Leaked benchmarks for AMD Radeon RX 480 hits minimum VR spec for $199

[Scisca]

Slimebeast said:

Scisca said:

The window is cool, since I have LED lights on the motherboard, CPU watercooling, even the power supply and I've bought very sexy RAM modules (G.Skill Trident Z). I want the GPU to be the crowning element and I hope it'll match all other elements, since they do match each other.

Yes, that's exactly what I did. I've decided that 2-3 months won't hurt me since I have a lot of older games to play and I was right, since this iGPU is surprisingly good and runs all the games I want to play now at max settings. Right now I'm playing Witcher 1 with many mods and it works like a charm. Dawn of War 2 runs great as well, I'm downloading World of Tanks and I'll see how it works, I plan to play the Mass Effect Trilogy soon and try the Wii emulator out - I expect everything to run smoothly.

Previously I've used a laptop, didn't have a desktop PC at all, as I used to play on consoles. But I'm very happy I've returned to PC gaming.

 

Cool. Is this your first PC you built by yourself?

LED lights, watercooling, flashy looking RAM-sticks... sounds like you've put some money into this PC build. So naturally comes the question about GPU choice. With your budget, shouldn't you be aiming for the $500 price class?

It would be fun to hear how you reason about this, about budget, how much extra it's worth spending on "bling", and about balancing a system.

Yeah, it was my first PC built ever

It did cost a bit, but I've spent some time hunting for deals, so it was quite cheaper than MSRP for these parts

My reasoning was like this: I wanted a good CPU that will last for some time, so I went with the best i5 (i5 6600k), since I don't think I'd benefit from an i7 (I don't edit graphics), so it's not worth the extra money. I bought a gaming motherboard from the Republic of Gamers ASUS line, since gaming boards are of higher quality than regular boards, have better audio, USB 3.1 type A and C and a lot of cool options (I got a couple games, a gaming mouse and 40 Euro payback!) that can help you tremendously while overclocking - I recommend gaming MoBos and I love the ASUS interface.

Since I knew I wanted to wait for Polaris, I had to use the iGPU, so I went with very fast (and cool looking) 2x8GB DDR4 G.Skill Trident Z 3000Mhz CL15 (I got fast RAM, cause the iGPU uses it as VRAM, thus faster RAM makes a difference. I can expand it to 32GB in the future if that's needed). I also went with watercooling, since I don't like a huge, heavy aircoolers hanging in a case - it may even damage the motherboard after all (especially when moving the computer and I am about to move), and I wanted to OC my CPU, since I don't have a GPU yet. I got the Corsair H110i with a 25 Euro rebate and I'm happy I fitted it with the new best fans from Noctua (NF-A14 Industrial 2000 RPM PWM), so that I get great cooling and great temps. I got a modular 850W platinum rank power supply from Super Flower - the company in Taiwan that manufactures the award winning power supplies for EVGA, but since it's not branded as EVGA, they were A LOT cheaper I got a fast 250 GB SSD from Good RAM - the only company that manufactures RAM and storage in Europe instead of Asia and a 3 TB Seagate 7200 RPM HDD for storage. I put it all into a stylish, but conservative case (I'm no longer a teen, so cosmic style isn't for me ) and I went with the Cooler Master Mastercase 5 Pro - awesome case, it allows me to put 6 140 mm fans and have absolutely insane air circulation. Since it's modular, CM plans to release new fronts with new USB formats and even HDMI-out for VR, so it can be connected here instead of the back of the PC! Awesome case, I recommend it, it looks great.

I've decided I wanted an ultrawide monitor with FreeSync (screw G-Sync!). Since these monitors are developing very fast, almost every month a new one hits the market and takes the top spot, but none looks like it will keep the crown for long, I've decided to go for a cheaper monitor till manufacturers reach the ultimate goal in monitors - a curved 34" 144Hz Ultrawide U4K (resolution 5120x2160p) IPS with FreeSync. Till that happens, I'm rocking a 29" IPS 75Hz 2560x1080p FreeSync monitor from LG and I love it. Ultrawide is totally worth it! Once you get it, there's no turning back. I can't imagine using a 16:9 monitor anymore.

Now, why am I thinking about the RX 480 and not something more? I have a FreeSync monitor, so AMD is natural. It seems that RX 480 will be performing almost at the levels of a 980 (maybe almost 980Ti after OC?) and that is an expensive GPU But most importantly, I have a 75Hz monitor, so I won't be seeing more than 75 fps. And since it's still only a bit more pixels than fullHD 1080p, I don't need a 1080 to get that performance even at ultra settings. I plan to change the monitor only when the one I've described above hits the market, so until then I don't need a better GPU. When I upgrade the monitor (in a year or two?), I'll upgrade the GPU and will be fine for years again Until then, all I need from my GPU is to give me 60-75 fps @ 2560x1080p @ ultra settings and I think RX 480 after OC is pretty much there. I'd rather get the RX 480X, but I don't know if it comes out. Vega will most probably be overkill for me, but we'll see.