[SOLVED] price/perf sweet spot for 4k@120hz?

[dreamalittle]

I know it's a common question, so will be happy with common answers!

for a 4k @ 120hz build, what's the price/perf sweet spot over the next 6 months? Here's what I'm thinking:

buy r5 3600 or equivalent on x570, wait for rdna 2 for GPU (have a 1070 which is still decent), then finally upgrade 3600 once zen 3 8c/16t goes on sale/intel initiate a price war.

if I go intel/nvidia combo instead it would be i5-10600k and 3080. just don't think it'll be price/perf sweet spot for the 4k / 120fps goal. also want to keep the noise down and intel/nvidia consume more wattage so that's a factor in the AMD leaning.

 

[Phaaze88]

Ryzen 3600
B550/X570 motherboard
3200/3600mhz dual channel ram
RTX 3070 or whatever the AMD equivalent will be for the price.

 

[dreamalittle]

Ryzen 3600
B550/X570 motherboard
3200/3600mhz dual channel ram
RTX 3070 or whatever the AMD equivalent will be for the price.

yeh as i thought. will probably spend slighter more on the GPU because that'll be the bottleneck for nearly everything I play on 4k/120hz

 

[Phaaze88]

Well, you did ask for the best price to performance, and few other options can really compete with that.
If you've got a little more money to invest in a stronger gpu, that's your choice.

 

[dreamalittle]

Well, you did ask for the best price to performance, and few other options can really compete with that.
If you've got a little more money to invest in a stronger gpu, that's your choice.

probably comes down to buying philosophy/goals for the build as to GPU sweet spot of performance. is 120hz @ 4k going to be achievable without constant settings massaging, on 3070 tier? we'll see, but I think 3080 tier is the better choice for 4k @ 120, and this tier should become very competitive (finally) with rdna2

 

[hang-the-9]

For running 4k at 120 FPS there is no price/performance option, you get the top of the line parts. It's like asking for a car that will run 220 mph, you have expensive or very expensive as options.

 

[dreamalittle]

For running 4k at 120 FPS there is no price/performance option, you get the top of the line parts. It's like asking for a car that will run 220 mph, you have expensive or very expensive as options.

this seems to me to be a not-very-nuanced approach, given the context of the discussion. you can run some games at 4k / 120hz with a 6700k and 1080, but the game won't look good, so this wouldn't be the sweet spot.

additionally the reality for most games is that they're gpu bound on 3600 and above, which means I'm unsure if I'll need more than the 3600, although having x570 or a good b550 would mean if/when the zen 3 8c/16t part goes on sale it's an easy upgrade path should I need more cpu power.

 

[Karadjgne]

Resolution is all about the gpu, fps is all cpu.

So any cpu that can hit 120+ fps in your games of choice is the minimum you'll need there. Big difference between minecraft/sims4 and the latest Tom Clancy release or Arma 3.

After that it's a matter of pairing the gpu to fit the requirements. A 3070 can do minecraft 4k, you'll need a 3080 to do minecraft rtx in 4k, and Tom Clancy ultra 4k 120fps+ start thinking about a 3090.

What @hang-the-9 said was entirely correct, if a little simplistic. You will need top of the line parts, which are expensive, but you've set no limitations. My mITX full custom loop cost just shy of $3k overall, I could have gone with slightly better performance for much less, but the loop is expensive too at @ $800. So build costs will be very subjective, you can have 2 builds with identical performance, yet be $1k different in price, just because of choices.

There really is no price/performance option, far too many other variables, even on something as simple as form factor. My mITX motherboard was $250. Same motherboard in ATX form factor is $150. Same performance. My SFX psu, $140 for 600w. Get an equitable 650w in ATX for $90.

MITX case that'll fit 2x 240mm rads. $250, but its 13litre, a standard ATX case is 49litre. And @ $100 ish. Think shoebox and you are close.

 

[Phaaze88]

Welp, after seeing the reviews of the 3070, I have to take back what I said about the 3070 - definitely 3080 for 4k 120 value(*) option.
*leaves a bad taste in my mouth putting 'value' next to a 700+USD gpu...
But AMD is also right around the corner too...
¯\(ツ)/¯

Whatever. I can wait.

 

[hang-the-9]

this seems to me to be a not-very-nuanced approach, given the context of the discussion. you can run some games at 4k / 120hz with a 6700k and 1080, but the game won't look good, so this wouldn't be the sweet spot.

additionally the reality for most games is that they're gpu bound on 3600 and above, which means I'm unsure if I'll need more than the 3600, although having x570 or a good b550 would mean if/when the zen 3 8c/16t part goes on sale it's an easy upgrade path should I need more cpu power.

Well if you want a system that will run 10 year old or easy to run games you can do 4k in those at lower than top of the line parts, but that is really not the point of systems that people build for 4k at 120 hz. If you want a general system for gaming at 4k and try to hit 120 fps on them you need a top of the line video card and a close to top of the line CPU.

 

[dreamalittle]

Welp, after seeing the reviews of the 3070, I have to take back what I said about the 3070 - definitely 3080 for 4k 120 value(*) option.
*leaves a bad taste in my mouth putting 'value' next to a 700+USD gpu...
But AMD is also right around the corner too...
¯\(ツ)/¯

Whatever. I can wait.

my thoughts precisely. nvidia are a node behind so the PSU requirements and fan noise was a reason I was wanting to finally change to AMD, and the price/availability of the 3080/90 is so bad that I'll be waiting for 6800xt/6900xt now. hopefully it'll handle 4k /120 reasonably.