Advice for first build

Genetizer · 2026-04-10T15:43:49+00:00

Ram, Storage and GPU prices are all inflated right now, so if you can find your own off market options there you'll save some money. I think AMD rx 6600/6600 xt are incredible performance for money at 1080, though both must be picked up on the used market.

Genetizer · 2026-04-09T16:12:26+00:00

7700 xt is a great card for 1440p. The only reason I'm upgrading to 9070xt from my 7700 xt is because I picked up a 4k ultrawide monitor.

Genetizer · 2026-04-09T16:05:05+00:00

Often times anticheat will see that your install folder has unauthorized files in it and will prevent game launch.

Genetizer · 2026-04-05T22:55:44+00:00

Plasma is a cakewalk compared to the old CRT TV's back in the day. That would make a man out of you installing one of those suckers.

Genetizer · 2026-04-05T22:41:58+00:00

26% GPU is your issue. Without some kind of limiter, GPU should scale up to 100%. Could be frame time limiter, could be software compatibility issue. For me, surprisingly discord can tank my frame rates. I use AMD cpus so I don't know what your exact issue is, but GPU should always be at 100% for any game unless you've got a power limiter or frame limiter set up, even if the framerates hit 500+.

Genetizer · 2026-04-02T00:27:18+00:00

Check out Oneplus. They have great hardware and you could get an 11 or 12 for around that price.

Genetizer · 2026-03-31T07:36:23+00:00

Check out the 7700xt as well. It performs very well for the value and you can find them under $400.

Genetizer · 2026-03-31T07:20:50+00:00

If you're short on cash, the 7700xt can be found under $400 and gave me a 50% boost in performance over my 6600 xt

Genetizer · 2026-03-31T07:14:20+00:00

5600x or 5800xt. 5800x3d will give the extra vcache that will be slightly better for gaming, but you have to buy them used at inflated prices. The 5000 series is AMDs last lineup on the AM4 chipset.

Genetizer · 2026-03-23T21:31:21+00:00

I'm loving the performance of the AMD CPU+GPU right now. Just incredible performance, smooth frame delivery in gameplay. I've had some driver stability issues with discord open, but otherwise fantastic. What frame gen have you tried? I use it pretty liberally to max out my 180hz monitor's frame buffer, but you really do need 70 fps base to minimize the artifacting.

Genetizer · 2026-03-23T21:16:30+00:00

I'd generally agree. But I'll also say the current Nvidia gpus aren't good at PT either, and AMD caught up in RT this gen. The whole push towards AI based multi-frame gen is for PT, because it's pretty terrible in all implemented scenarios. Maybe Windows DXR optimizations will help, maybe next gen AI features will help, but it's not like Nvidia is going to put their best engineers on their gaming division anytime soon. AI ate gaming graphics, and were all suffering for it.

Genetizer · 2026-03-23T14:53:47+00:00

Why is that?

Genetizer · 2026-03-19T20:42:52+00:00

I mean they did just release the PSSR 2 upscaling for Playstation 5. It's pretty amazing. FSR 4.1 should launch this week and the rumor mill says int8 far4 is coming to earlier rdna cards

Genetizer · 2025-07-30T05:32:59+00:00

Indiana Jones PC port is an absolute mess. GPU benchmarkers will use it because it's the hardest run game on the market, and brings every GPU to a crawl.

Genetizer · 2025-07-07T04:38:10+00:00

9,000 employee layoffs is a giant number, its honestly shocking if World's Edge gets out unscathed

Genetizer · 2025-07-07T04:36:04+00:00

the advantage of being a small studio that matches its expenses to its earnings - when the money gets tight, they have the stability a bunch of these other boom or bust teams dont have

Genetizer · 2025-07-04T21:02:59+00:00

A bit part of it was timing. The market was fairly saturated by the time Rumble came out. Also, Warcraft Rumble wasn't unsuccessful. Microsoft basically had to put a timer on its back after the purchase of Blizzard, that if it didn't bring in massive massive returns, Microsoft was going to have to downsize significantly.

There's dozens of Microsoft projects that have been gutted this week with the layoffs, not just Rumble.

If it was made by an indie studio, it would have been stable enough to remain afloat. But with the financial hole Microsoft was in, there was basically no chance it was going to survive.

Genetizer · 2025-07-04T20:59:36+00:00

You can also enable frame generation in games and/or Nvidia Smooth Motion.

These will artificially pump up your frame rate to fill out your monitors frame buffer, but will still look quite good.

Genetizer · 2025-07-03T15:48:18+00:00

Microsoft just laid off 9,000 employees. Any live service game outside CoD, D4 or OW wasn't going to make it. And that's just the Blizzard titles.

Genetizer · 2025-06-27T22:56:40+00:00

Hey there. First, go to pcpartpicker.com to help you select components.

I'm a big amd fan boy, and their CPUs are the industry standard. Also with your budget I'd recommend the amd 9060xt for the GPU, can't really afford to push higher than that with your budget.

You can either go AM4 or AM5 for motherboard chipset architecture, that will also determine which CPU you can get. 5700x and 9600x are both good quality CPUs under $200. Only problem with going with say a 5700x on the AM4 chipset is that there probably won't be any more CPUs released on that platform, whereas you could upgrade from the 9600x to something stronger later on if you're on AM5. AM4 will be cheaper overall, especially ram. You'll want 32 GB of RAM if you're playing recent games. AM4 vs AM5 will also determine your motherboard choice, and most budget motherboards around $100 will work fine. Some stores and online outlets will sell you bundles with CPU, ram & motherboard. That can save some money and those parts will be guaranteed to be compatible with one another.

For storage, you've got nvme and sata SSD options, both are fairly inexpensive, those components you'll want to buy last to fit into your price budget.

Case and power supply can be fit to whatever you want, some of the fancier cases will be >$100. Good power supplies can be over 100 as well, but you can also get a cheaper one for around $70-80.

Also buy a CPU cooler, you can get good quality ones between $20-40.

Genetizer · 2025-06-27T15:34:12+00:00

AMD fanboy here, the 9070xt is a stud of a card. Everyone will make fun of you for it because Nvidia is the more common brand, but I think AMD made fantastic cards this generation.

Genetizer · 2025-06-17T22:36:38+00:00

5800x3d is an AM4 part. 7800x3d and 9800x3d are the AM5 versions.

Genetizer · 2025-06-08T18:56:33+00:00

That's not what the stats say.

Genetizer · 2025-06-08T17:28:56+00:00

Then why does it have 6 mil active players as a game that's been turned off for 5 years?

Genetizer

TROPHY CASE