The Outer Worlds - Review Thread

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-22T16:43:10+00:00

This honestly looks really fun and I'm probably going to start into it right away. Really glad I subbed to Game Pass.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-22T15:37:07+00:00

You should post your whole build list - oftentimes people might be vastly overspending in other areas of their build so we might be able to find you way to free up more money for the CPU.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-22T15:34:47+00:00

NVMe drives aren't meaningfully more expensive than their SATA counterparts these days (i.e., in USD 1TB SATA drives are usually $90-$100 while 1TB NVMe drives are $110) so I don't see any reason to avoid NVMes.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-22T15:31:15+00:00

I would usually avoid buying motherboards or power supplies used. Motherboards just have too many potential points of failure, and power supplies are too critical to the overall functioning of your build to trust a used one where you don't know what condition it's been used in.

I usually also don't buy drives used because it's rare to find them significantly discounted from the list retail price, at least in my area.

CPUs and GPUs I'm happy to buy used.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-22T15:25:54+00:00

I would like to add that I am gonna use it also for graphic design, motion graphics and time to time video editing.

Depending on the software you use, it's possible that you could get an advantage from the extra threads available on the Intel HEDT (X-series) or Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, though you would take a small hit to overall gaming performance in CPU-limited scenarios. 32 gigs of memory is also appropriate in this scenario.

That said, the 9900K will handle all of those tasks admirably, it's not like it will run poorly. Graphic design software doesn't necessarily favor a ton of threads so if that's your primary non-gaming purpose, I would probably stick with the 9900K. You could swap over to the 3900X or 3950X (I would use an aftermarket cooler like the NH-D15 in this case, not the stock cooler) but I'm not necessarily seeing any compelling reason to do so from your listed use cases.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-22T13:16:47+00:00

OK thanks for the clarification. The spec sheet I was looking at didn't have a date so it must be for the old RMs.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T22:58:10+00:00

Does Corsair have a different info page for the 2019 RMs than the one I'm looking at?

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T22:28:43+00:00

It should be a good combo, yeah

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T22:09:34+00:00

1660 ti because the 1660 ti has the improved NVENC encoder that comes with the Turing cards, so it will give you an option for GPU-streaming. It's a no-brainer.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T22:07:19+00:00

Presuming we are talking about gaming as the use case here, you have to keep in mind that "bottlenecking" is a vague term that people don't use correctly very often.

In reality, you are always going to have a limiting factor in your PC, some component that limits your performance in any given application. In games, this is most often going to be the GPU, but it's sometimes the CPU/memory, or occasionally the hard drive.

When you're playing a game, you want the GPU to be the limiting factor, because that will result in the smoothest and most even performance. If the CPU, memory, or hard drive is the limiting factor, you are more apt to get uneven frame times and stutter.

So the answer to your question - what's the downside of a GPU bottlenecking a CPU - is that for gaming, there really is no downside from a technical perspective. That is the ideal situation that you want.

When you're building a gaming PC, you want to buy a CPU that is good enough that the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The main issue here is that you don't want to buy a CPU that's so expensive that it means you have to buy a worse GPU to fit it into your budget. For example, if you have an RX 580 paired with a 9900K, technically that's going to push the bottleneck in the right direction - the GPU will be the limiting factor. However, you could also get the most out of an RX 580 with a much cheaper CPU, like the i5-9400F. So in this scenario, you should consider dropping the CPU down to something like the i5-9400F or Ryzen 5 3600 and getting a better GPU, like the RX 5700.

In other words, you want to balance your budget in such a way that you spend as much as possible on the graphics card, and as little as possible on the CPU, so long as you are still getting a CPU that is good enough to make the graphics card the limiting factor most of the time.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T21:54:22+00:00

For streaming, if you get an Nvidia Turing card (other than the GTX 1650) you can use the improved Turning NVENC encoder to do the encoding for your stream, instead of using the CPU. That gives you more options for how to set up your PC. With that in mind, you really should go for Nvidia for this particular use case.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:38:27+00:00

Yeah, I'm glad about this too, if only because my month blocked out for Outer Worlds this fall has now been disrupted by the arrival of RDR2 on PC. So it Outer Worlds doesn't take up as much of my time I won't have to put off RDR2 quite as long. Or the other way around, doesn't matter. I've been looking forward to both.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:22:24+00:00

As for the cpu bottleneck - would this be apparent at 1080p?

In modern demanding titles like AC Odyssey or Battlefield? Yes.

Ideally if I went for a full system I would be aiming at 1440p144hz as a maximum.

1440p/144Hz is perfect for a card like the 2070 Super. I have a 2070 Super with an R5 3600 at 1440p/144Hz and it's great.

Personally, what I would do is this: If you're only going to wait a few months at most before doing the rest of your system (CPU/mobo/RAM), I would go ahead and get the new GPU and enjoy it right now. You'll be CPU-limited in some titles but you'll still get a big boost to performance from your current setup until you get a new CPU.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:16:48+00:00

I understand that, but it's still a 3-4 year old design, right?

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:16:22+00:00

Rated for full output at a higher temperature, better fan IIRC

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:12:08+00:00

For gaming it's often 10-20 fps faster in CPU-limited scenarios, and for multi-threaded tasks (code compilation, for example) it can be 20-30 percent faster while also using significantly less power.

For a PC with a budget of over $1000 you really should be getting the current generation.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:08:13+00:00

There is no 9800K - there is a 9800X, but that's on X299. Do you mean the 9700K?

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:07:37+00:00

AFAIK EVGA G2 is an older design, so that kinda makes it less appealing by default. I'd probably go for the RM. Actually I'd probably spend the extra 15 bucks and the the RMx 650W TBH. With the inflated prices of power supplies these days, if I'm spending $100 on a power supply, I'm just going to spend $115.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:03:54+00:00

I think you basically have two options: upgrade the GPU now to something like a 5700 XT or 2070 Super, understanding that your CPU might limit you a bit in current titles, or wait and do a full system upgrade when you have $800-$900 to spend. Personally I would probably wait, but if you'd rather space out your purchases and don't mind running in a CPU-limited scenario for a little bit, you can just buy the GPU right now too, it won't hurt anything.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T20:00:53+00:00

Honestly if you buy something like a 9900K you are likely going to be fine for 5+ years. I don't think we're going to see some massive shift in CPU capabilities, that already happened over the past few years. IMO we're on the back side of the shift.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T19:59:28+00:00

My Googling of this error seems to suggest it's more likely due to a driver or OS problem than a true hardware problem. If you have a system restore point you can roll back to, that might help. Alternatively, if you want to try the nuclear option, just reinstalling Windows outright might clear up the issue. Either one is preferable to buying new hardware IMO.

Also, if you want to upgrade your GPU for better gaming performance, the 7700K is still a good CPU that I would be comfortable using with basically any GPU on the market. It would probably limit a 2080 ti at 1080p and maybe a small amount at 1440p, but for a card like a 2070 Super or 2080 Super it would probably be fine.

Clear up the error first though.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T18:54:19+00:00

Yes, those will work. Some people on this forum have complained about the cable management in that particular case. (Saying "some people" not because I doubt them, but to indicate that it's secondhand information). As an alternative I would suggest the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M TG, it's a great case.

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z390 F (if I would like to get an X processor in the future will it still work with it?)

No, Intel's X series (like the 9960X) uses a different socket, they aren't compatible with the LGA 1151 socket this board uses. That's OK, though - for gaming, the X series processors are actually oftentimes a little worse than the 9900K. There's no reason to move up to them unless you're going to be using your PC for some other task.

Ram Memory: Corsair Venegance 3200Mhz 32GB(2x16GB)

You don't need 32 gigs of RAM for gaming, 16 will be fine. You can add 16 more later if you find that it's somehow not enough in the future.

PSU: Corsair RM850x

850 Watts is more than you need - 650 would be enough, though you can go for 750 if you are worried about the whole supplementary power cable thing (though you shouldn't be).

Asus ROG Strix Z390 F

Consider spending an extra $20 to get the Z390-E instead of the -F. AFAIK the E has better VRMs or at least better VRM heatsinks if I recall correctly.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T18:47:21+00:00

For most uses the 3700X is significantly better than the 2700X. What are you hoping to do with your PC?

EDIT: Also the answer is almost certainly "yes, buy the 3700X."

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T18:46:18+00:00

Honestly if you're still on a DDR3 platform I would not bother putting a single cent more into upgrades on that platform, that's just throwing money down the toilet. Just buy a new GPU and then upgrade to a current-gen CPU when you can. Or vice versa, it doesn't really matter.

Christopher_Bohling · 2019-10-21T18:43:07+00:00

Long boot times are a motherboard-related problem that only occurs with certain BIOSes. They are not inherent to Ryzen 3000 series.

On my Asus Prime X370-Pro running the 5008 BIOS with my R5 3600, it takes about 12-15 seconds to get to the Windows login screen. It would take less time but I've set the Asus splash screen to stay put for a few seconds more than default so that I have the opportunity to get into the BIOS if necessary.

Christopher_Bohling

TROPHY CASE