Hi, I need help building a gaming pc. I want to get a Ryzen 7 9850X3D and a NVIDIA 5080. Any recommendations on continuing the build from here?
Before recommending the rest of the build, I’d ask a few questions:
The most important: What is your budget?
What will the PC primarily be used for?
- Pure gaming
- Gaming + streaming
- Video editing/content creation
- Unreal Engine development
- 3D modeling/rendering
- AI workloads
- A mix of several of these
If you say editing/content creation
How often do you do productivity work?
- Mostly gaming with occasional editing, streaming, or content creation
- Regular productivity work alongside gaming
- Professional or near-daily productivity workloads
There’s a big difference between someone who edits a few videos a month and someone spending hours every day in Premiere, Blender, Unreal Engine, CAD, or AI tools.
This helps determine whether the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the best fit or if another CPU might better suit your workload.
How much memory do you think you’ll need?
- 32GB is still the sweet spot for most gaming systems.
- 64GB may be worthwhile if you’re working in Unreal Engine, running virtual machines, editing large video projects, using AI tools, or doing other memory-intensive tasks.
What kind of aesthetic are you after?
- Black build
- White build
- Minimalist/no RGB
- RGB-heavy showcase build
- Aquarium-style case
- Something unique like a Thermaltake Tower series build
Are you building for maximum value, or are you aiming for a premium no-compromise system?
Once we know the intended use, memory requirements, and overall style you’re after, it becomes much easier to recommend the right motherboard, cooler, power supply, storage, and case around the 9850X3D and RTX 5080.
Hi, I’m going to try keep this pc around 3-4k. I’m going to use this pc for gaming and I think I’ll need 32 gb. I also am trying to go for a black build with rgb. I’m going to build want to build with parts that are the best value that fits in my budget.
This is a little long but I got quite a bit to say. if you have any questions later just ask and I’ll elaborate a little more.
I put together three different builds based on your budget and what you said you’re looking for. Cases are a very personal choice, so I intentionally used different aesthetics and price points rather than trying to force one style. Feel free to mix and match components or swap cases—the goal was to show three different approaches to a high-end gaming build.
Build 1 – Maximum Performance (~$3100+)
Ryzen 9 9850X3D + RTX 5080
If your goal is simply to build the biggest and fastest gaming PC possible and you don’t mind paying a premium for the last bit of performance, this is the build. Premium components throughout and an absolute monster of a gaming system.
Build 2 – NVIDIA Value (~$2660)
Ryzen 7 9800X3D + RTX 5070 Ti
This keeps all the NVIDIA features (DLSS, NVENC, CUDA, etc.) while saving a substantial amount of money. The 9800X3D is still one of the best gaming CPUs available, and the 5070 Ti remains a very capable 16GB card.
Build 3 – Maximum Gaming Value (~$2470)
Ryzen 7 9800X3D + RX 9070 XT
If your primary focus is gaming and getting the most performance for your dollar, this is the build I’d personally lean toward. You still get a top-tier X3D gaming CPU, quality supporting components, and a very high-end GPU while saving hundreds of dollars.
My Thoughts
The Ryzen 9 9850X3D and RTX 5080 are both excellent pieces of hardware, but I don’t think they’re currently the biggest bang for the buck. While I personally believe the X3D chips are definitely worth the money for gaming machines these two components really don’t deliver on what they’re asking for $$. Especially the 5080 it’s really overpriced for what it is. Now If it had 20GB or 24GB of VRAM, I think the premium would be much easier to justify from both a longevity and content-creation perspective.
On the CPU side, the 9800X3D is already one of the fastest gaming CPUs available, and depending on the title the difference between it and the 9850X3D is often only a few percent while costing more
I have a similar opinion of the GPU. The RTX 5080 is an outstanding card, but in many gaming benchmarks it is only around 10–15% faster than the RTX 5070 Ti while costing roughly $340 more in these builds ($1319 vs. $980). Both cards also ship with 16GB of VRAM, so you’re paying a significant premium for relatively modest gaming gains.
Looking at AMD, the RX 9070 XT comes in roughly $530 less than the RTX 5080 in my configuration ($790 vs. $1320) while still delivering enthusiast-level gaming performance and the same 16GB of VRAM.
None of this makes the 9850X3D or RTX 5080 bad products—they’re fantastic. I just think they’re aimed at buyers who want the absolute fastest hardware available regardless of price.
If your philosophy is:
“I want the biggest, fastest gaming PC I can build and I don’t mind paying for it,”
then Build 1 is absolutely the right choice.
If your philosophy is:
“I want the best overall value while still building a premium gaming PC,”
then I think Build 2 and especially Build 3 deserve a serious look.
At the end of the day, there really isn’t a bad choice here. All three are enthusiast-level systems that will provide an outstanding gaming experience. The biggest question is simply whether the extra $245 on the CPU and $340–530 on the GPU are worth it to you, or whether you’d rather put that money toward a better monitor, peripherals, future upgrades, or simply keep it in your pocket.
That’s the great thing about building your own PC—there’s no single “correct” answer, just the build that best matches your priorities.
V1
$3147
V2
$2662
V3
$2472
One final note: I did not spend time hunting for flash sales, combo deals, New Egg bundles, open-box specials, or promo codes. There are almost always opportunities to shave another $100–300 off a build if you’re willing to shop around. My focus here was on selecting solid, reliable components that I would personally feel comfortable recommending.
Thank you for your help!