Topic: PC Gaming

Yeah, even though I was looking while there were good deals on pre-builts from various companies, @JaxonH ..... The price in PC Specialist was still at least as good! They have great forums, too, so I could get a bit of advice from people who clearly knew lots about PCs

I personally would never use a water cooler again. I ran one in my old PC build (a Corsair H80i v2) and one pump would break every couple of months and need replacing. I now just use air cooling only, my PC runs significantly hotter than my old one - especially if I leave the side on - but at least it isn't a gamble as to whether my pump will die today. Plus, while it does run hotter, I wouldn't say it runs dangerously hot - it is still within regular ranges, the only time otherwise is when it is like 30 plus degrees outside and it heats up my flat to the point where both me and the PC are dying. I think as PC gamers we get conditioned to thinking that if our PC hits like 30 degrees at a full load it is on fire, when really as long as your PC isn't idling at like 70 degrees, you are fine.

water cooling only makes sense when you want to radically overclock some components. minor overclocking can be achieved with just ramping up the fans in "traditional" builds.
i slightly overclock my gpu (gtx 1060) for one game (hunt showdown). super easy and save with msi afterburner. dont even notice the faster spinning fans and the gpu stays under 70°C while being under 100% load.

a custom ordered pc is a really good choice for people who cant or are afraid of build(ing) an entire pc (like me). my current one wasnt perfect when i recieved it (ssd was a bit loose), but after 1-2 hours of working on it, it was okay. i installed an additional fan at the back for like 10€ and thats it.

Yeah that is all I have done, I just set a custom curve for both my GPU, system and CPU fans so as soon as we start getting around the 70% mark we kick into full power to get those temps back under control. It means I tend to idle/part load hotter, but at full load the PC is fine. Probably not ideal for those who value a quiet PC, but again, having to replace parts of my cooler every couple of months was way worse to me than a bit of noise I can't hear as I game with headphones on.

You're lucky if it's just the pump that goes in a water cooler. You should see what happens when one leaks.

Yikes. That’s why I have reservations about custom loops and GPU water coolers. I still think it would be cool to have, but I don’t think it’s a good idea without building the loop myself to have more intimate knowledge if something went wrong.

Of course, closed loop CPU water cooled pumps I’m 100% ok with. I’ve been using mine for well over a year now and no issues to date. They’re completely sealed and you never have to deal with cleaning it out or anything. I’ve had good luck so far with the CPU closed loop pumps. If I had the luck some here have had though I’d probably stick with a CPU fan instead.

Here’s the one I ordered. It’s a micro sized case which is smaller than the full sized cases, yet still large enough for full size components, unlike the mini cases which, although super compact, are a pain getting anything else to fit such as extra SSDs. You can grab one with 2TB NVMe, 32gb RAM, Intel i9 10900k CPU with 120mm closed loop CPU cooler, an Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU for just a smidge over $2,000.

That’s a battleship of a PC for $2k. Especially with GPU prices where they are right now, and the performance a 3060 offers, you’d be running 4k 60 across the board with a PC that offers raytracing, DLSS, HDMI 2.1 with 120fps at 4k, G-sync variable refresh rate support and a nice 2TB NVMe for your OS to get you started.

Of course, for $2700 you could add a Windows 10 Home activation and upgrade to a 3070 ti (at MSRP I would never go with the ti- better bang for buck just buying a 3070 or 3080, but at the prices offered the extra hundred dollars over the 3070 is worth it IMO).

And if you want to just go ham with the best GPU money can buy, skip the 3080 and go straight for the business class 3090 (it’s $2900 but screw it, if you wanna be set for the next 10 years at 4k 60 High settings- this bad boy has you covered), upgrade to 64gb RAM along with the Windows 10 Home activation, you can do so for $4400. Less than 5 stacks and you’ve got the best gaming PC money can buy, bar none. There may be more expensive, fancier PCs out there, but in terms of raw performance, this is the end of the line. From here it’s all just trying to get better cooling, cooler appearance, etc. I guess you could do a multiple-GPU setup but, honestly who’s doing all that for video games.

https://cukusa.com/cuk-stratos-micro-b460-custom-gaming-deskt...

So I've hit this forced stealth section in DEATHLOOP and I just give up. DEATHLOOP is one of the most overrated games of modern times, feel like I utterly wasted my money. Found guides to disable the punishment for not using stealth and for some reason it does not work. I give up, the game has beaten me. I have no interest in playing a sandbox game where I can't play how I want to play.

The irony of this being that your CPU isn't the component you should be wanting to watercool. Water cooling isn't magic, all cooling is just airflow and surface area. The only reason watercooling is "better" is because you can create larger surface areas and higher airflow

But a Noctua D15 or even a Noctua U12 sized air cooler? You get a lot of surface area and airflow, comparable to what you'd get in an AIO watercooler, and there's less points of failure. Only problem is that something like that is while it's super easy to drop on a CPU, assuming you don't have a very small case, GPUs are usually in a pretty awkward spot. And the GPU is usually the thing drawing the most power in games.

I wouldn't bother with watercooling except if I was doing a custom loop including a high end GPU OR if it was doing a super small form factor PC where the options where a tower cooler wasn't an option. And even in the case of the latter I'd probably just get a slim cooler or some kind

................ on another note. Been replaying Bayonetta on my TV via Steam in home streaming after the Bayonetta 3 trailer. My new laptop can run it but if I do in-home streaming I can get 1440p, max settings etc, etc. What I realised but is that this setup is the first time I've actually played games with surround sound. I'm usually either on my PC with headphones or on my TV with a Nintendo console that pushes out PCM only 5.1 that my SONOS setup doesn't like. Surround for games definitely adds something. Welcome to the year 2000 me

@skywake
GPU is more important, but I’m not ballsy enough to run a custom loop on my GPU. Still, the closed loop CPU coolers have been great in my experience. Quieter and rather effective. Works for me.

Idk if you’ve visited this thread

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/gaming_tv...

But it’s all about surround sound, headphones, etc. I recently bought a Sennheiser Dolby Atmos Ambeo soundbar with SVS subwoofer, and it’s been revelatory. I also bought Sennheiser 800S headphones which are incredible for gaming. I tend to stick to headphones for PC to drown out fan noise, plus Dolby Atmos for headphones works great in games, and for PS5 since their 3D audio only works for 2 channel like headphones. But Switch is great with both headphones or surround. I didn’t realize this but most switch games actually run 5.1 surround. Playing Zelda Skyward Sword HD was so different with the Ambeo. It brings games to life.

I take it you own Sonos Arc? I’ve never used one but, I do know for my Switch surround to work, I had to run HDMI directly into the soundbar, then pass video through to the tv using the eARC port on the soundbar. Whereas my PS5 and PC can run into my TV and pass audio through to the soundbar out of its eARC port. And if you don’t have eARC, there are HDMI audio extractors which can allow you to split the audio out to your soundbar with an HDMI and run a separate HDMI to your TV for video. Switch is very temperamental with its surround sound implementation. But with a little work, it can be done.

What kind of headphones are you using? You have a DAC/AMP also?

@JaxonH
I have a Beam and a 2019 model TV without eARC so my options are DD (and soon DTS) or stereo. There sadly aren't any options I know of that convert PCM to DD and if there were you'd get latency added anyways.

For headphones I just have some entry level Sennheisers. Nothing fancy but does the job. And you do get a reasonable effect in titles that support Atmos for headphones

@skywake
I have some Senny 560S and they're fantastic for the price. Paid like $170 open box (which is pretty cheap compared to the $1500+ endgame cans) and wow. Significant improvement over wireless headsets such as Arctis 9 Wireless (which were already a noticeable improvement over cheap Bluetooth headphones) Obviously they don't sound as good as the 800S- notably missing the massive soundstage, but other than that, its impressive just how good they are for the money.

It doesn't take kilobuck cans to get high quality audio. Just a decent pair of wired Sennheisers- that alone gets you 80% of the way there.

Bought Ys: Memories of Celceta & Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal in the XSeed weekend sale on Steam.

Like Destroy All Humans! they're going to be going into the dry spell pile.

Gonna pick myself up Hot Wheels Unleashed on PC. I feel like it'd be better suited to playing it in bed on my Switch in small bursts, but seeing all the work that has been put into the visuals and given how much of the game seems to focus around customisation, I feel like I am doing myself a disservice playing the Switch version. Not to mention the online races on Switch will probably be awful.

My only concern is - like we've seen in the past - the review cycle will end and suddenly everything is a microtransaction. Hearing all the stuff about how progression/unlocks work, if that doesn't turn into a MTX farm, then I almost don't know why this progression/unlock system even exists.

First impressions of Hot Wheels Unleashed... kinda mixed?

The attention to detail/authenticity is impressive. This is a pretty game, with an almost overwhelming amount of customisation which is all fun to play around with - especially with that sweet photomode, but I get very mixed performance. I kept tweaking my settings but couldn't get any consistency. Sometimes the game would be running around 80 fps, the next 40 fps with noticeable chugging with no reasoning as to why.

The tracks can be very spectacular, but it is a bit odd to play an arcade racer with nothing really to it. Like I know this isn't a cart racer, so maybe expecting power ups and stuff is not realistic - and for sure, the fundamentals of how it feels to play feel good - but there aren't really collisions or anything either, it just a very conventional racer, presented like something else because occasionally there'll be a loop de loop. You can sort of tip opponents over, but it's awkward and doesn't really seem to be designed as an approach of play because it will often wipe you out as well. I just don't know how long you can drift around the same orange bits of plastic with no real variation before this gets really boring.

Difficulty is a real mixed bag as well. I initially played on Medium and it is pretty easy until you make a mistake and there just seems to be no way to recover, the pack will just shoot in front of you and I dunno enter a wormhole or something because there is just no catching up.

On easy, you can fight your way back if you make mistakes fairly easy. But if you go too long without making a mistake, you're just racing on your own because you're leaving that CPU in the dust.

Feels like there needs to be a difficulty in between, as when you are driving around outside of the pack the game can feel very dull pretty quickly.

Oh and yeah, the games economy... not fun. You get three cars up front, I have earned two more loot boxes since then and I have already had one duplicate. That just seems insane to me.

Picked up Arkham Knight on sale, missed out when it was free a couple of years back but still. This is what I love about PC gaming. I don't have a super high end PC but for current prices it's not bad. Getting a 6 year old game on sale, turning the settings up to max, getting ~70fps at 1440p with GSync.

Who said PC gaming was about the bleeding edge? Sometimes it's about middling hardware from 2 year sago and revisiting 6 year old titles at a level of quality you would've needed bleeding edge hardware to get to at launch.

@skywake, I'm thinking about picking up some of the Batman games, but I already spent around $100 in the sales since almost every Japanese publisher is holding sales at the same time, so I should hold off.

Speaking of, I got Final Fantasy Type 0 HD, Gun Gun Pixies, Neir Automata, Onechanbara Origin, Star Ocean: the Last Hope, Sword Art Online: Lost Song, Sword Art Online: Re:Hollow Fragment, & Tales of Symphonia.

@skywake
Bleeding edge gets all the attention because it’s exciting to talk about, and it’s the best version of PC gaming.

But for me, PC gaming is about freedom. It’s about having gyro aiming for every game that needs it, it’s about having G-sync to negate Framerate issues, it’s about free online, and, it’s about the ability to buy into whatever build you want. If you want bleeding edge you have that option, but if you want mid tier and something that’s good enough to run games at a reasonable level, you can do that too. You can even go low spec for a budget price and still manage to get a decent experience.

Studies show only a very small percentage of PC gamers have high end rigs (say, 2080 ti or higher at this point). Like 95% of PC gamers have builds less than that. But everyone assumes every single PC gamer has that high end build. Some do, obviously. But most dont.

I think the problem is a lot of PC communities are insular and insecure. They tell you you HAVE to have the cutting edge because there is just no point otherwise, which often scares people away. But in reality you can max out games on a mid range machine for years after certain components have been replaced by something shiny and new. They just need to justify to themselves they haven't wasted 2k to unnecessarily upgrade to a card that can't do much more than a card made four years ago, because games aren't made just for the highest of end hardware.

That’s the thing. Most games aren’t cutting edge in terms of how demanding they are. I was running a lot of games in 4K on my AMD RX 480 lol, and that thing was barely on par with an Xbox One.

It is true that a lot of the AAA games are incredibly demanding and if you want that 4K 60 experience, you’re gonna need a good PC. But I think a disproportionate amount of attention and value is placed upon the 4K 60 experience. Yes, it’s the pinnacle of gaming right now. But I gotta be honest, 1440p 60 is pretty darn close. Even 1080p 60 is not that difference. It doesn’t have that super crisp image but it looks respectable enough.

And with DLSS and VRR now making games easier than ever to run, The need for cutting edge is becoming less and less.

I still like to have cutting edge just because, why not. I got a 2080 TI back before GPU prices skyrocketed. I would love to upgrade to a 3080 or 3090, but I’m not going to spend thousands of dollars just to get 20 extra frames when I don’t even notice frame drops anyways using VRR.

And if money was an issue I could make this card last for 10 years. I bet it’ll still be running most games at 1080p 60 in the year 2030. With VRR and DLSS probably making 1440p or even 4K 60 viable for the majority of games.

I think the reason why so many people assume you need a high-end set up is because if you’re not going to out-do what’s available with consoles, then why bother? Not that I agree with that sentiment because again, I think PC gaming is about freedom. I’d rather play a game in 1080p 60fps with gyro aiming, VRR and free online than I would play it in 4K 60, no VRR and $60/yr online.

I tend to find the more AAA something is, the less demanding it becomes proportionately, this is because a lot more time/resource has been spent optimising those experiences for PC, properly.

Although you are right, the waters have become muddier on both sides of the water. As DLSS tech gets better, it is only going to make life better for people like me who can't afford a cutting edge machine.

But it also true that over previous generations, the Series X/PS5 leap truly feels massive, it feels like they are really competing with PC for the first time. PC will undeniably pull ahead over the course of the generation, but before you had to settle for maybe an inconsistent 60 fps at a low, upscaled, resolution even on a "pro" console at best. This meant you could outspec those consoles with a PC very easily. Maybe it'd be more expensive, but not by much.

However, given the Series X/PS5 are basically solid, midrange, PCs and given all the various shortages driving prices that gap is all but closed. You're going to need to fork out that much extra to get a noticeable performance leap above the Series X/PS5 right now, so really, I feel like console gaming has never been more viable than it is right now.