Custom PC - UK (2021-05)

Letters

One more Valhalla test?
While your recent graphics card
reviews were interesting, I wondered
if you might be able to do me a little
favour and run one of your new tests
on an old GPU. I currently have an
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and I’m
very interested in Assassin’s Creed
Valhalla (I’m a Bernard Cornwell
fan, and I love the idea of traipsing
around Anglo-Saxon England).
However, if I buy the game now,
and it runs like a dog, I know I’m
going to end up looking for a new
GPU on eBay, and then I’m going to
be much poorer. The new Radeons
cope with the game surprisingly well

• how do the old ones fare?
  You don’t happen to have an
  old Radeon RX 5700 XT knocking
  about, do you? If so, would you mind
  running your Assassin’s Creed
  Valhalla test on it? I have a 2,560 x
  1,440 monitor that runs at 60Hz (no
  active sync, it’s quite old). Will I need
  a new GPU, or can my existing one do
  the job? Go on, help out a fellow tech
  and history nerd.
  JUSTIN ALEXANDER

Ben: As luck would have it, we do have
a Radeon RX 5700 XT here Justin, and

I’ve run our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

test on it for you. We test at the Ultra High

preset with High anti-aliasing, where the

5700 XT maintained an average of bang

on 60fps, with a 99th percentile result of

44fps. It only hits the latter rarely though

• the 90th percentile result is 53fps.
  That’s not far off the GeForce RTX
  3060 Ti (48fps 99th percentile, 64fps
  average), which isn’t bad when you
  consider that it’s the performance-
  equivalent of the GeForce RTX 2080
  Super from the last generation.
  If you drop down to Very High settings
  with Medium anti-aliasing, you get an
  average of 69fps and a 99th percentile
  result of 49fps (90th percentile of
  59fps). In short, Valhalla is perfectly
  playable on your GPU at the top settings.
  It will only take a little more tweaking
  to get it running constantly at a vsync-
  friendly 60fps. Happy exploring!

Stock broken

That’s it, I’m done. I’ve given up hope

of upgrading from the GeForce

GTX 1070 I bought years ago. I’ve

watched the new GPUs disappear

from the shops minutes after going

on sale, then appear on eBay at twice

the price. I’ve watched supplies

get hoovered up by crypto miners

in large quantities. I’ve watched

Overclockers add Big Navi cards to

the 3D printer sections of its website

at ridiculous prices – it’s got so silly

that system builders are selling PCs

without GPUs now.

Please send us your feedback and correspondence to

[email protected]

FEEDBACK

APRIL

Issue 213^01

On sale on Thursday, 1 April

When’s the next issue out?

I couldn’t even upgrade to a Turing

card if I wanted – they’ve all gone –

even the non-RTX ones! If I want a

new graphics card at a normal price,

I have to either buy a GeForce GT

1030, or hand over a ludicrous sum

of money to an eBay scalper. Your

graphics card test made me want to

buy a new GPU, but they’ve all gone –

what am I supposed to do?

STEVE WHITE

Ben: We all feel your frustration

Steve. A currency-mining boom, new

technology, huge demand, soaring

shipping costs and a global pandemic

have combined to create a truly

ridiculous situation for gamers – it’s not

just on the PC – stock of the PlayStation

5 has become a joke as well.

Unless you’re happy to pay over the

odds, all we can do is wait it out. We’ve

experienced a GPU shortage resulting

from a mining boom before – it subsided

after a few months and GPUs eventually

came back into stock. Assuming

the world can get to grips with the

pandemic, this situation won’t go on

forever. In the meantime, we might just

have to stick with our old GPUs for a few

months longer than we’d like.

The Radeon RX

5700 XT is still

perfectly capable of

playing Assassin’s

Creed Valhalla at

decent settings

Nvidia’s latest graphics cards are practically

non-existent at retail

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