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New build advice

Joined
Feb 2, 2025
Messages
215 (1.26/day)
System Name Under revision...
Processor Same
Motherboard Same
Cooling Overhaul pending
Memory Same
Video Card(s) Same
Storage Same + others under way
Display(s) Same
Case Same
Audio Device(s) Same + others under way
Power Supply Same + additional equipment incoming
Mouse Same
Keyboard Same
Software Windows 11 Pro 24H2
Benchmark Scores Incoming
Hello everyone.

I need some help/advice regarding a complete system.

The total budget is 4.100 EUR.
The destination is workstation.

What I want to do with this system: I want to start a YouTube channel, this implies video editing, some animations/effects for the videos, some photo editing and some work in CAD & 3D modelling programs.
The software programs I will use are not set in stone as I have zero experience with all of them, but I will most likely gravitate towards free ones but no matter the software I will have to learn it from scratch.
Regarding CAD/3D modelling these are some examples of things I would like to do:
Also I will most likely make some upscaled videos using AI.

Because in recent years I have been out of the loop regarding hardware I need some advice.
Lately I have been reading a lot of articles and viewing a lot of videos in the attempt of bringing myself up to date with the current state of things but there is a LOT of information to digest and I do not feel confident enough to make an optimal config on my own.
By optimal configuration I mean that perhaps I am capable of making a good list, but maybe the prices aren't the lowest and that is because I might buy at a time when there are no discounts or maybe I am buying from stores that have generally higher prices.
Another situation is that in which I can save some money by changing some components with similarly spec'd ones that offer the same performance but at a lower price.
And perhaps there are other optimizations that can be made, some pertaining to each individual case and personal needs, needs that maybe I have not correctly identified.

The list is as follows (I hope I did not omit anything):

Unit:
- Motherboard
- CPU
- CPU Cooler
- RAM
- GPU
- OS drive
- Storage drives
- Audio
- PSU
- Case
Peripherals:
- Monitor
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Mousepad
- Headphones
- Speakers
- UPS

YouTube accesories:
- Video camera
- Tripod
- LED Ring lights
- Lightbox
- Microphone

Just before I show you my provisional list, now is probably a good time to ask if this is the right time to buy (from the bang per buck perspective).
Yes I know, this is an eternal dilemma, of whether I should buy now or wait until there are bigger discounts, better products etc. The more you skip the more you save, right?


Below are my picks, again this is provisional and some choices are just ballparked.
Also keep in mind that I am from Romania and I will be buying from stores located in my country. This has rather unfortunate consequences regarding what products are available and the prices. So I am fully aware that, compared to let's say newegg, I am getting semi-scalped.
Regarding stores from the European Union honestly I haven't looked at their pricing (for comparison purposes), but in this regard I am hoping that you guys can help, in the sense that if I am comparing a product's price in my country with what is typical across the EU and if the price is rather close then I could buy it as I am not getting ripped off.

Motherboard:
I suppose that the ideal chipset would be X670, X670E or X870E. Although the prices are pretty high for midrange boards (in terms of features) using these chipsets.
Personally I would have liked the ASRock PG X870E Nova WiFi. This has a 350$ MSRP to which newegg adheres to. Due to the board being really good it's in high demand and thus currently not in stock.
In Romania it is in stock but overpriced to the gills.
I will put links from a price comparing site. It doesn't have all of the stores in my country but it has the vast majority so it is good enough.
So if you want to know what that price is translated into euros simply divide by 5, in this case ~2.060 / 5 = 412€. This includes VAT, so that is total price I will pay without any shipping fees.
Because the ASRock Nova is overpriced I have to set my sights on something cheaper, like this one:
This one has a 320$ MSRP, currently the lowest price in my country is 341€. A bit of a hard sell...
The only pros for this board (generally speaking not compared to the PG Nova) are the X870E chipset, onboard audio, the WiFi7 and, except for the first revision, the Realtek LAN.
Cons would be the Gigabyte brand (that is the general impression after reading some newegg reviews), the 6 layer PCB (which partially compromises the good onboard audio chipset), the 60A VRM phases (for example the PG Nova has 110A) and the fact that there are multiple revisions which gives me the extra trouble of trying to buy the latest one.
Other, cheaper options would be:
Well that's 58.5€ less. There are some downgrades from the Gigabye board but also some aspects (at least on paper) in which the MSI one seems better.
Going lower it's this one:
This is 210€, a considerable difference compared to the X870E Aorus Elite.
The onboard audio is the biggest con on this board, the ALC897 chipset is totally unacceptable on a X670 mobo in my view.
Using some of that money I can buy this:
Which is certainly more than enough for my needs and a clear upgrade at least according to some who are far more knowledgeable than me:
There are certainly other options, for example B650E boards that aren't necessarily cheaper than the X670 Gaming above.
Two listings for this one:
I am really having trouble finding the ideal board on my one, probably the component I have the most struggle with. Please note that the above examples are just examples, if someone recommends a different mobo that happens to be a better choice than those above then I'll buy whatever model if it is the right choice for me.

CPU:
I've chosen the 7950X due to the fact that the price has dropped and now it's very close to the 9900X, the power consumption is indeed higher but so is the performance.
I'm not interested in overclocking, because from my research it appears that the CPUs are not very overclockable and thus not really worth it. It's still not fully clear to me what the tuning actually does, I got the impression that you get about the same performance or maybe a hair less but at a lower power consumption which doesn't really seem that big of a deal.
The Intel i7 265K is not a viable alternative for me, it could be an alternative for the 9900X but as of now it has an identical price but for a higher power consumption.
The 265K has a MSRP of 395$ and the 9900X has 450$ (after price cut), 395 is 88% of 450, so if the 9900X is now 459€ the 265K should be 400€, even less actually given the higher power consumption.
I feel confident that the choice is good, the 9950X would be a better choice but paying full price for it at this moment will cause some major adjustments to the list.

CPU Cooler:
I've chosen it based on this review: https://lab501.ro/racire/review-arctic-liquid-freezer-iii-360-a-rgb
But also based on other articles/videos. I see it gets praised a lot (hello gamersnexus).
I'm aware that it's not an ideal choice for a noob, especially considering that installing it on an AMD CPU is not noob-friendly.
(at 21:39)
I would have chosen a classical air cooler but it seems that the prices aren't that low especially when considering comparable performance.
Another reason for which I've chosen an AIO is that I will mount it at the ceiling of the case, whereas if I opt for an air cooler I will have to buy an additional 2-3 fans for the ceiling.
However I'm still left with this nagging feeling about AIOs that I don't know how durable and trustworthy they are, and if they break what else will they damage? Whereas with an air cooler the only misfortune would be a fan that breaks/dies and which is easily replaced.

GPU:
I've chosen the 7900 XTX although I know that it's not the ideal choice, but because the 5080 is 50% overpriced, and the 4080 Super which is probably a better option is still more expensive so I decided to swallow my pride and not overspend on the GPU.
For rendering an NVidia GPU is ideal, as it runs great in probably every rendering software as opposed to AMD which work swell only in certain programs.
About 3 weeks ago the Pulse was ~900€, and a few days after it the Hellhound was ~900€ as well. So now I can only wait if I want similar prices.
^This is currently 856€ but after what I've read on the net I really don't want to play the hotspot/TIM pump out lottery.

OS drive:
Regarding the OS drive, I took note of lab501's history of SSDs used for the testing platform. And they used, until relatively recently, the Samsung 990 Pro. And now at the beginning of 2025 the testing platform was updated and the Kingston Fury Renegade 2 TB got picked.
So I figured why not.
Based on this video, the Samsung 990 Pro performs a bit better overall, but it's also more expensive.
Then there's the various reliability issues that have circulated on the net.
Another drive which performed slighty better overall than the Renegade is the Crucial T500. This one is supposed to be at about the same price as the Renegade.
At least on newegg:
But in my country it's a different story.
https://compari.ro/kingston/fury-renegade-2tb-m-2-sfyrdk-2000g-p883924299/
^With heatsink.
https://compari.ro/crucial/t500-2tb-m-2-ct2000t500ssd5-p1019324014/
^With heatsink.

The T500 is basically at the same price as the 990 Pro, and curiously there's little price difference betwen the non-heatsink version and the heatsink version.
So the local market conditions basically force my hand towards the Renegade.
Now the thing is that the Renegade 2 TB is double-sided, and I don't know if I should buy the one without the heatsink and put my trust in the included heatsink that comes with the motherboard (but first I should know which motherboard I am going to get) or because it's double-sided means that it might run hotter with the mobo heatsink than the Kingston one?
So I clearly need help with this.

RAM:
From this video it appears that this G.Skill kit is very good out of the box:

Some considerations regarding RAM capacity and usage.
I have searched for info about RAM usage and consequent recommendations for various scenarios.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnIZTdpFFWc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3A_VNDRb9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5R6nMSzov4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2d9-TV4ghw
Strictly for gaming there seems to be no reason to go over 32 GB, even when multitasking, that is streaming while gaming, having the browser open, having various (chat or whatever) programs open etc.
For video/photo editing and also CAD/3D modelling it depends.
From my research there is a direct correlation between the size of the "work" and the RAM usage.
So for 4K video editing which also implies some other programs being open it seems that going with 64 GB is the safest bet. The same for photo editing of many huge photos. Also for CAD/3D modelling the bigger the project the more RAM is needed, and 64 GB may not be enough depending on the scenario.
But this is valid for advanced users, whereas I am a beginner, actually not yet as I have not even begun to work with these programs. So I cannot take the pros as reference for my current situation, only perhaps for my future situation.
Now for 1080p video editing it seems that 32 GB is plentiful. Also for beginner/amateur level photo editing and for small CAD/3D modelling projects.
From this I have drawn the preliminary conclusion that 32 GB is enough RAM for me at the beginning of this journey and also for some time after, but I can't say with certainty for how long though.
But it is more likely that after a few years after I gain some experience with these programs and this PC will start to lag behind (RAM capacity bottleneck) in relation to my abilities that the correct approach is to upgrade and build a new one rather than getting 64 GB now and be able to use its full potential after some 4-5 years of gaining experience.
Because that approach will mean that since the PC still has enough juice in the tank and there is no bottleneck I should keep using it for longer. Which is alright I guess if nothing breaks during this time.
I intend to record at 1080p and make the video at 1080p but then upload at 4K on YouTube.
Since I don't have a 4K monitor there's no point in recording in 4K and then edit in 4K.
So I'm not making excuses and planning to use modest workloads just so that I can have enough RAM and choose 32 GB, but I simply don't want spend money on something that really wouldn't make a difference.
Perhaps I'm underestimating how quickly the RAM fills up, I do admit that I want to avoid memory swapping.
To be completely honestt I am fully open to suggestions on this one, I am not satisfied with my findings, the info is rather scarce and also very subjective, it's quite hard to relate to those situations especially when the hardware review culture has ingrained a skewed approach by using test setups which are clean systems running benchmarks and there is basically no multi-tasking being done, no junk running in the background etc. And a lot of people seem unaware of this when they're making their builds.

Storage drive:
I need a drive for torrenting, I suppose that this implies an HDD, 2 TB is more than enough for me.
For storage I was considering a RAID 1 config using two 4 TB HDDs, I have some doubts on whether this is ideal, perhaps the ideal solution would be a NAS but that is a little outside my budget.
The RAID 1 approach was for having more safety for the stored data.
2 x https://www.compari.ro/hard-disk-ur...tb-7200rpm-256mb-sata-st4000nt001-p867730347/
Although a negative aspect is that by keeping the HDDs in the case connected to my system they will be powered every time I use my PC, but only rarely I will add new data, so basically the drives will be powered and idle most of the time. It doesn't sound like it's the best approach for longevity.

Considering that RAID 1 is wasteful as I can only use the full capacity of one drive in the array, another approach is to just have faith that nothing will go wrong and buy only one HDD to keep the data. And with the remaining money I should buy a second M.2 SSD which I would use for work files, I see a lot of video/photo editors mention secondary drives for work files, assets etc.
And by going this way I do risk the safety of the data but the benefit is that I get more usable capacity and a fast secondary drive, thus more performance.
I am pretty sure that I should go with this option.

Audio:
I have no problem limiting myself to the onboard chipset, from my research the ALC1220 codec is alright for people who just want the bare minimum, something that works out of the box, ALC4080/4082 is pretty much the same thing but by having an USB interface they might exhibit some popping (at least according to reddit).
I have 320 mp3s in my collection so in order to benefit from a dedicated soundcard I will need to migrate to lossless and also change some albums that I already have to lossless.
And as I briefly mentioned in the mobo section, a cheaper mobo might open the path towards a dedicated soundcard which, even though not audiophile-grade, is still better than any onboard solution.

PSU:

Case:
I don't think there's a better option at this price (130€).
https://www.compari.ro/carcase-c3085/phanteks/eclipse-g500a-ph-ec500ga-bbk01-p908441961/

Monitor:
For such a system a 27" 1440p monitor is ideal (I myself reached this conclusion after researching various articles/videos discussing this subject, also details like the correlation of the distance from the monitor and the diagonal + resolution which determine PPI, the viewing angle and the pixel density per degree etc.).
I'm pretty certain that no one would recommend a 24" 1080p monitor on the sole basis of saving money.
^It's clear that I cannot afford a QD-OLED monitor so I'll have to settle for something more modest. Like an IPS.
About the MSI monitor the prices in my country are considerably inflated, but I could not have afforded that monitor even from newegg.
I don't know if the following is the right one for me, but it serves as a basis to proceed with the discussion:
P.S. One mention regarding the monitor is that from time to time I will be viewing some movies on my PC. I figured that if I watch 1080p movies and I back away a bit from the monitor the image quality will be good.

Keyboard:
I'm just ballparking here. I don't want RGB per se, I only want illumination to be able to use it in the dark, probably I'll use some warm yellow-orange color if the settings will allow. A palmrest would be a nice addition, although it's not always detachable.
https://www.compari.ro/tastatura-c3111/redragon/aryaman-k569rgb-br-p1156817941/
Some suggestions would be very appreciated.

Mouse + mousepad:
I have no idea, but the Internet makes it seem like the Logitech G102 (G203 for US) is a solid choice for a budget mouse.
+
https://compari.ro/a4tech/x7-300mp-p47949917/
Some suggestions would be very appreciated.

Headphones:
Here, as I said above, it should first be determined what audio solution I will use, because I don't want to waste good headphones on a crappy onboard chipset listening to mp3s. Conversely I don't want to pair a decent audio solution and me slowly migrating towards lossless with a pair of cheap, crappy headphones.
If it has any relevance I listen to extreme metal, like +90%, and the majority of extreme metal is death metal, also what I currently have in my album collection is mp3s @320 with a few below that.
That doesn't mean that I can't migrate towards lossless in the future. Some of the albums I already have are available in lossless formats so it's basically a somewhat slow process of making my collection predominantly lossless.
https://www.compari.ro/microfoane-si-casti-c3109/audio-technica/ath-avc500-p311165633/ (64)
https://www.compari.ro/microfoane-si-casti-c3109/sony/mdr7506-p43096154/ (96)
https://www.compari.ro/microfoane-si-casti-c3109/audio-technica/ath-m20x-p219141538/ (43)
https://www.compari.ro/microfoane-si-casti-c3109/audio-technica/ath-m30x-p219141546/ (57)
https://www.compari.ro/microfoane-si-casti-c3109/audio-technica/ath-m40x-p220796590/ (82)
^The prices in parantheses are in € and represent a below-average price based on the history graph on the product's page. Basically if I buy that product at more than that I'm overpaying.

Speakers:
Again I have no idea, first the audio solution must be determined. The speakers are intended to be used when I don't want to wear my headphones when listening to music and also when I watch some movies.
https://www.compari.ro/boxe-active-c4060/edifier/r1700bt-2-0-p243699801/
I honestly don't know if these are a good choice for my needs. But I figured a budget of 100€ max. would be enough for something alright.

UPS:
What can I say I wish I could find an UPS that would offer full protection, that includes the Ethernet cable (and yes I had a NIC die because of a surge coming up the Ethernet cable). I don't want to have the PSU as the sole shield that protects my PC from surges (obviously the PSU will not protect the peripherals, such as the monitor, the speakers or the Ethernet cable).
I'm aware that this money does not bring any added performance, I'm also aware that I could go until the end of the warranty period without encountering any situation that endangers the PC bu still, I reckoned that for the peace of mind it is worth considering.
There are other approaches, for example I could get a little bit carried away by paranoia and unplug everything when the PC is not in use, also immediately unplug everything if the weather worsens, although this will not keep me safe fom surges that come without a warning.
I'm really divided on this component, any additional advice is very welcome.
Still, this is a low priority component. So it remains to be seen if it makes the cut.

YouTube accessories:
Video camera: For YT the type of content does influence what kind of recording devices and accesories are used.
I want to create this type of content:
FIY this guy lists his equipment in the video description:
Until June 2024 he used a GoPro Hero9 Black, afterwards he upgraded to GoPro Hero11 Black and also added the BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro.
GoPro Hero11 as well as Hero12 are under 300$ on amazon, Insta360 Ace Pro is 300$.
I have no idea if the above examples are good choices for what I'm planning to do, obviously I can't spend a lot on the video camera because as a beginner I first need to familiarize myself with content creation and not be overly concerned about the quality of the recording equipment.
For stuff like this I could get by using just a smartphone for recording, which I have took into consideration but I don't have a great one, it's a Xiaomi Mi10T Lite.
So if a video camera that does not cost more than 300€ is clearly an upgrade over that smartphone then I will buy it.
I see that GoPros record in H.264 and H.265, so I need something "auto", I will not be post-processing RAW files, I have no idea about that, so again another argument in favor of getting something that gets the job done with minimal user input.

Tripod: I guess I can use something cheap like 30€ max.

Led Ring Lights: Something like this:

Lightbox: I think I'll make one myself.
I can buy something like this to obtain the frame pieces, if I find one that's white I don't need to buy the white fabric separately, but nevertheless I'll line the inside with white paper sheets.
I can get similar cabinets for 30€ max and the frame pieces are bigger than what I need for the lightbox so I can trim them without a problem.

Microphone: Again no idea what's optimal for me, but at the end of the day I need a mic to record the narration for my videos. So the audio quality has to be at least decent.
Any suggestions?

In conclusion, I apologize for the wall-of-text, but I reckoned that it's my obligation to try and give as many relevant details as possible in order to make it easier for whoever decides to offer their advice and also to share various impressions from what I've researched.
Thank you.
 
I normally buy a year or two after the release to avoid teething issues and high unwarranted prices, the 7950x is a horse, can hold its own to anything new right now, apart from bleeding edge games. My concern is the AMD might have issues for editing and the like, not as much stable drivers and support as team greed.

Ill just comment on some.

Over the years i have never been able to hear the differences between good mp3 320 vs FLAC/lossless, thats on very good headphones and dac/amps and speakers.
But this music isnt zen wubenphonic 790 fathoms high fidelity recordings. once my ears get fatigued in 10-15mins the idea of any difference is laughable.

As for speakers, monitors/bookshelfs are very good, provided they are good quality, placed at right height, separation etc all for that proper imaging..
you get what you pay for usually, some brands like Neumann make almost everything look rather mediocre. but stereo vs SS vs bars etc all have their pros and cons.

As far as UPS, first weight up if you really need it, some regions have very stable clean power, is the power going out frequently? the UPS helps protect against your OS or hardware getting damaged from an abrupt shutdown, todays PCs are much more sensitive to abrupt shutdowns, after an abrupt shutdown the system may not POST or take longer, or the RGB might stop working properly. Rare, but can be serious problem.

Im sure someone else will be along with more detailed critique.
 
Over the years i have never been able to hear the differences between good mp3 320 vs FLAC/lossless, thats on very good headphones and dac/amps and speakers.
For several years I listened to FLAC files played back on a cheap Mororola phone via Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones in noise cancelling mode (via Bluetooth) and without noise cancelling (wired 3.5mm connection from smartphone to headphones) and I couldn't tell the difference. I acquired the Sony headphones for long flights so I could listen to movie soundtracks without deafening volume levels.

Then I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD820 4.40mm balanced input closed back headphones and a matching Sennheiser HDV820 DAC/headphone amp. There was a huge difference on some albums. It didn't matter if I played back FLACs using the USB input on the amp, or from the original CDs via optical TosLink to the amp, some tracks were far more detailed and there were subtle sounds I'd never heard before.

I tried some 24bit 96kHz FLAC rips and some 24bit 192kHz FLAC rips but I couldn't really tell the difference from 16bit 44.1kHz CD. I have yet to try even more esoteric formats such as DSD64(1bit 2.8MHz), DSD128(1bit 5.6MHz) or DSD256(1bit 11.2MHz) on an Astell & Kern player.

What I did notice was most of my CDs shows signs of compression, with peak levels up near 0dBm and very little dynamic range, but a 24bit 192kHz downloads of several albums had a lower overall level and much wider dynamic range than the same CDs and they sounded better to me. The way the dynamic range was mastered for different releases of an album seems to have more effect on my listening experience than the bit depth and sampling frequency.
 
AMD gaming GPUs for 3D modeling... bad idea. The VRAM capacity might seem alluring, but unless you're SURE your software works with it, and that any issues that arise will be minimal at best, give these a very, very wide berth. Buy an used RTX 3090 Ti and install the Studio driver if you need performance and VRAM capacity. Maybe look for an used enterprise RTX card if you need 30-bit color support.
 
To add to @Dr. Dro , I mean it's really tempting to go overboard with GPUs "for CAD", I had a topic myself here on the forum. It's so cool to justify a beefy GPU, but do you really need it? :)

Truth is, when you say free CAD/vector graphics, you mostly mean: Freecad, Blender, Krita, Inkscape. A friend of mine is getting paid editing gaming videos on Youtube. He uses a second hand RTX 3070 and he didn't even bother setting up the GPU acceleration in the Adobe Aftereffects menu and he's plowing through everything he does with it.

I'd look on Intel's side as well. Their A60 PRO arc card has 3 year warranty and at least where I live costs ~€420 for a brand new off the shelf certified card.

You really need to be honest with yourself here, are you going to play games on the card as well? -> GeForce with studio drivers :) (+1 to Dr. Dro)

For storage for editing rigs what I've seen is: 3 NVME drives, one main- OS, one - cache only!! for 4k projects, one for storage. The cache one needs to be set up in Adobe as well (if you use Adobe ecosystem).
 
To add to @Dr. Dro , I mean it's really tempting to go overboard with GPUs "for CAD", I had a topic myself here on the forum. It's so cool to justify a beefy GPU, but do you really need it? :)

Truth is, when you say free CAD/vector graphics, you mostly mean: Freecad, Blender, Krita, Inkscape. A friend of mine is getting paid editing gaming videos on Youtube. He uses a second hand RTX 3070 and he didn't even bother setting up the GPU acceleration in the Adobe Aftereffects menu and he's plowing through everything he does with it.

I'd look on Intel's side as well. Their A60 PRO arc card has 3 year warranty and at least where I live costs ~€420 for a brand new off the shelf certified card.

You really need to be honest with yourself here, are you going to play games on the card as well? -> GeForce with studio drivers :) (+1 to Dr. Dro)

For storage for editing rigs what I've seen is: 3 NVME drives, one main- OS, one - cache only!! for 4k projects, one for storage. The cache one needs to be set up in Adobe as well (if you use Adobe ecosystem).

I agree, and if brute performance is not required, you get an all-access pass to the latest workstation grade drivers and software with an RTX A2000 that will happily run off slot power. While it's certainly not beefy, it'll often do the trick. Set me back with about the cost of a RX 6500 XT. If you shop around these are easily obtainable, especially if you are willing to buy used.
 
@9087125

The only complaint I could have about the 7950X is the power consumption but then I look at Intel and I go it's fine, it really is fine.

Regarding the onboard audio maybe I made it into a bigger deal than it really is.

Regarding the UPS I'm still on the fence about it.
About the quality of the supplied power where I live it has improved compared to 15-20 years ago. There are still abrupt shutdowns but pretty rare now. I don't know how much relevance the situation of my household appliances has, but nothing broke in the last 20 years. The fridge and central heating unit are both 20 years old and have taken so many abrupt shutdowns they probably have PTSD. Other appliances are newer than that but they experienced their fair share of interruptions, so I don't know if that speaks more about their quality as products, or maybe the quality of the wiring in my house than it does about the quality of supplied power.
So yeah the UPS option is still on the table, but as I said it's low priority compared to other components.

@Harlow

Well, considering that the headphones + DAC cost similar to an above-midrange PC unit I'm not really surprised that they offer a clearly better aural experience compared to budget equipment.
But those products are way out of my league.

@Dr. Dro

Yes I know that for "content creation" most people consider AMD a no-go. The cards however are competitive in some tasks/programs the problem is, like you've mentioned, that you need to know what are those programs in which it will perform well.
^(starting at 06:53)
https://techgage.com/article/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-ti-creator-review/
https://www.techpowerup.com/331776/...x-7900-xtx-confirms-ryzen-ai-max-memory-sizes
This is all AMD's fault, specifically the software department. Hardware wise the cards are good, the proof is that in some programs they run well, sure they have to be optimized, but if the hardware lacks power you can't just make them perform amazing with driver/software optimizations -> that'd be akin to magic/alchemy.

About the second-hand market, I already have rather low trust in buying new products (thanks to the aggressive planned obsolescence approaches of pretty much every manufacturer) so buying used ones will be akin to playing Russian roulette with my money. I know that if the stars align I could get a bargain but at the same time I could end up with some nice looking paper weights after a few months.

@PLAfiller

As far as I understand the GPU doesn't really matter for 3D modeling, I mean literally for 3D modeling, but when you render that "thing" which you've modeled using the GPU it's much faster than using the CPU. For example in Blender, the 7900 XTX is what twice as slow as a 4080 Super but it's still faster than using a strong CPU.
Also DaVinci Resolve apparently leverages the GPU more than Premiere Pro.

With an nVidia card pretty much any software is going to run well, be it video editing, rendering, brainrot-generative AI etc.
And there's the problem, the price I have to pay for all of these "features", the cheapest 4080 Super right now is 1300€, which is crazy for an EOL product that launched a year ago for 1000$ and was about 1100$ three weeks ago:
The cheapest RTX 4070 Ti Super is 873€, I'm not paying that:
So again I realize that opting for AMD is not ideal but at least I'm getting a somewhat capable card without selling an organ, and most importantly not overpaying -> I'm not sponsoring THAT tax dodger's outfit choices and I surely am not sponsoring the lavish lifestyles of the retail store CEOs in my country.
If the 4080 Super would be 1000€ I'd buy it, but as it is I'm keeping my wallet closed for team green.

Also regarding the software programs I'll use, the free ones will be prioritized but given the country I live in... well let's just say I have options so I can at least try my hand at a few and see how they run on my setup.

I'm not interested in gaming, but I'm not going to say that I'll never ever play anything on my PC. But from what I'm seeing I'll rather replay Half-Life 2 than play some current AAA title that has system requirements which put the RTX 5090 to shame.

For storage yes I've seen the cache SSD being mentioned, but it's not for me, I'm not even a beginner, it will be a hobby I won't have any deadlines, also I'll be filming in 1080p so there's no need to overspend on that front. Also a lot of people are advising that if you don't know what it's for or if you really need it then you probably don't need it. So i'll skip that one at least until I get the hang of it.
 
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF 3.9 GHz 20-Core Processor (2221.98RON @ PC Garage)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B860 EAGLE WIFI6E ATX LGA1851 Motherboard (1066.26RON @ PC Garage)
Total: 3288.24RON
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-02-18 19:06 EET+0200


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.7 GHz 24-Core Processor (3416.97RON @ PC Garage)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B860 EAGLE WIFI6E ATX LGA1851 Motherboard (1066.26RON @ PC Garage)
Total: 4483.23RON
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-02-18 19:06 EET+0200
 
Yes I know that for "content creation" most people consider AMD a no-go.
If you're editing videos at home and you're not worried about rendering times, I wouldn't worry too much what other people say about NVidia GPUs being better than AMD for rendering. It's true than some apps run a bit faster on Nvidia, but so what? If you don't mind akkowing renders to complete overnight and you've no deadlines, just get a card that suits.

Cost was very much in my mind when I build a video editing rig in December 2022. I picked an AMD CPU despite Puget benchmarks showing some Intel CPUs were faster, but I did buy an NVidia GPU. I chose a standard RTX 3060, despite its being near the bottom of Puget's charts for rendering tasks. I just wasn't prepared to "waste" money on a faster card like a 3070, let alone an RTX 3090. Good GPUs have been too expensive (as far as I'm concerned) ever since the BitCoin craze.

Also regarding the software programs I'll use, the free ones will be prioritized but given the country I live in... well let's just say I have options so I can at least try my hand at a few and see how they run on my setup.
Understood. I've visited some very interesting computer shops in local bazaars on my travels. I ran time-limited trials of several rendering programs before making my final choices. Some interfaces feel better than others, or are easier to learn.

About the second-hand market, I already have rather low trust in buying new products (thanks to the aggressive planned obsolescence approaches of pretty much every manufacturer) so buying used ones will be akin to playing Russian roulette with my money
I've had very little trouble buying second hand mobos, CPUs, GPUs, RAM, NICs, HBAs, cases, network switches and even complete (old) computers on eBay. It pays to spend some time trawling through the lists and check the description, photos and return options carefully. More important still is the seller's feedback reputation. The worse it gets, the less likely I am to buy. If things do go wrong and the seller doesn't respond, there's always eBay's money back guarantee. If you don't have eBay in your country, none of this applies.

As for planned obsolescence, hardware manufacturers are simply trying to stay in business and make (lots of) money, but you don't need to play their game if you stick with software that doesn't overtax your current hardware. As an example, Adobe Photoshop CC (and Premiere Pro, etc.) are continually updated. Photoshop 2019 CC was the last version that fully supported what I term "older" hardware. More recent versions of Photoshop require bigger, faster, more expensive GPUs for features you may never use (AI?). I know someone who has been using stand-alone versions of Photoshop CS5.1 and Lightroom 4.3, ever since they came out. No need to pay out each month for an Adobe CC subscription. You miss out on all the new "bells and whistles" but it doesn't matter if you're happy with the old software's limitations.

Regarding the UPS I'm still on the fence about it.
The worse your local mains supply gets, the greater the need for a UPS. One small community I visit has a 150kW microhydel scheme. At times of low usage, the voltage is up to 210V AC. At times of heavy use, it's down around 80V AC. When I see the room lights dim and my Voltmeter reads 90V, I disconnect my laptop and phone chargers. I'd prefer UPS protection, but they're a bit heavy to carry around in a suitcase when travelling.

About the quality of the supplied power where I live it has improved compared to 15-20 years ago. There are still abrupt shutdowns but pretty rare now.
Same here. Power cuts are rare, but still happen during really big storms when wind speeds exceed 80mph (130kph) and trees fall across overhead (local) 11kV and 240V power lines, bringing them down. My most recent power cut lasted 3 hours but people in more exposed areas were less fortunate and it took days to restore power to their homes. I run a couple of UPS, but they provide no more that 10 minutes run time at full load. What I really need is a 13kVA propane gas or diesel generator set to power the whole house during blackouts.

13KVA-Kubota-Diesel-Generator-50Hz.384.3-2.jpg


If you do decide to buy a UPS, you'll find lots of conflicting advice about the suitability of square wave, stepped approximation (sine wave equivalent) and true sine wave inverters for use with ATX PSUs. What I regard as the best UPS are so-called "double-conversion" "always online", "true sine wave" UPS, where the AC mains is rectified and used to charge the batteries, which feed an inverter to generate the local mains supply for your computers.

These models can be very expensive indeed, but there is no switch over time when the mains fails. Some ordinary UPS take so long to switch over (perhaps up to 10 milliseconds) that poorly designed ATX PSUs run out of stored charge in their bulk electrolytics and the computer dies due to lack of power. The ATX hold up time spec is 17ms, but some PSU manufacturers skimp on capacitor size.

Have fun.
 
Not here to criticize your build, just 2 quick suggestions to consider:

I will most likely make some upscaled videos using AI.
Then maybe a Nvidia GPU is better for you, mainly because of the widespread CUDA AI libraries. AMDs ROCm AI libraries are way behind. But you also need to consider the right amount of VRAM for what you want to do in AI (Nvidia overprices 16/24/32GB VRAM GPUs). Sometimes using cloud services is better then overspending on a Nvidia GPU, depending on what you want to do in upscaling and the cost to use SAAS.
this implies video editing
Then also consider an Intel CPU with an integrated HD Graphics GPU (mainly because of Intel's Quick Sync feature). Also for video editing with a lot of encoding and decoding it's good to have both Quick Sync (CPU) and NVEnc (GPU), so you can choose the best way. That does not mean you can't achieve good results with AMD CPUs and GPUs, I am just saying that Intel (and Nvidia) is probably the way most professionals would go in video editing.
 
As a counterpoint, I've been the sysadmin for a few AEC firms for the last 20+ years and I've never seen much benefit in buying a "pro" GPU like the old quadros or firepros.

I still buy them very occasionally for features that cannot be run on a consumer card, but we've been using Geforce GPUs for CUDA since the 20-series and were using Radeons before that.

Don't forget that most of the CAD software is ancient tech on shitty old engines these days, and at least 15 years ago they all ran just fine on the awful Intel graphics, because that's what field engineers are using out on site. The days of needing a pro-tier GPU or ISV-certified GPU for CAD are in the distant past. Autodesk, Dassault, Bentley, McNeel all run fine on low-end consumer graphics cards.

The thing to do is get envough VRAM, and the API support you need - which for us has meant RTX3060 12GB, and RTX 4060Ti 16GB cards. We've bought a handful of higher-end cards for situations where more VRAM is needed, but even when the 12GB of the 3060 wasn't enough, a 24GB 3090 was plenty to do the job and far, far cheaper than the equivalent Quadro RTX 6000.

Studio drivers have nearly everything the Quadro or A-series drivers have. CAD software and video-editing software don't use anything outside of the Geforce driver set, so there's no need to pay 3-5x more for a GPU that you don't need. For any given budget, a Geforce card will have more VRAM which is the primary consideration for modelling and editing.

What we've found over the last 5+ years is a distinct shift from software rendering integrated in CAD applications to external plugins that run in game-engines - Unity or UnrealEngine for the most part. Newer, more consumer-focused apps tend to be hardware-accelerated throughout and are designed from the ground up to run on consumer GPUs.
 
@Harlow

If you're editing videos at home and you're not worried about rendering times, I wouldn't worry too much what other people say about NVidia GPUs being better than AMD for rendering.
After giving it some more thought it's not the lower performance that bothers me it's the inconsistency.
Lower overall rendering performance than an nVidia counterpart is not the end of the world for me.
But the inconsistency, the fact that in some programs the performance is comparable but in others it's just crap this is the deal breaker. It practically forces the end user to migrate towards those programs in which the performance is at least decent.
And the performance aspect is one thing, the other thing is the reliability/stability using those programs an aspect that is not readily apparent from reading/watching reviews and looking at benchmarks.
Plug and play is an absolute must for a beginner, the worst thing is spending more time tinkering with various settings to achieve stability than actually using the programs and gaining experience.
So I would say I've abandoned the idea of getting a Radeon. If I were using this rig for gaming then yeah a 7900 XTX at 900 € would be a no brainer.

As for planned obsolescence, hardware manufacturers are simply trying to stay in business and make (lots of) money, but you don't need to play their game if you stick with software that doesn't overtax your current hardware.
I'm sure there are many games, apps that have very high system requirements on purpose, I remember the techreport article back in the day about Crysis 2 tesselation, if everything was optimized then there would be less incentive for upgrading, and everyone would be able to use their system for much longer, but that would only work if the components were made to last longer, which basically would mean less money to buy new jackets.
If you do decide to buy a UPS
I'll probably postpone the UPS until I can have more money so I can buy something that really does the job. Autonomy is not important for me, a few minutes is all I need to safely shut down the PC, the focus is on reliable protection, that would justify paying a premium on a higher end model.

Thanks.

@Degreco

Then maybe a Nvidia GPU is better for you
Sure looks like it, in the latest version of Topaz the 7900 XTX got downgraded to 3080 Ti level. Not looking good. :(
Compared to older version:
Then also consider an Intel CPU with an integrated HD Graphics GPU
I definitely would if it weren't for the price. The iGPU is the best part of an Intel CPU in my view.
The new Core Ultras are pretty good, even if they seem like a stepping stone to something hopefully better (like Ryzen 1 maybe).
However the price is not competitive enough especially after AMD's price cuts.
The 285K at 590 $ isn't a good deal compared to 9950 X at 600 $ (after price cut). The overall performance is similar and the power consumption is also similar.
The only edge it has is the iGPU. So it's kind of a coin toss between the two.
Intel should have countered with its own price cut. Because at first Intel judged that the 285K would sway (some) people due to it having a lower MSRP among other things. But now that they're similarly priced all is left are "the other things".

The 265K at 395 $ however fares much better against the 9900X at 470 $ (after price cut), that's 84% of 9900X's price for similar performance, slightly lower power draw and better iGPU.
B-U-T when I look at the actual price in stores they are priced too close in my country. Up until this week they were both 460 € for a whole month. Right now the 265K is 426 € and the 9900X is 460 €, a welcome reduction but not enough.
The 9900X is close to its adjusted MSRP whereas the 265K is over its MSRP. I'm not paying extra for it, why would I?
In conclusion, I would switch sides in an instant if the price was right.

Thanks.

@Chrispy_

Don't forget that most of the CAD software is ancient tech on shitty old engines these days
Correct, like using only single core, or barely any multi-thread optimization etc.
The thing to do is get enough VRAM
From what it looks like by choosing nVidia 16 GB of VRAM is the max I will be able to get. Even if the 4090 would still be in production the price would be way out of my reach.
But 16 GB is enough, I mean until I get to the level when I will be bottlenecked by the insufficient VRAM surely there will be time to upgrade.
The consumer GPUs of recent years are definitely capable of a lot of things in the hands of skilled users, some calling them primarily gaming GPUs makes them seem underservingly gimped.

Thanks.
 
@Harlow
Correct, like using only single core, or barely any multi-thread optimization etc.

From what it looks like by choosing nVidia 16 GB of VRAM is the max I will be able to get. Even if the 4090 would still be in production the price would be way out of my reach.
But 16 GB is enough, I mean until I get to the level when I will be bottlenecked by the insufficient VRAM surely there will be time to upgrade.
The consumer GPUs of recent years are definitely capable of a lot of things in the hands of skilled users, some calling them primarily gaming GPUs makes them seem underservingly gimped.

Thanks
Puget systems have a bunch of GPU benchmarks in productivity suites but searching their site for relevant articles/results is such a mess.

4060Ti 16GB is a pretty potent compute card with lots of VRAM for the money. It actually makes a better workstation card than a gaming card because the pitiful memory bandwidth really hurts gaming. Rendering/simulation/viewport/encoding is pretty easy on bandwidth so you basically don't care about the card's single biggest weakness.
 
4060Ti 16GB that @Chrispy_ suggested might be a very good idea after all. it's half the price of 7900xtx (or less), less than half power and it's not uncommon to see nvidia low-end/mid-range do better in hw-accelerated rendering than amd high end. If you're just starting, a 7900x+4060Ti system will be a great place to begin, without necessarily spending 4 thousand dollars.

actually, 265k might be better for application use, you're getting the performance of a 9900x at the price of 7900x.

Screenshot 2025-02-27 215453.png
 
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@Chrispy_ & Zazigalka

Thank you for the suggestion but that card, especially the 16 GB version, appears to have very bad value.
I would be paying the "nVidia extra VRAM tax" for something which lacks the muscle to take advantage of that VRAM buffer.
Paying around 500 € for one of these doesn't seem like a wise move.

Performance scaling is present in all software (sometimes more, sometimes less), not just games, and the 4060 Ti has lower overall performance.
The best move for me right now is to wait and see what AMD has to offer with the 9070 cards.
The presentation emphasized improvements in video encoding and AI apps, Procyon for example, and if the 9070 XT has significant gains over the 7900 XTX in these areas then it could be a competitive card. The lower raster performance in gaming is irrelevant to me.

I know the the 4080 Super would have been the ideal card for me, it is a reliable product with software support across the board and now with none of the (temporary) issues that affect freshly launched cards, unfortunately I arrived too late at the party and these are basically gone.

@Zazigalka

On paper yes but not quite in practice.
As I said to Degreco above, the 265K was priced too close to the 9900X, today it has dropped from 426 to 410 -> hooray.:D
Right now the 9900X is 460 €.
The 265K is 410 €.
And the 7900X is 390 € for box and 383 € for tray.
If this keeps up I might definitely switch to team blue, as of today the 7950X increased from 480 € to 520 €.:mad:
 
Performance scaling is present in all software (sometimes more, sometimes less), not just games, and the 4060 Ti has lower overall performance.
The best move for me right now is to wait and see what AMD has to offer with the 9070 cards.
The presentation emphasized improvements in video encoding and AI apps, Procyon for example, and if the 9070 XT has significant gains over the 7900 XTX in these areas then it could be a competitive card. The lower raster performance in gaming is irrelevant to me.
if that's the benchmark that you'll be going by, 7900xtx looks just awful for what it costs, better to get a 4070Ti, 60% faster for less money. but waiting for 9070xt/5070 won't hurt.
 

https://www.compari.ro/placi-de-baza-c3128/msi/pro-b860-p-wifi-p1169264269/
MSI PRO B860-P WIFI 950,13 RON

Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF 1 999,99 RON

Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Dual Tower CPU Cooler 279,00 RON

https://www.compari.ro/memorii-c357...32gb-ddr5-6000mhz-pvv564g600c30k-p1086111391/
Patriot Viper Venom DDR5-6000 64GB (2x32GB) CL30 975,52 RON

https://www.compari.ro/placi-video-...16gb-gddr6-gv-n406tgaming-oc-16gd-p982802031/
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GAMING OC 16GB 3 177,81 RON

https://www.pcone.ro/surse/msi/2466691-mag-a750gl-pcie5-750w-80plus-gold-f-modular/
MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750W 80+ GOLD 431,99 RON

https://www.compari.ro/carcase-c3085/montech/air-903-p1016111266/
MONTECH AIR 903 Mid Tower Case 372,39 RON
 
Okay so here are some updates, I came back for more advice given that I'm in a bit of a predicament.
The way things are looking a GPU like I'm after (5080) is a long ways away. At a reasonable price that is.
So that unfortunately affects the CPU + mobo + RAM platform I'm getting.

I've read a lot of reviews before and a few more during the weeks since my last post here and I am convinced that the ideal combo for me would have been 7950X + a decent X870E mobo + 64 GB 6000MT/s CL30. Plenty of horsepower, time-tested consistent CPU, more than enough RAM and a mobo with more than enough features. Coupled with the 4080 Super which would have been a powerful, stable GPU with software support across the board. That GPU is long gone, it's not coming back. Okay, but I could get the 5080 right? Well not for 1500 € I'm not!

So until I get it what do I do? I can get the rest of the platform and actually everything else too. But can I realistically use the rig using just the Ryzen iGPU? Obviously not for demanding 3D workloads, but enough to dabble in some video editing and learn a few things in various apps.
That means at least for 6 months. I am hoping that Black Friday will bring us some reasonable prices. Fingers crossed!
But if not, that means using the rig with just the iGPU for even longer until I can get a 5080 or something along those lines for close to 1000 €.

So that means that the new platform choice has to be made through the lens of the iGPU. And the strongest iGPU right now is on Arrow Lake. And the CPU that fits the bill is the 265K. It is a downgrade from the 7950X, so I thought maybe I could scale things down a bit (but still keep it in the same ballpark), pair it with 48 GB instead of 64 GB. I suppose 48 GB would work fine (depending on the kit as well) on the 7950X but I just have this (perhaps unjustified) impression that it might be more fussy about 48 GB kits than Arrow Lake. And regarding capacity, 64 GB would have been a slightly overkill future-proofing option rather than actually knowing that I really need as much. Whereas 48 GB is more realistically calibrated for what I predict I will do, I will surely run out in some instances if I choose 32 GB but with 48 GB I feel that I could really keep it within these boundaries until this rig is changed.

Okay so on top of that I can also save a bit of money, choosing:
265K + Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi + G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 7200 MT/s 2x24 GB CL36
instead of
7950X + Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi + G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 6000 MT/s 2x32 GB CL30
saves me about 175 €. Not much but it's something.

It's clear that the iGPU is more capable, and I'm not talking about light gaming workloads but everything else. I would say that the differences between the iGPUs are going to be more noticeable than the differences between the CPUs.
So while I know this new choice isn't ideal it's apparently the only one that can help me get a new PC that I can start using right away.
Another con of Arrow Lake is that it's a new platform with some issues. I mean sure you can use it, some people obviously are, but still there are some inconsistencies and such and we don't know if some of those will be eliminated or at least reduced. It's also about the everyday user experience not just benchmark scores.

So what do you guys think, does this alternative make sense?
Or should I wait? The question is wait for what and for how long? Do I wait for a new platform as well or just for the GPU?
A lot of people hope that with the next platform Intel is going to pull a Ryzen on AMD and fix Arrow Lake's problems while increasing its strengths further, that way making it a very good and consistent performer across the board.
I'm definitely open enough to consider Intel, I mean I'm getting whatever I can afford for a certain performance bracket but the GPU situation is really throwing a wrench in my plan by forcing me to reconsider and calibrate my choice by the iGPU capabilities.

Thank you.
 
With the am5 (mostly x3d) burning issues right now I was curious about this exact scenario.

The motherboards are currently offering much more capabilities and features for cheaper due to lower demand. They're better for non-gaming tasks, lower idle power, and they run cooler while only being about 5% slower in games at 1440p than 7800x3d (except for Balders Gate 3 where there's a huge difference lol). They also keep going back and forth on if they're going to do a refresh Gen on the Z890 boards and if those cpus will have any better latency, which would dramatically improve gaming results. I don't know and wouldn't bet on it, but it's...possible. It's just not as far off in performance as I expected and as I said: because they're not selling, the good Z890 boards have tanked in price lol.

Also, it's anecdotal, but I've seen several posts on here from people who bought 265k cpus and have loved them. It's not the best gaming cpu, but it isn't a bad gaming cpu and if you're doing other stuff with it, there are definitely benefits.

Also, I'm not sure how the used market is where you are, but if you can find a trusted community sales page or something where people will stand behind their sales or there are rules on the site, you can probably find the odd good deals from people who aren't jerks and just upgraded frum their 4080 or something for an ok price until you can afford what you really want. By then maybe there'll be super models that have better price/performance, who knows lol.
 
@Bobaganoosh

Thank you.

I'm not interested in gaming so that defficiency does not affect me.
But Arrow Lake is inconsistent when it comes to various programs, some performance regressions (compression/decompression, encryption etc.) compared to Raptor Lake are also not easy to swallow.

I'm interested in video editing and other stuff, 3D modelling, photo editing etc.
AI stuff is likely going to happen but the GPU will be used for generating images and that sort of stuff. That can wait.

The iGPU capabilities are not fully known so to speak (at least by me) because the mainstream tests are not focusing on that, only some very quick gaming performance and nothing else. There is the NPU as well which could be usable to some extent.
An updated version of this article would be of great help:

About the second-hand market, well yeah there some trusted communities like everywhere else but it's basically an F5 contest so even if an opportunity arises there are others like me who want the card. So the chances are not great.
It seems that the price hikes have made some people more pragmatic, they are able to swallow their pride and postpone an upgrade they would've otherwise made because they could've afforded it. But now for 4080 Super owners there are only two options that genuinely represent an upgrade the 4090 and 5090. And perhaps they've reached the conclusion that maybe it's better to wait for that performance level to become more affordable.
 
@Bobaganoosh

Thank you.

I'm not interested in gaming so that defficiency does not affect me.
Yeah, I know you're not interested in gaming for this machine, but I had done my recent looking with that aspect in mind so I started there...especially with that being the primary weakness of Arrow Lake
 
Okay so here are some updates, I came back for more advice given that I'm in a bit of a predicament.
The way things are looking a GPU like I'm after (5080) is a long ways away. At a reasonable price that is.
So that unfortunately affects the CPU + mobo + RAM platform I'm getting.

I've read a lot of reviews before and a few more during the weeks since my last post here and I am convinced that the ideal combo for me would have been 7950X + a decent X870E mobo + 64 GB 6000MT/s CL30. Plenty of horsepower, time-tested consistent CPU, more than enough RAM and a mobo with more than enough features. Coupled with the 4080 Super which would have been a powerful, stable GPU with software support across the board. That GPU is long gone, it's not coming back. Okay, but I could get the 5080 right? Well not for 1500 € I'm not!
I'm still advocating you buy a 4060Ti 16GB or a 5060Ti 16GB (due in a few weeks).
You say it's bad value, but for your use case it really isn't. If it came with 16GB at $399 it would have received fantastic reviews all over the web - the reason the 4060Ti was hated by reviewers is because 8GB isn't enough for a $399 GPU and $499 was too expensive for the 16GB model that was too close in price to the 4070 12GB. As a result of the terrible launch price, the 4060Ti fell to $430-460 and it's actually pretty reasonable at that price, even as a gaming card - it's 75% the price of a 4070 and was about 75% as fast.

It the cheapest pro or consumer CUDA card with an Nvidia hardware encoder and 16GB of VRAM, period.
Is it overpriced for its gaming performance? Yes. You said you don't care about gaming though.
It has solid API support, the best hardware encoder you can get right now, and the next cheapest 16GB VRAM nvidia card you can actually buy is a 5070Ti at about €1150.

I had a look at the pro-GPU market, but there aren't many offerings. The RTX2000-Ada sold for about €700 and has 16GB VRAM but it's actually slower than a vanilla 4060 - think of it as a 16GB 4050. If you can find one for under €400 it's not a terrible card for you but I still think you'd be better off with a 4060Ti/5060Ti 16GB unless you can afford to drop €1150-1500 on a 5070Ti/5080.

Don't ignore RTX3060 12GB either. They're good workstation GPUs and you won't find them new in many places but they are popping up on ebay for €175-250 for a working one in good condition. You could do a lot of work on a 3060 12GB as a stop-gap solution for a while. The combination of CUDA, NVENC, 12GB, and a low price is hard to ignore for your use case.
 
@Chrispy_

Hmm it's interesting how a card that has half the gaming performance of my white whale is the one I should buy. I know I messed up by missing the window of opportunity but do I really need to pay for that mistake by settling for half the performance?
Yes I don't care about gaming but when I look at performance charts for other stuff like Topaz, StableDiffusion, Blender & other renderers etc. I see very large differences, similar to gaming performance charts. So the value aspect is practically the same, it's about what I'm getting for the price, half the framerate or twice the render time it makes no difference.

I'm not the only one saying those cards were bad value, as the saying goes there are no bad GPUs only badly priced ones. You explained it yourself above that the MSRPs were not the most inspired, especially the one for the 16GB version. About the 16GB ones dropping in price well not where I'm at. It also seems that they are kinda hard to find to be honest, the cheapest I found is the Ventus 2X OC at 475 € and another offer at 520 €, the first offer isn't from a big retailer so choosing that offer is questionable. So people apparently jumped on these as there are loads more of the 8GB variety. Well if they're happy with their purchase who am I to judge them?

Regarding the 5060 Ti it implies more waiting and not just for that but perhaps for the 9060 XT as well. Not to get the Radeon but if that one beats the 5060 Ti maybe nVidia would rethink the pricing? Hell would freeze over first but who knows? Anyway there is a big question mark regarding the MSRP of the 5060 Ti, until we know for sure it just means waiting, but hey if the price is right for what it offers then great. But I honestly feel this performance level isn't what I'm after.

About the 3060 12 GB oh man apparently we have loads of them, brand new obviously, there are plenty of offers, a few starting at 284 €, then going a bit higher and then at 300 € and slightly above it's like a few ship containers were magically teleported to my country. :rockout:
I could just buy one of these to use as a PhysX card. :roll: Not that I would need it for that.

Well, more waiting then...
 
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@Sol_Badguy, you should wait for the 5060ti to launch. But the 4060ti is probably fine too. If you can't wait then maybe a RTX 4070 or even 3060 should be ok (wouldn't buy a new one personally though)

As recommended by others, check the relevant benchmarks (and not gaming results) and decide accordingly.

Nvidia is almost always faster in Blender.


Here's an old article, AMD vs Nvidia, from PugetSystems -


I'm not sure about CPU pricing in your country but usually I can find the Ryzen 9 7900 on sale and it's a fair bit cheaper than the 7950X.
 
@lambda

I did, that's why I said that the differences seen in gaming are seen elsewhere.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/llm-inference-consumer-gpu-performance/
The 4060 Ti has roughly half the performance of the 4080 Super, not just in games.

The 5060 Ti apparently will have a much higher bandwidth, it if lands at the right price then I will at least consider it.

Well right now the 7900X is 357 €, 265K is 374 € and 7950X is 480 €. And 9900X is 439 €.
With all of its inconsistencies the 265K looks more attractive at that price compared to the 6-core AMD CPUs if I were to go that route.
 
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