Looking Advice for Xbox Alternative PC

SageJinc

SageJinc

SageJinc

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Hi.

Ive tried to research what kind of spec I'd need, but I'm having a bit of a headache trying to decide and would appreciate some advice please.
I want to play Starfield and was considering building a PC instead buying an Xbox, but id still want to use my TV (Sony AG8 OLED 65" 2019, 4K 60Hz HDMI 2.0 (Although some reviews of the TV say its 120Hz?))

At the moment my uneducated thinking is to buy a NVIDA 4070 or AMD 7800XT as from what I've read they are 4K capable but not high FPS which would suit my TV and would still give me the option of 1080/1440p upscaling?

With regards to the CPU I'm lost, as I was thinking about a i5-13400 or Ryzen 5 7600 but don't know if that's enough or too much? Should I get Intel 13th gen to keep costs down as I can use DDR4 instead of DDR5?

My budget is around £1300 but I was trying to stay closer to £1000. The only thing that I'm sure of is that I want a black Fractal North atx case to fit in with my living room.

I play most new releases on my PS5 but would use the PC for web browsing from the couch, Xbox/Microsoft exclusives and older games on Steam.

Am I on the right lines? I thought it would be worth asking, before dropping 4 figures on the wrong thing!

Thanks in advance for any help
 
SageJinc said:
With regards to the CPU I'm lost, as I was thinking about a i5-13400 or Ryzen 5 7600 but don't know if that's enough or too much? Should I get Intel 13th gen to keep costs down as I can use DDR4 instead of DDR5?
Click to expand...

13400 or 7600 is fine for a 7800 XT, though there are some cheaper boards with DDR5 you can buy now (both 1700 and AM5), so it needn't add much to the cost.

I believe you'll already need to use upscaling for 4K in Starfield, there are some many CPU/GPU benchmarks on GN and HUB you might want to check out.

For example:

www.youtube.com

Starfield CPU Benchmarks & Bottlenecks: Intel vs. AMD Comparison

Sponsor: Get 10% off Squarespace purchases (https://geni.us/BqEpf)This benchmark looks at #Starfield for isolated CPU performance to compare the best CPUs fo...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

Starfield: 44 CPU Benchmark, Intel vs. AMD, Ultra, High, Medium & Memory Scaling

Thermal Grizzly: https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/produkte/522-cpu-contact-frame-for-12th-gen-intel-by-der8auerSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
If you want a £500 GPU and a £135 case leaving £365 of £1000 for CPU/MB/RAM/Storage/PSU/OS you are obviously a religious man who believes in miracles.

Even at £1300, you are limiting yourself to AM4 (EOL) and LGA 1700 also EOL for all practical purposes.

Truthfully, AM5 will offer you the best value and upgrade path going forward, but the cheapest you could get away with £320 for CPU (7500F) and an Asus Prime Matx MB for £140. You however want an ATX board.

You really should be looking more towards £400.

PSU £115/RAM £80 min/SSD £80/OS £30

That would be excluding a cooler (not obligatory but highly recommended) and a couple of case fans, keyboard and mouse.

You will either have to 1) accept too many compromises or 2) push the budget a bit.

It could potentially come in around £1100-£1300 but some of the parts will either be EOL or lower quality.

Are you happy with either of those choices?
 
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if you go 4070 route, the asus dual oc for sale £529.99 reduced from £599.99 (you can thank AMD 7800xt for that)elsewhere for next day delivery. As price been slashed by £70, now a bit of a toss up whether you want slightly better raster performance and extra 4gb vram with the 7800XT, or better ray tracing and dlss with the 4070. Av fps from techpowerup was 70.2 for 7800xt vs 66.5 for the 4070 at 4k. as so close and with the price drop on the above card, I might lean towards that for dlss support, esp as you might need upscaling if wanting to play 4k. FSR is agnostic, so you'll still be able to do that with the nvidia card anyway if dlss isn't available. hardware unboxed had some 4k games dropping fps with nvidia as the 12gb vram came into play with heavy textures etc, but you said you'd be leaning towards slightly older games on pc anyway. Either way both should suffice.
My personal preference would be slight leaning towards amd platform as AM5 should last a bit longer than intel, but whichever you choose, I'd go with a ddr5 rig. The 7600 is £219 I think with starfield thrown in, which you can either play or sell (to recoup some of your cost), and you can get 32gb6000C30 for £115 now(corsair rgb vengeance 6000c30 amd expo...same place as the 4070), or less if you don't want rgb.
just remember to get an atx3.0 compatible psu such as below...try and get one with sa 10yrs warranty also, then you know it should last...some, like the corsair come with normal 8 pin sockets on the back of the psu, which then have a cable connecting 2 for the 12 pin nvidia cards...you get spare cables, so if you go down the amd route, then just use the standard cable..the atx3.0 should guarantee again power spikes effecting the gpu though...
Good luck, let us know what you decide

​
 
Thanks for all your replies. I guess I'll have to stretch the budget a little bit more! (I have credit with Kingquin for an OEM OS and a wireless mouse and keyboard at home)

I just didn't realise if what I was looking at was suitable for what I want to do. I was worried that the 7800/4070 might have been too much GPU for my needs by being not quite enough for 4K/too good at a lower res thus a waste with a 60Hz display and that I'd be recommended something cheaper like a 6750 XT, 4060 or told to forget it and buy a Xbox. Also If the 7800/4070 was enough I thought that I might need need a better processor which would force me to stretch my budget.

I appreciate your advice and sorry if what I think/type is wrong, I'm trying to understand the best I can. I was nervous about even asking here but its nice to get a second opinion (I haven't built a PC since AGP was phased out by PCI Express!)

I'll take all the advice onboard and be sure to let you know what I end up getting. Thanks again.
 
SageJinc said:
I was worried that the 7800/4070 might have been too much GPU for my needs by being not quite enough for 4K/too good at a lower res thus a waste with a 60Hz display and that I'd be recommended something cheaper like a 6750 XT, 4060 or told to forget it and buy a Xbox.
Click to expand...

For me, it makes it awkward that you mentioned Starfield specifically, because then the advice has to be tailored for that specific game and Starfield is demanding on both the CPU and GPU and seems to be optimised to use upscaling.

If we were just talking generally, then the 7800/4070 are perfectly fine for native 4K/60.

A 6700 XT can do 4K/60, but as you'd expect, the window of playability will close sooner than with a 7800 and you'll have to make bigger use of upscaling and changing the details.

With the very latest games the goalposts have moved a lot in a short time and I'm far more inclined to suggest a 7900 XT, but as with all things, bigger budget = less compromises.

SageJinc said:
Also If the 7800/4070 was enough I thought that I might need need a better processor which would force me to stretch my budget.
Click to expand...

I would honestly be fine with suggesting a last gen Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-12400 for these GPUs, they're dated by modern standards, but it wasn't long ago (prior to the 4090) that CPU benchmarks showed practically no difference between a 12100 and a 12900. Will they take another GPU upgrade beyond the 7800? Probably not, but 4K always puts more pressure on the GPU, so if needs must, then I'd do it.

This is a half and half spec, mostly lower-end parts, but DDR5:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,201.88 (includes delivery: £11.98)​
 
Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail
CP-6AR-IN
£125 (incl. VAT)
£99 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-37M-MS
£130 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01)
MY-0BB-TG
£90 (incl. VAT)
£80 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
never worry about asking questions on here...reminds me when I was younger though ..didn't ask for about 7 years, just read posts...actually forgot my login so started again...when i finally remembered, there was no point switching back..I had more posts on my new login than the 10year old one.

If you go the amd route, the 7600 cpu is only a few % slower than the 7600X, which if you look at is on a par with the 5800X3d when tested, and that's with a 4090, so with a middle of the road gpu, there wont be much difference between them, so it wont be a slouch and more than enough for your needs.

you could in theory drop to a 7700XT... you can get one for £429. i know if 15% or so slower than the 7800XT, but you could always play at 1440p on your 4k oled. If you check out some YT of people doing that with the LG c2, you'll get an idea...or see if anyone is gaming with your specific tv, which would be better of course.

Just realised, my son stole my pc and is gaming on a lg c2 42"...it's got a 3080Fe in it sand he loves it..having no issues at 4k, and he jumps back and forth between that and his xbox...my mind is going , but think the 7800Xt was ahead of the 3080Fe at raster at 4k (I've got...well my son has now got the 10gb version), so pretty sure your not going to have a prblem with this class of card
 
and shop around...the saphire 7800XT pulse can be had for £489.98 away, as can the psu Tetras put in...for £99 or £109.98 for the 850W version..(I'd spend the extra £10 now as the psu should outlast your gpu and hopefully still be powerful enough for your next one...can run a 4090 so should do), as said above, can get the 6000c30 vengeance rgb for £115, the 6000C36 is £105, and non rgb 6000C36 is £90
 
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