In a recent Letter from the Producer LIVE from Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida, we found out that graphics improvements are coming to Final Fantasy XIV. These will be a part of the new expansion Stormblood, releasing June 20, 2017.
With such a change in PC requirements, I wanted to design a PC build to handle it. So in this article I take a look at both the minimum and recommended system requirements and try to build the best PC for your money. So read on to find out more.
The GT 1030
Three lower-end graphics cards have released recently, but you may not have heard anything about them. AMD and NVIDIA generally do not throw major parties when they release ~$70 products, so do not worry about it if these launches slipped under your radar!
The three new-ish cards are:
The truth is out there: Earlier this month we learned the specifications for Project Scorpio, the new 4K Xbox from Microsoft. I couldn’t really just let such knowledge pass me by, so I sat down to see just what sort of PC would be needed to beat it!
This article will propose two sample builds capable of standing toe-to-toe with Project Scorpio for roughly the same price. Read on to see for yourself.
A few months ago, Logical Increments reader Nintenrax built an incredible water-cooled PC for himself, and shared with us a very detailed recap of the build. (See all pics on PCPartPicker.)
Here’s Nintenrax:
This week we saw the release of the new RX 580 and RX 570 from AMD. While these graphics cards are rehashes of the RX 480 and 470 (with a ~5% overclock), they are still great GPUs worthy of consideration for mid-range PC builders.
Today, I take a look at their performance and match each of them with suitable parts to get the best bang for your buck with these new cards.
The “Glorious PC Gaming Master Race” term originated as an insult in this Zero Punctuation review of the Witcher.
Here at Logical Increments, we love advocating on behalf of the PC. But as devoted to the PC as we are, our enthusiasm is continually overshadowed by that of the PC Master Race (PCMR). With more than 800,000 members and growing, this Reddit community is one of the leading hubs of PC-related activity on the internet, and the PCMR has since spread its influence to Steam, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Discord. You can see everything they’re up to at pcmasterrace.org.
We recently had the opportunity to interview Pedro19, the founder of the PC Master Race community. Read our discussion below:
The Gigabyte RX 580, which is… Basically the Gigabyte RX 480.
This week, AMD releases two new graphics cards: the RX 580 and RX 570. Actually, calling them “new” is an overstatement. AMD has taken two cards from last year (the RX 480 and RX 470) and is now selling them with new names and a small overclock.
This week, AMD launched their exciting Ryzen 5 CPUs, which include two 6-core hyperthreaded chips (the 1600X and 1600) and two 4-core hyperthreaded chips (the 1500X and 1400). These CPUs are now among our recommendations on the Logical Increments homepage, marking a welcome return for AMD to the mid-range CPU space.
Long story short: We have added the the R5 1500X and 1600 to our Great tier, while the R5 1600 and 1600X now appear in our Excellent tier. As a result, the Ryzen chips have shaken up our once Intel-dominated mid-range CPU recommendations, and knocked the Intel i5-7400 completely off our list.
This week, AMD released its exciting new Ryzen 5 series of CPUs, which includes two 6-core models (the 1600X and 1600) and two 4-core models (the 1500X and 1400). These new CPUs are giving Intel’s offerings some serious competition in the mid-range CPU space.
Yesterday, we put together some builds for the 6-core 1600X and 1600, and today we’ll be doing the same for the 4-core 1500X and 1400.
The 6-core Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 are an interesting pair for PC builders.
For both gaming and content creation, having a 6-core/12-thread CPU for the $220-250 price point is excellent. As such, we’re going to create two powerful example builds to give you an idea for what you can make yourself.
The 1600X and 1600 can be used interchangeably with the two builds, so feel free to swap as you see fit!