Don't try to figure that out. It'll just give you a headache.
TF2 is CPU bound, single thread bound beyond 2 cores + SMT / 3 cores (and that's only because OS and GPU driver still need to run).

CPU intensive is a rather useless term since a lot of threads only produce nominal load and don't do much (hey Oracle) whereas a single thread can burn quite a lot of power (e.g. linpack). Technically everything except good HPC code is memory latency bound and said code is usually memory bandwidth bound. So it's all about how well the CPU can avoid waiting on memory.

TF2 is also very good at doing weird shit, like one function where the MSVC compiler just fucks up everything and uses weird instructions so the CPU has to keep switching to microcode and back (50% of the cycles are wasted just doing that). That is depending on the definition either the most or least cpu intensive because the isn't waiting for anything, isn't burning much power but also is doing fuck all and there's no way to avoid it.

Some parts of the code are even worse, but that function alone makes up 10% of the total execution time.

So the only thing about TF2 that's intensive is the tendency to waste cycles.

I was wondering what the most popular graphics card for tf2 players is, and how many frames people are getting on average. Just wondering if I need to upgrade my graphics card. I have a weird AMD HD 7850 and an i5 4460, and get around 200 fps. Is this ok? I am using comanglia's config, running in dxlevel 8

Hey, could a professional write down for me a not so expensive spec which in big fights maintains circa 100-120 FPS?
Nothing too crazy doe. thanks

#2133
Never go by popularity, stupid decisions can be surprisingly popular.
Just check the GPU usage, but I'm guessing it won't go over 90%. If it's staying <90% you're not limited by the GPU.
200 fps sounds right for that CPU tbh.

#2134
Budget?

Circa 700€ for components

#2136
Components as in everything but peripherals?
Overclocking yes/no?
Are you going for high or low settings?
When do you want to build it (Zen Hype is real)?

The 700 includes components, peripherals have an other budget.
No overclock, thanks :)
Low settings + Comanglia's config

awhile ago you set me up with this build but i ended up taking a break and not going through with it. im starting to play again and i was wondering if you can set me up with a build with the same monitor (BenQ ZOWIE XL2411) but with a budget (including the monitor) of ~$1k. purposes are for gaming and maybe streaming if i get better internet. i just want decent consistent frames. thanks for the help as always.

edit: would like to OC as well

#2138
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-7100 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor (€124.58 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock B150M Pro4V Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€80.84 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: PNY Anarchy 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€53.01 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€99.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€51.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 470 4GB G1 Gaming Video Card (€197.54 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€40.46 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€50.00)
Total: €697.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-17 21:57 CET+0100

Rough sketch.
When are you going to build it? You could probably wait for Zen.
I can do a more accurate partlist if you can link me a shop or even better a price comparision site.

#2139
You've delayed it for 4 months now, might as well wait 2 more weeks for Zen.

Also there will be sacrifices. Can't go from 1200$ to 700$ without giving up something.

i understand there will be sacrifices and i can wait on the zen. my budget is a bit flexible so if its +/- $100 or so i can afford it. i just dont want to spend the amount i was going to before.

Thanks so much Setsul

My brother wants to build a computer, and he has a budget of $500, and wants the most possible fps while playing league of legends and world of warcraft. he doesnt do anything else that is intensive

He already has a midsized full atx case, a 600w corsair PSU, and radeon 280x GPU, along with all peripherals

My fraternity is planning on building a computer with a 1000 dollar budget.

It will mainly be used as a media computer, but also for light gaming and doing finances on. The CPUs and GPUs around 200 dollars seem to be at about the perfirmance point we are looking for. Likely this computer will have many programs running at the same time and will have virtual machines running for some of it's uses, so I was thinking maybe 16GB of RAM would be good to have, especially considering how cheap it is. A 120-240GB SSD would.be nice, and probably at least a terabyte of additional storage will be necessary. We probably will do enough gaming to warrant having an upgraded (not stock) cooler.

There is no preference on the size of the build or the type of case so as long as you suggest something cheap of decent quality we'll be alright

We have a monitor but frankly it's shit. So, if you have some decently cheap monitors with nice colors (response time is unimportant) you can recommend, I'd like that ot go.into.the budget too. We will also need windows.

If you have all that and a decent monitor and have plenty of budget left, I would consider a CPU upgrade, or maybe just save the money.

Thanks

#2143
Overclocking yes/no?
When is he going to build (Zeeeeeen).

#2144
Many programs + VMs you should definitely wait for Zen. Assuming the rumours/leaks are correct <200 instead of >300$ for 4 cores / 8 threads, ~250$ for 6C/12T and somewhere slightly above 300$ for 8C/16T instead of the 1000$ Intel wants you to cough up.
RAM actually isn't that cheap right now, so 2x8GB now, maybe upgrade to 32GB later.
SSD is standard.
1TB, 2TB or more for the HDD?
Gaming doesn't affect the cooler.
Overclocking yes/no?

Would there be any benefit to keeping it compact?

Standard 24" 1080p 60 Hz monitor (IPS in that case of course) or something more fancy?
Most universities sold some souls to microsoft and get windows for free as a result. Might want to check that.

We could probably wait for Zen but if we choose not to, do you mind just posting an example of something we could get now?
Yeah 2x8 sounds good
We can probably make do fine with a 120 GB SSD
If a 2 TB fits into the budget fine then we would prefer that over a 1 TB, but more is unnecessary
Good to know
We plan to overclock, but if we could save more than 50$ by not, then that would be preferred

There would be no benefit to keeping it compact, unless it happened to be cheaper

1080p 60hz around 24 inch would be fine, and IPS would be fine and we don't need anything more fancy
Unfortunately we cannot get windows for free

You are aware that we are talking about less than 2 weeks?
Nah, 120GB is almost as expensive as 250GB. Let's do it properly.
Overclocking will cost more than 50$ with Intel, nothing with AMD.

Very likely no overclocking, and build within the next few months

Okay I thought it was more like a month
Sounds great
And then as long as we are going with an AMD build and won't save money, we will be overclocking

You're going to have so many builds to make for people once ryzen finally comes out so I hope its not too much trouble haha

#2148
I can make a partlist a week or two before he's actually building, it's a bit early now.

#2149
I'll have some spare time in March so I don't mind. Better than doing lots of partlists now that I have to throw away later.

Hey setsul now that ryzen is officially released, how long does it normally take for the range of motherboards and such to get fleshed out? I'm not really experienced in this at all

All on 2nd March. They are already announced e.g. X370 Chipset Motherboards are already being made and sold lmao

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-components/motherboards/amd/am4-x370-b350

All mobos and 8 core CPUs are up for preorder at every proper retailer.
Actual availability 8 days from now, March 2nd.
6 core and 4 core CPUs probably sometime in March as well.

I'd love some tips from you guys! I've been playing this game on my laptop and I'm planning to upgrade by finally building a PC now that I have the budget. The only thing is that I don't have any experience in building PCs and this will be my first time ever building one. My current budget is $800~ (but I think I can bump that up to $1000 in a couple of weeks since my bday's coming up soon :3) Can you guys guide me through which parts I should and should not buy for my current situation? And yes, I will mainly use this PC to play games such as tf2, csgo, and overwatch. What parts would be the best bang for my buck?

Setsul you suggested earlier that we should wait for Zen to rake advantage of the low multicore pricing, and now my brothers are wondering if it would be feasible and make sense to get a 1700 for running virtual machines and programs used by the engineers of our house. We are not very concerned with how much of the 1000 dollar budget we can save if it means that 8 cores will be a worthwhile purchase for us

Programs will include Solid works, MATLAB, running code, Siemens NX, rino, some other design software probably, and definitely will involve a lot of multitasking

#2154
There's too many fake flags around here, so I've got to ask: In which country are you actually going to buy the parts?
If you're actually in the Philippines I'll need a link to a shop, or even better to a price comparision site.

I'm guessing it's not urgent, so I'd wait a bit for the Zen 6 and 4 core CPUs.

What fps/settings/resolution are you going for?
Do you need peripherals? Monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc.?

#2155
And now you see why I told you to wait. Twice the cores for 330$ is quite a difference.
It's still a week until the actual release so pcpartpicker doesn't have mobos listed yet and it wouldn't make a difference anyway.

And yes, the 1700 was what I planned to go with anyway, once you said you want multitasking and multiple VMs.
Now you probably don't need a high end GPU for light gaming, but any particular minimum requirements for software with GPU acceleration? Do you need/want CUDA? Double precision?

Oh and just so you know: Siemens is planning on upgrading a lot of their systems. Guess what they are upgrading to. Sweet, sweet Zen optimizations coming for Siemens NX.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wxcXd6
My "future" Ryzen 1600x build, whenever it comes out, and a few things will probably change until then. I bought the RAM, cpu cooler, case and a few case fans from a friend for cheap, right now I'm just thinking about an SSD.

Crucial MX300 275GB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IAGSD5O
or
Samsung 850 250GB EVO https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ412U
or
SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F9G43WU

the SanDisk is like 20$ cheaper, is the perfomance/10-35GB worth it in the end? planning on just using it as a boot drive and a few games, not really looking for anything crazy.

To my understanding, none of the programs are expected to require double precision. Although CUDA and GPU acceleration might be benefits for some of the projects, I don't believe they are necessities

Forgive my lack of knowledge I'm not an engineering student myself, and thanks again for your help and advice

#2157
I think you're confusing the NEX and the G2. Both 80+ Gold, one is old and mediocre, one is fairly new and one of the best.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qYTrxr/evga-power-supply-220g20550y1
Something cheaper would do fine too though.

The SSD Plus is a budget SSD, so it's fairly slow.
The 850 Evo is quite a bit faster than the MX300, so at the same price the MX300 isn't worth it.
Another option would be the SL308. http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SKHFS250G&c=CJ

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8cm9XH

Do you plan on buying another 16GB stick though? AMD hasn't share some specific details yet and I obviously couldn't benchmark it yet, but Zen will probably suffer a bit with single channel.

#2158
Did you change your flag just because I complained?

Well if you already knew exactly which parts you want/need, you wouldn't be here asking for help so I don't mind.

I forgot about ECC. That's most likely an option as well, at least AMD has never locked it before.
So apart from asking around a bit if anyone really needs CUDA or DP ask them about ECC as well. I'd go for ECC, just in case.

I might get another stick if benches show a big difference, but I'd rather spend the 120$ or whatever RAM costs now for an SSD. I'll probably get the 850 Pro and that seasonic instead, I don't think 600w would be necessary for just a 1600x and a RX 480. The 480 might change depending on the Vega announcement on the 28th

You picked the 650W, not me. ;-)
I've suggested two 550W, should still be enough even with the big Vega.
850 Pro now, not 850 Evo?