Gaming hardware wishlist?

Amien

Skilled
Greetings everyone!
Are you a current PC gamer? What's high on your hardware wishlist?

Option 1: Display upgrade:- Variable refresh display+card/2-4k/Panel type
Option 2: GPU upgrade:- HBM video card/more VRAM/more power
Option 3: Storage upgrade:- SSD, SSD raid array or PCI-E/M2 SSD
Option 4: Memory upgrade:- Faster/More RAM
Option 5: Platform upgrade:- DDR4/Skylake-HaswellE(Zen?)/M2 etc.
Option 6: OC/cooling upgrade:- High end air/water AIO/custom
Option 7: Audio upgrade:- Sound card/DAC/headset/speakers
Option 8: Input upgrade:- Mechanical keyboard, mice, controller etc
Option 9: ?

Why? : )

-Former PC gamer
 
Variable refresh rate monitor and platform upgrade are top on my list.

Monitor because i'm using R9 290x crossfire with an entry level 1080p screen :bag:

Platform upgrade because i'm using a watercooled FX 8350 @ 4.8Ghz. It's serving me well but holding me back in some games. I'm an AMD fan but Zen is just too far away right now :(
 
Good choice :). Variable refresh tech probably offers the most value for gaming for someone already on a decent setup. Easily more than platform upgrade even in your case. I'm curious, what games do you see the CPU becoming a limiting factor?
 
Not too many games have issues.. but I see stuttering in crossfire mode in titles like Witcher 3 and GTA V. The FPS is usually stable at 60fps maxed out but the occasional stuttering can ruin the experience.

I'm not sure if this stuttering will be fixed with a CPU upgrade though. It might just be a crossfire issue.

I think i'll probably hang on till the DX12 titles come out - Fable, Hitman, Deus Ex. If the FX can keep up in those titles i'll wait for Zen to come out.

And about gaming monitors, my ideal monitor would be 1440p Curved Freesync Ultrawide IPS panel that supports refresh rates upto 144Hz. I don't think anything like that is available yet, and it would be really expensive anyway :)
 
If wishes were horses, I'd get skylake-e when it launches with x99 refresh mobo and 64gigs of ram and a samsung 950 pro ssd.

Coming back to reality, my 2500k @4.5 is holding just fine. Planning to upgrade from 16GB to 32GB RAM to reduce large project(read UE4) compile times.
 
Option 1: Display upgrade:- Happy with 1080p for the next 2-3 years, will get a 4K 144Hz panel when they are available, affordable along with the horsepower on the gpu front.
Option 2: GPU upgrade:- 2015 is my first year w/o a gpu, I almost bought a 970 but wasn't comfortable paying full price for a year old card. Will definitely be getting the GTX 1070/R9 480, hopefully they launch it with HBM instead of the rumored GDDR5x !?
Option 3: Storage upgrade:- Already own an SSD but will definitely get a pci-e or m.2 one on the next platform upgrade cycle.
Option 4: Memory upgrade:- Still happy with 8gigs, DDR4 16gb in the future ofc.
Option 5: Platform upgrade:- Looking forward to the zen/cannonlake showdown. If the IPC gains aren't much I'm sticking to my Haswell for another 2-3 years.
Option 6: OC/cooling upgrade:- Don't really think this is necessary anymore, OC'ing used to be a challenge back in the day but with one button OC and efficient hardware that runs cool it has lost the charm for me.
Option 7: Audio upgrade:- Just this week I lost my studio monitors the one time I connected em to the mains, also took my USB audio interface along with em :( Now i have a M50 and DT770 running off onboard audio, don't want to buy Xonar ST/STX again since the prices have gone up and I'm not comfy paying 5k more for a card I used to own. Thinking of getting the open backed DT 990 pro with a DAC/AMP combo as a daily driver in the next 4-5 months.
Option 8: Input upgrade:- I'm done with membrane gaming keyboards and will definitely be getting a TKL mechanical one around the time I get a gpu (once you go TKL you can't go back). Have my eyes on the Corsair K65 and the G410 (If only Logi made it less uglier and got rid of the contoured WASD keycaps).
I've also owned around 7-8 gaming mice from pretty much all the manufacturers in the last decade and from my experience I think they are designed to fail just after the warranty ends no matter how much they cost, pretty much all of em ended having worn out parts, dead sensors or the dreaded double-click issue.
So yea for gaming mice I've completely written them off but unfortunately my trusty intellipoint that has served me whenever those overpriced pos died has starting showing problems, gets disconnected if I move the case and Mouse3 opens 2-3 windows more often these days.
A moment of silence for my 13 year old workhorse, they don't build stuff like this anymore.

h5AMq6x2.jpeg
 
Not too many games have issues.. but I see stuttering in crossfire mode in titles like Witcher 3 and GTA V. The FPS is usually stable at 60fps maxed out but the occasional stuttering can ruin the experience.

I'm not sure if this stuttering will be fixed with a CPU upgrade though. It might just be a crossfire issue.

I think i'll probably hang on till the DX12 titles come out - Fable, Hitman, Deus Ex. If the FX can keep up in those titles i'll wait for Zen to come out.

And about gaming monitors, my ideal monitor would be 1440p Curved Freesync Ultrawide IPS panel that supports refresh rates upto 144Hz. I don't think anything like that is available yet, and it would be really expensive anyway :)
Yeah I thought it might be the crossfire as well. The Acer XR341CK comes pretty close. Its almost there.
Do you think the reduced top pixels from ultrawide monitors are a ploy for manufacturers to sell less display for more while keeping manufacturing costs even lower? I mean some of those curved ultrawides seem to cost close to full blown 4k displays, which you can always simulate that resolution on + have those extra pixels when you need them.
If wishes were horses, I'd get skylake-e when it launches with x99 refresh mobo and 64gigs of ram and a samsung 950 pro ssd.

Coming back to reality, my 2500k @4.5 is holding just fine. Planning to upgrade from 16GB to 32GB RAM to reduce large project(read UE4) compile times.

The 2500k is very respectable. Part of the reason I made this post was thinking about the diminishing returns of PC upgrades lately. Are you going to get rid of the 16 GB and buy faster RAM or just add more of the same to it? What are you working on? If that's okay to ask...



Nice and detailed post :D
1: I'm fine with 1080p as well. It annoys me that 4k resolution monitors don't actually hit 4000 or more pixels :p. The amount of power it takes to drive them seems quite wasteful.
2: I'm currently without a GPU as well. I'm grateful that integrated graphics don't completely suck anymore. I think Nvidia will come out with both, HBM for the top parts. It would be hugely disappointing if they decide to wait this one out since AMD's already taken the plunge and given them time to do it better (cheaper?).
3: PCI-E drives are insanely fast but due to the inherent nature of PCI they have a far lower boot priority/initialization than SATA drives. I think a couple of manufacturers released firmware for people complaining about slow boot times when using it as an OS drive but I don't think that's going away completely. Still, boot time is just one factor... not sure its entirely relevant right now...
4: Same here. I always seem to have 2-3 GB in reserve, on 8 GB at present, 1600 Mhz @ 8-8-8-24. Still trying to work out what the sweet spot for DDR4 should be...
5: Preparing to be underwhelmed but fingers crossed at the same time!
6: Miss the golden days when everything wasn't locked down. There's little motivation to do it, just for namesake to justify the extra money spent on an unlocked part. :(
7: Damn, that sucks :(. Not sure what to do here myself as most of the music I listen to is on a phone while travelling. Gaming is down to a minimum, I think I'd still stick to a standard stereo headset if I was still gaming as opposed to those new fangled multi-channel ones that seem to be popular now. I've used a Xonar DX before, on onboard for now, thinking of trying out the cheap and cheerful DGX.
8: Im thinking of a tenkeyless myself. Mechanical but preferably not too many bells and whistles otherwise. Suggestions appreciated. Those intelli mice were awesome. Microsoft sure knew how to make an input device. I feel you on the mice durability bit. At this point the only razer in my house is going to be the one in the bathroom.
They really don't build them like they used to.
 
  1. Display: My current display is 2k Dell and I am pretty happy with it. but on my wishlist is a display with accurate color reproduction and probably a 4k display.
  2. GPU: Current one is 290X and I am pretty happy with its performance. I may not switch to a new one until its in a position that it cannot handle the display at ultra levels.
  3. Storage: currently running on 840 evo 256G sata SSD for OS and 3TB WD black for programs and 3TB WD Green for archival. Though NVMe drives may become more mainstream soon, I am more interested in NVDIMMs to come to market for desktops. other than that, I am pretty impressed by the performance of WD Black that I have.
  4. RAM: well, 32G of 2400GHz ram is good enough for now, I dont plan to upgrade anytime soon until I change the mobo.
  5. Platform: Yeah... maybe...
  6. Cooling: NOPE. I already live a subzero environment, so I would be shutting down room heating instead :p
  7. Audio Upgrade: Though the audio quality of Sound Blaster Z is good, I an unhappy with the software. Also I want to buy a 5.1 headset soon. Sennheiser HD580 is my love and I will not part with it anytime soon.
  8. Input upgrade: Happy with G710+, G502 Proteus core, Orb weaver :) no upgrades with these unless I am drunk.
  9. MISC: VR headset is on wishlist :)
 
The 2500k is very respectable. Part of the reason I made this post was thinking about the diminishing returns of PC upgrades lately. Are you going to get rid of the 16 GB and buy faster RAM or just add more of the same to it? What are you working on? If that's okay to ask...
Planning to get rid of the 16gigs as it is using all the 4 slots. I am using UE4 for a non gaming startup idea in my spare time. For compiling, I have built a ram drive on which it generates the executables. This cuts down code compile times from 30 odd minutes to a mere 6-7 minutes. However with 16 gigs, when compiling the machine almost runs out of memory as 12gigs is dedicated to the ram drive.
 
MISC: VR headset is on wishlist :)
Weirdly over the years I prefer to have less immersion while using the computer because I'm usually doing other things on the side. Was very excited about VR a few years ago but it seems to have lost its appeal on me. On the other hand, I'm sure there will be lots of cool applications once it does become sort of mainstream.
Though I am far more tolerant to heat than cold, It is freaking hot here man, I wish I could trade places with you for a little while :p
Sounds like you have plenty of reason to be satisfied :D


Planning to get rid of the 16gigs as it is using all the 4 slots. I am using UE4 for a non gaming startup idea in my spare time. For compiling, I have built a ram drive on which it generates the executables. This cuts down code compile times from 30 odd minutes to a mere 6-7 minutes. However with 16 gigs, when compiling the machine almost runs out of memory as 12gigs is dedicated to the ram drive.
Thanks for sharing! Ramdisks are awesome. Its pretty hard to find an application that can saturate a DDR3 based ram disk. Shouldn't really miss DDR4. 1600/1800 Mhz @ 8/9x timings should be pretty sweet.
 
Weirdly over the years I prefer to have less immersion while using the computer because I'm usually doing other things on the side. Was very excited about VR a few years ago but it seems to have lost its appeal on me. On the other hand, I'm sure there will be lots of cool applications once it does become sort of mainstream.
Though I am far more tolerant to heat than cold, It is freaking hot here man, I wish I could trade places with you for a little while :p
Sounds like you have plenty of reason to be satisfied :D



Thanks for sharing! Ramdisks are awesome. Its pretty hard to find an application that can saturate a DDR3 based ram disk. Shouldn't really miss DDR4. 1600/1800 Mhz @ 8/9x timings should be pretty sweet.
VR is great when done right. However VR is honestly still looking for its killer app. Doesn't exist right now!

As for rest of the hardware, here is my due:

Display: Doing just fine with an Asus pa279q color accurate display and a dell u2312 as secondary in portrait mode.
GPU: 980 ti on primary, 970 on secondary enough said
Storage: 20+ TB including 1TB+ solid state on the home network. So its enough for now
Ram: Upgrading soon to 32GB
Platform: Will wait for skylake-e
Cooling: Have liquid cooling already on both rigs
Audio: Have way too much audio hardware. Too long to list.
Input: Have a mechanical gaming kb and g502 mouse so none required.
 
VR is great when done right. However VR is honestly still looking for its killer app. Doesn't exist right now!

As for rest of the hardware, here is my due:

Display: Doing just fine with an Asus pa279q color accurate display and a dell u2312 as secondary in portrait mode.
GPU: 980 ti on primary, 970 on secondary enough said
Storage: 20+ TB including 1TB+ solid state on the home network. So its enough for now
Ram: Upgrading soon to 32GB
Platform: Will wait for skylake-e
Cooling: Have liquid cooling already on both rigs
Audio: Have way too much audio hardware. Too long to list.
Input: Have a mechanical gaming kb and g502 mouse so none required.
That is some fine hardware : )

I'm totally with you on VR. I think it would be better if they avoided the photo-realistic crap and just gave us Quest World (I want to live that dream, yes XD). A modern GPU could render one of the early CGI movies... let's say stuff like Toy story in real time. Imagine a fully interactive movie or a sci-fi/cybernetic title utilizing VR to improve gameplay rather than strive for realism. It would make everything so much more accessible and also get to the market faster. Everybody remembers the time when game manufacturers were pushing for photo realism in games when the hardware was not really ready for it and I honestly think VR is going the same route. [/end rant] XD
 
That is some fine hardware : )

I'm totally with you on VR. I think it would be better if they avoided the photo-realistic crap and just gave us Quest World (I want to live that dream, yes XD). A modern GPU could render one of the early CGI movies... let's say stuff like Toy story in real time. Imagine a fully interactive movie or a sci-fi/cybernetic title utilizing VR to improve gameplay rather than strive for realism. It would make everything so much more accessible and also get to the market faster. Everybody remembers the time when game manufacturers were pushing for photo realism in games when the hardware was not really ready for it and I honestly think VR is going the same route. [/end rant] XD

The best apps are the ones that actually use the VR experience to achieve something that can't be achieved otherwise. So far the best game implementation of VR I've seen is Darknet. If one has a VR specific platform, they should try it out. Runs even on a phone. Stupidly simple graphics but amazing experience. The VR implementation of both Assetto Corsa and Elite Dangerous are pretty good too. Driving and space sims are a couple of genres that appear to be built for VR as the transition is really natural.

The best single app that has been available so far is TiltBrush since it allows an artist to do what was not possible before in a really nice easy way. These are the kind of apps that are required for VR to get the kickoff platform that is required.
 
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