New Gaming/Streaming Build

[Zicro]

I'm coming from my rig in my sig which has been going strong for almost 5 years now and I've got a upgrade itch.

My build: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/AltCtrl/saved/sR68Jx

Any changes I should make? I'm carrying over my 1080Ti until the 3080Ti comes out. I am planning on upgrading to Zen 3 when it comes out so should I wait for that or pull the trigger and do a Zen 3 upgrade down the line? Should I get faster ram for Zen 3?

 

[sinisterDei]

Are you going to OC? Keep in mind, on AMD it's far less effective than it was on Intel.
If not, you can spend far less on both the CPU cooler and the motherboard. You've got $500 between the two components, and you could probably spend much closer to $250 and be completely cool and stable. Motherboards do *not* have to be $360 to be competent; my 3700X runs 100% rock solid stable on a fucking $90 motherboard (B450 Pro4) I got for $30 at Microcenter when I bought my 3700X bundle. Mind you I'm not advocating you buy my motherboard, the point is just that you do not have to spend so much on a motherboard to get a good result. Half the shit on that board is monster cable level marketing bullshit.

If you're going to upgrade to Zen 3 in the future, why buy the 12C 3900X for now? Right now, for gaming, most of the time a 3600 is just as capable as a 3950X when you game at high detail levels, resolutions, and refresh rates. Since you're at 1440p144 you fall into that category. If you're going to Zen 3 eventually, you can spend far less now if you like on something like a 3600 or 3700X since Zen 3 will come out long before games start stressing the 6 and 8 core CPUs.

Why is your case both so huge and so expensive? You don't seem to be going for a custom loop cooler, and you don't need a $290 full tower to fit the AIO you have chosen.

Lastly - storage. As of this moment, there is currently no use case where PCIe Gen 4 SSDs are better for gaming than PCIe Gen 3 SSDs, or even regular old SATA SSDs. Assuming that at some point in the future NVMe SSDs will develop some advantage over basic SATA SSDs and you want to future proof, you still don't need to spend $420 on a unit. A HP EX950 2TB unit (not gen 4, but again, no advantages for gaming) is $270, and so is Sabrent's 2TB Rocket NVME 3.0 drive.

 

[Zicro]

Yes I plan on OC'ing and i like to keep my computer as long as I can with gpu and cpu drop in upgrades rather than build a whole new system that's why I want higher end parts. I rather spend a few hundred extra than build a whole new system in a couple years so that's my reasoning for the case, PCIe 4.0 storage and the motherboard.

I'm planning on selling the 3900X when Zen 3 comes out. Do you think Zen 3 will utilize more than 3600mhz ram that currently the sweet spot for Zen 2?

 

[sinisterDei]

I'm planning on selling the 3900X when Zen 3 comes out. Do you think Zen 3 will utilize more than 3600mhz ram that currently the sweet spot for Zen 2?

The primary benefit of running 3600 memory is it lets you keep the infinity fabric clock in 'coupled mode', where it runs at 1/2 the memory frequency. 1800 is near the top stability point of most the Ryzen 3000 chips - a select golden few might be able to handle 1900, but most falter pretty rapidly after 1800. There is some performance to be chased with 3600 memory that has better timings and sub-timings, but everything I've seen tells me that 1) the 3600 is the most important part and 2) all the sub-timing adjustments in the world add up to less than 10% CPU performance, most of which won't matter when you're GPU limited anyways.

You can decouple the memory an IF clock, but doing so invokes a latency penalty that eats any performance benefit from using faster RAM.

Now then, nobody knows shit about Zen 3 and anyone claiming otherwise is either making shit up themselves, or believing someone else who is making shit up. Anyone who *does* know is under NDA, so that means anyone that *is* talking is full of shit. It could a faster IF clock, or change the ratio of memory to IF, but we just don't know. I would buy good memory 3600 or up. If you get memory faster than 3600, just underclock it to 3600 while you're on Zen2 and then you'll have the option to ramp it up if Zen 3 takes advantage of it.

 

[sinisterDei]

Yes I plan on OC'ing

One more reply, just keep in mind as I mentioned this has far less effect on AMD than it did for Intel. On your 6700k you could clock yourself from your base 4.0 GHz clock to 4.7 GHz and blow past your 4.2 GHz turbo frequency.

AMD on the other hand treats its "boost clock" almost like an auto-overclocking function. You can tweak some settings to try and allow that boosting some more legroom, or you can disable that mode and manually push it, but you will likely not get all that much benefit over the 'stock' settings. Nowhere near the +500MHz you got on the Intel chip over its built-in max turbo frequency.

 

[Zicro]

One more reply, just keep in mind as I mentioned this has far less effect on AMD than it did for Intel. On your 6700k you could clock yourself from your base 4.0 GHz clock to 4.7 GHz and blow past your 4.2 GHz turbo frequency.

AMD on the other hand treats its "boost clock" almost like an auto-overclocking function. You can tweak some settings to try and allow that boosting some more legroom, or you can disable that mode and manually push it, but you will likely not get all that much benefit over the 'stock' settings. Nowhere near the +500MHz you got on the Intel chip over its built-in max turbo frequency.

Yeah but these Ryzen chips have higher ipc right? Does PBO give near max overclock? I kind of like this set and forget overclock feature. I think I might get some 4000mhz ram and underclock to 3600 until Zen 3. Also rumors of 3900XT might be true so probably smart to wait for that.

 

[sinisterDei]

Does PBO give near max overclock?

Depends on the chip lottery. For some yes, for some there's an extra 100-200 MHz left on the table by stock settings / PBO. In the grand scheme of things, other than measuring your e-peen there isn't much difference between 4 GHz and 4.2 GHz, or between 4.2 and 4.4. This ain't the Celeron 300 days when you're gonna get +50% out of an OC; moving a Ryzen to 4.4 Ghz stable all core - which is *hard* and requires luck - might net you 200-300 MHz more than it would naturally self boost to, representing less than 10% of the overall speed of the chip.

You are just as likely to get more out of tightening memory timings manually - a process I've never had the patience to do. And if you run at high resolution and are GPU limited anyways, absolutely none of it matters for gaming.