Hey Everyone. I'm trying to decide between upgrading an existing pc and going with something brand new and could use some input. I'm looking for something for poker only, specifically something that can handle multiple emulators (2-4) and 8+ tables (the app allows 4 tables per emulator). My current build has an i5-6500 and 16gb of ram but could not handle even 4 tables without severe lag until I bought a radeon 5600xt as a test to see if that would improve things. It worked well and got me 4 tables fairly smoothly, but the cpu usage for all four cores was at or near 100% and going beyond definitely wasn't happening. Unfortunately my motherboard only works with up to 7th generation intels. Upgrading would mean at minimum buying a new motherboard and processor, likely along with 16 more gb of ram. Or I could start fresh and buy a completely new pc and either try to sell or just gift the old pc to a friend or family member.

In a perfect world I'd like to spend the minimum amount of money and just get something that will let me multitable 8+ tables comfortably given I'm only using this pc for poker. That said, I've also considered perhaps it's better to buy something higher quality that will last a number of years down the road. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Transfer the 5600xt to a new system or fresh build and repurpose or gift the old PC.
Target specs:
Ryzen 3700 8c/16t
32GB DDR4, 2x16GB is a better config than 4x8GB
500GB or larger NVME OS drive, if the emulator VMs are largeish, bump this to 1TB
reuse 5600xt, upgrade it if your emulator VMs are GPU accelerated and your GPU is now the component getting maxed out.
Pick PSU size based on intended components
https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-s...psu+calculator
Motherboard depends on desired other components, get the x570 chipset.
Case depends on motherboard size selected, other components required, and personal taste/budget.

A decent Ryzen 3700 prebuilt is a worthwhile comparison here. They'll have to have some sort of GPU included because there is not an onboard GPU on the 3700 CPU.

The advice from headtrauma is sound.

Thank you so much! This is just what I was hoping for and extremely helpful!

What country will you be ordering from? Its worth taking a look at Dell/HP/Lenovo prebuilts as well to compare price vs whitebox or build your own.

That's a good idea. I'll be ordering from the US.

I would love to help but no idea what's needed to run 8 of these emulators. does it use gpu too? new cpu big advantage over older gens? intel or amd? you need to do some research on their forums or mby ask the devs

Thanks. I decided to send an email to the developers and they recommended intel, around i7-8700 or better, saying they thought there could be issues with amd on their platform, and they said that using a dedicated gpu would be necessary for anything beyond basic use. On the other hand, I was browsing the thread for the app on here and saw some people say they have amd cpus and have never had any issues.

As far as intel goes, I came across this prebuilt https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-...82E16883102971

and on the amd side https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpo...?skuId=6400453

I would have to buy another 16gb, but those were the best prebuilt prices I saw for those specs, but I'm not sure if that's overkill or just right.

what about ram requirements?
can you run 8 instances on 32gigs? remember W10 uses some of it

@OneQ, if you can link to the emulator software, that would be helpful.
Quick and dirty math for desktop emulator/VM counts, subtract 4GB RAM and 1core/2 threads for dedicated host OS usage, then take specs for one emulator/VM and multiply by desired number to see if you've got enough resources. That should at least get you in the ballpark (i.e. each emulator needs 2GB RAM and 1 CPU thread, you'd need a machine with 20GB RAM and 10 cpu threads).

Sure. The emulator is ldplayer https://www.ldplayer.net/

This may not help because these are likely just recommendations for basic use and not the kind of use I'm looking to do, but I figured I'd pass this along anyways. It was posted from their reddit account:

Recommended Specifications for LDPlayer

CPU: Intel i5 7500

RAM: 8GB

Disk Space: 100GB

Graphics Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti

This blog shows the UI where the per emulator resource allocations can be set. You can configure more VM CPU cores than your computer has (shouldn't oversubscribe by a crazy amount) since your VMs are not likely to be running at max CPU all the time.
Ignore all their stupidly dangerous suggestions about uninstalling Windows updates and disabling auto update. The KB they suggest removing is the Spectre/Meltdown mitigations. It does hurt CPU performance but that was a potentially massive security hole.
https://www.ldplayer.net/blog/play-g...-ldplayer.html

Great. Thanks. I had seen the additional settings but decided to leave them alone at the time so that helps. Do you think given the ability to configure I could get away with my original i5-6500 pc and just an upgrade to a 5600 or 5700xt and 16 more gb of ram? If I go that route I think it will save roughly $800-$1000 (although less if I could sell my current system for a reasonable amount) compared to a new system.

Tweaking the settings down would make your VMs run more slowly.
You said your CPU was already at or near 100% utilization with your current config. If you want to add more workload, you need more cores. That means a new cpu and motherboard. That realistically means a new PC and sell/gift/repurpose existing PC, which for less demanding workloads is still a perfectly reasonable PC. It appears that LD Player is able to utilize GPU acceleration, so an Nvidia 1660 to 2070 range card or AMD 5600/5700xt is useful.

ye it sounds like gpu might help, so keep your 5600xt, that should more than do
still unclear on ram requirements, would advise at least 32 gb tho in 2x16 gig sticks and the ability to add more if needed, so a board with 4 slots (the mini ATX ones or "gaming" micro ATX almost always have 2 slots)

as far as cpu goes, provided there's no difference between AMD and Intel, I think you have 2 reasonably priced options (unless you want to go Threadripper or older refurb workstation with 2 cpus)

1. Ryzen 7, either 1700, 2700x or 3700x, the 1700 can be safely manually overclocked on stock cooling to be 5% slower than a stock 2700x, the x chips have auto overclocking and with that on, are ultimately 15-20% faster
3700x you can find in shops, 2700x and esp 1700 you will likely have to get used/refurb

2. Ryzen 9, either 3900x or 3950x, these have more threads but also need better motherboards and are quite a lot more expensive, still, at the end of the day, if you have to buy all the parts in a pc, these result in better performance/$ because the price for ram, storage, psu, case, etc is ~ the same. it's just a question of how much power you really need, gross overkill costs

Ryzen chips have more threads than Intel counterparts and outperform them in multi threaded workloads, while offering better value as well

you linked me a refurb workstation some time ago, think it was 2 x E5 2670 v1 and 96 gigs ram for under 600$, if there isn't a performance drop when using slower xeons, then that will be the better short time value (if you're low on cash). the xeons should be about the same multi threaded performance as a 3700x and dropping a gpu in that system works just as well, they even have powerful psus built in. if you want to go that route, you need to ask before tho if the emulator will work as well with 2 cpus and many threads, some applications can only leverage x cpu cores and emphasize a few cores with higher speeds

if you already have the gpu, you're not going to be able to get a pre-built with a Ryzen cpu and no gpu, so unless you're willing to sell it a small loss, you're going to have to build a system yourself. a 3700x with 32 gb ram, a decent board, ssd and psu and budget case is at least 650$ and the worksation with 2 similarly performing xeons (in theory) and 96 gb ram was 550-600$, but with that comes a higher power bill, little re-sale value and more noise/heat.

let us know and we'l help you pick good value parts for a new system if you decide to go that route, it's really not a big deal to build your own, ~3h job for a newbie.

Don't think I should make my own thread since I have the same question. I'd like to run 6 emulators along with 6 tables of bovada. Both poker clients are making my cpu usage go through the roof. I looked for a pc using 3900x ryzen and found this one.

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/PCBbt6

Should I change anything, maybe a better power supply?

Swap the 860 EVO SSD for a 1TB NVME drive instead. The price premium isn't much and the peak performance of the NVME is way higher. An extra $30 here is money well spent.
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-970-e...quicklink=true
Since you're going to be running this hard, you may want to go for a better than stock CPU cooler. You can start with the stock HSF and upgrade later if you wish. If you're going for closed loop water cooling, get a 2x120 or 2x140mm unit (3x120 or 3x140 is fine too). The single fan radiators aren't worth the cost/complication vs air cooling.

Run a PSU calculator to see if you need more juice. Getting an 80plus gold or platinum rated PSU can be worth it for a PC that runs high loads for long periods, depending on your electricity prices and green leanings.

I second what HT said,

nvme tier list, pick something from tier B but would recommend Samsung 970 Evo, Adata SX8200pro or WD Black SN750 for the complete package (warranty, software, reliability). Sabrent/Kingston/Corsair also fine https://linustechtips.com/main/topic...ssd-tier-list/
motherboards tier list, pick from tier B or C https://linustechtips.com/main/topic...tier-list-eol/
for cooling, I know Arctic Freezer II is highly regarded by enthusiasts, prob not in stock because of that. go for a 240/280mm AIO or a big tower cooler. I'd go air cooler myself cause lasts forever, good ones have very similar performance to AIO and easier to install
the place to go for psu reviews https://www.jonnyguru.com/

remember to pick a larger case that has ATX support for your mobo, room to mount the 240/280mm radiator or sufficient width to put in a beefy air cooler, also helps with temps if it's a mesh design and the fans are not obstructed; also physically larger cases perform a bit better than cramped ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsMNu0gWlZw&t=1s

I actually returned the 5600xt right before the deadline for returns expired. I can always pick it back up if it seems like a good option, but I wanted to give myself a little more flexibility in my choices. I hadn't considered dual purposing the refurbished workstation. That's an interesting thought. I will definitely have to send an email and see how dual cpus work with the emulator because that would be a very simple and reasonably cheap way to get something working in the short term. I will start off by looking into that first and see if that's even an option.

This is what I built in March. It does everything fine. If you're going to do a lot of database solver work I'd jump to 3900x otherwise 3700x is fine.

That GPU is solid for getting 60 FPS on most games. I can play MGS5 and GTA5 on default settings fine.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/the...d/#view=ZV3TJx