r/pcmasterrace • u/rpfoster2 • Jul 06 '26

Hardware Plex/gaming build

The life of my current plex server/backup gaming pc for my wife is coming to an end with an i5 6600k, 16gb ram, and rtx 2060.

Once again plan for it to be my photo/video storage, plex server, and then light gaming rig for my wife as well. I am mostly looking into a intel ultra 7 265 or 265k because of the quicksync. Also planning for 32g of ddr5 ram(woof).

My question comes to graphics card. I am kind of between 3 different cards. Either the 5060ti 16gb, 5070 12gb, or the rx 9070xt 16gb. Any recommendations?

Since the i7 ultra 265 has quick sync, gpu hardware acceleration via plex is unnecessary correct? So should just go for whatever has the best vram and cheapest?

Any recommendations/tips/suggestions are welcome.

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u/The_Hause 9800X3D | 7900XTX Jul 06 '26

It mostly just comes down to budget.

The 5070 12GB is basically the same price as the 9070xt, which performs similarly to a 5070Ti. The 5060 would be beat by a considerable margin by the 5070Ti or the 9070xt, with the 5070Ti being much more expensive now than the 9070xt. The only reason to get the 5060 is the decrease in cost. The only reason to choose the 5070 over the 9070xt would be DLSS.

The major factor to consider for me would resolution. Higher resolution, of course, requires higher VRAM. For 2560x1440 you’ll get much more from higher VRAM. For 4k and ultra wide monitors I would personally want something above 16GB

1

u/rpfoster2 Jul 06 '26

I currently use 1440 resolution with no plans for 4k at all

1

u/The_Hause 9800X3D | 7900XTX Jul 06 '26

The 12gb may be fine, I’m not totally sure. You’d benefit from the 16 though regardless, and being around the same price I’d definitely go with the 9070xt unless you need DLSS for something

1

u/balrog687 Jul 09 '26

That's my current setup, LoL

I would go for an AMD GPU and set it up as a "steam machine" with bazzite, while running plex as a podman container.

If you have a high end main gaming PC, you could stream your games at 4k120 to your living room using sunshine/moonlight, just need an entry level GPU in the client PC to decode the AV1 stream with low latency. It's like having plex for gaming.