1440p, 144 hz gaming... which cpu/gpu?

[RemJay24]

Hi all. I have been starting to purchase for a new build. Currently have...
Gold PSU 550w, 16 GB (2x8) 3000 RAM, & a 1440p 144hz monitor.

What sort of CPU and GPU should I be looking at, if I hope to achieve 100+ FPS in 1440p? Games... Doom, Diablo 3 and Mortal Kombat X (plan to purchase MK 11 & Doom Eternal).

I was thinking a Ryzen 5 2600... but is that too low?
Really uncertain on GPU... saw some suggest a 1660 TI, or should I go higher like RTX 2070?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you!

[Kagthul]

For CPU, any modern CPU that can hit 4Ghz will be fine, as when you start moving up the resolution ladder CPU becomes less and less the bottleneck and GPU steps more into it.

If you want 1440p Ultra and 100+fps even in AAA titles, you're still looking at high-end cards.

From last gen, you're going to want to look at a 1080 or 1080Ti, or a Vega 56 or 64. I wouldn't recommend the 64 just because its a lot more expensive and the 56 can actually be OCed to nearly match it for a lot less and the 64 seems to have zero OC headroom.

The 1070 is a good 1440p/60 card, and the Vega 56 at stock can probably do the 80-90s, youll want to OC it to hit over 100.

From this generation, you're looking at an RTX 2070, 2080, or 2080Ti, though the 2080Ti is massive overkill. The 2080 is probably the sweet spot here (as it is roughly equivalent to the 1080Ti, and that is an extremely solid 1440p high-refresh card). The Vega VII if you really want to stick with Team Red is a rough equivalent to the 2080 (a little slower in some games, faster in a few, but mostly within margins of error). I'd avoid it just because the 2080 is the exact same price, and you get RTX and DLSS (even if you wont currently use them).

There are a few games that will really, really like a faster CPU (like WoW), but those games are never going to reliably be over 100fps anyway. Even with the new multi-core enhancements in 8.1, i cant reliably get 100fps everywhere with a GTX 1080Ti FTW3 and an 8600K @ 4.9Ghz - and that's at mostly max settings but with three sliders at 7 and shadows one step from max.

Now, it's a lot better than it was, because even in places where i used to gutter below 60 im still maintaining high 70s or low 80s, and in most places over 100 in non-stressful situations... but 144fps reliably in WoW is not going to be a thing.

For most other games, though, especially triple-A games, any modern CPU with good IPC that can hit the ~4ghz range will be fine.

If you want to maximise performance, i'd say the best "Gaming" CPU right now is the i7 9700K. Yeah, it doesn't have Hyperthreading, but it has 8 fast, real cores that will hit 5ghz pretty reliably, and benches are showing that even in a lot of productivity tasks (which is where HT/SMT really shine, gaming.. not so much) the 2 extra real cores allow it to keep pace with a 6 core/12 thread Ryzen 5, due to both the extra real cores and the much faster clock speeds.

That being said, you're not going to be crying into your milk with a an R5 2600.

[Raelyn]

Hi all. I have been starting to purchase for a new build. Currently have...
Gold PSU 550w, 16 GB (2x8) 3000 RAM, & a 1440p 144hz monitor.

What sort of CPU and GPU should I be looking at, if I hope to achieve 100+ FPS in 1440p? Games... Doom, Diablo 3 and Mortal Kombat X (plan to purchase MK 11 & Doom Eternal).

I was thinking a Ryzen 5 2600... but is that too low?
Really uncertain on GPU... saw some suggest a 1660 TI, or should I go higher like RTX 2070?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you!

I use 1440p 144hz and my GPU/CPU is below. For reference, I never drop below 100fps in heavy combat and at all other times, I'm between 120-144fps. The monitor I use has G-sync.

GPU - MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X TRIO. It cost around £750 last Black Friday with some "freebies" thrown in. It's exceptionally good. Overclocked it runs at around 2050mhz and never gets above 62 degrees C.

CPU - Core i7-8700k. It's overclocked to 5ghz.

Other bits and pieces

- RAM is 16gb @ 3200mhz.
- WoW is installed on a Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

Depends what your budget is of course, but if you are running a 1440 @ 144hz I'm assuming you aren't shy with your ££. My PC + monitor probably cost between £3-£3.5k.

Hope that helps

[HCLM]

Whatever you do go with Ryzen, Intel is dead.

Also for gpu if you dont care about RTX go for 1080TI. It is cheaper than gtx 2080 at it performs better in 1440p.

[Kagthul]

Whatever you do go with Ryzen, Intel is dead.

lolwut? If by dead you mean "consistently outperforms Ryzen in almost every game".... sure, i guess. Not getting into the "if you do lots of other things" or whatever argument, or if price/performance is ideal with Intel (it isn't)... but Intel is far from "dead". And the most recent leaks show Ice Lake and Tiger Lake on target to actually beat Zen 3 to the market. So... yeah.

I mean, if the Zen 3/Ryzen 3000 desktop leaks are true-ish, sure, there will be a 16-core "mainstream" CPU.

....

literally who cares?

Its not going to make your games run better. Games, even extremely multi-core optimized engines like the modern Frostbite engine used by EA for Battlefield.... aren't exactly making stellar use of lots of cores. Frostbite is probably the best optimized engine out there for multi-core performance and even it doesn't scale much beyond 6 cores, and makes no particular use of SMT or Hyperthreading.

Its a pointless dick-waving stunt.

Also for gpu if you dont care about RTX go for 1080TI. It is cheaper than gtx 2080 at it performs better in 1440p.

... you cant find a 1080Ti at MSRP. Theyre not produced and not in stock.

And it doesn't outperform the 2080 ... at all.

Performance is nearly identical, and in most cases, the 2080 pulls ahead.

[Freighter]

9900k and 2080 ti.

[Temp name]

I'm using a 9700k and 2080ti on a 165hz 1440p panel. Can do those in most cases outside of really unoptimized or hard to run games.

Whatever you do go with Ryzen, Intel is dead.

Also for gpu if you dont care about RTX go for 1080TI. It is cheaper than gtx 2080 at it performs better in 1440p.

Intel outperforms Ryzen in most every game. 1080ti's aren't available for MSRP and equal 2080 in performance, not beating it.
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/vi...t=price&page=1 search by cheapest, you'll see a bunch of 2080's

[Kuntantee]

I have 8700k (stock clock speed) with 1080ti Gaming X, let me tell you that I don't get more than 100-110 FPS in latest games. If you want 144hz 1440p stable, you probably need 2080ti with a powerful cpu, probably overclocked.

Ignore those who say 2080ti is going to be a massive overkill. These people neither have 1080ti nor 2080ti. If you truly want a stable 144hz experience, what you should be looking is 2080ti, period.

[RemJay24]

Thank you everyone for commenting!

I do have the funds to get the latest tech, but am not certain I wanted to spend that much. Seeing as to what I may need, I might just tone it back some (1440p at 60 fps, and 100+ for 1080). Though, I am in no hurry to build it and will wait to see what "deals" come my way in the next few months. This gives me a great idea as to what I should look out for!

[HCLM]

I'm using a 9700k and 2080ti on a 165hz 1440p panel. Can do those in most cases outside of really unoptimized or hard to run games.



Intel outperforms Ryzen in most every game. 1080ti's aren't available for MSRP and equal 2080 in performance, not beating it.
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/vi...t=price&page=1 search by cheapest, you'll see a bunch of 2080's

Idk what benchmarks were you looking at. But the difference between ryzen and intel in 2k is hardly noticeable. And intel processors are much more expensive.

Also why would you buy the cheapest card... It is like throwing away your money

[Temp name]

Idk what benchmarks were you looking at. But the difference between ryzen and intel in 2k is hardly noticeable. And intel processors are much more expensive.

Also why would you buy the cheapest card... It is like throwing away your money

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreview...blender/page-2
last-gen intel beats current-gen ryzen at streaming+gaming. It'll be even more noticeable without streaming. At 1440p it's less pronounced, but you're still looking at a fairly hefty uptick from going intel. So if you want 144hz, you kinda need Intel right now. That's just how it works.

As for getting the cheapest card: As long as it's capable of cooling the GPU, it'll perform within margin of error of a more expensive card.. But probably be louder. If you can't cool it (Looking at you, MSI Armor 1080ti), then yeah, you're throwing away money, but most cards aren't sold with coolers that can't keep it within spec.

That said, entirely off topic: I'd like it if some GPU makers started selling just the PCBs so you can watercool them easier. Would be nice, and save a bit of money

Thank you everyone for commenting!

I do have the funds to get the latest tech, but am not certain I wanted to spend that much. Seeing as to what I may need, I might just tone it back some (1440p at 60 fps, and 100+ for 1080). Though, I am in no hurry to build it and will wait to see what "deals" come my way in the next few months. This gives me a great idea as to what I should look out for!

If you're fine with 1440p60, go with a 2060/70 for GPU, and a 26/2700/x for CPU

[Saphyron]

Not often I do but I 100% agree with "Temp Name" here.
Normally I only agree 50/50 or 75/25 :P

for 1440p60hz: 2060, 1660 should do the trick.
for 1080p100hz: 2060 or 1660 is more than enough.

I did a simple calculation a while back. Which shows how many pixels a system needs to push out each second to keep up at the specified specs. While it is not 100% indictive of what is harder on the system. But it sets a margin at what you need
1440p144hz is higher than 4k60hz.

​4k 144hz	1194 m p/s	2080ti
4k 120hz	995 m p/s	2080ti
1440p 144hz	530 m p/s	2080/Rad VII
4k 60hz	497 m p/s	2080/Rad VII
1440p 120hz	442 m p/s	2070/2080
1080p 144hz	298 m p/s	2060/2070/1660
1080p 120hz	248 m p/s	2060/2070/1660/RX590
1440p 60hz	221 m p/s	2060/1660/RX580
1080p 60hz	124 m p/s	RX560
720p 60hz	55 m p/s	Intel Integrated Graphics