Question Need Advice (CPU and RAM) Asus Maximus XI HERO (Wifi)

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
So I was lucky enough to win the above mentioned motherboard in a raffle. :) My current build is 5+ years old SO IT is TIME to build a new one. I have been out of the game for some time and was looking to come to my favorite resource forum for advice.

PC will be mainly Gaming...and I would love to try Ray Tracing like on Cyberpunk 2077.. 4K monitor etc...

No worries on $ what would you guys throw into this beast of a MB?

1) CPU - Intel i9-9900K? If so....which one I see a few different models and do not understand the reason for it.

2) Memory - would love your advice as well. 16 enough or do I need 32GB? I have these in hand which I never used...are they good for this MB or should I upgrade? (G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel XMP 2.0 Memory Kit Model F4-3200C16D-32GIS)

I am going to keep the below two items:
* Case - Fractal Design Define R5 Black Silent ATX Midtower
* PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2 220-G2-0650-Y1 80+ GOLD 650W Fully Modular EVGA ECO (unless I should start fresh)

I will then have to see which GPU I can afford...some are so much $$

ANY Advice is welcome and thank you in advance!

Rob
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
I also prefer Asus. I would get the Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (WI-FI). The only difference I can discern between the B550-A and B550-F is color (A has white heatsinks and F has black heatsinks). I prefer more expensive boards, like the ROG Strix line, because they tend to get more BIOS updates for longer.

If you are only gaming, the best bang for the buck is the 5800X.

??

There is basically zero difference for gaming between the $289 5600X and $399 5800X.


That comparison uses an RTX 3090, coming down to more humanly priced GPUs and the potential edge cases for 5800X to show any gains in any gaming scenario go from miniscule to nonexistent.

The 5800X is of course, better. But it will not help in gaming. If $110 gets OP a better GPU within his budget, it's a counterproductive choice (the 5800) for his use case.
 

solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
302
168
116
??

There is basically zero difference for gaming between the $289 5600X and $399 5800X.


That comparison uses an RTX 3090, coming down to more humanly priced GPUs and the potential edge cases for 5800X to show any gains in any gaming scenario go from miniscule to nonexistent.

The 5800X is of course, better. But it will not help in gaming. If $110 gets OP a better GPU within his budget, it's a counterproductive choice (the 5800) for his use case.

While most games don't use more than 6 cores/12 threads, some games are starting to. COD Warzone is one such game where having 8 cores does make a difference. And I predict that more games in the future will take advantage of 8 cores.

So while 6 cores is fine NOW, I don't think it will be in the too distant future.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
Warzone is dramatically faster with the 5600X over the 3900X, it's much more architecture dependent.


It's like BFV in a lot of ways, it can use a ton of threads, but when you actually look at the CPU load, only a handful see more than 15-20% load. With the evolution of DirectX, Mantle, etc, core count and CPU load is actually becoming less of an issue than ever before.

I'm not opposed to a 5800X vs 5600X in a situation where there are zero budget considerations. However if it requires the expense that results in a lower end GPU, it will be a materially inferior gaming experience within those constraints.
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
I also prefer Asus. I would get the Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (WI-FI). The only difference I can discern between the B550-A and B550-F is color (A has white heatsinks and F has black heatsinks). I prefer more expensive boards, like the ROG Strix line, because they tend to get more BIOS updates for longer.

If you are only gaming, the best bang for the buck is the 5800X.

If I have not yet stated this you are the BEST and an asset to this forum! I have always wanted to build an AMD system so I think I am going with this MOBO for sure.

Next step is which M2. chip or chips to install. I normally like 1 TB for the OS (current SSD SATA) to sit and then like 5TB (Current WD black) for gaming...My mind is saying M.2 1TB WD for OS and then something like a Samsung EVO 2TB-4TB drive...no old school WD black drives for me anymore I am thinking...trying to figure out the best bang for my buck. The larger cap ones are so much$$

Maybe even go 2 M2s + SATA III? M.2 = small for OS like 500 GIG then M.2 = 2TB for games I am playing and finally a 2TB Samsung evo SATA III for storage...
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
Warzone is dramatically faster with the 5600X over the 3900X, it's much more architecture dependent.


It's like BFV in a lot of ways, it can use a ton of threads, but when you actually look at the CPU load, only a handful see more than 15-20% load. With the evolution of DirectX, Mantle, etc, core count and CPU load is actually becoming less of an issue than ever before.

I'm not opposed to a 5800X vs 5600X in a situation where there are zero budget considerations. However if it requires the expense that results in a lower end GPU, it will be a materially inferior gaming experience within those constraints.
Thank you. In the end since I do have a budget...I might go for the 5600x to save the $ and throw that into a GPU...just wish these DECENT almost top of the line GPUs would come down it price...some are insane!
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
The pain of all PC gamers at the moment : the madness of GPU pricing and availability 😓

and those who bitcoin/crypto mine as well.....from what I hear....all the home rigs...

What the heck would you buy in today's market...I honestly do not see myself buying a $1,500 GPU!

 
Last edited:

solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
302
168
116
I prefer Samsung and Western Digitals latest SSDs because they are vertically integrated (they make their own controllers, firmware, and NAND flash).

I do a 3 tier system for my storage.

Tier 1 = OS and big, frequently played, games/apps. Like Rainbow Six Siege and Destiny 2 in my case.
Tier 2 = Big, less frequently played games/apps. For me, that's Battlefield 4 and Apex Legends.
Tier 3 = Old/small games, documents, pictures, videos.

Tier 1 is a 500GB Samsung 970 Evo NVMe SSD. Tier 2 is a 1TB Samsung 860 Evo SATA SSD. Tier 3 is a 3TB Western Digital Red.

This is the most economical, IMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arkaign

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
I prefer Samsung and Western Digitals latest SSDs because they are vertically integrated (they make their own controllers, firmware, and NAND flash).

I do a 3 tier system for my storage.

Tier 1 = OS and big, frequently played, games/apps. Like Rainbow Six Siege and Destiny 2 in my case.
Tier 2 = Big, less frequently played games/apps. For me, that's Battlefield 4 and Apex Legends.
Tier 3 = Old/small games, documents, pictures, videos.

Tier 1 is a 500GB Samsung 970 Evo NVMe SSD. Tier 2 is a 1TB Samsung 860 Evo SATA SSD. Tier 3 is a 3TB Western Digital Red.

This is the most economical, IMO.
That sounds like a great setup for sure, thank you. And is nice on the wallet. So you don't even mess around with the M.2 SSD versions etc...

I do have a V-NAND SSD, Samsung 970 ECO Plus NVME M.2 on hand (500 GB) so I was going to use that for my OS only.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
I prefer Samsung and Western Digitals latest SSDs because they are vertically integrated (they make their own controllers, firmware, and NAND flash).

I do a 3 tier system for my storage.

Tier 1 = OS and big, frequently played, games/apps. Like Rainbow Six Siege and Destiny 2 in my case.
Tier 2 = Big, less frequently played games/apps. For me, that's Battlefield 4 and Apex Legends.
Tier 3 = Old/small games, documents, pictures, videos.

Tier 1 is a 500 GB Samsung 970 Evo NVMe SSD. Tier 2 is a 1TB Samsung 860 Evo SATA SSD. Tier 3 is a 3TB Western Digital Red.

This is the most economical, IMO.

That's a pretty good matrix. A good piece of info is also that basically all common consumer model SSDs trail down heavily in performance past a certain usage range. Typically 75-85% full and they start to dip, and 90%+ severe performance issues arise. Something to keep in mind when choosing where to install something.

Plain old spinner drives actually also do pretty well for bulk gaming storage of less intensive or offline games. A single player game like Horizon Zero Dawn or Assassin's Creed Valhalla streams data in pretty efficiently, and with 16GB or more of ram, loading is not too common anyway.

A 500 + 1TB SSD combo is pretty good for most people if you also have a 2-4TB spinner to serve as general bulk storage/single player/back burner type games 👍 Comes back to what you get out of the expensive. Like a 4TB SSD is nice, but it's $350-$400. For that money there is a Lenovo 34" IPS 144hz 1ms Ultrawide. Going from a 1080p or 60hz display to that thing is WAY more of an upgrade than having luxury extra SSD space 😅
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
I do. The Samsung 970 Evo (my tier 1 drive) is a M.2 NVME SSD.

OK I have any Update on a possible GPU. I might be able to get my hands on this one. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 D6 WINDFORCE OC 4G Graphics Card

How does that match up with the AMD board/CPU/current PSU below. You guys are so much more knowledge with this stuff and the compatibility and I am learning everyday so THANK YOU! I just dont know if this GPU will give me the gaming power I am looking for...

Current ideas:

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard
G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 D6 WINDFORCE OC 4G Graphics Card?? Not enough power to do what I want to do?
Hard drvies....M2 plus SSD and Spinner...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arkaign

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
That GPU will be able to run 1080 with mix of high and medium settings decently enough. And it will definitely not be held back by the 5600X, which is so powerful not even an RTX 3090 will show gains with a 5800X/5950 level CPU from there up.

However, what price are you seeing for the 1650? It is slow enough that you may see a better deal with a used option. We have a pretty good FS/FT section of excellent people to deal with on the forum.
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
That GPU will be able to run 1080 with mix of high and medium settings decently enough. And it will definitely not be held back by the 5600X, which is so powerful not even an RTX 3090 will show gains with a 5800X/5950 level CPU from there up.

However, what price are you seeing for the 1650? It is slow enough that you may see a better deal with a used option. We have a pretty good FS/FT section of excellent people to deal with on the forum.

Actually I have a buddy of mine abdicate dwell he says he is not LOL..but he opens boxes on one of those mystery boxes sites and he won it. So he said he would sell it to me for $200 cash...I see it is over $300 online so I am going to prob take it since I plan on staying at 1080 with a better monitor then the one I have right now. I currently have an AOC G2770PF 144 Freesync monitor so if I go with that one I assume I will need a Geofroce one?
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
Staying at 1080 is great. You can run Gsync over Freesync with that AOC monitor no problem, Nvidia opened that up a while back.

The 1650 may struggle with some titles, in general do the following :

Disable AA
Textures High
Lighting/Shadow Options Medium
Anisotropic Filtering 16X/Ultra
Ambient Occlusion Medium or disabled
Motion Blur Disabled
Chromatic Abberation Disabled
Film Grain Disabled

If it is running at 90+fps at that point, you can try dialing up AA or perhaps shadows or AO, but in general that's a guide to getting the best framerates from a 1650-level GPU. It's a tad slower than an RX470/570 4GB in most titles, so it's not terrible, or very great, but can get great results at 1080p if you're willing to compromise on a few settings and spend a few minutes adjusting until you get the best results you can.
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
Staying at 1080 is great. You can run Gsync over Freesync with that AOC monitor no problem, Nvidia opened that up a while back.

The 1650 may struggle with some titles, in general do the following :

Disable AA
Textures High
Lighting/Shadow Options Medium
Anisotropic Filtering 16X/Ultra
Ambient Occlusion Medium or disabled
Motion Blur Disabled
Chromatic Abberation Disabled
Film Grain Disabled

If it is running at 90+fps at that point, you can try dialing up AA or perhaps shadows or AO, but in general that's a guide to getting the best framerates from a 1650-level GPU. It's a tad slower than an RX470/570 4GB in most titles, so it's not terrible, or very great, but can get great results at 1080p if you're willing to compromise on a few settings and spend a few minutes adjusting until you get the best results you can.

Thank you very good to know about that freesyc/gsyc. I am currently running this GPU...is mine better the possible one I might be buying lol

MSI Radeon RX 480 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support ATX Video Card RX 480 GAMING X 8G
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Arkaign

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126

Look at the RX570 performance, which is pretty close to stock RX480, or close enough to be indistinguishable. The RX470/480 to 570/580 is a refresh with minor clock bumps. Tuned correctly, your 470 can top out around stock 580 performance, as long as you don't exceed the 4GB framebuffer.
 

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71

Look at the RX570 performance, which is pretty close to stock RX480, or close enough to be indistinguishable. The RX470/480 to 570/580 is a refresh with minor clock bumps. Tuned correctly, your 470 can top out around stock 580 performance, as long as you don't exceed the 4GB framebuffer.

THNAK YOU!! OMG guess I researched and picked a good one out back in 2016! for under $300!

OK what would be a decent upgrade to play 1080P cyberpunk 2077 max setting or is it not even worth it cause it would cost me $800 or more...I am thinking if I go the new AMD system maybe even rock a 4K and try some ray tracing but then I would be entering a new BUDGET for 4K monitor and GPU!!!

1626466920928.png
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
The best way to get great Cyberpunk 2077 on a budget is 2060 Super with DLSS 2.0

With that combo and the AI upscaling, you get equal or better than native image quality, ray tracing, and ultra settings at 60+fps. I built someone a budget gaming rig with an old Xeon E5-1650 v3, 32GB Quad Channel DDR3-1600, and a 2060 Super and they're getting great performance at 1440p DLSS at 70-100fps.

Either that or try to get on a waiting list for an RTX 3060. Either way if you find a deal you should see something in the $400ish range if you avoid jacked up prices. May take some patience though, but your RX480 still has some life in it for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: solidsnake1298

rcoops72

Member
May 24, 2012
72
7
71
The best way to get great Cyberpunk 2077 on a budget is 2060 Super with DLSS 2.0

With that combo and the AI upscaling, you get equal or better than native image quality, ray tracing, and ultra settings at 60+fps. I built someone a budget gaming rig with an old Xeon E5-1650 v3, 32GB Quad Channel DDR3-1600, and a 2060 Super and they're getting great performance at 1440p DLSS at 70-100fps.

Either that or try to get on a waiting list for an RTX 3060. Either way if you find a deal you should see something in the $400ish range if you avoid jacked up prices. May take some patience though, but your RX480 still has some life in it for sure.

Thanks. Yeah I see many (2060 Supers) brand new for over $600 and used starting at $500 on secondary mkt. Places like newegg 779 for brand new.