Upgrade PC Before Tariffs or Wait It Out?

[xDDD]

Do you guys think that the incoming tariffs will significantly raise the price of PC components? Will they all be affected similarly, or will certain parts be affected more than others?


Currently I'm running a R7 3700X and it is fine. Works admirably but I do recognize that it is aging and I know that the next real step would be onto the AM5 socket.
So of course I'd need a new motherboard and RAM, and Microcenter has some decent-looking bundle deals running right now:

    
• 7600X - $300 w/ MoBo+16gbRAM
      
• 9600X - $330 w/ MoBo+16gbRAM
      
• 7700X - $400 w/ MoBo+32gbRAM
      
• 9700X - $430 w/ MoBo+32gbRAM
      
• 7600X3D - $400 w/ MoBo+32gbRAM
      
• 7800X3D - $600 w/ MoBo+32gbRAM
      
• 7950X3D - $730 w/ MoBo+32gbRAM

I know the 7800X3D and the 9800X3D are the greatest and everything; I'd love to get one, but they are just far too expensive to be worth it IMO.
To me, the 7600X3D and the 9700X seem like the best choices here.

Would it be a good idea to upgrade ASAP and get onto the AM5 ship with a respectable CPU or just wait until the performance gap is greater or some of the great CPUs (such as the 9800X3D) come down a bit in price?

[Tonepoet]

I do not think it is that big of a deal to be honest. Trump might impose 25% tariffs, but realistically speaking that only means hardware components get 25% more expensive. Prices easily depreciate by that much in the course of a year.

The 5700x3D launched at a price of $250 just earlier this year, but after a few months it came down to a price of $200, with a couple of opportunities to buy it for $180. 25% of $200 is $50, so the worst case scenario in terms of pricing for the 5700x3D is that it goes back up to its $250 M.S.R.P. before it starts to climb back down again.

I anticipate absolute the worst case scenario is that your next upgrade is stalled another year from when you would ordinarily want to upgrade.

And honestly, I exemplify the 5700x3D for a reason: Since you are on AM4, I do not think the move to AM5 is as "obvious" of a move as you think. A move to the 5700x3D is likely your best bet. Going from $200 to $300 just to get the cheapest of those Microcenter deals is a 50% price increase to hop platforms. The 5700x3D is weaker than the 7600x, but it is not 50% weaker. It is not even 25% weaker if it does go up another $50.

Looking over techspot's retrospective of the past two generations[www.techspot.com] we get the following averaged perf. numbers:

7600X: 107 F.P.S. with 1% lows of 68
5800x3D. 105 F.P.S. with 1% lows of 67
A 5700x3D is 5% weaker than an 5800x3D, so we're estimating it's about 100 F.P.S. with 1% lows of 64.

We're saying the 7600X is maybe 6 or 7% stronger than a 5700x3D.

But also, I'm looking at Gamer's nexus's 7600x3D review[gamersnexus.net] just to get an idea of where that processor sits and regain some footing on the G.P.U. hierarchy, and let me be frank for a minute here. The two games that would drive a processor upgrade the most are Dragon's Dogma 2 and Starfield. In those games the 5700x3D sits above the 9700x and the 7700x.

In fact, the 5700x3D is pretty much kickin' butt all over the charts, especially considering its price. Well, all over the place except in Rainbow 6 siege, Warhammer 3 and F1 24, but it is hard to care much about those results when you are getting over 300 F.P.S. in all of those games regardless.

The only way the math makes sense is if you want to go through the bother of selling your existing parts. Those are easily worth more than $100, but it's a fair bit of hassle and you are looking at shipping fees and ebay commissions eating into your your profits. Plus, I'm not sure if it's the case here, but microcenter's best deals require you to actually perform an in-store pickup which is added hassle, and gas costs.

If you are close-by a microcenter, those deals can be great, but there are only 28 microcenters in 18 states, and many of those are clustered pretty close together in the northeast of the U.S. There are some more southerly and westward locations, but still, you can be driving a rather long way to get to one depending on your location.

The 5700x3D was introduced just this year, so I anticipating it being relevant for at least the next full upgrade cycle[www.pcworld.com], which ought to be 6 years and by that time you ought to be looking to upgrade again regardless. The only way you would not be looking to upgrade again is if you overestimated your needs.

Zen 5 is said not to have moved the dial very much for windows gaming compared to Zen 4, so I don't even really anticipate the 9700x being too great of an upgrade.

Talking about C.P.U. upgrades right now is a bit difficult for me to figure though thanks to the whole 24H2 perf. changes. If I recall correctly, Zen 4 perf. boosts are actually proportionate to Zen 5 perf. boosts, but I'm not sure how much Alder Lake or Zen 3 moved the dial. However, with that having been said, the G.N. numbers should be the most recent figures.

Also, look, using Monster Hunter Wilds as a predictor of what system requirements might look like in 2025, the recommended settings are somewhere about a 3600x and 6700xt with an expected perf. of 1080p 60 medium with frame generation. Granted, needing frame generation to hit 60 F.P.S. is kind of upsetting, but so is Capcom's expectation for Dragon's Dogma 2 to run at 30 F.P.S. with the same hardware[www.dsogaming.com].

The recommended requirements for Alan Wake 2 are not much different than those of Dragon's Dogma or Monster Hunter Wilds. Actually a bit lower on the G.P.U. end (3700x, 6600 xt). Since the game is on R.E. engine like Resident Evil 4, I expect an Arc A770 to perform well even (possibly following optimizations). Also, you know how I wrote that the P.C. upgrade cycle is 6 years? Well, the Zen 3 processors launched in 2019, so they're five years old maybe going on six by now. You ought to be able to last another year with the hardware you've got, and your worst case scenario is that the existing prices for existing hardware wouldn't have gotten too much better because the tariffs counteracted the rate of depreciation.

It's not like you would be losing money so much as you would be losing time spent with the newer parts, but if in a year's worth of time you are thinking "I do not want to buy a new G.P.U. because everything is so expensive" like the others are suggesting, then you probably want to keep that money in hand now so you can put food on the table and not have to resell your new hardware at half cost to try and do so.

Should you upgrade? Well, probably. It is black friday and you are saying that your hardware is starting to show its age. The tariffs do also favor upgrading sooner rather than later, because price to perf. probably will not change much within the course of the next year.

What I do not want to see you doing however is making an extravagant expenditure to try and future proof against the tariffs because you were in a panic, and spending more than the upgrade is worth to you even with the tariffs. Future proofing is often a fool's game, because you can hit the point of diminishing returns quickly. Look at the wide selections of prices you are considering right now. You have mind to neither budget nor performance threshold.

I am not sure if it's wiser to upgrade or wait, but we are probably saying the 5700x3D is your best bet if you do upgrade now, and you can forget all of that other stuff.

Esp. the 7800x3D. Prices went up when A.M.D. pulled the discounts to make way for Zen 7. $600 for a 7800x3D, 32 gigs. of R.A.M. and who knows what motherboard isn't impressive to me in the least.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

buy what you need when you need it..

if you really expect usa economy to become SO much worse than it is now (I don't) but if you do. than maybe you'd be better of keeping your money for other things than spending it now on a non essential thing like a computer.
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heck you might buy silver and gold to hedge yourself or foreign currency... or stock on food and water.. you know more essential supplies..

but if you don't.. well it might be pc prices rise.. they did for us europeans when the euro dropped down from 1.35 to 1.15 dollar... in a few months and again when it dropped from 1.15 dollar to 0.95 dollar.. it now is around 1.12 dollar so while the latter dip has been corrected it still is well below what it used to be..

and even without.. just by amd scumbagging supply the 7800x3d has spiked up from 300 to 500 euro in just 3 months time..

when once a factory in the east burned off.. ram prices overnight trippled and remained insane for the next 7 years.... (only now they are starting to get back at the old levels)

so you see there are a LOT more factors that can spike up hardware prices than tarifs..
usa has the advantage that most the stuff is made in the usa (or at outsourced by brands with hq in usa)
-> this is why we in europe always pay 10% more in euro for products than usa consumers do in dollars despite an euro being worth 10-15% more...

so those tarifs should for you as an american not impact your pc prices much..
it will impact the price of other goods though.. and might spur inflation/recession.

than again it could also spur a resurection of usa production jobs... (alongside inflation due those usa made goods more expensive but still cheaper than those imported tarifs with tarifs) after all thats the whole idea behind tarifs...

make it cheaper to make it yourself.. so the production jobs return home...


trade nations like my own (the netherlands) are ofcourse much harder hit if everybody starts to add tarifs again.. and europe will be screwed anyway.. as well we have no techsector ike usa so if usa stars tarif our steel, cars and the sorts.. while we still need their technology and software.. that going to be a disaster for our economy...

there are pro's and cons for global trade..
the pro is propertional economies..

think very simplistic..
country a can make grain, meat and cars
country b can also make grain, meat and cars

but country a is more advanced..
1 labourer of country a can make thanks to their tech 10 grain, 4 meat or 0.3 cars
country b is less advance and can make per laberer only 8 grain, 2 meat or 0.1 cars

country a could impose tarifs and produce everything itself.. but is that wise? no..
lets presume that every person likes to have 1 meat per day as luxery.. first and cars second.

if the economies are split..
country a has 50% of population working making grain, 25% making meat and 25% making cars.
-> this gives all their population the 5 grain and 1 meat.. and gives 7.5% of their citycens a car to drive

nation b puts 62.5% of population on grain and the other 37.5% on meat.
this gives all it's population food, and 75% also 1 meat.. and nobody a car

now lets have them trade.. and look propertionally.
nation b spends 4 grain per 1 meat
nation a spends 2.5 grain per 1 meat
nation a can thus PROPORTIONALLY make meat more efficient.

so lets have nation b go fully producing grain.
-> this gives it a surplus of grain enough to feed 60% of nation a
**
this means nation a can suffice to put only 20% of it's labourforce on grain
it will put now 30% on making cars and 50% on meat.
it trades the surplus meat to nation a completely saturising it's meat need.
it will keep the cars for itself..

result of trade :
nation a has increased car ownership to 9% of it's people (up from 7.5%)
nation b has increased meat consumption to 100% of it's people (up from 75%)

both gain by only making what they are PROPORTIONALLY more efficient in making.. and trading that..

====
ofcourse there are downsides too.. for the more complex your tradenet.. the easier it can be disturbed.. simple machines break less easy.. the more cogs in the machine the more players and steps of trade. the quicker some event somewhere will also effect you..

than there is strategic interest.. not everybody has the same ethics as you.. how to you control that food or medicine or product you import is upto YOUR quality and safety expectations... or worse..what if you and somebody else go at war.. than tradenets can be denied or blockaded...

finally not all nations play fair.. just dumping your stuff way to cheap (denying your own people a good standard of living) and than once you killed all competition... you got them by the balls and can charge whatever you want...
+ corporations can play goverments out againsts eachother who overs the most crappy labour protection, the lowest taxrates and allows for the most polution and human explotation?

stuff like the disapearance of production jobs... which leaves usa without factories to switch to make ammo.. and without own medicine manufactoruing... is a strategic weakness..
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high unemployment could be another... (ofcourse there is always work. if wages are made low enough.. unemployment always is artificial.. but it shows that it empoverishes your nation..

tarifs usually benifit the nation that imposes them but puts the nation on the other end at a disadvantage.. the responce usually is countertarifs... and than the global trade ends and we all are worse off..
-> this is why we have moved to a more globalised world with ever lower tarifs gradually..
if usa now starts imposing tarifs again to desire short term gains... well that will give responce..
especially if those tarifs are imposed against nations that trade fair.. and not keep their currency low..
like if usa complains usa cars and steel never sold to europe while we export a ton to usa..
well thats cause usa quality in those goods is crap.
but we in turn import other stuff from usa... so it;s unfair to than impose tarifs on the goods we export.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

The United States also put Mexico and Canada on the tariff list.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

WinterSolstice původně napsal:

The United States also put Mexico and Canada on the tariff list. :csd2smile:

generally in a gentemans world.. if your tradebalance is negative (more import than export) than you can do 3 things

a improve your own productively (more value of products for same amount of labour)
b debase your currency (this makes your export propottionally cheaper while import will become more expensive)
c impose tarifs (this will make import more expensive, making local goods more competitive within your own market)

a is hard to do.. (but best)
b is what china does.. and worst effective but will also hurt your peoples purchasing power -> it spikes inflation.
c is the quick and easy solution.. but the downside is that it usually willl mean than that other nation that just lost export to you.. will impose tarifs for what you sell to them.. and than bit by bit you are cut off from ALL trade with others.. which makes everybody poorer..

tarifs are kind of the nucleair option you use when your a 3d world country with no way to improve your own productivity... and without the political power/will to debase your currency..
but you should not use that option against nations that your have an more or less equal trade balance with.. (as in.. if you export 90% or more.. to them.. of the value they import to you.)

the only thing you can use tarifs for.. (though a total ban often works better) is strategic reasons.. still like medicine production you might want to have in your own nation even if that lowers your economic strenght.. they are to vital.. to risk not having due fragile trade lanes..
-> for the same reason usa might want to stop importing stuff from china.. and impose tarifs on them.. as china is an potential future enemy.,. you not want to enrich them.. even if returning to usa made goods will made usa people having a lower living standard...


but imposing tarifs on allied nations like canada and eu? makes no sence and is dumb populist move..

[Nikonos]

Rumpelcrutchskin původně napsal:

Golden Unicorn původně napsal:

the major option is just don't buy china or mexico, usa goods will be better quality and cheaper.

everyone in a panic from the democrats buy from china policy. If we are gonna fix America we need to make American goods great again.

You realize that USA doesn`t even manufacture huge chunk of the goods and has it all outsourced to other countries. Do you think that all those fully equipped factories with qualified workers will just miraculously appear in US at wave of Trump`s magic wand?

Perhaps Elon Musk will look into it.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

Nikonos původně napsal:

Rumpelcrutchskin původně napsal:

You realize that USA doesn`t even manufacture huge chunk of the goods and has it all outsourced to other countries. Do you think that all those fully equipped factories with qualified workers will just miraculously appear in US at wave of Trump`s magic wand?

Perhaps Elon Musk will look into it.

can usa get their steelmills, back. yes..
can usa get their medicine production (at least for simple medication) back yes
can usa force americans to use their american made useless bricks of cars over much better european cars.. by making imported cars all be over 100k... yes
can usa get more own chipmaking... possibly.. intel is a mess now... but with infinite subsidy all is possible. but usa is hardly giving them a blanc cheque so it may yet fail..
can usa produce more of the clothing, tools , glasware, aka all the garbadge consumer goods now imported from china itself.. yes..

it will ofcourse mean all those goods go vastly up in price.. lowering the standard of living for all americans... and piss of quite the number of trade partners who will impose their own tarifs on american goods.. meaning usa export will get hurt loosing potentially more jobs than are returned home..

there are more complex goods that usa will struggle more in making itself.. on short term.. but I don't see how usa cannot make those too themselves with 20 years investment... and education...

but usa unlike us european nation is large enough to go isolationist again if it wanted.. (but it would cost a lot of the standard of living americans have gotten used to)

[The 3 Whites]

i would take the 9700x combo for 430$.
its a 50% performance boost in single and multi core.
https://technical.city/en/cpu/Ryzen-7-3700X-vs-Ryzen-7-9700X

am6 comes maybe 2026. do you really want wait so long....

[Guydodge]

there will be no tariffs no country will risk it.it would cause economic disaster.
as far as cpu goes they are so far ahead of gpu any top tier cpu will yield
pretty much the exact same result especially if your running 4k

[De Hollandse Ezel]

Guydodge původně napsal:

there will be no tariffs no country will risk it.it would cause economic disaster.
as far as cpu goes they are so far ahead of gpu any top tier cpu will yield
pretty much the exact same result especially if your running 4k

well if usa massively screws eu over with tarifs.. they will retaliate back...
as they did in the past... when usa stacked tarifs on eu cars.. we stacked tarifs on us steel...

tit for tat...
nobody gets better from a tarif war..
but having tarifs used against you and not kicking back.. sets an even worse precedent..
usually nations negociate... if you stop that tarif than I stop that one...
basicly dropping your gun together.... both not wanting to be the first to disarm...

usa imposing tarifs is like it pulling a gun on others to feel secure... well others will respond similair to not feel treatened and the end result is only a lot worse situation for all..

[Wichtelman]

upgrade now

[76561199559798421]

price of your american standard toilet made in mexico, might be going up a whole 15 dollars more.

[The 3 Whites]

>when usa stacked tarifs on eu cars.. we stacked tarifs on us steel...

what is retarded from eu. as best case you can import cheap resources and sell high price luxury goods as country. like switzerland high price luxury clocks. import resources for 100$ and sell them as product for 100000$.
beside that i think eu has more trade restriction than usa anyways even with trump.
its all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ talk from media. like remember "its so bad for england to leave eu", when in reality they was highest payer and safe now billions. or russia runs out of ammo starting since 2 years. its literal all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ talk from propaganda media.

like world stops turning when trump become president and ww3. its all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ media talk. like trump was allready 4 year president and nothing happen. in fact he ensured peace while hillary had made big war in syria 100%. Or all the musk bashing. media owners dont want independent persons that they cant bribe. they want pedo puppets that they can control to feed their wars.

[Guydodge]

De Hollandse Ezel původně napsal:

Guydodge původně napsal:

there will be no tariffs no country will risk it.it would cause economic disaster.
as far as cpu goes they are so far ahead of gpu any top tier cpu will yield
pretty much the exact same result especially if your running 4k

well if usa massively screws eu over with tarifs.. they will retaliate back...
as they did in the past... when usa stacked tarifs on eu cars.. we stacked tarifs on us steel...

tit for tat...
nobody gets better from a tarif war..
but having tarifs used against you and not kicking back.. sets an even worse precedent..
usually nations negociate... if you stop that tarif than I stop that one...
basicly dropping your gun together.... both not wanting to be the first to disarm...

usa imposing tarifs is like it pulling a gun on others to feel secure... well others will respond similair to not feel treatened and the end result is only a lot worse situation for all..

all you did was make my point no tariffs and even if they did happen USA can easily weather the storm.it will take at least a year before we recover from bidenomics so bring it on we are ready !!! drill baby drill

[Wampum Biskit]

Golden Unicorn původně napsal:

the major option is just don't buy china or mexico, usa goods will be better quality and cheaper.

everyone in a panic from the democrats buy from china policy. If we are gonna fix America we need to make American goods great again.

this is the dead mindset that got us to this in the first place , most of you can't even think "big picture" and see ALL that would be involved with "made in usa" or to even make that happen.

In simple terms we CANNOT make everything in the US , besides the logistical issues , there are not enough people in the US to be employed to manufacture everything in the US in the qty we would need to be self sufficient.

you will soon find out everything in the grocery store is going to go up , 2/3 of our tomatoes comes from mexico , do you have any idea how many products are made with tomatoes in them ? that's all going to go up too , again it's a domino effect , thinking otherwise would be being very shortsighted.

[Guydodge]

Wampum Biskit původně napsal:

Golden Unicorn původně napsal:

the major option is just don't buy china or mexico, usa goods will be better quality and cheaper.

everyone in a panic from the democrats buy from china policy. If we are gonna fix America we need to make American goods great again.

this is the dead mindset that got us to this in the first place , most of you can't even think "big picture" and see ALL that would be involved with "made in usa" or to even make that happen.

In simple terms we CANNOT make everything in the US , besides the logistical issues , there are not enough people in the US to be employed to manufacture everything in the US in the qty we would need to be self sufficient.

you will soon find out everything in the grocery store is going to go up , 2/3 of our tomatoes comes from mexico , do you have any idea how many products are made with tomatoes in them ? that's all going to go up too , again it's a domino effect , thinking otherwise would be being very shortsighted.

lol..you are missing the point none of it will happen mexico would collapse without the US buying there products.seems their is some short shortsightedness here.US is the no.1 consumers.and have you bought tomatoes news flash they are already stupid high now
from bidenomics like i said in 1 year it will all flip back drill baby drill