Hey guys, I'm a long time reader of Anandtech (back when Anand used to write the articles himself!) but never got around to making a forum account until today.
As my username might suggest, I'm a bang for buck kind of gamer, so I generally prefer to stay a bit behind the bleeding edge and get reasonably priced hardware that still runs games well.
With GPU and RAM prices being what they are, I've held off building anything the past few months hoping supply issues would sort itself out... well, a quick look at GPU and RAM prices at most PC parts sites would suggest otherwise.
Anyhow, with no end in sight it seems to the inflated GPU and RAM prices, I've decided to bite the bullet and just build the best gaming PC I can for my budget, which I've set at $400 USD, though this isn't a hard budget limit and I'm open to exceeding it slightly, within reason. I am re-using my old Coolermaster case, PSU, SSD and 24" Samsung 1080P monitor, so pretty much only need a CPU, motherboard, RAM and GPU to get up and running.
My initial research, based on various tech site and YouTube reviews, was to opt for an Intel G4560 paired with a GTX 1050, which seemed to be a good combo for 1080P gaming, for shown in this video by JayzTwoCents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoqO-JkmlnQ
The G4560, being a dual core CPU, does seem a bit weak but according to that video, runs games as well if not better than a Ryzen 3 1200, for a lower price.
I was pretty much set on the G4560 / GTX 1050 based build until I found out about the recently launched Ryzen 2200G and 2400G CPUs with integrated Vega graphics. I have to admit that the graphics power of the integrated Vega GPUs surprised me, my previous experiences with integrated graphics is that they pretty much suck when it comes to actual 3D gaming. However with the 2400G basically matching a GT 1030 GPU in most games, and the 2200G only a bit behind that, it got me thinking whether the G4560 and GTX 1050 is still the best approach?
I'm leaning towards the G4560 / GTX 1050 build because the GPU is still a lot faster than the integrated Vega GPUs, but the G4560 being a dual core will probably start struggling in future games sooner than the quad core AMD CPUs will.
I've priced out my potential builds on Amazon and the cart price comes down to this:
Pentium G4560: $67
MSI B250 Pro VDH: $65
Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR4-2400: $102
Gigabyte GTX1050 2GB: $135
Total: $369
Ryzen 2200G: $99 OR Ryzen 2400G: $169
MSI B350 Tomahawk: $80
Corsair LPX 2x4GB DDR4-3200: $116
Total: $295 for 2200G or $365 for 2400G
Another option is to add a GTX 1050 to the 2200G build, but that would push the total to $430, a bit more than what I had in mind budget wise, but I'm thinking it may run future titles better than the G4560 due to better multi-threading ability?
Sorry for the long winded post by the way, in case that was too much to read:
TLDR: For a budget gaming build, would you recommend a Pentium G4560 plus GTX 1050 or the new Ryzen 2200G / 2400G CPUs?
Thanks in advance