New PC specs...

[pooty]

So looking at getting a new Desktop. My current one, Circa 2016, is still working, but figure might be time to get an upgrade from my i7 6600k, 1080 GTX.

Since several here keep pace with the current trends:
Which processor: I see i7, i9 14th Gen are pretty close in CPU performance, and I'll say the Ultra 9 on my laptop does pretty well. I am not as concerned about threads/cores -- not sure 16/24 etc. makes much difference.
Or what about AMD Ryzen processors 3d something seems to get good reviews.

I do most of my gaming on UT2004 so single core speed is important. I do some other programming work, and occasionally other games. Would love to do more with VR and maybe do some UE5 work.

Graphics card, might as well get at least NVidia 4080 or similar.

2TB SSD, easy to find a good one with good transfer rate.

Seems like a ton of motherboards?! I have wifi 6E in the routers.

Trying to keep the Budget around $2k. Any suggestions welcome.

[captainsnarf]

https://pcpartpicker.com/

You can browse through others complete builds or put together for yourself.

Some CPUs e.g. AMD 7950X3D have two dies in the chip. One has the 3d cache the other does not. When I benchmarked UT I set process affinity. I got more FPS on the non 3d cache die, likely due to the lower clock speed of 3d cache. But i think any current or previous generation CPU will run this game at the max fps your monitor can take.

If you get a new GPU, you will most likely need a new case. I doubt it will fit in your current case.

[infinitecat]

Getting the fastest compooter to play video games is sort of like me, an old fat guy, driving a pocket rocket in a race against Usain Bolt.

And then Usain buys a Ninja 650 in response.

You wanna be a REAL mensch? Play UT on an 286 PC with a keyboard missing the Enter key.

[pooty]

If you get a new GPU, you will most likely need a new case. I doubt it will fit in your current case.

Yep, already checked if a new GPU would be worth it or a new CPU, but would need a new Motherboard. At that point a new case isn't much $$ and I can have two working computers... likely move the old one from my office to downstairs for the wife.

[vugluskr]

So looking at getting a new Desktop. My current one, Circa 2016, is still working, but figure might be time to get an upgrade from my i7 6600k, 1080 GTX.

Since several here keep pace with the current trends:
Which processor: I see i7, i9 14th Gen are pretty close in CPU performance, and I'll say the Ultra 9 on my laptop does pretty well. I am not as concerned about threads/cores -- not sure 16/24 etc. makes much difference.
Or what about AMD Ryzen processors 3d something seems to get good reviews.

Had Ryzen 5 5600x PC for a while (sequential upgraded from Ryzen 5 1600x) and motherboard failed.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... 0X&id=3859
Decided replace it with Intel i5 14400f because of idle consumption.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?id ... +i5-14400F
Have i9 14900k in my work PC and I was impressed that the whole PC was idling below 50w. With any Ryzen I was not able to get below 70 even on power saving plan, when it was becoming extremly sluggish.
Not much difference in CPU marks between old and new CPUs, but system seems significantly more responsive with Intel CPU. Of couse it could be better with newer AMD CPU, but people still complain even about 9xxx Ryzens idle power consumption.
Just my 5 cents.

[captainsnarf]

My Ryzen9 "idling" with 5 instances of vscode, vim, and about 30 browser tabs open

[pooty]

Seems like it comes down to a new Gen processor to avoid power consumption, not that I particularly care about wattage in a desktop, but more the heat generated. Probably come down to price and who's running specials on it...

[vugluskr]

My Ryzen9 "idling" with 5 instances of vscode, vim, and about 30 browser tabs open

powerstat -R -f
Running for 60.0 seconds (60 samples at 1.0 second intervals).
Power measurements will start in 0 seconds time.

Time User Nice Sys Idle IO Run Ctxt/s IRQ/s Fork Exec Exit Watts CPU Freq
19:56:23 0.5 0.0 0.1 99.1 0.3 1 4852 2930 3 2 3 5.46 0.81 GHz
19:56:24 0.4 0.0 0.2 99.4 0.0 1 4908 3047 6 2 3 4.21 1.35 GHz
19:56:25 0.3 0.0 0.2 99.2 0.3 7 4942 3245 3 2 12 2.26 0.91 GHz
19:56:26 0.3 0.0 0.1 99.6 0.0 1 4611 3090 0 0 1 2.33 0.89 GHz
19:56:27 0.2 0.0 0.2 99.4 0.3 2 4850 3179 3 2 3 2.26 0.82 GHz
19:56:28 0.4 0.0 0.3 99.3 0.0 2 4809 3111 17 7 6 2.16 0.83 GHz
19:56:29 0.7 0.0 0.3 98.8 0.3 1 5360 3365 5 2 9 7.65 0.83 GHz

some stats skipped

19:57:19 0.3 0.0 0.1 99.7 0.0 1 4406 2928 0 0 0 2.22 0.83 GHz
19:57:20 0.4 0.0 0.2 99.1 0.3 1 5025 3243 4 2 3 2.53 0.85 GHz
19:57:21 0.2 0.0 0.3 99.5 0.0 1 4562 2930 0 0 0 2.07 0.84 GHz
19:57:22 0.3 0.0 0.2 99.3 0.3 1 4983 3198 3 2 4 2.13 0.84 GHz
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------ ---------
Average 0.4 0.0 0.2 99.3 0.1 1.2 5085.9 3221.6 3.2 1.6 3.2 2.90 0.85 GHz
GeoMean 0.3 0.0 0.2 99.3 0.0 1.1 5062.4 3210.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.67 0.85 GHz
StdDev 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.8 509.7 274.5 4.5 2.0 3.3 1.66 0.07 GHz
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------ ---------
Minimum 0.2 0.0 0.1 98.1 0.0 1.0 4406.0 2765.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.03 0.81 GHz
Maximum 0.8 0.0 0.8 99.7 0.3 7.0 7217.0 4141.0 21.0 9.0 13.0 12.71 1.35 GHz
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------ ---------
Summary:
CPU: 2.90 Watts on average with standard deviation 1.66
Note: power read from RAPL domains: uncore, package-0, core.
These readings do not cover all the hardware in this device.

That's an i9 14900k PC that idles below 50W whole system.

I was able to get below 20w idle (packge wattages by hw monitor) on my Ryzen 5600x system, but the whole still was consuming above 70w. And this PC had only 32gb of RAM and couple SSDs. My i9 14900k PC has 128gb of RAM, 10gbit ethernet and 16tb hdd on top of that. Still very low power.