Content Creator Pro - $4,566

Why This Build

Built this as an absolute no-compromise setup for 4K high refresh lossless scaling. Playing a lot of Borderlands and Star Citizen, and both games benefit massively from the extra horsepower - Borderlands at 4K with maxed settings and high multipliers feels incredible, and Star Citizen actually runs smoothly for once. The key insight here is that pairing a 5090 with a weak secondary GPU like a 4060 Ti will bottleneck the whole system. When you’re pushing 4K with LSFG, you need a high-end frame gen card to keep up with what the 5090 is outputting, so the RTX 4080 was the obvious choice.

Component Choices

CPU & Motherboard: The 9800X3D is still the king for gaming, and Star Citizen loves the extra cache. Went with the ASUS TUF Gaming X670E-Plus for solid VRM and the PCIe lanes needed to run both flagship GPUs without choking either one.

GPUs: RTX 5090 as primary because it’s the only card that can push native 4K at settings high enough to make lossless scaling worthwhile. The RTX 4080 as secondary isn’t just overkill - it’s necessary. At 4K with high multipliers, a weaker card will bottleneck the entire pipeline and you’ll get stuttering or frame drops. The 4080 has the compute power to handle frame generation at the speeds the 5090 is throwing at it.

RAM & Storage: 32GB DDR5 is minimum for Star Citizen, which is notoriously RAM-hungry. The 990 EVO Plus is fast enough to keep up with asset streaming in open-world games, though Star Citizen would probably benefit from more storage.

Cooling & Case: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 keeps the 9800X3D cool even under sustained loads. ThermalTake View has the space and airflow for two massive GPUs and good cable management.

PSU: BeQuiet! 1500W because the 5090 alone can pull 575W, the 4080 adds another 320W during frame gen, and the 9800X3D pulls around 120W. You need the headroom for transient spikes.

Performance Notes

This setup is designed specifically for 4K LSFG where you need both GPUs running at their limits. The 4080 ensures the frame generation keeps pace with the 5090’s output - anything weaker will bottleneck and ruin the experience. Star Citizen actually runs well at 4K with this combo, and Borderlands is buttery smooth at ridiculous frame rates.

Upgrade Path

Honestly, there’s nowhere to go from here for lossless scaling. The 9800X3D and 5090 are the best components available, and the 4080 is the appropriate tier for frame gen duty at this level. The only upgrades would be adding a second 1TB or 2TB SSD for Star Citizen’s massive install size, or bumping to 64GB RAM if you’re doing heavy multitasking.

If you’re not already on a 4K 240Hz+ monitor, that’s the only thing worth spending money on. This build is completely wasted on anything less than a high-end 4K display.

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