Support NeoGAF

[zomboden]

My first thread hopefully this kind of discussion is allowed. (If not, apologies)
So I've been using my current PC since I bought it years ago. It's got i5 4590, 16gb DDR3 ram, and a 1060 6gb graphics card.
To play modern games I've been using Xbox Series X. But recently I've been playing games on Geforce Now ($20 a month, and you get access to a 3080/4080 PC. The catch is there's latency and the catalogue is very limited).
Path of Exile's new league and Dark & Darker's play test has really started to show my PC's age.

The games I'm looking forward to most are Starfield, and Diablo 4. And I could play both of those on my Series X. But Diablo especially I feel like should be played on PC with KB&M.
I've tried Path of Exile on console and I think the controller gameplay doesn't work well for an ARPG like that.
I've been eyeing a 4070 Ti PC with i7 13700K and 32gb of DDR5 ram. I see this kind of PC on newegg for around $2500 USD. I'd prefer not to build my own but I am comfortable building one (I built this current one).

I was originally looking at 3060 ti pc's for around $1200 USD but I would have to play at a non-native resolution on this monitor or swap to a 1440 or 1080 monitor. Playing games at 1080/1440 on this monitor looks exceptionally worse than native 4k. I think it has to do with pixels not scaling down/lining up properly. Would look fine on a native 1080/1440 monitor.

Monitor is this https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/243b1554

I want to play MMO's and things like that(Throne&Liberty, Blue Protocol, etc. when it comes out). And with Microsoft's current trajectory with PC game pass(and day one games on pc), no console exclusives, etc. There really doesn't seem to be a reason why I would exclusively play on the Xbox unless it's all I had.

Am I making the right decision? Should I be looking at a different type of PC configuration for better value?

Is the 4070 ti going to be alright for 4K gaming for awhile? Should I save up and buy a 4080 or 4090 instead? (I'm not very wealthy so $2500 did take a bit of saving).
I just want to be able to comfortably play games at 4K for at least 3-4 years to come. I think that's worth the investment for me.
Just looking for any thoughts. Thanks for taking your time and reading.

Spoiler: Update

Thanks for the replies everyone. Couple things to note here.
1st thing is I already own the monitor, bought it a couple years ago with Xbox in mind. 4k at 60hz. I prefer IPS over VA panels. I have had terrible experiences with ghosting/motion blur on VA panels. Being able to afford an OLED display would be nice but I don't think I like VA panels unless the more expensive ones don't have that motion smearing. I know 4k is a waste of horsepower when it comes to PC gaming.

2nd thing is my experience with console ARPG gaming is with Path of Exile. I'm currently at like 32 challenges in the Sanctum league and I am very used to the accuracy of the KB&M over the controller. Playing Path of Exile on controller is a nightmare for me. It's cozy sure but you lose a lot of speed and accuracy that way. Maybe Diablo will be more optimized with controller gaming in mind.

Honestly, since I've made the thread I've been watching some gameplay of Hogwarts on ps5/series x/s vs PC and whilst originally in my mind I compared the beefier consoles to a 2060 super, it seems like these developers are able to squeeze more horsepower out of them. It's quite impressive to see the 60-100 fps that the consoles can get with albeit a kind of blurry resolution.

Also note: Hogwarts uses like 20-22 gb of ram on PC. lol wtf

At this point my mind has swapped to either buying the 1200 3060ti PC (or like $1000 for a 3060 one) and pairing it with the console and just using the PC for Diablo 4 or anything I think is better or is exclusive to being played on pc. But I need to ditch the 4k display as my main monitor. Use it as a side monitor perhaps.

 

[flying_sq]

I always build my own because it's cheaper and I enjoy it, never had any issues. If you don't want to, I get it, I build friends' PCs too. I would not get that monitor, personally speaking I wouldn't get anything lower than a 1440p 120hz display, then downsample from 4k and use dlss. Not sure how technical you are, but check out Gamers Nexus on youtube, great component reviews. I think they recommend the 12600 or 13600 depending on the price gap between the two when it comes to games. If you do end up building a PC, I cannot stress enough, that if it is possible, buy it from Micro Center with a warranty. It will cost you I think 120-150 depending on the price of the GPU, but it is a 2 year, no questions asked warranty. I picked up an overpriced 6900xt at $1600, then when 3090ti came in stock, I picked up a 3090ti at $1500. They give you a giftcard worth the value of your GPU minus the warranty cost, then you just go get any new GPU from the store, and re up the warranty.

Basically I paid a bunch of money upfront, now I just pay either the cost of the new warranty when I get a new card, or the difference in price between the giftcard amount and the warranty. I'm probably going to upgrade to a 4090 or a 4090ti. Going to the 4090 price, I have about $100 left in giftcard money from my warranty, so I would get the full amount for the 3090ti back plus tax, then but a 4090 at $1600-$1800 and only pay at max $350. Its honestly the best way to buy a new GPU, I think the CPU is the samething.

 

[Slimboy Fat]

Get a less beefy PC and a 1080p or 1440p monitor with a high refresh rate. It will probably be cheaper overall and it will be more enjoyable for gaming

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Isn't Diablo better on controller?

At least Diablo 3 felt to me.

 

[Sentenza]

First advice: a PC isn't just a console with beefier specs.
Use the chance to familiarize with a lot of PC-centric (or even PC-exclusive) experiences. There's a lot to like past multiplatform titles.

Second one: 4K is... sub-optimal. Go for 1440p and higher refresh rate.

 

[names are for friends]

If I was buying for economy right now, I'd probably go with a Ryzen 5600, a relatively cheap board with 4 ram slots for upgradeability and 2x8GB sticks of whatever cheap (non-junk XMP frequency&timings) OEM b-die I could find... or just some cheap RAM in general, it doesn't matter that much. Then I'd buy a decent M.2 drive with at least enough storage for the OS and commonly-played games. Probably I'd pair it with... holy crap, a 3080 is £690 right now at retail? 3070 is £530?! Maybe look to the used market, then. Regional pricing varies but I'm seeing RTX 3070's selling at around £380 or so on Ebay here and that's not terrible, if you're okay with buying used. Only problem is that framebuffer... but that's an issue you have to deal with when it comes to Nvidia. Maybe look at a 3080 instead depending on the price difference. I heavily advise not buying retail right now if retail prices are similar elsewhere. I have a 4070 Ti and it's a great card but it's not £800 of great card.

edit: Radeon 6700 XT might be an okay buy if you can find one cheap, it's basically on par with 3070 for rasterisation but sucks at RT and doesn't have DLSS. They're a little cheaper than 3070 here, priced more in line with the 3060 Ti. edit2: also it's worth pointing out that the Nvidia cards perform proportionally better at 4K, if that's where you want to go

You might bemoan that this isn't as "future proof" since it's not DDR5, but... by the time it matters all that much the system will be dated in general. And if you're intent on running at 60Hz (foolishness, by the way) then you REALLY don't need a powerful CPU. A 12400F is also perfectly sufficient if you want to go the route of future proofing.

I would personally recommend getting a better monitor. 60Hz on a washed-out IPS screen is no way to play. Buying a powerful card with that kind of display is whacked-out priorities. I personally think that the Samsung Odyssey G7 (curved VA model) is the best display you can buy for gaming without going to a crazy expense, but I guess it's still pretty expensive... but anyway, remember that your display is basically as important as your graphics card if you care about visuals & playability, and resolution isn't the most important thing (though I'll admit, 4K is nice)

 

[Nocturno999]

I think we are coming to a point where a 1080p monitor with high refresh rate is not a bad idea.

PC hardware is slowing down while prices keep getting worse.

I have doubts that a 4070ti will last you for 4k gaming.

 

[mrmustard]

Like others i would go for a cheaper 1440p solution with high refresh rate. Get a decent system for 1.5k and a nice VA monitor with 144hz.

Also Diablo 3 with a controller works great, so great that i can't imagine playing Diablo 4 without one.

 

[zomboden]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Couple things to note here.
1st thing is I already own the monitor, bought it a couple years ago with Xbox in mind. 4k at 60hz. I prefer IPS over VA panels. I have had terrible experiences with ghosting/motion blur on VA panels. Being able to afford an OLED display would be nice but I don't think I like VA panels unless the more expensive ones don't have that motion smearing. I know 4k is a waste of horsepower when it comes to PC gaming.

2nd thing is my experience with console ARPG gaming is with Path of Exile. I'm currently at like 32 challenges in the Sanctum league and I am very used to the accuracy of the KB&M over the controller. Playing Path of Exile on controller is a nightmare for me. It's cozy sure but you lose a lot of speed and accuracy that way. Maybe Diablo will be more optimized with controller gaming in mind.

Honestly, since I've made the thread I've been watching some gameplay of Hogwarts on ps5/series x/s vs PC and whilst originally in my mind I compared the beefier consoles to a 2060 super, it seems like these developers are able to squeeze more horsepower out of them. It's quite impressive to see the 60-100 fps that the consoles can get with albeit a kind of blurry resolution.

Also note: Hogwarts uses like 20-22 gb of ram on PC. lol wtf

At this point my mind has swapped to either buying the 1200 3060ti PC (or like $1000 for a 3060 one) and pairing it with the console and just using the PC for Diablo 4 or anything I think is better or is exclusive to being played on pc. But I need to ditch the 4k display as my main monitor. Use it as a side monitor perhaps.