CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
£320 inc VAT
overclockers.co.ukThe 3rd-gen Ryzen sweet spot for great
performance in games, as well as content
creation, is the Ryzen 7 3700X. It has a peak
boost frequency of 4.4GHz and a massive
32MB L3 cache. Plus, with its eight cores and
16 threads, it’s a monster in multi-threaded
content creation workloads too.
It’s also an easy customer for our chosen
motherboard with its 65W TDP, and even
when overclocked, you don’t need to spend
a fortune on cooling hardware for it. Intel still
has a small lead in some games, but the list
of titles where this happens is now smaller,
as are the differences.Plus,in
some games,theAMDchip
is actually faster.If you
need a greatall-
round CPU
for around
£300, the
Ryzen 7 3700Xis
a great choice.Alternatives
Despite recent price cuts, Intel’s
Core i7-9700K still costs around £50 more
than the Ryzen 7 3700X and is rarely much
faster in games, especially above 1080p. It
also gets a bloody nose from the AMD CPU
in multi-threaded workloads, as the Intel
CPU lacks Hyper-Threading.If you’re building a PC purely for 1080p
gaming, though, the Core i5-9600K and Core
i7-9700K are still viable options that offer
slightly better frame rates in some (but not all)
games. Also, thanks to increased competition,
prices for them and Intel’s other 9th-genCPUscontinuetofall.It’s alsoworthwaitingto
see how the Ryzen 7 3800X performs, since
it has a higher boost frequency that could
offer better performance in games, while
the Ryzen 5 3600X (see p22) is cheaper and
still offers plenty of multi-threaded grunt
compared with Intel CPUs.Graphics card
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
Super FoundersEdition
£379 inc VAT
nvidia.comThe surprise
boost to Nvidia’s
RTX range last
month took some
windoutofthe sails of AMD’s Navi launch,
butthetwoGPUs are still closely matched,
offeringadvantages in different areas. The
RadeonRX 5700 XT is a good card and
mostly on a par with the RTX 2060
Super, but the latter is currently
much quieter when gaming,
aswell as cooler-running, thanks
toNvidia’s dual-fan design. The RTX
GPUalsogetsyou support for hardware ray
tracing,whichisn’t supported on the AMD
GPU. The Nvidia card gets our vote in this
price league – it’s a great choice for 2,560 x
1,440 gaming at decent frame rates.Alternatives
AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT is slightly faster
in some titles at lower resolutions, so if
you’re not too fussed about fan noise, it can
be a slightly better alternative. If you have
your heart set on frame rates above 60fps
at 2,560 x 1,440, then the RTX 2070 Super
is a great option too, although you’ll need
to spend an extra £100 or so. If you still
want the benefits of ray tracing and DLSS,butcan’tstretch to the RTX 2060 Super,
then the RTX 2060 can be had for around
£300 and also offers smooth frame rates at
2,560 x 1,440, although it struggles with ray
tracing above 1,920 x 1,080.Motherboard
MSI X570-A Pro
£170 inc VAT
box.co.ukDespite equivalent X470 and Z390
motherboards retailing for a lot less money
than their X570 counterparts, there are still
affordable X570 boards, including MSI’s
X570-A Pro (see p50). It offers PCI-E 4
support, so it can push the latest SSDs to their
limits. It also handled our Ryzen 9 3900X with
ease this month, plus its chipset fan is quiet. If
you’re after a basic X570 board that still offers
the key perks of AMD’s new chipset, though,
it’s a great choice.Alternatives
For an extra £100, you can get the Asus ROG
Strix X570-E Gaming (see p45), which has
better power circuitry and cooling, making
it a better home for an overclocked 12 or
16-core 3rd-gen Ryzen CPU, as well as
offering a more lavish setof
features and better looks.It’s worth remembering
that X570 motherboards
aren’t direct replacements
for X470 and B450
motherboards, but
are instead designed
to offer a premium
platform that sits
above them, with PCI-E
4 support and other new features,
such as 802.11ax Wi-Fi and LAN speeds inSHOPPING
LIST