Been stuck in the weirdest limbo for half a year now and I literally still don't know what to do. It's doing my head in actually. Pretty much ever since the pandemic broke out I've been meaning to buy a nice mid range (gaming) PC.
Currently all I own is two laptops with no GPU, an iPad and a PS4. Last PC build I ever did myself was an AMD X2 4200 with a 7800GT and 2GB's of RAM, that was back in 2006.
Not in the mood to actually build it myself this time since it's been so long ago. Also not in the mood to visit various shops to get the best price on every part, and then ask a friend to build it for me because of the weird pandemic situation. So I'm planning on just ordering the things online I want from the biggest and most reliable PC store in my country, have them build it for me, and pick the thing up with my car when it's ready.
The problem is though, I'm completely lost in terms of what GPU I should buy. No scenario/choice actually makes any sense at the moment. To give some examples:
I need a new case, a new PSU, a new Windows 10 license key since I have none of those things right now, and there's the fee for putting the parts together. So I was thinking I buy a nice case + at least a 650W or even a good 750W PSU because I can re-use those things in two or three years if I'd ever wanted to upgrade. But together with a Windows 10 key and assembly costs these four things will cost around 400 euro.
So I buy a B550 mobo, a 3600 ryzen,16 or 32 GB's of Ram, 1TB SSD. This is around 500-550 euro.
And then the GPU. The only game I've put serious time in over the last two years is Apex Legends, and in general I'm only interested in playing 1080p FPS type of games right now, so Apex, CoD, etc. The problem is though, I've watched a shiteload of benchmark videos. And the RTX 2060 or even the 5600xt don't run Apex Legends perfectly smooth at 144 fps on the highest settings. It seems you need at least a 2060 Super or 5700 (XT) to get it perfect on the highest settings without frames ever dropping below 144 per second. All those GPU's I mentioned also cost more than 6 months ago due to the weird shortages of the 3000 series. Normally you'd figure the 2060 or 5600 xt would drop massively in price right now since the new generation is so much faster, but they're actually 10% more expensive right now than they were 5 months ago at the store I want to buy.
So then there's the weird situation that I would spend 1300-1400 euro on a PC and can't even play the only game I like on the highest settings, despite the fact that I would probably not want to actually play it on the highest settings anyway. I could get >180FPS with a 5500 XT on low settings, but then I'd still spend 1200 euro on a PC and have to play the only game I like on low settings, that seems like a proper waste of money.
The 2060 Super goes for around 400-450 euro where I'm buying, same for the 5700XT, and they're actually still asking 600 euro for a 2070 Super, while also having pre-orders available for a 3070 for 620-680 euro. So then there's the weird situation of buying an older GPU that's nowwhere near as good as the nVidia 3000 or AMD 6000 series for nearly the same price.
There's also the fact that I'd be spending 1500 euro's on a PC then while the PS5/Xbox are probably roughly going to match the graphical performances, might as well order one of those and wait for half a year. But I want to do some video editing as well, and some other plans that are just much more suited to a PC.
I could wait until the 3000 series is readily available everywhere. But I've already been waiting for 6 fecking months and the end isn't really in sight. What's the point in waiting 9 months to get better value for money over 500 euro, maybe save 200 here or there or get 40% better perfomances for the same money. I also really don't want to wait until January or February, and there's always the possibility of the first new generation cards having some (driver) problems on top of that. Just seems like a shitty perspective to wait until the start of next year to finally get what I want, I'd rather get bad value for money right now and enjoy the lockdown to Christmas with a new PC then wait until whenever into the next year.
So yeah, I might wait one or two weeks until 18 November when AMD releases their new GPU's, maybe I can get a good deal on one, or get lucky and might be able to order a 3070, that seems like the best value for money for the long term. Or get a discount at a RTX 2060, for around 200 euro I would consider it. And I guess in hindsight I really shouldn't have waited this summer and just ordered a good Radeon 5700 (which isn't even for sale anymore right now) for 330 euro, that would've been fine until I was planning to upgrade two or three years later.
Just the amount of time thinking about this and typing it all out pisses me off and spoils the fun.
. Not sure about the 1 per customer bit. Don't see it on their website but most shops have that policy.