I'm helping my younger brother build his first PC for college, where he'll be studying game development. He wants to learn Unreal Engine and create reasonably detailed 3D games, while also playing titles such as The Last of Us, Fortnite, and Red Dead Redemption 2. We are in Canada and hoped to stay near a $2,500 CAD budget, although the current list is closer to $2,888 CAD.
He already has a 4K 60 Hz monitor, which he can replace later, and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi motherboard, and NZXT H510 Flow case are already owned or purchased, so those parts should not be replaced. The current planned parts include a Phantom Spirit 120 SE cooler, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a 1 TB NVMe SSD, a Radeon RX 9070 XT, and an 850 W power supply. What would be the best way to reduce the cost without hurting Unreal Engine development or gaming performance too much?
2 Answers
The graphics card is the easiest place to cut costs. A regular Radeon RX 9070 should be around $100 CAD cheaper and only gives up roughly 10 FPS in many games. You can also replace the overpriced memory with a normal 32 GB DDR5-6000 kit, choose a better-value 850 W power supply, and avoid the less predictable SSD option. Those changes bring the build closer to the target without changing the CPU or platform.
If the budget is the priority, look at a lower-tier Radeon card, but be careful with the exact model. A 9070 GRE is considerably slower than a 9070 XT and has less VRAM, so it may be a questionable choice for 4K gaming and 3D development. A standard RX 9070 is a more sensible compromise if the price difference is reasonable.
That makes sense. Since he will be using Unreal Engine as well as gaming, keeping 16 GB of VRAM and avoiding too large a performance drop is probably worth the extra cost.