For the techsperts. A few questions pre-gaming PC upgrades.

[derncricket]

Hi Everyone. I am upgrading my sons computer that I built for him a few years back. At the time I had not yet heard that over 8 cores doesn't help PC games. I bought him the threadripper 2950x 16-core. He has lag and framerate problems and we are trying to correct it. So a few questions.

1. Is the 16 core threadripper 2950x going to be better than the 12-core Ryzen 9 CPU? I get conflicting results when googling. I had heard that newer games like Star Citizen were going to use all available cores. So I am torn over whether to get him the Ryzen 9 or have him stay on the threadripper.

2. He thinks his lag is caused by his RAM. The threadripper cooler is so big, and I got him the LED strip RAM, that the RAM does not fit in the right slots. So he gets an error on boot that the RAM is not in the optimized slots. From my experience, that is a yellow hazard sign and not a red X. I honestly don't think it will cause any noticeable issues. Am I wrong? Could having the RAM put in the only slots they will fit in cause games to lag? Will putting then in the correct order fix that?

I was planning to get him that Ryzen 9 5900x 12-core. With that and an ASUS TUF-gaming x570 board (which is the combination that I run). With the standard size processor the cooler shouldn't be so big and the RAM should fit in the right slots. Is that a wise purchase or do we think he is already good like he is?

3. He could care less about 4k and wants to stay on 1080p with a high refresh rate monitor. (kids..). He insists AMD cards are no good (my 6900 XT works great), and wants an Nvidia card if any change at all. He is currently on a RTX 2080 TI. Would it be much benefit for him to go to a 3000 series? Again, he is not a graphics junkie like myself. So he is not concerned with ultra high graphics settings. Still, his birthday is a month before christmas and I am needing presents.

He says he lags with all games on low settings. Is the RAM in the wrong slots the problem? Or is it the threadripper processor that may not be optimized for gaming? What changes do you suggest I make? Is it just as simple as buying non-led lit ram that will fit in the correct slots? The LED ram is very tall.

Any opinions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[HardReset]

RAM problem sounds strange but I have seen stranger things. 2080 Ti is more than good enough for 1080p. Also CPU is good enough.

I would just replace RAM and hope issolves issue.

 

[Kshipper]

Yah ...getting the RAM into the right slots has to be a clue here. The last Threadripper I had for repair in my shop was not cooled properly therefore it was throttling (slowing down). Once we fixed the water pump issue the machine ran like a champ. I looked up the CPU you have and it is plenty powerful enough:

PassMark - AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X - Price performance comparison

Notice the comparison there with the Ryzen 9 of the same year. Now the current 5000 series is excellent for gaming since there was a big improvement in single thread performance which is handy if your son plays older games. I think he might since he likes 1080p gaming and high refresh right? Maybe the way to go is to get a different cooler that won't block the RAM sticks.

The Ryzen 9 and new motherboard is a great solution too for a birthday gift. Are you adopting? =)

 

[derncricket]

Hmmm. No not adopting. He's my blood. So we may just go ahead and replace the ram with something that will fit first. Seems to be the easiest solution. Then see what happens. Thanks for the opinions on that. I will also get him to look at the temp on it and make sure the cooler is actually working.