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Mummelmann said:

I know that higher resolutions are more taxing on the GPU, my question was whether or not enthusiasts are still mostly stuck at 1080p for gaming? The most expensive CPU usually goes into the most costly systems, which include a beefy GPU. There's not much sense in building/buying a costly system with a poor or mediocre GPU.

I realize that only a minority will buy flagship GPUs, but the same goes for CPUs. How many gamers have the best CPUs you can get in their system? They sort of go hand in hand. And even with this tiny group being that much of a niche; who shouts about 600-700 fps in CS at 1080p? To even own a display that can in any way take advantage of this in any competitive setting is exceedingly rare. I imagine this to be an even smaller group of gamers. I simply don't see the big deal about improved 1080p performance at these levels. 1080p was the resolution I started playing at well over a decade ago (and that was not a very expensive rig).

As for the price of things; 4K gaming is still not anywhere near affordable on PC, the display alone will set you back the same as a complete system in many cases. But 1440p gaming is not very expensive today, my rig does it well and that's almost 6 years old now. Granted, my system was quite expensive when I got it, but building something today that outperforms it should be a breeze at only 1/2-1/3 of the cost or so.

Quick question on the same note, what do people in here consider expensive? How much is an expensive rig? 1000$, 2000$, something in between?

@Marth: If you think going beyond 1080p today is too pricey, you're hardly going to buy a 500$+ CPU, correct? That's sort of the point I'm making. As for why bother and youtube; 4/6 of those videos above are available in both 1440p and 4K, just as an example. Most of my main channels offer at least 1440p videos, and then there are streaming apps, out of the 4 I currently have, only one doesn't offer 4K and that's HBO. I realize that not everyone has a ton to spend on components and upgrades, but that only serves to underline the point I was making. For me, enthusiast-level hardware which offers gains mostly on the lower level of the spectrum of performance makes little sense to celebrate, it's kind of self-defeating from where I'm sitting. This holds equally true for any Intel product as well, of course, just to make that clear.

Many sites review the processors at 1080p (and some even at 720p), so that the CPU becomes the bottleneck and they can test the real capabilities of the CPU. But yeah, nowadays those that game at FullHD are more entry level users that go for a 5600X at best.

As for your question of what's expensive, prices have gone up a notch in the last years but, not counting peripherals, I'd say that an expensive rig would be around 1500-1800 $/€. Anything more than a 2000 is very expensive.

I'd rate then as:

• Entry level_ Around 600-800 $/€. A Quad core CPU with 8Gb of RAM, something like a GTX 1060 or RX 580 and an HDD as storage, maybe even a small SSD for the OS.
• Mid-range_ Around 1000-1200 $/€. We move to a six-core part with 16GB of RAM, a GTX 1660 or RX 5600 and full SSD for storage.
• Enthusiast_ Between 1500-1800 $/€. An 8-core CPU with 16GB of RAM, an RTX 2070 SUPER / RX 5700XT, and NVMe drive for OS and a large SSD for the rest of the storage.
• High-End_More than 2000 $/€. 10-core Intel or 12-core AMD processor with at least 16GB of RAM, an RTX 3080 or RX 6800XT (if they live up to the expectations), large capacity NVMe and SSD drives
• Top of the Line... well, you know what to expect in this build of around 2500 $/€ if not more.