The PC Gaming Thread, no console peasants allowed

[Hawkingbird]

Even if the MSRP is "reasonable" no one will get it for that price with how the market currently is. It will easily be double or triple the price it's meant to sell for

 

[Darc_Requiem]

19 minutes ago, Hawkingbird said:

Even if the MSRP is "reasonable" no one will get it for that price with how the market currently is. It will easily be double or triple the price it's meant to sell for

 

I don't disagree with you. That said, given what I saw with the 6600XT, people hard up for a video card would be able to get one at MSRP for a few days. I had no interest in the 6600XT but I checked it out on launch day. It  could easily be found at MSRP on launch day and there were a scant few places that had it at MSRP the following day. Supply was higher because Navi 23 is a smaller die than Navi 22 or Navi 21. The 6500XT would be on Navi24. That die is half the size of the 6600XT (Navi 23) die. So it would take longer for it to become scarce.

 

My old man rambling aside, performance wise, this card will probably only be slightly above a RX590. So I'd think that would lessen the demand. Probably wishful thinking on my part. It's sad that a card that'll be barely better than a 5500XT for more money with worthless RT performance will sell out easily.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Darc_Requiem

[YourFavGrandpa]

People are fiending in general for electronics, so the new ATI card will be scalped all to hell.

[Hawkingbird]

 

[Darc_Requiem]

@YourFavGrandpaSteve at Hardware Unboxed did a AMD Win 10 vs Win 11 Comparison. Thought it you'd like to see it.

 

 

[Darc_Requiem]

Intel 12900K Reviews are up. The Cinebench multicore and single core performance scores are really impressive. It edges out the 5950X in gaming but not my much. There are several caveats though. It's hots, sucks a lot of power, and basically requires a 360mm AIO for cooling. It's a good first step but honestly I was expecting more. To see the maximum performance you are to need high end DDR5 and even then you are looking at 2 to 3% advantage in gaming over a 5950X.

 

 

[Hawkingbird]

The big thing seems to be that Intel is competitive again. Having support for DDR5 is pretty tempting. Crossing my fingers that AMD offers it in their next chipset. 

[Darc_Requiem]

58 minutes ago, Hawkingbird said:

The big thing seems to be that Intel is competitive again. Having support for DDR5 is pretty tempting. Crossing my fingers that AMD offers it in their next chipset. 

IIRC, Zen 4 has DDR5 support. The upcoming Zen "3D" does not. That said, hopefully by the time Zen 4 rolls around DDR5 pricing is better. It's just isn't worth it. The DDR5 Steve used in the HUB review is literally 3 times the cost for a miniscule boost at 1080p with a 6900XT. In other words, most people wouldn't benefit. Outside of competitive gamers, 1440p is the current sweet spot. CPUs are just outpacing GPUs. Everything is still GPU bound basically.

[misterBee]

8 hours ago, Darc_Requiem said:

Intel 12900K Reviews are up. The Cinebench multicore and single core performance scores are really impressive. It edges out the 5950X in gaming but not my much. There are several caveats though. It's hots, sucks a lot of power, and basically requires a 360mm AIO for cooling. It's a good first step but honestly I was expecting more. To see the maximum performance you are to need high end DDR5 and even then you are looking at 2 to 3% advantage in gaming over a 5950X.

The 10900 I got for cheap this past year seems to have been a good decision.

 

I was interested in Alder Lake's performance gains but at that kind of power and heat it's probably better I just stick with what I have.

[Darc_Requiem]

7 hours ago, misterBee said:

The 10900 I got for cheap this past year seems to have been a good decision.

 

I was interested in Alder Lake's performance gains but at that kind of power and heat it's probably better I just stick with what I have.

The performance gains over 10th gen are substantial. If you have AM4 platform. It's cheaper to go with a 5900X, which is expected. The problem I have is even if you do a from scratch build. An AMD build is cheaper. Even with the 5950X being $100 more than the 12900K. By the time you figure in the RAM, Motherboard, Cooler and Power Supply, the AMD build ends up cheaper. If you are just gaming, a 5900X is a $100 or more cheaper than 12900K, It will grant you the same performance as the 5950X and save you even more money which you'll frankly need for which ever GPU you are about to get ripped off on.

 

Thankfully Intel is being honest with their power usage of their CPUs now, but still. You can cool a 5950X with a good air cooler. That alone cover the $100 price difference for the CPU. A 5950X runs cooler with an good air coolers than 12900K on an AIO. That shouldn't be a thing. Thankfully the power draw issue isn't bad if you are just gaming. The difference is marginal. But if you are doing core intensive productivity work.....its a huge difference. That said, at least it has noteworthy productivity performance. That's the area where Intel needed the biggest jump and now they are competitive.

 

Edit: Seeing the news that's come out today, why did Intel lead with the 12900K? The 12600K should have been the chip they were pushing. I'll look this into detail when I get home from work, but the 12900K from what I've gathered so far, is the worst of their new chips.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Darc_Requiem

[Darc_Requiem]

Yeah just watched HUB review of the 12700KF. Intel should have reviewers look at the 12900K last. The 12700K is clearly the overall better performing chip than the 5800X. While gaming is a dead heat, its not close in productivity. Plus the 12700K runs much cooler and sucks less power. 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Darc_Requiem

[Darc_Requiem]

12600K Review. A basic repeat of the 12700K. AMD is going to need to cut prices of the 5800X and 5600X.

 

 

[misterBee]

On 11/5/2021 at 5:45 PM, Darc_Requiem said:

Yeah just watched HUB review of the 12700KF. Intel should have reviews look at the 12900K last. The 12700K is clearly the overall better performing chip than the 5800X. While gaming is a dead heat, its not close in productivity. Plus the 12700K runs much cooler and sucks less power. 

On 11/6/2021 at 9:30 AM, Darc_Requiem said:

12600K Review. A basic repeat of the 12700K. AMD is going to need to cut prices of the 5800X and 5600X.

Very nice.

 

I don't buy mid-range CPUs anymore though.  💰

 

We'll see how things go in a few gens when I'm up for another CPU upgrade.  Right now I got my eyes on those new Intel GPUs coming out in a few months...

[Hawkingbird]

On 11/7/2021 at 3:34 PM, misterBee said:

Right now I got my eyes on those new Intel GPUs coming out in a few months...

We can buy GPUs now? I have forgotten the feeling.

[Darc_Requiem]

12 hours ago, Hawkingbird said:

We can buy GPUs now? I have forgotten the feeling.

IIRC Intel's GPUs are also on TSMC's node. So I wouldn't get to excited about availability yet. I miss when Global Foundries was still a thing. We need more competition in that space.

[Darc_Requiem]

Cyberdyne Systems model 5T3V3, also known as Steve, continues his inhuman benchmarking and I'm here for it.

 

 

[DarkSakul]

Yes it's fake. But it's still cool. 

Edited November 20, 2021 by DarkSakul

[Minako]

Anybody else embracing Linux as their go to OS for gaming?

 

Been running all my games with Proton recently and the only hangups I’ve seen are some games not showing attract modes, but 99.9% of cases have worked perfectly for me.

 

Helped that there was no added optimization I had to do on my Linux distro of choice for it to be game ready. Probably also helped that my system is 100% AMD, which has better support than Intel/nvidia.

 

But I haven’t booted into Windows in months, and that was typically reserved for gaming.

[YourFavGrandpa]

Ended up having to return the pair of Corsair Virtuoso headphones I bought in February yesterday due to them not powering back up. I went to a break from work, came back and the headset was lit green and didn't turn back on, even after following Corsair's troubleshooting instructions and having their support team assist me via phone. Ended up coming home with a new pair of Astro A40s, as they were the cheapest option to get without digging into money set aside for bills. 

[Darc_Requiem]

Steve at Hardware Unfixed posted a nice video that actually shows how powerful the E-Cores on Alder Lake are relative to the P-Cores and multiple other Intel and AMD architectures.

 

 

[Hawkingbird]

Some of the tech channels I've been following have been going deep into the custom keyboards. I been itching to try my hand at it for a while. While not a custom board the Nuphy Air 75 has checked all the boxes for the type of keyboard I want

 

https://nuphy.com/products/air75?variant=39572216053869

 

This is possibly the closest I will get to a customizable Logitech G915. I love my G915 but the fact I can't get replacement caps and it's proprietary on top of that make me uneasy. 

 

As for actual custom boards I been hearing this is a good beginner board

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002886563520.html

 

The price has been going up on this one sadly. 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Hawkingbird

[YourFavGrandpa]

12 hours ago, Hawkingbird said:

Some of the tech channels I've been following have been going deep into the custom keyboards.

let me know if you want some keyboard-only YT channels for content, I have a couple that can be recommended.

[Hawkingbird]

On 12/5/2021 at 11:09 AM, YourFavGrandpa said:

let me know if you want some keyboard-only YT channels for content, I have a couple that can be recommended.

Other than the tech channels I already follow I been watching a few like Taeha Types, Hipyo and Click and Switch. 

[Reticently]

On 11/26/2021 at 2:19 PM, MP_ said:

Anybody else embracing Linux as their go to OS for gaming?

Haven't had free time to take the plunge back into Linux in the last few years.  Once my kids need less micromanagement though.

 

I do have a Steam Deck on preorder, so I'll be gaming on Linux in some sense soon enough anyway.

[Minako]

On 12/9/2021 at 3:39 PM, Reticently said:

Haven't had free time to take the plunge back into Linux in the last few years.  Once my kids need less micromanagement though.

 

I do have a Steam Deck on preorder, so I'll be gaming on Linux in some sense soon enough anyway.

Steam Deck is based, and a large part of the reason why Proton development is moving so fast at the present. I mean it was looking good overall even last year, but the speed of which things are fixed right now is pretty stunning. MBTL had some early issues that needed a custom version to work and within a week Valve had an official version working with it. Not bad for even such a niche title.

[misterBee]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:55 PM, Hawkingbird said:

Some of the tech channels I've been following have been going deep into the custom keyboards. I been itching to try my hand at it for a while. While not a custom board the Nuphy Air 75 has checked all the boxes for the type of keyboard I want

 

https://nuphy.com/products/air75?variant=39572216053869

 

This is possibly the closest I will get to a customizable Logitech G915. I love my G915 but the fact I can't get replacement caps and it's proprietary on top of that make me uneasy. 

 

As for actual custom boards I been hearing this is a good beginner board

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002886563520.html

 

The price has been going up on this one sadly. 

If you want to solder in the switches yourself you can just grab one of the kits from kbdfans:

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit

 

Otherwise just snag a pre-built and put on whatever keycaps you want.

 

Unless you plan on programming your own layouts almost any board will do tbh.

[Hawkingbird]

1 hour ago, misterBee said:

If you want to solder in the switches yourself you can just grab one of the kits from kbdfans:

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit

 

Otherwise just snag a pre-built and put on whatever keycaps you want.

 

Unless you plan on programming your own layouts almost any board will do tbh.

I definitely want a hot swappable board. I don't want any extra work. If I ever got down the road of lubing my switches or stabilizers I'll rather use up the time for that.  

[misterBee]

51 minutes ago, Hawkingbird said:

I definitely want a hot swappable board. I don't want any extra work. If I ever got down the road of lubing my switches or stabilizers I'll rather use up the time for that.  

No worries.  Many of those kits are hot swappable:

 

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/blade65-r2-aluminum-hot-swap-mechanical-keyboard?variant=39566760214667#_

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/kbdfans-dz60rgb-ansi-hot-swap-diy-kit?variant=22939589804080

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/tofu-rgb-60-custom-keyboard-kit

 

If all you're worried about is lubing switches/stabs and aren't going to be swapping out the housing or anything you might even just consider buying a pre-built from Glorious:

 

https://www.pcgamingrace.com/collections/keyboard

[YourFavGrandpa]

On 12/12/2021 at 6:11 PM, misterBee said:

No worries.  Many of those kits are hot swappable:

 

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/blade65-r2-aluminum-hot-swap-mechanical-keyboard?variant=39566760214667#_

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/kbdfans-dz60rgb-ansi-hot-swap-diy-kit?variant=22939589804080

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/tofu-rgb-60-custom-keyboard-kit

 

If all you're worried about is lubing switches/stabs and aren't going to be swapping out the housing or anything you might even just consider buying a pre-built from Glorious:

 

https://www.pcgamingrace.com/collections/keyboard

I have a Glorious keyboard currently, but after the drama I've seen around them recently (not giving people proper credit/jacking designs/TKC level shit); I'm likely done with Glorious as a company. Once my NK65 Superuser gets here, I'll probably build that out and switch to that. Mouse is as good as gone after Christmas, as I'm asking for a Xtrfy M42 for my birthday. Either that or I'll finally move over to a vertical/ergonomic mouse.

[Hawkingbird]

Adata plans on showing off a mouse that has 1TB worth of SSD storage at CES.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22855409/xpg-the-vault-gaming-mouse-1-tb-ssd-portable-games-libray-lan-party

 

This is an interesting idea

Edited December 28, 2021 by Hawkingbird

[YourFavGrandpa]

I see that holding a lot of porn.

[Hawkingbird]

 

[Hawkingbird]

 

[misterBee]

Affordable Topre board!  Tempted to pick this up.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B087LYPKWD/?coliid=I1AO82V9B2PF73&colid=LDGSOBU3REKR&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[Darc_Requiem]

Disaster in the making was dead on....

Edit: Here the video in article form for those at work.

 

https://www.techspot.com/review/2396-pcie-bandwidth-test/

Edited January 17, 2022 by Darc_Requiem

[Darc_Requiem]

Oh man, 6500XT reviews are out and it's more of shitshow than imagined. I can't remember Steve started out a review like this before.

 

 

[Hawkingbird]

I been seeing the reviews and to think a 2022 GPU performing on a level of a GPU from 5 years ago is shameful. The fuck is AMD doing?

[Darc_Requiem]

8 minutes ago, Hawkingbird said:

I been seeing the reviews and to think a 2022 GPU performing on a level of a GPU from 5 years ago is shameful. The fuck is AMD doing?

Basically they took a budget laptop die overclocked it to hell and released it as a desktop chip. That's why it has so many missing features. It was never meant to be desktop chip. I guess it's for marketshare because they actually aren't making money on the GPU. It costs them $195 to make. IIRC They sell it to AIBs for $170

[Darc_Requiem]

Saw this video and the dude is dead on. I just saw this myself when I snagged my 6900XT. It was cheaper than a 3080. Despite being faster, in rasterization on average than 3090. It was nuts. If I would have insisted on Nvidia. I would have had to settle for a 3060Ti to 3070Ti class card for the same price. Still if 5700XTs weren't selling for $700 to $1000, I would have held out.

 

 

[Psychoblue]

I think I shorted my motherboard this morning trying to install new RAM this morning.  It's in the shop now, hoping for the best but the kind of motherboard my processor needs is hard to come by.

 

In the last month I've had to replace one of my monitors, my RAM and potentially my motherboard.  the GPU and CPU are relatively recent so I guess they're fine still.

 

If worse comes to worse, gonna make the dive with this.  

 

Used - Very Good: MSI H270I GAMING PRO AC LGA 1151 Mini ITX Motherboards - Intel - Newegg.com

Edited January 25, 2022 by Psychoblue

[Hawkingbird]

Valve is putting the Steam deck on sale on February 25th

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/26/22902930/valve-steam-deck-release-date-gaming-handheld-pc

[Psychoblue]

9 hours ago, Hawkingbird said:

Valve is putting the Steam deck on sale on February 25th

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/26/22902930/valve-steam-deck-release-date-gaming-handheld-pc

Hoping this is when the Capcom GFWL fixes come out.  otherwise I'm good with my Gigabye Aero 15 laptop.  

 

The real test is going to be if this becomes the system of choice at majors.  

[Hawkingbird]

1 hour ago, Psychoblue said:

Hoping this is when the Capcom GFWL fixes come out.  otherwise I'm good with my Gigabye Aero 15 laptop.  

 

The real test is going to be if this becomes the system of choice at majors.  

Availability issues will make it difficult for any major to stock up on them. The reservation system Valve has in place doesn't make it kind for bulk purchases.

[misterBee]

GPUs are still quite expensive, so I've been having a lot of fun trolling FB Marketplace for deals and playing with old hardware.

 

Helped a friend put together a respectable gaming rig for about 436 dollars using mostly used parts.  It plays all the games he's interested in at 1080p max/high settings.  If I had worked harder and was willing to wait a bit longer we probably could have shaved off even more by getting a deal on a different case/power supply.

 

 

CPU: Xeon e5-2670v3 (12c 24t) w/ Hyper 212 BE cooler + Arctic Fan

Motherboard: Machinist X99-K9 (Chinese Aliexpress Brand)

RAM: 32GB DDR4

GPU: RX 470 4GB (modded with AIO cooler)

PSU: Powerspec 650w

Storage: 512GB Inland SSD

Case: Lian-Li Lancool 205M

 

Also recently refurbished a beat-up old laptop for me to use when I'm at my parents' house:

 

 

Next up is another cheap Xeon build I'm working on that will have 128GB of DDR3 ECC RAM. 😈

 

Deals are still out there -- just gotta work hard for 'em.

[Hawkingbird]

Newegg scammed Steve. 

 

 

[Darc_Requiem]

Newegg is where I snagged my 5800X and 6900XT. After watching this video, I'll stick to Amazon. I've only had two issues with Amazon and they were both resolved quickly without a fuss.

[Hawkingbird]

I used Newegg to buy parts for my previous build and my nephews. Buying a motherboard from them is a no go.

[misterBee]

My power supply died.  Can't even RMA because I didn't keep the receipt.  🙃

 

Just got my system up and running again with a new Thermaltake 750w PSU -- gave it a good clean too.

 

It's a good thing I have so many other systems I can use while my main one is out of commission.

[Hawkingbird]

Steam deck content is hitting YouTube. In depth reviews of the hardware is coming out

 

 

 

 

[YourFavGrandpa]

picked up a 34" 3440x1440 Ultrawide monitor for $250 day before yesterday while on a Walmart run. It's really good, and the only nitpicks I have with it is the 4ms refresh rate and 75hz max refresh rate. Otherwise, it's pretty baller. 

Also have Ghostwire Tokyo preordered, and I'm gonna try out Lost Ark.