JasonR86

@justin258:

Thanks! I don't believe it does and I have been obsessively checking the temperatures of everything and that drive never got over 40 degrees Celsius, even under load. I may have just bought a lemon.

I’ve been talking about building a PC forever. Before the PS4 came out. I even created a wish list on Newegg with all the stuff I was going to buy for that PC. Multiple lists, because invariably whatever list I’d made would have been out of date by the time I had the inclination to buy the parts. So, finally, in 2020 I decided to buy those parts and build that PC. My first PC build ever.

A good question to ask, then, is why would you spend money on a PC build during a global pandemic? I have a few good reasons. One, my job is doing quite well because it is apparently pandemic resistant. I’m a mental health therapist and moved to working remotely going back to the start of March 2019. My client attendance is high because teleconferencing is convenient and insurance companies have adapted their payment methods to support remote therapy. Plus, I’m not going anywhere so I’m barely spending money any other way aside from this build. Also, I’m an idiot.

So, I bought nearly all the parts from Newegg, aside from a CPU cooler and GPU (we’ll get to the GPU in a second). Here’s what I got:

Ryzen 9 3900XT

RTX 3070

Patriot Viper Gaming VP4100 M.2 1 TB NVME Drive

Western Digital Black SN750 M.2 1 TB NVME Drive

G.Skill TridenZ RGB Series 32 GB DDR4 3200 Memory

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G3 Fully Modular 850W Power Supply

MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Motherboard

Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Midtower Case

Noctua NH-U12S 120mm CPU Cooler

The new Xbox Series controller and a USB Bluetooth receiver

Let’s talk about that 3070. As I’m sure you all know, getting a 30 series card is like finding a needle in a haystack. Unless you pay a scalper. So, I could have either waited or try my luck on Ebay, which I’d never bought anything more than $100 on Ebay. Since I’d bought everything else, I was pot committed to see the build through and had little patience and money to spare. So, I went to Ebay. I got the Gigabyte OC model which already sells about $50-100 over the MSRP of the base, reference 3070 model, which goes for $500. But, well, I paid a bit more than $550-600. It came to around $800. Which is a lot. Too much. But I was willing to take the hit for the reasons I mentioned. And, again, I’m an idiot.

Eventually, all the parts came in and I was ready to start my build. I’d watched videos online, making me basically an expert, so I was ready to go. It was all going great till I got the CPU. See, originally, I had planned to get the 3900X but saw that the XT, which is a bit faster, was on sale. So, I bought it, but it turns out the XT model doesn’t come with a fan like the X model. Which I wasn’t aware of until I opened the box. Leading me then to Amazon to get that CPU cooler and pausing the build a few days. Then the cooler came in, and the mounting brackets didn’t fit my motherboard as expected. But I’m stubborn, so I tried a good dozen different ways to mount the cooler in unique ways using hardware I had all around the house and the extra hardware from the other computer parts. Eventually, I found a way to mount the cooler. Then came wiring everything. Which I messed up. Not once, twice, three times, but an uncountable number of times. Did I mention I’m stubborn? That comes into play here. So, I thought I’d wired everything properly until I plugged the tower in. But then, it didn’t turn on. Repeatedly I tried but it didn’t turn on. Turns out, I should have read the motherboard instructions to see what I was plugging in. After being a smart guy and reading the instructions, the tower turned on.

I forgot to mention, but I also bought a Windows 10 Home USB stick from Newegg to install Windows. Which also caused some difficulty. So, at some point in the installation, you are asked to pick either an express installation or a custom installation. Express didn’t work for me; I’m assuming because I had two drives and it didn’t know what drive to install. After three or so times of trying the express install, I went to the custom install, picked the drive I wanted, and then it all went off without a hitch.

Except that the Bluetooth receiver I had for my mouse and keyboard and my new controller couldn’t connect with the mouse, keyboard, and controller through my entertainment center to my couch (I have my tower behind my entertainment center and my couch is about 8 feet away). So, I had to buy extenders from my USB ports and run them through my entertainment center so I could have a direct connection with the devices.

Then, finally, everything worked. For a month, then the Patriot NVME drive died, suddenly. So, I got a refund from Newegg, bought the Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB NVME drive, and reinstalled everything because the drive that died was my boot drive and reinstalling windows formatted my other drive (luckily all my game saves were in the cloud). Now, I think we’re all good (unless a month from now the Samsung drive dies).

In terms of game performance, it’s amazing. Cyberpunk runs great. Everything else runs perfectly. The computer is fast. Videos look great through my TV. It’s all a great experience following the initial hassle and the whole NVME drive dying part. When it works, and 99% of the time after the build it works, it works amazingly. What I’d suggest for those that do plan to build a PC is that if you are planning on getting a high-end PC, but not the top of the tier PC (like getting a 3090 for example), expect to pay more than you thought you would. Also buy the parts over time. And read instructions, have more patience than me, and plan for bits to go wrong, like my Bluetooth kerfuffle. But I’d also say the build was completely worth it.

@frytup:

Ahhh, ok. I hadn't heard that. Thanks for the information.

I'm curious if anyone else is having a problem I'm having. So I'm playing the Steam version on a pretty powerful PC. I have a Ryzen 9 3900XT CPU, RTX 3700, 32 GB of DDR4, and am running the game off of a fast NVME drive. Using Digital Foundry's recommended settings, at 1440p with DLSS, I'm mostly getting 60 FPS with exceptions (some areas in the city I can get drops to the 50's).

But, after about an hour of playing or so, the game just sort of falls apart. The framerate will drop to the 40's at points, I'll notice more glitches, the textures will have some trouble loading in, the game itself will literally lurch and stutter beyond normal framerate drops. It's a mess. When I turn off the game and come back to it after a bit of time, like a half hour, it'll work as it did before; 60 FPS 90% of the time. But if I come back to it immediately following a restart, I'll have the same problems. It's so bizarre. It feels like an issue with memory, but I only notice it with this game. Considering the problems with this game, I'm guessing it's a problem unique to this game. Anyone else have a similar issue?

I'm enjoying it more and more as I play. I'm about 20 hours in now. I really liked Act 1, despite some gripes, but didn't really like the start of Act 2, in part because I played some side missions I didn't like. But I've been on a string of missions, side and main, that I really like. And some of the gigs are fun for just mindless action. The action itself feels pretty good now that I have more abilities and better equipment. I'm also enjoying the writing more as well, again despite gripes. I suppose that's the thing; there is a lot to gripe about. But the number of gripes I have, right now, hasn't overwhelmed what I'm enjoying.

@humanity: That's the cab part that made me want to die. Also, the cab that talked about how therapist don't like cars because they don't have Mothers and V mentioning that the car needs to take like 'one revolution at a time.' Also the car that was freaked out by pink, ornamental yard flamingos and so the goal was to destroy 10 of them in a cul-de-sac that conveniently every single house had like 4 of those flamingos in their yards. I swear, the cab side quest may be the worst side quest I've ever experienced in a game.

I'm near the beginning of Act 2, after about 13-14 hours on the PC. First things first, the recent patch has helped with some of the bugs on PC. The last experience I had with the game, about 45-60 minutes, was the first time I'd ever played the game without it having some sort of a bug. That's good.

The first act, even though it was pretty open ended and maybe a bit directionless, I thought was really good. The story had its moments, the gameplay was pretty solid, Jackie was fun, and it did a good job of introducing the world and the set up for the rest of the story. Also that late title card was great. Keanu was also fun. He's still not the best actor out there, but he has a charisma that carries through into his voice acting, which I liked.

In Act 2, the main story is still interesting enough, so far. I've mostly focused on interacting with Judy. The moments have been solid, the gameplay is still similar to what it was in Act 1 but that's ok, so far (ask me after hour 30 or 40 though and I may not feel the same way). But boy the side missions. So what Jeff mentioned happened to me as well. Suddenly, all of the side characters in the entire world of the game seemed to contact me all at once. V's phone was blowing up for a long ass time with people I'd never met before, introducing themselves, and half the time giving me some mission (usually involving the acquisition of a vehicle, which I don't care to acquire). The side mission involving Jackie's family was touching, if maybe a bit goofy. But then I did the mission with the cabs and I wanted to die. So yeah, really hit or miss both in the writing and in what you are actually doing.

Overall, I'm enjoying the game well enough but it absolutely doesn't live up to the hype. I didn't personally buy into the hype, but I was very curious. But even my curiosity isn't really being met. I think Vinny put it best, the entire experience top to bottom is a mile wide but an inch deep.

A little bit. It's weird. Having watched Danny's NoClip documentary on GOG (I didn't watch the one on the Witcher) I really appreciate what that company does. GOG is a part of CDPR, but they aren't the same company, right? I doubt GOG had any involvement in Cyberpunk aside from some marketing on their site. But, the two are linked in my mind. And as such, I still really like GOG's take on distribution and their commitment to making older games playable on new computers.

CDPR, though, is a bit different. I liked the Witcher 2 and 3, but not nearly as much as others. Especially 3, which was really buggy for me (more so than even what others were experiencing when it launched on PS4). That said, I've always appreciated their ambition and there have always been aspects about their games that I like a great deal. Enough that I've wanted to play through them, despite complaints. Right now, I'm feeling the same way about Cyberpunk, which I'm playing on a high end PC so I should presumably have the best experience out there at the moment.

What has changed for me is my impression of their management, their marketing, and my own issues with crunch. It really does feel like the management around the game, from game director to producer, marketing management to the corporate at CDPR. All of them failed the game, the average developer working on the game, and misled the press and their audience. It all feels sleazy and gross to me, like they are ambitious developers run by snake oil salesmen.

@efesell:

Nudity on its own isn’t childish to me. The way I had assumed it would be used in this game was the childish part. I mean, let’s be real, as much as I appreciated the montage after the introduction, based on the tone set in that montage do you really think they would do something meaningful with the size of your character’s dick?

I’m on a Ryzen 3900XT, 3070, and have the game I staled on a pretty fast NVME. I’m getting 60 FPS, for the most part, with everything on the highest setting except the two ‘Psycho’ options, at 1440p with DLSS performance.