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[Nickolaidas]

Which PC is better?

A PC with a AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 4.5 MHz CPU, a Gigabyte X570 Gaming X motherboard and a AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card?

Or a PC with an Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card?




And, does RAM matter in a program like Photoshop? Will I see a humongous difference in handling 1GB files when having 16 GB DDR4 2666 MHz or 32 GB DDR4 2666 MHz ?

Thanks in advance.

A quick vs on benchmark shows the Nvidia one to be better ... as well as the i7 9700 to the AMD Ryzen 9 ... but the PCs have more or less the same price (the i7 PC is just 100$ more expensive [2.400 euro vs 2.300 euro]), but all the other things seem to be the same!

 

[LordCBH]

That 2080 Super is better than the 5700XT. BUT that Ryzen 9 should better than the intel 9700k. For editing work, we always recommend more ram at work, but it’ll depend heavily on how heavy you’re using photoshop.

 

[Nickolaidas]

That 2080 Super is better than the 5700XT. BUT that Ryzen 9 should better than the intel 9700k. For editing work, we always recommend more ram at work, but it’ll depend heavily on how heavy you’re using photoshop.

So basically those two are evening each other out by one having the superior CPU and the other having the superior graphics card ...

As for Photoshop, I am currently using it to make huge D&D dungeon maps big enough for the 5' squares to be fairly large on 4K resolution when 1:1. And we're talking about 76 squares wide and 56 squares tall. When I put enough assets and layers in that file, photoshop drags itself like crazy - note that my PC was worth 3000 euro ... but that was 12 years ago, it is obsolete now.

 

[Ovek]

The second one for gaming but that depends on what type of games you play and the resolution of your monitor. The first one for productivity like Photoshop.

As for ram just get as much as you can put on that motherboard.

 

[LordCBH]

The second one for gaming but that depends on what type of games you play and the resolution of your monitor. The first one for productivity like Photoshop.

As for ram just get as much as you can put on that motherboard.

when in doubt, more ram.

 

[Stuart360]

Put the 2080 Super together with the Ryzen for gaming.

 

[Gp1]

i would go for ryzen 9, 5700 (you change it later) and at least 32gb ram (for photoshop)

 

[Krappadizzle]

I have the 9700k. I killed my power-supply last year and in the process of replacing it I burnt the old i7-920 PC I had, which was going well on 10 years of dutiful service and I replaced it with the 9700k; new mobo/new ram/everything. Paired with the 1080ti I already had running at 3440x1440 120hz it's worked very very well. I plan on just replacing the GPU later when the 30xx series comes out and I'll be good for the entire console generation in regards to hardware. If I was building right now though and I had the choice of everything up their, I'd combine that 2080Super with the Ryzen 9. Ryzen 9 is just a better cpu and I'm so glad that it's become so damn competitive(even beating it in a lot of cases) with Intel. I have 32gb of Ram in my setup, so the more that you can afford the better. It never hurts to have the overhead.

edit: Can you not pick the parts? If I HAD to pick between ONLY those two options, I'd take the 2080Super version all day. It's a different class of GPU that the 5700xt isn't really in the same league and matched with a 9700k it'll work extremely well.

 

[JeloSWE]

I work daily in Photoshop but I'm not 100% sure how much you truly need. The image/canvas can use hardware acceleration eg utilizing the GFX card for both smoothly displaying the images at any fraction of zoom level but also some image processing, the more ram you have on the GFX card should help when working with larger files as well. My reasoning is that if you work with large documents eg 4K and above, having heaps of cpu ram helps with interactivity as well as history and all the layers can be kept in ot and not being offloaded to the the scratch disk. I would strongly suggest to go with at least 32GB if you are going to do work on it as well as being a bit future proof. I mean just having more ram means you can have more applications open at the same time as well without them having to be cached to disk when switching between them.

 

[Brofist]

16GB RAM is fine for gaming, 32GB+ is ideal for editing. RAM is pretty cheap right now, going 32 won't cost you much more.

 

[Amey]

All the Adobe productivity applications are memory hungry.

 

[Nickolaidas]

Thanks, everyone.

Is the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz a crappy CPU? Is it good enough for 4K/30-45 fps?

 

[Mister Wolf]

The one with the 2080. It's a super beast.

 

[kiphalfton]

Intel and Nvidia have better resale value.

 

[Chromata]

Thanks, everyone.

Is the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz a crappy CPU? Is it good enough for 4K/30-45 fps?

The 9700K is a high end CPU, no worries on that end. I have the 8700K and I run every game maxed 1440p 100+ fps.

The only thing to consider is that a Z390 motherboard isn't going to have pcie 4.0 slots. This means that you'll be limited to 3500mb/s nvme ssds moving forward. Something to keep in mind.

 

[kiphalfton]

Thanks, everyone.

Is the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz a crappy CPU? Is it good enough for 4K/30-45 fps?

The i7-9700K is the second best 9th gen CPU (behind the i9-9900K). However, if you can wait you would be better off getting the i7-10700K as it has 8 cores/16threads (whereas the i7-9700K has 8 cores/8 threads) and is in the same price bracket as the i7-9700K.

Here's a comparison:

Intel product specifications

Intel® product specifications, features and compatibility quick reference guide and code name decoder. Compare products including processors, desktop boards, server products and networking products.

ark.intel.com

 

[Yams]

And, does RAM matter in a program like Photoshop? Will I see a humongous difference in handling 1GB files when having 16 GB DDR4 2666 MHz or 32 GB DDR4 2666 MHz ?

RAM matters, but it largely depends on what you're working on. If you're consistently only editing one photo (or whatever), 32GB won't give you any benefit versus 16GBs. However, if you're working with large file sizes that might otherwise cause Photoshop to utilize scratch disks, then it definitely will matter. Furthermore, if you envision using other Adobe products in conjunction with Photoshop like Indesign or heaven forbid, Lightroom, then the more RAM the better.

 

[Nickolaidas]

The 9700K is a high end CPU, no worries on that end. I have the 8700K and I run every game maxed 1440p 100+ fps.

The only thing to consider is that a Z390 motherboard isn't going to have pcie 4.0 slots. This means that you'll be limited to 3500mb/s nvme ssds moving forward. Something to keep in mind.

What about the Gigabyte X570 Gaming X motherboard ?

 

[Nickolaidas]

One final question:

How competent will the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card will be in playing next-gen (PS5/X Series X league) games?

 

[Yams]

One final question:

How competent will the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card will be in playing next-gen (PS5/X Series X league) games?

Nearly as competent as you can get without waiting around for the next round of graphics cards. There's no reason to believe that setup wouldn't easily handle next generation games. Just make sure your buying an SSD.

 

[lastmessiah]

One final question:

How competent will the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card will be in playing next-gen (PS5/X Series X league) games?

overclock the 9700k and you're fine.

 

[Nickolaidas]

Nearly as competent as you can get without waiting around for the next round of graphics cards. There's no reason to believe that setup wouldn't easily handle next generation games. Just make sure your buying an SSD.

Here's the setup:

CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz
Motherboard: Z390 AORUS Pro
Memory: 16 GB DDR4 2666 MHz
Storage: 500 GB SSD NVMe & 2 TB HDD
Graphics: nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6
OS: Windows 10

Price: 2400 Euro but currently has a discount and is at 1900 Euro.

 

[Chromata]

What about the Gigabyte X570 Gaming X motherboard ?

The X570 has pcie4 slots so you'll be able to use faster SSDs. I'm unsure how SSDs will be handled on the PC end since next gen consoles have so much custom hardware designed around that. At the very least, PS5 will have a faster SSD than anything you use with the Z390. How much that matters, I don't know.

Just make sure on this since every part is connected to your motherboard, so if you decide to change motherboards later then you'll almost be building your pc back up.

One final question:

How competent will the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card will be in playing next-gen (PS5/X Series X league) games?

If you're not in a hurry, waiting for the 3000 series cards is probably better. You'll be able to run next gen games perfectly fine with this setup, but it's always best to start with the biggest leg up you can.

 

[Golgo 13]

Stay far away from the 5700 series of graphics cards if you care about thermal management, and stability in your day-to-day computing experience. AMD is struggling badly with stability in their drivers currently and I wouldn’t personally recommend anyone choose one over a 2080Super, for any reason (not to mention the 2080 Super is a more powerful card). That Ryzen CPU in the first build is great though, but the 9700k is still a fantastic processor as well. And yeah, RAM never hurts. It just makes your PC more capable and flexible, but diminishing returns occur at around 32GB RAM for most people (and even 16GB RAM is enough for most people).

 

[Nickolaidas]

Okay, I've decided to go for the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card. And I'll probably add 16 GB of RAM later on.

 

[Nickolaidas]

Alright, I bought it. It came to my house. I set it up ...

And I have yet to test a single game. Because the internet is slow as fuck. I use the exact same Ethernet cable, and on Steam I get a download speed which goes from 2.5 MBs per second to 5 MBs per second, tops. On my old PC, it had a download speed of 10-13 MBs per second.

Also, I cannot configure my optical cable output for 5.1 surround sound on my Windows 10. I only get stereo.

ALSO, turns out the Z390 AORUS motherboard does not support wireless connection to the internet. What the fuck.

 

[johntown]

.

 

[Armorian]

RAM needs to be at least 3200MHz for Ryzen (also better for Intel).

 

[Yams]

Alright, I bought it. It came to my house. I set it up ...

And I have yet to test a single game. Because the internet is slow as fuck. I use the exact same Ethernet cable, and on Steam I get a download speed which goes from 2.5 MBs per second to 5 MBs per second, tops. On my old PC, it had a download speed of 10-13 MBs per second.

Also, I cannot configure my optical cable output for 5.1 surround sound on my Windows 10. I only get stereo.

ALSO, turns out the Z390 AORUS motherboard does not support wireless connection to the internet. What the fuck.

You're probably aware but you can add a wireless card to your desktop for less than $20. I know it sucks to spend more money after dropping nearly 2000 Euro but there's the solution. With that said, if you plan on doing any multiplayer gaming, an Ethernet cable is preferred.

 

[TheContact]

RAM needs to be at least 3200MHz for Ryzen (also better for Intel).

This. Ryzen, more than the i-series intel chips, demands more quality RAM due to the way it interfaces. For this reason I would avoid going the Ryzen route unless you plan on doing some upgrades. For photoshop work, depending on how many projects and windows you'll have open in the program, you're going to want at least 16GB of RAM. 32 sounds like the better option, but again this depends on how many applications you'll be working on at once.

 

[iJudged]

Which PC is better?

A PC with a AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 4.5 MHz CPU, a Gigabyte X570 Gaming X motherboard and a AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card? WORKSTATION

Or a PC with an Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card? GAMING

 

[sonomamashine]

ryzen 9 + 2080 & 16gb of ram is just fine and can handle next gen but that internet speed tho ...
must skipped the part when it says you cant mount your own pc and bough it with the i9+2080 if not why ???

 

[iJudged]

Thanks, everyone.

Is the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz a crappy CPU? Is it good enough for 4K/30-45 fps?

coupled with 2080, yes, as in good enough for 2k/4k gaming at decent settings, i7-9700k is a decent CPU, gaming wise, between the 3900x and 9700k, you won't see much of a difference while playing games, but when it comes to workload, rendering and anything that requires multicore horsepower, 3900x is amazing.

 

[Astral Dog]

wow i didn't know Photoshop was that power hungry

 

[Nickolaidas]

This. Ryzen, more than the i-series intel chips, demands more quality RAM due to the way it interfaces. For this reason I would avoid going the Ryzen route unless you plan on doing some upgrades. For photoshop work, depending on how many projects and windows you'll have open in the program, you're going to want at least 16GB of RAM. 32 sounds like the better option, but again this depends on how many applications you'll be working on at once.

I got 32 GBs of Corsair 2666MHz RAM. I'll install the Adobe Suite tomorrow - it's too late right now to install it, going to bed in an hour.

Finally the installation of X-COM 2 ended and I ran it. 4K 55-60FPS, which is just dandy for me. Fans went a little apeshit though. Water cooling, my ass.

At any rate, I have no idea why the downloading speeds are one third of what they were with my 12 year old PC.

 

[Nickolaidas]

wow i didn't know Photoshop was that power hungry

Depends on how heavy the files you're working on are.

I sometimes work on 1GB PSD files with 100 layers, so that tends to get a little slow on weaker machines.

 

[amigastar]

IMO with 16gb RAM you're good to go. Of course 32 GB RAM are even better.

 

[Astral Dog]

Depends on how heavy the files you're working on are.

I sometimes work on 1GB PSD files with 100 layers, so that tends to get a little slow on weaker machines.

Pfff i don't think i ever got to 10 in class

 

[PhoenixTank]

Alright, I bought it. It came to my house. I set it up ...

And I have yet to test a single game. Because the internet is slow as fuck. I use the exact same Ethernet cable, and on Steam I get a download speed which goes from 2.5 MBs per second to 5 MBs per second, tops. On my old PC, it had a download speed of 10-13 MBs per second.

Also, I cannot configure my optical cable output for 5.1 surround sound on my Windows 10. I only get stereo.

ALSO, turns out the Z390 AORUS motherboard does not support wireless connection to the internet. What the fuck.

Have you installed recent drivers for your onboard ethernet? Likewise for the audio. Win 10 should do it for you anyway these days but is often out of date when it does. Intel driver updater for a quick roundup on the Intel bits or your mobo page for some recent-ish drivers to start with.
Steam servers are going to be a bit more overloaded with everything going on, but you might want to figure out whether your actual internet is slow/being throttled versus your local network/connection to/from the new PC.

This. Ryzen, more than the i-series intel chips, demands more quality RAM due to the way it interfaces. For this reason I would avoid going the Ryzen route unless you plan on doing some upgrades. For photoshop work, depending on how many projects and windows you'll have open in the program, you're going to want at least 16GB of RAM. 32 sounds like the better option, but again this depends on how many applications you'll be working on at once.

Current stock bullshittery aside, 3200Mhz DDR4 is readily available at more or less the same price as lower frequency sticks. Ryzen 3000 (non-APUs) chips scale better with RAM up to 3733-ish thanks to IF, but even Intel chips aren't free of the need to feed the beast (e.g. the i5-10400)

 

[ScaryBrandon]

Obviously the one with the best SSD

 

[Nickolaidas]

Have you installed recent drivers for your onboard ethernet? Likewise for the audio. Win 10 should do it for you anyway these days but is often out of date when it does. Intel driver updater for a quick roundup on the Intel bits or your mobo page for some recent-ish drivers to start with.
Steam servers are going to be a bit more overloaded with everything going on, but you might want to figure out whether your actual internet is slow/being throttled versus your local network/connection to/from the new PC.

I did the updates, I even used a Driver Booster app which searches for updates I may have missed.

I'll try going to Gigabyte's Z390 website and look there as well.

 

[Krappadizzle]

One final question:

How competent will the Intel Core i7 9700K 3.60 GHz CPU, a Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard and a nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8 GB GDDR6 graphics card will be in playing next-gen (PS5/X Series X league) games?

Good to great. That's a very strong set-up and you'd be playing high-end settings for the foreseeable future pretty comfortably. I wouldn't sweat the SSD talk. It's mostly marketing jargon for the consoles as a PC's ram will do more of the work that the ram on consoles just can't do and ram is substantially faster than SSD's.

 

[PhoenixTank]

I did the updates, I even used a Driver Booster app which searches for updates I may have missed.

I'll try going to Gigabyte's Z390 website and look there as well.

Oh god no. Please don't use unofficial driver apps like that. They always seem to have some bullshit adware bundled with them at best but are actively malicious in the worst cases.
The link in the middle of my post will take you to the driver page for your motherboard.
I'd almost suggest a system restore to before you used the app, tbh.

 

[Nickolaidas]

I've downloaded the newest LAN drivers for my motherboard from the GIGAbyte website.

It had an app which allows me to check for errors.

A cable test

A connection test

A hardware test

A cable test passed all checks.

A hardware test passed all checks.

A connection test gave me one error:
Cable Link Status : Failed
Link speed: 100Mbps. The link partner is not capable of higher speeds.

Note that I have a 100Mps connection which usually gives me a download speed of 10-13 MBs per second, while now my PC gets 200KB/s to 5 MB/s (usually is 2.3 MB to 3.6 MBs per second on Steam)

 

[itsjustJEFF]

RAM matters, but it largely depends on what you're working on. If you're consistently only editing one photo (or whatever), 32GB won't give you any benefit versus 16GBs. However, if you're working with large file sizes that might otherwise cause Photoshop to utilize scratch disks, then it definitely will matter. Furthermore, if you envision using other Adobe products in conjunction with Photoshop like Indesign or heaven forbid, Lightroom, then the more RAM the better.

I agree here. It all depends on how large the files are you're working on and how many adobe programs you have open. I've worked on some massive photoshop files and RAM absolutely mattered. The more the better I say LOL I try to never use Lightroom anymore, I usually use Photoshops RAW editor, which is pretty good but Lightroom's non-destructive editing can be a life saver. Photoshop + AfterEffects is a system killer, along with any Video Editing software + photoshop

 

[PhoenixTank]

A connection test gave me one error:
Cable Link Status : Failed
Link speed: 100Mbps. The link partner is not capable of higher speeds.

Note that I have a 100Mps connection which usually gives me a download speed of 10-13 MBs per second, while now my PC gets 200KB/s to 5 MB/s (usually is 2.3 MB to 3.6 MBs per second on Steam)

What is on the other end of the ethernet cable? Sounds like the router/switch or whatever is on the other end of the cable connecting to your PC doesn't support Gigabit Ethernet. I'd be pretty surprised if a modem & router capable of 100Megabit down would not have Gigabit ports on it, though telecom companies can be bastards.
Have you got an old switch or something in between your PC and the router? Or maybe some of the ethernet ports on the other end are limited to 100Megabit?

All that said, in theory it shouldn't be a problem if you have a 100Megabit download speed from the internet, but it could be resulting in buffer issues or if it has to fight any other local traffic for bandwidth. When networks are working fine, they're great... but when something strange is happening it usually ends up being an inexplicable shitshow. Or I'm extremely unlucky.

What result do you get from an online speedtest? i.e. not steam.