New PC for WOW BFA: Intel or Ryzen?

Hi! I would like to get a new computer for BFA to play on 1440p and 144Hz (AOC AGON AG271QG 27" Widescreen IPS LED G-SYNC)

Here is my suggestion for the core components:

  1. Intel CORE i5-9600K or i7 9700K
  2. Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB
  3. VGA Palit GeForce® RTX 2060 6GB Dual
  4. Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit

I was thinking to prefer an Intel system over a Ryzen 2600X or 2700X as a WOW Benchmark on youtube showed that the Ryzen CPUs are much slower than comparable Intel CPUs.
The only reason I am hesitating is the new Ryzen Generation with the 3600X and 3700X being released in a week. Early benchmark leaks show them on a similar performance as an i7 8700K, or even beating it. But if the trend consists, WOW works still better on the Intels and the Ryzen 3000 series will still be slower.

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!
Cheers!

i think you wait for ryzen 3000 and decide then. my hunch is it will be a better buy but obviously don’t know. ryzen 2000 is slower in games, and it definitely matters at 144hz, but ryzen 3000 is supposed to be quite a bit faster than it, and going by amd’s generally more favourable pricing you could very well end up having a better deal there.

i would try to avoid getting too wrapped up in the core count hype. going for a 12c is probably not something you should do, 8c/16t is loads for almost everyone. i’d try to keep in the 6c/12t to 8c/16t area for a gaming rig personally.

There won’t be much difference for this game wherever vendor you pick from the “good” shelf. 6-8 cores with good clocks and you are golden. AMD may offer better pricing over Intel right now.

SSD: good one
GPU: you can loot at a second hand GTX 1080 Ti, RX Vega 64/56 and some alike. With Navi launch and Nvidia Super launch the 2060 is kind of inbetween - not cheap and also not outstanding for it.

My benchmarks: https://rk.edu.pl/en/benchmarking-and-analyzing-world-warcraft-performance/

Only tip I can give you: Always go for i7(or i9) — i5 might perform decent in games based on benchmarks and could be perfectly fine for WoW but if you do any form of multitasking besides it (browsing/watching videos/etc) it may start choking your computer.

Okay!
I will wait for the new Ryzen 3600X / 3700X release an see how they compare against the i7 9700K and then decide.

Otherwise, do you think the RTX2060 will be good enough for 1440p and 144Hz or should I aim for a RTX2070 ?

Yes, 2060 is bit to low. Just note that not every game will be able to reach 144 FPS reliably even with top of the line GPU due to game limitations.

Right now on second hand market for 1440p gaming you have Vega 64/56 as well as GTX 1080 and 1080 Ti. All below RTX 2070 price point (where as 1080 Ti is replaced by RTX 2080 and not 2070).

Among new cards the RTX 2070 may see a price drop to sell stock to make room for RTX 2070 Super. AMD cards are also launching and the flagship model is expected to have performance around RTX 2070 / 2070 Super and similar price point (game bundles, promotions may affect which one is better value).

You will have to check a lot of benchmarks to see which card meets your criteria and how much are you willing to spend (as spend you will have to).

Of major note: WoW doesn’t need a top end Graphics card to run… only if you’re playing it with ungodly sized monitors/resolutions (compared to 2004/5).
I’d look to get as fast a CPU as you can afford, primarily, as WoW is still majorly CPU intensive, even now.

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Intel is fine, but seems for the moment the Ryzen 7 3700x is the choice to go for at the moment.

  1. It’s not that far behind intel equiv cpu in single core performance anymore in their 9xxx series.

  2. It’s cheaper as well as cheaper to run as it has a much lower TDP.

  3. You can use it in a X470 chipset motherboard (you won’t be able to use PCI-E 4.0, only 3.0 speeds) But since the memory controller is on the cpu itself you’re open to higher ram stick speeds. Some X470 boards may need a BIOS update to ensure it works.

  4. For games that use more than 1 core, the 3700x will beat Intel cpu equiv in 1440p and higher resolution gaming. (Going by reviews so far.)

  5. Seems to have decent X570 motherboards now but they’re pricey, but are filled with up to date tech such as 2.5-5G Ethernet, 802.11AX WiFI and I think the MSI top range board comes with a PCI-E 10Gb NIC card.

X470 are now budget motherboards for 3000 series Ryzens and X570 is the new highend. Not worth it unless you want really fast NVMe 4.0 M2 drives.

Don’t know when PCIE 4.0 graphic cards will come out really, so pretty much future proofing.

Got a Ryzen 7 2700x at the moment, wow runs fine. It’ll run fine with Intel cpus. It’s up to you on costs.

No doubt X570 boards will support Ryzen 4000 series CPU’s out next year.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be upgrading an i5-4690K/Z97/32GB of 1866 DDR3 to a Ryzen 5 3600/ROG B450-F/16GB of 3200 DDR4… should make for a happier time for the RX Vega 56 I got ~ a month ago.

Okay, board supports the CPU, BIOS 2301. So as long as the board you buy has actually been flashed to that as it’s been made, should be an easy pop in the CPU and away you go.

If not, you’re going to have to contact AMD who have a webpage on their site to loan a AMD CPU to allow you to flash BIOS to an updated version to use the Ryzen 3000 chip.

Just search for AMD CPU loan in google and you find the relevant information.

BIOS Flashing may need to be done in incremental steps, to get to the newest file… probably just one intermediate step.

Not gonna go full rebuild, just 'baby-steps to get the 'board right first, then go ham on the rest of the build.

You should be fine just flashing to the latest bios really. Did take a look at my board X470-F Gaming and seems I already passed the bios that’s compatible with all 3000 cpu’s.

Don’t think I will though, the 2700x is still fine even with WoW playing + streaming and not sure it’s worth the cost to hop to a 3700x. Well, apart from dropping from 105w TDP to 65w…

9300x looks good but that’s a bit pricey.

3900x…? :stuck_out_tongue:

I would go for this build:

  • Ryzen 3700x , is 10% “weaker” than 9900k, but almost 40% cheaper. That 10% difference wont impact/boost WoW’s performance so much and you will make economy of almost 150$.
  • RX 5700 XT custom GPU. When i said custom, i meant non-founders edition. They will be released early-midd august and you will have plenty of choices. The second reason for choosing a custom 5700XT gpu is because of cooling. The founders edition we have now, has only one cooler and has some difficulties in high load. The custom version, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte,etc will have minim 2 cooler and better cooling sistem (copper pipes,bla bla). I would choose a ASUS or MSI version. 5700 XT is 4% “weaker” than a RTX 2070 SUPER and 25% cheaper. So for 4% performance difference it doesnt worth to waste 100$. It will run 2k games without problems. In some tests RX 5700 XT surpassed 1080Ti (wich cost 700-800$ now).
  • X570 motherboard: there are plenty of versions to choose, ranging from 150 to 400 $ . Choose a model and then google it for review. Anyway, any mode above 150$ will be more than a decent motherboard, so you dont need to choose the most expensive one. You need to choose this generation (570) because it has PCI-e 4.0 for more speed.
  • 3600 Mhz DDR4 rams: Ryzen 3700x works best with 3600Mhz rams. There are plenty of choices. You can go directly for 32 GB or buy 16GB and if you want more just upgrade to 32GB.
  • M.2 SSD : If you intend to build this PC only for gaming, then you dont need a second SSD/HDD. You can buy a 500 GB M.2 , wich cost around 60-80$ and there you have plenty of space to have OS + 3-4 games similar in size with WoW (50+ GB). You will have a great speed boost and awesome start-up.
  • 750W gold 80+ PSU : for more safety i would go for a higher WATT PSU. Yes, its a little bit more expensive than a 600WATT, but thoose 20-30$ payed extra worth every penny. The GPU will eat almost half of the PSU output, so you will have around 400WATTS left for the other components. Once i had a “to the limit” PSU and crashed. When the PSU crashed, it burned my GPU (back then, a 980 Ti SuperClock Edition,wich costed me around 600$ ). So because i was greedy for 30 bucks, i lost 600$. Better safe than sorry.
  • Corsair H100i PRO CPU water-cooler: the best on the market. It has the best price/performance ratio and is viewed as one of the best AIO on the market.
  • Acer - VG271U Monitor: it has 144Hz, 1ms, IPS, 27 inch, FreeSync…and it cost around 320$ (i am from UK,so it cost a little bit more than in the screens). In my opinion is one of the best 2k monitors on the market. Take in consideration that it is a IPS monitor with 1ms. Thats very important. But, you can choose any other model. I would go for any model that is IPS/1ms/144Hz. Btw, 27-28 inches is the best size. If you go higher the image quallity will lower. From what i saw on review and so on, majority recomend this size for 2k gaming. Anyway, 27 inch is more than enough…trust me.

Bellow i will show you a screenshot with a system that i want to build after the custom GPU’s will be released:
https:// gyazo .com/3dd226d27db87f19bcd1f3747ae1bef7
https:// gyazo .com/4a840871c97601855d7b2a8fbf810955
(remove spaces in the links to access them)
The only modification from that list will be the GPU and maby the monitor (if i dont find it on stock when i want to buy it).
This system will run with no problems any game at a 2k resolution, with minim 60 FPS in high/ultra details.
I choosed AMD gpu just for a reason: the “Sync”. The problem is that G-Sync monitors (compatible with Nvidia cards) are exagerated expensive. The cheapest 2k monitor with G-Sync cost around 450$ and its a TN version with 4 ms. And for gaming is mandatory for a IPS with 1 ms (if you want good image quallity obviously). The Free-Sync compatible monitors are cheaper and AMD did a good job with the 5700XT GPU. It is a very apreciated GPU, has positive reviews, good benchmark scores, good FPS scores and its almost a 1080Ti equivalent…and all of this for 350$. You cant ask more than that.
I hope this comment will help you make a decision. Enjoy your new PC.

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I meant that, typo… XD Me thinking ahead to 9000 series. :wink:

The only thing that is putting me off the X570 boards is the way these motherboards have custom fans that aren’t that easy to replace over the chipset if they die, they remind me of some earlier AMD boards that had the same set up and it is a slight concern of mine. Especially when you consider some of the prices these boards are going for.

Well, apart from the most expensive boards with built in water blocks but still, the fan is a concern. Hopefully they will last long enough for a replacement board later on when upgrading.

S’why I’m looking at B450 - good enough for what I use a PC for.

I understand your ideea and sometimes i think the same also. But when i think to my PC building experience, i remember my first PC i built from pieces. It was in early 2013 and i bought a FX4300 (back then was very hyped and i cant complain, was decent CPU) and after i finished the build, my motherboard crashed in just 2 days. Brand new motherboard. Crashed due to overheating chipset. Sent it back, replaced and live goes on…
In PC “domain” , you can get lucky and buy a brand new piece and crash it in a week or it can last 10 years. Even now, i still have that GTX 980 Ti SC edition, after so many years and still works perfectly on my “secondary” PC. I even play sometimes WoW on that PC without any issues. So the conclusion is that i would go for it. Its the newest tehnology and it worth. As long as it gets broken during warranty is no problem. They will replace it with a new one. And 2years is quite decent warranty.
What the heck? Some people spend more money monthly on cigaretes than the price of a x570 motherboard. :slight_smile:

Oh I get that, had an old i486 system that I’m sure I killed the motherboard and PSU after upgrading a 100mb hdd to a 1gb drive (They were new at the time and bit expensive.) Don’t think the old motherboard liked it at all and poof. (Never bought a seagate drive again after that.) I know that’s silly but after losing an entire computer system and no money to replace it for nearly 10 years.

And I agree, never had a problem with framerates or that when I was playing WoW on a FX8350 either. Although it plays much nicer on the 2700x.

But I agree, hardware just dying brand new I know about a lot.

IBM Deskstar HDD’s… shudder Never known HDD’s to die so quickly, paranoid of the CLICK and death noise.

what is the best ram for i9 9900k? is it true i can’t get any improvment pass the 3000 MHz?