Recommend me a CPU/motherboard combination

Sconsey

Hi,

Am specking out a new build for middle-of-the-road gaming, I am leaning towards a RX 6700 XT (£340). Memory, storage, power supply I can figure, but I have no idea what to look for in a motherboard and have lost touch with CPU's at this stage. So can anyone recommend a motherboard/CPU/cooler combination, ballpark spend would be around €350 - €450 for the three items. No preference for Intel or AMD. I do not need the latest and greatest, looking for good bang for my buck.

https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/7DR74s

Thanks

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058319287/recommend-me-a-cpu-motherboard-combination

Your overall budget being about 1k euro? Buy from the UK, go super cheap on RAM/mobo/CPU, and get as good a GPU as you can afford.

e.g.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bPs8QP

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor (£156.99 @ Amazon UK)

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (£17.29 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£108.48 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (£80.47 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: Palit JetStream OC GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Video Card (£505.21 @ Amazon UK)

Total: £868.44

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-23 19:12 BST+0100

You could downgrade the CPU to Ryzen 5600 / 5600X.

And I'm recommending RTX 4060 Ti 16GB for 3 reasons:

1. It uses ~100W less than 7800 XT (the price-equivalent AMD GPU that's better at raster)
2. DLSS. It's simply a superior offering than anything AMD has.
3. Lots of ports are going to want lots of VRAM and nothing else.

Sconsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121275714#Comment_121275714

Just so we are 100% clear, I really appreciate your comments and the effort you make to reply to my question.

But everywhere I look (mostly Youtube), reviewers are saying the 4060 Ti is a bad buy right now. I understand your reasoning too by the way, but I am struggling to justify spending that much on a GPU. I am only gaming at 1080 and dont intend to change that anytime soon. You were right that my ballpark budget is about 1,000 euro for the components (I already have case and monitor). I am thinking I will spend a little less on GPU and go with the CPU/motherboard combination you mentioned.

Either way, I appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121277904#Comment_121277904

We are in a technology transition currently - studios are starting to use PS5/Xbox One X as their baseline for Low settings or straight-up not optimizing for low VRAM (e.g. Cities Skylines 2, Alan Wake 2, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Hogwarts Legacy, etc).

4060 Ti 16Gb didn't review well, yes. But I can almost guarantee you that it will last longer than AMD RX 6000/7000 series, or any Nvidia card with 8GB VRAM.

Homelander

Personally I think the 4060ti is a joke of a card. £500 for a 1080P card with a narrow bus? No thanks. It's not a bad card in isolation but the price makes it pretty awful.

You can get a 6700XT for like £330 or 6750XT for £360. Much better value.

CPU wise I think the 5700X is a solid choice at that price for sure. CPU's are generally in a good place right now.

Personally I'm almost done with PC gaming. I'll stay using my current PC of course, and playing the multiplayer games I play which run well, but I'll be playing most of the bigger new games on the Xbox as at least games are optimised somewhat properly for it.

It's a joke that you now need a £500 card to run some new games at 1080p high/ultra on PC. We're at a point where a €250 card released this year is struggling in some new games.

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121278316#Comment_121278316

You're ignoring the massive progress that has been made in PC ports over the last few years.

We used to have to wait months for a PC port, now we get a PC port immediately and have to wait months for it to work properly 😀