PC Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

Just hard to keep track what with the 7x RTX 3070 or better GPUs you own.

The reason for the price drop? It's Amazon Prime day.
It’s not actually. The drops are coming from nvidia themselves and are bigger than the prime day sales. Check Best Buy and EVGA; the prices are lower than Amazon right now because they’re direct partners with nvidia. I’m assuming Amazon and other retailer prices will soon be following.

They’re dumping some surplus inventory ahead of the 4000 card announcements. So far it looks like just the 3080 and up cards though.
 
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@Madmick Do you think the RX6600XT is worth it for a price point between 350€-400€?

I rarely play, maybe once or twice a week for a few hours. Mainly 1080p.
 
@Madmick Do you think the RX6600XT is worth it for a price point between 350€-400€?

I rarely play, maybe once or twice a week for a few hours. Mainly 1080p.
For that price it's not bad if you're only playing at 1080p. The question would be more what games are you playing?
 
@Madmick Do you think the RX6600XT is worth it for a price point between 350€-400€?

I rarely play, maybe once or twice a week for a few hours. Mainly 1080p.
I don't know what your market is like. The Euro and USD are almost identical, presently. The 6600 XT has been averaging $300-$360 here the past month [1, 2], with lows from partnered retailers during that period being around $325, and currently standing at $360. PCPP UK shows that it's about the same in the UK. The MSRP of this card when it launched in Aug-2021 was $379. Given, that was a crypto-bloated market it launched in, but it's crashed now to where these are reasonable prices.

At this price, if you already have a comp built, and are buying the GPU a la carte, in terms of raw processing power per dollar spent, or even more practically the average frame output in games per dollar, it's the top option currently. However, be aware that if you are building from scratch, the total cost of the PC shifts the value assessment, and more expensive GPUs tend to actually offer a better value. The 6800 XT will probably be the top option if you're spending ~€1500-€1750, with each step below that in AMD's line following it (i.e. 6800, 6750 XT, 6700 XT).
 
For that price it's not bad if you're only playing at 1080p. The question would be more what games are you playing?

Well, right now I mainly play Vanguard and would likely switch to playing MW2 and Warzone 2 once they come out. I guess the RX6600XT should be good enough for them in 1080p. I would like to play RDR2 and Cyberpunk in the future as well.

I don't know what your market is like. The Euro and USD are almost identical, presently. The 6600 XT has been averaging $300-$360 here the past month [1, 2], with lows from partnered retailers during that period being around $325, and currently standing at $360. PCPP UK shows that it's about the same in the UK. The MSRP of this card when it launched in Aug-2021 was $379. Given, that was a crypto-bloated market it launched in, but it's crashed now to where these are reasonable prices.

At this price, if you already have a comp built, and are buying the GPU a la carte, in terms of raw processing power per dollar spent, or even more practically the average frame output in games per dollar, it's the top option currently. However, be aware that if you are building from scratch, the total cost of the PC shifts the value assessment, and more expensive GPUs tend to actually offer a better value. The 6800 XT will probably be the top option if you're spending ~€1500-€1750, with each step below that in AMD's line following it (i.e. 6800, 6750 XT, 6700 XT).

Haven’t decided on the manufacturer and the specific model yet, there are a couple around 400€:
https://www.cyberport.de/pc-und-zub...-oc-dual-grafikkarte-8gb-gddr6-3xdp-hdmi.html

some used one, although with full warranty, can cost 350€.
I already have a comp built (i7-8700k, 16gb ram and several SSDs, GTX 1050 ti) so would just replace the Gfx. I was considering getting a new PC and asked you about some of them in this thread, but decided against them based on your feedback. Also considering buying and building one from scratch, but really can’t be arsed focusing on that right now. More of a time issue than anything.
 
Well, right now I mainly play Vanguard and would likely switch to playing MW2 and Warzone 2 once they come out. I guess the RX6600XT should be good enough for them in 1080p. I would like to play RDR2 and Cyberpunk in the future as well.
Oh, shit, you're in Germany. Duh. Britain isn't even EU, anymore.

Okay, so Techpowerup reviewed the slightly higher-end version of that card from Asus: the Asus RX 6600 XT Strix OC. While noise and temps won't be the same, it has the exact same clockings, so performance will be identical:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asus-radeon-rx-6600-xt-strix-oc/4.html
Running on a 5800X CPU and 16GB DDR4 RAM (with timings = 19-23-23-42 1T) this is what it did at 1080p in Cyberpunk. Note that the green is the Asus card, the blue is the reference AMD 6600 XT:
cyberpunk-2077-1920-1080.png


RDR2:
red-dead-redemption-2-1920-1080.png



It will get about double that in Vanguard and Warzone. So yes, it's entirely viable for your desires.
 
Oh well an I still got over 500 off.
Launch MSRP for the 3090 Ti was $1999, and that MSI first appeared on Amazon on May 23 at a price of $1949. At $1700, you got it for $249 off the real market launch price.
 
Do you remember you could not get anything near MSRP most of them where 2,500 and up even from established dealers.

It says it in the Amazon ad.

"
List Price: $2,159.99 Details
Price: $1,469.99$1,469.99 & FREE Returns
Multiple trackers show the price history for that exact card from that exact retailer on Amazon on the exact date I quoted to you.
 
I keep forgetting this megathread exists.

Anyway. I just got a NVIDIA rtx 3070

old GPU was EVGA 3060, do I need to uninstall the drivers for my old GPU before installing the new?

EVGA also uses GeForce experience.
 
I keep forgetting this megathread exists.

Anyway. I just got a NVIDIA rtx 3070

old GPU was EVGA 3060, do I need to uninstall the drivers for my old GPU before installing the new?

EVGA also uses GeForce experience.
I recommend it, yes. Check my post in your other thread.
 
I don't know how but Radeon 6900 XTs in Australia are comparitively cheap to everything else right now and are fantastic cards.

3080s

upload_2022-7-16_11-45-47.png

6800 XT

upload_2022-7-16_11-46-20.png

6900 XT

upload_2022-7-16_11-46-38.png

For reference $1139 AUD = $773 USD

If I didn't have a 3080 right now I'd be buying a 6900 XT immediately.
 
Something like this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C4rDk9

Notes:

< Cooler >
EVGA CLC 360 is an absolute steal at that price. That's why it has surged to #53 on Amazon 24-hour bestseller list in the "Heatsinks" category (almost none of these are actual coolers). Doubt it lasts long. The caveats with this cooler are, first, that it has an awful installation manual, but fortunately @MusterX figured this out for you when he got the 280mm, IIRC, you can find those posts; second, it is also incredibly thick, like Gamers Nexus's current champion of noise-normalized thermals, the Arctic Freezer II, but this isn't an issue with my recommended build because the Corsair 5000D Airflow supports side mounting for the cooler, and this happens to be the best way to install any 360mm AIO for overall air flow strategy; third, it will be too loud at max RPM, which is why it's #2 on GN's all-time absolute cooling performance, but you can adjust this using software. Noise-normalized performance is what matters, and it is excellent. Since your wife does video editing, the 12900K can get incredibly hot drawing on all cores, so this is why I suggest such a powerful cooler.

<Motherboard>
For the motherboard, I think the B660 MSI Tomahawk is more than enough because I doubt you intend to manually overclock the CPU, and it has a killer feature set. The big decision is going DDR4 or DDR5, but DDR5 is still seriously overpriced, and in fact, even has drawbacks currently such as severe 1% low framerate drops due to the high timings that would seem to counter its minor overall framerate average advantage over much, much cheaper DDR4 RAM.

<RAM>
If you're someone who googles, ignore the bad review for this Patriot RAM from Tom's Hardware. Reviews like that are aimed at RAM overclocking monkeys. That was at double the price it is here ($195 MSRP for two sticks instead of $100), and as you can see from the review, it performs exactly as expected when the XMP profile is enabled for a 4000MHz CL20 kit. You don't care about overclocking headroom because you won't manually overclock it. You'll select XMP in the BIOS, and voila, you're done. Besides, video editing can benefit from more RAM. It would be much better for your wife to buy 4x of these sticks for 64GB than to spend $150 for just 32GB of the next step up in RAM performance (4400MHZ CL19 kit).

<SSD>
ADATA S70 Blade is easily the cheapest high-end NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD out there. You can opt for the 1TB version for half the price, but since you're spending pretty big on this unit, I'd suggest the 2TB. No premium.

<PSU>
850W ought to be ample. As thrifty as can be for a top-tier unit.

<Case & Fans>
As mentioned above, I chose the Corsair 5000D Airflow because it supports side mounting for the 360mm AIO. This is ideal because you don't have to put it the front and suck hot air into the case, and you don't have to put it on top, where you might end up with uncomfortable clearance with the motherboard and its components. The case comes with 2x120mm fans: one in the front, and one in the back. You'll take the one from the front, and move it to the rearmost mount on the top of the case, oriented for exhaust. The two Arctic F14 fans (140mm) I suggest for purchase separately will be mounted to the front for intake. So it's traditional front-to-back airflow. Overall, it will be negative pressure, because the AIO will exhaust the CPU's hot air through those 3x120mm fans from the EVGA CLC cooler, so it's 2x140mm intake vs. 5x120mm exhaust in total, but that's okay.

<OS>
Windows 11 despite that it sucks because you want the full DX12 feature set.

Got my last component delivered yesterday and I think I'm ready to put the build together. Went with all of @Madmick suggested components, except for the motherboard. It was out of stock on Amazon, so to lump it with all of my other prime deliveries I swapped it out for:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TV...0-motherboard-rog-strix-b660-a-gaming-wifi-d4

Going to be out of town with some friends today, so will put it together tomorrow. Now I'll just be super distracted today and pretend to be interested in boring stories about cycling.
 
any truth to this? thoughts?


I've been talking about this for the past six months in my posts about M1. As I've made clear, I consider that the most advanced overall CPU in the world by a landslide. Yes, this is the direction the industry is headed. We're drifting towards a market where expanding storage will be the most significant aftermarket alteration you can make.

That's not a bad thing. As he mentions with NVIDIA hopper, the future of chipset design will entail a ladder of different GPU-scaling options the buyer may select depending on how robust the performance he desires in concert with the core CPU of his choice. And there will be different options of the core CPU, not just CPU+GPU integrations as there exists with the M1 processors. Maybe manufacturers will leave wiggle room to buy superior cooling solutions, but it doesn't seem all that necessary with how low the power draws are becoming.
 
I've been talking about this for the past six months in my posts about M1. As I've made clear, I consider that the most advanced overall CPU in the world by a landslide. Yes, this is the direction the industry is headed. We're drifting towards a market where expanding storage will be the most significant aftermarket alteration you can make.

That's not a bad thing. As he mentions with NVIDIA hopper, the future of chipset design will entail a ladder of different GPU-scaling options the buyer may select depending on how robust the performance he desires in concert with the core CPU of his choice. And there will be different options of the core CPU, not just CPU+GPU integrations as there exists with the M1 processors. Maybe manufacturers will leave wiggle room to buy superior cooling solutions, but it doesn't seem all that necessary with how low the power draws are becoming.

Having a non-upgradeable GPU is horrible for the consumer and will lead to more e-waste.
 
There are downsides to non-upgradeable GPUs, but it's sort of unavoidable the way chipsets are evolving. The upside is that with fully integrated chipsets systems aren't bogged down by system RAM, and there is some offset to waste in that in individualized component systems there will always be more components that go unused/unmatched. Furthermore, as he mentions, the sheer power consumption of non-parallelized GPUs is becoming a major issue which is why states like California are passing laws intended to limit the waste. So it might actually achieve less waste to realize a hardware future where all of the game-makers and other software developers are forced to adjust their engineering to accomodate more energy efficient, parallelized architecture.
I don't know how but Radeon 6900 XTs in Australia are comparitively cheap to everything else right now and are fantastic cards.

3080s

View attachment 932508

6800 XT

View attachment 932509

6900 XT

View attachment 932510

For reference $1139 AUD = $773 USD

If I didn't have a 3080 right now I'd be buying a 6900 XT immediately.
Even during the peak of cryptoinflation over here NVIDIA cards have been stupidly overpriced in comparison to the AMD cards. They haven't been a price winner at any price point in like 3 years.
 
Does anyone else remember the specs of the first PC you built?

CPU: AMD K6-2 400mhz
RAM: 64mb PC100
HDD: 8.6gb 5400rpm
GPU: Voodoo 3 3000 16mb
14" Packard Bell 640x480 monitor
Mobo with a whopping 2 USB ports

I wish I'd kept it all these years later. :(
 
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