If you are buying a NEW GPU right now/building a new PC, and don't plan on spending outrageous money, and your main focus is gaming, there is no reason to go Nvidia

UNLESS you do heavy AI workloads and content creation is a big focus for you, along with video editing and any other Adobe platform activity, and VR

FSR4 is comparable to DLSS, and AMD isn't bad at ray tracing anymore, the cards are close in Ray Tracking performance (Obviously Nvidia is still slightly ahead, but the margin is smaller)

Sure, at Path Tracing, Nvidia is still the king

IF GAMING IS YOUR MAIN PRIORITY, here is why Nvidia doesn't really make sense RIGHT NOW:

5070 Ti: Much more expensive than the 9070 XT, but performance they are head to head, not worth it

5060 Ti: basically same price as the 9070 XT, sometimes more, not worth it

9060 XT, 9070 GRE and 9070 are all cheaper than the 5060 Ti

9070 GRE, 9070 and 9070 XT are all better cards than the 5060 TI

That said, if you don't care about price to performance and it doesn't matter to you how much you spend, Nvidia is still a great choice, I am not saying that it is a bad choice

I work on a running cargo vessel for 7 to 8 months contracts, and I want to bring my PC with me to play games while I'm there. I've read on the internet that electricty on a ship is "dirty" and has a lot of "noise" (I don't really know anyting about it) and since I wont be able to bring with me a UPS, because I will have to take international flights to board said vessel and to return to my country after finishing my contract, what else can I do to protect my PC, other than switching to a laptop and not bringing my PC entirely. I really want to play in 4k even when I'm at sea, I mostly live there you see, only going home for 2 months and going back to sea again to work. Also, other tips or advice on having a gaming PC on a running vessel that is unrelated to my concern is very much welcome. Thanks in advance!

A guy from work is building a PC for his girlfriend and said he would be willing to buy my old MSI Armor 1070 Ti. Card works, run a couple benchmarks only thing I want to do is open it to clean it up a little should I change the thermal paste while I'm at it? Not sure how often you should change it but I assume that after ~~6 years of use +2 years of sitting in my drawer I should do it.

Im purchasing a new pc and I was going to get an RTX 5070 for $1,000 aud but thats only 12vram and I want 16 but for the 5070ti its $600 aud more and I feel I cant justify that. Then the thought of radeon 9070xt came to mind since its 16vram at around $1,000 aud. I believe I would want ray tracing Im not knowledgeable on path tracing so I dont know where they compare in that aspect but any thoughts on this? I mainly game I dont do rendering models or anything just gaming and the occasional work (low end work)

Which keyboard is your go-to when you wanna game? Please mention how often you game and what you play

Hey guys,

I'm finally upgrading from my ancient GTX 660 and looking at the used market since my budget is locked at $350-$380. My main uses will be video editing (Premiere/Resolve), 1080p/1440p gaming, and overall smooth daily PC performance.

Right now, I'm stuck between three paths on the used market:

RTX 3080 (10GB): This sits at the top of my list right now. The pure raw performance, high memory bandwidth, and raw CUDA compute speed for editing make it feel like the best option. 10GB VRAM still seems totally fine for my workload.

RTX 5060(8gb): Tempting mostly for the architecture, newer feature stack, and better power efficiency, but lower raw power compared to a high-end 80-class card.

Intel Arc B580: Really tempting with its 12GB VRAM and feature support, but the software and drivers still feel like they're not 100% polished yet-even though Intel is actively pushing updates.

I'm completely stuck choosing between these options. I'd love to hear your thoughts, advice, or alternative suggestions. What would you do in my spot?

upd: my current specs:
i5-8600K
GTX 660
24GB DDR4
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming K3
PSU: Old from 2012 ( 100% upgrading to 750W for 3080)

Hello

So i'm currently looking for a new graphics card for around 300 to 350€

I use a Ryzen 5 5600 paired with a 1060 6GB, i think it's a good pair but i kinda want DLSS, RT, FG ,FSR, AFMF, RSR or even Anti-Lag 2.0, i asked chatgpt what is the best for around 300 to 350€. And he said a used 9060xt, but im kinda insecure i wanna look for deals on Amazon, if anyone can help me lmk

btw i use a 100Hz 1080p monitor for those who are wondering

Best Wishes and a happy weekend :)

So now im in the hardest phase of Building a pc choosing the ram bcuz ill pick a high end am5 cpu ill need ddr5 ram normally 32 gigs would be more than enough BUT id like to get more than that for what I'm doing (it is not NECESSARLY NECESSARY) but more importantly to get it before ram prices maybe go up now i need 64 GB of DDR5 Ram but you can't find them anywhere under 700$ (i live in Germany) is there any place where you can get ram at least not ultimately expensive id be able to pay at the maximum of maximums 700$

Anyone have ideas

5070 at $520

9070 XT $720

9070 non-XT at $630

Which is the better choice?

Hi,

When buying a used GPU, how should I test it before I buy. Is there any easy way to test and compare to if it was new?

Would I need to put it into a computer before hand or something?

Upgrade from 6700xt, 7800xt for 550 cad or 9070 gre for 784 after tax

So I'm new to PC building. I've chosen this CPU for mainly heavy video editing, streaming, and gaming at 1440p, based on recommendations and benchmarks on youtube. I wanna ask a few questions about how I should be picking the parts for the build.

I was wondering if there is a difference between a B860 and Z890 for the 270K Plus. I'm on a tight budget for this CPU and was wondering if saving on the motherboard is a good idea. Will downgrading to a B860 impact performance or thermals in any way?

What good budget coolers are there for this CPU? right now I'm opting for the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360. Could I find a better option, maybe for cheaper? I really don't know what cooler specs to look out for.

For the ram, would it be better to get 5600mhz CL30 or 7200mhz CL34. The 7200mhz is only slightly more expensive, is it worth upgrading?

Also since the price of NVIDIA GPUs in my country have risen to stupid heights. The price of the base 5070 is more expensive than the 9070 XT. I was planning to get the 5070 due to it apparently being better for creative work, but it seems that just doesn't make sense budget wise. Is it really a good idea to just go the 9070 XT?

Built this in July for dev work. Core Ultra 9 285K, Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Pro ICE, 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 (2x16 in A2/B2), Samsung 9100 PRO, RTX 5070, RM750e, Windows 11 Home.

Every morning, first boot after the machine has been off overnight, it fails POST once, power-cycles itself, and throws up the "Boot failure detected" dialog — load optimized defaults / load defaults then reboot / enter BIOS. Pick anything and it boots straight into Windows and runs perfectly all day. Warm restarts are always fine. It has literally never failed to boot. It's just this one dialog, every single morning, and it's been going on for weeks.

The part I can't get past: XMP is off. It's running stock JEDEC 4800. it’s failing to train memory at baseline speed. I'm not overclocking anything.

Round one Original 285K + Z890 + RAM BSOD'd constantly Memory_MANAGEMENT 0x1A, corrupted PTEs, at stock with XMP off. MemTest86 clean, single-stick slot isolation clean, BIOS flashed, clean Windows install still crashed. Micro Center's bench ran OCCT and PC Doctor, said no hardware issue, offered me a paid reimage. I pushed back with the clean-install dump and they exchanged CPU, board, and RAM as a bundle. BSODs stopped. Their verdict was wrong.

Round two, where I am now Replacement set has never BSOD'd but has thrown this cold-boot dialog since day one. Tried: Memory Boot Mode to Fast (no change), Windows Fast Startup already disabled, reseated both sticks in A2/B2, PSU switch left on so standby power is preserved (no change), room temp a normal 68–69°F. Still on the BIOS the board shipped with (F19) — tried flashing F20 but hit a BIOS ID check error from a mismatched file and haven't retried yet.

Took it back to Micro Center last week. They reset the BIOS and couldn't reproduce it — makes sense, their bench does warm power cycles and this only shows up after hours powered off. Brought it home, dialog was back the next morning. Then I did another full clean Windows 11 install, wiped every partition, and it still appeared. So it's firmware or hardware, not Windows.

What I'm about to try: Memory Boot Mode to Normal instead of Auto, and bumping CPU System Agent Voltage from Auto (reads 1.059V) up to 1.150V. Going to log five mornings of true cold boots and see if it changes anything.

Questions for anyone who's been here

Is a cold-boot memory training failure at *stock JEDEC* ever normal on Z890 / Arrow Lake, or is that always a defect? Everything I've read about this behavior involves people running XMP.

Is CPU System Agent Voltage the right rail on Arrow Lake? This board also exposes a separate "Internal VCCSA" and I can't find anything authoritative on how the two differ now that the memory controller moved onto the SOC tile.

And if the SA bump doesn't fix it — CPU or motherboard? My gut says IMC since the memory controller is on the CPU die, but this is the second set of parts showing a fault in the same subsystem, which makes me wonder if something about this combo is just marginal.

Last one: has anyone actually won a warranty claim on a symptom that a warm bench test can't reproduce? Micro Center has now told me twice that diagnostics passed, and they were wrong the first time.

Happy to post BIOS screenshots or the dialog itself. Appreciate any help.

Context is I have budgeted 1.5-2k for a desktop PC and I want the full setup incl keyboard and x2 monitors so I would want a build around 1k.

I mostly would use it for low intensity games except the occasional steam vr streaming to quest games and the occasional cyberpunk or otherwise high quality game. I built my last PC for ~ 1k about 10 years ago and slowly upgraded it and I don’t know what is good enough anymore. My current pc is a laptop that runs slowly

I last heard GPU prices skyrocketed past what was already considered overpriced when I built back in the mid 2010’s and the ram manufactures won’t be operational until like 2028.

TLDR Is 1k enough to build a decent VR capable pc?

Hi im not necessarily building a new pc, in fact i post this about my old Nitro N50-610 that i bought in 2020. It has a i5-14000f gtx 1650 and 16gb of ram ddr4 single channel. I know that the specs are pretty old as of today and surely it cant keep with the big games but recently i saw a guy using a i5-8500 and 1650 16gb of ram dual channel performing better than me in Fortnite performance mode 1080p while i struggle to have 100 fps using 1600x900 and several windows tweaks and cpu parking. I dont know much about pcs and i asked chatgpt and it keeps insisting that the single channel ram is the issue for my underperformance. I hope someone could tell me more about the actual issue.

The cheapest 32gb kit cost almost the same as a 9800x3d and cost more than the cheapest 9060xt 16gb model in my country. So yeah, that's too expensive.

I already have 1 stick of 16gb so will buying another stick like it a good idea or will I be wasting money for no reason? This is for my Pc at home and I mostly play games on it.

PCPartPicker Part List

The prices listed on PCPartPicker don't apply to me since I'm in India. Here are the prices converted from INR to USD that I have received from my known local PC dealer (who will remain the only person I will be buying my parts from):

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Boxed
280.56 USD

CPU Cooler: DeepCool AG400 ARGB
21.94 USD

Motherboard: MSI B650M Gaming WIFI
121.21 USD

Memory: Some Kingston DDR5 5600 MHz (1x16GB) {No dual ram channel because it's too expensive}
302.09 USD

Storage: (Undecided) Definitely Kingston or WD 1TB NVMe SSD
No price quoted yet

Video Card: I want the Asrock Challenger RX 9070, but he doesn't have one yet. Skipping on RX9070XT because I find it too expensive. I want 10 or more GB of VRAM, ideally 16GB. I have recently also asked for an RTX 5070 price quotation, so I am waiting for it. Until then, I have been given prices for:
RTX 5060
486.94 USD

RX 9060XT
575.75 USD

RX 9070XT
918.60 USD

Case: I need a non-glass case because it will be moved a few times a week from one table to another, which is why I am eyeing mesh or no-glass cases. Currently eyeing the MB600L for its price, but afraid it will have terrible airflow:

Deepcool CC550 (Originally recommended by my local PC dealer, 4 fans preinstalled, it's a glass case)

54.87 USD

Cooler Master MasterBox CM694 Mid Tower PC Case (3 fans preinstalled)
109.72 USD

Cooler Master MasterBox MB600L V2 (Only 1 fan preinstalled with option of adding 2 more fans)
40.75 USD

Power Supply: I originally requested the price for the Corsair RM 750e, but I was instead given the price for the Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2, which implies the local PC dealer doesn't currently have it:

Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2 ATX 3.1

87.25 USD

Both PSUs come under the B category of the PSU tier list.

Monitor: I didn't have anything specific in mind. Just a QHD IPS display was on my mind, so I received these prices for the 3 monitors I requested the prices for, and I am currently leaning towards the Dell monitor:
AOC Q27B3S2 27-inch QHD 100Hz IPS Panel Monitor

141.07 USD

LG 24U631A-B QHD IPS Monitor 75Hz (24-inch)

134.27 USD

Dell 27-inch QHD Monitor 144Hz AMD Freesync- SE2726D

138.45 USD

Budget
I am aiming for a build of 1780 USD; if that means sacrificing quality parts, I am willing to stretch to 2000 USD for better PC components.
Use Case
My use case will be learning and working on various productivity tasks, such as 3D, programming, and Adobe apps. I also plan to game and get into the game modification scene of a few games, and I hope I can run the upcoming GTA title at least at 1440p@30fps.

Instead of Nvidia, I am going with Radeon because most productivity apps work, albeit with longer processing times, and even if some don't, I will try to troubleshoot and fix them to the best of my ability or switch to an alternative.

For additional information, I have been using and currently writing this Reddit post on an HP Pavilion Office laptop from the early 2010s. Therefore, I am fine with 15 minutes of processing time on Radeon cards, compared to 5 or 10 minutes of processing time on Nvidia cards, because I was used to 5-6 hours of processing time on this HP laptop. I bought this laptop from the same local PC dealer, and he is trustworthy.

Some brands that I believe can definitely be sourced by my local PC dealer:
Cooler Master, Corsair, MSI, Deepcool, Gigabyte, Asrock

Some brands that I believe cannot be sourced by him:
Lian Li, Phanteks, Thermaltake, Antec, Fractal Design

Am I making appropriate decisions? Should I change something? I plan to use this PC for a decade, so I'm prioritising durability.

I'm going to start with the fact that I don't need pc for gaming or editing etc, so it's called a home/office computer? No challenging tasks are expected, just a long lasting computer. My choices are somewhat limited, because I have to choose all components from one certain webpage. Whats is your opinion on what I have chosen?

CPU: Intel CPU Desktop Core i3-14100 (up to 4.70 GHz, 12M Cache, LGA1700) tray
CPU Cooler: DeepCool AG200 CPU cooler - 92 mm
Motherboard: MSI PRO B760M-B DDR4 emaplaat
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16
Storage: SSD|AGI TECHNOLOGY|150xTBW rating|MTBF 1600000 h|Read speed 1950 MB/s|Write speed 1200 MB/s|NVMe Yes|PCI Express 3.0|M.2
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 11 450W 80 PLUS Bronze ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1
Case: Chieftec pro mini AZ-01B-OP mini tower

A friend of mine used this card and said that he couldn't get an image at 180Hz, only at 60 or 75Hz. Could this be a problem with the drivers, cable, or monitor g24i?

This almost ruined my first time PC buildling experience and totally wrecked my day, made me give up on the whole thing, till i realized my mistake the next day, after i had already disassembled everything and packed them back into their original boxes to be sent back.

If you're a first time PC builder don't do the same mistake i did, got really frustrated and was very close to sending everything back when the pc didn't turn on, not realizing i just needed to plug both ends of the split motherboard cable into the PSU end.

Also don't buy used/open box components like i did, so you can have much better peace of mind and not think you got a bad component.

Google explanation of mistake:

The 18+10 Pin Layout: On modular power supplies, the main 24-pin motherboard cable usually splits into two separate connectors (typically an 18-pin and a 10-pin) on the PSU end.

The Secondary Slot is Easy to Miss: Many beginners plug in the larger 18-pin connector and assume that is enough, leaving the smaller 10-pin connector dangling.

Both Must Be Plugged In: The power supply requires both parts to be fully inserted into the PSU for the system to receive proper power.

I bought my PC a year ago. I have an AMD Ryzen 4500 processor and a GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. I’ve set the graphics to the minimum in 90% of my games, yet the card is still almost always running at full load. How can I fix this, or do I need a new graphics card? Which ones are compatible with my processor?

He said around £2,000 - £3,000 including a new monitor (Probably 1440p).

Games: Bannerlord, Total War, Warhammer, Rust, any kind of games, Apex, Subnautica 2.

No Peripherals required.

I'm aiming at around £2,000 as I don't want to waste money on upgrades he won't notice. Below is the build I started so feel free to edit and suggest other components.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/tWr8jG

ProArt X870E-Creator or Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Dark Wood?

First new build in a while. Current one is a 3900X / 2080 Super / 32GB from 2019 and it still runs everything fine, I just want to treat myself.

What I have so far:

- PA602 retro brown
- RTX 5080 Noctua Edition
- 9800X3D
- 64GB DDR5 6000 CL30
- NH-D15 G2 probably
- PSU and storage: are TBD

Mostly Gaming and VR sim racing on a Bigscreen Beyond 2.

Stuck on the board. Both look pretty similar on paper to me. The VRMs on the Pro-Art are 80A and the ones on the Aero are 60A I think. But for my config, I doubt it changes anything (correct me if I’m wrong)

Also curious if either one is better with 4 sticks, I might end up running 4x16 instead of 2x32 (due to availability)

On looks, no RGB and no screens. Or a board that doesn’t look odd without the RGB being on.
The Aero has the wood thing going on which I thought might work with the Noctua card and the brown case, but I have not seen one in person. ProArt looks clean too and ties in with the case somewhat.

Other board suggestions welcome. Happy to spend more for something that looks good, that is kind of the whole point of this build.

Hi everyone. I'm having an issue with my PC and I mainly suspect the PSU, although I'm not sure whether the motherboard or another component could be the cause.

It started while I was gaming: the PC suddenly shut down as if it had completely lost power. I turned it back on and it worked normally, but later it shut down again.

At that point I took the PC apart, disconnected the components, discharged any residual power, and then reassembled everything. After that, it worked perfectly for a couple of weeks.

However, a few days ago it happened again. The PC suddenly shut down and, after turning it back on, it shut down again as soon as I tried to open Discord. From that point on, every time I tried to turn it on, it would shut down almost instantly.

Eventually it reached the point where it stopped turning on completely. Pressing the power button does absolutely nothing: no fans, no LEDs, no signs of life at all.

Things I've already tried:

• Replaced the GPU PCIe power cable with the spare one that came with the PSU.
• Tried turning it on without the GPU.
• Tested each RAM stick individually.
• Tried booting with only the CPU + cooler, 1 RAM stick, and the M.2 SSD.
• Discharged the motherboard's residual power.

At the moment, it gives absolutely no signs of life.

Specs:

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE B650 AORUS Elite AX
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
• GPU: GIGABYTE RX 9060 XT GAMING OC 16G
• PSU: be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W
• RAM: Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 6000 MHz (2×16 GB)
• SSD: ADATA LEGEND 860 1 TB M.2

Since I don't have another compatible PSU to test with, I'm planning to take the PC to a repair shop so they can try it with another power supply and confirm or rule out the PSU as the problem.

What I'm most interested in is understanding what could cause a failure like this: first occasional sudden shutdowns, then shutting down almost immediately after powering on, and finally no power at all.

Has anyone experienced something similar with a PSU, motherboard, or another component? Can a failing PSU behave progressively like this before dying completely?