Sure, let's wait for the AM5 announcement!
Sure, let's wait for the AM5 announcement!
Continuing this line of reasoning will never lead to purchasing a PC. The most promising options are always coming soon. Investing in the top-tier system you can afford now will probably satisfy you for a long time. I believe significant leaps in performance won't happen with our existing silicon-based machines anytime soon.
Consider this approach: the initial version of any item tends to have issues and carries significant risk when you decide to invest. Avoid purchasing a 1999 BMW.
You'll receive a midrange model with specs like 3700X and 5700XT/2060S. The 2080 TI offers double the performance of the 50% higher FPS version. Plan to replace the GPU every two cycles and the CPU every four cycles.
First, if you aren't wealthy you should never buy the most expensive hardware just because you can, just like new Astons, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis they devalue harder and faster then anything, while more moderately priced stuff (lets say a BMW or a Lexus for analogies sake) doesn't cost as much and holds more of its value. Im including capability into some of this value, rather then just resale $. So in your orginal case a 8-core CPU, even if at 5ghz, may not be that big of a deal if its on old architecture with lots of security issue patches hindering its performance (9900k) in a few years. Likewise it may not be cheaper but a 12-core 39000 probably will continue to increase in what its capable of as more programs and games start using more threads/cores. So far as AMD vs Intel? AMD will probably continue to lead for next few years, and investing in cores will likely be a good bet, but there is a decent chance now that they have 'Mindshare' (consumers actually respect, want, admire AMD) they may start jacking up prices and your return on investment will shrink. I state the notion of them jacking up prices based off 3rd gen Threadripped prices, there is other evidence of it very recently but won't go into that. You seem to really want a RTX card for whatever reason, i would say its probably better to wait till next generation, even on a 2080TI the tensor cores aren't beefy enough to actually utilize the rest of the graphics core, and you just end up with half baked performance running with RTX-On at the moment. Id get a RTX 2070(Super) or 5700(XT) (id steer clear of the 2060s, they are a ripoff) and wait for next gen RTX if that is your concern. Or if you really want to minmax, and are hellbent on Nvidea, get a 1660 Super and wait for next gen, its more then enough for high refresh 1080p medium-high (depending on refresh rate desired), if you wanna super-duper minmax get a 120$ rx570 and save ALL that money for next gen graphics, that thing can still do higher refresh 1080p on mix low-medium settings
You're always looking for the latest and best parts to purchase now or wait until the next generation arrives. Think about buying a solid motherboard first, then investing in a decent CPU and RAM later. It's like when the Ryzen 1400 and 1600 models launched—get a good card and save for a better processor eventually.
Opt for investing in key parts while saving elsewhere, as discussed before—don’t hold back now or you’ll miss opportunities.
I'd agree on CPUs, but on GPUs, especially since he really seems to want a RTX card eventually, id highly recommend waiting. Even on a 2080TI the tensor cores aren't beefy enough to actually utilize the rest of the graphics core, and you just end up with half baked performance running with RTX-On at the moment. Id get a RTX 2070(Super) or 5700(XT) (id steer clear of the 2060s, they are a ripoff) and wait for next gen RTX if that is your concern. If you really want to kinda minmax but be happy for awhile, and are hellbent on Nvidea, get a 1660 Super and wait for next gen, its more then enough for high refresh 1080p medium-high (depending on refresh rate desired), If you wanna go super-duper minmax get a 120$ rx570 and save ALL that money for next gen graphics, that thing can still do higher refresh 1080p on mix low settings(high textures) 120hz-ish for most games If RTX actually does become a big universal thing, any of the 2000 series cards are going to look silly in a couple years, for that reason i think its better to just ignore RTX on the 2000 series, or buy a card thats reasonable value like the 2070S if you want to dip your toes into it here and there right now