Gaming Building a gaming PC

[Bosws87]

Trying to diagnose an issue with my PC

Only happens with games that are pushing the PC (cyberpunk and Warzone) other times i can play these games 5/6 hours with no issue at all othertimes in the first 10mins or a couple of hours in.

I've stressed test the card using software for a solid 30mins with no issues whatsoever.

When the issue occurs the pc loses signal to both of my TV's and the fan goes into overdrive like the driver controlling the fan has crashed/died a simple reboot and everything is back to normal.

I've check temps so it's definitely not that, my first port of call is the PSU giving up when too much power is drawn, i don't know the make/model of the PSU yet as i got the pc for free (delivered to work by mistake never claimed back)

My other theory is the powerstrip it was running off is struggling as it had my PC, monitor and 57" TV soundbar + subwoofer and few other things.

Will test it with some more cyberpunk this eve, checked the event viewer all it gives me is Kernal power 41.

 

[Redlambs]

Trying to diagnose an issue with my PC

Only happens with games that are pushing the PC (cyberpunk and Warzone) other times i can play these games 5/6 hours with no issue at all othertimes in the first 10mins or a couple of hours in.

I've stressed test the card using software for a solid 30mins with no issues whatsoever.

When the issue occurs the pc loses signal to both of my TV's and the fan goes into overdrive like the driver controlling the fan has crashed/died a simple reboot and everything is back to normal.

I've check temps so it's definitely not that, my first port of call is the PSU giving up when too much power is drawn, i don't know the make/model of the PSU yet as i got the pc for free (delivered to work by mistake never claimed back)

My other theory is the powerstrip it was running off is struggling as it had my PC, monitor and 57" TV soundbar + subwoofer and few other things.

Will test it with some more cyberpunk this eve, checked the event viewer all it gives me is Kernal power 41.

It's likely a PSU issue off the bat, though the powerstrip could be a problem as I've had similar with them before.

The fan going into overdrive is a weird one though (which fan is it?), are you sure there's no temp spikes on the card? Is it or the CPU overclocked in any way? Also what lead to you have running out, standard hdmi or Displayport with adapters?

 

[Bosws87]

It's likely a PSU issue off the bat, though the powerstrip could be a problem as I've had similar with them before.

The fan going into overdrive is a weird one though (which fan is it?), are you sure there's no temp spikes on the card? Is it or the CPU overclocked in any way? Also what lead to you have running out, standard hdmi or Displayport with adapters?

I'll check this evening if it happens again, i think its the card but it might be the PSU if i play valorant or CS:GO it never happens as the card is on easy street.

I've done DDU and clean installed the drivers so i know its not them

 

[Balljy]

I'll check this evening if it happens again, i think its the card but it might be the PSU if i play valorant or CS:GO it never happens as the card is on easy street.

I've done DDU and clean installed the drivers so i know its not them

If you download GPU-Z it shows you the power draw on the sensors tab and allows you to log it. You could see if it is happening when the wattage hits a certain limit which would then suggest a PSU issue.

 

[Bosws87]

If you download GPU-Z it shows you the power draw on the sensors tab and allows you to log it. You could see if it is happening when the wattage hits a certain limit which would then suggest a PSU issue.

Thanks ill give it a try i was using afterburner with a custom fan curve but i removed it just in case there was a conflict.

 

[JTW95]

Well had a nice treat when I checked my emails and seen that my Ryzen 5800x has been dispatched.

Also managed to get hold a Zotac Amp Holo 3080 off amazon. Though in my rush to get it ordered before it ran out of stock and didnt really properly examine the price and I think for £966 I've might have been ripped off

Amazon are usually pretty brilliant for refunds though so I will decide whether to keep it or get my money back over the next few days

 

[Drawfull]

Well had a nice treat when I checked my emails and seen that my Ryzen 5800x has been dispatched.

Also managed to get hold a Zotac Amp Holo 3080 off amazon. Though in my rush to get it ordered before it ran out of stock and didnt really properly examine the price and I think for £966 I've might have been ripped off

Amazon are usually pretty brilliant for refunds though so I will decide whether to keep it or get my money back over the next few days

Is the card off Amazon or third party? I've been caining all Amazon sites looking for any 30x (not 3090) card and nada from them, only dodgy new sellers.

 

[Adamsk7]

Is the card off Amazon or third party? I've been caining all Amazon sites looking for any 30x (not 3090) card and nada from them, only dodgy new sellers.

3060Ti and 3070 are coming up pretty regularly. Got two orders in today for 3060’s from Scan for builds I’m doing for friends now I’ve completed mine.
similarly, up until this week, I was finding it impossible. Just gotta get on the discords and stockinformer

 

[JTW95]

Is the card off Amazon or third party? I've been caining all Amazon sites looking for any 30x (not 3090) card and nada from them, only dodgy new sellers.

Straight from amazon as far as I can tell. There's nothing suggesting its from a third party.

 

[Drawfull]

3060Ti and 3070 are coming up pretty regularly. Got two orders in today for 3060’s from Scan for builds I’m doing for friends now I’ve completed mine.
similarly, up until this week, I was finding it impossible. Just gotta get on the discords and stockinformer

I can't use Scan, but I saw they had stock. I will check stockinformer. I missed a 3080 on PC Components in Spain cos I dithered at checkout yesterday.

 

[Drawfull]

Straight from amazon as far as I can tell. There's nothing suggesting its from a third party.

I will keep looking

 

[JTW95]

I will keep looking

Keep at it mate. I was on the discord server for weeks missing out and the one I have managed to nab I think was easier because I might have overpaid

They are gettable. Its just not easy.

 

[Bosws87]

Got my issue narrowed down to the desktop windows management exe crashing and the display driver crashing.

I've ran a stress test for over 30 mins with no issues multiple times, im heading towards its something in cyberpunk that's causing a conflict somewhere.

 

[Balljy]

Got my issue narrowed down to the desktop windows management exe crashing and the display driver crashing.

I've ran a stress test for over 30 mins with no issues multiple times, im heading towards its something in cyberpunk that's causing a conflict somewhere.

Have you checked for any BIOS updates for your GPU on the manufacturers website? My 3080 initially had an issue with the middle of 3 fans running at a constant high speed which EVGA had released a fix for, but needed a firmware update.

 

[Jacob]

Hey guys, I'm interested in building a decent computer. Budget is not the biggest issue, but of course I don't want to spend a fortune on it. On the other hand, I don't want a computer that is too weak to run high-end games properly.

Do you have like a standard or generic list of components and prices required to build something decent? I'm thinking maximum £1,700.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Hey guys, I'm interested in building a decent computer. Budget is not the biggest issue, but of course I don't want to spend a fortune on it. On the other hand, I don't want a computer that is too weak to run high-end games properly.

Do you have like a standard or generic list of components and prices required to build something decent? I'm thinking maximum £1,700.

it's a tough time to buy. Next gen CPU's and GPU's are out and offer big performance gains.. but are very difficult to get at the moment. I think there are a few people on the Caf who'd be able to help you, though.

Does the £1700 include the monitor, mouse, keyboard etc or just the tower? Also you should consider what you want resolution wise - but 1440p 144hz is generally what you'd want for that sort of budget as the "sweet spot" (depending on whether you need to buy a monitor, too!)

 

[Jacob]

it's a tough time to buy. Next gen CPU's and GPU's are out and offer big performance gains.. but are very difficult to get at the moment. I think there are a few people on the Caf who'd be able to help you, though.

Does the £1700 include the monitor, mouse, keyboard etc or just the tower? Also you should consider what you want resolution wise - but 1440p 144hz is generally what you'd want for that sort of budget as the "sweet spot" (depending on whether you need to buy a monitor, too!)

I was thinking just the 'tower'. Is that performance for the graphic card or monitor? Sorry, I'm a newb.

Why are they difficult to get? Corona supplier issues?

 

[Massive Spanner]

I was thinking just the 'tower'. Is that performance for the graphic card or monitor? Sorry, I'm a newb.

Why are they difficult to get? Corona supplier issues?

No worries, everyone has to start somewhere.

So if it's just the tower you should be able to build something really good.

When I say 1440p, that means 2k resolution, basically half way (sorta) between 1080p and 4k and perfect for a 27" monitor and that budget. 144hz means the monitor can support frame rates up to 144fps, making games (especially multiplayer) much more fluid to play and it's one of the biggest advantages of going PC over console because even the PS5 and series X can only dream of those sort of frame rates. Monitors like that can set you back a couple of hundred quid too though so take that into consideration, though they have been getting cheaper.

Not sure why there's a stock issue as I haven't followed it much but I guess yeah, greater demand combined with manufacturers having limited supply and releasing anyway. If you can I'd wait til early next year when stock normalizes. PC gaming has gotten insanely popular lately and every 1 or 2 year old CPUs and GPUs are more expensive than they were before. it's a bitch.

 

[2mufc0]

If you're just building the pc and no monitor you can build a pretty powerful pc for 1700. But parts are hard to come by atm.

 

[Bosws87]

Hey guys, I'm interested in building a decent computer. Budget is not the biggest issue, but of course I don't want to spend a fortune on it. On the other hand, I don't want a computer that is too weak to run high-end games properly.

Do you have like a standard or generic list of components and prices required to build something decent? I'm thinking maximum £1,700.

As for a standard list, Nvidia 3080 RTX, 32gb Ram, SSD, Ryzen CPU

you can obviously expand the speed of RAM, SSD (size/speed) but they are core components of a decent rig you couldn't go wrong with anything along those specs, be sorted for a good number of years.

 

[Jacob]

As for a standard list, Nvidia 3080 RTX, 32gb Ram, SSD, Ryzen CPU

you can obviously expand the speed of RAM, SSD (size/speed) but they are core components of a decent rig you couldn't go wrong with anything along those specs, be sorted for a good number of years.

How many different 'items' are required to build it?

I'm thinking;

1) the shell
2) graphic card
3) ...

etc.

 

[Bosws87]

How many different 'items' are required to build it?

I'm thinking;

1) the shell
2) graphic card
3) ...

etc.

PSU
GPU
CPU
Motherboard
RAM
HDD/SDD

Then cooling fans etc

off the top of my head.

 

[Balljy]

How many different 'items' are required to build it?

I'm thinking;

1) the shell
2) graphic card
3) ...

etc.

1) The case
2) Motherboard (needs to be compatible with the CPU)
3) CPU - Ryzen 5xxx series is probably the one to go for at the moment and with that budget. A CPU fan is also needed. Some come with one in the package.
3) GPU - Nvidia 3xxx series probably
4) RAM - minimum of 3200mhz speed, probably 3600mhz
5) SSD - Nvme drives are the quickest. Possibly go 1 128gb nvme just for Windows and a second bigger SSD drive for everything else
6) PSU - should be 750 watts minimum and I would go 850 watts with those components. Go gold rated PSU as a minimum
7) fans - check your case for how many you need. You need a minimum of a couple of intake and outake fans on decent cases

Edit https://pcpartpicker.com/ is great for playing with builds and will tell you if you add stuff that is not compatible with each other

 

[Fortitude]

@Bojan11 did they come through for you? 74 position... they're literally sourcing 6 cards per week...

At that rate, another 12.3 weeks to go...

 

[JTW95]

Does anyone know if my MSI X570 Tomahawk mobo will need a bios update to support a Ryzen 5800x?

 

[mitChley]

PSU
GPU
CPU
Motherboard
RAM
HDD/SDD

Then cooling fans etc

off the top of my head.

Case
CPU cooler if it doesn't come with one (I think all AMD do)

 

[Bojan11]

@Bojan11 did they come through for you? 74 position... they're literally sourcing 6 cards per week...

At that rate, another 12.3 weeks to go...

Got email saying 19th. Then 5 minutes later invoice status update and says order picked. Got digital download codes for Watchdogs and GeForce Now.

 

[Fortitude]

Got email saying 19th. Then 5 minutes later invoice status update and says order picked. Got digital download codes for Watchdogs and GeForce Now.

Ah! Good stuff!

Looks like you were right to have faith in the process.

It's about time you got to test out your setup!

When we all started out like a merry band of men, there were many of us... now, I'm left, alone, to fend for myself.. for another 3 months, whilst you and @Igor Drefljak skip off into the sunset with your new cards.

Such is life in these e-streets!

 

[Balljy]

Got email saying 19th. Then 5 minutes later invoice status update and says order picked. Got digital download codes for Watchdogs and GeForce Now.

That's good news but....you can't register Watchdogs any more as the expiry date for registering the codes with Nvidia to get the game was the end of November I think. I think you will probably need to take that up with Scan as it's their fault.

 

[Bojan11]

Ah! Good stuff!

Looks like you were right to have faith in the process.

It's about time you got to test out your setup!

When we all started out like a merry band of men, there were many of us... now, I'm left, alone, to fend for myself.. for another 3 months, whilst you and @Igor Drefljak skip off into the sunset with your new cards.

Such is life in these e-streets!

I didn’t even intend to order. I just saw the dispatch date and thought I would just order it now rather than waiting until November.

That's good news but....you can't register Watchdogs any more as the expiry date for registering the codes with Nvidia to get the game was the end of November I think. I think you will probably need to take that up with Scan as it's their fault.

I got Watchdogs on PS5 because I wasn’t expecting to receive it. But I’m definitely taking that up with them. Crazy from Nvidia to even have expiry date considering they knew the shit show preorders were going to be.

 

[Camilo]

Just no point in trying to buy anything right now. For all the stick intel have gotten this year, at least they can produce the things they advertise. Clearly AMD and Nvidia are having a mare actually trying to make anything in bulk... Pathetic really.

I was finally going to upgrade from my ancient card this summer but thought I'd just wait until the next gen stuff appeared and I could grab a 2060 cheap. Can't even find a cheap 1060 or 1050 to stick in my brothers system! Nothing out there unless you pay daft money.

 

[2mufc0]

Just no point in trying to buy anything right now. For all the stick intel have gotten this year, at least they can produce the things they advertise. Clearly AMD and Nvidia are having a mare actually trying to make anything in bulk... Pathetic really.

I was finally going to upgrade from my ancient card this summer but thought I'd just wait until the next gen stuff appeared and I could grab a 2060 cheap. Can't even find a cheap 1060 or 1050 to stick in my brothers system! Nothing out there unless you pay daft money.

It is crazy. I sold my 1070ti for 40 quid less than I paid for it 2 years ago.

 

[Igor Drefljak]

Ah! Good stuff!

Looks like you were right to have faith in the process.

It's about time you got to test out your setup!

When we all started out like a merry band of men, there were many of us... now, I'm left, alone, to fend for myself.. for another 3 months, whilst you and @Igor Drefljak skip off into the sunset with your new cards.

Such is life in these e-streets!

I've not had chance to use it yet as I'm waiting on a 5900x

Won't be until mid Jan now as I've gotta wait for waterblocks and stuff
Frustrating but still got a decent PC to go at.

Good thing is though, hopefully a lot of the cyberpunked glitches will be ironed out by then

 

[Bosws87]

Trying to diagnose an issue with my PC

Only happens with games that are pushing the PC (cyberpunk and Warzone) other times i can play these games 5/6 hours with no issue at all othertimes in the first 10mins or a couple of hours in.

I've stressed test the card using software for a solid 30mins with no issues whatsoever.

When the issue occurs the pc loses signal to both of my TV's and the fan goes into overdrive like the driver controlling the fan has crashed/died a simple reboot and everything is back to normal.

I've check temps so it's definitely not that, my first port of call is the PSU giving up when too much power is drawn, i don't know the make/model of the PSU yet as i got the pc for free (delivered to work by mistake never claimed back)

My other theory is the powerstrip it was running off is struggling as it had my PC, monitor and 57" TV soundbar + subwoofer and few other things.

Will test it with some more cyberpunk this eve, checked the event viewer all it gives me is Kernal power 41.

I solved this by disabling Fast Startup and changing windows visual effects to performance, very bizzare, seems the desktop windows management service was causing my display drivers to crash but only when playing cyberpunk.

 

[Bojan11]

Suck your playstation @esmufc07 and suck your xbox @Alock1.

Going to install it over the weekend and see what a train wreck Cyberpunk is on the high spec.

 

[Bojan11]

The RX 6000 line of graphics cards in general and the RX 6900 XT in particular are difficult to assess during a time of transition in the gaming market. You pay more for the vanilla RX 6800 compared to RTX 3070 (assuming you can find either at recommended retail pricing), but the AMD card is undeniably faster in standard rasterisation gaming benchmarks. The higher-end RX 6800 XT and this RX 6900 XT trade blows with RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, but neither of AMD's offerings can conclusively best the Nvidia cards across a range of tests. This is offset by the fact that the Radeon cards are cheaper, dramatically so in the case of RX 6900 XT. The vast majority of our tests show that AMD is undoubtedly back in the game, with engineering innovations that throw down the gauntlet to Nvidia. However, there's no doubt that the new Radeon cards - RX 6900 XT included - are well behind in terms of next generation features and performance.

That starts with ray tracing. The utility of the feature has been hotly contested, but its arrival in the next generation consoles and its deployment in key titles up to and including the incredible Cyberpunk 2077 shows that the feature has legs, that it is an important component in a new age of visual fidelity. The feature works on RDNA 2 cards and as it's the same core technology in the consoles, we should expect to see better utilisation of the technology in the future. However, in the here and now, Nvidia has invested more silicon into the feature, accelerates more of the RT pipeline and the improvements in performance are plain and clear to see. Like-for-like, RTX cards are a generation ahead.

Another issue I've had during this review is in how to approach games like Control and Death Stranding, which feature support for DLSS 2.x technology - AI upscaling that has now reached the point where image reconstruction driven by machine learning features is now able to produce better image quality than native rendering. Without DLSS, Death Stranding runs faster on AMD, but with it, Nvidia is a lot faster - and better-looking. The standard modus operandi for a GPU review is to use like-for-like workloads, but this does not approximate how the cards will be used by gamers. Meanwhile, DLSS has proven essential in mitigating the huge computational requirement of ray tracing, as you'll see dramatically when we roll out our Cyberpunk 2077 coverage. AMD has its own Super Resolution feature in development but in a press briefing call, the firm would not share a timescale for the feature's arrival, and how it actually works is still a bit of a mystery. All we do know is that it is not using machine learning features. Again, it puts clear water between Nvidia and AMD offerings.

Looking at the RX 6900 XT specifically, it seems to sit within a band of performance between RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 all told - and that's if we completely forget about ray tracing and DLSS for now. With that in mind, it doesn't quite deliver the range of features and the all-out performance a halo product truly needs to justify its mind-boggling price-point. A $500 haircut over RTX 3090 MSRP is the headline comparison point when really it's the value offered by the RX 6800 XT that is difficult to ignore. Halo pricing only really works if you are delivering the absolute best of the best, and while the RX 6900 XT gets close, it doesn't quite make it - especially when the competition is delivering features that are so compelling.

Nvidia wins again @Paxi.

 

[Fortitude]

@Balljy @Bojan11 or anyone else who might know:

Do you know of any resource that tier lists the 3080's and 3090's, like says which is the best card and does a top 10, or something along those lines?

Ostensibly, is a FTW 3 Ultra better or worse than a Suprim, for example? Is an Aoras Master in their league? etc. etc.

What's the highest rated card(s) outright at the moment?

 

[Balljy]

@Balljy @Bojan11 or anyone else who might know:

Do you know of any resource that tier lists the 3080's and 3090's, like says which is the best card and does a top 10, or something along those lines?

Ostensibly, is a FTW 3 Ultra better or worse than a Suprim, for example? Is an Aoras Master in their league? etc. etc.

What's the highest rated card(s) outright at the moment?

I haven't seen a comparison of all cards yet, especially for the higher end ones. The nearest I found was this:


It's worth saying that all the cards are pretty close together, with the more expensive cards allowing more wattage for the potential of better overclocking. The FTW3 has a 450 watt power max for example compared to the normal 320 to 350 watt. The Suprim and Strix also allow around this. I think if you went for any of the higher end ones like that you wouldn't notice much difference if trying to push them.

One interesting thig I noticed is that on stock, with no changes at all I was drawing over 370 watts when my FTW3 was stretched which would mean that other lower wattage cards are power limited. In the Gamers Nexus review this shows, not in running faster but that the clock speed is a ruler straight line rather than jumping up and down when it hits the power limit on the other cards. Whether this has an impact not sure, but the 400 watt plus cards will keep a more consistent clock speed.

All the cards you mentioned will have better power delivery as they are designed to take more wattage.

Take temperature charts with a pinch of salt as well as some cards run higher temps on the GPU, but lower on the memory whereas some are opposite. The Asus is very low on the GPU itself, but memory runs close to 100 degrees. The FTW3 and Suprim run a bit higher on GPU, but around 75 degrees on memory.

In terms of actual performance there is very little between most of the decent cards and you just need to be lucky with the individual card you can get on how well it performs.

 

[Fortitude]

I haven't seen a comparison of all cards yet, especially for the higher end ones. The nearest I found was this:


It's worth saying that all the cards are pretty close together, with the more expensive cards allowing more wattage for the potential of better overclocking. The FTW3 has a 450 watt power max for example compared to the normal 320 to 350 watt. The Suprim and Strix also allow around this. I think if you went for any of the higher end ones like that you wouldn't notice much difference if trying to push them.

One interesting thig I noticed is that on stock, with no changes at all I was drawing over 370 watts when my FTW3 was stretched which would mean that other lower wattage cards are power limited. In the Gamers Nexus review this shows, not in running faster but that the clock speed is a ruler straight line rather than jumping up and down when it hits the power limit on the other cards. Whether this has an impact not sure, but the 400 watt plus cards will keep a more consistent clock speed.

All the cards you mentioned will have better power delivery as they are designed to take more wattage.

Take temperature charts with a pinch of salt as well as some cards run higher temps on the GPU, but lower on the memory whereas some are opposite. The Asus is very low on the GPU itself, but memory runs close to 100 degrees. The FTW3 and Suprim run a bit higher on GPU, but around 75 degrees on memory.

In terms of actual performance there is very little between most of the decent cards and you just need to be lucky with the individual card you can get on how well it performs.

Thank you for the detailed reply, much appreciated.

Let me ask you directly, then: you walk into a store and have your pick between a Suprim and FTW3 Ultra. Which one do you leave the store with(and why)?

 

[Balljy]

Thank you for the detailed reply, much appreciated.

Let me ask you directly, then: you walk into a store and have your pick between a Suprim and FTW3 Ultra. Which one do you leave the store with(and why)?

I'd go FTW3 but I might be a bit biased!

Suprim Positives:

The Suprim is supposed to run a bit quieter
Slighly higher clock out of the box

FTW3 positives:

The FTW3 is slimmer if space is an issue
Higher max wattage (450 watts compared to I think 420)

The out of the box clock speed is irrelevant if you are going to adjust them anyway. The FTW3 was supposed to be around 1800mhz, but I'm running mine on an undervolt at 2010 mhz. I've heard of people getting coil whine on the Strix by the way, but not on the Suprim or FTW3.