Yes. Yes, I got another computer but I can explain. Well, to be honest the explanation might not be all that satisfying but it IS an explanation. But before we get into what the computer is and what I'm going to do with the old computer I should update for you... and me... what my computer history is.
I've talked a bit here and there about my computers. I started here when I got my first new rig after becoming a nurse. That touched upon my 'current' computer which I estimate was built in 2010. But lets go before that. Lets go WAY back.
My first computer would have to be a Commodore 64 in 1985. I remember the date because my brothers and I were taken to a viewing of the new movie Rocky IV in the theater and my parents used that time to set up a whole new desk/computer/monitor. We were a little late to the party for the computer to have a tape drive (like... audio cassettes!), although those were still a thing. No, our Commie had the standard 1541 disk drive. Mom and Dad also skipped the normal Commie monitor and got a TV/Monitor combo. With the flick of a button we could go from the local news to that glorious glue screen ready to type in LOAD “awsmgme”,8,1.
As a family we had that computer for years. It eventually died and we replaced it with another used Commodore 64. We never did get the newer Commodore 128 even though we all got into playing games on the computer. And doing homework! I remember writing out papers in both Junior High School and High School. Man, printing those out on the dot matrix printer and pulling off the paper feed edges... those were the days!
I don't remember exactly when, but sometime in high school we got an Amiga 500. With what we did with the computer and how we played/worked it was just a logical next step. This would have likely been around 1990 or 1991. I know I replaced it at least once in either my senior year in high school (1991/1992) or my first year in college. But before I went to Ferris State University (May of 1994) I got an Amiga 4000. Technically an Amiga 4000/030. It was my first 'big boy' computer. It had things like an internal hard drive (120 MB baby!), 2 MB of RAM, a keyboard that wasn't part of the computer body and cost thousands of dollars.
That Amiga 4000 was the first computer to ever break my heart. I didn't even own it for a full year before the daughter board died. Between me buying it and the daughter board dying, however, Commodore went out of business. I had no warranty. The repair shop said it wasn't worth repairing and instead tried to sell me a used Amiga 2000.
I was crushed.
I'm fairly certain I got another Amiga 500 as those were going for a couple hundred bucks at the time. And yes, by 1994 I 'needed' a computer.
My next 'real' computer and my first step into windows was in 1996 (I think) and purchased from either Staples or Sears. It was a Compaq Presario. It had a Pentium processor running 166 MHz, 24 MB of RAM, 2.5GB Hard Drive, and a 6X CD Rom.
This computer served me well for years. I did upgrades to keep it up to specs but eventually it just couldn't be upgraded any more. I think it was 1999 that the second journey of computers started. You see, the first stage was buying computers that were self contained. I put down cash and walk out with a fully functioning computer. Yeah, I could upgrade them but the only choice I had in building them was what was on the shelf or what the manufacturer offered. There might be different processors to choose from but I didn't pick the mother board, the specific hard drive, the ram (let alone the ram chips themselves!), or anything else. No, the next chapter was custom built computers.
I believe the second chapter started in 1999 or 2000. I had a friend who ran a custom built computer company (which I later started working for) and together we figured out exactly what I wanted. I unfortunately don't remember specifically what that computer had. I think it had a Pentium II processor but that might have been the first upgrade to the motherboard/processor. I might also be thinking of customers computers as the processor timeline suggests the Pentium 3 was out at that time.
Anyway, it came in a generic beige case that could accommodate generic motherboards. I picked the RAM, the hard drive, the CD-ROM, the everything. And for years that was the foundation of my computers as that case didn't change. I upgraded the processor until I couldn't put any newer processors on that motherboard. Then I'd change the motherboard. When I ran out of hard drive space, I just added another hard drive. When the hard drive became slow, I backed it up, slipped it out, and put a new one in. Games won't run? Put a video card in!
At some point I ended up where I started on this blog. I believe this last 'build' was from 2010 (Hey... keeping a computer going for ten years is pretty damned good!).
I'm going to keep these listings consistent:
- Processor including brand, line, and speed
- Processor cooler
- Video card
- RAM including speed
- Hard drives including type (M.2, SSD, HD)
- Motherboard
- Power Supply
- Case
- Monitor
- I'll also throw in major Keyboard/Mouse/Speaker/Headset upgrades, but those are many and I won't include all those updates.
- The cost to the best of my knowledge
- AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2 GHz
- Air Cooler (don't remember which)
- EVGA GeForce 465 1 GB
- 8 GB DDR3 1600 (unknown brand)
- 500 GB Western Digital 'Caviar Blue' 7200 RPM
- 750 GB Western Digital 'Caviar Black' 7200 RPM
- ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870
- Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 700w 80 Plus Bronze
- That Beige Monstrosity
- Samsung 24" SyncMaster 2433BW 1920x1200
- Microsoft Sidewinder X5 Mouse, Logitech G710 Plus keyboard, Bose Companion 2 Series 1 speakers, Razer Tiamat 2.2 headset.
November 2014
This was my first 'new' computer since 2000. My first build as a nurse where I could 'throw' money at it.
- Intel Core i5 4690K 3.9 GHz
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Air Cooler
- EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked 4 GB
- 16 GB DDR3 1600
- 512 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
- 500 GB Western Digital 'Caviar Blue' 7200 RPM
- 750 GB Western Digital 'Caviar Black' 7200 RPM
- ASRock Z97 Extreme6 LGA 1150
- SeaSonic 650W 80 Plus Gold
- Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl
- Samsung 24" SyncMaster 2433BW 1920x1200
- Same peripherals
- $1,396.58
February 2016
I upgraded the monitor to an Acer 34" 21:9 XR341CK 3440x1440. It cost about $1000.
August 2017
The old computer had a problem. Instead of doing a deep dive diagnostic, I fixed it by replacing almost everything that could have been broken.
- Intel Core i5 7600K 4.2 GHz (overclocked to 4.7 GHz)
- Corsair H 60 All In One (AIO) (my first Liquid CPU Cooler)
- EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Superclocked 2 8 GB DDR5
- 16 GB DDR4 2400 Hyper X Predator
- 512 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
- 500 GB Western Digital 'Caviar Blue' 7200 RPM
- 750 GB Western Digital 'Caviar Black' 7200 RPM
- ASUS ROG Strix Z270G
- SeaSonic 650W 80 Plus Gold
- Fractal Design Define C
- Acer 34" 21:9 XR341CK 3440x1440
- Razer mamba Tournament Edition mouse, Logitech G810 Orion RGB mechanical keyboard, same speakers and headset
- $1,366.52
October 2018
This one really pissed me off as the previous system was made to fix a problem. Then another problem crops up about a year later. Looking at the same thing, a long diagnostic, I decided to go further and use a boutique computer builder. Origin PC.
- Intel Core i5 8600K 4.3 GHz (overclocked to 5.0 GHz)
- Origin 240mm AIO
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition 8 GB (overclocked)
- 16 GB DDR4 2933 Hyper X Predator RGB
- 500 GB Samsung 970 EVO 500 GB M.2 SSD
- 1 TB Samsung 960 EVO SSD
- ASUS ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming Wifi AC
- EVGA SuperNOVA G3 80 Plus Gold
- Origin Neuron custom painted yellow
- The photo isn't my computer but damn it looks almost exactly like mine!
- Acer 34" 21:9 XR341CK 3440x1440
- Logitech G903 wireless mouse, same keyboard, Kanto YU2 speakers with Kanto sub6, and same headset
- $3,809.49
May 2021
I just wanted to upgrade the computer. If I could have got a RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 video card I would have. But I couldn't and found the NZXT BLD system would put one into a new computer. So...
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 4.7 GHz
- NZXT 240mm Kraken Z63 LCD
- EVGA FTW 3 Ultra GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB
- 16 GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal RGB
- 1 TB Seagate Firecuda 520 M.2 SSD (PCIe Gen4)
- 1 TB Seagate Barracuda 510 M.2 SSD (PCIe Gen3)
- MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge Wifi
- NZXT C1000 1000w 80 Plus Gold
- NZXT H510
- Acer 34" 21:9 XR341CK 3440x1440
- Logitech G703 Lightspeed wireless mouse, Logitech G915 Lightspeed wireless keyboard, same speakers, and SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless headset
- $3,173.53
April 2022
With the 3080 for great gaming and watching more movies at my computer I bought a 48" LG C1 4K OLED TV. It makes a HUGE monitor and games at 120 Hz in 4K. As the new series was just coming out I got it for the great price of $1000.
With the 3080 for great gaming and watching more movies at my computer I bought a 48" LG C1 4K OLED TV. It makes a HUGE monitor and games at 120 Hz in 4K. As the new series was just coming out I got it for the great price of $1000.
May 2022
I finally after all these years started bumping up against the 16 GB of RAM. Was it Photoshop? Games? Running iTunes, Discord, Word, Excel, MS Phone, and other programs at once? No, no, and no. What finally pushed me over the edge was running to many tabs in Google Chrome. Fucking Internet. As I liked the look of the Royal Ram I got a kit with 32 GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal Elite RGB. I got the 4 8 GB chips as I liked the look of filling up the motherboard. That set me back about $300.
Before I move on to the new computer, let's take a look at this history. I'll admit, overall I like it. I think I made good choices along the way. For instance, you'll see that while I got high end overclockable Core i5 and Ryzen 7 processors, I didn't overspend for Core i7, Core i9, or Ryzen 9 processors. I just don't perform tasks that will take advantage of those.
Video card wise, I kept about the same path. I went with the 70 series when the 80 series was king and then the 80 series when the Titan or 90 series was king. That worked out fine... but more on that later.
RAM and hard drives were kept sizable but not overly so. I generally had about 40% of my hard drives open. Even now, I have about 30% of my 2 TB free. I barely got over 16 GB or RAM usage so 32 GB is great. And the speed of those devices were good but not class leading. I could have paid a lot more to run a hard drive raid and got more speed or run exotically fast RAM... but I kept my cool and went with far more 'upper end' mainstream.
The 2014 build was probably my favorite. It was the first clean start in over a decade and the first time I didn't look at cost of components while picking them out. If you remember my post about it, I set a price in my mind of $1500 and even shipping didn't tip me over that limit.
The 2017 build was marred by me being angry about it. I wished I had the time to really diagnose it. I had the money to buy replacement parts one by one... but I didn't have the days/weeks that would take. Each 'test' piece would be at least a week (more than likely two) so that I could do it on the weekends. But I did get to experiment with water cooling for the first time and went mini ATX. I do like the smaller computers, although heat is becoming an issue again (more on that later).
The 2018 was probably my most difficult time. After doing my own computers for 18 years or so, I finally had someone else build it. And then when I picked what I thought was the best company, they took almost two months to get it into my hands. I didn't help that process by waiting a week for a new processor to come out and for ordering a custom paint job.... but most of that wait is on them. That being said, that computer was FREAKING AWESOME! it looked sweet, was my first computer with a side window, and ran so very fast.
And it would probably still be my current computer if it wasn't for the whole video card crisis the last few years. I had bumped up against the RTX 2080 pretty hard and wanted to upgrade to a 3080. The fact that I couldn't get a video card only held me back for so long. Looking back at it, that processor would still be running okay (probably at the end of its life now) and I could have upgraded the video card, the RAM and even the hard drives (probably just would have added another hard drive). But NZXT held the golden ticket of offering the video card I couldn't otherwise get, so long as I built a new system.
The 2021 system was wonderful and bad at the same time. I would never have chosen this case. I might have gone with the cooler but probably would have gone with a different brand. I'd certainly have gotten a different motherboard and power supply and would have stayed with Samsung hard drives instead of Seagate, but none of those were possible. NZXT was great in they only offered what they had on the shelves, but they just didn't have what I wanted on the shelves. Ironically that bit me on the video card too and was eventually the computers downfall.
Yes, at the time I was happy with the EVGA 3080 even though I could have gotten a 3090 Founders Edition. Gaming on my 3440x1440 21:9 Acer monitor was great on the 3080. Every game was smooth as butter and if it wasn't over the max 75 Hz my monitor was capable of, it was at least well above 60 Hz. It was good enough that I figured I could game in 4K. I was almost right.
When I upgraded the monitor, games in 4K were now just barely above 60 fps. Some, when set to ultra graphics settings, were dipping below that magic number. And then came Red Dead Redemption 2. When setting up the graphics for it I bumped into the 10 GB limit of the video card. I literally couldn't set the settings all the way up. Almost all the way up wasn't good enough. And that was right about the time that rumors of the 4000 series of video cards was ramping up.
And worst of all, it wasn't just the length. because of the special adapter cable that all the cards need, the height of the card is ridiculous. I knew I'd have to get a bigger case to accommodate its length but I also needed to upgrade to an almost full size case just to get the width I'd need. It was a little upsetting as I didn't need the extra height. I liked that my case was 'short' as I wasn't using a 360mm cooler and didn't have any cards beyond the video card. But, at the end of the day, it is what it is and unless I wanted to just buy a whole new computer I'd need to get a new computer case to accommodate a 4090 card.
I settled on the Corsair 5000X. It had the length and width I needed (and extra height of course), was 'pretty' and came with not only several RGB fans (something I've wanted for awhile) but a fan controller. So that was the plan... wait for the final reviews to make sure it wasn't a dud upon release (even with my financial irresponsibility I didn't want to just throw away $1600 on a dud video card), then order one (preferably the Founders Edition but most any that weren't 'extra' overclocked would be fine) along with the Corsair case and a couple extra RGB fans to replace the ones on my cooler and the back of the case. Once it all came in, I'd take a couple days on my upcoming vacation to tear my computer apart, pull out the motherboard (with the processor, memory, and hard drives still attached), cooler, and power supply and put them all in the new case with the new fans. It would only be a few moments to install the new drivers and set up the fans RGBness and I'd be ready to roll.
When the reviews came out it was more impressive than I'd expected. All the reviewers confirmed the lofty claims Nvidia gave. There would be a 30 to 50% gain in frames per second over the 3090Ti. The 3090Ti already had a good 15% gain over my 3080, so this would be a HUGE gain for me. In addition to that, the card comes with 24GB of memory so I wouldn't be bumping into any memory issues my current 10GB had me in. And this release was even better as they were only releasing the $1600 4090. The less expensive 4080s were coming out next month. That means there would be less 'upselling' to people who wanted a 4080 but moved to the 4090 when the 4080 was out of stock. Add that to the fact that the crypto system had crashed and video cards were normal priced and not overpriced like they'd been most of the past two years and it should be easy to get one. Right?
Big Fat Wrong!
When I got back from work, watched a couple reviews, and decided to go ahead and buy it... they were all out of stock. Best Buy, Newegg, B&H Photo, Microcenter... everywhere. Amazon wasn't even listing them yet. FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!!!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!!
That was October 12th. If you recall from the previous post I was feeling very sick that day. Sore throat, congestion, runny nose... COVID-19 like symptoms. I'd tested negative the past few days though so my next few days were going to look like this; October 13th I'd have off. I'd work the weekend (the 14th through the 17th) with the 18th off. Then work three more days until the 21st and have the next week off (the 22nd through the 30th). I figured I'd wait until I was off on vacation to see what stock looked like then. Hopefully this was just first day excitement and stock would return fairly quickly. I could order it that Saturday, have it delivered Monday or Tuesday, put it together Wednesday, and still get to play with it Thursday through Sunday.
And then COVID-19 really entered the story. The next day (Thursday the 13th) I tested positive. Guidelines and rules at work said I'd have to be off between 7 and 10 days. I'm out of sick time because of the migraines but because it's policy that I be away I can use annual leave. That's great and all, but I'd rather not spend all my annual leave like this. I'd be using 40 hours for the COVID week, 40 hours for my 'vacation' (really more of a staycation as I wasn't going anywhere and just going to enjoy a week away from work) the next week, and then another 40 hours for a week in November (where I'm actually planning a trip). I tell you all this because if I felt okay during most of that COVID week, I would probably be able to return to work and forego my vacation.
That affected my video card thinking though. My time off started at that point. I now had a little over a week to get new equipment, rebuild the computer, and get to playing... but stock was out. Assuming it came in the next weekend, I'd be back at work. In other words I couldn't get the new video card, rebuild the computer, and enjoy it. Unless...
Unless I did what I did last year. Friday morning I looked through at system builders thinking it would be unlikely they'd have them in stock. Well... most of them did. Origin, CLX, and Maingear all had them in stock but would take over a week to build and ship a computer. NZXT though not only had them in stock but if I put an order in by 1300 would have it shipped out the same day. Add in expedited shipping and I could have this on Monday.
$1600 for a video card. $200 for a new case. $120 for new fans. This was already going to be very expensive at $1920 and an afternoon rebuilding the computer. Now I was looking down the barrel at a new computer INCLUDING the most expensive video card I've ever looked at. Having a clock ticking over my head (order it by 1300 and play on Monday!) made this worse. So I looked.
My first thought was to just go with the same or as close to it as I have. BUT while they had some Ryzen 5000 processors, they were all below my current 5800X. I wasn't going to take a step back. As the Ryzen 7000 processors had just come out and the Intel 13th gen processors hadn't come out yet, I figured I'd look at returning to Intel. But that quickly looked bad. They had the i9 12900K or the i5 12600K. They didn't have the i7 12700K, so either well over my 5800X or well under it. I played a bit with the 12900K processor but it's clearly more expensive than what I want for performance I just won't take advantage of.
Next up was the Ryzen 7000 series. They had the two top dogs, the Ryzen 9 7950X and the Ryzen 9 7900X and the equivalent to mine, the Ryzen 7 7700X (why they went with 7700 instead of 7800 I don't know). Considering the 7700 as the base the next two processors went up in $150 increments. Just for shits and giggles I started with the 7900 (if I'm honestly considering a new computer when I absolutely don't need it, why not go a little crazy? amiright?). The new Ryzen processors require DDR5 and they only offered a single 32GB kit so that was easy. They only had a single 4900 available (from Gigabyte... gag) so that was easy. I looked at the two motherboards and while I wouldn't have picked either, there was a clear winner so I picked that. I had to go with the bigger case (the shopping system is smart enough to not allow the smaller case!) so I went ahead and got the 'pretty' one. It's no Corsair 5000X but it does have three RGB fans in front with a glass panel to see them through and includes the fan/RGB controller. I went with the bigger 360mm cooler as the Ryzen 7000 processors are supposed to run hot. There was only one power supply with enough oomph to push the 4090 so that again was easy. Thankfully the hard drives were better than my last NZXT experience. No more Seagate. I through a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro as a boot drive and a 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus drive in as a storage drive. A 1TB upgrade in storage as well as a speed bump in the boot drive.
I added the rush build option to get it shipped out that day and the expedited shipping to make sure I'd have it in my hot little hands as quickly as possible and.... it was too expensive. I talk a big game when it comes to my cash but this was going to go on my credit card and my credit card has taken a beating these last few months. I've been pushing all my extra money toward paying off Mom's car as that would free up $300 a month to put back to the credit card later, so I hadn't been paying it off as quickly as I wanted. I did have some extra cash in my savings account and could throw that on the credit card but unless I emptied my savings, this was too much. I mean... by like $400. That's SOOO close!
In for a penny, in for $4500. Right?
I started the build over. I went down to the R7 7700. I took the cooler down from the 360mm LED screen to the 240mm RGB (I can't see the screen from where I sit anyway so that was always a luxury I couldn't take advantage of). The hard drive took care of itself as the 980 PRO 1TB edition went out of stock in that little amount of time, so I went with a single 970 2TB drive knowing I could always pull my Seagate 1TB Firecuda out for a faster boot drive. That, along with an extra big payment to the credit card did it.
I didn't take to much time to consider it as most of the thinking had been done early. That and the fact that NZXT does not kid around about stock levels. Both the processor and the video card showed the 'low stock' warning. I hit that buy button and bought me a new computer. My most expensive one by far.
Later that day I got the notice that not only was the computer was built, it was being shipped. Even got the confirmation from UPS that it would be delivered on Monday. The one thing that changed that evening was me thinking about the hard drives. Everything on this system was an upgrade... except the hard drive. That really does get under my skin. And the more I thought about it, the more I was getting worried about pulling my Seagate Firecuda drive out of my current system. For one, I don't know where its installed. There's a good chance that it's on the BACK of the motherboard.
While I was chatting with some DX friends on Discord they got me to admit that 2 TB just wasn't enough. So I went and found a 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro and ordered it (on a different credit card). That means my computer will be:
October 2022
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz- NZXT 240mm Kraken X63 RGB
- Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC 24GB
- 32 GB DDR5 6000 G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB
- 2 TB Samsung 980 PRO M.2 SSD (PCIe Gen4)
- 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD (PCIe Gen3)
- MSI Pro X670-P WiFi
- Seasonic Focus GX 1000W 80 Plus Gold
- NZXT H7 Elite
- No change in monitor or peripherals
- $4,571.68
Realistically that should be about $4300 but the Rush order and expedited delivery fees were both expensive.
Ironically half way through writing this post, the computer was delivered. When it came in it wasn't quite as easy as plugging it in and running it as I had the hard drive shenanigans to go through. So first was opening it up, removing the shipping foam, pulling the 970 drive out, and putting the 980 in. I wanted just the one drive in as I would have to install Windows and didn't want it to screw up and install to the wrong drive and end up booting off the 970 (hey, it's happened before!). Lemme tell you, this is a heavy beast so putting it under my desk and connecting all the cables so I could install Windows wasn't exactly the best. Even if I wasn't sick, it would have sucked. But, I got Windows installed and fought the strong urge to start updating it so that I could finish the hardware side. I unhooked it, pulled it back up, and installed the 970. I then removed my old PC and put the new one in its new home. Hooked all the wires up, removed the plastic over the tempered glass panels and booted into the BIOS. I wanted to confirm that the drives were in the right boot order and also confirmed that the memory was properly clocked to its 6000 speed. With all that done, I spent the rest of the day doing that dance I do. Update windows, install drivers, install all the light software, install my main programs, configure windows the way I like, get my graphics back in place, let Onedrive restore my files from the cloud, and finally install the games and benchmarking utilities.
At that point I knew I was near the end of the night. The last setup process was to move my data from my storage drive to the new storage drive. I'd backed it up over the weekend using my portable drive which is fast for a USB drive, but it's still just about a TB of data. Through USB. It takes a couple hours. I wanted to be in bed before that so I skipped ahead to the fun part and did the comparative benchmarking.
Spoiler alert, this beast is FAST!
Not only the graphics, but the processor, the memory, and the hard drives. The programs I used for benchmarking are 3D Mark (Port Royal, Time Spy Extreme, Storage, and CPU tests), Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Red Dead Redemption. There are plenty of games I could use, but those three were obvious choices as RDR2 was the main reason to upgrade and both ACV and FC6 pushed the 3080 pretty hard. Here are the benchmarks:
CPU:
Storage:
Time Spy Extreme:
Port Royal:
Assassin's Creed Valhalla:
Far Cry 6
Red Dead Redemption II:
Wow. The 15% increase in the processor was expected. It's a single generation at the same level. The storage increase of almost 50% was unexpected. I knew the 980 was faster than the Firecuda but I didn't expect that big of an increase. Sadly, while it will be nice knowing I'm faster, I probably won't notice that speed difference. Its hard to notice the speed difference between a SATA SSD and an M.2 SSD, let alone a Gen3 vs a Gen4.
Timespy measures regular rasterization (non ray tracing elements). Damn!!! An almost 80% increase!! But the star of the show is that Port Royal with its 92% increase!!!! BTW, pay no attention to where it says I'm lower than average. The 4090 is new and there are a bunch of people overclocking them to get to the top of the board. That will average out as more people just benchmark their board like I am (the same was true of the 3080).
Synthetics are nice, but games are where its at. If I'm honest, I won't notice the difference in most games. I was already over 100 frames per second in most games I was playing. Remember, my monitor can only go to 120 frames per second. These three were the ones that really pushed the 3080. I want 60 frames per second or faster as that's when it looks smooth. And yes, I'm still a graphics snob and refuse to set the graphics setting down to get frames per second. Now, both AC Valhalla and Far Cry 6 were above 60 frames per second but not by a lot. They'd hit enough areas that dipped lower so that I'd notice it. It wasn't bad enough to not play, but it was noticeable. The increase in both of these games is great. And as you can see, I was pushing the memory on the 3080s 10GB in both games. With 24 GB to work with I should be just fine with the next Assassin's Creed and Far Cry games.
And then there was Red. Red Dead Redemption is one of the hardest tests for video cards. It has a LOT of graphics settings and is a HUGE world. Where all previous benchmarking comparisons are apples to apples, this one isn't. First, I couldn't set all the graphics settings to their highest as it took more than 10GB of video card memory. That's what started this whole tirade in the beginning. But worse, even when I backed them off to the point that it didn't eat every GB of memory, I still got bad results. Like below 30 fps bad. So to even play I had to reduce some settings AND use DLSS.
A quick word about DLSS. It's an Nvidia technology (AMD has a similar one called FSR) where the graphic card will render the game in a lower resolution (say in 1440) then using an AI algorithm upscales it to your display resolution (say 4K). I, personally, would think that would actually take more processing power than just rendering it at the 4K resolution but I'm wrong. This technology gives you extra frames per second with very minimal degraded graphics. By minimal I mean you have to pause the game and peek at the pixels to see the difference. It's that good. The current system is DLSS 2.0 (more on 3.0 in a bit). Now you can use lower and lower resolution to start with and it will go faster and faster, but obviously you get more degraded graphics when upscaling a 720 image vs a 1440 image. In the games they normally don't give you numbers and instead just use words like "DLSS Quality" and "DLSS Performance".
To get RDR2 to that 60 fps on the 3080 I not only had to reduce the graphics settings to begin with I had to use the 2nd to most extreme DLSS setting "Ultra performance". I'd say I noticed it, but I never got to see the game without it. I just knew it was there. Sure, it was very playable (I put 16 hours in so far!) but it was really bothering me. In comparison, the 100 fps on the 4090 was achieved with all the graphics settings turned all the way up and the DLSS (yes, it's still needed!!!) to the least extreme setting "Quality". I'm incredibly impressed with that result as I know I'll notice the extra frames per second and will probably notice the increase in graphics.
There are two things to come. Cyberpunk 2077 and a new game to play and enjoy.
Cyberpunk 2077 must be this generations Crysis (But can it play Crysis?!!). Not only was the game broken when it came out, it was so graphicly intense that I couldn't get it playable on my 2080 with any of the ray tracing turned on. When I got the 3080 and tried it, it was much like RDR2 in that I could get it going but only with reduced graphics and DLSS. And even then, the game was still broken so I didn't bother with it. Well, according to a lot of articles I've seen, they fixed it. It plays just fine now. But its still the king of graphically intense games. With the graphics turned all the way up and without DLSS a 4090 will still get well below 60 frames per second. Like around 30fps average. That's unplayable. Even with extreme DLSS it will get just above 60 fps. But enter DLSS 3.0. It's a new feature for the 4000 cards and evidently is more hard ware based (they way it won't work on older cards, but it looks like that's just wrong. Time will tell.) and is supposed to be (pun intended) a game changer.
Evidently once DLSS 3.0 is out and optimized for Cyberpunk 2077 a 4090 will be able to play it with the best graphics setting at well over 100 frames per second (they showed a scene running at 144 fps). But while they showed it off at the presentation of the cards, it's not out yet. "Soon" is all they'll say. I imagine it will be like when DLSS first came out and when they upgraded it to DLSS 2.0. It'll take a bit to get games on board, but they'll come faster and faster and eventually support it upon release (Gotham Knights is supposed to support it from the get go).
That leave a new game. I do want to play RDR2, but just about every time I get a new upgrade, a new computer, and especially a new video card, I get a new game to celebrate. I looked over at games that will truly take advantage of the 4090 and quickly found one that fit my wants. It was released this year, is a PC game and not a port from the playstation, is a game franchise I've played before and a game style I like.
Hitman III
Evidently the 4090 is the first card that can play it in 4K with the graphics set all the way up and get over 60 frames per second without DLSS. The 3090 and 3090Ti were only able to get that with heavy DLSS. So last night I downloaded the Demo and will try it out today or tomorrow. The best thing though is that if I like it and decide to buy the whole thing, it's on sale this week. It's normally $59.99 for the standard game and is on sale for $23.99 through this weekend. The deluxe is a similar $89.99 to $35.99 sale or even the whole Hitman trilogy at a normal $99.99 to $39.99 sale. I'm sure I'll let you know later how it goes!
One last thing. I want to emphasize just how freaking BIG these 4090 video cards are. The Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC in mine is about mid range when it comes to size. There are bigger and there are smaller.
Here is the case my computer is in (technically this is an H7 Flow, but they're the same from this angle) with a Gigabyte RTX 2070. Not a small video card by any means:
Now this photo I took of mine is at a slightly different angle, but you can clearly see the size difference:
Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the new computer for now.
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