CPU buying Advice - New to PC Building

[MutedJackal]

Hi there! I am pretty new to my research phase of upgrading from console to PC. I have no idea if this goes here or not-
I am looking for something rather specific, as most of the information I have curated is a bit outdated, I have turned here. I have no idea of my budget yet, so any recommendation is welcome. I am trying to avoid Intel, however, this isn't strictly the case if I can save some money for better performance.
I am looking for the best CPU at reasonable prices that works well with the RTX 4070 Ti Super ventus x3..which im also questioning if its worth the money. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Currently eyeing the Ryzen 7 7800x3D.
P.s Im not strictly team green as I haven't had the opportunity to formulate a clear opinion yet..so if you have any alternatives to the RTX 4070 Ti Super as well that would be awesome.

 

[Signor65]

Another important consideration is what monitor you will be using. If you've got a 1080p 60hz monitor, those specs are going to be total overkill. 1440p or higher, or a high refresh rate, and it starts to make more sense.

The 7800X3D is the current king of gaming. There are titles where Intel may outperform it, but on average the 7800X3D is the one to go for. The 4070ti I know less about. The value proposition is ok, but I would go for either a straight 4070 and invest more in other peripherals, or jump up to a 4080 is possible. But that's just me.

 

[Badsector]

Why not start with a Ryzen 5 7500F? It will play all games, and the rest of the money you can save for a future upgrade.

 

[MutedJackal]

Another important consideration is what monitor you will be using. If you've got a 1080p 60hz monitor, those specs are going to be total overkill. 1440p or higher, or a high refresh rate, and it starts to make more sense.

The 7800X3D is the current king of gaming. There are titles where Intel may outperform it, but on average the 7800X3D is the one to go for. The 4070ti I know less about. The value proposition is ok, but I would go for either a straight 4070 and invest more in other peripherals, or jump up to a 4080 is possible. But that's just me.

Hi!! thank you so much for the advice, I'll look into a straight 4070 or a 4080- see how much i can push around! The 7800X3D is also really fitting for a price range i was willing to sink into a cpu. I wasnt going to skim out but yknow. AGAIN though, thank you!

 

[MutedJackal]

Why not start with a Ryzen 5 7500F? It will play all games, and the rest of the money you can save for a future upgrade.

I'll look into this! Thank you!

 

[Areola Grande]

Is this purely for gaming? If so, at what resolution? Also, what games do you play?

if it's for work, what work?

I'm running a 4070Ti and a 7800X3D and it plays everything at 1440p beautifully. Of course, more is better so if you have the money, I would spring for a 4080. If not, the 4070Ti should more than cover all of your needs for years to come. The only potential bottleneck in future could be the VRAM buffer (12GB versus 16 or more on other cards). I have not yet had any game push it anywhere near that limit, but as resolutions increase and games become better to look at, it will become an issue at some point. Not an issue now though, in my experience.

If you do go for the 7800X3D (and you better or we will hire a gremlin to tie your shoelaces together every morning before work), don't bother with super fancy, high speed RAM. Get DDR5-6000 or maybe 6400 at a push. Ryzen doesn't benefit from faster RAM very much. Tighter latencies (lower CL number on the RAM) will be more beneficial. DDR5-6000 is considered the sweet spot for price/performance. Grab 2x16GB sticks and you'll be sorted for a long while yet.

You want to get an nVME for your windows drive. PCI-E 3.0 is fine for general storage, games etc. PCI-E 4.0 would be nice to have for your boot drive. Don't bother with PCI-E 5.0, it's a waste of money right now.

 

[MutedJackal]

Is this purely for gaming? If so, at what resolution? Also, what games do you play?

if it's for work, what work?

I'm running a 4070Ti and a 7800X3D and it plays everything at 1440p beautifully. Of course, more is better so if you have the money, I would spring for a 4080. If not, the 4070Ti should more than cover all of your needs for years to come. The only potential bottleneck in future could be the VRAM buffer (12GB versus 16 or more on other cards). I have not yet had any game push it anywhere near that limit, but as resolutions increase and games become better to look at, it will become an issue at some point. Not an issue now though, in my experience.

If you do go for the 7800X3D (and you better or we will hire a gremlin to tie your shoelaces together every morning before work), don't bother with super fancy, high speed RAM. Get DDR5-6000 or maybe 6400 at a push. Ryzen doesn't benefit from faster RAM very much. Tighter latencies (lower CL number on the RAM) will be more beneficial. DDR5-6000 is considered the sweet spot for price/performance. Grab 2x16GB sticks and you'll be sorted for a long while yet.

You want to get an nVME for your windows drive. PCI-E 3.0 is fine for general storage, games etc. PCI-E 4.0 would be nice to have for your boot drive. Don't bother with PCI-E 5.0, it's a waste of money right now.

I was going to go for a mix of both work and gaming- but i have a janky laptop that still works so i'll be going with purely gaming with this build (and use the laptop for work). I am very fearful of your gremlins so I will definitely go for the 7800X3D lol! I was thinking of going with at most 32gb ram with how big the new games are nowadays (cough cough, BG3.)

I mostly play single players and sometimes FPS games like Apex. The biggest reason I'm building the pc is for better resolution than an old PS4. I think the most 'work' I'd do on it is run gdocs lol. Thank you for the advice! this has been really insightful!

 

[thecurto]

I was going to go for a mix of both work and gaming- but i have a janky laptop that still works so i'll be going with purely gaming with this build (and use the laptop for work). I am very fearful of your gremlins so I will definitely go for the 7800X3D lol! I was thinking of going with at most 32gb ram with how big the new games are nowadays (cough cough, BG3.)

I mostly play single players and sometimes FPS games like Apex. The biggest reason I'm building the pc is for better resolution than an old PS4. I think the most 'work' I'd do on it is run gdocs lol. Thank you for the advice! this has been really insightful!

Based on everything mentioned in this thread, here's a build that will probably suit your needs:

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Summary and reasoning:

• Chassis - Completely up to you what to go for here. It's what will be sitting on your desk all day so pick something that looks good and has good ventilation (and hopefully some fans included but these can also be bought separately). Most of the Phanteks and Fractal have great build quality and look lovely, but are pricier.
• Motherboard - A lot of Carbies swear by this one. It seems to be rock solid and will give you peace of mind that your system will be stable. You can also get away with a cheaper board if money gets tight but this may come with the need for troubleshooting.
• CPU - At higher resolutions this is all you need for single player games (right now). The 7800X3D is about R4K more and this could be the difference between a 4070 Ti Super and a 4080.
• CPU Cooler - Air is the safest option and this cooler will cool most AM5 CPUs without issue. Again dealer's choice here if you want to get an AIO instead for aesthetics but most dual tower air coolers are all you need these days.
• Memory - Check the motherboard support page before picking this to avoid stability issues. This kit is one of the best value-performance options but make sure it's compatible with your board. There are also RGB options if that's what you're into.
• Graphics Card - Starting with the 4070 Ti Super here but this depends on how much you're willing to spend. If money is no object get that 4080/4090 + a 7800X3D
• PSU - 850W is the sweet spot here which will comfortably run your system and give you peace of mind that you can upgrade in future. Don't get sucked into buying more than a 1000W PSU. It is not necessary. Super Flower is a great brand as well.
• SSD - Again dealer's choice here based on your budget. This one will keep you going for a while and is crazy fast. It also has a DRAM buffer which is preferable for OS drives. You could also go for a smaller OS drive with a DRAM buffer and a cheaper 2TB-4TB secondary drive for gaming. Up to you.

Again this is just a guideline based on single player gaming at 1440p/4K with decent FPS figures. There will be plenty of other opinions here but hopefully this helps.

Very jealous that you are embarking on this journey. It's a lot of fun!

 

[Marcell1992]

For the current and near future, stick with AMD. The price of AMD just outright beats Intel so Intel shouldn't even be a consideration.

7800x3d vs a 14900ks. For a roughly 3% average increase in performance, the power draw of the 14900ks is almost TRIPLE that of AMD's king of games AND it is more expensive, 750usd vs 500usd.

With that comes the price of motherboards, an increase in what is needed for a PSU and an increase in what is needed for cooling.

So if you ever(Not just OP) think Intel (T's and C's apply) just punch yourself for even considering it and look at AMD.

GPUs are up in arms. For me the 4070super is quite well priced right now, as well as the 7900xt if you can get your hands on either one. 4070ti super and up is just not good value for money. Why get a 4070ti super when you can get a 14% better 7900xt for the same price?

For 1440p or 4k gaming, you only need a 7600 with practically any high end GPU , except maybe the 4090 and is half the price of a 7800x3d. The vast majority of games where you will bottleneck on the 7600, I can guarantee you your frames would be higher than what your monitor can handle anyways.

TLDR: Go for AMD Ryzen 7600 and a 4070super or 7900xt for 1440p gaming
If you want to target 4k gaming. Just go all out on a 7800x3d 4090 and don't cut costs, no other option is really worth it right now.

 

[Badsector]

Maybe you should first tell us your budget? Don't go overboard and take out debt to buy a PC! Buy what you can afford.

 

[Kromas]

This might sound harsh but why do you want a top of the line CPU and then cheap out on everything else?

Here is my perspective from nearly 30 years of building machines for people. The primary component that you absolutely must not cheap out on is a motherboard. This only applies to AMD right now as intel has a hate hate relationship with their platforms. I bought a B350m in 2010ish with a ZEN 1 1600. that board served me during my zen 2 and zen 3 upgrades. Only last year I suffered a catastrophic loadshedding related issue and had to replace my board. This means I had a working mid range system that could rock 1440p gaming with no issues for nearly 15 years. Hell I upgraded my GPU 3 times in that period but only increased my RAM and added SSDs for the most part. That system actually still runs to this day as I gave it to a friend of mine for his kids pc. His kid plays Helldivers 2 with us on that system but it is showing it's age.

So my advice. Get a AM5 platform mobo, a decent mid range CPU (something 7600xish), 32 gigs of 6000 mt/s RAM (I mean 16 will do but 32 will become the standard soon enough), a Platinum rated PSU (this is my personal preference as they usually use parts that does better with South African power), any case you want, a NVME drive and all accessories after that.

Unless you want to go 4K then yeah just buy the best.

 

[Switch]

why do you want a top of the line CPU and then cheap out on everything else?

I am looking for the best CPU at reasonable prices that works well with the RTX 4070 Ti Super ventus x3

I'll look into a straight 4070 or a 4080

Not sure where you see the "cheap out" part, maybe a 4070 could be considered under utilizing the cpu though wouldn't consider it as a cheap out.

 

[Kromas]

Maybe you misunderstood me. If you are buying a top of the line CPU then buying a mid range gpu is cheaping out in my mind.

 

[Montezuma]

Maybe you misunderstood me. If you are buying a top of the line CPU then buying a mid range gpu is cheaping out in my mind.

For gaming, agreed, but depends on use case I guess. If the PC is for work (and depends on the work) then yeah, a more powerful CPU may be warranted.

I do find people tend to overspend on CPUs though thinking you need a top of the line CPU to match a top of the line graphics card (and are afraid of bottleneck or that the CPU will be holding the GPU back). That isn't totally incorrect but as mentioned earlier in the thread it also depends on what resolution and refresh rate you are aiming for. 1080p and you want over 200mhz then sure, the CPU may be a bottleneck. For 1440p or 4K you are much better off spending more on the GPU and less on the CPU (for gaming, other use cases differ of course).

I play on a 4K TV/Monitor, CPU is definitely not going to be the bottleneck.

 

[ikons]

Maybe you should first tell us your budget? Don't go overboard and take out debt to buy a PC! Buy what you can afford.

I agreed with @Badsector start from the budget than we can try to find out what's best from it