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Cake day: July 24th, 2023

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  • If you’re gaming tbh I’d rather go with Zen4X3D or if you really want to, wait for Zen5X3D. Standard Zen5 isn’t really worth it considering the dropping of Zen4 prices IMO

    Even with the performance boost of turning up the TDP, you’re looking at pretty similar performance to the X3D chips, and in some games that really love cache, still a decent amount worse

    I also just upgraded from a 3600, but I did it to a 5700X3D, because it barely cost anything and only required dropping in a new CPU


  • They sell everything they put into laptops, in that market they can’t keep up with demand. Similar story for enterprise.

    In the DIY desktop market, which this article is about, It’s been instilled into everyone to wait for the X3D chips, by basically every reviewer. And for good reason.

    Certainly doesn’t help that:

    • a Windows 11 bug made performance look over 10% worse than it actually was on release, which is when all benchmarks are done and opinions are set (E: btw this has been fixed, and the fix also helped older CPUs too)

    • AMD decided to massively lower energy usage at the expense of out-of-box performance (I actually love this decision, I’m sick of components getting more and more power-hungry, and I’m sick of a hot stuffy room. Most gaming-focussed reviewers hated it though, which bugged me tbh because they also moan when power usage is high. I think they just like being negative because it drives engagement). At previous-gen TDPs, Zen 5 gains a lot of performance, but that’s not how they are benchmarked.

    • the price of Zen 4 has dropped, and the 7800X3D in particular looks compelling to those who might’ve wanted Zen 5.

    • most DIY PC builders are PC gamers, and what do we need new CPUs for? Most gamers are more GPU bottlenecked right now, especially as people are moving to 1440p, 1440p ultrawide, or 4K. Add to that the fact that there have been very few good PC game releases this year and of course we’re in a slump.

    • the only people who can buy a Zen5 CPU and drop it in their machine easily are Zen4 users, who won’t see a large uplift and likely won’t bother. People with earlier systems are looking at a significant investment - new motherboard and DDR5 RAM, why bother with that when the 5700X3D is such an insanely good value proposition that still won’t be bottlenecked unless you’re running an insanely good GPU?





  • You can’t scale $700 laptop performance up to 4K 60fps without it being an absolute mess.

    You mention the tech being similar, that is true, but upscaling from a, say, 1700p signal to a 4K one is an entirely different beast to 1080p > 4K.

    Those “old” games would utterly destroy a $700 gaming laptop. You’d be very lucky indeed to get 60FPS even at low 1080p.

    My comment was more about the irrelevancy of consoles once they start getting past the £500 mark, used to be that you’d have a good advantage over a mid-tier PC for about 2 years.

    Consoles being vastly better price/perf at the start of the generation and then getting overtaken by PC towards the end has always been the case. Every generation at the start there’s alarmism about consoles killing PC gaming, then mid-to-late gen people act as if console gaming is dead. Neither end up happening.

    That said, you’d still struggle to build a $700 PC that outperforms a PS5 Pro. You could get reasonably close maybe if you’re clever with the budget, though.

    Where the PC library is huge, add in Emulation and it’s even bigger.

    I’m not arguing against PC. I think PC is the better and better value platform. I play on PC exclusively (well my kids have a switch, and I play with them, I guess, but just for me personally it’s all PC or Steam Deck).

    I’m just saying there is zero chance of you getting a 4K gaming laptop for $700. $1250+ seems a lot more likely.


  • Even not running at max, you won’t get anywhere near 4K 60fps on a $700 laptop. A laptop 4050 at 45W (the best you’re going to get at the price) will only achieve 80fps in GTA V at 1080p high (not max). What chance will it stand at 4K? Then remember that that’s an 11 year old game (albeit one that’s had updates).

    Even if it did have the horsepower, the 6GB VRAM would be used up immediately and render games unplayable.

    I think people are underestimating how expensive gaming laptops have become. The $700 ones are good for eSports and old games. They are not 4K gaming machines.

    Then on top of that, the laptops in that price range will have a 250-500GB SSD. Not enough for a reasonable amount of new games.

    Using a laptop as a console that you can occasionally unplug and play on the go is a good idea. But if you want 4K you’re gonna be paying a hell of a lot more than $700 lol


  • Even with DLSS or FSR, you’d have to be at a decent resolution for upscaling to 4K not to look bad.

    “play older games” basically what Sony has atm

    I don’t really get what you mean. Almost all new games that come out will have a PS5 version? Am I being dumb here and misinterpreting you?

    E: I checked BestBuy (the only US PC retailer I know of, I’m not from the US), and the best GPU in a $700 laptop is a RTX 4050 laptop edition, power-limited to 45W. Looking at benchmarks, this often struggles to reach 60FPS in GTA V at high settings - a game that released 11 years ago! And remember that’s 1080P!

    Not only that, the SSD in it is only 500GB. So just 3-6 modern games once you factor in the Windows install.

    You’re looking at a significant price if you want to use a laptop as a 4K console. Even with DLSS, which will render the game at 66% of the display resolution, you’d still need a capable 1440p gaming laptop. And 1440p is ~80% more pixels to push than 1080p.


  • An uplift of ~45% in overall performance, ray tracing going from awful to decent, hardware-accelerated upscaling (like DLSS) isn’t “hardly noticeable” unless you don’t have eyes.

    And more storage and WiFi 7 may not be as flashy (hah, SSD storage, flash-y), but they’re nonetheless improvements.

    But, you know, if that’s not good enough for you, don’t get one. Nobody’s forcing you. I know I have no desire for one, (especially not for $700!) I’ve been console-free since my 360 had a red ring of death.



  • Same as the PS4 Pro: it’s significantly more powerful, has more storage, can actually do RT well, etc.

    The price seems crazy to me though.

    E: it’s occured to me that the PS5 Pro pricing is likely a (comparatively small) release that they can test the waters for a $700 PS6.

    If they release the PS6 for $700, it could backfire and compromise that entire generation, giving MS a foothold (we saw how MS ran away with the 360 when Sony botched the PS3 launch, and subsequently how MS lost all that momentum when they botched the XBone launch, and Sony ran away with the PS4).

    If they test the waters with a PS5 Pro it doesn’t matter all that much if they have to capitulate and drop the price.

    Don’t show Sony that the market is willing to pay $700. The PS5 Pro being accepted at $700 will guarantee a base PS6 at about the same.