Photo: EA
This Christmas, I gifted myself a gaming PC. It's "the bee's knees," so to speak, but more on the specs later. Generally, I'm a console player, but now that I have this behemoth, I decided to "move" all of my games there. I was really excited to play NFS Unbound on PC with everything turned up to the max, but lo and behold, I have to start it again from scratch.
Before getting to the nitty-gritty of it all, here's something for all of you "PC Master Race" tech heads out there. Maybe my picks will help someone decide what to buy or what to upgrade to.
First of all, I locked in the graphics card because the model I wanted could have gone fast off the shelves. I picked the Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom (non-GS). For no other reason other than it was the cheapest 4080 on the market. A 4090 would have cost me at least another $1,000, and while I still drool and dream of owning one, the price difference was simply out of my league.
Now, while I haven't been able to find any video reviews of this non-GS version of the Gainward Phantom 4080, from the dozens of comments I did find, I didn't read one bad thing about it. A coil whine sound was reported in some cases, but they were few and far between.
Of course, there are more powerful but also more expensive 4080s out there, like the Gigabyte AORUS or Asus ROG Strix versions. However, at the end of the day, any 4080 is still one of the top-performing graphics cards in the world.
Some of you might wonder why didn't I go for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Well, initially, I did. I even ordered one, and it arrived at my doorstep. But half an hour before that happened, by some freak occurrence, I looked up the prices for the 4080, and it turned out that a day after the 7900 XTX hit the market, the prices for the Palit (non-O.C.) and Gainward (non-GS) versions dropped significantly. For me, that was a $100 no-brainer price difference between Nvidia and AMD.
Another reason is that the 4080 has DLSS 3.0 and can basically run anything with ray tracing better by 10-15 fps than the 7900 XTX. Also, I need the best in the business for editing, and from the reviews I've seen so far in Adobe Premiere Pro, the 4080 wins again by as much as 17% extra performance.
For the CPU, I went with the Intel i9-13900K, even though it's the last generation to ever come out for the LGA 1700 platform. I compared it to the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and I thought the former would best suit my needs. Also, I never had anything more powerful than an i5 4th Gen, so rocking the most powerful gaming processor Intel ever made checked all the inner child boxes for me.
To try and keep those temps under control, I went with the Noctua NH-D15 cooler. I avoided liquid cooling because I simply never had to deal with that stuff, and I prefer to stay in my own lane of knowledge. Next, I got the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard simply because it was the most competitive in its price range. For storage, I slapped on a couple of 1TB WD Black SN850X NVMe SSDs.
Then, I went with the Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 6000MHz CL36 Dual Channel Kit because I couldn't find the G.Skill Trident I really wanted anywhere in stock. But hey, Patriot is an ok American brand, and I can always upgrade. For the PSU I got the "be quiet!" Dark Power 12, 80+ Titanium at 1000W, which is more than enough for the i9 and 4080.
When you're building a PC of this magnitude, the motherboard and PSU must be exquisite; otherwise, you can ruin the entire thing. You're not gonna save a lot of money if you get one of the most powerful graphics cards and CPUs in the world and then pair them with cheap parts.
This is also important if you get a 4000 series card. I'd advise you not to go with the adapter cable from the graphics card, but buy a PSU with a matching 600W 12VHPWR cable. That's precisely why I got the "be quiet!" and the separate cable for it. This way, you basically turn it into an ATX 3.0 power supply. Oh, and for the case, I went with the sweet heavy airflow Lian Li LanCool II Mesh C Performance (black version).
Now, after spending a ridiculous amount of money on a high-end computer capable of running pretty much everything under the sun, maxed out at 4K 60 frames-per-second even with ray tracing on in some cases, being limited by the lack of one simple feature from a game would make anyone grind their teeth in anger, or at least in annoyance.
The missing feature I'm talking about is cross-progression from Need for Speed Unbound. Some might confuse it with cross-play, which is totally different. And before you switch to another gaming ecosystem, no matter if it's from console to console, or to PC and vice-versa, always check if the games you spent dozens of hours in can carry over their "save" files. In other words, don't get bamboozled.
First of all, a cross-generation game means that it can typically be played on two or more generations of consoles, like the PS4 and PS5, or Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X.
Secondly, NFS Unbound does have cross-play. This means that anyone playing on PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X can go online and play together with people from either one. You can even add anyone as a friend in-game and invite them to a party.
However, if, for any reason, you don't wish to play with people from another ecosystem other than your own, you can even turn off cross-play from Settings and Accessibility > Game > Enable Cross-play on or off.
Third, and most important of all, Unbound doesn't have a cross-progression system. This is where it hurts me the most. After playing it for a lot of time, if I ever want to pick up on PC where I left off on my Xbox Series X, I simply can't. I have to start the game from scratch.
Now, Unbound isn't that long, but I can't dedicate another 20 hours to get all the cars, upgrades, and other items I already own. In 2022, this shouldn't be a problem anymore, especially when more and more AAA games out there support this feature.
I'm not saying it couldn't come in the near or even distant future, but honestly, it should have shipped with the game. Or at least update the game during the release window. Think of it this way. EA wants to sell a product. If they lock a title on a specific platform, then EA loses money from people like me who want to continue from somewhere else.
I'm more than happy to pay $15 a month for EA Play Pro and get it on PC, but seeing as my main reason for subscribing to their service is NFS Unbound, there's simply no point in me doing so. And it's not about EA missing out on my $15 bucks a month, either.
But when you have access to that platform, you tend to play a lot of other titles as well. In some of those games, like Battlefield, for example, you have multiplayer, where there is a lot of stuff to spend money on. As I see it, by not implementing this simple cross-progression system, EA is losing a potential customer that could spend a whole lot of cash in their ecosystem on DLCs, in-game items, microtransactions, and so on.
At the end of the day, this is a first-world problem, I'm aware of that. But at the same time, no amount of cash has ever bought anyone their lost time back.
First of all, I locked in the graphics card because the model I wanted could have gone fast off the shelves. I picked the Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom (non-GS). For no other reason other than it was the cheapest 4080 on the market. A 4090 would have cost me at least another $1,000, and while I still drool and dream of owning one, the price difference was simply out of my league.
Now, while I haven't been able to find any video reviews of this non-GS version of the Gainward Phantom 4080, from the dozens of comments I did find, I didn't read one bad thing about it. A coil whine sound was reported in some cases, but they were few and far between.
Of course, there are more powerful but also more expensive 4080s out there, like the Gigabyte AORUS or Asus ROG Strix versions. However, at the end of the day, any 4080 is still one of the top-performing graphics cards in the world.
Some of you might wonder why didn't I go for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Well, initially, I did. I even ordered one, and it arrived at my doorstep. But half an hour before that happened, by some freak occurrence, I looked up the prices for the 4080, and it turned out that a day after the 7900 XTX hit the market, the prices for the Palit (non-O.C.) and Gainward (non-GS) versions dropped significantly. For me, that was a $100 no-brainer price difference between Nvidia and AMD.
Another reason is that the 4080 has DLSS 3.0 and can basically run anything with ray tracing better by 10-15 fps than the 7900 XTX. Also, I need the best in the business for editing, and from the reviews I've seen so far in Adobe Premiere Pro, the 4080 wins again by as much as 17% extra performance.
For the CPU, I went with the Intel i9-13900K, even though it's the last generation to ever come out for the LGA 1700 platform. I compared it to the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and I thought the former would best suit my needs. Also, I never had anything more powerful than an i5 4th Gen, so rocking the most powerful gaming processor Intel ever made checked all the inner child boxes for me.
To try and keep those temps under control, I went with the Noctua NH-D15 cooler. I avoided liquid cooling because I simply never had to deal with that stuff, and I prefer to stay in my own lane of knowledge. Next, I got the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard simply because it was the most competitive in its price range. For storage, I slapped on a couple of 1TB WD Black SN850X NVMe SSDs.
Then, I went with the Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 6000MHz CL36 Dual Channel Kit because I couldn't find the G.Skill Trident I really wanted anywhere in stock. But hey, Patriot is an ok American brand, and I can always upgrade. For the PSU I got the "be quiet!" Dark Power 12, 80+ Titanium at 1000W, which is more than enough for the i9 and 4080.
When you're building a PC of this magnitude, the motherboard and PSU must be exquisite; otherwise, you can ruin the entire thing. You're not gonna save a lot of money if you get one of the most powerful graphics cards and CPUs in the world and then pair them with cheap parts.
This is also important if you get a 4000 series card. I'd advise you not to go with the adapter cable from the graphics card, but buy a PSU with a matching 600W 12VHPWR cable. That's precisely why I got the "be quiet!" and the separate cable for it. This way, you basically turn it into an ATX 3.0 power supply. Oh, and for the case, I went with the sweet heavy airflow Lian Li LanCool II Mesh C Performance (black version).
Now, after spending a ridiculous amount of money on a high-end computer capable of running pretty much everything under the sun, maxed out at 4K 60 frames-per-second even with ray tracing on in some cases, being limited by the lack of one simple feature from a game would make anyone grind their teeth in anger, or at least in annoyance.
The missing feature I'm talking about is cross-progression from Need for Speed Unbound. Some might confuse it with cross-play, which is totally different. And before you switch to another gaming ecosystem, no matter if it's from console to console, or to PC and vice-versa, always check if the games you spent dozens of hours in can carry over their "save" files. In other words, don't get bamboozled.
First of all, a cross-generation game means that it can typically be played on two or more generations of consoles, like the PS4 and PS5, or Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X.
Secondly, NFS Unbound does have cross-play. This means that anyone playing on PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X can go online and play together with people from either one. You can even add anyone as a friend in-game and invite them to a party.
However, if, for any reason, you don't wish to play with people from another ecosystem other than your own, you can even turn off cross-play from Settings and Accessibility > Game > Enable Cross-play on or off.
Third, and most important of all, Unbound doesn't have a cross-progression system. This is where it hurts me the most. After playing it for a lot of time, if I ever want to pick up on PC where I left off on my Xbox Series X, I simply can't. I have to start the game from scratch.
Now, Unbound isn't that long, but I can't dedicate another 20 hours to get all the cars, upgrades, and other items I already own. In 2022, this shouldn't be a problem anymore, especially when more and more AAA games out there support this feature.
I'm not saying it couldn't come in the near or even distant future, but honestly, it should have shipped with the game. Or at least update the game during the release window. Think of it this way. EA wants to sell a product. If they lock a title on a specific platform, then EA loses money from people like me who want to continue from somewhere else.
I'm more than happy to pay $15 a month for EA Play Pro and get it on PC, but seeing as my main reason for subscribing to their service is NFS Unbound, there's simply no point in me doing so. And it's not about EA missing out on my $15 bucks a month, either.
But when you have access to that platform, you tend to play a lot of other titles as well. In some of those games, like Battlefield, for example, you have multiplayer, where there is a lot of stuff to spend money on. As I see it, by not implementing this simple cross-progression system, EA is losing a potential customer that could spend a whole lot of cash in their ecosystem on DLCs, in-game items, microtransactions, and so on.
At the end of the day, this is a first-world problem, I'm aware of that. But at the same time, no amount of cash has ever bought anyone their lost time back.
Google News