I’d like to build a new computer for myself after my last build in December 2018. My last build included a Ryzen 1700 and my old GTX 1060.
Today I’m hoping to get a few more impressions, before finalizing my planned build.
Budget: ca. 1500 EUR
Location: Germany, EUR
Retailers: Non-marketplace, non-used
Peripherals: I already own them.
Main use: Games on Linux (Kubuntu 22.04 LTS), media, a little coding, very little streaming with friends
OC: no
Cooling: air
Gaming:
Settings: High / Ultra, not the highest, except for older games
Resolution: 2560x1440 px, refresh rate: 75Hz
Most demanding games that I own: Doom Eternal, Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Notes:
I already own 64 GiB of RAM (2x Kingston ValueRAM 32 GB DDR4-3200 CL19 Memory), which I’d like to keep.
I don’t plan on using RTX a lot, I’d raver save a little for future upgrades.
Questions:
Does it make sense to select an i7-13700 over an i5-12XXX for increased efficency and two extra cores?
Would a simpler mainboard serve me as well as a more expensive one?
With DDR4 AMD is the clear winner in cost and performance.
Also the 3070ti is a poor GPU choice in the current market. Anything with 8GB will struggle to play games due to the limited space. I strongly suggest going no lower than a Radeon 6700 10g, and would recommend starting at the 6700xt 12g.
Nvidia honestly is selling a waste of sand in their mid to entry level GPUs, they wont be able to play even modded last gen games within a year or two. 10gb is the minimum, 12gb is where you should start, and 16gb is really the best spot to buy at so you get a few years of use out of it.
How big a resolution [fps goal] are you working with?
3070Tie, was a damning waste of sand, for wearing the Tie tier
Certainly the 8GB debacle [of recent times], is really rearing its uggly head, with newer titles
Some GPUs are still viable , granted expectations are tempered
Thanks for your input. I had a feeling 8 GiB may not be a good choice, but went for a 70isch TI card since I thought that to be fast. I may as well wait a few more month and get a different kind of setup.
Main goal is gaming. Currently I’m thinking it may be a good idea to have an extra rig only for gaming and use my SFF box for daily stuff.
Anything specific you are waiting for? nvidia wont be offering any “good” deals in the next 6 months, and the next good release from AMD will be the 7600 which should be around $300-350us and will be comparable in performance to the 6700xt but probably with less vRAM.
DDR4 is actually the big limiter here, intel DDR4 CPU’s are power hogs, and run hot, plus the motherboards tend to cost more. The latest DDR5 based intel is a tad better but still tends to run hot, and on a DDR4 board they drop about 10-20% performance over DDR5.
AMD is the clear winner in perf/watt, overall productivity and gaming, system cost given your RAM.
On the GPU side, its the same thing, Nvidia 3xxx and 4xxx cards tend to run hotter, use more power, and cost more while often only being 8gb of vRAM unless you buy something in the $1000 range.
AMD on the other hand is offering great values in the $350us range that start at 12gb and sip power in comparison. Want more, even a RX 6900xt with 18gb will outperform a 4070 and at lower cost, lower power, less heat.
The only things you get with Nvidia are ray-tracing (poorly supported in Linux), and DLSS which IMO is not as good as FSR from AMD because you can apply FSR to nearly any game, even if they did not add support through Linux and Vulken.
And just a note on this, I dont think its a bad thing to re-use your memory. I think keeping 64gb of DDR4 on an AM4 platform will be better than say 32gb of DDR5 on an AM5 or new Intel platform. The performance will be decent and the cost savings will be significant.
It just limits your choices since Intel suffers on DDR4.
A board is a glorified cable+multi-plug. If it has the ports/slots you want and need, then that’s ok. If you want to pay +300€ for fancy paintjob and VRM phases you never use, then that’s fine too. But a board is a board, it’s all standard. No board has more than 4 DIMM slots or has more than 24 PCIe lanes.
You forgot about the awesome 90s-style Nvidia Settings manager, persistent mode madness and DKMS.
Yeah 12GB is probably the lower limit I’d take unless I plan to replace the card in 1-2 years.
I got a 7900xt under Linux and and I see memory allocation of 12-16GB all the time. Doesn’t mean you need that much, just that going cheap on memory capacity is never a good idea. 10GB is the 8GB of 2024.
First off, for a Linux gaming build, go with AMD GPU unless you have a GSync only monitor. That is the only real reason why Nvidia is on the table anymore in Linux mid-range gaming right now.
Even then, I would STRONGLY suggest getting a FreeSync monitor - Nvidia supports both, while AMD can only support FreeSync due to Nvidia being greedy bastards and holding on to that protocol for dear life. So naturally, all monitor vendors support the only protocol that works on both platforms.
So, let’s see here. We basically have three options, Zen 3 (AMD Ryzen 5xxx), Zen 4 (AMD Ryzen 7xxx), or Raptor Lake (Intel Core 13xxx). Let’s have a look at each:
The best last gen can bring you. Still packs a decent punch but is starting to show it’s age. Still, this system will keep you gaming for a long time, quite possibly until AM6 comes out at the end of 2026 or so. There is room to grow here within your budget, but mATX boards are already ridiculously capable, and I’ll stick to the mATX form factor because a 30L case does make a nice difference on your desk.
Not quite as good as the 5800X3D build, but on the other hand this is kind of middle of the ground. As with the Zen 3, there are precious few upgrades to make here. I think the Zen 3 is a better alternative for gaming, but if you are more comfortable with Intel this is certainly not a bad deal, just not as amazing as the Zen 3 deal.
Most expensive of the three, and you would trade to a less powerful GPU, to boot. So why am I suggesting it? This option is if you plan to upgrade your PC within the next 3-4 years. The AM5 platform will be viable until, at the very least, 2025 - this means it will support Zen 4, Zen 5 and most probably Zen 6. That is a significant upgrade and you only need to plop in a new CPU into the same motherboard in three years.
So, the two viable strategies for upgrades is to either build a PC that will last until 2025 and then upgrade that (but only CPU and RAM), or build a PC that will last until 2027 and switch to a completely new build, either AM6 or whatever Intel is on by then. For the latter, AM4 is good enough for that. For the former, you want AM5 to keep upgrade costs down.
I think, that there are no “real” g-sync screens produced anymore (the ones with dedicated hardware which work with GeForce only) . The current g-sync screens are only Nvidia “certified” Freesync screens and get the g-sync marketing label.
I was waiting for new CPU to be released and for the GPU prices to drop somewhat. And currently I’m not sure which CPU+GPU combo is the best offer. If the AMD drivers are good under Linux I could imagine getting an AMD card as well.
Also my budget is a little more flexible, I don’t need the price to be as low as possible. I’d like a good deal, for an average price.
As you say your last build was a 1700, can your current board accept a 5800 X3D.
There are relative differences in how well first gen ryzen boards perform with it (compared to the same CPU in the X570, say) but this alone would get a lot of the way, for games as any cpu you can buy and without the platform upgrade.
If it can’t, how high can it go.
If it can, the rest of the money is just deciding what graphics card to buy.
The old build was on an ASUS PRIME X370-PRO. I had stability issues, which is why I thought I’d better buy new, or Intel. Then, I had heard that some extra core voltage could help and it apparently does. An offset of +37,5 mV and no OC seem to stabilize the old CPU. I installed the 6026 BIOS manually.
Even though ASUS state that the R7 5800X3D should run, I’m skeptical about upgrading a system this old. Of course that would be the cheapest way currently.
That sounds like it could be a problem with the CPU and not necessarily the motherboard, unless you’re getting some crazy v-droop but that can also be monitored.
The only real concern for running Zen3 in older boards is VRM capacity and cooling, assuming it is BIOS compatible in the first place.
This. Also you miss out on things like more m.2 slots and PCIe 4.0, but these are not essential right now.
Going from 1700 to 5800X is a bit steep, you might want to invest in better cooling. 1700X however is almost as power hungry as the 5800X3D so unless your CPU is thermal thtottling or close to it right now, the change should be fine.
If you are unsure, see if you can find thermal reviews of your specific motherboard.
Currently run a 6600 non-XT under Ubuntu 22.04. No tweaking whatsoever and I can get a solid 60 FPS high in most Steam games on 1440p - though I play mostly older titles with older tech, I think the newest AAA was Tales of Arise.
I’ve got the 1700 non-X, without OC it’s limited to 65W, with OC however that chip can draw 180W and more under prime95, that is. The ASUS board is ok, I’d estimate. However I’ve had to downgrade the RAM and clear the CMOS to render the system bootable again.
That’s why I’m thinking about an all new build.
The cooling is done in a Masterbox 5 by Coolermaster and an ARCTIC Freezer eSports 34 CPU cooler. (replaced the AC fan with a be quiet one).
you have an am4 motherboard already?.
what cpu wattage is it rated for?..
if its rated for 105w?.
then get a ryzen 9 5 series.
pick a gpu from amd from there 6800 range or above and a psu…
pull the old cpu gpu and psu. replace em. saving about 400 bux from your budget.
Which mainboard, are you currently working with?
Fair chance applying the appropriate BIOS, would avoid needing to change that out
Mind you, newer mainboard builds [X570/B550] would have better memory support
And gaming wise, the X3D is one hellova punch [between 8C and sizeable block of L3]
For off-the-cuff GPU support, AMD
IF you want the adrenalin suite, then you’d need to work out some install scripts
NEVER had a singular issue, with my 5600XT [from basic GUI, to sub-1440p gameplay]
6800+ ,will have plenty of performance / VRAM chops, for a half decent while
6700XT, I would be treating the GPU floor, for relatively newer stuff
If WILLING to mess around… Intel has some promise ahead
They’ve already made great stride, when addressing older DirectX APIs [so far]
Main concern(s) would include ReBAR being effectively necessary function, from the mainboard
Linux 6.2(+) Kernel, is supposed to have inherent support [for Intel ARC]
The chutzpuh of A770, in one degree not remarkable, but also punching better than forecast
A770, able to comfortably handle Hogwarts full-tilt, being a welcoming engagement
Particularly, how multiple nVIDIA GPUs would get stuttery [if not straight punched down]
Cannot vouch personally – I have a 8GB ASRock build of A770 [in-house has 16GB variant]
