building a new rig to run the new Doom @ 60fps on ultra

so as my excitement is ramping up as more and more details come out and I know for sure my current PC wont run the new Doom at the level I want it to, I'm starting to try and figure out what components I'll need on my next rig to run the new Doom on ultra @ 60fps. I know the specs are out, but I wanted to get some input on what you guys are doing to prepare your rigs or what you are building yourself to make sure you experience the new Doom on max settings and a steady 60fps? I am willing to spend up to a grand to ensure I can achieve that (not only for this game obviously, but this is the game I've been holding out building a new computer for). I haven't built a computer before from scratch so is a grand overkill? not enough? should i wait until closer to the release? is there new GPU tech coming out that I should just wait a few months? please let me hear your suggestions!

thanks

mjf6866 said:

should i wait until closer to the release? is there new GPU tech coming out that I should just wait a few months?

Yes.

Both Nvidia and AMD have new stuff in the pipeline, though I'm not sure how long it'll be for that to come. Might be after Doom's release. (Having said that, current GPU tech will be fine for Doom I think)

Intel and AMD also have new CPU tech either on the way or just released, so waiting a bit will see that fall in price, too.

The longer you wait, the cheaper DDR4 memory will be. As it stands it's still quite a chunk more than DDR3, and you really will want the faster stuff going forward.

What currency is your "grand" in?

thank you for the info! i'm in the US, so "dollars" :)

You should be able to easily get yourself up to speed for $1000. What specs do you have now? Is there anything you can keep from your old system? (Optical drives, maybe large storage hard drives, maybe case)

On the subject of Hard drives, try and budget for a couple of SSDs a small (128 or 256GB) one for your OS and a larger one to install games on. I can't state enough how important this is, as game data files get larger and larger.

All high and ultra range cards on the market right now will run the new DOOM without any issue. If you grab 970's, 980's, 980ti's, or even the Titan X... they'll handle it like a beast.

Even some prior cards should have little issue with it (if any).

That said, I wouldn't expect to see any new cards than those above before DOOM's release. Nvidia's Maxwell architecture in the 900/Titan X series is still top dog, and Pascal likely won't see a release date until November or December (at earliest, or even later) due to HBM delays. Same goes for AMD's Fiji/Whatever Islands flagship cards.

There may be a Maxwell refresh in the interim, but they'll be rebranded 900 series cards with maybe a little more MHz and a bit more RAM. Nothing special.

Also consider DOOM is also a cross platform title, so while it'll have some "prettier" options on PC, it'll still have engine limitations that won't demand the absolute latest and greatest card to play. I wouldn't expect any graphics features beyond current OpenGL, DX11/12 standards... which all current lineups from both Nvidia and AMD offer.

That's pretty much my situation as well. I'll be upgrading my rig for DOOM4 (and some other games) this year and unfortunately that means replacing literally EVERYTHING, motherboard, CPU, memory, HDD, GPU of course, even a monitor. Gives me a headache just thinking about it. Not sure about my budget yet, though and I'm waiting pretty much until the last moment (maybe a month before a release or something). But yeah, I intend to run the game (at least that one) at steady 60fps.

While we're at it, what is the current situation with CPUs? I've heard some opinions that it's not worth going for i7 but I don't know, I'm clueless about the current state of things so if you guys have any tips, bring'em on.

Touchdown said:

That's pretty much my situation as well. I'll be upgrading my rig for DOOM4 (and some other games) this year and unfortunately that means replacing literally EVERYTHING, motherboard, CPU, memory, HDD, GPU of course, even a monitor. Gives me a headache just thinking about it. Not sure about my budget yet, though and I'm waiting pretty much until the last moment (maybe a month before a release or something). But yeah, I intend to run the game (at least that one) at steady 60fps.

While we're at it, what is the current situation with CPUs? I've heard some opinions that it's not worth going for i7 but I don't know, I'm clueless about the current state of things so if you guys have any tips, bring'em on.

If you're going for Intel, get a Skylake i5. The 6600K seems to be the popular choice. You won't really need the (small) extra oopmh from the i7 just for gaming.

Having said that: If you're replacing your monitor, pick that first. If you're going to get something larger than 1920x1080, consider that you will need more GPU power to drive games at those higher resolutions. I wouldn't recommend a 4K monitor right now. 1440p are pretty viable with a powerful setup though.

good info guys, thank you again!

i will have no choice but to build from scratch. right now i have a dell mini tower that i added a low profile radeon 7700 series card 1GB VRAM, 16GB DDR3 RAM, and a 500GB HDD with an Intel i7 3770@3.4ghz. its the non-overclockable version unfortunately.

when i got this computer a few years ago, i was completely out of the PC gaming world. I used to play in the mid-late 90's and early 2000s and then just got out of it after getting a PS2. this computer was just supposed to be for my home office...well that changed as soon as my buddy recommended i try DayZ out lol...thats when i added that card and added and overkill amount of RAM (i had some extra laying around so i figured why not?) I know the bottleneck is the motherboard and GPU. the processor is pretty decent, just cant unlock more out of it.

it plays DayZ pretty good on medium-low settings probably 30-45fps on average and also Wolfenstein: New Order on medium. as soon as you crank anything up, its completely unplayable.

AirRaid said:

If you're going for Intel, get a Skylake i5. The 6600K seems to be the popular choice. You won't really need the (small) extra oopmh from the i7 just for gaming.

Having said that: If you're replacing your monitor, pick that first. If you're going to get something larger than 1920x1080, consider that you will need more GPU power to drive games at those higher resolutions. I wouldn't recommend a 4K monitor right now. 1440p are pretty viable with a powerful setup though.

Thanks, I'll keep that one in mind.

As for the monitor, I did not intend to go above 1080p but I need a 27 inch one. I've heard various things about that but my 22" is just waaay too small. 27" + 120hz was my original plan though the specific model is up for a discussion. Not sure about going for 1440p, I'm a bit concerned about being able to hit the good framerate in newer games anyway, so increasing the resolution might make things worse (though I'm not sure if that's a huge difference).

Hmmm. Actually after thinking about Nvidias pascal gpu's, I thought it was oddly suspicious we've not heard a word about it in ages (considering maxwell gpu is now over a year old.)

so I google searched to find recent bad news:

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-pascal-trouble/

and

http://www.techspot.com/news/63436-nvidia-pascal-gp104-gpu-gddr5-hbm.html

Didn't think HBM was going to be that big of a problem. Guess they had a hard time getting hbm chips bigger than 4gb (which is sane issue AMD ran into with their fiji cards), so it looks like they'll revert to gddr5 for pascal. Also states other unspecified issues with pascal, and not expect the cards any earlier than end of 2016 year. Makes sense though, HBM is a bit too early and costly, and offers no real gains over gddr5 in games to date.

Also, intel announced today a critical issue that causes a processor to lockup has been discovered with skylake model processors. This affects the processor under complex tasks, and won't affect most people using them, but still... take that into consideration

Hi Buckshot,

I would not read too much in to those reports.

Latest rumor from the same site:-

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-flagship-pascal-gpu-2h-2016/

So here's another issue. Is it worth getting 16gb RAM for gaming? Or maybe 8 is still enough? Any specific memory worth considering?

Touchdown said:

So here's another issue. Is it worth getting 16gb RAM for gaming? Or maybe 8 is still enough? Any specific memory worth considering?

Some people may think I'm wrong here but I recommend at least 16 gig when playing the latest games on windows 10.

When I read WB recommending 12 gig for Batman (avoid it if you haven't already, its shit) I knew this was the start of developers upping memory requirements in games. Anyway I upgraded from 16gig to 24gig to be on the safe side and the difference was very noticeable especially in batman. It has made everything butter smooth, no stutters, 0 texture loading. Only performance issues I may get is gpu related where its being maxed out but I still get smooth gameplay.

Best thing is memory is really cheap now. I recommend Vengeance Pro Silver 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3

Is this true ? (comparaison between Core i3 and Core i5 perfomance with a GDDR5 Graphics card)
https://scontent-mrs1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlp1/v/t1.0-9/10301974_1697861007118039_7691015183524463444_n.jpg?oh=9012a5d75a2200411040346b11cc6b3a&oe=56FCC7D5

DMGUYDZ64 said:

Is this true ? (comparaison between Core i3 and Core i5 perfomance with a GDDR5 Graphics card)
https://scontent-mrs1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlp1/v/t1.0-9/10301974_1697861007118039_7691015183524463444_n.jpg?oh=9012a5d75a2200411040346b11cc6b3a&oe=56FCC7D5

Yeah a lot of games are really GPU limited at the moment. CPU tech hasn't moved along in a while, and games haven't been properly straining them until very recently. If you did the same test but used a pair of i5s and a GTX650 vs a GTX980 you'd see a huge difference.

Touchdown said:

So here's another issue. Is it worth getting 16gb RAM for gaming? Or maybe 8 is still enough? Any specific memory worth considering?

Yes. With newer versions of Windows eating more RAM, and games naturally using more since the assets are bigger etc, 8GB is not quite cutting it in some games any more. First game I found that was maxing my 8GB was GTAV. And as has been said, RAM is one of the cheaper parts in your PC, no reason to skimp.

Hi OP,

The following system should do the trick:

CPU: Core i7-6700 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117560

Memory: 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 DDR4-2400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231826

Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Pro4S http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157636

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 w/ ACX 2.0+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487088

Storage: Crucial BX200 480GB SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156067

Power Supply: EVGA GOLD 550W ECO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438053

Case: Rosewill BLACKBONE Mid Tower ATX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023

Monitor: ASUS VC279H 27" 1920x1080 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236584

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416892

Optical: ASUS 24x DVD-RW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Total cost: $1396.90

This machine is over your $1k budget, but this should handily max out DOOM (2016) @ 1080P 60FPS.

If budget is tight, then I would recommend stepping down to the older Z97/Haswell platform so you can reuse your memory. In that case I would recommend the following components in place of the CPU/mobo/memory above:

CPU: Core i7-4790 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116987&cm_re=i7_4790-_-19-116-987-_-Product

Mobo: ASRock Z97 Pro3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157508&cm_re=z97_asrock-_-13-157-508-_-Product

RAM: Pull it out of the system you already have...

Going this route would save you basically the cost of the DDR4 memory.

If you want to go even cheaper, I would find a new Z77-based board for your Core i7-3770. This would allow you to reuse your CPU + memory, basically bringing you to your $1k budget. The trick would be to find a good, unused Z77 board since they have been out of production for quite some time.

Let me know if you have any questions.

EDIT: On eBay used i7-3770 (non-K) often goes for more than $200. You can pull that from your system and sell it to offset a good chunk of the costs of the new system, especially if going over $1K will be difficult.

Plasma Gun said:

Let me know if you have any questions.

wow...thank you so much for digging up those links and everything for me.

very much appreciated!

mjf6866 said:

wow...thank you so much for digging up those links and everything for me.

very much appreciated!

Anytime!

Touchdown said:

That's pretty much my situation as well. I'll be upgrading my rig for DOOM4 (and some other games) this year and unfortunately that means replacing literally EVERYTHING, motherboard, CPU, memory, HDD, GPU of course, even a monitor. Gives me a headache just thinking about it. Not sure about my budget yet, though and I'm waiting pretty much until the last moment (maybe a month before a release or something). But yeah, I intend to run the game (at least that one) at steady 60fps.

While we're at it, what is the current situation with CPUs? I've heard some opinions that it's not worth going for i7 but I don't know, I'm clueless about the current state of things so if you guys have any tips, bring'em on.

Generally speaking, a lot of games don't take full advantage of more than 4 threads, which is why people will often advise an i5 over an i7.

However, I think games will increasingly be able to gobble up all of those threads & it will be worthwhile to have a four core with hyper-threading than without. The extra $100 over 4-5 years or so (which is how long you should reasonably expect to be able to keep an i5/i7 class processor for gaming) isn't that much but your gaming experience should be much better near the end of that life-cycle.

Of course, CPU is important but GPU is the biggest/most important factor of gaming performance by far.

archvile82 said:

Hi Buckshot,

I would not read too much in to those reports.

Latest rumor from the same site:-

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-flagship-pascal-gpu-2h-2016/

There has been no official word from NVIDIA about Pascal's release date for gamers and the only reason anybody is speculating that Pascal is "in trouble" is because NVIDIA faked showing Pascal GPUs at its CES press conference.

Frankly, I wouldn't read too much into it, but to each his-or-her own.

Although new GPUs are coming, I think the decision of whether to hold off for Pascal/Polaris (AMD's new GPU architecture) should be done on the basis of when DOOM comes out (assuming your builds are for DOOM).

Although I'd like to believe id's "Spring" release time-frame, this is "done when it's done" id Software and I would not be at all surprised if this time-frame wound up being too aggressive & the game got pushed to the fall.

In that case, I would definitely wait on upgrading unless there are other intense 3D games you hope to play in the interim!

AirRaid said:

Having said that: If you're replacing your monitor, pick that first. If you're going to get something larger than 1920x1080, consider that you will need more GPU power to drive games at those higher resolutions. I wouldn't recommend a 4K monitor right now. 1440p are pretty viable with a powerful setup though.

Agreed. Monitor is the thing you stare at whenever you use your system so it only makes sense to make sure it is high quality.

Personally, I think 1920x1080 on a 27" display isn't quite sharp enough for my tastes, although if it came down to small screen with high res or big screen with maybe a lower res, I'd take the bigger screen because it'd simply be more immersive for gaming.

4K is just a ridiculous use of GPU compute power, designed to sell people more GPU power than they would otherwise need. 2560x1440 is a great resolution for a 27", and 1920x1080 is solid for 24" and below.

Worth mentioning that I don't like sitting very close to the monitor. There's roughly 80+cm between the screen and my eyes (sometimes more) so it's really the size of the monitor that matters for me more than the resolution, because I won't sit near enough to notice its big pixels anyway.

Speaking of which, I'll almost certainly get BenQ XL2720Z. Will probably order it today.

Plasma Gun said:

Hi OP,

The following system should do the trick:

While I agree with most of this I have 2 points -

1. I would pay a little more and get a Samsung 850 SSD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W02DV8166. It's $30 more but waaaaay more reliable.

2. Save more than that $30 by getting a skylake i5 rather than an i7. You will barely notice the difference in gaming. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117561

If your budget is tight, I'd suggest skipping the SSD entirely and getting a regular HDD. Sure it's nice to have faster boot times and load times, but it's even nicer to have the best CPU/GPU/monitor/other vital components that you can afford. Spend every penny on the important stuff, keep the bells and whistles as an afterthought.

I would disagree. An SSD is the single most noticable upgrade to a system you can make at the moment.

Touchdown said:

Worth mentioning that I don't like sitting very close to the monitor. There's roughly 80+cm between the screen and my eyes (sometimes more) so it's really the size of the monitor that matters for me more than the resolution, because I won't sit near enough to notice its big pixels anyway.

Speaking of which, I'll almost certainly get BenQ XL2720Z. Will probably order it today.

Awesome, let us know how you like it once it arrives!

AirRaid said:

While I agree with most of this I have 2 points -

1. I would pay a little more and get a Samsung 850 SSD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W02DV8166. It's $30 more but waaaaay more reliable.

2. Save more than that $30 by getting a skylake i5 rather than an i7. You will barely notice the difference in gaming. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117561

If the OP can spare it, I'm all for the better SSD, but it's one of those things for me where the jump to SSD is the biggest jump then after that it's a bit about "luxury."

Re: the Skylake i5, I can see the rationale and obviously there is ZERO wrong with a Skylake i5, but I do think games will take advantage of more threads over the next few years, especially as DX12 games become more ubiquitous.

However, if money is tight the i5 is the way to go.

Yeah obviously if you're made of money there's no need to go for the i5. I was just throwing it up since you were already over his budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.97 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX200 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($323.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($62.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VN289H 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($150.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1048.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-24 20:54 EST-0500

This setup lets you reuse your old DDR3 memory. We are now only ever so slightly over budget and you still have a machine that will be able to do a good job maxing out DOOM (2016).