This is based off the “Great tier” AMD build, but I’m waffling a bit on the price. I don’t really know a whole lot about PC specs, but I read this is supposed to be a good long-lasting build based on the DDR5 and something newer in the CPU or Video card. That being said, I’ve only really ever build mid-tier and while I do want something nice, I’m just not sure it’s necessary for me? I tend to stick to Indie titles and the most demanding game I’ve played lately was BG3 (which my current PC has to be on med-low settings to run).
Also, if anyone has a good 22" monitor recommendations I’ll take them.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor | $218.98 @ Amazon |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler | $37.90 @ Amazon |
| Motherboard | *Gigabyte B650M K Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard | $119.99 @ Amazon |
| Memory | *TEAMGROUP Elite 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory | $37.99 @ Amazon |
| Storage | Intel 670p 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | $79.99 @ B&H |
| Video Card | *PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card | $319.99 @ Amazon |
| Case | Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case | $104.99 @ Adorama |
| Power Supply | *Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply | $66.98 @ Amazon |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $986.81 | |
| *Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria | ||
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-06 20:02 EDT-0400 |
Cities Skylines sees a fairly decent improvement going to the 3D cache chips from AMD (17% speedup here for the 5800x3D). Whats your ability to increase the budget to go for a 7800X3D look like? If this is a genre of game you like and you want to hold off as long as possible between upgrades, it might be worth springing the extra. The difference the 3D cache provides in some games is rather extraordinary. City builders, automation, and similar games tend to benefit the most. AAA games tend to benefit the least (some with effectively no gain).
A 7600X should be more than capable of handling the game though. So it’s not a question of need but if it’s worth it to you.
You do not want 4800 CL40 RAM though, that’s too slow. I’d strongly recommend going for 32GB of RAM as well; 16GB can be gobbled up quickly, especially if you want to use mods in Cities Skylines.
Going up even to DDR5-6000 is not much of a price increase. I’d suggest 6000 and something in the range of CL36-CL40. There’s a lot of 32GB kits in those specs in the ~$90 range. I would not build a gaming system today with 16GB of RAM.