6700 XT ($320) is indeed faster than the RX 7600 ($250) - it’s just that I already know OP is on a 1080p (22") monitor. I’ve seen the BG3 and CS:2 benchmarks, but not the cities skylines 2 benchmarks.
I also have a stupid question, but does support / firmware updates matter a lot for GPUs? It’s been a while for me. The 7600 is brand new from last month, and the 6700 XT is from… 2 years ago? Is that support gonna expire soon or am I making up a problem that doesn’t exist?
I was pretty frustrated reading about the Microcenter 5800x3D situation. I am so jealous of city dwellers lately, I’m looking for reasons to seethe about living in the middle of nowhere.
To play devils advocate, I think on a budget Am5 mobo (b650) Pcie 4 x 4 is the main or only storage choice? I think my mobo came with one pcie 5 x 4 m.2 slot, or maybe it didn’t even. And then graphics cards might be on pcie4 for much longer yet as they use 4 x 8 lanes while using a 4x16 slot. There’s been a leak that a Pcie5 card from AMD MAY release soon. Neither OP or I will need it for a 1080p monitor though 😆
I honestly let fears about upgradeability get to me a lot more than I hope OP does. I think there is a sub-$1000 Am5 build that can make a terrific value/longevity out of this situation. But when I did, I talked myself into spending a lot more. 😅
Bringing up AM6 is a terrific point! AM5 high end has some really bad issues right now, and AMD very well might to redesign the chip and/or socket to get better performance.
Gamers Nexus said they will do a Cities Skylines 2 benchmark next week I think. Not that it will necessarily change your build at all, I’m guessing this will handle it fine and the Gamers Nexus benchmarks of BG3 would have you walking away with the same set of conclusions that you’ve already arrived at.
Ultrawide monitors often come with extra software to help you enjoy it more like built in KVM functionalities. There’s also window snapping managers on Windows like WiLMa. I’m similar to you though, 2x24" mounted to the wall.
I also went down the “is AM4 still good?” Rabitthole and decided because I don’t have a Microcenter near me, I could not get a 5800X3D, so I didn’t want to build it. After watching many videos though, AM4 is a mature platform and so thoroughly developed. Sales are on fantastic products, and the GPU and RAM will remain upgradeable for years, just that upgrading the CPU would require a new MOBO as well. Building AM5, seems OP already knows a great deal, but the news is that it can be finicky and returning products because they don’t work so well is more common than usual.
My biggest concern is your storage. Thats a PCIE 3 x 4 rather than a PCIe 4 x 4. I went with the 1 TB Solidigm P44 for $50. There’s also the Samsung 990 Pro which has gone on sale a few times recently. The Samsung NVMEs all slap, it the two drives I mentioned are meant to be the fastest available.
You have a micro-ATX board with a Mid tower ATX case, by the way. You could get a smaller case, if you wanted to. $120 is an amazing price for a B650 board, I paid $180 and thought that was the best I could do because I only looked at Newegg.
On your RAM I made sure the RAM I bought was certified for AMD EXPO. The newest overclocking solution. Without overclock, RAM will often run at 5200 or 5600 depending on the motherboard. But 6000 is meant to be the sweet spot for this series of CPUs. I disagree that 32GB is necessary. You can always double it up from 16GB later on. Edit: CSky2? You mag actually want the 32GB, that would be a quick check with a benchmark or a user post about RAM consumption by the game to confirm if 32GB would have payoff or not.
Why the 6700 XT instead of the RX 7600? I decided the 7600 was a better value because I want to game at 1080p for the next few years. I went with the 7800X3D and after taxes my build was $1400. Ouch that was a hard pill to swallow. I started below $1000 and got greedy. But we’re splitting hairs, if you prefer one of these cards then power to you.
I imagine your CPU and your GPU both recommend a 650W power supply, and I imagine you know something I dont and 600W will handle it fine. But if they recommend 750W, I would just double check.
Edit: by the way Newegg has the Fantastech sale starting now-ish but really opening up on October 9th. And I think Intel is announcing new products next month? I’m unsure. Obviously I decided to do it now, and if I have buyer’s remorse so be it.
Playing Path of Exile for the first time! I’m trying a Witch Elemental… Mischief build? I don’t really understand it at ALL and that feeling of being a newb is the most fun thing about it.
I really like this kind of discussion, I wanna see more discussion where community members are the voice as opposed to news where a journalist is the voice.
Damn that’s crazy. I thought TF2 was one of those games you can’t play anymore, because they had people abusing bugs to crash servers or whatever. But it got fixed and you can genuinely play it like… 7+ years after release? Titanfall 2 also used to use the “we need you to buy mtx to keep the servers open” strategy, lmao. I also think the artists behind TF and TF2 are leading passion for the project and a few have just made more art in the same vein in their free time, as well as more collabs and promotions after release. But again this is years ago.
I just want fucking humans paid for their work, why do you tech nerds have to innovate new ways to lick the boots of capital every few years? Let the capitalists make aeguments why AI should own all of our work, for free, rights be damned, and then profit off of it, and sell that back to us as a product. Let them do that. They don’t need your help.
Artists who look at art are processing it in a relatable, human way. An AI doesnt look at art. A human tells the AI to find art and plug it in, knowing that work is copyrighted and not available for someone else’s commercial project to develop an AI.