Cyberpunk Akimbo - $1,148

Experience the sweet spot of PC gaming with this 1440p focused build. High refresh rate gaming meets stunning visual quality.

Why This Build

Wanted a solid dual-GPU setup for lossless scaling without breaking the bank. Playing a lot of Borderlands and Cyberpunk 2077, and both games benefit massively from higher frame rates - Borderlands feels way snappier at 120+ FPS, and Cyberpunk’s input lag becomes way less noticeable when you’re scaling from a decent base. The RTX 3080 gives great ray tracing performance in Cyberpunk, while the RX 570 handles frame generation duty.

Component Choices

CPU & Motherboard: The 12600KF was a no-brainer at $117. Six P-cores are plenty for gaming, and it has enough PCIe lanes for dual GPUs. Went with the Z690 ASUS Prime because it supports DDR5 and has good lane distribution for running both cards properly.

GPUs: Already had the RTX 3080 from a previous build. Grabbed an RX 570 off eBay for $45 as the frame gen card - it’s old but has enough compute for 2x/3x scaling, and at that price it’s basically disposable. The 3080 handles Cyberpunk’s ray tracing really well, and Borderlands runs maxed out easily.

RAM & Storage: 32GB of DDR5 because Cyberpunk actually uses quite a bit at high settings, especially with RT on. The 990 EVO Plus keeps load times short and prevents any stuttering from asset streaming during intense scenes.

Cooling & Case: Noctua NH-U14S is overkill for the 12600KF, but it’s dead silent and keeps temps in the 60s even under load. NZXT H5 Flow has great airflow for the dual-GPU setup and doesn’t look like a spaceship.

PSU: 750W is enough for this combo. The 3080 pulls around 320W max, the RX 570 barely uses 150W during frame gen, and the 12600KF is pretty efficient.

Performance Notes

Running Witcher 3 with RT all ultra (mostly highest settings) and DLSS balanced at 3x gen, flowscale 65, performance mode - hits my 165Hz refresh rate consistently. The RX 570 sits at 100% usage during frame gen (occasionally drops for a few seconds but that’s normal). Tested Cyberpunk with 3x gen, flowscale 65, performance mode OFF and it works incredibly well. The combination of DLSS and lossless scaling makes ray traced gaming at high refresh rates actually viable on a 3080.

Upgrade Path

If you want better base frames in Cyberpunk with RT enabled, upgrading to a 4070 Ti Super or 7900 XT would be the move - both would push ray traced 1440p performance significantly higher. The RX 570 works fine for 2x scaling, but if you want smoother 3x/4x results, grabbing a 6600 or 6600 XT for around $150-200 would help a lot.

The 12600KF should handle games for a few more years, but the Z690 board supports 13th gen Intel chips if you need more cores later. Another 1TB SSD wouldn’t hurt since Cyberpunk alone takes up like 150GB with all the updates. If you’re playing on 1080p, upgrading to a 1440p 144Hz monitor would let you actually see the benefits of all those extra frames you’re generating.

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