With the new Xbox specs announced, any point in buying a gaming pc?

I'm in a bit of a predicament.

My NAS is running out of space and can't fit another disk, my server is a 4 year old NUC that is doing its job just fine but doesn't have any headroom to left for running more stuff and my main pc is based on a 7 year old 4770 and a R9 290.

There are games I want to play but in reality I don't have a lot of time.

My original idea was to buy a new rig and use the i7 4470 as my server. Something like a Ryzen 3700x, 32GB of ram, a quick'ish SSD and whatever GPU is decent around ~500 of your local monnies. That would have been a fairly economical way to go about things, especially if the CPU/MB/RAM combo would last me 6~7 years.

In comes MS with what to me seems a high end PC for probably a fraction of the cost. Great, but now I'm not sure anymore what I should do.

Is there any chance something like a Ryzen 3700x is going to be able to hit 60fps in games over the next console generation? What about a 3900x? Or should I get something not super high spec right now, but still decent and decide on a PC or next gen console a year or two from now? Chances are the games that I still want to play plus the games still coming out (and any potential Switch games) will probably mean its not difficult to keep me busy for a year or two. That said, if I buy something new I kind of want to go at least 1440p 60fps ultrawide which probably isn't that cheap.

The goal is to get as much value for money as possible. I don't mind spending a bit more, but then there has to be a real advantage.

PS. buying a NAS is out of the question. A 5 bay is at least 500 bucks and that money is better invested in a pc or server that can do the same and more.

tl;dr with the next xbox specs announced, is there any way a affordable'ish CPU you buy now is going to last in gaming for at least 5 years?
 
I'm holding off on a new PC for now. While I tend to upgrade GPU's when they come out, I think I may skip the next gen from Nvidia as well. After I purchased a 2080, I don't feel the need to upgrade for a while. One, because I feel like I over paid, and two, nothing is really pushing it yet at 1440p@120-144hz (that's not using RT). Frankly same is true for my CPU, an old 6700k.

My thinking is that in a year or two after launch of XsX and PS5, games will finally start pushing CPU's that are 8/16 cores and what are now high-end GPUs will start to show their age especially if you want to run at high settings. Then it will be time to upgrade, especially if you want to target very high refresh rates with next-gen and RT.
 
My NAS is running out of space and can't fit another disk
Can you replace disks? there are 14tb drives (possibly higher) available that would give you 70tb on a 5 bay nas

Is there any chance something like a Ryzen 3700x is going to be able to hit 60fps in games over the next console generation?
I'd say you will never know for certain until the console is out i'd wait until then for the cpu maybe just get a gpu upgrade for now if you have stuff thats actually running slow
 
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Usually consoles give more performance at the same cost as pc. If you only need new pc for gaming, yeah I do think it's better to just get an xsx.

There's also rumour of xsx to be a le to be put into windows mode or something. But even if the rumor is real, I dont think it will be available at launch. At launch ms will want to focus its marketing effort than mudding it like they did with xbox one launch
 
The goal is to get as much value for money as possible. I don't mind spending a bit more, but then there has to be a real advantage.

The best time to buy anything is when the dust has settled, when enough time has passed that you can judge the quality, features and customer feedback. At that time you will also pay less than at launch, sometimes significantly so. In the case of console generations and gaming PCs, it's usually couple of years after console launch. This gen has been a little different though because of the weak CPUs, you could use 4-5 years older PC CPUs and still be fine.

I would wait for consoles and games to come out first if I were you.

Or you could use some of the better streaming services like GF Now and Shadow if that's available where you live and you don't mind the whole thing.
 
The start of a console generation is going to be when consoles match up the best with PCs. For this upcoming generation, they'll likely exceed PCs in many cases just due to the enhanced storage and potentially hardware accelerated audio.

If all you need is something to play games then likely for the first 1-2 years it's going to be difficult to do better than the consoles without spending a LOT more money.

If you need a PC upgrade for things other than gaming, then spending a little more to make it better at gaming might not be a bad idea. Otherwise, get a console unless you want to use KB/M in most of your games.

That last is important for me. Heck, I'm finding KB/M to be far more precise and easy to use in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Being able to quickly and precisely aim in that game really favors a mouse over an analog stick. And analog movement in that game isn't all that useful.

If not for KB/M, I'd ditch PC for AA and AAA games and get an XBSX.

Regards,
SB
 
Otherwise, get a console unless you want to use KB/M in most of your games.
Are you f***king joking
Ct99rO1.jpg

Enough choice for you ???
 
Are you f***king joking
Ct99rO1.jpg

Enough choice for you ???

You missed the point. I wasn't saying you can't use a controller if you use a PC. I was saying use a PC if you prefer KB/M.

If you want to use a controller, next gen consoles will offer massively better value with competitive performance to PC in the first 1-2 years, potentially more due to the storage subsystems.

Once you get 3+ years into a console generation, consoles will still be better value, but they'll suffer much more in terms of performance.

Regards,
SB
 
It would make sense to wait 1-2 years with pc upgrade. See what the new consoles really mean for gaming. Is 8thread/16core cpu for pc enough? Does it become ideal to have ridiculously fast pcie4 based nvme ssd? Would there be something specific on motherboards/ssd's to support directstorage optimally(decompression in hw?)? New gpu's at least from amd incoming with same or even more features that consoles have?

And of course waiting 1-2 years maybe makes pc hardware a little bit cheaper. Buying a slightly over console specced pc today is very expensive. Even the pcie4 based quality motherboard costs an arm and a leg and ps5 specced ssd's are not even available as of today.
 
CPU
I did some further reading and it seems that a i7 4770 still performs well enough on modern games if you aim for 60fps. I couldn't find any reviews but user comments seem that is the case. I'll put off buying a cpu for another year or two.

GPU
I already decided I'll go for a 2070super or 3070 or whatever it will be called depending on what prices do around June.

Monitor
This is a hard one. I want to go ultrawide but I don't want to spend too much. I found a decent 34" 2560x1080 model around 500 and a 3880x1440 model around 650. The latter would last longer, but looking at benchmarks even a 2070 super isn't exactly doing 60fps with easy on current titles. It does in some but in others it doesn't. A 3070 might fair better but I don't think it will do 3880x1440 with easy in everything that comes out in the next three years or so.

1080p has price and performance going for it. 1440p that it is the better choice for the future but what that might not be much of a selling point if I can't get a steady 60fps on everything I want to play at the moment. Pixel density might be a slight issue on the 1080p model but I got a 27" at work and it doesn't really bother me there. Though the 24" I have at home is definitely sharper.

Or is the blur you get from running games on 2560x1080 not too bad on 1440p monitors? I have no clue what options modern gpu drivers allow but how about rendering internally at 1080p but outputting at 1440p so you don't get the blurriness from upscaling. Is that an option?
 
Can you replace disks? there are 14tb drives (possibly higher) available that would give you 70tb on a 5 bay nas

I only have a 2 bay NAS at the moment and I think it doesn't take disks larger than 8TB so no much to gain there (got a 8 and 6TB in there now). I want to go with 10TB drives as they seem to give the most bang for your buck. I might opt for a 4 bay NAS to keep costs down. With 4 drivers I'd still have 30TB (1 parity drive) which should last me at least 5 years.
 
CPU
I did some further reading and it seems that a i7 4770 still performs well enough on modern games if you aim for 60fps. I couldn't find any reviews but user comments seem that is the case. I'll put off buying a cpu for another year or two.

GPU
I already decided I'll go for a 2070super or 3070 or whatever it will be called depending on what prices do around June.

Monitor
This is a hard one. I want to go ultrawide but I don't want to spend too much. I found a decent 34" 2560x1080 model around 500 and a 3880x1440 model around 650. The latter would last longer, but looking at benchmarks even a 2070 super isn't exactly doing 60fps with easy on current titles. It does in some but in others it doesn't. A 3070 might fair better but I don't think it will do 3880x1440 with easy in everything that comes out in the next three years or so.

1080p has price and performance going for it. 1440p that it is the better choice for the future but what that might not be much of a selling point if I can't get a steady 60fps on everything I want to play at the moment. Pixel density might be a slight issue on the 1080p model but I got a 27" at work and it doesn't really bother me there. Though the 24" I have at home is definitely sharper.

Or is the blur you get from running games on 2560x1080 not too bad on 1440p monitors? I have no clue what options modern gpu drivers allow but how about rendering internally at 1080p but outputting at 1440p so you don't get the blurriness from upscaling. Is that an option?

yeah, currently that CPU should be good enough. But dunno how it will be after games starts to take advantage PS5/XSX faster CPU.
for GPU, if you use surround sound system, i think its better to wait for 3070 because it will have HDMI eARC.

for monitors, it depends heavily on the game art style and viewing distance.
"filmic" games like "control" probably looks fine running at lower than native. Actually i was running it at 1080p@30fps with Ray Tracing on GTX 1660 Super and it still looks goood on 55inch 4K screen from around 60cm away.

yes you also can render at lower rest and let GPU handle the upampling. For nvidia, it also have AI upsampling. But the way it works is backwards. So you set the game option to native resolution, but use the Nvidia AI upsampling to tell the driver to lower the "real" rendered resolution then use AI up the res.

sorry i cant remember the name.
 
Thanks for that information. I suppose you can set the upscaling per game? Anybody knows what that option is called?

I'm looking at either the LG 34GL750-B MSI Optix MAG341CQ. The LG is 1080p and gsync compatible. Though I cannot find if it supports LFC. The MSI is 1440p, not listed as gsycn compatible but reviews say gsync works AND it support LFC. The MSI is 100 dollars/euros more (50 actually but the vesa adapter is another 50...).

As for distance, when gaming I'll be sitting 90~100cm from the screen. When browsing etc. probably more like 70cm. Using one of those online screen res/distance calculators it seems you shouldn't sit more than 80cm from the screen before pixels start to blend together on a 1440p screen. I'm right on the edge in case of the 1080p screen.
 
What have you got that needs so much hdd space ?
ps: instead of a nas you could get a dumb multi disk enclosure usb or esata
 
Don't forget warranties and repair-ability. Desktop PCs have an enormous advantage there. 90 day warranty on Xbox controllers, 1 yr on hardware. You can get 3-5 yr warranty on practically every component if you chose the right brands from keyboard to mobos to SSD/HDD to PSUs to CPUs. And you can replace individual components. With consoles - if the motherboard dies 6 months after the console warranty runs out, your out of luck. It'd probably be cheaper to buy a new console than find a repair shop to get that replaced OR somehow source a good mobo yourself and reball everything yourself, than to just go down to your local pc shop and buy a new mobo.
 
Or is the blur you get from running games on 2560x1080 not too bad on 1440p monitors? I have no clue what options modern gpu drivers allow but how about rendering internally at 1080p but outputting at 1440p so you don't get the blurriness from upscaling. Is that an option?

Images might look a little softer, but generally it's fine. Some games also come with an internal scaler allowing you to set a rendering resolution that is different than the resolution your game is running in. This is preferable as it not only works full screen but works in a window as well and quality is generally better than letting the GPU do the upscaling.

Speaking of running in a window, this is how I run all my games. It's a preference thing, but I prefer running games in a window as opposed to full screen, you could try that and see if you like it or not.

Regards,
SB
 
Windowed as in with black bars on your desktop in the background? I prefer full screen.

Do you think the softer look from rendering in 2560x1080 and upscaling to 3800x1440 will be better or worse than the IQ you get from a 2560x1080p screen?
 
upscaling will always give worse iq you cant create detail that isnt there
to test run a game fullscreen at a lower res than native
 
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