I'm looking at this deal for a prebuilt:
Lenovo LOQ 17IRR9 Tower PC — $749.99
- Intel Core i5-14400F (10 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.7GHz)
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (8GB GDDR6)
- RAM 16GB DDR5
- 512GB SSD
- PSU 500W
For some context, my PC has a 1070 in it. I'm a budget conscious gamer, usually playing at 1080p. With ram prices skyrocketing and steam betting on steam machines with low vram going forwards, I feel like it's an okay deal for a guy who upgrades basically never.
It seems like a nice deal to me. Anyone want to talk me out of it?
It's not a terrible deal. The main thing I'd consider is what parts you already have and if they are available to be used moving forward. 1070 is old-ish but you might have had 16 GB RAM back then, and if so stick with it. You're not likely to need DDR5 as a necessity, I'd worry about capacity more. It sucks because usually it's cheap enough to be a non-factor.
PSU is a little low for a newer GPU but that's not terribly expensive. You may even have a better one if you built your own last time. Motherboard similarly isn't too pricy of you want to stick with DDR4.
I feel like you could do better than a 4060. I have a 3060 TI and that's good enough for now to get me through the drought I think, though I did consider upgrading. But I would consider 4060 (even 5060) a lateral move at best for my 3060 TI. a downgrade in some ways. It's an upgrade to a 1070 for sure but maybe not as much as you'd think for $800.
I am going AMD when I eventually upgrade, because they are a better value and are far better on Linux which I have most migrated to (I dual boot). Definitely consider AMD.
Lastly if you're on Windows, consider keeping the 1070 as a second GPU and using Lossless Scaling. This can be set up to run on a specific GPU so you can get more mileage with universal frame gen.
If I were to buy now, I'd scavenge RAM from a workstation or something, maybe through an auction. 32 GB if I could get it. Could even find a decent CPU that way, some workstations have an i5. Then I'd buy the best AMD GPU in my price range after meeting compatibility requirements like wattage, motherboard that works with my RAM, CPU, and GPU. . But that would depend wholly on what deal you can find on RAM. You're not gonna find a deal through normal means ATM.