PC Building Guide and Discussion #14

[Osprey]

In other news, Nvidia did announce a GPU: the RTX 3060 12GB for $329, available in February. It feels like a backwards world in which Nvidia's cheapest current-gen card is $329 and AMD's is $579. AMD did show a twin-fan card that is probably the Radeon 6500 and should definitely be cheaper than the 3060, but they didn't announce it, so Nvidia will have the cheapest (and by a huge amount) for at least another month.

Nvidia RTX 3060 (12GB) Coming in Feb for $329 | Tom's Hardware

 

[aleshemsky83]

Apparently Samsung and AMD are partnering up to put Radeon Graphics in exynos chips. Rumors about it for a long time but now confirmed

 

[GreytWun]

NVIDIA should just focus on getting a few SKUs out rather than make 100 different graphic cards. Bet their is news that 3080 Ti and 3090 Ti coming in a few weeks.

 

[aleshemsky83]

NVIDIA should just focus on getting a few SKUs out rather than make 100 different graphic cards. Bet their is news that 3080 Ti and 3090 Ti coming in a few weeks.

The thing is, they make less money doing that.

Releasing a new card every 6 months gives them a new cycle of press coverage and increases sales. That's why they release a new 1660 every two weeks.

 

[GreytWun]

The thing is, they make less money doing that.

Releasing a new card every 6 months gives them a new cycle of press coverage and increases sales. That's why they release a new 1660 every two weeks.

I understand that but maybe they should be more concerned on getting products out to the customers before they bury themselves in more SKUs. They couldn’t keep up to demand before these cards were announced.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Discount code for Razer store anyone interested. $10 off. Minimum $100 purchase.

U3N6-M2ZE-NWNH-24HX-NR59

 

[Em etah Eh]

With Bitcoin where it’s at I’m tempted to just cash some out and overpay for a cpu and gpu but I’m still holding firm for now... hell of a time to try to build the first PC.

 

[Bones Malone]

I am wondering how much more I can leg out of my current pc. The CPU is definitely the biggest bottleneck.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FTRjFG

MSI B150M MORTAR Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-6500 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor

I know there's room to upgrade with that socket, I guess the question is how worth it is it at this point versus getting a current gen motherboard & cpu & prob a new windows key and maybe RAM?

I guess I would really just like to upgrade the CPU, but not have it just be a band aid to get me another year down the road.

 

[aleshemsky83]

DLSS is now native to Unreal Engine. That's a gut punch for AMD.

NVIDIA DLSS in Code Plugins - UE Marketplace

 

[Osprey]

DLSS is now native to Unreal Engine. That's a gut punch for AMD.

NVIDIA DLSS in Code Plugins - UE Marketplace

I don't see it making any difference in the short term and should benefit AMD in the long term because it suggests that FidelityFX SR (their standard-based alternative) will be similarly integrated once its released in a few months. That's just what AMD needs to help adoption because they don't throw money at developers to support their technologies on the scale that Nvidia does.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I don't see it making any difference in the short term and should benefit AMD in the long term because it suggests that FidelityFX SR (their standard-based alternative) will be similarly integrated once its released in a few months. That's just what AMD needs to help adoption because they don't throw money at developers to support their technologies on the scale that Nvidia does.

I don't consider Fidelity FX an alternative tbh. It's in The Medium, you can try it. It looks terrible at subnative resolutions, which is the entire purpose of AI upscaling. It's basically just a sharpening filter you can put to use for games that use TAA.

Edit: Ah, its a different version of FidelityFX that actually is AI upscaling and not just a sharpening filter. Regardless, NVidia is just so far ahead in the machine learning space I cant imagine them catching up there anytime soon.

 

[Osprey]

I don't consider Fidelity FX an alternative tbh. It's in The Medium, you can try it. It looks terrible at subnative resolutions, which is the entire purpose of AI upscaling. It's basically just a sharpening filter you can put to use for games that use TAA.

Edit: Ah, its a different version of FidelityFX that actually is AI upscaling and not just a sharpening filter. Regardless, NVidia is just so far ahead in the machine learning space I cant imagine them catching up there anytime soon.

Yeah, I don't expect it to be as good as DLSS 2.0, either. Hopefully, it's at least better than DLSS 1.0, though. Still, I'm not willing to make a $500+ purchase of an RX 6000 series card based on the hope that it'll make up for the inferior ray tracing performance. If I can find a 3060, 3060 Ti or 3070 in the next few months, I'll buy one. Chances are that I'll still be trying by the time that AMD releases their mid-range 6000 cards and FidelityFX SR, though, so, if so, I'll take a close look at those and maybe re-consider. We'll see.

 

[TJ21]

I've called a few major retailers near my area for potential backorders for a 3070, and multiple have told me that they've been told by Nvidia not to expect any new stocks for at least 4 to 6 months. Just absolutely brutal out here. Any possible pre-order that pops up gets snatched by bots in minutes. Looks like my PC setup is on hold for a while

 

[Hammettf2b]

is there a monitor/tv that will do 4k 60 and 1080p 120 hz? Mind you this will be for both the Series X and PS5 so both resolutions will be via hdmi.

 

[mouser]

is there a monitor/tv that will do 4k 60 and 1080p 120 hz? Mind you this will be for both the Series X and PS5 so both resolutions will be via hdmi.

Without doing any research that seems unlikely to me. The refresh rate of a tv or monitor is capped by the display panel technology. If you’re going to build a 120HZ monitor/TV you first have to start with a 120HZ capable panel. I don’t see any economic argument where it would make sense for a manufacturer to pay for a 4K resolution 120HZ panel that can’t do 4K at 120HZ, only 1080P.

If you’re doing TV research on 60HZ vs 120HZ be careful about tv’s that advertise 120HZ or more gaming input. Very often the small print will state the TV accepts 120HZ input, but the actual screen refresh is still capped at 60HZ by the panel tech.

If you’re researching monitors that shouldn’t be a concern. They’re rarely misleading on the actual display refresh.

 

[Smelling Salt]

is there a monitor/tv that will do 4k 60 and 1080p 120 hz? Mind you this will be for both the Series X and PS5 so both resolutions will be via hdmi.

Sony 900H. It's 120hz is a bit wonky at 4k but I think generally fine at 1080p.

 

[TJ21]

4 months on a waiting list and nothing. Called up a local computer shop here, and within 8 days on a backorder I finally have my hands on a 3070 Got my hands on a Ryzen 5 5600x to go along with it, really excited to build this thing.

Do you guys have recommendations on monitors, based on experience or otherwise?As appealing as some 240hz 1080p deals are at the moment, I'm pretty much exclusively in the market for a good 1440p 144hz monitor, feel like thats better in the long run and want to take advantage of the juice this thing has. I've read up on tons of options, just wanted to see if anybody can vouch for specific units. Preferably IPS panels.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Bought myself one of these bad boys. Gonna be here tomorrow. If anything, it's paying it forward with an upgrade for range and speed when I get a house this year.

https://www.costco.com/tp-link-tri-band-12-stream-ax11000-wi-fi-6-router.product.100519717.html

 

[aleshemsky83]

Bought myself one of these bad boys. Gonna be here tomorrow. If anything, it's paying it forward with an upgrade for range and speed when I get a house this year.

https://www.costco.com/tp-link-tri-band-12-stream-ax11000-wi-fi-6-router.product.100519717.html

How does this compare with just setting up a wifi mesh for a similar price?

(Ftr I don't have either, just the default modem combo)

I'm guessing a mesh would have much more latency for multiplayer

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Mesh might still be better, but I know the house I'm getting isn't going to be huge. My current apartment is 1250 sq ft. Looking at places at least over 1500. So this kind of router should work just fine with that kind of size. Faster speed mesh routers are pretty damn expensive. I think I saw a new high end couple for like $600?

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I'm not entirely sure what's going on. I got this router and set up just fine...

However, I'm getting really high download speeds (since I have Verizon Gigabit FiOS), but my upload isn't going over 120 to 150 Mbps. The up and down should be about the same. Thoughts on what would be causing it?

 

[aleshemsky83]

Well first make sure you have that upload speed with your ISP

But if you do then try plugging a device in through (a gigabit port obviously) ethernet to make sure it's not related to the devices wifi card you're using. Though I've never heard of a wifi card that didn't have the same upload as download, still it's worth checking.

 

[SniperHF]

I'd think if you're actually pulling 925 he might already be on a wired link?

Sure you can theoretically hit that on AX11000 ( if it's not congested, which in an apartment.....) but you'd need a rippin good signal or standing right in front of the thing.

You can always try local speed testing between two devices on the network if you can't figure if it's local or the ISP. There are applications for this though I've never used them.




I updated to 802.11ax but I kept my old router and just added an AP:
https://www.amazon.com/ZyXEL-Wirele...ld=1&keywords=802.11ax&qid=1602573773&sr=8-19

DD-WRT firmware, dot1q trunk link set up on my now ancient EA6400 router, and a wall mount WAP. I've got a small business style network

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

This is with Ethernet and it's those speeds. I've done everything possible to fix the upload speed (which has often been faster than my download on my older router) and it seems, reading around, that this is a common issue with this router and even with the latest drivers and firmwares for the router, it still won't fix it. I'll probably be taking it back to Costco and getting something like this:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1584970-REG/asus_rt_ax86u_ax5700_dual_band_wifi.html

And Newegg seems to be good about returning an item like this with 30 days if I don't like it. Plus, my old router is an Asus that has MeshAI support, so I can re-use it on the other end of the house.

 

[SniperHF]

so I can re-use it on the other end of the house.

My house is 1525sqft and IMO you won't need the mesh AP in that situation unless the Router/Ap is in a really poor location or it's like a 3 story loft or something.

And if you own I'd highly recommend a wall mount AP and then shut off your router's wifi anyway. Forget the mesh. Depending on how easy it is to run the cable anyway. It's a fun project and a cool smart home upgrade You don't even need crimpers and such you can use coupler style jacks.

You can even leave your Router's Wifi on if it's far enough away from the wallmount AP.