There was a time when the choice of whether to build your own rig from scratch or simply buy the best gaming PC as a prebuilt option was purely about personal preference. However, gaming PCs like the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme (GXiVR8400A9) have made the choice far tougher for DIY champions, with the savings 2more likely to be had if you opt for a specific PC builder for your new gaming rig.
Back then, it used to be a choice about whether you wanted to pick all the components yourself, built your gaming PC for fun, and maybe save a few bucks in the box. Sadly, the days of free and easy system building are well gone as the chip supply crisis has heated up. As such, while there are advantages to building a rig from scratch, the disadvantages seem to be heavier, especially the cost implications involved.
As we struggle with the two major impediments to building our own gaming PCs – scarce components, or high cost if you are lucky to find them, pre-builts have proved to be a haven to most amidst the crisis. While these boutique builders don’t offer the satisfaction of building your own PC, you’re paying for warranty service, support, and peace of mind that the system you’re buying was assembled and tested by professionals.
CyberpowerPC is one of those brands, that continues to deliver highly customized builds, giving gamers the liberty to customize their ideal gaming PCs without putting in the time and skill required to do so. There’s certainly a huge market for its Gamer Xtreme and Gamer Supreme machines, and we are fans too. After all, not everyone has the skill to know which motherboard goes with what CPU.
About the CyberpowerPC Xtreme
The CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme (GXiVR8400A9) we’re reviewing is not only highly customizable, but it boasts solid performance out of the box with enough real estate inside the standard tower chassis for future upgrades. Yes, we just said it, the 12th-gen Intel Core i7-12700KF CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB), 16GB RAM, and 500GB SSD plus 2TB HDD storage are more than enough for all your midrange gaming needs.
CyberPower has made the Gamer Xtreme so that you don’t have to buy another gaming PC again in the foreseeable future. It uses standard parts, so you can swap them up with newer components until you get bored of the chassis you already have.
Even at the Gamer Xtreme’s base configuration, you’re spending your money for the privilege of seamless customization and future-proofing. You’re not going to max out in a Call of Duty match, but it delivers excellent 1080p on most AAA games. If you’re a PC gamer looking for an affordable PC for 1080p play, this is going to be a fine PC.
CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme Specs
- Desktop Class: Gaming
- Processor: Intel Core i5-11600KF
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- Storage: 500GB SSD + 1TB HDD
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Inputs: Included Keyboard and Mouse
- Monitor: Bought separately
Design and Features
If you’ve seen any CyberpowerPC desktop PC over the last couple of years, the Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8400A9 will look familiar. It has the same attractive raven-black chassis as the Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8480A11 we reviewed last year. The front panel is home to a trio of rings with customizable RGB lighting popping out of a transparent glass cover, and a front-facing CyberPowerPC logo at the bottom. There’s also a transparent glass side panel that showcases the PC’s inner components including a rear-cooling fan, hardware, and memory slots, as well as neat cable work.
There are easy access ports on the top panel (towards the front) – two USB- USB 3.1 ports alongside headphones and microphone jacks, but we wish it had at least one USB-C port there. Around the back, there are four USB 3.1, two USB-A, an Ethernet port, and a 7.1 audio channel. Wireless connectivity comes via 802.11AC Wi-Fi.
Also included in the package is a 7-color RGB gaming mouse and a standard keyboard, which aren’t the best we’ve seen but can be used if you don’t have a better alternative yet. Again, most PC manufacturers don’t include these components so we can’t complain much. The machine measures 26 x 23.75 x 13.75 inches and weighs 37.6 pounds.
Gaming and Graphics
The CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8400A9 packs a capable Nvidia RTX 3060 (12GB) graphics card, and that should excite gamers looking to take their gaming to the next level, while not spending too much on a maxed-out gaming rig. Like the rest of the Nvidia RTX 3000 series graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 3060 is based on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture. With the move from Turing to Ampere, Nvidia brings to the core more than just a higher product number.
The biggest change in Ampere is in the Streaming Multiprocessor’s (SM) datapath, whereby, while the RTX 3060 has fewer SMs at 28 than the RTX 2060 with 30, its CUDA core count jumps to 3,584 on the RTX 3060 over its predecessor’s 1,920. That’s a massive boost, and that explains the reason why the RTX 3060 is an excellent performer in gaming workloads.
And the GeForce RTX 3060 in this model comes equipped with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 192-bit bus. Well, that’s a lot of memory available on a graphics card.
- System: Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6GHz 12 (8 plus 4) Cores | Intel Z690 Chipset | 16GB DDR4...
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Video Card | 1x HDMI | 2x DisplayPort
- Connectivity: 6 x USB 3.1 | 2 x USB 2.0 | 1x RJ-45 Network Ethernet 10/100/1000 | 802.11AC...
In real-world gaming, Nvidia’s graphics offering comes into play. For instance, Shadow of the Tomb Raider runs at 153 fps at 1080p on the GXiVR8400A9 and 56 fps at 4K. The former ties with the Dell G5, and the latter tails the HP Omen 30L, by a wide margin, but understandable considering it packs the high-end Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card and Intel’s Core i9 processor.
Elsewhere, Far Cry New Dawn leverages the MSI Aegis but pulls ahead at 1080p by 11 fps, scoring 108 fps, which drops to 65 fps in 4K. Borderlands 3 (high settings) at the exact resolution achieves 117 fps, which is impressive. And at 4K, the CyberpowerPC Gamer’s 39 fps is once again a few frames behind the MSI and Alienware systems with the same GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards.
Finally, Nvidia Ampere brings ray tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and both of these technologies are available on the RTX 3060. This means that this rig performs especially well at 1080p, but 1440p might not be that fluent, and not all games are going to utilize all that 12GB RAM, after all.
As ever, the RTX 3060 meets the requirements to support VR gaming, meaning it’s optimized for your HTC VIVE and Oculus Rift VR headsets.
Productivity Performance
The CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme is available in different configurations, but the model we’re reviewing -the GXiVR8400A9 is packed with midrange specifications that will get the job done. It features the latest 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700KF (3.6Ghz) processor with 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD storage, as well as an additional 2TB hard drive storage. It comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed, and these specs are just what you’d need to run most productivity tasks when not gaming.
As configured, the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme stands out as excellent value, especially for a machine that costs just over one grand. It represents better overall value when compared to machines like the HP Omen 25L, which costs a few hundred dollars more, but packs just a 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 Super graphics card.
All these make the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR better value, capable of productivity and workstation tasks as it is playing games. Its feature set suggests that it’s perfectly capable of handling tasks that require significant processing muscle. Naturally, an eight-core chip should fare better, but getting one of those in a gaming tower gives you immeasurable value for your buck.
Should I buy the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme?
The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme (GXiVR8400A9) is a great gaming PC that delivers excellent 1080p performance and packs solid components at a fairly affordable price. It’s elegant, stylish, and powerful too. It’s also extremely upgradeable, meaning you don’t have to buy a new rig each time you feel like you can do better on more demanding games.
If you want something more powerful, the Alienware Aurora R14 is one powerful alternative that costs a little more than the Gamer Xtreme but punches above its weight to deliver top-tier performance thanks to AMD Ryzen 9 5900 CPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB + 2TB HDD and a kickass Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (with 10GB GDDR6X) graphics card. It’s a stellar gaming PC provided you have the money to buy it.
Otherwise, the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme (GXiVR8400A9) is a solid choice if you need a gaming PC that will run modern games at 1080p with ease, but also offers a lot of room for expansion. For the money, you’re getting an incredibly future-proof, kitted-out configuration now, and you’d still be able to add more to it later.
The Review
CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme (GXiVR8400A9)
The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme (GXiVR8400A9) is a great gaming PC that delivers excellent 1080p performance and packs solid components at a fairly affordable price. It’s elegant, stylish, and powerful too.
Recommended Configuration
CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC, Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6GHz, GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, 16GB DDR4, 500GB NVMe PCIe SSD, 2TB HDD, WiFi & Win 11 Home (GXiVR8400A9), Black
Review Breakdown
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EDITORS RATING
Last update on 2024-12-22 at 10:37 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
