High-end build in the 2025 mad world situation

[cinemaware]

As I posted earlier in the 9070 reveal thread:

"I want to play in 4K these days, so I sold my 4070 and was ready for MSRP 5080. That didn't go too well, what with the unimpressive reviews and the stock fiasco, so I switched to 5070Ti. Better reviews, 0 stock. Ok. Time to play retro games and roguelikes until (or if?) this clown world normalizes a bit.

Now AMD, which tbh I didn't have high hopes for, entered the chat. The price for the XT can not be ignored, and they promise loads of stock on launch, so....hmmm....what's a girl to do?
I guess, wait for the in depth benchmarks. I need to see the new FSR vs new DLSS image quality comparison, and also latency for AMD's FG. The big problem is that from these initial "vs TI" slides it seems the XT lags behind Ti in games I'm most interested in (RT CP2077, Stalker, Warhammer). But, if the FSR is on par with DLSS quality-wise nowadays, and the FG decent enough and could help drag them over the 60fps threshold in 4K, then I'll certainly consider getting one. At least to tide me over until there's more Nvidia stock, or maybe even till the next year Super refresh, which might be more interesting than Blackwell launch."

So, in short, I'm interested in talking about the current situation from the position of somebody who'd like to build a new high(er)-end machine (meaning pretty much min-60-fps-in-4K) and who's open to various options and configs.

Here are some more specific subjects I'm curious about:
-has anybody seen 5070 Ti / 5080 benchmarks in 4K with DLSS that are not the usual suspects (CP2077 and other builds that reviewers got)
-what do you think about 9800X3D unobtainium situation, is there a word on whether this situation will improve in the next quarter or so?
-I haven't had an AMD GPU since 4070, what's the objective (ha) opinion on their reliability in recent years? Especially regarding heat/noise and drivers. I read some posts that the cheaper models should be avoided based on last gen. And the "drivers bad" seems to be a common mantra, though that perhaps is some tribal pushback.

PLEASE NOTE: I’d really appreciate it if we could avoid the doomerism, squabbling, and tribal back-and-forths that usually permeate these kinda threads or new items. Do we live in a mad world? Yes. Am I happy about it? No. But also, life is short, and I have been a frugal builder for years (decades, actually). I don't mind spending a bit more atm and don't care which team the solutions come from. So if you're itching to mention evil ngreedia/fake frames/stupid buyers/etc please just skip this thread, there are so many other places this stuff can be debated ad infinitum.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

@cinemaware Welcome to TechPowerUp.

I've checked your system specs: not filled. I hope you ain't pairing a high end graphics card with 2 to 4 core , cache constrained, ram limited,CPU from early-mid 2010s.
You only after a graphics card?

 

[vigor]

9800X3D processors can be easily purchased from Microcenter only if walk in to the actual store. They don't sell it online because of scalpers

 

[bonehead123]

9800X3D processors can be easily purchased from Microcenter only if walk in to the actual store. They don't sell it online because of scalpers

Yea, except for the fact that MC only has a few stores in very limited areas, so just "walking into the store" is not really feasible for some buyers...and NO, I'm certainly not gonna suggest that anyone drive a long distance to find whatever parts they are after, unless it's something they just absolutely have to have right friggin now....

And unfortunately, the OP hasn't filled out her profile info, so we don't know where she is located, and therefore cannot accurately recommend MC as a parts source

@cinemaware

Yes, the stock availability is forecast to improve over the next few months for most of the newer CPU's & GPU's, but regardless of when or how that happens, they are probably gonna be way more $$ than they already are, as the so-called "MSRP" thingy has been relegated to the fire-laden depths of hades and it's evil master(s)

 

[Besensac]

-I haven't had an AMD GPU since 4070, what's the objective (ha) opinion on their reliability in recent years? Especially regarding heat/noise and drivers. I read some posts that the cheaper models should be avoided based on last gen. And the "drivers bad" seems to be a common mantra, though that perhaps is some tribal pushback.

I've used a 6900XT at 5120x1440 resolution without any major issues about drivers.
Afterwards, I've switched to a reference 7900XTX for the fake 8K monitor at 7680x2160@240hz and performance was still good with FSR.
The only game which had an issue for me was Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
The gpu driver would crash the first time I would start the game but it would just work fine at the next start.

After 1 year, I wanted to mount the gpu upright and the reference cooler for the 7900XTX was not working in this position.
I've got pissed about it and got a 4090.
At 7680x2160 at native rendering 7900XTX and 4090 are both bellow 60 fps in the demanding games.

After 7 months of using 4090, my 1200W PSU began to restart my PC during gaming.
Swapped the PSU, sold the 4090 and got a Sapphire Nitro 7900XTX a couple of days ago just because I wanted to have DP 2.1 again to use my monitor at 240Hz.

Once you start using upscaling, you can use either Nvidia or AMD at 4K anyway.
If the performance of the 9070XT is not that great at 4K even with the new FSR, a Sapphire 7900XTX is also an option.

My issue with FSR was the shimmering on grass and leaves in some games.
Turns out it was the sharpening. Once you disable that in the game, it's fine.

Some people keep saying that AMD has no GPU for 4K meanwhile I use one at dual 4K

 

[_roman_]

"I want to play in 4K these days,

was ready for MSRP 5080. That didn't go too well, what with the unimpressive reviews and the stock fiasco, so I switched to 5070Ti.

I'm not sure when the X3d 16 or 12 core 9000 series ryzen will be available.

If you want to buy today 4k box: Ryzen 9800X3d / Nvidia 4090 or 5090 / 2x32 GiB DRAM / 2TB NVME

I would totally ignore those AMD graphic cards for 4k. Even while knowing low end - mid range amd graphic card test will be soon available to read. These are max whqd cards.

PLEASE NOTE: I’d really appreciate it if we could avoid the doomerism, squabbling, and tribal back-and-forths that usually permeate these kinda threads or new items.

When you make such statements than you may be more specific please.

You may tell us your hardware. If you have cash and how much cash. How long can you wait?

--

4k is not cheap.

--

-I haven't had an AMD GPU since 4070, what's the objective (ha) opinion on their reliability in recent years?

The amd gpu drivers in windows 11 pro 23h2 with MSI radeon 6800 Z trio was problematic in Summer 2023. High energy consumption in idle. Wrong readout of EDID values. Wrong handling of EDID values. Did also happens with openrc + linux kernel + mesa + i3wm.
The amd gpu drivers in windows 11 pro 23h2, now 24h2 are problematic with the Powercolor 7800XT hellhound card. Still random bugs. But recently the first time I had to downgrade my windows 11 pro 24h2 amd gpu drivers.

Game profiles are lost or forgotten several times. Happened with the asrock 6600XT challenger D with windows 10 pro and my other amd gpus since that time. That happens quite regularly.

Personally I would rate the windows amd gpu drivers from 1 the worst to 10 the best, a 4. Here why a 4 - a little bit better as garbage:
too much to fix by hand just for a gaming only windows 10 pro or windows 11 pro installation. Too much to do.
Windows 11 pro needs a dedicated gaming profile for every game, as the standard profile consumes too much power.

Bugs which i send it are not fixed over several years.

Too big of driver size with barely any useful feature. Useless features in the amd gpu driver. Too complicated, too many tabs, searching for an option. Not fully unlocked overclocking.

-what do you think about 9800X3D unobtainium situation,

There are plenty of these processors available in central europe. Lots of these processors, lots of dram, lots of mainboards.