R5 3600 with Vega 64 (Bottlenecks?)

[Livemau]

Hello everyone

I have been a long time viewer of LTT videos. I just built my 2nd computer after the 2019 Black Friday sales. I will be listing the exact price I paid for all of my components. Please keep in mind these purchases were 4 months ago and the market has probably shifted a bit since then. I am posting this purely for feedback on how you guys would have approached building this PC. I will also include some of the goals I was targeting when I picked these parts.

 

The first computer I built in 2013 had an FX 8350 which eventually ended up getting paired with 2 GTX 780s running in SLI (hand me down cards from a friend to upgrade from my R9 280x. The system was ridiculously loud but at the time I didn't really care since it was the first real gaming computer I had and the performance was undeniable. Going into building my second computer however I decided to focus a bit more on reducing noise. Since fans increase in speed with temperature it also relates to reducing temperatures through passive cooling. My theory was that if I have to cool with CPU/GPU with either air or liquid, I should use opposite cooling solutions on each. This would prevent exhausting hot air from 1 component into the other. Originally on my 1st computer I had a liquid cooled CPU and air cooled gpus. For those familiar with the FX 8350 and GTX 780 you know they are pretty hot components. The new build is as follows.

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 ($185)

Cooler: Noctua NHU12S ($60)

GPU: Vega 64 liquid cooled ($350 used on ebay)

PSU: Seasonic FOCUS GX-850 80+ gold 850w (Reused from previous build but originally cost $110)

HD1: 970 evo nvme ($150)

HD2: 2tb Seagate barracuda (reused from old computer but cost around $50 originally)

Gskill aegis 2x8gb 3200mhz ($53)

MB: ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING 4 AM4 AMD X570 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard ($120 after rebate) 

Case: Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-06 RGB CC-9011146-WW Black Steel / Plastic / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ($60 after rebate)

Fans: 2 additional Noctua NF-S12A ($40)

PCIE Riser cable ($15)

 

Total cost $1193

 

Goals: 144hz 1080p, highest performance per dollar, low noise

 

Main questions

Is the Vega 64 too slow for the R5 3600? When playing FF15 at 1080p I see my CPU is at around 40% while the GPU is at 100%. I average around 110fps at max settings. (Game caps at 120)

Should I have gone with 3600 mhz ram? Is the price to performance worthwhile?

Any other comments/criticisms/recommendations are welcome. You are not going to hurt my feelings. Be direct and objective.

Please comment on radiator placement, fan layout or anything else that would make cooling more efficient.

 

NOTE

I have not manually overclocked the CPU

I have only overclocked the GPU by increasing the power limit. I have not changed clock speeds on it yet.

The main reason I went with the Vega 64 was to have a liquid cooled GPU so I could use Noctuas air cooler for my CPU (which is very quiet)

XMP profile is enabled for the RAM

I ended up vertical mounting the GPU as it provided more space between the CPU cooler and GPU shroud. I do not plan on putting in a second GPU so I am not concerned with blocking the other PCIE slot.

I am not interested in custom water-cooling solutions. 

I will overclock in the future when the need comes. For now I am fine with performance for the games I play (SC2, LoL, FF15, PUBG, FF14)

I used a stock picture of the case. Please see the newegg link if you need more information on case layout.

https://www.newegg.com/black-corsair-carbide-series-spec-06-rgb-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811139132?Item=N82E16811139132

 

Monitor

https://www.newegg.com/black-red-acer-kg241-pbmidpx-um-fx1aa-p01-24/p/N82E16824011245?Item=N82E16824011245 ($155)

Also let me know if you think my system would be better off with a different monitor. I am a big fan of 1ms response times and high refresh rates. Not sure if a monitor with better picture quality might pair well as a second monitor when playing less competitive games. When I play SC2 or LoL I am more focused on performance but when I play MMOs or single player games I sometimes wish I had better picture quality. I currently only have 1 monitor.

 

 

 

 

 

[lafrente]

I'd not call it a bottleneck because what you are doing is not a CPU task. And from the GPU side, you won't bottleneck a 3600 even with a 2080ti probably. 

[Fasauceome]

14 minutes ago, Livemau said:

Is the Vega 64 too slow for the R5 3600? When playing FF15 at 1080p I see my CPU is at around 40% while the GPU is at 100%.

Final fantasy probably won't be utilizing most of your CPU, so 40% of a 6 core 12 thread CPU isn't really unexpected. 

[Meganter]

14 minutes ago, Livemau said:

Hello,

 

I have a fairly similar build so your FPS is not chocking at all, the bottleneck is very little to be honest.

 

3600MHz ram wouldn't make you gain a lot more FPS either (5 at most I'd say).

 

Overall it's a very solid build at that price point

[m777y]

try 3200mhz cl 14 dual channel.

it could be better than 3600 cl16 dual chxxxxx.

 

triple A game is hard to push 130++ at 1080p

you need at least 2070 super+ i7 9700k @4,7 Ghz ++/above.