$800 Gaming PC
Intel i3 10100
RTX 2060 6GB
16GB DDR4 RAM
480GB SSD
vs
$700 Gaming PC
Intel i3-10100
RX 5600 XT
16GB DDR4 RAM
480GB SSD
So how well are they gonna run WoW Shadowlands, and at what settings on a 40" 1080p HDTV monitor?
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If I had to choose from just those two the second without a second thought
But neither is especially amazing - I’d spend more, build my own, and get better parts.
Or wait because new CPUs and GPUs are coming very soon.
they’ll both play wow well though
either one will run the snot out of shadowlands at 1080p, but the first one is not worth $100 more then the second one. I would go with Sal’s selection as well.
The good thing is that more competitive offerings from both CPU manufacturers has risen the floor on entry level CPUs a lot. Just a few years ago the i3 was a dual core CPU.
The i3-10100 is basically 2016’s i7-6700k and 2017’s i7-7700, but actually faster by 100mhz (albeit with less cache). They are all four core chips with hyperthreading.
In a vacuum, that’s already pretty damn powerful, and in comparison to tech just a couple years ago, it’s amazing.
It’s only compared with today’s current lineups that this configuration is entry level. Some games will struggle without the extra cores, but at this price point and with the GPUs likely to be paired with them, it’s not really an issue.
Shadowlands’ recommended requirements is an i7-6700k. So by that metric, the i3-10100 is already faster than the recommended requirement.
As far as the 2060 vs the 5600 XT, the 5600 XT is faster than the 2060 by a small margin, has 33% more VRAM, and doesn’t carry the Nvidia tax. It will also likely keep getting software driver optimization for games longer than the 2060 will. In contrast, the 2060 has ray tracing beta, and NVENC encoder if you stream.
16GB is plenty for gaming. Expect it to be only 2666mhz, which is just okay, but will work.
480gb ssd - its enough for OS and one or two games. This is where I’d look to upgrade yourself later. Add another 1tb SSD or whatever.
At this price point, it’s hard to recommend other options - but I would choose my own parts to make sure i’m not losing out on some feature here or there.
That said, if you prefer prebuilt systems, you can be as choosy.
Either system will crush the game at 1080p, both will run 1440p fine, and probably with some concessions even do 4k pretty competently.
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