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- Nov 11, 2012
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I will be updating this as time goes by. I get to go through various systems, while I don't get to keep them, sometimes I get to play with them for a while. It will also cover CPU's, iGPU's, and memory, since graphics cards are always paired with them. I missed a good bit of years from 2013 to 2023, but have gotten familiar with so many different systems, I think it might be useful for some people.
List of CPU's:
AMD:
AMD:
RX 9070 16GB (~$650) - If I told myself last year that the $549 MSRP RX 9070 16GB would be the best price per performance graphics card as of August 11, 2026, I'd have called myself crazy. But with the RX 9070 XT going above $720, the RTX 5070 12GB going above $750, and the RTX 5070 Ti 16GB going above $1000, do yourself a favor and buy the RX 9070 16GB right now, before they start going up in price. Just on pure raster performance, and not even needing a great CPU, it performs solid at 1080P, 2K, and holds above 60FPS at 4K. It only uses 233W's at stock, with temps staying cool going up to 57C at max. It gets 173.7 FPS at native 1080P with an i7-14700T, compared to a RTX 4080 Super paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D getting 147.44 FPS. However, on the flip side, it loses to it in 4K with 66.02 FPS vs 73.54 FPS. My guess is that the 9800X3D needs 6000MHz memory, and not 4800MHz, or it takes a hit? I'll have to play around with that some more. Another benefit over the NVIDIA graphics cards is Linux support.
Best Do-it-All Graphics Card based on price per performance as of 8/11/2026:
RTX 5070 Ti 16GB (~$1000) - A month ago, you could get lucky and find some RTX 5070 Ti 16GB's new at $900, or used at around $850. They can do everything the RTX 5080 16GB can, just slightly slower. The only benefit of the RTX 5080 over the RTX 5070 Ti, is being able to play with higher Raytracing settings. Compared to the RTX 4080 Super, it's a slightly better card, and a slightly worse card.
Why would you get an RTX 5070 Ti over the RX 9070 or RX 9070 XT?
Best graphics card under $250 as of 8/11/2026:
Used RTX 3070 8GB's - If you play older games at native 2K, or want to play newer AAA games at 1080P, the RTX 3070 8GB is still my favorite graphics card of the late 2020 to the end of 2025 era. Overclocked, it'll still beat, or keep up with, the RTX 5060, 5060 Ti, and 9060 XT's at almost half the price. A few months ago, a used Intel Arc B580 12GB for around $280 would have been my pick, but with growing demand for above 8GB VRAM, the price has gone up for the Arc B580's as well.
Best iGPU as of 8/11/2026:
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (8060S) - Sorry Steam Machine (2026 version). Yeah, they're expensive, but only because of DDR5 memory prices. They perform on par between an RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 (~$455). However, you can also allocate as much memory to it as you want (10GB should be enough at 2K). Plus, it easily beats the new Steam Machine in performance, too. But it's costs $2,000 or more!?
What if I told you, you could buy a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 16GB LPDDR5 8000MHz and 512GB NVMe SSD for $900? Plus, it'll have an OCuLink port, as well as a USB4 port? Again, something the Steam Machine lacks. Not only will it be great for gaming, but it's a beast of a CPU. It's basically a lower TDP version of a 9950X.
Get ready, because it'll release soon at $900, but then it'll shoot up in price to probably $1200 - $1400 depending on demand.
Best price per performance gaming CPU as of 8/11/2026:
Used i5-13600K ($175) - I considered a tie with the Ryzen 5 9600X ($155). It was kind of close, but with DDR5 prices being crazy, an overclocked i5-13600K using DDR4 is still the GOAT. My biggest regret is getting rid of my i5-13600K's, especially the ones that could overclock well at 1.35V's. Overclocked, they can keep up with the i7-14700T's and stock i9-14900K's, especially for gaming, and they're EASY to overclock. While I like having the best of the best, the little CPU that could will forever have my heart.
Best price per performance alternatives as of 8/11/2026:
Ryzen 7 H 255 Mini-PC with USB4 and OCuLink ($405) - A close tie would be a Minisforum MS-A1 with a Ryzen 7 8700G (~$200), if you can find a used deal for it. They perform just slightly slower than an overclocked i5-13600K, but uses much less power. It's a complete set: you have a CPU, CPU cooler, Motherboard, 16GB DDR5 5600MHz RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, case, USB4, OCuLink, and a decent gaming iGPU with a 780M. All you need now is an eGPU using OCuLink ($54.98), a cheap PSU ($41.99), and a discrete graphics card.
I've done it all. I used Mini-PC's with USB4 and OCuLink eGPU's. I've used DDR5 SO-DIMM with adapters on desktop PC's. You're going to take a slight performance hit, but it'll still be faster than DDR4 memory, and you get the benefits of CPU's you can't otherwise use. You're only losing about 2.5% performance with OCuLink using a mid-range graphics card like a RTX 3070. Plus, it's portable.
List of CPU's:
AMD:
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395
- 9850X3D
- 9800X3d
- 9600X
- 8700G
- 8845HS
- 8745H
- H 255
- 6800H
- 6600H
- 5800X
- 5700X
- 5600
- 3900X
- i7-270K Plus
- i9-14900K
- i9-14900HX
- i7-14700T
- i5-13600K
- i5-13600T
- i5-13500T
- i5-12600K
- i9-11900 ES
AMD:
- RX 9070 XT 16GB
- RX 9070 16GB
- 8060S
- 780M
- 680M
- Arc B580
- RTX 5080 16GB
- RTX 5070 Ti 16GB
- RTX 5070 12GB
- RTX 4080 Super 16GB
- RTX 4070 12GB
- RTX 3080 10GB
- RTX 3070 Ti 8GB
- RTX 3070 8GB
- RTX 3080m 8GB
- RTX 3070Tim 8GB
- RTX 2070 Super 8GB
- GTX 1080 Ti 11GB
- GTX 1080 8GB
RX 9070 16GB (~$650) - If I told myself last year that the $549 MSRP RX 9070 16GB would be the best price per performance graphics card as of August 11, 2026, I'd have called myself crazy. But with the RX 9070 XT going above $720, the RTX 5070 12GB going above $750, and the RTX 5070 Ti 16GB going above $1000, do yourself a favor and buy the RX 9070 16GB right now, before they start going up in price. Just on pure raster performance, and not even needing a great CPU, it performs solid at 1080P, 2K, and holds above 60FPS at 4K. It only uses 233W's at stock, with temps staying cool going up to 57C at max. It gets 173.7 FPS at native 1080P with an i7-14700T, compared to a RTX 4080 Super paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D getting 147.44 FPS. However, on the flip side, it loses to it in 4K with 66.02 FPS vs 73.54 FPS. My guess is that the 9800X3D needs 6000MHz memory, and not 4800MHz, or it takes a hit? I'll have to play around with that some more. Another benefit over the NVIDIA graphics cards is Linux support.
Best Do-it-All Graphics Card based on price per performance as of 8/11/2026:
RTX 5070 Ti 16GB (~$1000) - A month ago, you could get lucky and find some RTX 5070 Ti 16GB's new at $900, or used at around $850. They can do everything the RTX 5080 16GB can, just slightly slower. The only benefit of the RTX 5080 over the RTX 5070 Ti, is being able to play with higher Raytracing settings. Compared to the RTX 4080 Super, it's a slightly better card, and a slightly worse card.
Why would you get an RTX 5070 Ti over the RX 9070 or RX 9070 XT?
- If you like Raytracing, it'll handle it better without taking too much of a hit. It's still not that great if you still want native 2K with Raytracing.
- If you stream or record while playing games. AV1 encoding is great for streaming, recording, and video editing. It has less of a performance hit over HEVC, takes up less space, and has better image quality. It's the only thing the RX 9070 series lacks compared to the RX 7900 (which did have it).
- If you use LLM's with CUDA, or need CUDA at all, it's again, the middle sibling to the RTX 5080 16GB and the RTX 5070 12GB. Another thing AMD lacks.
Best graphics card under $250 as of 8/11/2026:
Used RTX 3070 8GB's - If you play older games at native 2K, or want to play newer AAA games at 1080P, the RTX 3070 8GB is still my favorite graphics card of the late 2020 to the end of 2025 era. Overclocked, it'll still beat, or keep up with, the RTX 5060, 5060 Ti, and 9060 XT's at almost half the price. A few months ago, a used Intel Arc B580 12GB for around $280 would have been my pick, but with growing demand for above 8GB VRAM, the price has gone up for the Arc B580's as well.
Best iGPU as of 8/11/2026:
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (8060S) - Sorry Steam Machine (2026 version). Yeah, they're expensive, but only because of DDR5 memory prices. They perform on par between an RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 (~$455). However, you can also allocate as much memory to it as you want (10GB should be enough at 2K). Plus, it easily beats the new Steam Machine in performance, too. But it's costs $2,000 or more!?
What if I told you, you could buy a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 16GB LPDDR5 8000MHz and 512GB NVMe SSD for $900? Plus, it'll have an OCuLink port, as well as a USB4 port? Again, something the Steam Machine lacks. Not only will it be great for gaming, but it's a beast of a CPU. It's basically a lower TDP version of a 9950X.
Get ready, because it'll release soon at $900, but then it'll shoot up in price to probably $1200 - $1400 depending on demand.
Best price per performance gaming CPU as of 8/11/2026:
Used i5-13600K ($175) - I considered a tie with the Ryzen 5 9600X ($155). It was kind of close, but with DDR5 prices being crazy, an overclocked i5-13600K using DDR4 is still the GOAT. My biggest regret is getting rid of my i5-13600K's, especially the ones that could overclock well at 1.35V's. Overclocked, they can keep up with the i7-14700T's and stock i9-14900K's, especially for gaming, and they're EASY to overclock. While I like having the best of the best, the little CPU that could will forever have my heart.
Best price per performance alternatives as of 8/11/2026:
Ryzen 7 H 255 Mini-PC with USB4 and OCuLink ($405) - A close tie would be a Minisforum MS-A1 with a Ryzen 7 8700G (~$200), if you can find a used deal for it. They perform just slightly slower than an overclocked i5-13600K, but uses much less power. It's a complete set: you have a CPU, CPU cooler, Motherboard, 16GB DDR5 5600MHz RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, case, USB4, OCuLink, and a decent gaming iGPU with a 780M. All you need now is an eGPU using OCuLink ($54.98), a cheap PSU ($41.99), and a discrete graphics card.
I've done it all. I used Mini-PC's with USB4 and OCuLink eGPU's. I've used DDR5 SO-DIMM with adapters on desktop PC's. You're going to take a slight performance hit, but it'll still be faster than DDR4 memory, and you get the benefits of CPU's you can't otherwise use. You're only losing about 2.5% performance with OCuLink using a mid-range graphics card like a RTX 3070. Plus, it's portable.
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