Productivity and gaming AMD build

[n41c0]

Budget (including currency): hopefully less than 1000 euros

Country: The Netherlands

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Python, Matlab, R: I use machine learning algorithms on physiological data and this is very time-consuming, multiple cores are a plus and a GPU that can take part of that load is also a plus. Mostly single-player games like Death Stranding, Sekiro, Elden Ring, also some FPS but I don't really mind a super high frame rate that much. Also some Adobe apps like Lightroom and Photoshop.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

I want to build a productivity-plus gaming setup. It will run a dual Windows/Ubuntu boot. Ubuntu I use for working (programming and analysing data) and Windows for gaming and using Adobe programs. For gaming, I don't care about playing in ultra quality or refresh rates higher than 60hz.  Just want a rig that can handle games like Death Stranding and Elden Ring at 1080p fluidly with medium settings. I'm going with AMD because I've had very mixed experiences using Intel and nVidia cards with Ubuntu. I would like to keep this pc for a while so I expect to upgrade the processor and video card in the future.

 

Any comment is super welcome. Thanks!

 

* The Noctua CPU cooler I have already

 

This is the part list I've worked out:https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jVm3Kp

 

 

And the actual shopping cart of the store I will buy from in the Netherlands (https://www.megekko.nl/).

 

 

[filpo]

1 minute ago, n41c0 said:

I want to build a productivity-plus gaming setup. It will run a dual Windows/Ubuntu boot. Ubuntu I use for working (programming and analysing data) and Windows for gaming and using Adobe programs. For gaming, I don't care about playing in ultra quality or refresh rates higher than 60hz.  Just want a rig that can handle games like Death Stranding and Elden Ring at 1080p fluidly with medium settings. I'm going with AMD because I've had very mixed experiences using Intel and nVidia cards with Ubuntu. I would like to keep this pc for a while so I expect to upgrade the processor and video card in the future.

 

Any comment is super welcome. Thanks!

 

* The Noctua CPU cooler I have already

 

This is the part list I've worked out:https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jVm3Kp

I would probs go with this build: 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/Zfy878

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€234.80 @ Azerty) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK400 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler  (€34.50 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M GAMING X AX Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  (€182.90 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL30 Memory  (€134.00 @ Azerty) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€64.95 @ Megekko) 
Video Card: ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card  (€209.95 @ Azerty) 
Case: CiT F3 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€38.82 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€113.85 @ Azerty) 
Total: €1013.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-09 15:06 CEST+0200

[PDifolco]

55 minutes ago, n41c0 said:

Budget (including currency): hopefully less than 1000 euros

Country: The Netherlands

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Python, Matlab, R: I use machine learning algorithms on physiological data and this is very time-consuming, multiple cores are a plus and a GPU that can take part of that load is also a plus. Mostly single-player games like Death Stranding, Sekiro, Elden Ring, also some FPS but I don't really mind a super high frame rate that much. Also some Adobe apps like Lightroom and Photoshop.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

I want to build a productivity-plus gaming setup. It will run a dual Windows/Ubuntu boot. Ubuntu I use for working (programming and analysing data) and Windows for gaming and using Adobe programs. For gaming, I don't care about playing in ultra quality or refresh rates higher than 60hz.  Just want a rig that can handle games like Death Stranding and Elden Ring at 1080p fluidly with medium settings. I'm going with AMD because I've had very mixed experiences using Intel and nVidia cards with Ubuntu. I would like to keep this pc for a while so I expect to upgrade the processor and video card in the future.

 

Any comment is super welcome. Thanks!

 

* The Noctua CPU cooler I have already

 

This is the part list I've worked out:https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jVm3Kp

 

 

And the actual shopping cart of the store I will buy from in the Netherlands (https://www.megekko.nl/).

 

 

With that limited budget on a prod+gaming build I'd go AM4 

- More cores (each a bit slower) for productivity;  CPU lower single core speed isn't an issue with low to mid range GPU

- Your GPU was quite weak/unbalanced, cheaper AM4 allows you to get a way better GPU

- Mesh case for better airflow, the macube seems very choked/closed

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor  (€192.95 @ Azerty) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 64.95 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For €0.00) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€104.90 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€64.90 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Storage: Crucial P3 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€85.99 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  (€359.00 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Case: Deepcool MATREXX 55 MESH ATX Mid Tower Case  (€62.90 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Power Supply: NZXT C650 (2022) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€83.85 @ Amazon Netherlands) 
Total: €954.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-09 15:41 CEST+0200

 

 

[igormp]

7 hours ago, n41c0 said:

I use machine learning algorithms on physiological data and this is very time-consuming, multiple cores are a plus and a GPU that can take part of that load is also a plus

7 hours ago, n41c0 said:

I'm going with AMD because I've had very mixed experiences using Intel and nVidia cards with Ubuntu

Are you going to be doing work with OpenCL, or is most of your ML stuff solely CPU-based?

 

Otherwise, if you're using any big framework like Tf/keras or Pytorch, then a Nvidia gpu is your only viable choice.

6 hours ago, PDifolco said:

- More cores (each a bit slower) for productivity;  CPU lower single core speed isn't an issue with low to mid range GPU

The 7600 is actually faster for most of their mentioned demands, since each of their cores is way faster it does more than make up for the 2 lacking cores, specially since most of their workloads should be single-threaded.

[PDifolco]

48 minutes ago, igormp said:

Are you going to be doing work with OpenCL, or is most of your ML stuff solely CPU-based?

 

Otherwise, if you're using any big framework like Tf/keras or Pytorch, then a Nvidia gpu is your only viable choice.

The 7600 is actually faster for most of their mentioned demands, since each of their cores is way faster it does more than make up for the 2 lacking cores, specially since most of their workloads should be single-threaded.

7600 is equal to 5800X/5700X on full core load, not better, but sure it's better on single thread

Thought (maybe wrongly) OP tasks where mainly multicore...

 

[igormp]

53 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

7600 is equal to 5800X/5700X on full core load, not better,

That'd dependent on the task, don't generalize like so.

A 7600 is even able to beat a 5900 in some AI inference workloads:

https://www.phoronix.com/review/ryzen-7600-7700-7900-linux/12

54 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Thought (maybe wrongly) OP tasks where mainly multicore...

Some are, some are not, a 7600 would do better overall.

[PDifolco]

44 minutes ago, igormp said:

That'd dependent on the task, don't generalize like so.

A 7600 is even able to beat a 5900 in some AI inference workloads:

https://www.phoronix.com/review/ryzen-7600-7700-7900-linux/12

Some are, some are not, a 7600 would do better overall.

Ok, but marginally, whereas the savings from the cheaper AM4 platform allow for a much better GPU

So AM5 will give prod 110% to gaming 70% vs my AM4 choice (set as reference 100%)...

[igormp]

35 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Ok, but marginally, whereas the savings from the cheaper AM4 platform allow for a much better GPU

From OP's post, it seems like gaming may not be of much relevance, nor will the GPU will be used for their productivity tasks (which I asked before and need to clarify to see if that's indeed the case).

Also, where did you see it was a marginal difference? The first bench in the link I gave already shows a 26% improvement over a 5900x. AVX512 plays a huge role for this kind of workload, don't forget about it.

37 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

So AM5 will give prod 110% to gaming 70% vs my AM4 choice (set as reference 100%)...

Where are those numbers even coming from? They don't mean much without context.

[PDifolco]

1 minute ago, igormp said:

From OP's post, it seems like gaming may not be of much relevance, nor will the GPU will be used for their productivity tasks (which I asked before and need to clarify to see if that's indeed the case).

Also, where did you see it was a marginal difference? The first bench in the link I gave already shows a 26% improvement over a 5900x. AVX512 plays a huge role for this kind of workload, don't forget about it.

Where are those numbers even coming from? They don't mean much without context.

Sorry, missing titles, they're Cinebench23 scores single and multicores  

[igormp]

33 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Sorry, missing titles, they're Cinebench23 scores single and multicores  

Yeah, not really representative of the workloads OP mentioned (apart from photoshop maybe?)

[n41c0]

hey guys, thanks a lot for all the comments/suggestions.

 

1. @PDifolco I went for AM5 so I could upgrade the computer in the future. I could also skip the GPU for some months and get a better one, which one do you think would be more balanced with the 7600x?

1. @igormp I had a look at the packages I'm using and indeed most of the programming I do that could benefit from a GPU relies on PyTorch. I read that Pytorch supports AMD GPUs but this is a recent change apparently (?). Otherwise, what nVidia card would you recommend for the build I posted?

[PDifolco]

9 hours ago, igormp said:

Yeah, not really representative of the workloads OP mentioned (apart from photoshop maybe?)

About the GPU, if you want something in the mid $300 to $500 range I'd say a 6700 to 6800xt GPU, those are best bang for the buck 

[igormp]

9 hours ago, n41c0 said:

1. @igormp I had a look at the packages I'm using and indeed most of the programming I do that could benefit from a GPU relies on PyTorch. I read that Pytorch supports AMD GPUs but this is a recent change apparently (?). Otherwise, what nVidia card would you recommend for the build I posted?

Trust me, getting Pytorch to work with ROCm is a pain, I speak from personal experience. AMD's 6000 series also have awful performance for ML due to their lack of WMMA dedicated cores (basically a tensor core).

 

How large are your datasets? Not sure if a GPU with 8gb of vram would be enough for you, but if so a 2060 Super/3060ti/3070/3070ti might be a good bang for the buck, otherwise you can try to look into a 3060 12gb/3080 12gb/4070. As a important notice, all of the options I mentioned are going to be more expensive than the 6600 you were firstly looking for, so maybe a used part would make it doable for you.

 

FWIW, I'm a full time linux user with an nvidia gpu, and it works without problems (arch+gnome+xorg), so I hope you won't run into any troubles either.