UserBenchmark

The Raptor Lake Intel i5-13400F ($200 USD, cooler included) paired with a B660/B760 motherboard ($150 USD) and 2x8 GB DDR4 3600 RAM ($50 USD) offers good value for money to mid-range gamers. The 13400F has around 5% higher single-core and 35% higher multi-core performance than its predecessor. Although both processors feature the same Golden Cove p-cores, the 13400F has four additional energy efficient e-cores which account for the improvement in multi-core performance. The 13400F offers comparable gaming and better multi-core performance than AMD's 7600X but at a lower price and without the need for an aftermarket cooler, DDR5 memory and an expensive motherboard. Since Intel don’t care for long term relationships with PC hardware influencers, for product launches, they often end up sponsoring influencers that are mostly funded by AMD. As a result, Intel rarely get positive marketing coverage beyond launch, and their products remain relatively under priced compared to AMD. When paired with a DDR4 motherboard the 13100F/13400F CPUs (at MSRP) offer unbeatable/good value to entry/mid level PC gamers. High end gamers should investigate the 13600K, which thanks to both higher clocks and higher IPC (Raptor Cove), is around 15% faster than the 13400F. ^{[Jan '23 CPUPro]}

The RTX 4070-Ti is based on Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture. It features 7,680 cores with base / boost clocks of 2.3 / 2.6 GHz, 12 GB of memory, a 192-bit memory bus, 60 3rd gen RT cores, 240 4th gen Tensor cores, DLSS 3 (with frame generation), a TDP of 285W and an MSRP of $800 USD. The 4070-Ti is around 50% faster than the 3070-Ti and offers similar performance to the 3090-Ti at less than half the price. Since the 4070-Ti only has 12GB-192-bit memory (vs 24GB-384-bit in the 3090-Ti) it is relatively weaker (5-10%) at 4K. Users tempted to consider the 7900 XT/X by AMD’s army of sponsored Advanced Marketers (youtube, reddit, twitter, forums etc.) should be aware that AMD have a history of releasing benchmark busting, heavily marketed, sub standard products. Although the 7900 XTX does outperform the 4070-Ti on paper, the 4070-Ti is more power efficient (quieter), has a broader feature set (RT/DLSS 3.0) and offers far better game compatibility (drivers). PC gamers still looking to join AMD’s “2%” GPU club (Steam stats: 5000/6000 series combined mkt share) need to work on their critical thinking skills: Influencers are paid handsomely to promote inferior products. Most gamers, who are best off playing at 1080p, should wait for the upcoming, better value, 4060 series cards. Shoppers looking for more affordable options in the near term should consider the previous gen 3060-Ti, which offers excellent real-world performance for $400 USD. ^{[Jan '23 GPUPro]}

Intel’s 13th gen. Raptor Lake CPUs offer around 10% faster gaming and 45% faster multi-core performance than their predecessors. The new CPUs are compatible with DDR4 memory and Z690/B660 ($150) motherboards. New high-end gaming builders need look no further than the 13600K. The 13600K beats AMD’s flagship 7950X in gaming and almost matches the 7900X in multi-core performance. Extreme workstation users may find value in the 13700K or 13900K. Gamers on a tight budget can save $40 USD with a 13600KF which is a 13600K without integrated graphics. Although Ryzen 7000 has weaker multi-core, weaker single-core, higher platform costs and higher unit prices AMD have a 3D joker up their sleeve (7800X3D est. 2023). Via “Advanced Marketing” on youtube, forums, reddit, and twitter AMD will demonstrate that their upcoming CPU is the “best in the world” and offer “proof” by way of a small handful of obscure workloads. Games that few people play e.g. (Factorio, SotTR) will be cherry picked, video footage of the gameplay/settings won’t be provided and frame drops will be conveniently ignored. This playbook has easily outsold Intel in recent years but with every overhyped release, consumers lose trust in AMD. Based on social media/press coverage, you would never guess that the combined market share for all of AMD’s Radeon 5000 and 6000 GPUs amongst PC gamers is just 2.12% (Steam stats). Meanwhile Nvidia’s RTX 2060 alone accounts for a whopping 5.03%. Largely thanks to marketing incompetence, Intel is existentially motivated to deliver material annual performance improvements. Consumers can look forward to Meteor Lake (14th gen) in less than a years time. ^{[Oct '22 CPUPro]}

Within minutes of the first, pre-release, 7000 series userbenchmark results, AMD’s marketers broadcast a 20% win over the 12900K via thousands of anonymous twitter, reddit, forum and youtube accounts. Buying new AMD products is like buying used cars: it takes time, experience and a taste for sales hype. It’s difficult for consumers to make rational choices while AMD completely dominates “sponsored news” and social media channels. Ten years ago, when AMD was the underdog, this type of marketing was understandable. Today, with a capitalization of $150 Billion USD, it’s disrespectful to AMD's own users. Even with Intel's marketing department asleep at the wheel, Ryzen will quickly end up in the same state as Radeon. Following a series of overhyped releases, consumers have little interest in the Radeon brand. The combined market share for all of AMD’s (discrete) Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 GPUs (Steam stats) is just 2%. Although the new 7000 series Zen4 CPUs are actually around 15% faster than their predecessors, they have hefty cooling requirements (TDP +60% vs 5000 series), 30 second BIOS post times, expensive DDR5 RAM requirements and only work with expensive motherboards. Despite the 7000 series struggling to match Intel’s outgoing 12th gen, AMD market it as a “future proof” platform! They want users to pay a premium for last gen performance in exchange for the shallow promise of upgrades in the future. Over the next few days, Intel’s 13th gen (Raptor Lake) will launch. Shoppers will do well to wait until then. Despite AMD’s Neanderthal marketing techniques, it’s hard not to admire their technical progress. AMD-Raptor4 and Intel-Zen13 would be better fitting product names. ^{[Sep '22 CPUPro]}

The RTX 4090 is based on Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture. It features 16,384 cores with base / boost clocks of 2.2 / 2.5 GHz, 24 GB of memory, a 384-bit memory bus, 128 3rd gen RT cores, 512 4th gen Tensor cores, DLSS 3 and a TDP of 450W. Performance gains will vary depending on the specific game and resolution. With a 4090 tier card 1080p in-game fps will often get CPU bottlenecked which prevents the GPU from delivering higher fps. At higher (often sub-optimal) resolutions (1440p, 4K etc) the 4090 will show increasing improvements compared to lesser cards. When fps are not CPU bottlenecked at all, such as during GPU benchmarks, the 4090 is around 75% faster than the 3090 and 60% faster than the 3090-Ti, these figures are approximate upper bounds for in-game fps improvements. The fact that the 4090 is currently the fastest performing graphics card available is reflected in its jaw-dropping MSRP of $1,600. Since PC gamers rarely buy AMD GPUs, Nvidia only have themselves to compete with. Surprisingly, $1,600 is actually reasonable value for money, when compared to previous gen. flagship cards. Prospective buyers will need a top of the line system to extract maximum performance from the 4090 and because of its monstrous dimensions, many will also need a new PC case. Consumers that demand value for money, should wait a few more months for the 4060 / 4070 models by which time AMD's 7900 series will also probably be heavily discounted. Alternatively, shoppers looking to buy in the near term should consider the last gen. 3060-Ti, which offers excellent real-world (1080p) performance at a fraction of the price ($400 USD). ^{[Oct '22 GPUPro]}

The RTX 3060 Ti is Nvidia’s latest 3000 series GPU. Assuming it (ever…) comes into stock at $400 USD, it will take the crown as the best value for money graphics card. Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture, which supersedes Turing, offers both improved power efficiency and performance. The 3060 Ti features 4,864 CUDA cores, 152 Tensor cores, it has a boost clock of 1.665 GHz, 8 GB of memory and a power draw of just 200 W. Nvidia’s entire 3000 series lineup offers once in a decade price/performance improvements. The 3060 Ti beats the previous generation’s 2060 Super by 30% in terms of effective speed at the same MSRP. Given the widespread issues AMD users are facing with 5000 series GPUs (blue/black screens etc.), AMD’s 6000 series GPU’s will have to see substantial price cuts and a huge marketing effort in order to gain any traction. Meanwhile, Christmas has come early for PC gamers who can look forward to an unparalleled gaming experience in class leading titles such as Cyberpunk 2077. At ultra settings, with ray tracing enabled, Cyberpunk 2077 redefines the boundaries of immersive gaming. It makes GTA5 look like Tetris in comparison. The combination of RTX+DLSS delivers stunning graphics that are several tiers higher than both AMD's best discrete GPUs and the upcoming consoles. In terms of real world performance, Nvidia’s 3000 series has more or less put AMD’s Radeon group in checkmate. Nonetheless, AMD’s marketers are capable of delivering elaborate BS albeit whilst struggling to keep a straight face. Their marketing infrastructure outsold Intel in the CPU market despite a 15% performance deficit. Without an appropriate social media marketing strategy, Nvidia may lose considerable market share, for all the wrong reasons. ^{[Dec '20 GPUPro]}

The GTX 1660 Super has a launch price of just $230 USD with comparable performance to the $280 USD 1660 Ti. The 1660 Super has 14 Gbps GDDR6 (versus 12Gbps GDDR6 for the 1660 Ti and 8Gbps GDDR5 for the 1660). The 1660 range of cards sit in the sweet spot for many gamers because they offer superb 1080p EFps in popular titles and they are relatively hassle free in terms of noise, compatibility and stability. The 1660S also features Turing NVENC which is far more efficient than CPU encoding and alleviates the need for casual streamers to use a dedicated stream PC. Shop prices will determine which 1660 series card represents the best value over time but at today's prices the 1660 Super effectively undercuts the 1660 Ti by $50 USD thus challenging the RX 590 in terms of overall value at 1080p. The next step up from the 1660S would be to the $325 RTX 2060. ^{[Oct '19 GPUPro]}

The 970 Evo Plus offers excellent sustained write performance both in and out of cache. This results in consistent performance even when the drive is nearly full. Samsung also have a great track record for reliability, this drive will likely last a lifetime. The larger capacity drives (1TB+) offer even better write performance and may be more appropriate for some users. We use this drive (and its larger siblings) extensively in our EFps Lab at UserBenchmark. ^{[Feb '20 SSDrivePro]}

The new 3TB Seagate Barracuda 2016 (ST3000DM008) replaces its hugely successful predecessor, the 3TB Barracuda 7200.14 2011 (ST3000DM001). Comparing performance between the two models shows that the newer drive has 12% faster sequential speeds, comparable 4K speeds, improved mixed sequential speed and reduced mixed 4K speed. Overall, the effective speed is 12% faster on the 2016 model. Since there is normally little price difference between the two models the 2016 version is the clear winner especially for use as a backup drive with its impressive sequential read and write speeds of nearly 200 MBps. See the current value leaders here. ^{[Feb '17 HDrivePro]}

The 1TB Seagate Barracuda 2016 (ST1000DM010) has an impressive performance profile. With Sequential read/writes averaging 173 and 159 MBps respectively, the Barracuda can make short work of even moderately large backups. The small file (4K) performance profile is less impressive but still adequate with average read/writes coming in at 0.87 and 1.53 MBps respectively. For use as OS drives, rotational disks are quickly loosing market share to SSDs which offer orders of magnitude faster 4k read/write speeds. On the other hand cheap TLC based SSDs often have slower sustained write speeds than their rotational counterparts. Reasonably good overall performance can be achieved by using a TLC SSD to host the OS and a larger rotational drive such as the Barracuda for backups and media files. Larger capacity variants of this drive offer both better performance and better value for money. ^{[Feb '17 HDrivePro]}