EightyDuce

Also a good watch:

Not set in stone or anything; while the last upgrade lasted me for close to 5 years, it was showing its age by year 4.

Interesting read. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/rtx-4090-53-games-core-i9-13900k-vs-ryzen-7-5800x3d/3.html

Trust me, I get it. I've been kicking a similar can down the road for some time. I was in a 7700k and 1080ti, both on water for close to 5 years. Broke everything down to re-fit a new case once all the new stuff came out. Now my plan, unless 7900XTX turns out to be a bust somehow, is 7700/7800X3D 7900xtx, 32/64 GB DDR5... Then I sit on that for the next 3-4 years. The only thing I can think of that would derail the plan is if the new X3D refresh turns out to be meh... Then I'm strongly considering a 13600K with DDR5 +7900XTX.

Getting a but off topic, but my 1080ti came with a waterblock, thus the price difference over reference. Like I said before, there is a market for everyone; those that are willing to pay for the high end, those that aren't, those that are happy in the midrange, those gaming on the lower end; the only ones in an unhappy place are those that want high end performance at midrange price. Reality is that cost of doing business today is more expensive than it was a year or two ago. I would tend to agree with you that the XT on it's face doesnt seem to make a lot of sense only being $100 difference from XTX, but I'm sure AMD did their homework. Wouldn't be surprised if you can OC XT to reference XTX performance. As for pc gaming dying, again, that's just not a thing. Reality of it is you don't need a $1000 GPU and by and large (steam survey) people are happily gaming with $200-400 GPU's, even for DCS. If you're in VR, then yes, I see the need, however, if you're doing VR then you are in the high-end territory. For example, I'm playing on a placeholder PC right now, 10400F 32gb ram and a 3060TI which gets me 60+ FPS at 1440p; PC I'm building is aimed at VR play and will be high-end, with a high-end price. I came up in the late 90s and early 2000's and gaming is in a better place today than it was then, at least for me.

The marketing and "buzzwords" is not uncommon in these events and can be seen in Intel and Nvidia events. As for pricing, a lot of this will depend on each individual's perception of what "value" is. It appears that you aren't in the market for a $1000+ GPU and that's absolutely fine. You can grab a 3090ti/6900XT for near $600-700 and have 50-60% the performance of the new high-end GPUs. As far as pricing of the 7900XT(x), I would argue is far from disappointing and is actually very competitive. If the expected performance ends up being true: ie. 7900XTX performance falling between a 4080 ($1200) and a 4090 ($1600) for $1000, that's $200-800 you can put back into your system. As for MSRP being a pipedream, market will dictate the pricing by other vendors (amazon, newegg, etc) but AMD will be selling the refence card at MSRP. Gauging price/value by looking at data from the last two years is a flawed due to the extreme shortage and scalping brought on by mining and logistical issues. We should also remember that these are top-end cards. As a comparison, in 2017 I paid just shy of $800 for my 1080ti, now 5 years later, I would be paying $200 (25% premium) more for 300-400% increase in performance. To me doesn't seem to be a bad deal, especially if you hold on to your hardware and don't upgrade every other generation. It is a personal preference, but I'm a firm believer into "buy once cry once." That being said, AMD is definitely making good margins on these cards, more so than Nvidia, simply because it's cheaper to manufacture Navi (chiplet) vs. Lovelace (mono); but innovation that's not a reason to cheapen your brand. AMD is trying to get mindshare and get away from the perception of being a "value" brand. They have a competitive product and they are capitalizing on it while still providing value to the consumer (more so than Nvidia). If this trickles down to mid-range, then 7700XT(X?) should be quite a card, with performance comparable to 3090ti/6900XT but for around $450-500. PC gaming is far from doomed (this get's touted with every new hardware cycle), as evident by how fast these GPU's fly off the shelves. Just my two cents, but the future is looking good.

With nVidia (my current 3060ti) undervolting has been been very fruitful. I can't speak for any recent AMD. I've ran AMD (ATI) for the majority of my gaming life, with a 3dFx voodoo and a Riva TNT mixed in. My last AMD experience was my R290 flashed to a R290X and that puppy was a monster. Then I went to a 1080ti which was a beast and carried me for the next 4.5 years. The 7900XTX is the one to bring me back and I honestly can't wait to throw a waterblock on it and see what it can do.

Going to be interesting.

MSI Afterburner for pancake mode. There's also payware app for VR (I'm completely blanking on the name). Not sure if DCS has a built-in one or not.

https://www.techpowerup.com/300641/asus-first-oem-to-show-off-custom-radeon-rx-7900-series-cards Hopefully they show off pins. Looks thicc...

No doubt on the reviews. That being said, if this beats the 4080,which if it doesn't I'm not sure what AMD is doing, then this is a win by default.

I wouldn't be too sure, though I suppose it depends on what's considered "soon". AMD left a lot on the table with only a 2x8pin, unless it's at the limits of the silicon near 355w, which I can't imagine to be a thing. In my un-scietific hobbyist opinion we will see 3x8pin from AIBs sooner rather than later. At Gen 4 PCI-E, it would give them a ceiling of near 500w, 4090 territory; but unlike 4090, AIB XTX would actually have something to offer over reference.

Waiting for a 3x8pin AIB XTX monster to throw a waterblock on.

Well, this should be interesting. The XTX looking like a dang near-instant buy for me right now.

Depends on the amount of money you're looking to spend. While it's EOL, AM4+5800x3d can be had on a very reasonable budget. Another thing to consider, a 13600K which trades blows with 5800X3D in gaming. Both AMD and Intel offerings are dead end sockets with similar performance, honestly can't go wrong with either for gaming. If you're on Win11 and do any productity, I'd say go with 13600k as it spanks in multithreading with e-cores. Now, if budget isn't an issue, I would wait for 7X00x3D as they should be gaming monsters. That being said, that means a roughly $300-400 motherboard, $400-500 CPU, $200-300 DDR5. Then another $800-1200 GPU.

I'd be interested to see comparison of 13th gen with DDR4 vs DDR5 (5600+) to see if you get further reduction in crametimes, as the new chipset definitely handles DDR5 better.

Anecdotally, Win 11. Especially if you're running 13th gen intels with E cores, as Win10 still doesn't know what to do with them.

I mean, while a bit facetious, he's not terribly far off with the comparison. Lol. I may have to take a pilgrimage up to NOVA and check out the micro center in Fairfax once X3D cpus and RDNA3 gpus hit.

Some "leaked" info on the upcoming RNDA3. This guy is usually pretty much on so while not official, should be solid info. Looking like 7900XT will be the 4080 alternative. 7900XTX will be closer to 4090 as a premium top dog. Seems they are leaving the XX50 for the refreshes. So 300w for 7900XT and 350w for 7900XTX from AMD; interesting part will be the 3x8-pin variants from AIBs which could potentially push to 500w.

12th gen vs 9th gen aren't comparable by frequency alone. 12th gen has significant IPC improvement over 9th gen, so clock for clock, 12700kf will spank 9900 in gaming.

I'd trust Gamers Nexus and/or Hardware Unboxed as both do fairly comprehensive testing.

So far 13th Gen is comparable to Zen4 within margin of error except its on a dead-end platform, if you're good with that, save your money and buy Intel, especially if can recycle the ram/motherboard. If X3D for Zen4 is just as much of a performance improvement as 5800 was, it's going to mop the floor with Raptor Lake.

I'd love for that to be true, and perhaps it will be. Currently 12900K at 5.4ghz all core of 5.1. I not holding out for 50-70% increase in DCS performance in VR, as amazing as that would be. Hopefully someone will get one soon and test. Looking at the reviews so far (not of DCS unfortunately) but the gains seem to be with that range at 4k.

I've been out of air cooling game for a while, only using FE variants on water, but the new coolers are absolutely monstrosities... Also, though EVGA never came out and said it, wondering if they knew something lol... Seeing as FE now almost directly competes with AIB models.

Depending on your CPU, assuming you aren't bottlenecked by it, you will see 50-70% performance over a 3090ti. For VR this puppy would pair well with a 5800x3d.