Building a new PC for Elite: Dangerous Odyssey (hardware discussion)
- Thread starter Alec Turner
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Hi All 
I'm considering upgrading my graphics card /s for another complete computer build (AMD based motherboard) but I'm not sure which to choose from at the moment.
Here's what I'm looking at so far...
Or a....
Side note...I'd prefer an MSI card or Sapphire GPU, round about the £300 - £450 mark.
I've also noticed that MSI after producing the Radeon RX 6750 (I bought an RX 6750 Gaming X Trio for my sons computer which I've just recently built) they don't seem to be supporting Radeon GPU's anymore?...I wonder what the reason for that is?
Edit...Found it!
www.techradar.com
Anyhow I digress.
Any thoughts, suggestions advice or comments welcome.
Jack
I'm considering upgrading my graphics card /s for another complete computer build (AMD based motherboard) but I'm not sure which to choose from at the moment.
Here's what I'm looking at so far...
Or a....
Side note...I'd prefer an MSI card or Sapphire GPU, round about the £300 - £450 mark.
I've also noticed that MSI after producing the Radeon RX 6750 (I bought an RX 6750 Gaming X Trio for my sons computer which I've just recently built) they don't seem to be supporting Radeon GPU's anymore?...I wonder what the reason for that is?
Edit...Found it!
MSI goes full Team Green, declaring it’s ‘focused’ on Nvidia RTX graphics cards, with AMD models now vanishing from shelves
Team Red seemingly taking a back seat, especially given current stock levels
Anyhow I digress.
Any thoughts, suggestions advice or comments welcome.
Jack
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The 7700XT is better in every meaningful way.Hi All
I'm considering upgrading my graphics card /s for another complete computer build (AMD based motherboard) but I'm not sure which to choose from at the moment.
Here's what I'm looking at so far...
Or a....
That particular 4060 Ti variant only has 8GB of VRAM, which is going to limit you in games, especially at 1440p (what resolution is your monitor?). Elite likes lots of VRAM, especially if you want to avoid FSR.
In rasterised games (i.e. no ray-tracing) the 7700XT performs slightly better at 1080p and significantly better at 1440p, due in no small part to its larger VRAM (12GB vs. 8GB) and wider bus (192 bit vs. 128 bit).
With ray tracing on (not in Elite; it's a DX11 title) and DLSS, the 4060 Ti 8GB will maybe match the 7700XT, but switching on ray tracing will seriously hamper the performance of both cards.
you do get a free air duster with option b worth and i quote £3.49
which i find a bit odd given it's value on this page
go 7700XT (only downside is its slightly noiser methinks)
which i find a bit odd given it's value on this page
go 7700XT (only downside is its slightly noiser methinks)
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I would go for the 7700xt you linked from those 2 choices.
MSI did decide to drop Amd gpu's. Msi will still do Amd Cpu's. Bang for buck is Amd gpu's right now. 6700, 6750, 6800 (if still available in your area) are good for the price. Or for their newer cards 7700xt, 7800xt. 4060ti 16gb, is slower than Amd offerings around the same $$$, but 4060 ti has the nvidia software and extra memory if that is what you want, but imho, not worth the extra cost for the speed.
MSI did decide to drop Amd gpu's. Msi will still do Amd Cpu's. Bang for buck is Amd gpu's right now. 6700, 6750, 6800 (if still available in your area) are good for the price. Or for their newer cards 7700xt, 7800xt. 4060ti 16gb, is slower than Amd offerings around the same $$$, but 4060 ti has the nvidia software and extra memory if that is what you want, but imho, not worth the extra cost for the speed.
Interesting topic. I can't help but post a bit different approach to my PC building idea, which I am using for gaming too (ED Odyssey included).
My config is as below:
Intel I3-10100T (35W, 45W with turbo)
Asrock Intel ARC 310 LP 4GB GDDR6 (42W max)
Asus Prime H510M-D
2x 16GB DDR4 Kingston
512GB NVME drive
1TB SSD SATA drive
12Ah lead-acid AGM battery
160W open case PSU connected to accu above serving also as power UPS
Low power 15" HDMI monitor (about 8W top)
Whole idea behind this setup was to achieve acceptable fps, some portability (that actually was my past work requirement where I had to be able to pack and move my PC to workplace and I was using self made crude suit-case), and most importantly power consumption around 100W total.
Now when I read this post and see configurations proposed I can't help and think: What's the Wattage for such gaming PC? Is it half of microwave oven or more? What's the point of playing in 1440p resolution (unless we talk about really large monitors or even TV screens)? What's the heat generation, will it be really hot in a room when such PC is under full stress?
In case someone is wondering how gameplay on my PC looks like I can tell it is sufficient to run Odyssey with comfortable fps. You can also use it as reference for minimum hardware requirements to play odyssey in "low resolution" of around 1360x768 (which is really fine on 15" monitor imho).
The only drawback I can think of is lack of support for VR set like Occulus Meta 2 for intel cards but I was never considering using VR for gaming... maybe sometime in future when hardware for this is a bit more lightweight.
Sadly newest GPUs and CPUs are going in direction of raising core count and top wattage power to the point that finding GPU/CPU to match my ideal power draw is getting harder and harder (I had to switch to Intel GPU from nVidia due to that reason). There is also artificial market pressure to increase resolution higher and higher that in turn makes components to go higher and higher with power consumption, not to mention issues with cooling those setups have. In the future I suppose I woudl have to switch back to gaming laptops which naturally have power limits set to around 120W with the (fatal for me) flaw of being unable to upgrade any components other than SSD or memory.
My config is as below:
Intel I3-10100T (35W, 45W with turbo)
Asrock Intel ARC 310 LP 4GB GDDR6 (42W max)
Asus Prime H510M-D
2x 16GB DDR4 Kingston
512GB NVME drive
1TB SSD SATA drive
12Ah lead-acid AGM battery
160W open case PSU connected to accu above serving also as power UPS
Low power 15" HDMI monitor (about 8W top)
Whole idea behind this setup was to achieve acceptable fps, some portability (that actually was my past work requirement where I had to be able to pack and move my PC to workplace and I was using self made crude suit-case), and most importantly power consumption around 100W total.
Now when I read this post and see configurations proposed I can't help and think: What's the Wattage for such gaming PC? Is it half of microwave oven or more? What's the point of playing in 1440p resolution (unless we talk about really large monitors or even TV screens)? What's the heat generation, will it be really hot in a room when such PC is under full stress?
In case someone is wondering how gameplay on my PC looks like I can tell it is sufficient to run Odyssey with comfortable fps. You can also use it as reference for minimum hardware requirements to play odyssey in "low resolution" of around 1360x768 (which is really fine on 15" monitor imho).
The only drawback I can think of is lack of support for VR set like Occulus Meta 2 for intel cards but I was never considering using VR for gaming... maybe sometime in future when hardware for this is a bit more lightweight.
Sadly newest GPUs and CPUs are going in direction of raising core count and top wattage power to the point that finding GPU/CPU to match my ideal power draw is getting harder and harder (I had to switch to Intel GPU from nVidia due to that reason). There is also artificial market pressure to increase resolution higher and higher that in turn makes components to go higher and higher with power consumption, not to mention issues with cooling those setups have. In the future I suppose I woudl have to switch back to gaming laptops which naturally have power limits set to around 120W with the (fatal for me) flaw of being unable to upgrade any components other than SSD or memory.
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I play on a 34" ultrawide (3440x1440). I'm not sure I'd call the market pressure "artificial" for two reasons:
Intel have been throwing power at their chips for years. AMD's offerings are much more efficient.
I haven't found that thermal constraints are an issue with a well-designed case and proper airflow. Nor have I found heat in the room to be an issue. I still need to turn the heating on in winter.
- All markets are artificial.
- I like having a large screen and will buy the hardware to push the pixels. I can play in VR if I should wish, too.
Intel have been throwing power at their chips for years. AMD's offerings are much more efficient.
I haven't found that thermal constraints are an issue with a well-designed case and proper airflow. Nor have I found heat in the room to be an issue. I still need to turn the heating on in winter.
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Screen size justifies resolution.
By artificial I mean mostly pressure to use higher resolution on small screen, like 15" laptop using 1920x1080. Even OS has special settings for that allowing icons and text be readable without magnifying glass.
I was thinking about using AMD both for GPU and CPU but only for completely new system and only due to smaller lithography being used in manufacturing process. Intel CPUs were usually more thermal/energy efficient, with the troubles Intel has with 13th and 14th gen now I would be even more inclined do switch for AMD now, not to mention most of the intel CPUs at the moment of my upgrade were made in 10nm process at best. My PC draws around 105W (monitor included) in full stress from power socket (so power conversion loss is included in this too) while being nearly perfectly silent- this makes it comparable to laptop (power wise), allows me to use photovoltaic panels or small wind turbine to power it if I ever want to experiment with that in future, or run it simply on battery when power is out due to various reasons (storm for example).
I like silent PCs due to having sensitive hearing so thermal constraints for me are a bit higher which in turn makes silent cooling of ~350W system more challenging. Not to mention all that heat has to go somewhere so proper air circulation in a room is a must too and do not forget human body alone generates around 60W of heat on average- not a problem with air conditioning, but might be a problem without it.
Hi
).
Monitor resolution... One Gigabyte Monitor (1920 x 1080p) 24" 165Hz and One BenQ 27" 2560 x 1440 165Hz (both support FreeSync Premium.).
Jack
Yep, I've been looking at Gpu benchmarks / reviews over the last several days on the web , it does seem that the RX 7700 is the better choice card to go for, (but any modern mid range GPU would be a huge upgrade to the present GPU I'm using at the moment for playing Odyssey!
).Monitor resolution... One Gigabyte Monitor (1920 x 1080p) 24" 165Hz and One BenQ 27" 2560 x 1440 165Hz (both support FreeSync Premium.).
Jack
Hi
... Yes I noticed that!...I'm not tempted by the 'free' aerosol though!. 
In the meantime I'll keep an eye on that Radeon card, and see if the price gets any cheaper over the next month or two. I've nearly always bought MSI GPU's, but from what I can gather Sapphire is a reasonable quality GPU?
I've never bought a Sapphire card so I'm not familiar with the make....but the reviews are fairly positive I think.
Jack
... Yes I noticed that!...I'm not tempted by the 'free' aerosol though!. In the meantime I'll keep an eye on that Radeon card, and see if the price gets any cheaper over the next month or two. I've nearly always bought MSI GPU's, but from what I can gather Sapphire is a reasonable quality GPU?
I've never bought a Sapphire card so I'm not familiar with the make....but the reviews are fairly positive I think.
Jack
Get a mid-range laptop. They are heavily integrated systems where all major components are run close to their performance per watt sweet spots, out of the necessity of cooling, portability, and battery life.
An eight-core Zen 4 or Zen 5 plus an upper-mid range desktop GPU implies a system with about 400-450w at the wall in normal gaming loads without extensive tuning.
If one is willing to buy and tune parts purely around efficiency you can do ~300w at the wall. Anything much beyond that ballpark and you'll be losing frames-per-watt faster.
Personally, my electricity is cheap and I only need to cool my home during the hottest 2-3 months of the year. I can run my primary gaming system at ~400w during the summer, or get ~20% more performance if I let it scale to 700-800w.
Heat generation, of course, is almost exactly the same as total power consumption, minus trivial losses as sound or EMI that aren't absorbed by the immediate vicinity.
I haven't used a display smaller than 32" as my primary in a decade at this point and I barely look at anything smaller. I can just barely resolve individual pixels on a 32" 4K (3840*2160) display if I'm sitting at about arm's length (36" or so), without straining. I don't stop noticing improvements in native resolution until significantly past this.
Personally, I find 1080p entirely comfortable on most laptop-sized displays, but I can still see sharpness improve at higher resolutions.
Anyway, this stuff has been studied to death and there are broadly accepted SMPTE standards and recommendations derived from them:
TV Size to Distance Calculator and Science
Our TV Sizes to Distance Calculator helps you choose the right size TV for your space. The optimal viewing distance is about 1.6 times the diagonal length of the television. For example, for a 55” TV, the best distance is 7 feet.
www.rtings.com
Odyssey allows for a whole lot of tuning of GPU-related performance parameters and very little tuning of the CPU dependent performance parameters. One can get acceptable performance (barely, in certain surface settlement scenarios) if one's CPU is sufficiently fast, almost irrespective of what GPU is being used, within reason. Your i3 is not a bad chip for ED all things considered, but would still likely have issues in large settlement surface combat zones.
Of course, if people have image quality goals, then the sky is the limit on GPU. I'm trying to brute-force my way through the lack of temporal AA, and pick up whatever low hanging graphical fruit (texture and shadow map resolution, mostly) is available in the process. Unfortunately, even a water cooled RTX 4090 allowed to pull more than 600w by itself doesn't quite get to the internal resolution I'd need to make those jagged specular highlights unobtrusive. Maybe in another couple of product cycles.
Those settings are primarily accessibility adjustments for people with visual needs. Allowing normally-sighted users to enlarge icons on small screens is gravy.
Again, this is not an artificial pressure - panel manufacturers make panels that are most profitable for them. 15", 768p displays are rare enough nowadays that they would actually be expensive to produce - they're not mass market products any longer. They're hobbyist parts for people who like to tinker.
You asked about power and we answered. To introduce sound levels is known as moving the goalposts.
My monster gaming rig uses 2 pence-worth of electricity per hour more on top of what the household normally uses (5p per hour).
now if they also threw in a breville of some type and a cuddly toy i may be tempted
i did hear that Amd cards currently come with a copy of avatar, starfield or company of hero's too?
A typical gaming PC, with a 300-watt power supply, can consume approximately 2.4 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per day, assuming that the PC is used for six hours daily. The actual energy usage can vary depending on the PC's and game etc
2 and a half x 5.48 pence per ofgen kwh cap +fridge freezer only cost only if your currently running smartly
which i aint as the air con is on atm
i did hear that Amd cards currently come with a copy of avatar, starfield or company of hero's too?
A typical gaming PC, with a 300-watt power supply, can consume approximately 2.4 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per day, assuming that the PC is used for six hours daily. The actual energy usage can vary depending on the PC's and game etc
2 and a half x 5.48 pence per ofgen kwh cap +fridge freezer only cost only if your currently running smartly
which i aint as the air con is on atm
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Laptop doesn't allow part replacement. All I can do is replace memory (if it is not integrated already) and drive. Not to mention heat generated during gameplay is actually harmful to battery life. Electricity bill is one thing but power limit I have set for myself has more to do with power supply (which has backup UPS function too), possibility to use solar/wind energy in remote place and requirements for cable diameter for safe use (just look what happens to certain graphic cards which have insufficient cable thickness or circuit path for current amperage). I have used personal handmade suit type case for PC but it was really crude (my manual skills and tools I had were insufficient to create something more pleasing to the eye). I'm planning to do some personalized modifications in future like, custom made PSU that would also manage pack of LiFePo4 batteries as backup power source, custom case made out of perforated aluminum. I also like to use small components (low profile GPU cards).
My requirements for game are simple:
*It has to have rich content, in case of ED that translates to lots of options for modifications (engineering) and things to do in game. Which is also reason why I miss certain features in ED that would make me play it for more than few hours per week.
*Graphics can be really minimal, I'm one of those ppl what can enjoy game in text mode if condition above is fulfilled. Beautiful views etc are not required, if game doesn't have them I will create them in my mind in the same way I do when reading/listening to the book. I'm also playing other MMO where I have most of flashy effects turned off, leaving only those which are important for gameplay- they sure look nice at 1st but later became a kind of nausence.
To summarize: I want to use power/thermal efficient components, which are small in size and silent, which can be replaced for something better (which is where CPU/GPU production process matters for me), which would allow me to play few remaining games I still like with reasonable fps and also won't go close or over safety limits for cable diameter related to amperage of electric current.
My requirements for game are simple:
*It has to have rich content, in case of ED that translates to lots of options for modifications (engineering) and things to do in game. Which is also reason why I miss certain features in ED that would make me play it for more than few hours per week.
*Graphics can be really minimal, I'm one of those ppl what can enjoy game in text mode if condition above is fulfilled. Beautiful views etc are not required, if game doesn't have them I will create them in my mind in the same way I do when reading/listening to the book. I'm also playing other MMO where I have most of flashy effects turned off, leaving only those which are important for gameplay- they sure look nice at 1st but later became a kind of nausence.
To summarize: I want to use power/thermal efficient components, which are small in size and silent, which can be replaced for something better (which is where CPU/GPU production process matters for me), which would allow me to play few remaining games I still like with reasonable fps and also won't go close or over safety limits for cable diameter related to amperage of electric current.
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Hi
Yes, and some of the other AMD hardware CPU's and Mainboards etc.
When I bought one item of hardware (can't remember which one) there was a 'free' copy of Starfield (which I downloaded but haven't really played at the moment).
There was a copy of Avatar with another piece of hardware, but!...you had to have that item of hardware installed in a working computer, which beings as I'd not got all the hardware parts to build the computer at that point was in my case, unusable. The free copy was also time limited....which had expired by the time the computer was built up and working.
...
I mainly prefer going for the hardware price itself for a particular item nowadays (cheapest but still with a hardware retailer that I trust) rather than any 'free' games, or other bundled stuff. It's always a bonus to get free items of course, but imho you're usually paying for it within the price of the hardware sometimes.
Jack
Yes, and some of the other AMD hardware CPU's and Mainboards etc.
When I bought one item of hardware (can't remember which one) there was a 'free' copy of Starfield (which I downloaded but haven't really played at the moment).
There was a copy of Avatar with another piece of hardware, but!...you had to have that item of hardware installed in a working computer, which beings as I'd not got all the hardware parts to build the computer at that point was in my case, unusable. The free copy was also time limited....which had expired by the time the computer was built up and working.
...I mainly prefer going for the hardware price itself for a particular item nowadays (cheapest but still with a hardware retailer that I trust) rather than any 'free' games, or other bundled stuff. It's always a bonus to get free items of course, but imho you're usually paying for it within the price of the hardware sometimes.
Jack
Upgradability rarely matters all that much in practice.
CPU capabilities, especially as far as gaming is concerned, do not evolve anywhere near as fast as GPUs. Your current CPU is four years and a similar number of generations old. You can swap it out for a faster Comet Lake part, but that won't be a huge upgrade, especially if efficiency is a priority, so you'll want a full platform swap anyway.
Yes, you can also swap out a low-profile GPU, but the fastest low profile GPUs are pretty low-end, comparatively high-priced, and are often almost a full product cycle behind their full-size or even mobile equivalents. Your current ARC 310 is IGP level stuff in modern terms and the best low-profile card you can replace it with would only tie a mid-range gaming laptop.
There is totally an argument for standard sized parts in a SFF system tuned for power, but constraining power too far and/or limiting one self to low-profile GPUs erases most of the advantages such a system will have over a laptop. A laptop in this use case is basically a mini-PC that benefits so much from economies of scale that the battery and display are essentially free.
If you have your own UPS and aren't using the laptop for it's portability, you can just remove the battery entirely. Most decent laptops won't heat the battery area that much and some allow the the charge to be capped which is also a significant factor in battery longevity. A spare battery (which can be charged to 30-40% and left in the fridge for a decade with minor degradation) isn't a big expense either.
This. I purchased a laptop 5 years ago to play ED, it was getting old and needed replacing so I spent some money on a new PC. The thing is, if I had purchased a PC 5 years ago every single thing in it, motherboard, memory, CPU, Video card, power supply even, would need replacing by now so in theory while upgradability is there in a PC, by the time you actually need to upgrade it's usually everything that needs replacing, so don't look for upgrade capability, look for something that will last 5 years, then just replace it when it no longer does its job.
My experience with MSI is they don't support any of their products. That's why I don't use MSI any more. They're great until they break, then you're stuck in a circle-jerk that only ends if you return the product to the seller in time.
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There are many interesting details about CPU/GPU types in the link above and I'm often browsing this site to see if something interesting comes out.
I was laptop user for most of the time, portability was great but limitations were too serious for me. Now I can replace any part I want whenever I want. The main issue for me is a case since buying one I want is nearly impossible- it has to be done by me- and my hands that require more training to achieve desirable result. My ideal PC is in the form of suitcase but there are some technical limitations I have to solve, like building my own custom PSU that can work with LiFePo4 pack (that have to be done by someone knowing more than me about electronics, charging curves for batteries I want, etc.). Right now I'm using normal, mini tower type case that can also fit 12Ah AGM lead battery but that is only temporary until I have time and resources to experiment more.
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