Support NeoGAF

[Trogdor1123]

Finally built my computer. Took forever but i got there.

My computer is a 5800x3d, 32 gigs of ram, and a 6800. 1tb Samsung nvme.

It’s not high end but it’s ok. It’s coming from a ps5 and want to play with a controller as much as possible as I prefer that.

I used to play on pc all the time but I’m way out of the loop. I have a small steam library but not much modern, I’ve got a good amount of free games from epic too. I also have gamepass ultimate.

Any tips for someone out of the loop? How can I make this experience even better? Im playing on a 60 inch 1080p tv if that matters.

Currently using windows 11

 

[Schmendrick]

Uh ...don't care what others say and just have fun with whatever you want to play

 

[Gaiff]

Finally built my computer. Took forever but i got there.

My computer is a 5800x3d, 32 gigs of ram, and a 6800. 1tb Samsung nvme.

It’s not high end but it’s ok. It’s coming from a ps5 and want to play with a controller as much as possible as I prefer that.

I used to play on pc all the time but I’m way out of the loop. I have a small steam library but not much modern, I’ve got a good amount of free games from epic too. I also have gamepass ultimate.

Any tips for someone out of the loop? How can I make this experience even better? Im playing on a 60 inch 1080p tv if that matters.

Is your TV 120Hz and does it support VRR? If not, I would highly advised getting a new TV or monitor. Otherwise, not much point in having a PC over a PS5 if you're going to play at 1080p/60Hz.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Is your TV 120Hz and does it support VRR? If not, I would highly advised getting a new TV or monitor. Otherwise, not much point in having a PC over a PS5 if you're going to play at 1080p/60Hz.

Its only 60 hz. However, I have a new asus 27 inch 240 hz, vrr, monitor coming. That being said, I’ll still play on the 60 more as I like the couch more. I’ll probably grab a new tv in the next year or so though.

 

[Celcius]

I would also avoid saying PCMR
but congrats on the new PC

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Install RTSS and limit your frame rates to get more consistent performance that (ideally) doesn't stutter. Getting consistent performance might take some doing, depending on the game - you'll have to be open to experimentation.

 

[Arsic]

Try out games that are pc only to ease you into keyboard and mouse or games that are substantially better with pc version.

DOTA2
Valorant
CS2
Age of Empires 2
Path of Exile
World of warcraft
Final fantasy 14

Plenty of indies I think too that may not be on console like Dredge. Inscryption I think is on ps5.

 

[jshackles]

Sounds like you've got a good start! Most PC games these days are pretty "plug and play", and work with pretty much any controller. Be sure to check out the ongoing Steam sale, and also keep your eyes on other key sites that might be cheaper. Shameless Augmented Steam plug here. Just look for things you think look interesting and go from there.

Also, check out emulation. A rig like yours should be able to handle anything and everything up through and including PS3 / Xbox 360 with ease.

 

[Killer8]

You gotta get a Steam Deck now to get access to the top PCMR tier.

 

[RoboFu]

Rainbow LEDs all over

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Gamepass is pretty solid

And gog

 

[baphomet]

Its only 60 hz. However, I have a new asus 27 inch 240 hz, vrr, monitor coming. That being said, I’ll still play on the 60 more as I like the couch more. I’ll probably grab a new tv in the next year or so though.

Hopefully that's not a 1080p monitor.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

Is your TV 120Hz and does it support VRR? If not, I would highly advised getting a new TV or monitor. Otherwise, not much point in having a PC over a PS5 if you're going to play at 1080p/60Hz.

That was my thinking too.

 

[Reallink]

A 65" OLED (like the $1300 LG C3) would be the largest and most obvious upgrade to your experience.

 

[Beechos]

Try disabling as much shit as possible from windows/other apps installed on your pc. Nothing worse than playing a game and getting notication that will disrupt your gameplay.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Hopefully that's not a 1080p monitor.

It’s 1440

 

[nkarafo]

Install RTSS and limit your frame rates to get more consistent performance that (ideally) doesn't stutter. Getting consistent performance might take some doing, depending on the game - you'll have to be open to experimentation.

Though some games are doomed to a stuttery performance for ever, because the devs have abandoned them in a bad state. Like Stray and Scorn.

 

[Exentryk]

Congrats.

- Get a Xbox controller (Elite v2 is great)
- Get a wireless keyboard/mouse combo so you can navigate from your couch
- Enjoy
- (Optional) - You can get some controller remapping software like Rewasd if you want extra shortcuts in games to record gameplay, take screenshots etc, from your controller (via Shadowplay from Nvidia).

 

[Trogdor1123]

I would also avoid saying PCMR
but congrats on the new PC

Point taken. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk one way or the other.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Congrats.

- Get a Xbox controller (Elite v2 is great)
- Get a wireless keyboard/mouse combo so you can navigate from your couch
- Enjoy
- (Optional) - You can get some controller remapping software like Rewasd if you want extra shortcuts in games to record gameplay, take screenshots etc, from your controller.

Got the first two today. Haven’t done any remapping though, thanks!

 

[Kenpachii]

get free games for epic games store. good way to increase your collection of games.

Use key sites to buy cheaper prices steam keys, u can often get large chunks of money discounts that way, but no refund option then.

 

[baphomet]

It’s 1440

Good to hear.

Once you see games maxed on at 90+ fps and 1440 on that monitor you'll either game mostly on the monitor, or you'll quickly upgrade your TV to 4k with VRR.

You're definitely going to enjoy it

 

[Valonquar]

Buy a really nice office (non-gaming branded) chair.

 

[AndrewRyan]

Verify your ram runs at its advertised speed. It's common in new builds not to enable xmp in the bios resulting in half speeds.

I have good results undervolting my 5800x3d. Basically a script that runs upon startup and also wakeup that gives an extra ~15% perf.

Your motherboard may have an automated tuning features to explore overclocking/undervolting.

If it's primarily for gaming you may want to have it boot into steam bigpicture mode. Enable wakeup on bluetooth device input.

Install the 'augmented steam' plugin for your browser. Welcome and enjoy!

 

[Trogdor1123]

Buy a really nice office (non-gaming branded) chair.

I got an Aron chair, good to go but 99% of it will be couch

Verify your ram runs at its advertised speed. It's common in new builds not to enable xmp in the bios resulting in half speeds.

I have good results undervolting my 5800x3d. Basically a script that runs upon startup and also wakeup that gives an extra ~15% perf.

Your motherboard may have an automated tuning features to explore overclocking/undervolting.

If it's primarily for gaming you may want to have it boot into steam bigpicture mode. Enable wakeup on bluetooth device input.

Install the 'augmented steam' plugin for your browser. Welcome and enjoy!

Built it myself so turned on xmp right away.

Does overocking make much of a difference nowadays? For a few % I’m not sure it’s worth the headache.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Verify your ram runs at its advertised speed. It's common in new builds not to enable xmp in the bios resulting in half speeds.

I have good results undervolting my 5800x3d. Basically a script that runs upon startup and also wakeup that gives an extra ~15% perf.

Your motherboard may have an automated tuning features to explore overclocking/undervolting.

If it's primarily for gaming you may want to have it boot into steam bigpicture mode. Enable wakeup on bluetooth device input.

Install the 'augmented steam' plugin for your browser. Welcome and enjoy!

What does augmented steam do?

 

[hlm666]

What does augmented steam do?

Augmented Steam

Free browser extension that improves browsing and shopping experience for Steam

augmentedsteam.com

edit: feature list on their site.

 

[simpatico]

Turbo Overkill is only $17 right now. Doesn't get more PC than that.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Finally built my computer. Took forever but i got there.

My computer is a 5800x3d, 32 gigs of ram, and a 6800. 1tb Samsung nvme.

It’s not high end but it’s ok. It’s coming from a ps5 and want to play with a controller as much as possible as I prefer that.

I used to play on pc all the time but I’m way out of the loop. I have a small steam library but not much modern, I’ve got a good amount of free games from epic too. I also have gamepass ultimate.

Any tips for someone out of the loop? How can I make this experience even better? Im playing on a 60 inch 1080p tv if that matters.

Currently using windows 11

That's a very powerful PC. The 5800X 3D is only second to the most top end CPUs currently. The 6800 is very powerful, a bit slower than a 3080/4070 but waaaaay more powerful than a PS5. Enjoy it!

Personally I like checking out games that really push hardware so something like Alan Wake 2 or any UE5 game but you mentioned you have Gamepass which has multiple UE5 games like Jusant and Remnant 2. There's also Lego Fortnite (on Epic) which looks really nice. Gamepass has Flight Sim and Gears 5 both some of the best looking games to this day.


You can also do some emulation. I've played Super Mario Wonder and Metroid Dread at 8k and both of those games look fantastic free from the shackles of the Switch. Red Redemption 1 can be played in multiple emulators including the Switch emulator. Tears of Kingdom, Persona 5 (this is on Gamepass). Way too many good games to experience.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Is your TV 120Hz and does it support VRR? If not, I would highly advised getting a new TV or monitor. Otherwise, not much point in having a PC over a PS5 if you're going to play at 1080p/60Hz.

That's not true many people play on PC at 1080p specially on lower end hardware. PC has all the Xbox games narively and Switch games (emulation), hell even at 1080p his PC can run games at a higher fidelity than PS5 even capped at 60hz, he can also downsample his games for pristine image quality which is massively better than the PS5 which largely relies on bad FSR2. Then there's mods, the Steam suite, cheaper games as well as PC exclusives and my favorite: console game mods such as Pokemon and Mario mods.

 

[Gaiff]

That's not true many people play on PC at 1080p specially on lower end hardware. PC has all the Xbox games narively and Switch games (emulation), hell even at 1080p his PC can run games at a higher fidelity than PS5 even capped at 60hz, he can also downsample his games for pristine image quality which is massively better than the PS5 which largely relies on bad FSR2. Then there's mods, the Steam suite, cheaper games as well as PC exclusives and my favorite: console game mods such as Pokemon and Mario mods.

I meant that he's got a good machine that would be wasted by being capped at 60Hz/1080p. I'd either use a cheaper rig for that fps and resolution, or get a better display.

 

[Bonfires Down]

If you find your machine too noisy, set a custom CPU/GPU fan curve.

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

Learn about:
HDR10/Dolby Vision
VRR/G-SYNC/FreeSync
and the difference between DisplayPort (1.2 and 1.4) vs HDMI 2.1.
It doesn't matter if you have a powerful rig if it can't display the graphics correctly.

Get an 7.1 headset (virtual will do just fine) for immersion
Xbox Series Gamepad + USB Wireless Adapter
90x40 (cm) mousepad

and MODS, learn how to mod games S2

 

[Trogdor1123]

If you find your machine too noisy, set a custom CPU/GPU fan curve.

Agreed, I got a noctua d15 with 2 140 mm fans. I got a Corsair 4000d case any installed 3 140 mm noctua fans. It’s pretty quiet right now from my perspective. I’m hoping that is enough?

Learn about:
HDR10/Dolby Vision
VRR/G-SYNC/FreeSync
and the difference between DisplayPort (1.2 and 1.4) vs HDMI 2.1.
It doesn't matter if you have a powerful rig if it can't display the graphics correctly.

Get an 7.1 headset (virtual will do just fine) for immersion
Xbox Series Gamepad + USB Wireless Adapter
90x40 (cm) mousepad

and MODS, learn how to mod games S2

Totally agree but i actually don’t know where to start for stuff like this. I want a headset but I’m not sure what to get. On console I got the stock headsets.

 

[nikos]

People really recommending controllers and TVs for PC gaming?

I’d start with a proper monitor and good peripherals.

 

[Trogdor1123]

People really recommending controllers and TVs for PC gaming?

I’d start with a proper monitor and good peripherals.

But I don’t want those, I want to sit on my couch and they recommended stuff that matched my needs/wants. I’m sure those other items are great but it isn’t what I want

 

[Aces High]

Just don't do this cringe pc master race thing. It makes people look like total losers.

There's also no need to "make the change". This is just gaming. You're not accepting a new religion.

Every platform has its pros and cons and these are changing all the time. Keep that in mind. Corporations want you to embrace stupid tribalism to make you a zombie customer. But we're bette than that, right? We're not defining our personality over consumer behavior.

Right now, the hardware situation on PC is very dire. Graphics cards are insanely overpriced. Monitors are nowhere close to the quality control you know from TVs. Value for money is overall really bad compared to the hardware of a console like the PS5.

Peripherals and accessoires are mostly overpriced plastic junk with christmas lights. This has been the case for a decade. Corporations make billions by selling this junk to tribalistic zombie customers that define themselves as pcmr. Stay away from this crap.

I always recommend people to get a nice audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett. It enables you to use a variety of high quality headphones, speakers and microphones and has you perfectly covered in terms of audio.

Another important thing might be your router. If your PC is connected via ethernet, then there is no need to invest money into a high performance router. If you're using wifi, a modern high performance router will make a big difference for your online gaming experience.

Steam offers a much greater variety of AA and A games compared to consoles. AAA games are often not optimized to the same degree as we know it from consoles. But even without these technical flaws, AAA gaming is in a really bad state right now. Luckily, Valve gives you the option to get a full refund for a game if you don't like it. You will probably see yourself using that for AAA games a lot.

The best thing about pc gaming in my opinion is the social aspect. I highly recommend you to get two displays so you can chat with others through discord or forums or whatever. Or you can show a livestream that you're a part of. PC gaming has community integrated deeply into the experience. Consoles don't. Valve is trying for years to "consolify" pc gaming because like every other corporation, Valve likes money. But that's not a good idea in my opinion, because it would only take away the social aspect and by that the biggest advantage of pc gaming.

 

[Mister Wolf]

You need a vrr capable display.

 

[Crayon]

This cost twice as much as it used to but I'd buy another one without a thought.

After trying like 4 different things that were all supposed to do this job, this is the only one I was happy with. The critical things are having a backlight and a 2.4 dongle instead of bluetooth. The only thing I really dislike about it is not having a tab key because I used linux and if you want to do anything in a terminal a tab key would go a long way on this little thing.

Anyway, I never have to pull out a regular mouse and keyboard. I play all my games either with a controller, or this for builders and strategy with a controller in the other had for a few hotkeys. The only thing I can't play is like an rts/moba. Hey, maybe you could but that's the one thing I would need an actual m/kb for.

 

[Tomeru]

Ugh that controller addiction. You should at least try playing with mnk as much as you can while dlso playing a controller () so you cdn eventually say pcmr.

Enjoy pc gaming

 

[Buggy Loop]

If you’re never going to use desktop and it’s a couch PC, then make steam a startup priority and boot in big screen. By turning on controller, you’re now in a console like setup. You can keep mouse and keyboards away for 99%. They’ll only be needed for an update or something.

Enjoy

 

[twilo99]

My computer is a 5800x3d, 32 gigs of ram, and a 6800. 1tb Samsung nvme

That's what I have but with the 6800xt ..same thing

Make sure all cores are boosting properly on that 5800x3d, mine weren't and I had to change some things in the bios.

Read here:



Undervolt the CPU by doing this:



Undervolt the GPU, here are my settings, see how low (voltage wise) yours can go without crashing. My fan curve is very aggressive but it works fine and its very quiet.



That's on a XFX board.


- A lot of people still get antivirus for Windows, you DO NOT need it, the built in solution is very good.
- Get Dolby Atmos from the store. Its good for gaming and music. In fact, get most apps/programs from the store if available that way you never have to manually update them, they just update automatically in the background.
- Install ublock origin for your web browser. I use edge and firefox, its available for both. The edge browser works as well as any other at this point.


Get gamepass.

 

[HawarMiran]

with that set-up you are barely a PC sub-human

 

[killatopak]

Three things I love about PC.

Mods, emulation and games that are PC centric sensitive like RTS and rhythm games like Osu.

 

[Fredrik]

Go to nexus mods and type in your favorite game in the search field. You’ll regret having wasted playthroughs on console.

Also, get a Steam Deck, it’s the perfect PC gaming bedside companion device. Doesn’t run all games but more than expected and your Steam library is there and saves are synced.

 

[EekTheKat]

For me my own PC revival brought back entire genres of games lost in time - Strategy games (turn based, real time), proper racing sims, flight simulators, and VR are all on the table again.

My unreasonable obsession recently with Warhammer games and the Steam Sale did a lot to build up my backlog.

 

[bitbydeath]

How can I make this experience even better?

Upgrade to a Mac.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

I meant that he's got a good machine that would be wasted by being capped at 60Hz/1080p. I'd either use a cheaper rig for that fps and resolution, or get a better display.

For sure, monitors that are above 60hz are dirt cheap too. He did say he has a 240hz monitor as well tho.

 

[GametimeUK]

Since you're on a 1080p screen at 60fps have a look at supersampling for games where you have enough overhead to do so.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Nexusmods.com