Topic: PC Gaming

New plan:

My Christmas bonus for this year is enough to cover a 4070 so, I'm just going to pull the trigger on a 4070. Pricey? Sure. But a GPU upgrade is a once every 5 year thing. It's going to be paired with my 10th Gen i3 in my shiny little ITX case which.... is a bit of a lopsided config but I intend to crank the graphical detail. Should be ok for now. The 1660Ti I have in that build? Moves across to my main PC with the Ryzen 3600X. This is step 1, first upgrade

For late-late next year, assuming I find myself with the space to do the same, I go for a CPU upgrade. My trusty old mATX Ryzen 3600X build gets shuffled down to live under my TV with the 4070. The i3 shuffles down to take on Plex/Docker/Unraid duties, retiring my 4th gen i5. Then I think I build a new PC with a high core count CPU in the ITX case that's currently under my TV. Depends on what's good at the time.

After a long time in cs go, I'm now in cs2 results

I went cheap and got a 4060Ti 8GB. Was one of the higher end SKUs with a nicer cooler, complete overkill for what it is but it was heavily discounted and was the cheapest SKU. And honestly, it's a pretty significant jump from the 1660Ti. Obviously it pushes more frames which is nice but also because it's so power efficient and the cooler is so overkill, thing is pretty much silent. Can't hear it. Fantastic

Am I taking full advantage of the 4K/120Hz OLED it's hooked upto? No, not by any stretch. But honestly when you throw VRR onto it and render at 1080p with details cranked? It's plenty good enough. Haven't played that much yet but Hogwarts Legacy at 1080p with pretty much everything cranked, DLSS off, RT off, 1080p, not sure what the framerate was but it was smooth. Horizon Zero Dawn? Forget the settings but was sliders to the right for days, 4K, above 60fps

This thing is paired with an i3-10105F BTW, super low power part. Doesn't really hold it back in game, especially if you're turning up the details and are happy with 40-70fps, but certainly the weaker aspect of this setup. Storage is a bit undercooked also, decent 512GB M.2 drive from a few years back and a 2TB SATA SSD for mass storage. But still, good enough

The 1660Ti has been shuffled back to my main PC, Ryzen 5 3600X, 32GB RAM. Plenty good enough for what I do with it still. Certainly do more CPU heavy stuff on this box. The plan is still to eventually upgrade this to a new CPU probably around 2025. i3 goes to the Unraid server, 3600X pairs with the 4060Ti and goes under the TV. Though that's a while off yet

Next upgrade is probably storage, probably a 2TB SSD in my main box. The 512GB SSD I have in there now is kinda tight for space and I'm leaning a bit too much on an old mechanical 2TB drive for mass storage. So replace them both with a single 2TB NVMe SSD and then both the 512GB SSD and 2TB HDD migrate to my Unraid Server. I think I'll probably also make the jump to 2.5Gbps network gear also at some point. But yeah, probably not many "gaming" upgrades for a bit. Pretty happy with the setup I have now

@skywake
Have you considered a steam deck oled?

It's complely and utterly become my only method of PC gaming. In fact, between it and Switch OLED, it's all I play now.

I think you'd really love it. You wouldn't have to give up your beefy PC either. But on the side, it's sooooo good alongside Switch OLED.

30g lighter and 50% longer battery life with larger OLED screen makes all the difference. Now it feels like a viable handheld and not a heavy device that dies in 1.5 hrs. Now even the most demanding AAA games get near 3 hrs. It feels much closer to Switch battery life.

I got Prime Trilogy running in Primehack with dual analog gyro aiming, HD texture pack mods and HD text and menu mods, it's insanely awesome. Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, despite being "unsupported" per Valve, runs great with unofficial patch installed and gyro aiming. Pillars of Eternity 2, even without controller support, plays magnificently with community configurations for controls.

I slapped a 2 TB ssd in ($130 on Aliexpress) and a 1.5 TB micro SD, and it's become the Terminator of gaming devices. Should look into it, especially as someone with a passion for PC like you are.

@JaxonH
Valve doesn't sell it to Australians. There are ways to get around that but you end up paying reseller prices so the value equation doesn't quite land in the same spot

Certainly a path I want to go down eventually. But not right now. Between my Anbernic 35XX+ on the go and the 4060Ti at home I have both ends covered fairly well. With Switch sitting somewhere in the middle

Honestly, if Valve or someone else was to release a cheap, GB sized device that had access to my Steam library of Indies? That's the device I'd be after

The upcoming Ayaneo Flip looks a lot like the Nintendo DS

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ayaneo-flip-world-s-1st-du...

So, the Azeron Cyborg device I ordered a while back, that replaces the typewriter keyboard which was NEVER meant to be a gaming input device. They have refurbished units for $160. Not bad.

I still think a controller with gyro is the most elegant solution. Since using a Cyborg + mouse still requires a flat surface (I got that flat gaming tray that sits across your recliner arms, but point is, it's a hassle compared to just using a controller with gyro). Still, there will ALWAYS be people who prefer mouse. And if you're one of those people, replacing that archaic typewriter keyboard should be your #1 priority. Cyborg is the best keyboard replacement I've found to date.

https://store.azeron.eu/refurbished-keypads

@skywake
Just an FYI, but if you want, I can order you one and ship it to you at cost if you Paypal me the money. That would be no problem at all.

Just throwing that out there. The middle option is best (lowest option is not OLED, and highest option has 1TB SSD, while middle option is $100 less, and you can buy a 2TB SSD for $125 from AliExpress and swap it out in 15 min). So for essentially the same prince as the high tier model, you can have twice the storage.

But ya, just let me know if you want me to help you out. I used to help sinalefa with such things as he lives in Costa Rica. Think I ordered him a PS? Or was a Switch? I can't remember, it's been a while. But ya. Just let me know. I'd be happy to help you if you so desire.

$560 + $80 shipping = $640 total, converted to Australian Dollars is about $1,000 Australian Dollars.

@JaxonH
Thanks for the offer but I need to cut back on my tech purchases this year I think. I don't think I can justify another portable gaming device this year, especially given Switch 2 is likely on the horizon

@skywake movements.
Fair. Switch 2 is most definitely around the corner. I'd better start budgeting myself. Cause it's gonna be system, screen protector, 2TB micro SD which should be out by then, pro controller, 2-3 games, etc etc. Probably close to $1,000 after tax.

Has anybody played Symphony of War? Looks to be steam only but I'm curious about gameplay because I have seen many positive reactions to it.

Really want to enjoy Metaphor ReFantazio but two things are getting in the way: performance and UI.

Performance is disappointing but I guess I can get past it if I pretend I'm playing a Switch game. It's still rather disappointingly ugly considering how great Persona 3 Reload and 5 Royal look =/

But it's mostly the UI that takes me right out of the game - it's pure spectacle over actually being usable IMO. Battles are way too animated, making it difficult to follow what's going on, and generally everything is way too cluttered / detailed for the sake of being detailed, to the point that even the equipment menu is difficult to navigate. It's all just quite offputting.

A shame really because the premise of the game seems interesting, and I trust that the gameplay and story/characters are worth sticking around for.

@Buizel I was a little hesitant to give Metaphor a chance just because I wasn't the biggest fan of Persona 5 gameplay-wise but ended up picking it up after trying the demo and finished it just a few days ago. Took me a little while to get into but ended up really enjoying it. I can understand what you mean about the UI though. I got used to navigating the weird menus but I was pretty prone to misclicking in battle if I wasn't careful.

@BenAV See Persona 5 is tied for my favourite game of all time, so on paper I should at least find something to like about Metaphor. It's also not like I fell in love with P5 immediately so I'm willing to give Metaphor a chance - I know these games can be a slow burn.

The UI aspect really is baffling though - I've seen quite a few people complain about it online actually. It's a pretty basic thing to be able to navigate menus in an RPG and the Persona menus manage to be visually appealing without being confusing.

Nice to see there's a PC gaming forum here on NL, since 95% of my gaming time is spent on Steam these days.

@Buizel @BenAV
I've given both Persona 4 and 5 a try in the past, but couldn't get into them. Their worlds, and especially the creatures that inhabit them, are really off-putting to me. And what I've seen from trailers and gameplay videos, the same seems to be true for Metaphor. Can you guys confirm the enemy design in this game is similar to Persona?

@valtianeea I can't speak for the whole game - but if you're put off by how grotesque the creatures tend to look then...yeah, there's more of that here.

@Buizel
As I suspected. Thank you for the response.

Well Blizzard just shadow dropped Warcraft 1 and 2 Remasteres this morning as part of their Warcraft 30 years direct. So excited to have these as they are not just an important part of Warcraft history but Blizzard history as well. Me personally I am not a huge RTS fan but I will probably watch some streams.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/warcraft-1-and-2-remastered...

Shout out to @@Zuljaras I am sure you will find this interesting.

@Tasuki already got the Warcraft Trology Battlechest

Those 3 games are extremely important part of the gaming history!

@Zuljaras Right. I remember being a teenager and going over to my friends house and watching them play it on their old Gateway PCs lol.

@Tasuki Sweet memories. I remember many sleepless nights playing WarCraft 2 on my first ever PC.

Unfortunately, true RTS games are not so popular anymore But I am happy to see Age of Empires Remaster, Age of Mythology Retold, StarCraft Remaster and now the WarCraft series