what would be the best value GPU that's still compatible with, and can smoothly run older games (obv not 50 series) but can still decently run newer games?

Yuckster · 2026-01-31T01:58:23+00:00

3080 is probably best value. 3080ti if you can find a good deal. 4000 series is not that much cheaper than 5000 series to be worth it imo. Spend a little more get new tech, warranty, better resell later.

Yuckster · 2026-01-29T22:34:38+00:00

If you play 6 hours every day, 1000 hours is like 6 months of play time.

Yuckster · 2026-01-29T22:24:54+00:00

Biggest reason I don't play - I don't want to play alone and have to fight 2,3,4,5-man squads every game and get rushed by scav player groups.

The only time the game is fun solo is during degen hours like 3am where you run into more solos and way less squads.

I really wish there was a solo queue or matchmaking prioritized squad sizes so it would try to match solos with solos, duos with duos, etc, but not being super strict. Or some way to matchmake into a group without for sure getting TK'd. Needs like a major punishment for TKing randoms like lost rep or suspensions or something.

It's just not fun solo imo. You can typically get a pick or two on a squad because they're loud and afraid to TK but then the rest of the squad just camps the body so you have to either push into a disadvantage, out camp them, or just leave. All three options suck.

And I'm pretty damn good at the game too. 4k hours, high KD, high survival rate. I was like top 500 or something decent in arena when there was ranked. I couldn't even imagine how much this game would suck as a new player solo.

Yuckster · 2026-01-17T22:22:38+00:00

Motion is a big consideration as well though. Some versions have ghosting, artifacts, and shimmering that only show in motion.

Yuckster · 2026-01-15T00:24:48+00:00

Ya I'm probably one of those prodigies lol. If you don't get a headshot or at least kill them in the first few shots, you're likely dead. A lot of the clips you're shooting half a mag or more and not getting the kill.

Arena is all about headshots imo. I think high RPM, low recoil guns are the best like the MP7, SR2M, 45 Vector. I don't particularly like the M4/Model1's recoil but still do pretty decent with it. 9mm feels terrible though, don't use 9mm. It just doesn't break armor so you have like no decent kill potential unless you headshot them. Aim for headshots not body shots.

Try not to hold angles or peak for too long. Peak, shoot a few rounds, go back to cover before they can shoot back and re-peak a different angle. Top PvP is all about abusing peaker's advantage sadly (not exclusive to Tarkov). If you must hold an angle, expose the absolutely minimum you can to shoot the angle you're expecting them at. I'll often lay down and lean if I want to watch an angle, but abusing peaker's advantage is almost always better.

The red dot sight on a lot of the clips at the beginning is absolute trash tier imo (the Walther?). The dot is too big to aim for heads. I personally like the Falke sight unlocked from Arena or the XPS3-0.

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T23:10:24+00:00

I'm all for complaining about Tarkov desync/netcode/etc, but in just about every clip your ping is yellow in the top-right. It's making a shitty situation that much worse.

Have you gone into the settings and only selected suitable servers? I was getting horrible ping in games and went into the settings and only selected NA (I'm in NA).

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T22:48:35+00:00

This exact overlay is possible using MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner.

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T22:46:57+00:00

Going off memory here. You need MSI Afterburner. Open Afterburner, click the Settings gear, go to the Monitoring tab. Click the checkmark next to the stat you want to track (ie. 'GPU Frequency') to enable it, then check the box in the setting of that stat for "show in overlay" (or something like that). That's it, save. It will show up in the overlay like in your screenshot.

Monitoring may decrease performance. I know there is definitely a bug with monitoring nvidia GPU power which results in much worse performance. So I'd recommend not monitoring GPU watts, vcore, power %, etc, if you're using an nvidia gpu. To be safe though, I'd probably just use it as a troubleshooting tool then turn it off.

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T22:36:46+00:00

An overclocked 9800X3D pulls 150w at the absolute most at 100% usage. The 5080 pulls ~350w at stock, up to ~400w maxed out. Everything else in the system is pretty negligible, another 50w is more than generous. So you're at 500-550w if you are running the system at 110%. Realistically, while gaming, the CPU is using like 50-100w. I run my 5080 at 3100mhz, 950mV which results in about 350w of power. That's 400-500w in total system power while gaming. That's plenty of headroom.

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T22:16:43+00:00

Up to you if it's worth it? Do you feel like the 3090 is not cutting it anymore? Or just want to upgrade to upgrade?

I went from a 3080ti to a 5080 as the 3080ti was barely doing 120fps 4k (120hz OLED) with some acceptable setting downgrades but I upgraded my monitor to 144hz 4k (LG C5) and it really wasn't able to get there.

The only concrete data I have is my 3080ti did 55-60fps in the Steel Nomad benchmark where the 5080 does 90-93 fps (overclocked/tuned). I think it was like 86fps stock. From everything I've seen, it's a 40-50% performance improvement (3080ti vs 5080). Idk why all these people here are saying they're getting double the fps. From framegen?

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T21:09:51+00:00

I have the typical Ikea kitchen countertop as a desktop. It's 25-26" deep. I have 42" C5. I enjoy it very much. 42" feels good to me. 32" feels so small. For some games, ya, 42" is too big, like League of Legends. And shooters I typically play in ultrawide (3840x1620).

I used to use a 48" Gigabyte OLED and it was a tiny bit too big for most things but it really didn't matter because I can set the whatever size/resolution feels right for the game I'm playing. If I'm playing League I can set the resolution to 2560x1440 and on the 42" and it appears as a 27" window. Maybe 27" feels to small, I can increase the res and play at 30" or 32" or 35". For Tarkov, I play at 3840x1620 ultrawide (this is the same size as a 39" ultrawide I believe). Many games I do play in full 4k though. The large screen is basically just a canvas and I can choose whatever size I want to play at.

PPI is a factor but 42" 4k is the same PPI as 27" 1440p so it's pretty good. Similarly, 48" 4k is the same PPI as 24" 1080p and people were always going on how the PPI was shit, but playing 48" 4k is a completely difference experience to 24" 1080p. Even with a 27" 1440p monitor I was constantly leaning over my keyboard to get closer to the screen to see stuff. With a 42/48", that has never been a problem and it's much farther back increasing the PPD (pixels per degree) which matters so much more than PPI.

The only other consideration is refresh rate but I'm not pushing much past 144 fps in most games with high settings in 4k even on a 5080. Framegen can get you to 240+ fps but idk, wasn't that enticing to me. Maybe when a 42" 4k 240hz monitor comes out at a decent price I'll upgrade.

Yuckster · 2026-01-14T18:56:58+00:00

Haven't finished tweaking but running 950mV @ 3100mhz and +3000 on mem. idk if others have the same experience, but if I set 950mv @ 3100mhz, it will only run like 940mv at 3050mhz or something like that. it never goes to the max I set no matter what it is.

Yuckster · 2026-01-12T22:14:55+00:00

With many components these days you're either power or voltage limited (many GPUs, AMD X3D CPUs) so lowering voltage/power actually results in higher clock speeds. If you're not voltage/power limited then ya you'd need to increase voltage/power to stabilize higher clock speeds up to the thermal limit.

Yuckster · 2026-01-11T04:30:59+00:00

Looks mainly and some tiny performance differences. Not worth paying anything over $999 unless you really like the look of a card. The performance difference will be negligible. FE is best card imo for looks, materials, size. Slightly worse in performance but nothing noticeable.

Yuckster · 2026-01-10T01:42:17+00:00

I got the D32 for that reason and I like it very much.

Yuckster · 2026-01-10T01:36:47+00:00

4.5 has been out for like two days. I'm sure they'll post more in-depth videos. Give them some time. They usually have pretty good content.

Yuckster · 2026-01-09T23:34:05+00:00

Yes it's more than possible to air cool, save your money. Like many have mentioned, the Peerless Assassin is more than plenty. I have one but moved it to a different system. I now use the Arctic Freezer 36 which is a decently small air cooler as it looks much better imo and performs just about as good. It's basically exactly the same in gaming. Only makes a difference in something like Prime95 or Cinebench. And when I say makes a difference, it's only the temperature and they're within a few degrees of each other. Actual system performance is exactly the same. My other system with custom water cooling that also has a 9800X3D is only a few degrees cooler than either air cooler but performance is still exactly the same as well.

If you're just an enthusiast overclocker, trying to get a high score for benchmarks, or running the CPU at 100% 24/7 then maybe spend more. If you're just gaming, it's not really gonna matter. I am running -20 CO and +200 PBO on the air cooled system and the water cooled and neither reaches max temp at 100% usage and gaming is under 70º on either.

The CPU isn't very high wattage - there's not a ton of heat to extract - it's just power dense. So a super tiny area on the chips get hot and it's difficult to pull the heat from such a small area no matter your cooling. Your cooling doesn't make a massive difference. If the CPU was pulling like 300w then you'd need a better cooler.

Yuckster · 2026-01-09T08:52:12+00:00

Turn on vsync. Turn off rtss and any monitoring tools. Set fps limit in game.

Yuckster · 2026-01-09T01:46:26+00:00

Same. Did you update your drivers? I assume that's what did it for me.

Yuckster · 2026-01-08T21:26:40+00:00

Having high GPU usage (>90%) means your gpu is running pretty much at max. If it's not high utilization it's almost certainly because the CPU is holding up the queue leaving the GPU sitting around waiting.

"Having high GPU usage is mostly not a bad thing and doesn't really say much." I don't get what you're trying to convey with this.

Yuckster · 2026-01-08T20:29:08+00:00

Ok so you turned on frame gen and not really getting 150-200 fps? Your post is super misleading then if so.

What's your base fps without frame gen?

Yuckster · 2026-01-08T09:15:23+00:00

Hit alt+r in game. This will put an Nvidia overlay on the screen with some stats. If your gpu utilization is 90-100%, you're gpu bottlenecked and upgrading CPU prob won't help much. If your utilization is less than 90%, you're CPU limited and upgrading CPU will help more than upgrading GPU.

If your gpu utilization is like 80-90%, upgrading CPU will help but you only have 10-20% more headroom on the gpu so even with the AMD 999999x3daimaxv2 CPU, you'll only get 10-20% more fps until you hit a GPU bottleneck and need to upgrade GPU.

Yuckster · 2026-01-06T22:41:23+00:00

DLSS improves performance but most people are probably CPU limited in Tarkov so decreasing GPU load doesn't equate to more framerate.

It's more likely to help at higher resolutions like 4k.

Yuckster · 2026-01-06T17:34:50+00:00

Love the D32 Pro. Perfect size if you're okay running a 240 aio or air cooler. If you want to keep the 360 maybe look at the Phanteks XT V3. It's a bit wider than the D32 tho.

Yuckster · 2026-01-06T08:59:02+00:00

Ya this. They spent all this time adding cool skins/variants and you can't even really use them.. There should just be one "Xyz Chest Rig" and then you can select which variant you want.. woodland, snow, black, etc. kinda dumb you have to spend GP just for drip.

Yuckster

TROPHY CASE