Is this THE WORST TIME EVER to buy bits for a new PC?

[ThrashZone]

How many litres are in your loop Thrash?

Hi,
Depends I have 2 mora 360 rads also that hold nearly a liter a piece I use one on each loop sometime both when playing around
System just it's self about 1.5 liters +- I kind of have ghetto octopus setups

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I am no fan boy. I have read the reviews, watched the bench marks, it boggles my mind....I am just looking for some anecdotal statements and people's thoughts on the state of play in the market right now...Not really the specifics of CPU performance just yet anyway. I am just torn as to what platform to go for. I remember in the past, in the days of the Athalon how AMD CPU needed some absolutely horrible chipsets to run, remember Opti chipsets...*shudder*.....It has put me off for a long time going to AMD....They seemed like the poor man's CPU.

They certainly were the poor man's CPU I was one of the idiots that bought into pile-driver because I was strapped for cash.

You said you didn't want to use win11 does that mean your still a Windows user? Because if your using Linux our answers will be very different.

 

[oobymach]

i3's are dirt cheap and gaming ready, you don't need anything higher end just for gaming, ddr4 3200mhz chips are cheap, 1tb ssd's are cheap, here's your push.

 

[eidairaman1]

You should of bought them last year.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

You should of bought them last year.

And I should have bought Google stock at IPO. But that ship has also sailed.

 

[DoLlyBirD]

I don't get this whole "shortages" argument, they sold more chips last year than in any other previous year, and the stock prices, profits and dividends should tell you all you need to know, there are millions of chips being pumped out, it's the artificial supply and demand that is causing the uncertainty in the market and people are falling for it, still buying unnecessarily which is driving up demand and chip makers know they can now make 3x what they used to make for the same product

 

[Bleeding-Edge]

They certainly were the poor man's CPU I was one of the idiots that bought into pile-driver because I was strapped for cash.

You said you didn't want to use win11 does that mean your still a Windows user? Because if your using Linux our answers will be very different.

I do use Linux quite a lot BUT...I am no expert in it. I also am aware of how it does games (or doesn't) I do want a Windows machine. I have other Linux machines here (4 of them) but they don't really do much. I did get Arma running on Linux once. It worked fine.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I don't get this whole "shortages" argument, they sold more chips last year than in any other previous year

Says what and who is "they"?

 

[de.das.dude]

i am a full stack and ill tell you the AMD 5600 is just.... leaving me speechless.
i have used an 8700 (work pc) and the 5600 is defo much better.

you can get one at MSRP right now.

i suggest getting CPU, Ram and mobo now. I got these a few weeks ago at msrp more or less.

GPU... well.. lol

 

[ThrashZone]

I do use Linux quite a lot BUT...I am no expert in it. I also am aware of how it does games (or doesn't) I do want a Windows machine. I have other Linux machines here (4 of them) but they don't really do much. I did get Arma running on Linux once. It worked fine.

Hi,
Yeah linux hasn't changed much in the last five years sadly.

 

[R-T-B]

Hi,
Yeah linux hasn't changed much in the last five years sadly.

...I'd argue there's been more change in the last 5 re linuxgaming than the previous 20, but Windows is still best for obvious reasons (native is native).

 

[trparky]

I don't think it can get much worse

Oh, you optimistic fool. Things are going to get way... worse.

I’m getting to the point where I think that PC gaming is effectively dead of if it isn’t, we’re damn close to calling TOD.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another thing that’s causing prices to go through the roof. Contamination in a fab, power outages, mustache twirling sycophants, etc. It’s always something.

 

[Vayra86]

I am no fan boy. I have read the reviews, watched the bench marks, it boggles my mind....I am just looking for some anecdotal statements and people's thoughts on the state of play in the market right now...Not really the specifics of CPU performance just yet anyway. I am just torn as to what platform to go for. I remember in the past, in the days of the Athalon how AMD CPU needed some absolutely horrible chipsets to run, remember Opti chipsets...*shudder*.....It has put me off for a long time going to AMD....They seemed like the poor man's CPU.

Right now, the best silicon and the best architecture is in the AMD camp.

Its quite simple, really if you zoom out a bit.

Intel still rides another iteration of their Core architecture that was awesome from Sandy Bridge onwards and slowly got long in the tooth, Intel eventually lost its node advantage over that time frame up to today as well, and now needs to push TDPs to the moon to compete resulting un bursty and hot chips.

AMD has built an enterprise chip that is perfect for economy of scale, giving them a far stronger long term trajectory. Zen is going to last, and as much as Intel can adopt chiplets as well, AMD can simply slot in an "E-core CCX" anywhere they want and glue it to whatever other combo of chiplets they fancy. Intels chiplet attempts so far have not hit mass production.

The blue giant is leagues behind.

This however does NOT mean that you cant find a competitive Intel chip to any AMD Zen chip, they exist. But on overall development and future iterations, Zen has a much longer breath in it even today, and we still dont know what Intel is planning to combat that at all, apart from twisting their old crap up even further - they felt the need to push a 241W peak scenario in 12th gen chips go figure..

And then there is the subject of GPU. Yes, now is the absolute worst time ever to buy in. Early adopter tech (RT), price way out of bounds and we are late in this gen too. Architecturally, AMD has a strong showing. Nvidia has a lead on RT at the expense of everything else, such as TDP, chip/die size and VRAM capacity which implies the cards wont last quite as long before you have to compromise on settings.

On top of that, RT is far from mainstream yet and consoles barely use it. It still remains a big question mark what the winning architecture to accomodate the tech should lean towards. But in a time of highly priced silicon per square mm, efficiency is king, and brute forcing real time lighting is not efficient. Therefore, dedicating hardware to it seems like a fools errand - already Nvidias focus shifted towards a heavy push on their DLSS tech and I dare say the market data shows much higher demand for DLSS to improve performance, than it does for RT effects that cause you to pay even more to hit 60 FPS in a gaming world where high refresh rate was a big selling point lately (courtesy of fast CPUs and proper multi threading in games).

 

[ThrashZone]

...I'd argue there's been more change in the last 5 re linuxgaming than the previous 20, but Windows is still best for obvious reasons (native is native).

Hi,
That's not linux changing really though that is all Steam.

 

[Vayra86]

Oh, you optimistic fool. Things are going to get way... worse.

I’m getting to the point where I think that PC gaming is effectively dead of if it isn’t, we’re damn close to calling TOD.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another thing that’s causing prices to go through the roof. Contamination in a fab, power outages, mustache twirling sycophants, etc. It’s always something.

There was always something threatening PC gaming and yet, its a growth market throughout for almost all of the 35 years Im alive.

We are hitting diminishing returns now in further game development and this has happened since 1080p was mainstream. Most of the pixels on top are just luxury items, and you can run 1080p on IGP not too long from now. You worry too much PC still has every unique selling point it has always had, really. Especially as walled gardens and ecosystems keep getting added to the space. Other things push back harder, people despise lack of control over their stuff.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

In a way no, since it's such a step up but if Intel finally released these GPU allegedly mid year plus better supply of all these new CPUs, that's the best time IMHO.

 

[trparky]

if Intel finally released these GPU allegedly mid year plus better supply

I’m not holding my breath though. Intel has to prove that their new dGPUs can stand up to the likes of AMD and nVidia. So far, the news isn’t good.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Oh, you optimistic fool. Things are going to get way... worse.

Gee, nice how you conveniently extracted only the first half of my sentence, taking it completely out of context.

I said,

I don't think it can get much worse, but I would not bet on that either.

I do totally believe you are totally wrong, and I am still right.

Why? Because the transportation backlogs (sea ports and overland) are continuously easing up. COVID is much less of a threat as more and more people get vaccinated and with the newer variants causing much less severe cases.

And the chip shortage is easing up significantly too and will get better as the big makers continue to increase production in existing plants, and as their new plants come on line.

There will still be ups and downs. But it will get better.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Remember RAMBUS? A total flash-in-the-pan.....DDR5 seems a bit like that.....

I had RambusRAM. It was fast! But ran hot. DDR5 however is not a market alternative trying to become the defcto replacement, it IS the defacto market replacement created by the JEDEC organization and agreed upon by most(if not all) of the RAM makers. It's an industry collaboration thing, just like DDR4, DDR3 and DDR2 were.

 

[trparky]

But it will get better.

But now we have the war in Ukraine, oil shortages, food shortages, and if that’s not bad enough, inflation making the US Dollar next to useless.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Oh, you optimistic fool. Things are going to get way... worse.

Oh, stop that. The worst is behind us.

 

[trparky]

It’s almost as if someone, I don’t know who, actually wants to see the whole world economy crash. Almost like a Great Reset.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Attempting to swing back on topic, @Bleeding-Edge, it's a best-of-times, worst-of-times kind of situation. You can get more processing power, memory and storage for your money than at any time in history. Conversely, as mentioned, there's never been a worse time to be shopping for graphics. Paying $800 instead of $400 for a 3070 is a bitter pill to swallow, but looked at another way, those four Benjamins amortize pretty well if you're able to keep the card for four years or more. Like I said, focus on the experience you're looking to have and make decisions based on that. Personally, I wouldn't take that medicine, but clearly many folks will.

 

[trparky]

Paying $800 instead of $400 for a 3070 is a bitter pill to swallow

Yep. I remember when $800 would get you 1080Ti-type hardware. Now that kind of hardware goes for as high as $1600 to $1800 if you can even manage to get your hands on one.

It's like can we please get a moment to breathe here.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It’s almost as if someone, I don’t know who, actually wants to see the whole world economy crash. Almost like a Great Reset.

Oh, that's easy, China. They have the least to loose and the most to gain. The whole world knows it and if China doesn't start playing nice, we're going to put the economic boot up their bum.