Lately, AMD’s Ryzen 5 processors are quietly taking the competition to Intel’s doorstep with prospects of taking over the Core i5-9400F’s throne in the mid-range PC gaming market. And, that’s a good thing for anyone looking to take PC gaming seriously – or another try, if you’ve been gaming for a while on a dated system. With the new found competition, it means you’ll spend less on a processor, and get a better GPU for much less. Our CyberpowerPC Gamer GXiVR8500A review illustrates just how far you can go on a budget.
The Gamer GXiVR8500A features an Intel Core i5-9400F (6-core) processor clocked at 2.9GHz, with 8GB of RAM, a Nvidia GeForce 1660 Ti graphics card, a 120GB solid state drive, and a 1TB hard drive. That’s a lot of computer for less the cost of, like, 250 cups of no-whip white mochas.
Anyway, let’s see how it stacks against the competition. The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer GXiVR8500A, that is. Not the mochas.
DESIGN
Like all pre-built gaming PCs, the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer GXiVR8500A features a standard tower chassis fitted with an Intel B360 chipset on the inside. It measures 18.5 x 7.9 x 17.9 inches and weighs 26.3 pounds, which is in the same ballpark as the iBUYPOWER Trace 9220, but fairly larger than the mainstream HP Omen Obelisk or Dell’s Alienware Aurora R7.
If you need to throw in a few upgrades down the road, the larger Intel B360 chipset is the best to have, and offers enough room to maneuver when making upgrades.
A tool-less design makes it possible to upgrade the system at home, with only four thumbscrews holding the tinted glass side panel in place. Once you remove the glass panel, you have access to the motherboard, solid state drive, RAM and graphics card. Th other components including the power supply and hard drive are housed behind the metal side panel on the opposite flank.
The tinted glass adds some gaming flair to the overall design, with lots of features to like in the design, including a trio of colors on the front panel and RGB backlighting throughout the case. Cable work is excellent, and the airflow vents are purposely place across the entire chassis.
PORTS
The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer has lots of ports and they are conveniently located. On the top front panel, you’ll find two USB-A 3.0 ports, audio and headphone jacks, and a power button. Around the back, there are including six USB ports, Ethernet jack, two legacy PS/2 ports to accommodate your older mouse and keyboard connections, audio and headphone jacks, and video output ports, including DisplayPort and HDMI connections.
We’ve seen gaming desktops offer USB-C ports as part of their connectivity array, especially those with the upgraded RTX 2080 GPU. Our review unit maxes at GTX 1660Ti, and for that reason we never expect a USB-C port. That means you’ll do with multiple cables to drive your VR headset, something the RTX cards address with a single VirtualLink connector. Also bundled into the package is a gaming keyboard and mouse.
PERFORMANCE
Equipped with a mid-range hexa-core Intel Core i5-9400F processor clocked at 2.9GHz, the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer is a muscular budget machine. It’s not going to outrun its Ryzen 7 competitors, but this value guy has heart – and a killer price tag. On its own, the Core i5-9400F retails for a reasonable price, which makes it one of the least expensive 9th Gen six-core processors on the market. It can handle more threads than its predecessor, the core i5-8400, and has better game support and lower latencies.
In day to day performance, the Gamer Xtreme can handle productivity well, never hesitating or slowing down. Need to have 10 YouTube videos playing while streaming a Hulu Original, or multitasking with 15 Chrome tabs open? This desktop will handle a tensed scenario like that just fine.
Gaming and VR
The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer GXiVR8500A is billed as a gaming PC, so it better be able to play modern titles. And, it does exactly that! The system comes with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6GB), but you get another configuration the same base model with – the Gamer GXiVR8060A7, that features a GTX 1660 GPU, and all other specs remain the same. Both are capable GPUs, though the 1660Ti will provide you with a significant increase in frame rate.
The unit’s entry-level GTX 1660 Ti graphics card keeps this machine firmly in the consideration of enthusiast gamers, who don’t need newer features like features like real-time ray tracing and deep learning super sampling (DLSS). Giving up these technologies to hit a lower price sounds like a winning strategy for Nvidia.
In fact, the TU116 GPU raises the question of just how low Nvidia is willing to go with its newest Turing architecture. The 1660 Ti speeds things further by incorporating Turing’s improved shaders, a unified cache architecture for adaptive shading that complement video encode/decode acceleration features. The result is TU116 chip that’s leaner but with a list of specifications that emphasizes today’s top titles.
On real-world gaming, it delivers impressive frame rates per second (FPS) than its closest rivals, especially when played at 1080p. For instance, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey played at 1440p (Very High Quality) yields 54 FPS, which is better than the Radeon RX Vega 56’s 51 FPS, while the GTX 1060 maxes at 29 FPS.
The same is replicated in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt (56 FPS, 62 FPS, 35 FPS) and Warframe (145 FPS, 126 FPS, 88 FPS), respectively. Given that the GTX 1660 Ti can render most modern games with modest graphics, like Civilization VI and Fortnite, at frame rates above 50 frames per second (FPS), some gamers will indeed appreciate the smooth game play.
The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer GXiVR8500A is a solid performer with a few drawbacks, but its price and solid gaming performance make it a good choice, especially if you’re looking to step into the world of PC gaming for the first time.
Is there a better alternative?
There is a fair number of options available to you at less than one grand. Each major manufacturer has at least one desktop around that price, but finding one with comparable hardware is tough without crossing that price threshold.
The CyberPowerPC Gamer GXiVR8060A7 is a GTX 1660 version of the same model that will save you a few dollars, if that really matters. Should you need something for work and play, Dell has the Inspiron i5680-5842BLU-PUS for you.
Should you buy it?
Yes. While it won’t satisfy people looking for a high-end gaming system, but if you want to do some PC gaming on a budget, the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer GXiVR8500A is for you.
