I'm planning my first PC build and would appreciate feedback before buying the parts. I'll mainly use it for gaming at 3440x1440 ultrawide, with Red Dead Redemption 2 probably being close to the most demanding game I expect to play. I also plan to use DaVinci Resolve for video editing and various engineering applications involving 3D CAD.
My goal is to build something reasonably future-proof so I can play newer games for several years without replacing major components. My budget is roughly €2,000–€2,500 including the monitor. I'm willing to spend a little more if the upgrade provides meaningful longevity, but I don't want to waste money on parts that won't make a noticeable difference.
The parts and prices I've found in the Netherlands are:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X — €288
- CPU cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black — €44.90
- GPU: MSI RTX 5070 Gaming Trio OC — €799
- Motherboard: MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk WiFi — €189
- RAM: Kingston Fury Beast 32GB (2×16GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 — €529
- SSD: Kingston KC3000 2TB — €329
- PSU: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 II 750W — €99
- Case: MSI MAG PANO 110R PZ Black — €89
- Monitor: AOC CU34G4 34-inch, 3440×1440, 180Hz — €259
The biggest decision is the graphics card. I can get an RX 9070 XT from ASUS, Gigabyte, or Acer with 16GB of VRAM for about the same price as the RTX 5070. I'm also considering the Ryzen 7 7800X3D or the more expensive Ryzen 7 9800X3D instead of the Ryzen 7 9700X.
Would you change any of these parts or spend the budget differently? In particular, which GPU and CPU would make the most sense for this mix of ultrawide gaming, DaVinci Resolve, and CAD work?
4 Answers
The 7800X3D should generally outperform the 9700X in games, but the difference depends heavily on the title. Games such as Rust can benefit a lot from the extra cache, while other games show a much smaller gap. It would be worth comparing benchmarks for the games you actually play before paying more. The 9800X3D is the premium option, but at ultrawide resolution the GPU is often the limiting component, so the extra CPU cost may not be the best use of this budget.
At the same price, the RX 9070 XT is generally the stronger choice for gaming. It offers roughly 20–30% more performance in many rasterized games and has 16GB of VRAM instead of 12GB, which is useful at 3440×1440 and for future titles. The RTX 5070 becomes more appealing if you specifically value ray tracing, DLSS, or Nvidia's advantages in some creative workloads.
The monitor supports FreeSync rather than G-Sync, so it pairs especially naturally with the AMD card. That said, both cards can still work with adaptive sync in many cases. DLSS is often preferred for ray-traced games because its image reconstruction and frame-generation features can be stronger, while FSR is available on AMD and is supported by a wider range of hardware. For mostly standard gaming, the 9070 XT's extra performance and VRAM are probably more valuable.
The RAM price stands out much more than the CPU choice. €529 for 32GB is extremely high, so I would shop around or compare other DDR5-6000 CL30 kits before buying. Saving several hundred euros there could fund a better GPU, more storage, or a 64GB kit if your video editing and CAD projects need it.
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