- Joined
- Jun 2, 2019
Any 12000 or 13000 series i5 or i7 will do you good.
DDR5 is available but not essential. 16GB DDR4 will do you just fine, go for more if you do any media editing.
RTX 3060 12GB is a good option now that can regularly be had for less than $350. RTX 3070 at about $550 is on the edge of decent value for MSRP but caps at 8GB VRAM which some people say may hurt longevity of the card and definitely limits it in terms of AI image generation if you are at all interested in that. Anything higher in the nVidia lineup has been stubbornly resistant to seasonal sales this year. They remain almost universally more power efficient, but only to the tune of a few dollars per month at most if gaming at 4+ hours a day.
AMD cards offer a better price to performance right now. The RX 6650 XT gets similar benchmarks as the RTX 3060 for about $150 less. Ray tracing is considerably worse, and machine learning applications function but Linux is essentially required to access the right libraries.
If you want to, for example, play Elden Ring at 4K 60fps, the cheapest option is the RX 6800 XT when it dips to about $550. 1440p gaming is comfortably in the reach of the 3060TI and 6700 XT/6750 XT.
The more poorly optimized AAA titles are starting to require more CPU power, and new 12000 series Intel CPU’s will likely double or even triple the performance of what you have now. Older generation chips rarely reach compatible sticker prices and almost always lose in price to performance. The jump from DDR3 to DDR4 will be noticeable as well in daily tasks, but be aware that you will have to budget for more RAM.
I recently just ship of Theseused my 2014 build with an i7-12700 and an RX6800XT and I’m happy with it.
Also keep in mind that the newest generations of GPU’s from both major companies have recently be announced, but unless your GPU budget is $800 or more, you’ll be fine with something from the current catalog. Mid-range cards from the new Gen may be a year out or more, and high-end cards from AMD at least are around as cheap as they’ve been since the market stabilized about a month and a half ago.
Keep an eye on Best Buy, they have surprising deals on GPU’s. If there is a Microcenter in your area, you can walk away very happy with a great deal if you are patient. They were literally giving away free Motherboards bundled with CPU’s that also happened to be priced $50 lower than the nearest online retailer.
The market will likely shake up when the new cards arrive, but it’s just as likely things will spike again once the recent Chinese manufacturing disruptions ripple into the Western market. It won’t be as bad as COVID since production wasn’t closed as long as is starting up again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing scalper prices within the next two months.
