Intel/NVIDIA vs AMD upgrade advice - CPU and GPU

[Keeca]

Hi everyone,

With it being 'sale' week, I'm looking to build a new toy for gaming - lots of gaming (at 4k).
Budget is up to about £4k, so a fair amount to work with - my current case (Fractal Design Meshify) will be reused, as well as the current CPU cooler (Corsair H115i AIO) if possible - though this can be changed.

My question is this I guess - Is going all out on 14th Gen Intel worth it? And should I pair this with a 4090 for best performance? As far as I understand it, the 7800x3d is a pretty good competitor, as well as the 7900 XTX also being a decent option for half the price - I'm just a little hazy on whether its actually worth going for the former option(s).

Any thoughts or advice would be massively appreciated!

Ta!

 

[Keeca]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

Saving is always nice, especially this time of year but if it's worthwhile to go 'all out' on a 4090 then I can push to that. If the difference is marginal then saving money would be a no brainer I guess.

Ray Tracing would be nice but not essential as long as I'm getting decent performance (hopefully that makes some sort of sense). I honestly don't do much else other than gaming, browsing and watching the occasional stream, though gaming is the main joy.
Expectations wise, 100+ at max is preferable. I probably won't be upgrading again for the next 3-4 years or so, though if the cheaper options will suffice, upgrades can always happen sooner (currently running an 8700k with 2080ti which has served its purpose for the last 4-5 years).

Cooler is a Corsair Hydro Series H115i RGB Platinum 280mm Radiator (if there are no kits out there to make this compatible, it can be replaced).
Can't find anything on Fractal's website (its a pretty old case I guess) but here's some specs from a quick search - https://pcbuilder.net/component-details/case/fractal-design-meshify-s2-fd-ca-mesh-s2-bko-tgd/

 

[Keeca]

Awesome, thanks guys!

It's looking pretty stand out that the AMD CPU is winning the poll thus far (especially with the point about upgrade options for AM5), so will do some more diving in to what to pair that with mobo/ram wise.

If you're set on nvidia , I'd be tempted to wait till jan when they annouce the refesh of the super cards and see what they do. Might also drive down prices of amd as a response too.

That's a good shout, thanks. The upgrade isn't super urgent so that works fine tbh. Fingers crossed it pushes prices down in our favour. I guess going the cheaper AMD option, it's easier to go bigger and better with an upgrade sooner if need be?

Also what games do you play? if it's something like COD, then AMD a no brainer, but others favour nvidia, such as cyberpunk

I probably spend more time than I like to admit gaming (40+ hours easily a week) and tend to play a lot of RPG and FPS, so both of those mentioned are amongst my played (more playthroughs of BG3 and Jedi - Survivor on the current backlog).

RAM wise I'm guessing 32gb will easily suffice also (don't see that I have a need to push past that)?

 

[Keeca]

Thanks again guys! Some good food for thought here.

i'm still struggling to justify 4090 cost when it was £1500

Ye this is kind of my reason for asking for advice really. Though I have some pennies to spend, it's just whether its worth paying a vast amount of cash for it or not - especially if the AMD 'equivalent' is not massively far behind for half the price.

^^ AMD build and Intel build

Thanks for popping these together Tetras, appreciate it. Definitely gives me something to start looking at.

Another question or two (sorry) - how are the temps on both cards? I'm guessing they run hot but does anyone have any experience how hot? And what are noise levels like?

 

[Keeca]

Thanks again for this guys!

7900xtx is seeming like a good shout currently, even if just semi-temporary until next gen RTX arrives - though my indecisive mind will not let me finalise the purchase just yet.
As for the rest of the build, I'm putting a basket together based on Tetras' AMD build, with a few adjustments.

or buy the 7900xtx for £900, wait for the 5090 to come out and then buy the 4090 for £900 from someone whose selling there's to get the new 'latest and greatest', just as they did when they started selling their 3090/3090ti for £650/£750 to get the 4090 on release...
that way you get your longevity, and have a free 7900xtx

^^ this would make the recipient of my current 2080ti very happy I'm sure!