PC build - which of these CPU/GPU combos?

[myxal]

Hi all.

Trying to decide between several combinations. Which of these would you pick for playing ONI, and what are performance deltas between them?

• Ryzen 7 9800X3D, no discrete GPU (no, I don't care about 3D-heavy games)
• same Ryzen 7, Radeon RX 7600 8GB
• Ryzen 5 9600X + RX 9060 XT 16GB
• same Ryzen 5 with the low-end GPU

Aspects to consider: ONI performance, longevity (older hardware has earlier EOL), power consumption (even idling, discrete GPU aren't as efficient as integrated ones).

I'm tempted to go for the X3D with "any" discrete graphics - my thinking is, using  the integrated graphics cuts into the memory bandwidth budget. What do you think?

[Orzelek]

I can tell you that built in AMD GPU willl not work with ONI. My GPU died and I tried built in one (from 9950X3D) and it had low fps up from the start. (Like 15 or so).

[myxal]

1 hour ago, Orzelek said:

I can tell you that built in AMD GPU willl not work with ONI. My GPU died and I tried built in one (from 9950X3D) and it had low fps up from the start. (Like 15 or so).

Dang, seriously?  

Windows or Linux?

[Kderosa]

Been running a 

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 

AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT

32 GB RAM

TEAM T253X7004T (SSD)

for years and have no problem running ONI at high resolutions with no to little lag throughout the game.

[SackMaggie]

I grabbed 9950x for $434 from recent amazon prime, still waiting for shipping...
Maybe wait for next prime day or black friday for decent discount, Based on rumors new ryzen will release too.

3 hours ago, myxal said:

I'm tempted to go for the X3D with "any" discrete graphics - my thinking is, using  the integrated graphics cuts into the memory bandwidth budget. What do you think?

Grab the good old gtx1660 (used) it is enough to run oni.

[SGT_Imalas]

1 hour ago, SackMaggie said:

Grab the good old gtx1660 (used) it is enough to run oni.

seconding that.

CPU is always the fps limiter, a 9800X3D is the best cpu on the market rn for playing oni

[myxal]

Thanks, I do need the reminder that used parts market exists... no love for the green team though (linux-only PC).

Maybe something from between RX 6400 - 6600, sound good?

[gigamoi]

I second what others said here. 9800X3D is the best CPU for ONI at the time of writing. Don't cheap out on RAM speed. Get any discrete GPU you can lay your hands on (but prefer AMD if running linux), and that's it. You have the best ONI rig worth buying.

The game is very sensitive to single core speed and memory bandwidth but the graphics can run on a potato. That's pretty much all there is to know.

[Charletrom]

For those with an x3D chip, have you experienced a perf bump from faster RAM latency? I’m assuming that most people with a newer x3D CPU are running ~DDR5-6000, but I’m curious if CAS latency matters (eg CL30 vs CL36) as much for these CPUs compared to chips without the benefit of so much cache

[gigamoi]

1 hour ago, Charletrom said:

For those with an x3D chip, have you experienced a perf bump from faster RAM latency? I’m assuming that most people with a newer x3D CPU are running ~DDR5-6000, but I’m curious if CAS latency matters (eg CL30 vs CL36) as much for these CPUs compared to chips without the benefit of so much cache

I don't have any hard data on this topic but, even thought x3D chips large cache greatly improve performance, the game's memory footprint is still far larger than cache size so frequent RAM access are still to be expected, even if they are less frequent with a big cache. Therefore good memory (high speed, low latency) is just as important IMO.

[blakemw]

Frankly these days any modern CPU with modern RAM will do pretty well, like even an Intel i3 14100F will give very satisfactory performance (so long as it's not in a laptop). But definitely an AMD X3D is the premium option. I wouldn't insist upon a 9800 X3D, where I am a 7800 X3D is quite a bit cheaper (though I know markets can vary a lot). 7800 X3D is also a lot more power efficient. We are largely entering overkill territory here so I wouldn't worry too much about optimizing the memory, as long as you take advantage of dual channel. For ONI you probably don't benefit from more than 16 GB of memory, from what I can tell it's engineered to fit in 8 GB but you also have the OS and stuff.

I'd second the sentiment of not using integrated graphics, just because it works doesn't mean it works well. But it probably doesn't matter what dedicated GPU you use, but honestly, get one with 8 GB of ram, ONI itself doesn't need this, as far as I can tell ONI is designed to fit in 2 GB of VRAM, but like other non-3D heavy simulation games (like Factorio) can expect more VRAM these days. Though if have something with 4 GB laying around, it'd probably be fine.

Edited July 16, 2025 by blakemw

[SGT_Imalas]

28 minutes ago, blakemw said:

For ONI you probably don't benefit from more than 16 GB of memory,

my 21gb ram world disagrees

[Saturnus]

1 hour ago, SGT_Imalas said:

my 21gb ram world disagrees

I agree. Especially if you're playing 1000+ cycle maps 16gb just isn't enough. Get at least 32GB if you're building a new system. The price difference is minimal.

My system with 5800x3d and 64gb still runs just fine. Recently added a 9060xt 16gb as well so the fps now maxes out the 240hz of my monitor using fsr4 "fake frames".

6 hours ago, gigamoi said:

Therefore good memory (high speed, low latency) is just as important IMO.

If you have an x3d cpu ram, ram speed and latency makes very little difference. It's really absurd how much difference the larger cache makes for ONI (and other sim games).

Edited July 16, 2025 by Saturnus

[gigamoi]

3 hours ago, blakemw said:

For ONI you probably don't benefit from more than 16 GB of memory

I will have to agree with what the others said on that one. While it may sometimes fit into 16Gb of RAM even in late game if you are careful about what runs on your machine while you play, the margin is small and very easy to fill. I would advise 32Gb.

1 hour ago, Saturnus said:

If you have an x3d cpu ram, ram speed and latency makes very little difference.

I'd be happy to see hard data on the topic (with ONI measurements specifically) if you have some. As I said, I don't have any so I just have my educated guesses to work with here.

[GOLD875379]

In other words, ONI depends on a good system memory structure (CPU with 3D V-Cache (X3D), a good RAM kit (16GB-32GB, preferably DDR5), preferably an NVME PCIe 4.0 SSD, etc.).

GPU-wise, it's not very GPU-intensive and doesn't require high-end hardware, though 8GB or more VRAM would be sufficient to run smoothly. With technologies like frame generation worked perfectly, adding fluidity.

It doesn't seem like the game's simulation benefits from a CPU with a large number of cores, so a 9950X3D would be unnecessary, while a 9800X3D, 7800X3D, or even a 5600X3D would work perfectly, even for colonies with 1,000+ cycles.

[SackMaggie]

1 hour ago, GOLD875379 said:

It doesn't seem like the game's simulation benefits from a CPU with a large number of cores, so a 9950X3D would be unnecessary, while a 9800X3D, 7800X3D, or even a 5600X3D would work perfectly, even for colonies with 1,000+ cycles.

It's not just more core, but single thread perf paired with lots of cache make a different.
As for ram CL28 at 6000 is easy to find, just don't fall for CL48 cheap ram trap.

[Gurgel]

9800X3D with or without additional GPU. Best value for money when gaming.

[Saturnus]

12 hours ago, gigamoi said:

I'd be happy to see hard data on the topic (with ONI measurements specifically) if you have some. As I said, I don't have any so I just have my educated guesses to work with here.

The closest we come to a widely accepted benchmark reasonably applicable to ONI is the Factorio cpu benchmark. The difference on that between a 5800x and 5800x3d where the cpu is the only difference is 51% faster benchmark completion with the x3d version.

Edited July 16, 2025 by Saturnus

[blakemw]

17 hours ago, Saturnus said:

Factorio cpu benchmark

Here's a couple links to filtered results (recent versions of Factorio): 

Big base: https://factoriobox.1au.us/results/cpus?map=4c5f65003d84370f16d6950f639be1d6f92984f24c0240de6335d3e161705504&vl=2.0.7&vh=2.0.60

For that map no CPU struggles to get 60 ups unless it's ridiculously weak.

Mega Base: https://factoriobox.1au.us/results/cpus?map=9927606ff6aae3bb0943105e5738a05382d79f36f221ca8ef1c45ba72be8620b&vl=2.0.7&vh=

For the mega base only the very strongest CPUs can hit 60 ups.

 

An interesting thing to note about X3D cpus is they truly excel at achieving high frame rates which is why the FPS gamers love them. Comparing for example a 9800X3D with a 7700X, in the "big base" case you get 2.5x the ups, while in the "mega base case" you get only 1.8x the ups. It is generally recognized that for high fps, the X3D cpus are truly unrivalled. But for processing grunt in a bogged down simulation they aren't as impressive (though still good). In the bogged down case, the 5800X is actually neck in neck with the 5800X3D despite being much cheaper (and there are also Intel offerings which are equally performant at a similar price point).

This is not a product recommendation, mostly a warning about extrapolating from how fast it can do a frame, to how much it can do per frame. A 7800X3D or 9800X3D truly is the best that money can buy, though the high end Intels are competitive in both raw power and value for money (and also excel as heaters), 3XD cpus have an inflated price because FPS gamers love them, meanwhile intel CPUs have come down in price a lot. But you can get nearly as much performance out of considerably cheaper CPUs if you aren't aiming for really high frame rates, and any of the lower end X3Ds are a bit dubious if you aren't specifically after high fps. I suspect that once "too much" memory has to be moved for each frame the large cache of the X3D matters less and overall memory bandwidth becomes more important, it could also be considered that a bogged down simulation approaches more of a "productivity use case" than typical gaming (here a productivity use case, means when some part of the system is maxed out, like when encoding video or compiling code, there's unlimited work to feed the CPU until the work is done, in the "fps gaming" case the CPU just has to feed data to the GPU as quickly as it can render frames).

There's also a HUGE spread in ups numbers for all CPUs, with the fastest being often 2x the slowest for the exact same CPU. This probably has to do with overclocking, GPU (which does have some impact) and the overall speed of the memory.

 

 

Edited July 17, 2025 by blakemw

[myxal]

Thank you everyone for the advice and insight. I've gone with 9800X3D + 2nd-hand RX 6600 (HW AV1 decode, yaay).