Entry level 4K gaming RIG for cRPG and h'n's games - Ryzen 5 5600 + RX 7600?

[Wolfbyte]

Hello there

My full HD RIG is quite old now. Monitor is not as bright as it used to be, slowly dying. Time to buy something new. I'm from Poland, will be buying there. Want to build something simple and cheap. The thing is I don't care about action aaa-games. CP'77 RT ON will be not played. Mainly cRPG, hack'n'slash and turn-based games. Maybe some indie games too. That's why I believe something like Ryzen 5 5600 and RX 7600 should do even if I want to play on 4K screen.

Here's list of games I want to play in the near future:

Spoiler

Guild Wars 2

Steam:
Age of Wonders III
Endless Legend
Endless Space 2
Grim Dawn
Pillars of Eternity
Tyranny

On wishlist (but I buy games at least 2-3 years after release, when they are in GOTY/complete version and there is good sale so don't take them into account for now, especially Witchfire as it has low priority):
Endless Legend 2
Manor Lords
Songs of Conquest
Titan Quest II
Witchfire

GOG:
Anno 1503
Anno 1701
Disciples II
HoM&M III
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Stronghold HD
Stronghold: Crusader HD

Here is what I found so far:

1. Dell G3223Q or Samsung Odyssey G7 (LS32DG702 / LS32BG700) - they have almost the same price. I want 4K 31,5"-32" screen. I don't need high refresh rate, but those three options are just slightly more expensive/have the same price as @60Hz Samsung ViewFinity S8, iiyama ProLite XUB3293UHSN-B5 or LG 32UN880P.
I've had occasion to play Titan Quest and STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl on such 4K screen and was hooked. I like how ornaments and other details were vissible to me in TQ. And how 31,5" screen fills my field of view.

2. CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
Cooler: Thermalright Burst Assassin 120 - Cryorig R1 Ultimate is great and all but I don't have AM4/5 mounting kit and this time I want something smaller so I don't need to crack my wrist to plug 4+4 pin cable.
GPU: RX 7600 - Sapphire Pulse is the cheapest right now - I guess, in my case even RX 6600 could be good enough but difference in price is too small (about 20-30$, VAT inc.). RTX 4060 will do too, but why pay ~50$ more for the same performance? Also... I never had AMD + AMD combo before
RAM: 2x16GB 3200 MHz CL16 - G.Skill RipjawsV most likely - would love to buy CL14, but it's almost twice the price.
MoBo: ASRock B550M PG Riptide or any other mATX mobo (MSI B550M Pro?) - full ATX is a no go as my new case is Chieftec Vision Air (was on sale, already bought it).
PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 500W Gold - my Straight Power is almost 10 years already.
Case: Chieftec Vision Air + 4x Arctic P14 PWM PST
SSD: no, at least I don't think I need new one - MX200 and MX300 still are in a good condition

Do you see any wrong choices there or have other advices?
Biggest question I have is could it be really better to go for AM5? It doesn't look like I need 7800X3D/9800X3D upgrade path. Decent B650M + R5 7500F/7600 + 32GB DDR5 6000/CL30 combined will cost about 100-200$ more, where - I think - in my case 5600 will do the same as 7500F/7600.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Looks good, down to earth. Will play those older games nicely, even at 4K. Go for it

 

[Macro Device]

in my case 5600 will do the same as 7500F/7600.

Sure but if you run into doing some work (maybe Photoshop, feels like something a person like you would do on their time) these AM5 solutions will be much more pleasant. Look into 8400F, too, it might be cheaper than 7500F. But if it's still 100 dollars more then not sure if worth it.

6600 XT is a better fit for older titles. If you aren't afraid of second hand market you might look into 3060 Ti / 2080 Super.

MoBo: ASRock

Three times yes. Best price/quality for AM4.

 

[Sithaer]

Should be fine for those games I think, I do play Grim Dawn and the biggest bottleneck in that game is the single thread CPU performance since its using an old engine so it doesn't have much of multi threading.
When doing end game content with lots of stuff going on in the game it can still drop under 60 FPS on my current 12600KF so if you see frame drops in that game then its kind of 'normal', the devs are aware of this and they implemented the deferred rendering option in the game which does help a fair bit in such situations so I would suggest using that in case you experience drops.

Titan Quest 2 will be on Unreal Engine 5 so that might be a bit tricky to run on a 4K monitor tho I guess if you tweak your settings/use FSR then it should be alright.

Disciples II huh, damn its been a while since I've heard anyone playing that.
Loved that game when I was a school kid along with Heroes 3. Probably my 2 fav turn based games ever. 'Can't wait for Olden Era, hopefully it will be a decent one'

 

[Onasi]

Whe doing end game content with lots of stuff going on in the game it can still drop under 60 FPS on my current 12600KF so if you see frame drops in that game then its kind of 'normal', the devs are aware of this and they implemented the deferred rendering option in the game which does help a fair bit in such situations so I would suggest using that in case you experience drops.

The problem with the deferred option (that was originally introduced for the console port) is that it disallows proper AA and makes the game look very blurry in certain situations with the post-processing AA it has. So it’s very much a “pick your poison” thing, same as with DX11 renderer in TQ:AE. That engine just isn’t very suited to running without MSAA.

 

[StarryByte]

Did you bought the ryzen 5 5600 already or planning to buy? For what price? The cheapest 5600 i found is 367,90PLN while 5600x is 413,90PLN, extra 46PLN (~10$) for 200MHz. https://allegro.pl/oferta/procesor-amd-ryzen-5-5600x-tray-64bit-17264691831

https://allegro.pl/oferta/procesor-amd-ryzen-5-5600-3-5-ghz-4-4-ghz-32-mb-oem-100-000000927-gamingowy-17301640137

Polska kurom

 

[Sithaer]

The problem with the deferred option (that was originally introduced for the console port) is that it disallows proper AA and makes the game look very blurry in certain situations with the post-processing AA it has. So it’s very much a “pick your poison” thing, same as with DX11 renderer in TQ:AE. That engine just isn’t very suited to running without MSAA.

Yup its a trade off and I've also noticed the lack of proper AA with deferred but really what can you do with an old engine like that..
When the entire screen is filled with mobs and you are blasting everything then you can't really see anything anyway so I pick the more blurry option since in a case like that I rather have the extra performance so that I don't get wreck'd by a massive drop.

 

[Onasi]

When the entire screen is filled with mobs and you are blasting everything then you can't really see anything anyway so I pick the more blurry option since in a case like that I rather have the extra performance so that I don't get wreck'd by a massive drop.

I wouldn’t know, I am a filthy pet build enjoyer and sometimes I don’t even look at the screen when playing or am just sorting through the inventory, things just die by themselves without much input from me, lol.

 

[Lost_Troll]

The combo you have listed will do what you want but I would do it with a 5700X (544.99zl) from AliExpress since it is a tad bit more than the 5600 (373.57zl), but I would recommend going with the AM5 platform with the 7500F (670.13zl) from AliExpress, as it would give you a better upgrade path.

I have bought many CPU's from the store I linked from AliExpress without issue.

 

[Wolfbyte]

Looks good, down to earth. Will play those older games nicely, even at 4K. Go for it

Thank you for the green light, Dr. Furina

Sure but if you run into doing some work (maybe Photoshop, feels like something a person like you would do on their time) these AM5 solutions will be much more pleasant. Look into 8400F, too, it might be cheaper than 7500F. But if it's still 100 dollars more then not sure if worth it.

6600 XT is a better fit for older titles. If you aren't afraid of second hand market you might look into 3060 Ti / 2080 Super.

I don't do Photoshop. Not even Gimp. Pure gaming. And browsing. No streaming.

Are you talking about DX9 support or something else? Isn't DXVK a good solution to such problems?

I'm not fan of second hand market. I live too far away from any bigger city, so more often it's hard to me to check if what I'm going to buy is really what I see on photos (is that card full of dust? Was running in a cheapest possible/small closed case, 100 C on hot spot all the time? And other things photos won't tell me). New RX 7600 will cost me ~1150 PLN. RTX 3060 Ti and 2080 Super starts from around 1000 PLN way up to 1500+ PLN and there is no chance they will be on warranty (3060 Ti maybe, but not those cheapest offers). According to TPUs GPU database 2080 Super is about 6% and 3060 Ti 9% faster on average. So if they are not significantly cheaper, in my book they are not worth it. I don't want to wait for a good offer don't know for how long. I want to buy new RIG like tomorrow

Was thinking about 8400F but with 16 MB cache and Phoenix cores isn't it slower than 5600? Anybody can tell how it really is?
BTW - I counted all now and 8400F is the scenario where I need to add ~100$ to buy it:
- 8400F is 80 PLN more expensive than 5600
- ASRock B650M PG Riptide means another +100-120 PLN (it's cheapest good looking mATX AM5 motherboard)
- 32GB DDR5 6000/CL30 is +180 PLN for Patriot Viper Venom (have no idea if it's good for AMD, simply it's cheapest 2x16GB kit right now).
In summary it's 360-380 PLN at least, so yeah, sounds like ~100$. That means I was wrong, I thought it's Ryzen 5 7500F that will cost me extra 100$. But nah, it's another ~200 PLN/~50$.

Should be fine for those games I think, I do play Grim Dawn and the biggest bottleneck in that game is the single thread CPU performance since its using an old engine so it doesn't have much of multi threading.
Whe doing end game content with lots of stuff going on in the game it can still drop under 60 FPS on my current 12600KF so if you see frame drops in that game then its kind of 'normal', the devs are aware of this and they implemented the deferred rendering option in the game which does help a fair bit in such situations so I would suggest using that in case you experience drops.

As far as I know Grim Dawn is almost like reskin of Titan Quest and that's why I want to play it Sameish resistances to care about and need to beat it three times to reach end game. In my case it's going to be a very long process as I want to try quite many classes there and I don't spend that many hours at gaming. Huh, you can say my hope is that by the time I'm going to reach end game there should be some good 5700X3D/5800X3D offers on second hand market
But. I wonder if it's not the same as with Cities XL/XXL, or Crysis (one) for example - where no matter how fast your CPU is, there always will be that #@$& single thread bottleneck.

Anyway thank you for your answer. Was hoping to read about such issues I'm not aware of.

About TQ2 - in 2028/29 (2-3 years after release) I guess I will look for new shiny toys, Zen 6 and UDNA/RTX 6666 or something

Don't set hopes high. Never played Disciples II before. I want to give it a try because I recalled the name, it's turn based and I found some HD mods for it

Did you bought the ryzen 5 5600 already or planning to buy? For what price? The cheapest 5600 i found is 367,90PLN while 5600x is 413,90PLN, extra 46PLN (~10$) for 200MHz. https://allegro.pl/oferta/procesor-amd-ryzen-5-5600x-tray-64bit-17264691831

https://allegro.pl/oferta/procesor-amd-ryzen-5-5600-3-5-ghz-4-4-ghz-32-mb-oem-100-000000927-gamingowy-17301640137

Polska kurom

You kiddin? 10 PLN more and I can buy it from known retail store, with 3 years of warranty instead of 2 (and from someone who is selling things from his house - checked address). Like why? Mind-blowing
However 5600X maybe is a nice advice. I see same price is in that known retail shop I have in mind. Good.

The combo you have listed will do what you want but I would do it with a 5700X (544.99zl) from AliExpress since it is a tad bit more than the 5600 (373.57zl), but I would recommend going with the AM5 platform with the 7500F (670.13zl) from AliExpress, as it would give you a better upgrade path.

I have bought many CPU's from the store I linked from AliExpress without issue.

This time it's 5 (five) PLN difference (for 5700X). Anyway, what will I gain thanks to 5700X to spend 40$ extra on it? Any 8-cores hungry game on my list? If I want 200MHz more 5600X is way cheaper.

But. Isn't 5600X hotter than 5600 in the same manner as 5800X is hotter than 5700X?

 

[Sithaer]

As far as I know Grim Dawn is almost like reskin of Titan Quest and that's why I want to play it Sameish resistances to care about and need to beat it three times to reach end game. In my case it's going to be a very long process as I want to try quite many classes there and I don't spend that many hours at gaming. Huh, you can say my hope is that by the time I'm going to reach end game there should be some good 5700X3D/5800X3D offers on second hand market
But. I wonder if it's not the same as with Cities XL/XXL, or Crysis (one) for example - where no matter how fast your CPU is, there always will be that #@$& single thread bottleneck.

Oh yeah Grim Dawn does share the main mechanics from TQ and then some more added to it so its a really nice mix imo.
As much of a Diablo fan I am Grim Dawn/TQ is my second best go to ARPG if I feel like playing one.
I'm also looking forward to TQ 2, loved the first game back in its days.

 

[Macro Device]

Are you talking about DX9 support or something else? Isn't DXVK a good solution to such problems?

Aye, DX9—11. DXVK isn't always a helper, some games glitch hard upon using it.

Was thinking about 8400F but with 16 MB cache and Phoenix cores isn't it slower than 5600?

No way. It's faster than 5600. Not significantly though. It also loses to 5600X.

What about i5-12400F? It's as mobo agnostic as it gets, you can get the worst crap H610 and it'll still be fine. DDR4-3200 at C16 will also suffice. And it's easier to cool than any aforementioned AMD CPU.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Problem with Phoenix is the reduced amount of PCIe lanes available. Please make sure that it's enough for your use case if you choose to buy one. Otherwise, stick to the regular 7000/9000 CPUs.

 

[wNotyarD]

But. Isn't 5600X hotter than 5600 [...]?

Yes it is, but it's rather negligible. The TDP on both is 65W and both come with the Wraith Stealth cooler. The Stealth isn't much but will handle them R5s, and if you game with a headset on you may not even notice it.

EDIT: I noticed you listed a TR BA120. Yep, no Ryzen 5 should stress it much.

 

[tpa-pr]

Not sure if you've considered it already, but would you compromise with a 1440p monitor? You get that higher-than-HD resolution, not quite 4k of course, but for less overall cost and resource usage. I find it to be a good balance between 1080p and 4k

 

[dgianstefani]

Not sure if you've considered it already, but would you compromise with a 1440p monitor? You get that higher-than-HD resolution, not quite 4k of course, but for less overall cost and resource usage. I find it to be a good balance between 1080p and 4k

3440x1440 is better since you can actually see more, 4K is identical aspect ratio to 1080p, so it may be higher quality, but there's the same amount of content on the screen.

 

[Macro Device]

not quite 4k of course

This is why plain 1440p makes negative sense. Every game on OP's list is gonna fly at 4K even on 200-dollar GPUs. For anything that's not gaming, 4K is bonkers better than 1440p.
UW1440p might've made sense if it wasn't for the games they play. Like, you CAN play them ultra wide but it's iffy and oofy. UW's niche is FPS/3PS gamers and cinemaholics for the most part.

Monitors are way too cheap to bother compromising. 1440p is yesterday. Gaming performance can come tomorrow.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I agree, a nice 4K panel, especially if OLED, is some of the very best money you will ever spend on your gaming PC

 

[Wolfbyte]

Aye, DX9—11. DXVK isn't always a helper, some games glitch hard upon using it.

What about i5-12400F? It's as mobo agnostic as it gets, you can get the worst crap H610 and it'll still be fine. DDR4-3200 at C16 will also suffice. And it's easier to cool than any aforementioned AMD CPU.

Way up to 11? If that's how it is I will consider 6600 XT.

i5-12400F is an option, yes. ~100 PLN more expensive. H610 will do, yes, but same way I can choose ASRock B450M-HDV for 5600 and be fine. It's even cheaper than the cheapest possible H610. But isn't 12400F a dead end? That's how I see it and why I don't think about this CPU too much. I guess I'm going to choose 5600 or 8400F just in case for the upgrade path. Even if right now I don't see the sense in it.

This is why plain 1440p makes negative sense. Every game on OP's list is gonna fly at 4K even on 200-dollar GPUs. For anything that's not gaming, 4K is bonkers better than 1440p.
UW1440p might've made sense if it wasn't for the games they play. Like, you CAN play them ultra wide but it's iffy and oofy. UW's niche is FPS/3PS gamers and cinemaholics for the most part.

Monitors are way too cheap to bother compromising. 1440p is yesterday. Gaming performance can come tomorrow.

This is how I see it too. In turn based games all I want is higher quality. Don't want to move eyes far left and right too much. Another thing is AOC Agon AG405UXC is just 100 PLN cheaper than Dell G3223Q (most likely I'm going to buy this one). Other options (like LG UltraGear 34N850P) are more, and more expensive.

Yes it is, but it's rather negligible. The TDP on both is 65W and both come with the Wraith Stealth cooler. The Stealth isn't much but will handle them R5s, and if you game with a headset on you may not even notice it.

EDIT: I noticed you listed a TR BA120. Yep, no Ryzen 5 should stress it much.

Thank you, so no worries on this side. Will go for 5600X then (if not for 8400F).

I'm also looking forward to TQ 2, loved the first game back in its days.

Would play TQ:AE even now, but. One think I don't like is there's too much drop from DLC I can't pick up or it's range weapon I don't want to use. Second, I hate how often items are bouncing on the ground, sometimes for more than whole minute until they stop, name is vissible and finally I can pick them up. By that time my buffs are long gone.

 

[steamrick]

PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 500W Gold - my Straight Power is almost 10 years already.

I'd get the Pure Power 12 or PP 12M series instead. The PP11 is still an ATX 2.4 design, the PP12(M) is ATX 3.x - which significantly increases what kind of GPUs it can handle if you decide you want to upgrade in a few years.
Also the PP12(M) gets 10 years of warranty whereas the PP11 only gets 5 and (at least where I live) pricing is very similar.

 

[Wolfbyte]

I'd get the Pure Power 12 or PP 12M series instead. The PP11 is still an ATX 2.4 design, the PP12(M) is ATX 3.x - which significantly increases what kind of GPUs it can handle if you decide you want to upgrade in a few years.
Also the PP12(M) gets 10 years of warranty whereas the PP11 only gets 5 and (at least where I live) pricing is very similar.

What kind of GPUs do you have in mind? I mean, I don't have any plans to jump into 7900 XT/9070/RTX 5070 TDP area (nor price range). Gonna stick to ~150 W cards as long as possible.
But of course if it's the same price I will choose newer PSU, so thanks for advice.

 

[Scattergrunt]

I agree, a nice 4K panel, especially if OLED, is some of the very best money you will ever spend on your gaming PC

Very true!

As for OP, as someone rocking a slightly better setup, I can say that 4K gaming on older games, especially the ones you listed, is probable for sure. Should be okay.

I would probably squeeze into the second hand market for a GPU personally, as thats what I did for my 1060 3GB to 2080S upgrade, and it worked out fine. I get not wanting to deal with the annoyance of checking for good prices, trying to inspect the card from the photo, dealing with potential fraudsters / scalping.. etc though.

 

[Macro Device]

Way up to 11?

DX11 suffers very little. It's mainly 9 and 10.

But isn't 12400F a dead end?

AM4 is as finito as 12400F if not more finito. I rock this CPU and play AAA no problem, I also develop AAAish things too. Sure, not the best CPU ever but one of the most damn cost efficient ones. My main issue is 6700 XT, it's crapping its own pants in some scenarios. But you'll even be okay with its little sister, 6600 XT.

 

[Wolfbyte]

AM4 is as finito as 12400F if not more finito. I rock this CPU and play AAA no problem, I also develop AAAish things too. Sure, not the best CPU ever but one of the most damn cost efficient ones. My main issue is 6700 XT, it's crapping its own pants in some scenarios. But you'll even be okay with its little sister, 6600 XT.

If you're talking about new incoming CPUs I agree with you. My reasoning was that if I run out of power, on AM4 I have 5700X3D as a backup without need to change anything else - cheap mobo, cooler and PSU will do. Not sure if I can say the same about i7-12700F/KF. There i5-12400F is like my only option. That's why I called it "dead end".

But it doesn't matter now. It is done. AM5 will arrive next Monday and no 8400F but 9600X, yolo. I feel exciting. Can't wait for unboxing it all^^ Now I have few days to look for 6600 XT.

@steamrick Thank you once again for PSU advice. Pure Power 12 550W was even cheaper than PP11. Bought PP12 M anyway

 

[wNotyarD]

If you're talking about new incoming CPUs I agree with you. My reasoning was that if I run out of power, on AM4 I have 5700X3D as a backup without need to change anything else - cheap mobo, cooler and PSU will do. Not sure if I can say the same about i7-12700F/KF. There i5-12400F is like my only option. That's why I called it "dead end".

But it doesn't matter now. It is done. AM5 will arrive next Monday and no 8400F but 9600X, yolo. I feel exciting. Can't wait for unboxing it all^^ Now I have few days to look for 6600 XT.

@steamrick Thank you once again for PSU advice. Pure Power 12 550W was even cheaper than PP11. Bought PP12 M anyway

9600X? Out of the blue?

Power to the people, I say!