Help an old fart catch up.....

[NoddyPirate]

So, given my long and uninvolved absence, I shall set a challenge to you all! Help me get a little caught up with all I've missed!

When I was last active it was all about AMD processors in their AM4 socket and Intel were really just handy CPU's to get your house fire started. Mind you we would all have a chuckle at folks buying OC'd 5950X's for their gaming rig as the complexity of how modern CPU's worked back then wasn't quite so clear to the average Joe. Has the logic changed at all?

The X570 board was the bees knees, and everyone was waiting for months for the coveted 3090 GPU.

So, what's changed since then? What are the best combo's at the mo for light workflow stuff, basic gaming stuff, and the all-out no-expense-spared rigs?

My Ryzen 5600X is still keeping up incredibly well, running the majority of games sees well below 40% CPU utilisation and the load is all on the GPU, although I expect there are more and more games out there now that can use multi-threading much more effectively than previously? However with my cheapy and lean running 4060ti (just needed an 8 pin PCIe power plug added to my so-far-quite trusty TX550 PSU) and my 32GB RAM (despite being the odler DDR4) my set up will keep me happy for a while longer yet. The GPU has actually made quite a difference to my Lightroom workflow with MUCH quicker export times for example when they are processed by the GPU rather than the CPU.

Nonetheless, my somewhat ill-advised initial purchase has still allowed me to upgrade some aspects as timer has gone by, giving me the sort of future proofing that the guidance on this forum is all about. Even if I should have heeded your advice first time around (ahem) and perhaps even come here before my upgrades too (ahem). I'll learn eventually!!!

 

[AccidentalDenz]

Intel are now the best way to burn your house down and/or fry your electrics depending on the age of your wiring. That's a pretty big change from just warming up the room I guess.

 

[polycrac]

32 GB RAM is the new normal for gaming, you were ahead of the curve there. GPU memory is increasingly what people are falling short of - some of the new cards are a bit stingy in that regard. PCIE speeds now mean the game loads BEFORE you purchase it. My 2700x/2080ti combo is now below the *required* specs for some new games, let alone the recommended specs. Frustratingly though, they still largely work fine so no upgrade for me yet, but I've got my eyes on the new GPUs, maybe their release will push me over the edge to get a whole new system.

 

[AccidentalDenz]

GPU memory is increasingly what people are falling short of - some of the new cards are a bit stingy in that regard. PCIE speeds now mean the game loads BEFORE you purchase it. My 2700x/2080ti combo is now below the *required* specs for some new games, let alone the recommended specs. Frustratingly though, they still largely work fine so no upgrade for me yet, but I've got my eyes on the new GPUs, maybe their release will push me over the edge to get a whole new system.

Yeah, the way VRAM requirements have skyrocketed in just the last year or so is actually crazy. My 3080 has gone from being pretty much fine for anything at 4k last year to being more or less a mid-range 1440 or even high end 1080 GPU with some of the big name releases for this year. 10GB of VRAM is pretty much becoming the default minimum at 1080 now, with 12GB or more needed for higher resolutions. Your 2080Ti will be borderline too as I think it's got 11GB?

I'm also looking at an upgrade soon, but my 850w PSU is going to limit me - the 5070 may be okay depending on its specs.

 

[HomerJ]

Intel are now the best way to burn your house down and/or fry your electrics depending on the age of your wiring. That's a pretty big change from just warming up the room I guess.

Plus the silicon degradation as well for intel and all that

 

[SpyderTracks]

So, given my long and uninvolved absence, I shall set a challenge to you all! Help me get a little caught up with all I've missed!

When I was last active it was all about AMD processors in their AM4 socket and Intel were really just handy CPU's to get your house fire started. Mind you we would all have a chuckle at folks buying OC'd 5950X's for their gaming rig as the complexity of how modern CPU's worked back then wasn't quite so clear to the average Joe. Has the logic changed at all?

The X570 board was the bees knees, and everyone was waiting for months for the coveted 3090 GPU.

So, what's changed since then? What are the best combo's at the mo for light workflow stuff, basic gaming stuff, and the all-out no-expense-spared rigs?

My Ryzen 5600X is still keeping up incredibly well, running the majority of games sees well below 40% CPU utilisation and the load is all on the GPU, although I expect there are more and more games out there now that can use multi-threading much more effectively than previously? However with my cheapy and lean running 4060ti (just needed an 8 pin PCIe power plug added to my so-far-quite trusty TX550 PSU) and my 32GB RAM (despite being the odler DDR4) my set up will keep me happy for a while longer yet. The GPU has actually made quite a difference to my Lightroom workflow with MUCH quicker export times for example when they are processed by the GPU rather than the CPU.

Nonetheless, my somewhat ill-advised initial purchase has still allowed me to upgrade some aspects as timer has gone by, giving me the sort of future proofing that the guidance on this forum is all about. Even if I should have heeded your advice first time around (ahem) and perhaps even come here before my upgrades too (ahem). I'll learn eventually!!!

So, Intel took even more a nosedive with their 13th and 14th gen CPU's, they then came out with the 200 series which was pretty much a flop out of the gates, the biggest being the Core Ultra 9 285k (stupid naming convention!)

Intel 13th and 14th Gen confirmed defective

So there's been a lot of upset gathering steam on the inter webs with intermittent games crashes on Intel 13th and 14th gen. Workarounds range from underclocking to disabling ecores. BUT, there are a lot of people finding that simply disabling hyperthreading is a proper solution. The findings...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

AMD are now on AM5 Platform, the biggest being the X870e. The biggest and baddest desktop CPU likely is going to be announced on the 6th January which will be the 16 core 9950X3D. The difference with the 9000 series X3D chips is that they're no longer limited by frequency, so are clocked higher, they can even be overclocked as normal. The 9950X3D is expected to have 2 x 8 core CCD's both with the X3DVCache on, so will be a full fat 16 core gaming beast. The 9800X3D is currently the gaming champion by quite a margin.

Also on the 6th january at CES NVidia will be announcing the 5000 series GPU's, with AMD announcing their new Radeon RX 9000 series GPU's. Leaks have just come out saying AMD will only go as far as the RX 9070 which will compete with the current RTX4070ti but at around $650 (about $250 cheaper) and with far improved ray tracing performance.

The RTX5090 is looking like an absolute monster with pricing expected around $2000, the 5080 is expected around $1200 - 1300

What everyone isn't clear on is weather nvidia will keep their existing VRAM quantities from the 4080 downwards which if they do will shift cards down a tier, so 12Gb cards such as the current RTX 4070 will be limited to 1080p rather than the 1440p we've been used to

 

[NoddyPirate]

Thanks Spyder! Helpful!!

Interesting reading up on Zen 5 - down to 3-4nm now which is bonkers. They’re getting down towards single digit multiples of the width of a single atom. Incredible really…..