Switching to AM5, need help with build

[sanadsaad]

Hi all. So I waited too long to switch to an X3d processor as I waited for a newer graphics card and now the prices are not what i'd pay for a cheap AM4 upgrade. Also, I was looking at upgrading my macbook pro (2019 Intel i9) and realised I would prefer using one rig for everything as my macbook was mostly docked anyway. Also, my brother in law wanted a basic gaming rig so im thinking of keeping the case, cooler and power supply and leave the rest for him. This is my current build:

As per the template:

Purchase Timeframe:
3 months
Budget:
2000 pounds
Usage:
Gaming and Video/Photo editing
Preferences:
AMD but happy to go with whatever is best for budget
Current Hardware:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VII
RAM: Team Group Xtreem "8Pack Edition" 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4
PC4-25600C14 3200MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black
GPU: Sapphire Vega 64
Case: Corsair Obsidian 1000D
PSU: Superflower 850W
Boot drive: Samsung 970 EVO Polaris 500GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe
HDD: Seagate 3TB BarraCuda 7200RPM 256MB Cache Internal HardDrive (ST3000DM007)
Air Cooler: Noctua NH D-15
Monitor: Samsung G7 Odyssey

Peripherals:
? Change monitor

Special Needs/Requirements (inc Wi-Fi):
Wifi included, preferrably Wifi6 or 7. Happy adding card if that's better for performance.

 

[something daft already!!]

For about a grand you can get a 9800 x3d plus a x870 mobo, this has WIFI built in, with 32 gb of ram
The other grand you could get a reasonable GPU, a case and a 850w PSU.

You could get a B type board and save some money there.

I spent about 2.5k on my setup last November and got a good GPU for about 700, those days are gone now. I'm glad I did it when I did, considering the prices of GPUs these days.

I would avoid Intel and ASrock Mobos. I would also avoid Nvidia melty cards too, JMHO

2 TB M2 drives are quite reasonable, price wise.

 

[wookiee87]

something like this, bear in mind quite a lot is on offer so the price will be over 2k when the offers expire, with regard to the case i would keep your 1000d, that's still a really nice case

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £419.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JX-AS) = £199.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-01125) = £109.99
• 1 x CORSAIR RMe Series RM850e Fully Modular ATX 3.1 Power Supply (CP-9020296-UK) (SKU: POW-CRS-03875) = £124.99
• 1 x Sapphire Nitro + Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPR-03987) = £689.99
• 1 x WD Black SN850X 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2X0E) (SKU: HD-590-WD) = £84.95
• 1 x Seagate 8TB IronWolf NAS 7200RPM HDD 256MB Cache Internal Hard Drive (ST8000VN004) (SKU: HD-3CD-SE) = £214.99
• 1 x Corsair NAUTILUS 360 RS All In One CPU Cooler - 360mm (SKU: COO-CRS-03514) = £109.99

Total: £1,954.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Craig_d1]

I was always under the impression nvidia was better for video editing than amd for gpu, so I'm sticking nvidia..but the zotac in there as a 3 slot so cooling s/b good, and 5 years wanty..you can get the gainward for £40 less, 2 slot so thinner with a 3 year warranty if you want to save
64gb 6000c30 ram for the vid editing
Perspnally think the tomahawk best board at mo for cash, 8 layer pcb, decent vrm, 5gb lan, wifi 7...if you need usb 4, then you'll have to look at the x870 boards
Put the case in as a holder..gives you an idea on budget if you want to get a new or save and reuse current. If you want a bit of rgb, then the lancool 216, but plenty to choose at pricepoint..if you want goldfish bowl style and cheaper I like the antec c3 (like the phanteks nv5, but then price rachets up with fans)


My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £220.00
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £419.98
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO RGB 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-03749) = £185.00
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £128.98
• 1 x MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 UK PSU 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-00W-MS) = £140.00
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02418) = £36.94
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Solid Core 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-04471) = £728.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 217 - Black (SKU: CAS-LIA-04527) = £109.99

Total: £1,969.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[wookiee87]

I was always under the impression nvidia was better for video editing than amd for gpu, so I'm sticking nvidia..but the zotac in there as a 3 slot so cooling s/b good, and 5 years wanty..you can get the gainward for £40 less, 2 slot so thinner with a 3 year warranty if you want to save
64gb 6000c30 ram for the vid editing
Perspnally think the tomahawk best board at mo for cash, 8 layer pcb, decent vrm, 5gb lan, wifi 7...if you need usb 4, then you'll have to look at the x870 boards
Put the case in as a holder..gives you an idea on budget if you want to get a new or save and reuse current. If you want a bit of rgb, then the lancool 216, but plenty to choose at pricepoint..if you want goldfish bowl style and cheaper I like the antec c3 (like the phanteks nv5, but then price rachets up with fans)


My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £220.00
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £419.98
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO RGB 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-03749) = £185.00
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £128.98
• 1 x MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 UK PSU 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-00W-MS) = £140.00
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02418) = £36.94
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Solid Core 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-04471) = £728.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 217 - Black (SKU: CAS-LIA-04527) = £109.99

Total: £1,969.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

very true but 50 series mid range is overpriced imo, only the higher end 80,90 are the true card that should exist, amd have made leaps and bounds and yes not on the same field as NVidia for the price amd is a solid option. if your use case is more gaming focused then rendering the amd option is better, but if rendering is primary use then yes NVidia all the way.

 

[tamzzy]

9950x3d 16core for gaming + photo-editing
64gb ram
bring your 3tb hdd over to the new build, give your old build without the hdd to your BIL

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-04501) = £629.99
• 1 x Asrock B850 Pro RS WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-04002) = £189.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance XMP 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-05105) = £164.99
• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Phoenix-S 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-05399) = £689.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £128.99
• 1 x Kolink Unity Lateral ARGB Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-07P-KK) = £49.99
• 1 x Thermalright Aqua Elite 360 Black ARGB V3 All In One CPU Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03256) = £49.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 1000W 80PLUS Platinum ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02521) = £128.99
• 1 x UK Mains Plug with 13A Fuse to IEC C13 Socket Lead, 10A, 2m (SKU: ACC-OCS-01709) = £0.00

Total: £2,032.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Craig_d1]

very true but 50 series mid range is overpriced imo, only the higher end 80,90 are the true card that should exist, amd have made leaps and bounds and yes not on the same field as NVidia for the price amd is a solid option. if your use case is more gaming focused then rendering the amd option is better, but if rendering is primary use then yes NVidia all the way.

yeah, no arguements here...I have the 9070xt nitro+ in my setup. Love it. 5070ti prices have dropped though, so can get one for £690 as said, and tamzzy put in the build above...of course, you can get a 9070xt for £620 now if want a base model, so still a saving...to me, the 3/4% gaming difference is negligible, except does widen for raytrace, more about the work side of things. I'm the opposite though..the 5080 is still a 16gb vram card and £300 more for 15% better performance...that's worse bang for buck than the 5070ti. Think if spending that much they should throw in more vram..hopefully rumours of the super models will do that (24gb being the rumour for the 5080 super)

 

[tamzzy]

saving...to me, the 3/4% gaming difference is negligible, except does widen for raytrace, more about the work side of things

cuda, rtx and also the "AI" featureset (esp if using da Vinci for video editing) is worth the extra in comparison to the 9070xt though
for gaming DLSS has (a) more support and (b) better quality, than FSR

at more than £600, the 9070xt is a tough sell vs the 5070ti
at current prices (£620 vs £690), if there is money available in the budget and there is for OP's case, then ponying up for the 5070ti over the 9070xt is worth the outlay

 

[Gray2233]

very true but 50 series mid range is overpriced imo, only the higher end 80,90 are the true card that should exist, amd have made leaps and bounds and yes not on the same field as NVidia for the price amd is a solid option. if your use case is more gaming focused then rendering the amd option is better, but if rendering is primary use then yes NVidia all the way.

Personally I'd argue that the only cards worth thinking about outside of the halo 5090 are the 16gb 5060ti or the 5070ti, the 5080 is poor uplift for the cost.

At current prices (sub £700) I'd pony up the £680 over £630 for a 5070ti over 9070XT for DLSS alone, like it or not but upscaling is here to stay and DLSS not only has better support but is generally superior to FSR. Don't get me wrong, AMD has come a long way with FSR4 but it's not on the same level yet. Unless you specifically play titles like Warzone which really favour AMD I feel most would be doing themselves a disservice by going AMD within the £600-700 bracket.

 

[Craig_d1]

Personally I'd argue that the only cards worth thinking about outside of the halo 5090 are the 16gb 5060ti or the 5070ti, the 5080 is poor uplift for the cost.

At current prices (sub £700) I'd pony up the £680 over £630 for a 5070ti over 9070XT for DLSS alone, like it or not but upscaling is here to stay and DLSS not only has better support but is generally superior to FSR. Don't get me wrong, AMD has come a long way with FSR4 but it's not on the same level yet. Unless you specifically play titles like Warzone which really favour AMD I feel most would be doing themselves a disservice by going AMD within the £600-700 bracket.

See, I'm not totally convinced there. I've still got all my gpu's so a 3070ti,3080, 7800xt and a 7090xt.
I was nervous getting the 7800xt as I'd never tried fsr, and to be honest, yup, I think it's pretty rubbish compared to dlss (pretty shockingly so tbh, and I thank the stars I got the 7800xt new at almost half price. more a placeholder till prices drop for the new gen, which is beginning to happen). Howerver, FSR4 is leaps ahead. pretty much all reviewers put it above dlss3 but 'just behind' dlss4 transformer, with them trading blows depending on what they're upscaling...link that with optiscaler being able to piggyback fsr4 onto anygame that supports dlss2 or above, I think that part is a moot point..most people with a nvidia card crowing over dlss being better than fsr are probably on the old model (and still rightly being smug at dlss being better than fsr3), not the transformer model, so if they're happy with that, then they should be happy with fsr4 also if they jump ship (so to speak).
A lot depends on your financials also...I for instance, have to fork out not only for myself, but my two teenage boys. Anything I get for myself, I generally get close to for the boys eventually. No point if I play with them, I enjoy the visuals and they struggle. Doesn't sit right with me. i want them to experience the same gameplay as me, not a cut down version. So getting 3 9070xt, and saving £80 a pop is suddenly a £240 saving, and where I am, a 5070ti isn't even close to £700, so the difference is still more £100+, so jumping from a 9070xt to a 5070ti is still more like 16% upwards, with realistically 3-4% gaming uplift. Dlss isn't worth that price premium to me, having sampled fsr4...difference in price could be difference having a 2tb ssd instead of a 1tb drive
Though at mo, I wouldn't buy any gpu here (where I live)..even the cheapest base model 9070xt is more expensive here than the price I paid for my nitro+ on launch day...crazy
and yes, I've seen them go 'but look at games like cyberpunk', where nvidia pulls ahead with raytracing etc, but realistically, even with a 5070ti, i don't think you'll be playing that with full pathracing..that taxes the top gpu..mid tier, you turn it on go, looks good, then you turn it to something that gives you decent fps( and frame gen*3 or whatever just introduces too much latency..think have to wait for another generation or too to fix that. Anyway, I play cyberpunk on medium raytrace..looks good and get 80fps+ at4k. Still looks very pretty to me from 3000 series nvidia..which i think is more relevant..coming from those cards, the 9070xt is a missive leap forward for me(play at 4k)..so paying £690 (cheapest 5070ti on ocuk) in uk compared to £620 (cheapest 9070xt on ocuk)...£70 is still a big difference in price, considering you're both going to get great visuals(and me playing at 4k, I can only imagine at 1440p or lower, how good the fps will be also)

 

[Gray2233]

Howerver, FSR4 is leaps ahead.

I don't disagree, but it's also got very limited support compared to DLSS as of right now, there are workarounds but the results aren't exactly guaranteed and there are problems with them.

While I'm sure that will change in the future, DLSS is the better option currently. Superior RT/PT are icing on the cake rather than the biggest selling point. That said, for someone such as myself that runs multiple screens with mixed resolutions? While I wouldn't expect to run RT balls to the walls on my 4K tv, doing so on my 1440P monitor becomes more viable with Nvidia.

Unless buying strictly for aesthetics (there's actually some well priced white 9070/XT's on the market for example), while spending in that region on a GPU? I'd assume the buyer would have a certain amount of wiggle room and would almost always advise the Nvidia option outside of the odd game.

If FSR4 support was as prevalent, or at least close to as DLSS my opinion would be different. Granted, if someone only plays particular games which do happen to have FSR4 support then by all means it's a worthwhile saving then too.

It by and large comes down to upscaling technology for me and the levels of support, if we were back in the good all days where all that mattered was raster performance I'd not recommend Nvidia at current prices for anything outside of work tasks.

 

[tamzzy]

link that with optiscaler being able to piggyback fsr4 onto anygame that supports dlss2 or above

need the caveat that optiscaler + online games = potentially triggering anticheat = permaban

 

[Craig_d1]

need the caveat that optiscaler + online games = potentially triggering anticheat = permaban

that's I wouldn't know, or hadn't considered tbh. My reation time has seriously degraded with age, where i prefer to stick to single player games now that have a story to tell, or co op if I play with my son's. But you're right thats worth considering depending on the game you play, or type rather
...though don't true multiplayer gamers that compete, go to 1080p and drop the textures etc to low to max fps, and also reduce things like foilage so they can see people that would otherwise be hiding (whole reson you have 1440 240hz screen that can go to 480hz 1080 with the toggle of a switch). then it becomes more about the cpu being the bottleneck anyway, hense why the 9800x3d is such a beast at 1080p
interesting though...wonder how with amd being the supplier for new xbox now and playstation, and with MS saying that any game for xbox will have to run on pc, and fsr4 or equiv being on the xbox pretty much going forward, a lot of games in the future will have fsr4 upscaling by default, as they'll need to impliment it by for xbox, and so by default, pc games
going a bit off topic here...anyway, OP has some options to look through, and seeing as he wants video editing, I'm still plumbing nvidia for this, and I'd pay up for the zotac for 5yrs warranty and a thicker beefier cooler in the 3 card slot card, and generally means it'll run quieter(or that's my theory)

 

[sanadsaad]

Very stimulating discussion and excellent points! I have never used NVIDIA cards after the 8800gtx but id want a card that handles both games and photo editing. I do edit some video but not much. Ill be keeping the cooler (Noctua nh d15 chromax), case (obsidian 1000D) and PSU (Leadex 80plus platinum 850w) so that gives me some room. For the processor, I think ill go for the 9950x3d as it covers both gaming and productivity.I had a few questions.

1. Any major benefit of x480e vs b850?
2. Is it better to go with 6000mhz ram or better to fork out for faster memory?

@Craig_d1 it was good to hear about your gaming with your kids. My son is 10 months old but i look forward to gaming with him when he's a bit older!

 

[tamzzy]

1. Any major benefit of x480e vs b850?

x870 has usb4, b850 does not, that is the most major difference
with that being said, i would not spend north of £200 for a b850 board and £180-190 would be my max
the reason is that there is an excellent x870 board (asrock x870 pro rs wifi) for £220

2. Is it better to go with 6000mhz ram or better to fork out for faster memory?

ddr5 6000 is the sweet spot for price-to-performance
not all chips will run >6000 reliably, so you will expose yourself to the silicon lottery

Ill be keeping the cooler (Noctua nh d15 chromax), case (obsidian 1000D) and PSU (Leadex 80plus platinum 850w) so that gives me some room.

case is fine if you want to keep
i'd swap the cpu cooler to a 360mm aio - the 9950x3d can and will use 230w at full pelt, you'd really want a 360mm aio for best performance and acoustics
psu i'd swap to atx 3.1 psu - you're needing to buy a new psu anyway, might as well put the new one in the new rig

fwiw i'm still using the original superflower leadex platinum 850w (my psu was made in 2014) in my main rig!

 

[jigger]

cuda, rtx and also the "AI" featureset (esp if using da Vinci for video editing) is worth the extra in comparison to the 9070xt though
for gaming DLSS has (a) more support and (b) better quality, than FSR

at more than £600, the 9070xt is a tough sell vs the 5070ti
at current prices (£620 vs £690), if there is money available in the budget and there is for OP's case, then ponying up for the 5070ti over the 9070xt is worth the outlay

If buying because of CUDA, AI or RTX (I’m not sure why you’d make a buying decision because of RTX) the RTX 5070ti is pretty poor. That said, if you was buying for those kinds of workloads you’d probably already have an understanding of why the 5070ti isn’t a great choice. By rights it’s the chip in the RTX 5080 that should be flushing the 70 class.

 

[JollyJamma]

Hi all. So I waited too long to switch to an X3d processor as I waited for a newer graphics card and now the prices are not what i'd pay for a cheap AM4 upgrade. Also, I was looking at upgrading my macbook pro (2019 Intel i9) and realised I would prefer using one rig for everything as my macbook was mostly docked anyway. Also, my brother in law wanted a basic gaming rig so im thinking of keeping the case, cooler and power supply and leave the rest for him. This is my current build:

As per the template:

Purchase Timeframe:
3 months
Budget:
2000 pounds
Usage:
Gaming and Video/Photo editing
Preferences:
AMD but happy to go with whatever is best for budget
Current Hardware:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X


Special Needs/Requirements (inc Wi-Fi):
Wifi included, preferrably Wifi6 or 7. Happy adding card if that's better for performance.

Before I add my 2c on the main components, you don't need Wifi 7 - a lot of devices aren't properly Wifi 7 certified (they used some aspects of the ratified standard but not all) so going Wifi 6e would be an excellent option.

Just keep in mind that most onboard Wifi isn't very good and you may want to move to a proper LAN cable.

What about going the upgrade to your current rig route?

I don't love the AMD AM4 5900X CPU upgrade at £250 as even though it has 12 cores and 24 threads, it's still £250 and you can get close to it's performance on AM5 with a lower tier CPU.
If you could get a used AMD 5950X at a good price, that would allow you to dump a lot more money into your GPU.

I prefer the AM5 route given the price to performance and upgrade path but AM4 shouldn't be completely written off, especially if the price of the upgrade is excellent.

BTW, I agree with Tammzy on the upgrade options.