Building a gaming PC

+
Absolutely, but that still doesn't negate the fact that many games are simply coded for "dual-core" functionality and not full on multi-threading for 4+ cores.

Still on Wasteland 3 myself and it would appear it uses ~8 CPU "cores" (hyperthreading) at any given time. Two of those show higher usage though.

I honestly haven't checked how many cores most games I play are using at any given time. I'm not sure I actually care unless the game itself runs sluggish :).

As I'm well aware, but that still doesn't fully explain how a game as wildly complex as Elite only manages to soak up 2 GB of RAM. That's nutsy. Even though most of the universe data is hosted server-side...the flight modeling, weapons systems, and traffic alone, I would imagine, should be pushing 3-4 GB of RAM at least. I mean, jump into a hazardous combat zone and there can be literally 20-30 ships per side, and it still doesn't cap 2 GB. That's some crazy optimization right there, despite whatever the game's flaws.

Perhaps it's designed to be good about conserving memory. It's possible it's the other way too. It's not designed well and doesn't do a good job of using what is available. The point was memory usage can be a bit misleading. A game might allocate more than it needs and just shove stuff in there it uses a lot and/or might need and keep it there. It kind of makes sense if you think about it.

A good example of this a lot of people can identify with is a default Windows 10 install. By default it will preemptively store commonly used stuff in memory. This way when it's needed it's already there. This can make the memory usage of the OS misleading. Assuming you don't turn the functionality off.

This kind of ties into the concerns over some of the newer 3000 series Nvidia cards having X amount of vram. People see a game using X amount of vram and blindly assume it absolutely needs to use this amount to run efficiently. It's more complicated.
 
If anyone missed it:


Some small teaser in the end there about RDNA 2 GPUs.

I'm somewhat disappointed. I thought it will be something "wow", but it was "meh" at best. Prices went up, because AMD don't have competition anymore, low budget CPU's are no longer low budget. Basically it was not worth waiting for Zen 3.
 
They published expected performance improvement in the past, so I don't think there was anything unexpected in the announcement, unless you didn't pay attention to their previous statements.

Overall Zen 3 is an iterative improvement over Zen 2. But a good one, nothing to laugh at. If you are getting a new CPU, Zen 3 should be a great option. If you already have a high end Zen 2 one - it's more questionable whether it's worth upgrading. Possibly not, unless you can sell your current CPU for a good price. The upside is that it's still AM4 and will work with existing motherboards.
 
Last edited:
Wow or not, they published expected performance improvement in the past, so I don't think there was anything unexpected in the announcement, unless you didn't pay attention to their previous statements.

The hype was definitely overblown for Zen 3. Also, price increase was a very unwelcoming surprise. Obviously AMD will now milk everyone as much as they can, because they don't need to compete with Intel anymore.
 
The hype was definitely overblown for Zen 3.

I don't pay attention to the hype, more to the numbers. And AMD published instruction per cycle and other expected improvements in the past, so nothing new here. I'd say it's pretty good for one iteration. Try to find anyone who provides more and doesn't require you to upgrade the motherboard.
 
I don't pay attention to the hype, more to the numbers. And AMD published instruction per cycle and other expected improvements in the past, so nothing new here. I'd say it's pretty good for one iteration. Try to find anyone who provides more and doesn't require you to upgrade the motherboard.

I'm not saying that you are. But the hype was all over the place. And there is still the price issue. Just like that AMD stopped being affordable alternative for PC gaming enthusiasts.

For the real performance we need to wait for independent tests. Nvidia 3000 series gains were also amazing on marketing slides.

EDIT:
About the motherboard. There is zero reason to go from 3000 to 5000 right now. And it's the last CPU from AMD which is AM4 compatible.
 
Processor; Ryzen 5 3600

CPU Cooler; Arctic Freezer 34 esports
duo

Motherboard; MSI B550 Tomahawk

Ram; Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8) 3200Mhz

Power Supply; Corsair RM650 80+ Gold 650 Watt

Cases; MSI MPG Gungnir 110M

Graphic Card; MSI 3060TI Gaming X TRIO (It's not out yet, but I suggest you wait)

Monitor; AOC 24G2U

M2 SSD; Samsung 970 evo 1TB

Headset; Steelseries arctis 1 wireless

Keyboard; Corsair K70

Mouse; Steelseries Rival 3

Mousepad; Steelseries Qck Heavy Medium
 
Last edited:
The price jump was expected since AMD has now basically moved to a leadership position.

Tbh I'm fine with that if they put that money to R&D.
 
Updated mouse & kb and went wireless with both.

O0w4g2Q.jpg


Razer Basilisk Ultimate and Keychron K2 v2 (gateron brown switches). Very happy with both, altho I do wish the Razer had a less gamery look to it. Otherwise it's fantastic.
 
I'll probably still get me a RTX 3080 (eventually) but I want AMD to kick Nvidia's ass regardless :LOL: At least for a few weeks.

I'm eager to see RX 6900 XT's proper benchmarks.
 
Looking at the specs of the 3080 ti...I think I'm just going to hold off an build a brand new system the next time I upgrade. This one is still pretty much running everything smoothly -- never been more satisfied with a system I've built. I don't really think it's powerful enough to get full advantage out of the 3080, though.

So, I'll probably just start piecing together the parts for a total, 2K / 4K and VR rig. (And I'm going to wait until this price gouging with VR and peripherals is over, definitely. I can really only justify purchasing quality VR at $500 max, for myself. I simply know I won't use it for that many things.)
 
I am going to start checking in at my local Micro Center around Nov 18th and whichever I can get first, the RTX 3080 or the 6800XT is the one I'll get.
 
Finally competition in the high end GPU space.



I'm not going to upgrade to anything anytime soon either. 2022/2023 maybe. Considering the massive changes happening in the PC hardware market right now, it's a good time to just sit back and watch events unfold.
 
Hello friends, I want to play this game. I do not have much budget. Do you think this system is enough to play the game?

gtx 1650 Super 4gb
r5 1600 12nm af 3.2ghz
16gb 3200mhz ram
hdd 1tb
250 NVMe ssd pci exp (the game is here)
 
Hello friends, I want to play this game. I do not have much budget. Do you think this system is enough to play the game?

gtx 1650 Super 4gb
r5 1600 12nm af 3.2ghz
16gb 3200mhz ram
hdd 1tb
250 NVMe ssd pci exp (the game is here)

My completely unprofessional opinion is that that should be good enough for playing the game comfortably on 1080p.
 
Top Bottom