re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

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If anyone wants a 4080 Super (MSI Ventus), holla

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I'm very mildly tempted, but it's three slot, which wouldn't be compatible with my vertical mount, which would hurt my feelings

But for anyone else, my original complaints about the 4080 (and Super) was one of price, not performance. They are great cards.

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It's a shame that Microcenter here has over 120 5090s in stock and the cheapest one is still $700 above MSRP.

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But at least it being in stock is step 1 of the healing process.

Josh, I built the new rig - 9800x3d and a 9070 XT.

ChatGPT was a big help, once I got the idiot coached out of it. Still need to do benchmarking and thermal tests.

First build in 10 years - the only glitches to speak of were a pinched case fan cable and a loose power connector to the GPU.

9070XT is a nice card, and you can use upscaling that isn’t completely shite.

Definitely recommend you utilize your FSR4 upscaling and also try turning frame gen on. If you do this, you should be able to crank up the ray tracing, probably not path tracing though.

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and also try turning frame gen on.

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I still can't get over the feeling that frame gen is a poor solution in search of the wrong problem. The fine print of each of the frame gen techs is that you should never, ever, ever turn it on unless you are getting at least 60fps already. And if you are... who the frick cares about adding a sloppy frame in between just to smooth things out a little bit more.

As always, I'm a huge fan of upscaling, but I just don't see the current iterations of frame gen being useful to anyone.

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As always, I'm a huge fan of upscaling, but I just don't see the current iterations of frame gen being useful to anyone.

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I can only speak for myself and the times I have used it with my Nvidia card. It works incredibly well and allows me to crank path tracing in cyberpunk at 3840x1600 resolution. I don't perceive any input latency. It's dumb if you are trying to frame gen from like 20-30 frames, but once your base frame rate is around the 50-70 FPS range, you won't really notice the "fake" frames, but you will notice the motion fluidity greatly improved.

As far as the multi frame gen... I can't speak to that, but obviously, the more frames that are generated compared to raster frames, you will be prone to more visual artifacting and worse input latency. But having normal 2x frame gen as an option is honestly great.

Out of curiosity, what’s the price range now to build a pc that’s can run 4k 120 fps for most games

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It kind of depends on what compromises you are making. Is this 4k 120 with a lot of upscaling and frame gen or native/ minimal upscaling and no frame gen? Minimum is like $2k, but if you want 4k 120 with the least amount of compromise it’s $3000-$4000. Also heavily depends on the game. Some newer games can’t even run 4k 120 native on a 5090.

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Very good answer. I’ll add that the consoles have really fricked with people’s perception of performance reality with “dynamic” settings. People think they are getting 4k/120fps on high settings not realizing their console has them running at vastly lower settings to reach the target frame rate.

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Any tips on ensuring my gaming laptop lasts for as long as possible?

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Get comfortably disassembling it every six months or so to clean out the cooling fans of dust. Heat is your primary enemy in laptop longevity. Speaking of, try to avoid ever gaming with with it on soft surfaces like beds, blankets, or your lap if you can. Know where your intake vents are and avoid covering them.

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And how long until I need to upgrade it? (If possible) I’ve got a Acer Predator Helios 18. The specs are: GPU: RTX 4090 • CPU: Intel i9-14900HX • RAM: 64GB DDR5 • Storage: 2TB SSD • Display: 18” 250Hz Mini-LED I primarily play it on my OLED CX.

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As for when you would need to upgrade, that’s almost certainly going to be a GPU focussed question. A laptop 4090 is essentially a lower powered desktop 4080. How long that lasts you is entirely predicated on what you will want to play in the future and at which settings.