.

First time PC builder here and looking for some advice/debate on my proposed build and then specifically around what sort of Monitor to pair with it.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/2tFbdH

High level for those that don't want to click = 7800X3d CPU / 32GB DDR5 Ram / RTX 4070 Super.

I mainly play 4x games - Civ/Stellaris/Old World - but want to be able to play huge maps & large player counts with very quick turn times - hence the CPU/RAM above. That said, the first game I play on this will be Baldurs Gate 3 and I want that running smoothly and looking great. I think the PC will become my system of choice for single player, open world RPGs and I want it all looking sexy To achieve all this I think I'm already looking at a pretty decent GPU, so im leaning towards the 4070 super based on a load of research looking at benchmarks etc.

The main question, or doubt, I have is around the monitor. Some games (maybe most?) that I play are going to be exceptional at 4K regardless of the FPS count - Im thinking those 4x titles mainly, perhaps BG3 as I hear it's not particularly GPU intensive. However, if I buy a 4k monitor for those, am I kinda shooting myself in the foot for those big RPGs that might release in the future that would actually be better running at 1440p and higher FPS?

Coming across from being a console gamer, this is a really tough decision to make as there's not really anywhere you can go and see a 1440p display running at 144FPS vs a 4K at 60 FPS and *see* the difference.

[Graeme]

Gamers tend to be of the opinion that the 1440p @ 144Hz is a better option than 4K @ 60Hz

[stoa]

I have no real experience in terms of 1440p displays as I'm basically playing on my 4K-TV, but I wouldn't think there's a lot of difference in terms of visual quality, if you're using a good monitor. If your preference is smoothness and higher FPS then I'd go with 1440p.

Like the config, but the 850W powersupply could be a bit overkill in my view. I'd also prefer having two SSDs in my PC. A smaller one (500 Gigs or 1TB) specifically for the OS (and maybe some programmes like VLC or 7Zip or even Steam) and a bigger one (2TB) basically as storage space for other things like games (the Steam library). That depends on your gaming and PC-usage habbits though. I just feel that for me it's the right solution.

[wige]

I have no real experience in terms of 1440p displays as I'm basically playing on my 4K-TV, but I wouldn't think there's a lot of difference in terms of visual quality, if you're using a good monitor. If your preference is smoothness and higher FPS then I'd go with 1440p.

Like the config, but the 850W powersupply could be a bit overkill in my view. I'd also prefer having two SSDs in my PC. A smaller one (500 Gigs or 1TB) specifically for the OS (and maybe some programmes like VLC or 7Zip or even Steam) and a bigger one (2TB) basically as storage space for other things like games (the Steam library). That depends on your gaming and PC-usage habbits though. I just feel that for me it's the right solution.

850W was added with potential future upgrades in mind. Though I guess if I do upgrade, the PSU can also be added at that point as well.  Thanks for suggestions on the 2 SSDs, I like that idea.

[FiSh77]

850W was added with potential future upgrades in mind. Though I guess if I do upgrade, the PSU can also be added at that point as well.  Thanks for suggestions on the 2 SSDs, I like that idea.

I'd pay a little bit more and get this motherboard instead, has 3 m.2 slots and enough PCIe lanes to run them plus GPU

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B650-TOMAHAWK-WIFI

I have this board, same cpu, 64gb ddr5, Zotac 4090, 3 WD m.2 ssd's, windows is on an older sn580 but have 2 x 2tb sn850x for games and apps, fast as fuck and hardly breaks sweat