Balanced Gaming Build for the Next 4-5 Years

[lexluthermiester]

Old stones don't reflect like that ever.

I've seen it. Polished floors are a thing.

Its not even just a tad too shiny lol. This is what happens with almost all reflections in RT: its a glass mirror house that makes no sense whatsoever. Cars have the same problem; they're all spotless when RT gets added, perfect mirrors. The same thing applies to the highlights that RT adds that shaders do not. It all reminds me far more of those oversaturated, 100% brightness in-store TV demos: built to impress, not to look realistic. The world doesn't look like a TV commercial, in fact it actually does look rather dull and highlights like that only happen with direct sunlight hitting something actually reflective.

Different strokes, different folks. To each their own.

 

[bluntzera]

Great thread! Lots of helpful information here that is very similar on what was suggested on mine.

Regarding the coil whine that is sooo bad. I didn't know these newer amd gpus had that. I remember back maybe a decade or mo ago when I use to have gtx 260, 285 or the dual chip gtx 295 gpus, wow those had an insanely loud coil whine. We used to apply nail varnish to reduce the noise. Good times.

Regarding the CPU I would also second going for the 9800x3d or the 7800x3d. The 9700x is a beast but according to the reviews it is a little faster on multi tasking and apps in general. For gaming the 7800 or the 9800x3d would be sweet spot.

 

[SirKeldon]

Great thread! Lots of helpful information here that is very similar on what was suggested on mine.

Regarding the coil whine that is sooo bad. I didn't know these newer amd gpus had that. I remember back maybe a decade or mo ago when I use to have gtx 260, 285 or the dual chip gtx 295 gpus, wow those had an insanely loud coil whine. We used to apply nail varnish to reduce the noise. Good times.

Regarding the CPU I would also second going for the 9800x3d or the 7800x3d. The 9700x is a beast but according to the reviews it is a little faster on multi tasking and apps in general. For gaming the 7800 or the 9800x3d would be sweet spot.

Thanks! That really means a lot. From the beginning, I wanted this thread to be helpful for others looking to build something balanced over the next few months. Surprisingly, I’ve seen a lot of tech YouTubers recommending builds very similar to mine as a solid setup for 1440p in the past few weeks. Even though I did most of my homework right, I was a bit off on the GPU side, and the discussion around both GPU and CPU choices has been really helpful to get a better overall perspective.

Yeah, coil whine was an unexpected hurdle, but each card I tested had slightly less than the previous one. Ending up with the RX 9070, as advised here, turned out to be a win across the board. @lexluthermiester has a thread with some great tips on how to deal with coil whine, kind of like what you mentioned with nail varnish, or sort off, maybe I'm wrong here so correct me if needed.

As for the CPU, I did quite a bit of research looking for the best price-to-performance ratio, and the 9700X really stood out. While gaming is my main focus, I may also use the system occasionally for work, especially when I need to run software/projects that are only-Windows, so having those two extra cores doesn’t hurt. I did consider the X3D models, but their pricing still felt a bit too high for my needs. Since AM5 offers a solid upgrade path, I'll keep an eye on how things evolve and what AMD brings in the future, hopefully with some price drops along the way.

Update to @Vayra86: in the end, I went a little wild during the spring sales and ended up getting the ProArt PA348CGV. IPS panel, excellent color coverage, 120Hz with FreeSync Premium Pro and HDR400, and most importantly, the exact connectivity I needed for my dual setup with the MBP. Of course, blacks won’t match VA or OLED panels, but wow, the high refresh rate really makes a difference! I also noticed deeper blacks and better contrast than on my previous LG, so that’s another win!