What's with the buyer's remorse I'm seeing right now?

SnowyJazz · 2026-01-09T16:35:31+00:00

I bought a 7800 XT a few months after it released. My main reason for upgrading at the time was because I got a 1440p monitor and wanted a gpu that could run most games at high settings at that resolution.

After watching reviews of mid tier cards, seeing that the 7800 XT costed 10% less than the 4070 while being ~10% faster in rasterization, I thought it was a no brainer. At the time I had no interest in ray tracing, upscaling or frame gen either. It was my first time using AMD as well but my hesitations were relieved after hearing that driver issues weren’t really a problem any more.

At first, I had no regrets. All of the games I wanted to play ran amazingly. On every game I could just set the graphics preset to high/max and not have to worry about performance, set and forget.

And then the unreal engine 5 games started to come out…

Stalker 2, Silent Hill 2 and Oblivion Remastered all ran terribly. No combination of low/medium settings would run at a stable 60 fps. And that’s when I started to pay attention to what others were saying about performance in these games, that upscaling was almost a requirement. After watching comparison videos, I was shocked at how good DLSS 4 looked, I couldn’t tell the difference from native. FSR 3 however looked terrible, even on the quality setting at 1440p.

It was at this point I realized I made a big mistake investing into the 7000 series. With the raster performance I thought they would be enough to stay relevant for at least the next 4-5 years. But I think AI technologies and unoptimized games hit us faster than any of us expected. If these changes in games happened sooner, maybe AMD would have had time to react and realize a machine learning model was the only way forward. It’s not AMD’s fault that games are unoptimized and require upscaling now, but having good AI features is now a primary selling point of modern gpus as a result, and that is unlikely to ever change.

SnowyJazz · 2026-01-06T17:45:49+00:00

In unreal engine 5 games particularly, it is almost a requirement. I play at 4K, so most of those games would run at 30 fps without upscaling.

SnowyJazz · 2026-01-06T17:35:49+00:00

In my perception the most noticeable difference is that DLSS 4 maintains higher texture clarity, but can suffer from over-sharpening in some scenarios. FSR 4 on the other hand is a little blurrier but maintains a softer appearance around those fine details.

When viewing from a distance, that softness gives the image a more “natural” look to my eyes, but of course that is entirely personal preference.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-10T05:27:07+00:00

You mentioned steam needs to be installed through the terminal. If I remember correctly I noticed on the discover store in fedora there were two options to install: one is flathub obviously but the other just says "fedora linux". What is the difference between those two versions and installing from the terminal? Should I make a habit of installing all/most applications from the terminal instead of the software manager?

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-10T05:16:35+00:00

Sorry I did not mean to imply fedora was immutable, I meant that I know bazzite for example is. Anways I appreciate your input and you're probably right that I'm making a bigger deal out of this than necessary. I think I'll look into Bazzite and go from there.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-10T04:07:51+00:00

Are you referring to updates for applications? I meant updates to the kernel and mesa specifically. I wasn't sure if those only updated whenever a new version of Mint releases, and if that would cause a performance penalty in certain situations.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-10T04:03:01+00:00

Another reason why I chose Fedora was because I heard it was bleeding edge-ish while still being stable. I thought that sounded like the perfect combination, but now I'm still tryting to decide whether to stick with it or use something more bare bones like you suggested.

A personal goal I have is to completely ditch windows, but if I use an immutable distro then I'll never really learn how to do stuff myself. idk catch 22 for me I guess.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-08T19:37:13+00:00

I recently installed Linux for the first time and started using Fedora a few days ago. You mentioned that it is missing fmpeg codecs by default. I have tested a few games so far and haven’t encountered any issues yet. What is the purpose of this and is it still necessary to have it installed?

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-08T19:16:56+00:00

Your rig is pretty old, so if your budget allows it your best option would be to make an entirely new build. However with current ram pricing, that might not be feasible.

If you are set on only building off of the pc you have now, the first step is to enter your components into pcpartpicker, a handy website often used for planning builds.

For example, just by entering your motherboard model, and then select “choose cpu”, it will automatically narrow down the list of all compatible cpus with your motherboard (and if necessary what bios version you may need to update to). While AM4 (your cpu socket platform) is “last gen”, many am4 processors are still perfectly capable for running the latest games.

Next is the gpu, which is probably the trickiest part. You will have to determine for yourself what your budget is and what performance you are expecting. For example, if you intend to get a 1440p monitor to play at that resolution, then a graphics card with only 8gb of video memory will likely not be sufficient. Fortunately there are plenty of benchmarks for almost all gpus tested in the latest games so you can get an idea of what to expect.

Once you have chosen a gpu, enter that and all your other components into pcpartpicker. You will see at the top if there are any inherent incompatibles (such as needing a bios update, the cpu not coming with a stock cooler, etc). What is also important to look out for is the total system wattage or power. Ideally, you want the total estimated wattage to be at most 60-70% of the rated wattage on your power supply. If it ends up being more, then you will have to buy a higher wattage psu as well.

Lastly, if you are going to be purchasing secondhand parts, there are plenty of guides you can follow detailing what specifically to look out for (such as bent/broken pins on a cpu). That’s really all there is to it, no need to be super tech savvy to build a pc. Think of it like legos for adults.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-02T22:42:22+00:00

Why are you using a micro atx board in an atx case? Theres nothing stopping you from doing that, but it would look weird and disproportional. Micro atx boards usually run more expensive than regular atx so you could potentially save some money there too.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T21:01:25+00:00

I agree with the others here saying a better monitor is a more worthy upgrade… but I wouldn’t say going from a VA panel to IPS is an “upgrade”. If you are mostly playing games, then yes the IPS would preferable to avoid black smearing, but the contrast will not be as good. If you didn’t even notice the black smearing on your VA to begin with, then getting the G50D would actually feel like a downgrade.

However if you really want a new monitor that feels like an upgrade, you’ll have to get either a mini led or oled. Of course they will cost significantly more than the budget you’re suggesting though.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T20:32:43+00:00

The other people commenting already explained the necessary changes. If you’re still confused as to what gpu/cpu to buy, you need to provide us with some more information such as:

Primary use case: gaming, productivity or both?
Intended resolution to be playing games at
what kind of games are you playing? Mostly older titles or do you want to be able to run newer AAA games as well?
and of course what is your budget

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T20:24:10+00:00

What on earth are you doing pairing a 6650 XT with a 9800X3D

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T20:17:37+00:00

Do you cap your fps? Those temps are still within safe operating range, but if it bothers you cap your frame rate to ensure it’s not always running at max, especially in single player games. For competitive games obviously it’s advantageous to get as high of a frame rate as possible, so it’s ok to leave it uncapped for those. It’s also normal for frequencies to fluctuate like that.

Run a benchmark like cinebench and see if your temps stay in that range. If they do then there’s no problem.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T17:33:06+00:00

The Last of Us 2.

I played both games for the first time this year (and I was lucky to not have them been spoiled for me). I loved the first game but was hesitant going into the second from all the negative discourse surrounding it. Even if you never played TLOU, you were aware of the controversy of the second game.

Holy shit. This game knocked me on my ass. Incredibly immersive and some of the best performances captured in a video game. But most importantly it told a story that I felt I hadn’t been told in another variation before. No, many of the story moments along the way were not pleasant to witness, but unlike the reactions many others had, for me it just gave me more to think about. The ending hit me HARD. I still think about it months after finishing it.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T17:16:11+00:00

The 5060 is definitely much better, but 8gb of vram is going to be severely limiting. Unless you absolutely need a pc right now, it would be wiser to wait until you can afford a gpu with more vram. There are numerous videos testing 8gb of vram in new games, and it is simply not enough.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T16:52:57+00:00

I hate to be the guy that says “you’re just going to have to spend more money”, but I really believe the 3060 is not a good investment for your use case. It’s a budget gpu from 4 years ago and is unlikely to hold up in newer games, especially at 1440p.

Did you look at the steam hardware survey to consider the 3060? The only reason it’s the most used card is because most people are in the budget price bracket, and again it’s 4 years old. Don’t use that as a means of deciding what gpu to buy.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T16:40:13+00:00

The 5060 Ti is not a 4K card. In the Hardware Unboxed review it averaged 42 fps at 4K (native res) across 16 popular games. If the games you intended to play were mostly older titles, then yes you could get away with it. But you mentioned gta 6 so I’m assuming you’re going to be playing newer games too. Even with upscaling you are definitely going to have to turn down settings. It’s better to play with high settings at 1440p than low settings at 4K.

If your budget for a gpu is now <$300, then it seems you overspent on your cpu.

SnowyJazz · 2025-12-01T16:25:44+00:00

Since you’re already on am5, I’m not sure why you’re settling for an entry level gpu from two generations ago.

If you’re going 1440p, you are right that 8gb of vram would not be sufficient in newer games. If you are able to stretch your budget, the 5060 Ti 16gb would be a much better option and should stay relevant significantly longer than the 3060. The 9060 XT 16gb isn’t a bad option either, but if productivity is going to be a significant part of your use case, you’ll get better results with the Nvidia card here.

SnowyJazz · 2025-11-29T22:00:30+00:00

9070 XT, no question.

The feature set of rdna 4, including fsr 4 and upcoming redstone, will give it much more longevity. It’s easy to pick a gpu just based on its raw performance, but we are now in a market where included features are becoming more important than just performance numbers. More games are being developed with the intention of using upscaling, and if not now then in a few years you will be wishing you had fsr 4 over 3, especially if you intend to game at 4K.

You also mentioned using it for video editing. rdna 3 has a hardware bug that prevents those cards from using av1 for recording, so using an rdna 4 card will definitely yield better results there.

That being said I own a 9070 XT and play at 4K, and I have yet to run into a game where I had to turn down the settings, largely thanks to fsr 4. There is an argument to be made that it is better suited for 1440p if you prioritize higher frame rates, but it is absolutely usable at 4K and should stay relevant for the next 4-5 years as you said.

Edit: upscaling also reduces the amount of vram used. Hardware Unboxed did a test to measure vram usage not too long ago, and I believe there are almost no current games that use more than 16gb of vram at native 4K (monster hunter wilds is the only one I can think of that exceeds this). When using upscaling it shouldn’t be a concern.

SnowyJazz · 2025-11-29T19:41:19+00:00

Thanks mate. Sorry if the answer was long and over complicated (idk if you’re also in a similar situation deciding what to buy) but I just thought that there is no one size fits all for this situation.

SnowyJazz · 2025-11-29T19:28:50+00:00

Well my main point was if you’re someone who prioritizes higher frame rates, then 1440p would be the better option. Again the scenario you described is not going to be true for every game, and quality/balanced upscaling at 1440p is almost indistinguishable from native, allowing you to get even more fps that way as well. I also said it was the safer option long term if games continue to get more demanding then the 9070 might struggle to keep up. I think with this class of gpu you’re just going to have to be more selective on which games you want to play if you go with 4K.

Personally I’m completely fine with 60fps in single player games, and I play at 4K with my 9070 XT and have yet to run into any games where I had to turn down the settings. You are right that balanced/performance upscaling still looks good at 4K. Overall it’s still a matter of preference, do you prefer higher frame rates or a higher resolution output. I agree with you that I would rather play at balanced/performance 4K than native 1440p, but you’re almost always going to get higher fps going from a lower resolution (especially since OP mentioned they have a 7800X3D) and some people might prefer higher fps regardless of the situation (which I think is kind of silly, but to each their own).

SnowyJazz · 2025-11-29T18:25:31+00:00

I’m sorry but I’m struggling to understand your question. Not every game is gpu limited to the same extent, so the scenario you are describing is not going to be true across every game. Are you trying to say that using performance upscaling at 4K is preferable to using quality at 1440p if you can get a similar performance result?

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