My #1 priority is actually idle power usage. Efficiency on load is irrelevant. 99% of the time, it will be idle or web browsing. With low idle power, good Linux support (especially for decoding) and efficiency cores for light usage, I heavily lean on Intel. I don’t mind if it is inefficient on-load.
A CPU with integrated graphics is a must. The graphics performance is irrelevant as long as it can achieve at least 4K 144Hz for desktop and video decoding (so that it won’t ramp up CPU usage while watching 4K YouTube, for example).
I have a 4K 144Hz monitor. I am a Linux user dual-booting Windows for necessary games only.
Gaming is not a priority. I will mostly be doing web development, browsing the web with numerous tabs, watching videos, taking screen captures, and using remote desktop/gaming.
Things I mainly play: Train Sim World, Cities:Skylines, Forza Horizon; mostly simulation games. I rarely play Fortnite and similar games. I might also play some AAA titles, like Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk, but I don’t mind using medium-high settings and lower resolution with upscaling.
I previously had a PC with a 5900X (I was running VMs back then), an RTX 4070 12GB, and 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 3,600MHz C16. I was fairly happy with the performance, except for the FPS, which was around 40-60 on the simulation games I listed. I would like to have a higher FPS on simulation games, but it’s not critical.
For the motherboard, can it not have a PCH fan, please? :) If there has to be one, can it not run on idle? Additionally, a BIOS with good fan curve control that also allows for 0 RPM on case fans. 2.5G LAN and temperature probe are nice to have.
Regarding the GPU, I want to stay away from Nvidia if possible (they are being annoying nowadays, and have bad Linux support). But I still want low idle power and good streaming performance (remote gaming, low latency at 4K, using Sunshine). I’ve heard negative things about these aspects from the Radeon side, but I’m not sure if they’ve been resolved. If not, and if onboard graphics could handle video encoding/decoding just fine, would it make sense to use onboard graphics, maybe switching inputs when a game requires max performance? I am looking for something similar to or better than the RTX 4070. I would love to try Arc, but apparently, they don’t have anything close to my performance expectations.
My budget is €1000-1500 and does NOT include case, fans, cooler, PSU, or storage. I am willing to overpay for CPU and motherboard for higher quality and future GPU upgrade, and I can buy a graphics card later, especially if Intel come up with something new. Gaming is not urgent. I am also fine with buying used stuff, so feel free to recommend something old gen, as long as it won’t hurt future upgrades too much.
TLDR: I lean on 9070 XT but I am not sure about its idle power and low-latency 4K 144Hz video encoding-decoding. But maybe it is not a problem if I have a CPU with onboard graphics that can take care of that. Light-usage efficiency is the most important part. So I am looking for advice on choosing the right (mainly Intel) CPU, RAM, mobo combo that goes well with simulation games. I am also open to other GPU ideas.
Have you considered an APU like the AMD 8700G? Not having a dedicated GPU at all will save you about 20-30W of idle power. It will play the games you listed at 1080 low. Gives you some more budget for a platinum or titanium rated PSU as well. Go for a slightly slower SSD that doesn’t need a heat sink. Those things can use a lot of power too. Too bad ATX12VO never took off in the DIY space because that standard is specifically designed to have less concersion losses. Maybe there are some business PCs that do use it.
Oh actually, the Ryzen AI max PCs like the Framework Desktop just about fit in your budget. Those should outperform the 8700G on every front AND use less idle power because they are often used on mobile.
https://community.frame.work/t/minimum-power-draw-idle/70184/6
That’s actually very cool! Almost what I want but I am concerned about GPU performance. I am expecting at least 4070 (desktop) performance with a possible upgrade path. PCI-e x4 is also limiting discrete GPU options :(
Can you please also clarify how not having a dedicated GPU will save me 20-30W? Not sure but based on my experience with 4070 and some web search, dGPU runs about 15W with single moniton on idle. Moreover, iGPU will also consume some power, even if not that high, the total difference should not be that high. I can also use dGPU for gaming only and rely on iGPU for desktop stuff.
Ah yeah this is going to perform more like a 4060 and indeed does not have good upgrade options. Maybe have a look at the minisforum motherboards, like the minisforum ar900i S. Those come with soldered on laptop CPUs. So you get the power efficiency of a laptop but with full desktop connectivity. I also just did some web searches to find my power numbers. It probably varies a bit on which card, which vendor and if they measure wall power or directly from the connectors. An iGPU does consume some power but if you look at the 12W total system power of the framework desktop, only a few of those watts can be the iGPU.
I think that sadly you still have to go to nvidia for low power gpus. Amd have gotten better, but they don’t sip ower quite as good. On the other hand, if you"re running a 4k/144 setup, neither card will truly be idling and the differences might be insignificant, so a 9070 could do.
Also found this thread on ltt forums with some numbers.
Based on this ( admittedly anecdotal evidence ) the 5070 would be low-power king.
Yeah there seems to be pretty negligible difference now. I will probably go with 9070 xt. My low power need is mostly for CPU. I don’t want it to use 40-80W of power just for scrolling a web page, watching a video and staring at the IDE for hours.