[SOLVED] Best motherboard for new nVidia 3000 series cards?

[sephirothxt]

The 3000 series cards are going to be formally announced and released next month, it seems. This is when I want to pull the trigger on building my first gaming PC. I'm trying to decide on all the other parts. I've looked at numerous websites/rankings of best motherboards, but am still a bit uncertain as to which will be best for a near max tier CPU and 3000 series cards to handle games like MSFS 2020 at ultra settings.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for other solid motherboards? My budget for my PC is $2000-$2500.

 

[jojesa]

The 3000 series cards are going to be formally announced and released next month, it seems. This is when I want to pull the trigger on building my first gaming PC. I'm trying to decide on all the other parts. I've looked at numerous websites/rankings of best motherboards, but am still a bit uncertain as to which will be best for a near max tier CPU and 3000 series cards to handle games like MSFS 2020 at ultra settings.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for other solid motherboards? My budget for my PC is $2000-$2500.

What could be more important than a motherboard when selecting a GPU is the PSU.
If you have an idea of the CPU you will be using... then you might be able to get a motherboard recommendation.

 

[sephirothxt]

I also asked about this in the CPU forum funny enough.

I don't intend on getting the most expensive CPU, but mid-upper tier most definitely. Either the 3900X or the i9 9900K. Power supply, either Corsair RM 850X or Silverstone 850W.

 

[jojesa]

I also asked about this in the CPU forum funny enough.

I don't intend on getting the most expensive CPU, but mid-upper tier most definitely. Either the 3900X or the i9 9900K. Power supply, either Corsair RM 850X or Silverstone 850W.

For Intel LGA 1151 CPU like the Intel I9 9900K/KS, Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra motherboard or similar.
For AMD 3900X, MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon...if you don't need or care about PCIe 4.0 then Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 5.

If the main purpose of your built is gaming, then go with Intel.

 

[Schlachtwolf]

The problem is no-one really knows the specs of the new GPU's, but I would be look ing for a Mobo with strengthened PCle slots as the are going to be big and heavy by the looks of them !!!

 

[geofelt]

You can't pick a motherboard until you pick a processor.

Every motherboard is going to have a pcie x16 slot for a graphics card.
That really is all you are going to need.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Will they support PCIe gen 4?

 

[ocer9999]

The next Nvidia will be PCIe 4.0, which should actually take advantage of this as it seems a beast of card, but probably only the higher end card, 3090. But still it's something I would def wouldn't go with out on a new build.

For gaming intel has the lead but it's not really worth it considering you have inconsistent performance and lack of future visibility for upgrades. Just get a X570 Steel Legend wifi and a 3900X and couple with the next gen nvidia 3080 and you will have a PC for years to come.

 

[geofelt]

Will they support PCIe gen 4?

Good question, but the answer probably does not matter.
For a long time each new graphics card has been able to run on back level pcie 2/3.
I have no doubt that the new cards will be able to run on pcie2/3 and perhaps 4.
Newest gen motherboards are supposed to support pcie 4.0 with a bios update.

On graphics it probably will only make a minor difference to use pcie 4.

For ssd devices which have started to arrive, there may be an advantage on sequential performance, but it is the random performance of a ssd that is most important so I expect only a minor impact there.

 

[cryoburner]

It might be worth waiting until the new cards have actually been tested before deciding on what CPU and motherboard to go with if you want the "best" option. I don't suspect the benefits of PCIe 4.0 will be particularly large with this generation of graphics cards, but it's possible that it could make some difference with the top-end models. So while Intel's high-end CPUs can potentially offer a little better performance in games limited primarily by CPU performance, we might potentially see AMD's CPUs offering slightly better performance in games limited more by graphics performance.

With that specific example of Flight Simulator 2020 at ultra graphics settings, I suspect you would be limited by graphics performance most of the time, even at 1080p. At native 4K, today's fastest card can't quite even maintain a solid 30fps experience, so performance at that resolution will most likely be graphics limited with the new cards as well. That being said, there appear to be decent performance gains to be had by turning down a few of the graphics options a little, without impacting the visuals too much, so it would probably be worth experimenting with dialing some settings back a bit if you are either targeting higher resolutions like that, or aiming for something closer to 60fps.

 

[sephirothxt]

It might be worth waiting until the new cards have actually been tested before deciding on what CPU and motherboard to go with if you want the "best" option. I don't suspect the benefits of PCIe 4.0 will be particularly large with this generation of graphics cards, but it's possible that it could make some difference with the top-end models. So while Intel's high-end CPUs can potentially offer a little better performance in games limited primarily by CPU performance, we might potentially see AMD's CPUs offering slightly better performance in games limited more by graphics performance.

With that specific example of Flight Simulator 2020 at ultra graphics settings, I suspect you would be limited by graphics performance most of the time, even at 1080p. At native 4K, today's fastest card can't quite even maintain a solid 30fps experience, so performance at that resolution will most likely be graphics limited with the new cards as well. That being said, there appear to be decent performance gains to be had by turning down a few of the graphics options a little, without impacting the visuals too much, so it would probably be worth experimenting with dialing some settings back a bit if you are either targeting higher resolutions like that, or aiming for something closer to 60fps.

Yea, I may have to wait.

The CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD, PSU are a little more straightforward to decide on for me.

For me, the hardest part has been the motherboard and case. I don't want to invest so much money in a good CPU and GPU and be limited by the motherboard. I see there are options for $600-700, and then what seem to be good options for $300. I feel more certain about how money I pay impacts performance for CPUs and GPUs b/c I can see all these videos online comparing FPS with different processors/cards. A little harder to gauge with motherboards.

 

[Zerk2012]

PCI-E 4.0 is really not going to matter since the best cards now have just saturated 2.0 bandwidth that has been out for about 13 years.

But yes you need to pick the processor your going to use first.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Good question, but the answer probably does not matter.
...

It may matter more than we think. Steve at HWUnboxed ran a pretty exhaustive series of tests to ferret out performance scaling with 8 lanes, 16 lanes, gen 2 and gen 3 on recent model GPU's and demanding games. Interesting results suggesting a 3000 series GPU, or RDNA2, may actually get more benefit than we think from greater bandwidth, assuming the progression holds true.

Still, as is being said: it's probably better to wait till they're out and the tests have been run.

 

[cryoburner]

For me, the hardest part has been the motherboard and case. I don't want to invest so much money in a good CPU and GPU and be limited by the motherboard. I see there are options for $600-700, and then what seem to be good options for $300. I feel more certain about how money I pay impacts performance for CPUs and GPUs b/c I can see all these videos online comparing FPS with different processors/cards. A little harder to gauge with motherboards.

I would not bother with the super-high-end motherboards unless perhaps you have money to burn, and are already going with the fastest available options for all other components in the build. Unless its VRMs are overheating, the choice of motherboard will typically make next to no difference in terms of performance. Generally, those really expensive $400+ boards are just going to offer a little better VRM temperatures for extreme overclocking, and maybe some niche features that you are probably not going to need, like dual networking ports, and shields with RGB lighting covering much of the board that just make them look a little nicer. If you decide to upgrade your CPU to one of the latest models a few years down the line, you will almost certainly be replacing the motherboard anyway. For high-end builds, there are lots of great options around the $200-$300 range that should get identical performance, and even some under $200 that could be good options for a high-end build, though perhaps minus a few features that you may or may not need.

 

[sephirothxt]

I'll probably just get something around that $200-300 range then. I'm still a bit on the fence about processors, but most likely will just go with Intel. I may do some stuff with video capturing and uploading to youtube, but it wont be my primary reason for getting the computer. First and foremost I want as good of a Gaming PC as possible. The consensus is that Intel processors are best for gaming, even if not by that much at some higher resolutions. I want whatever combination will run Flight Simulator 2020 to the best capabilities. I'll miss the incredible value/all around good performance of Ryzen processors, but will know that the game is not being limited by CPU performance.