New PC, looking for advice on spec

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cost is part of the equation yes (and very important), but there are other trade offs I need to consider (as I may not overall be able, or want to, wait a few months - that is just how it is for me). And just to note: Even if I did save that money on the mobo, doesn't mean I'd want to necessarily fork out £600 on a future GPU. That's not always the balance or trade-off that I would make (probably not what most others do, but it's just how I operate).

Having said all that, the info in your earlier post about the new upcoming GPUs is really useful to know, some interesting things there.

Although (from admittedly a VERY quick seach/look) there seems to be little concrete about specs, dates (other than 'probably soon'), price etc. for the new cards - thats a lot of unknowns for me to gamble on what I 'might get' by waiting versus getting something now when I need it. Again though, new cards being released may mean current cards come down in price as well.

Lots to consider, thanks again!

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GPUs are not like CPUs,they live and die on game support and drivers. Once companies move to new designs,they are not going to prioritise old ones. The issue is that raytracing support is a big generational change,and as much as I think its a bit overhyped IMHO,its going to be where the future lies,especially if a GPU is being kept for 5~6 years. The last change this big was programmable shaders in DX8/DX9.

On the AMD side,the uarchs which were in consoles,ie,GCN1.1(Hawaii) and GCN1.3(Polaris) have aged very well,and GCN1.2 and Vega,seem to be having problems now. So I see RDNA1,probably starting to fall behind RDNA2 as the consoles will use it - most major PC games are developed for consoles now.

With Nvidia,they are certainly pushing RT and upscaling too. Any major hardware changes here,won't put Turing in a good light. So,say Ampere does RT twice as better as Turing(rumours say more),an RTX3060 might end up being as fast as RTX2080TI once you start using RT,and RT performance is something Nvidia can probably scale up more easily than rasterised performance.

With the RDNA2 based GPUs,there are huge changes over RDNA1,which were highlighted in the PS5/XBox Series X launches,ie,added RT support,but also VRS,and various other technologies. Turing has a degree of these technologies,but especially with the more mainstream models,lacks sufficient processing power. We already have pictures of the coolers,and other leaked information on Ampere. Latest leaked information is that Ampere and RDNA2 launched will be over the timespan of September through to November.

I have a Pascal based GPU now,and if it went kaput,I have an old GTX960,I would rather struggle with that for 4 months,then get one of the current GPUs.

The issue is that Turing was a poor generation in terms of price/performance as Nvidia jacked up prices,so you essentially had no change in price/performance over Pascal. When AMD released the RX5700XT it helped pushed prices down a bit,but it's not been a great generation at all. In fact IMHO,one of the worst in terms of generational uplift for years.

For example the RTX2080TI was 25~30% faster than a GXT1080TI for 50% increase in respective launch prices. Compare that with the move from Maxwell with Pascal which was massive. The GTX1080TI was 75% faster at qHD than the GTX980TI for a 10% increase in launch price. AMD didn't bother releasing a flagship RDNA1 GPU. Ampere and RDNA2 should realistically have better generational performance jumps.

[DanceswithUnix]

(as I may not overall be able, or want to, wait a few months - that is just how it is for me)

Sounds like a back story there. Want to play the new MS flight simulator on release day perhaps?

Rumours are pointing at the new Nvidia cards being 40% faster than existing cards. That is believable, the 7nm process they are made on is ISTR about 40% lower power consumption than the 12nm of the current cards, so in the same power rating they can cram in 40% more transistors. But at this point even Nvidia don't know what the pricing is, they supposedly decide on or the day before launch.

Then there is the whole issue of ray tracing and AI support which should be added/improved. That's sort of why I made the quip about MS Flight Simulator; where a 10 year old PC would happily run FSX but would probably be dog slow on the new one. If you are one of the millions in that boat (plane?) then you probably don't care *that* much about the up-coming video card generation as you have a very specific use case. If you want to run all the latest games, then you might get some buyer's remorse.

[Spider95]

That's sort of why I made the quip about MS Flight Simulator; where a 10 year old PC would happily run FSX but would probably be dog slow on the new one. If you are one of the millions in that boat (plane?) then you probably don't care *that* much about the up-coming video card generation as you have a very specific use case. If you want to run all the latest games, then you might get some buyer's remorse.

Lol. No I don't actually have any specific game or use-case I am aiming at. Not waiting a few months is more related to my preference of buying the whole new PC as a whole built 3XS package from Scan and not faff about with having to move current GTX970 into new machine (plus not sure what that would do re warranty - a question I need to ask Scan about as well). As I said in my first post, PC is creaking and may not last much longer so I will want to be buying new PC sooner rather than later.

I want to be able to run all the new games coming out, but I am not someone who is particularly bothered about squeezing every last pixel, fps and/or bells and whistles out of a GPU. Although obviously I want things to also look great where possible

So sounds like the new GPUs will be quite a step up in capability. I imagine, as with everything, the new GPUs will initially be expensive, and who knows how long it will be before anything but the top tier cards come out. But even if that is not the case will there not also be be a lag before new games actually start to really take advantage of these new things? e.g. not many current games have ray tracing, but that will likely start to come in (along with other things) but that might take a while?

I'm now thinking perhaps what I should do is set my sights a little lower, buy a card now that is decent enough that will meet my requirements and support most new releases well for the next 2-3 years or so, then plan on upgrading GPU at that point (when there may be a much better idea of where the upcoming new technology has actually got to, and prices may be better).

Cheers,

(\(\;;/)/)

[DanceswithUnix]

I'm now thinking perhaps what I should do is set my sights a little lower, buy a card now that is decent enough that will meet my requirements and support most new releases well for the next 2-3 years or so, then plan on upgrading GPU at that point (when there may be a much better idea of where the upcoming new technology has actually got to, and prices may be better).

Usually my suggestion would be an 8GB RX 570 or RX 580 as they are really cheap (I have a couple that cost me about £130), but your existing 970 is basically the same performance.

In terms of warranty, companies don't want to ship a machine with parts missing as that isn't really a functional machine at that point, so what you have to do is specify a cheap component that you can rip out. Stuff like the GPU is user upgradable, they should be OK with that, but might require you to put the card they sold you back in if you want a warranty repair.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I don't see a problem with Scan allowing you to use your old GPU?? Most of these companies if you ring them or e-mail them,should be able to assemble a custom PC for you from a specs list you already have. AFAIK,Overclockers Uk does this. Scan have a subforum here where you can ask. The PCs on their websites tend to be pre-configured builds.

There are some GTX1660 Super deals for around £200ish now. That should be around 50% faster than a GTX970. No RT support,but it does support variable rate shading. The RTX2060 series RT support is a bit crap.

[DanceswithUnix]

There are some GTX1660 Super deals for around £200ish now. That should be around 50% faster than a GTX970. No RT support,but it does support variable rate shading. The RTX2060 series RT support is a bit crap.

I was thinking the same.

... there is the matter of the 4000 series CPUs coming out in a couple of months. Such an unfortunate time to be buying

[cptwhite_uk]

Spider95, I've PM'd you

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was thinking the same.

... there is the matter of the 4000 series CPUs coming out in a couple of months. Such an unfortunate time to be buying

It kind of is! I did have some mates,who had PCs which went kaput(or where really ancient),who had to upgrade(both where AM3+ based rigs) in the last few months. However,I managed to tell them to hold off the GPU upgrade for the time-being.

[DanceswithUnix]

It kind of is! I did have some mates,who had PCs which went kaput(or where really ancient),who had to upgrade(both where AM3+ based rigs) in the last few months. However,I managed to tell them to hold off the GPU upgrade for the time-being.

Zen3 could be as much of a disruption as Ampere GPUs, but at least in that case you can get a 3600 "for now" and it is an awesome little chip.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Zen3 could be as much of a disruption as Ampere GPUs, but at least in that case you can get a 3600 "for now" and it is an awesome little chip.

One of them doesn't really game on their PC that much,and it was an upgrade from a Phenom II X6 1045T to a Ryzen 9 3900 non-X(was around £300ish as part of a bundle). I did tell them they could wait a bit longer,but were working more from home,so were getting fedup with the old system. The other one got a Ryzen 5 3600,but the rig had gone kaput,but they kept their old R9 390.

[Spider95]

I don't see a problem with Scan allowing you to use your old GPU?? Most of these companies if you ring them or e-mail them,should be able to assemble a custom PC for you from a specs list you already have. AFAIK,Overclockers Uk does this. Scan have a subforum here where you can ask. The PCs on their websites tend to be pre-configured builds.

Thanks and yes they may be ok with old GPU yes, and yes I need to ask - just have not had time to do so yet (work is hectic - I really need a holiday!). But regardless of that, as I have said I may not want to re-use the GPU and instead may compromise with something lesser now and upgrade sooner than I was planning (replacing GPU is something I am happy with doing as that is something I have done before). I just haven't decided yet as there is still a lot to consider.

My current system came from Scan. Started as a sort of pre-configued 3XS PC but then got tweaked quite a bit after a lot of discussion with them. I'm planning on doing the same again this time, not initiated this yet (as I'm still not set on what my spec list actually is), but getting closer thanks to all the helpful advice I'm getting!

(\(\;;/)/)

[Spider95]

Update: After some pondering and more research this is now my revised spec list. Gone with the lower specced GPU for now with the intention to update 2-3 years down the line once the GPU scene settles a bit.

List still to be confirmed/discuss with Scan but hopefully am getting closer. Thanks all for your helpful comments.

CPU:AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

Mobo: B550 Gigabyte Aorus Master (I realise this B550 is more expensive than some x570 boards but I don’t like the active fan on those boards – a possible point of failure down the line. It also meets my requirements of minimum 9 USB, with the USB3 all being 3.2, has latest wifi standard, great VRMs and 3 M.2 slots.).

Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500, black. Possible with an extra case fan (depending on where radiator is mounted)

Cooling: Either an H115i RGB Pro XT or the smaller H100i - depending on where it's best to mount the radiator (going to discuss with Scan)

RAM: 32Gb Corsair Vengance LPX

GPU: Gigabyte geforce GTX 1660 super OC.

PSU: Corsair RMx 750W 80 plus Gold full modular (may bring this down to 650W - TBD)

Drive: O/S + some apps & games: 500Gb Seagate firecuda 520 SSD PCIe4 M.2
Drive: Other apps/games: 1Tb Seagate firecuda 510 SSD PCIe3 M.2
Drive: Data/files: 2Tb Seagate barracuda HDD
Drive: Backup/archive: 4Tb Seagate barracuda HDD.

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