Recommended hardware for playing with mods

[MAMKIN DOMINATOR]

I noticed that modded game consumes much more resources in comparison with a basic one. So I'm interested in PC hardware configuration to fit playing with mods. Which is more important: CPU, GPU, or ssd speed for that? E.g. 128 GB ram with a medium level graphic card or 32 GB ram with a super-powerful GPU? Any ideas?

My config is: core i7-2600k (@4.8), 16 GB RAM, MSI 980 and facing problems while playing Fallout 4 + 250 mods on 1080p. However, not modded Fallout 4 is 60 fps no issues

[Fake]

*laughs in scalper*


No, but seriously, good luck finding CPUs or GPUs that aren't being sold by scalpers.

[unweptbuzzard16]

Originally posted by Fake:

*laughs in scalper*


No, but seriously, good luck finding CPUs or GPUs that aren't being sold by scalpers.

I once saw someone selling a gtx 1650 for 800 dollars

[=EGC= kansasterry]

My system specifications are

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: AuthenticAMD
CPU Brand: AMD FX(tm)-8320 Eight-Core Processor
CPU Family: 0x15
CPU Model: 0x2
CPU Stepping: 0x0
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3492 Mhz
8 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Unsupported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Unsupported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: Radeon(TM) RX 460 Graphics
DirectX Driver Name: aticfx32.dll
Driver Version: 27.20.14501.28009
DirectX Driver Version: 27.20.14501.28009
Driver Date: 12 4 2020
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
DirectX Card: Radeon(TM) RX 460 Graphics
VendorID: 0x1002
DeviceID: 0x67ef
Revision: 0xcf
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 18.66" x 11.65" (21.97" diag)
47.4cm x 29.6cm (55.8cm diag)
Primary Bus Type Not Detected
Primary VRAM: -2048 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers (Steam Streaming Speak

Memory:
RAM: 32740 Mb

I can run over 100 mods mostly mods like snappy housekit etc. to expand my options in building a settlement. The only issue is having to run the game in 720p since it is only a 2gb graphics card so trying to run in 1080p results in some low FPS issues in certain areas.

[MAMKIN DOMINATOR]

My config is: core i7-2600k (@4.8), 16 GB RAM, MSI 980 and facing problems while playing Fallout 4 + 250 mods on 1080p. However, not modded Fallout 4 is 60 fps no issues

[Dave]

Very few games are going to need 128gb as most are written for consoles then converted to PC, I think Cyberpunk 2077 was the only recent game that was written for PC then converted. 64gb will be usable for the next 4-5 years.
The motherboard is the most important part as the bus speed is the slowest part of any PC. If you have a slow bus speed then you could change a 3core 3.2ghz cpu to a 12core 4.3ghz but only see 3-5% speed increase.
New games are starting to use ray-tracing graphics so RTX is needed, older games do not so will not give a good output as say a GTX. Some games, such as Fallout or SKyrim are heavily Vram needy so I use 2xGTX1080 to get 16gb of Vram and is still faster than need for current 4k VR games. Looking forward RTX will enable better VR games but until they are written, I will save £200 until they do.

Have a look as PC builders, and play with building your own. Start off by selecting the most expensive of each category and reading about what each component can do, work your way backwards to what you can afford and then search if they are cheaper elsewhere.

Also bear in mind that hardware that costs £400 now will only be £100 in 18-24 months time so if you want an absolute top of the range £6000 pc now, you will have very few games you can play and by the time games are plentiful, your PC will be less than £1500.

[unweptbuzzard16]

My information
Manufacturer: Lenovo
Model: Legion y545
OS: Windows 10 64bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-9750HF @2.60GHz to 4.50GHz
Sockets: 1
Cores: 6
Threads: 12
Hyperthreading: yes
Virtualization: enabled
Intel HD graphics: no
Gpu: Nvidia geforce GTX 1660 ti (mobile) 6gb gddr6
Ram: SK Hynix 16gb @ 2667 mhz
Disk (C:) SSD Micron MTFDHBA256TCK 239 gb
Disk (D:) HDD WDC WD20SPZX-08UA7 @5400 rpm 2tb

Mods list:
# Automatically generated by Vortex

HUDFramework.esm
Homemaker.esm
TrueStormsFO4.esm
OVT.esp
BOS_X01_Paintjobs.esp
Brotherhood of Steel Kit.esp
BusySettlers.esp
CompanionStatus.esp
Companion Infinite Ammo.esp
DD_Khassar_De_Templari_Increased_build.esp
DeployableTurretsPack.esp
DV-Durable Vertibirds.esp
dD-Enhanced Blood Basic.esp
GatlingLaserFusionCoreFix.esp
BetterOpenSeason.esp
OCDecorator.esp
rpampas.esp
Rusty Face Fix.esp
3dscopes.esp
SnapBeds.esp
3DNPC_FO4.esp
Eli_Faction Housing Overhaul - Prydwen.esp
Bunker13.esp
Campsite.esp
Hellfirenew.esp
ImmersiveLoversEmbraceRemastered.esp
ImmersiveLoversEmbraceMagnolia.esp
More Smarter Companions Mod.esp
3DNPC_FO4Settler.esp
F4NV-AMR.esp
BostonAirport_WorkshopFix.esp
ValiusHDTextures2K.esp
The Eyes Of Beauty.esp
Thematic and Practical.esp
TrueStormsFO4-EarlierSunsets.esp
PlayerMarriage.esp
Vault81Etiquette.esp
VisibleCompanionAffinity.esp
Vivid Fallout - All in One - 2k.esp
WET.esp
1CAS_serviceRifle.esp
NanotechWaterpump_FoodWaterHappy.esp
DV-No Levelled Vertibirds.esp
OCDecoratorDLC.esp
TrueStormsFO4-FarHarbor.esp
TrueStormsFO4-EarlierSunsetsFH.esp
OCDispenser.esp
TrueStormsFO4-GlowingSeaExtraRads.esp
CBBE.esp
CBBEHeadRearFix.esp

I get 60fps at 1920x1080x60 p

[MAMKIN DOMINATOR]

Originally posted by Dave:

Very few games are going to need 128gb as most are written for consoles then converted to PC, I think Cyberpunk 2077 was the only recent game that was written for PC then converted. 64gb will be usable for the next 4-5 years.
The motherboard is the most important part as the bus speed is the slowest part of any PC. If you have a slow bus speed then you could change a 3core 3.2ghz cpu to a 12core 4.3ghz but only see 3-5% speed increase.
New games are starting to use ray-tracing graphics so RTX is needed, older games do not so will not give a good output as say a GTX. Some games, such as Fallout or SKyrim are heavily Vram needy so I use 2xGTX1080 to get 16gb of Vram and is still faster than need for current 4k VR games. Looking forward RTX will enable better VR games but until they are written, I will save £200 until they do.

Have a look as PC builders, and play with building your own. Start off by selecting the most expensive of each category and reading about what each component can do, work your way backwards to what you can afford and then search if they are cheaper elsewhere.

Also bear in mind that hardware that costs £400 now will only be £100 in 18-24 months time so if you want an absolute top of the range £6000 pc now, you will have very few games you can play and by the time games are plentiful, your PC will be less than £1500.

Good point on bus Dave. I understand basics of game development that hardware settings are selected and locked inside engine. If nextgen consoles have 16gb RAM, 4-8gb GPU and some CPU cores (don't remember exactly), this will be ported to PC as is, with no benefit from super-powerful PCs.

My initial interest was in modded games, e.g. Fallout 4 can run on outdated PCs easily, but when fully modded it can beat even Cyberpunk I guess. I saw some other games fully moded like Rimworld takes 13-14Gb (all available) RAM. So that's why I'm interested in configuration for modded games. I doubt they're multicore optimized like 3D software, so taking 16-32-64 cores CPU will make no difference in performance.

I don't think Cyberpunk is a good benchmark, it's a buggy piece of ...code. If you know programming basics, you can write recursive Fibonnaci, that beats any hardware on 50-60 number. That doesn't mean hardware is bad. That means algo isn't optimized. Looking at RDR2 how brilliantly it was optimized I seriously doubt in Cyberpunk.

Concerning prices, I agree, PC gaming is an expensive hobby with no doubts. I was thinking of something like 10000USD for hardware, to beat any current or modded game. But investigating if it will.

[unweptbuzzard16]

Originally posted by MAMKIN DOMINATOR:

Originally posted by Dave:

Very few games are going to need 128gb as most are written for consoles then converted to PC, I think Cyberpunk 2077 was the only recent game that was written for PC then converted. 64gb will be usable for the next 4-5 years.
The motherboard is the most important part as the bus speed is the slowest part of any PC. If you have a slow bus speed then you could change a 3core 3.2ghz cpu to a 12core 4.3ghz but only see 3-5% speed increase.
New games are starting to use ray-tracing graphics so RTX is needed, older games do not so will not give a good output as say a GTX. Some games, such as Fallout or SKyrim are heavily Vram needy so I use 2xGTX1080 to get 16gb of Vram and is still faster than need for current 4k VR games. Looking forward RTX will enable better VR games but until they are written, I will save £200 until they do.

Have a look as PC builders, and play with building your own. Start off by selecting the most expensive of each category and reading about what each component can do, work your way backwards to what you can afford and then search if they are cheaper elsewhere.

Also bear in mind that hardware that costs £400 now will only be £100 in 18-24 months time so if you want an absolute top of the range £6000 pc now, you will have very few games you can play and by the time games are plentiful, your PC will be less than £1500.

Good point on bus Dave. I understand basics of game development that hardware settings are selected and locked inside engine. If nextgen consoles have 16gb RAM, 4-8gb GPU and some CPU cores (don't remember exactly), this will be ported to PC as is, with no benefit from super-powerful PCs.

My initial interest was in modded games, e.g. Fallout 4 can run on outdated PCs easily, but when fully modded it can beat even Cyberpunk I guess. I saw some other games fully moded like Rimworld takes 13-14Gb (all available) RAM. So that's why I'm interested in configuration for modded games. I doubt they're multicore optimized like 3D software, so taking 16-32-64 cores CPU will make no difference in performance.

I don't think Cyberpunk is a good benchmark, it's a buggy piece of ...code. If you know programming basics, you can write recursive Fibonnaci, that beats any hardware on 50-60 number. That doesn't mean hardware is bad. That means algo isn't optimized. Looking at RDR2 how brilliantly it was optimized I seriously doubt in Cyberpunk.

Concerning prices, I agree, PC gaming is an expensive hobby with no doubts. I was thinking of something like 10000USD for hardware, to beat any current or modded game. But investigating if it will.

In reality, any cpu 6th gen or newer, any gpu newer than 2016 with at least 4 to 6gb of vram and 16gb of ram will work

[Dave]

It is a matter of understanding the game engine and how it works.

The scripts are handled each frame and are given 1.2ms to carry them out. Scripts include idling, talking, walking, sleeping, farming to name a few. There are other scripts running such as workshopparentscripts which handle your settlers and same again are handled each frame. If you increase the amount of scripts then the time allowed is unable to cope and will carry over to the next frame but that then makes then next frame carry over, etc until it all chokes up and either stutters, hangs or CTD. You can allow more time to the scripts, upto 2.4ms but if you double the time then you need to double the cell buffers. Bear in mind that at 60fps then it is only 16.65ms per frame so when people say they can get 144fps then that is only 6.99ms to handle every script. The CPU would need to be able to run at 11-12ghz on each physical core which has not been built yet (for home use)

If you had 300 low/non scripted mods you could run them on a low end machine at 60fps without any issue. If you have 30 heavily scripted mods then there is a fair chance that they have not built a pc able to handle it.

[hawkeye]

Most people buy the best pc they can afford, or upgrade one main component at a time. In OP's case I know his cpu is the main problem as I have a similar one. If graphic settings are turned on, the gpu probably is as well. A 980 can be easily overclocked btw.

For nearly all games, the single thread speed of the cpu is the primary attribute that determines performance. This is a measure of how fast one thread in the cpu can run a set of cpu-only test applications. It doesn't include any data access or graphics processing. Nor does it assess quality of the overall architecture.

The chart linked below shows single thread scores taken from users pc's. STS is a general indicator. Performance will vary with the setup of the pc and the application being run. In-game benchmarks need to be examined to get a better view of performance for a specific game. There aren't many FO4 benchmarks available. It's a shame that BGS isn't more proactive as they have good products in Skyrim amd Fallout.

The best gaming cpu is likely to be the i9-11900k, available in March. One sample got an STS score of 3764 at stock, so overclocked it should be around 4000. My i7-2600 at 4.3 scores 1900, so a huge difference. Close behind will be the i7-11700k and i5-11600k. The i9 and i7 have the same 8 core 16 thread config btw just a small difference in speed and overclockability.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/joao-silva/msi-chart-confirms-the-specifications-of-intels-11th-gen-core-k-processors/

So, for FO4, the fastest will work the best. FO4 has 2 main engine components. The compiled main exe which is much the same as the one used for Skyrim SE, and the script engine which handles most of the FO4 specific stuff.

The performance of the exe probably determines fps, the performance of the scripts determines if the game world does everything it should for each frame. When the two get out of sync problems occur. When the scripts don't complete for each frame major problems can occur, like CTD's.

The performance of the exe will improve with a better cpu and a better gpu. I use an i7-2600 and 1080ti at 4.3 with 170 mostly scenery mods. I don't have a lot of problems but a better cpu would definitely help in rebuilt cells and downtown. The gpu is fine for 1080p, even 4k, but I turn graphics settings off except for shadows and draw distance. I also have an rtx2070, that is also fine (except for CTD for lack of weapon debris support). I get 40+ fps except for that one street in the theatre district downtown which is around 15 fps. I have scrapped all junk on the street and all pre-vis so that doesn't help. I also have a lot of chrome stuff open in the background which doesn't help either when it decides to throw a tanty and consume cpu.

The performance of the script engine will improve with a better cpu and faster memory.

https://www.memorybenchmark.net/read_uncached_ddr4_intel.html

I use an 860 EVO SSD.

My ideal FO$ setup is a new 4k hdmi 1.2 monitor, i9-11900k, gtx 3080ti, 32gb ram. The monitor won't be availabe until mid-year, the 3080ti maybe never. The cpu and mobo should be readily available which will solve my main performance problem at the moment. I want to crank up the ugrids too.

FO4 doesn't need a 16 thread cpu. I looked at thread performance a few years ago and there are 2 and sometimes 3 primary threads. So a fast quad core could get good performance probably. But that might be a problem for AAA games. I would not buy a cpu with an STS below 3000 or less than 16 threads. My i7-2600 is 10 years old, I'd expect a replacement to last many years as well. The new AMD cpus look good, I'm not convinced that their architecture is fully sorted yet. 12th gen Alder Lake is due late this year with DDR5 memory. And new Zen3 cpus so that's more for consideration.

[Dave]

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Most people buy the best pc they can afford, or upgrade one main component at a time. In OP's case I know his cpu is the main problem as I have a similar one. If graphic settings are turned on, the gpu probably is as well. A 980 can be easily overclocked btw.

For nearly all games, the single thread speed of the cpu is the primary attribute that determines performance. This is a measure of how fast one thread in the cpu can run a set of cpu-only test applications. It doesn't include any data access or graphics processing. Nor does it assess quality of the overall architecture.

The chart linked below shows single thread scores taken from users pc's. STS is a general indicator. Performance will vary with the setup of the pc and the application being run. In-game benchmarks need to be examined to get a better view of performance for a specific game. There aren't many FO4 benchmarks available. It's a shame that BGS isn't more proactive as they have good products in Skyrim amd Fallout.

The best gaming cpu is likely to be the i9-11900k, available in March. One sample got an STS score of 3764 at stock, so overclocked it should be around 4000. My i7-2600 at 4.3 scores 1900, so a huge difference. Close behind will be the i7-11700k and i5-11600k. The i9 and i7 have the same 8 core 16 thread config btw just a small difference in speed and overclockability.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/joao-silva/msi-chart-confirms-the-specifications-of-intels-11th-gen-core-k-processors/

So, for FO4, the fastest will work the best. FO4 has 2 main engine components. The compiled main exe which is much the same as the one used for Skyrim SE, and the script engine which handles most of the FO4 specific stuff.

The performance of the exe probably determines fps, the performance of the scripts determines if the game world does everything it should for each frame. When the two get out of sync problems occur. When the scripts don't complete for each frame major problems can occur, like CTD's.

The performance of the exe will improve with a better cpu and a better gpu. I use an i7-2600 and 1080ti at 4.3 with 170 mostly scenery mods. I don't have a lot of problems but a better cpu would definitely help in rebuilt cells and downtown. The gpu is fine for 1080p, even 4k, but I turn graphics settings off except for shadows and draw distance. I also have an rtx2070, that is also fine (except for CTD for lack of weapon debris support). I get 40+ fps except for that one street in the theatre district downtown which is around 15 fps. I have scrapped all junk on the street and all pre-vis so that doesn't help. I also have a lot of chrome stuff open in the background which doesn't help either when it decides to throw a tanty and consume cpu.

The performance of the script engine will improve with a better cpu and faster memory.

https://www.memorybenchmark.net/read_uncached_ddr4_intel.html

I use an 860 EVO SSD.

My ideal FO$ setup is a new 4k hdmi 1.2 monitor, i9-11900k, gtx 3080ti, 32gb ram. The monitor won't be availabe until mid-year, the 3080ti maybe never. The cpu and mobo should be readily available which will solve my main performance problem at the moment. I want to crank up the ugrids too.

FO4 doesn't need a 16 thread cpu. I looked at thread performance a few years ago and there are 2 and sometimes 3 primary threads. So a fast quad core could get good performance probably. But that might be a problem for AAA games. I would not buy a cpu with an STS below 3000 or less than 16 threads. My i7-2600 is 10 years old, I'd expect a replacement to last many years as well. The new AMD cpus look good, I'm not convinced that their architecture is fully sorted yet. 12th gen Alder Lake is due late this year with DDR5 memory. And new Zen3 cpus so that's more for consideration.

The problem is that the creation engine uses 1 core, threads are the channels of the core but in the case of hyperthreading the cores are able to provide 2 threads so a 4 core processor becomes a 8 core. The earlier processors were more powerful for Fallout and Skyrim as they were able to multi-thread and therefore had greater speed and stability. They had considerably less scripts so all in all Skyrim could push towards 4k at 60fps even back as far as 2008.

A lot of time people ignore the motherboard and if you are running less than 32gbps on PCI-e will struggle with VR and high levels of graphics regardless of GPU, in the future. The other thing to be aware of is Ram speed, Ram is 3200mhz as good and upper end are 3600mhz but almost all top end motherboards can only run at 2133mhz without serious overclocking. This then leads to a heating problem, liquid cooling and a good selection of 8-10 fans with something like iCue, should keep it below 50 degrees. The cooler the faster. Crucial ballistic can run a t 5100mhz but if put those into my pc, it wouldn't get more that 3700mhz as that is the fastest I can overclock to. Likewise the IPC (instructions per cycle) of a CPU is more important than the operating frequency. I could have a 5ghz cpu but it would be slower than a 4ghz as the 4ghz can handle 2 IPC while the other can only handle 1.

Full blown, Gaming PC's will cost a fortune but the hardware advances mean that old software will be difficult to work with.

With a bit of wisdom, people can save an absolute fortune by not buying the best, fastest or more powerful because a PC is only as fast as the slowest part. Instead of £1800 for 32gb of 5100mhz ram, but £150 of 64gb 2400mhz. Don't bother going higher than 64gb as there aren't many motherboards below £800 that can handle more.

[MAMKIN DOMINATOR]

Originally posted by hawkeye:

Most people buy the best pc they can afford, or upgrade one main component at a time. In OP's case I know his cpu is the main problem as I have a similar one. If graphic settings are turned on, the gpu probably is as well. A 980 can be easily overclocked btw.

For nearly all games, the single thread speed of the cpu is the primary attribute that determines performance. This is a measure of how fast one thread in the cpu can run a set of cpu-only test applications. It doesn't include any data access or graphics processing. Nor does it assess quality of the overall architecture.

The chart linked below shows single thread scores taken from users pc's. STS is a general indicator. Performance will vary with the setup of the pc and the application being run. In-game benchmarks need to be examined to get a better view of performance for a specific game. There aren't many FO4 benchmarks available. It's a shame that BGS isn't more proactive as they have good products in Skyrim amd Fallout.

The best gaming cpu is likely to be the i9-11900k, available in March. One sample got an STS score of 3764 at stock, so overclocked it should be around 4000. My i7-2600 at 4.3 scores 1900, so a huge difference. Close behind will be the i7-11700k and i5-11600k. The i9 and i7 have the same 8 core 16 thread config btw just a small difference in speed and overclockability.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/joao-silva/msi-chart-confirms-the-specifications-of-intels-11th-gen-core-k-processors/

So, for FO4, the fastest will work the best. FO4 has 2 main engine components. The compiled main exe which is much the same as the one used for Skyrim SE, and the script engine which handles most of the FO4 specific stuff.

The performance of the exe probably determines fps, the performance of the scripts determines if the game world does everything it should for each frame. When the two get out of sync problems occur. When the scripts don't complete for each frame major problems can occur, like CTD's.

The performance of the exe will improve with a better cpu and a better gpu. I use an i7-2600 and 1080ti at 4.3 with 170 mostly scenery mods. I don't have a lot of problems but a better cpu would definitely help in rebuilt cells and downtown. The gpu is fine for 1080p, even 4k, but I turn graphics settings off except for shadows and draw distance. I also have an rtx2070, that is also fine (except for CTD for lack of weapon debris support). I get 40+ fps except for that one street in the theatre district downtown which is around 15 fps. I have scrapped all junk on the street and all pre-vis so that doesn't help. I also have a lot of chrome stuff open in the background which doesn't help either when it decides to throw a tanty and consume cpu.

The performance of the script engine will improve with a better cpu and faster memory.

https://www.memorybenchmark.net/read_uncached_ddr4_intel.html

I use an 860 EVO SSD.

My ideal FO$ setup is a new 4k hdmi 1.2 monitor, i9-11900k, gtx 3080ti, 32gb ram. The monitor won't be availabe until mid-year, the 3080ti maybe never. The cpu and mobo should be readily available which will solve my main performance problem at the moment. I want to crank up the ugrids too.

FO4 doesn't need a 16 thread cpu. I looked at thread performance a few years ago and there are 2 and sometimes 3 primary threads. So a fast quad core could get good performance probably. But that might be a problem for AAA games. I would not buy a cpu with an STS below 3000 or less than 16 threads. My i7-2600 is 10 years old, I'd expect a replacement to last many years as well. The new AMD cpus look good, I'm not convinced that their architecture is fully sorted yet. 12th gen Alder Lake is due late this year with DDR5 memory. And new Zen3 cpus so that's more for consideration.

i9-11900k, 3080ti, you're talking about non existing things. In my area it's unable to get any RTX above 3060, everything sold out. I'm sure this situation doesn't change for the upcoming year and getting 3080ti won't be easier than 3090. What the reason in 3080ti if 3090 exists and with speculative prices there is no difference at all. On the other hand you've mentioned top stuff, but only 32 GB RAM, it's fine for yearly-basis upgrade, but if not, I'll stay with top amount of RAM motherboard can support, which is 128 GB RAM now.

[Dave]

Originally posted by MAMKIN DOMINATOR:

i9-11900k, 3080ti, you're talking about non existing things. In my area it's unable to get any RTX above 3060, everything sold out. I'm sure this situation doesn't change for the upcoming year and getting 3080ti won't be easier than 3090. What the reason in 3080ti if 3090 exists and with speculative prices there is no difference at all. On the other hand you've mentioned top stuff, but only 32 GB RAM, it's fine for yearly-basis upgrade, but if not, I'll stay with top amount of RAM motherboard can support, which is 128 GB RAM now.

Unless you have some very clever programs running, the limit you can use is 64gb and at the end of the day it is subject to the motherboard. Most motherboards run only 2133mhz for Ram and with overclocking then 3200mhz is possible but not achievable. The PC is only as fast as the slowest thing and any motherboard less than 5000mhz basic then it is not economical to put anything faster on it. Most games are built for console and converted for PC as such games are only improved 10% when on PC and will continue until consoles reach todays standard PC. The next generation of consoles will not have RTX graphics until 4 years time so don't spend £5000 on a PC now as it will only be worth £700 when the games are up to that standard

[hawkeye]

The 11900k etc is my ideal setup, for my mod list and config settings. All the components will be in the stores soon except for the 3080ti which has been put on hold by nvidia. I have a 1080ti which I have used at 4k with DSR and that will be good enough. There are plenty of 3070s where I live but they won't do 4k for games like RDR2.

So in general terms a good pc would have -

A 6c/12t or 8c/16t cpu with a cpubenchmark single thread rating of 3000+.

32GB of RAM. 16GB is more than enough for this game. Check benchmarks for real ram speed not the sticker on the box.

Disk - SSD of decent size. Your choice.

GPU - depends on the monitor resolution and hz. Most FO4 graphics are done by the cpu so I wouldn't upgrade the gpu unless it's needed.

Cpu chart link. If you want to buy now a 5000 series AMD or 10 series intel.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Memory chart link (for intel cpus) -
https://www.memorybenchmark.net/read_uncached_ddr4_intel.html
The new z590s for 11th gen will support up to 5133 MHz memory.

The way to check if you have enough ram is by monitoring the hard page faults in Resmon. A hard fault is when the desired data isn't already in memory. If the pc is not getting frequent faults then extra ram won't make any difference.

SSD chart link -
https://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/high_end_drives.html

If it was me I'd buy a new cpu, memory, mobo and cooler and swap that in your current pc.

[MAMKIN DOMINATOR]

In case CPU is a most common bottleneck, perhaps it's worth to take something ultimate like 3970x or 3990x with 32 and 64 cores? But Games don't consume all CPU cores like other 3D software (Blender, Maya) DO. Single-thread frequency is often discussed as a most important for gaming, 5+ Ghz or something, in this case why doesn't my 2600k with @4.8 Ghz fits here, as it has 4 cores, 8 threads with high speed. Is it related to set of instructions SSE2, SSE3, SSE4 and other stuff available for CPU families? Ok, my CPU is as old as mammot, but what's the difference between 9900k and 10900k and 11900k, they have common socket means no benefit in bugs speed, core speed seems the same, games not optimized for more than 6/12 cores/threads so what's the benefit ?