Skytech Azure 2 ST-NEBULA-0716-B-SK Gaming PC Review
In this article I will provide my December 2023 review of the Skytech Azure 2 (ST-AZURE2-0611-B-SK) and will also talk about some of the games you can play with this prebuilt PC. I will analyze the following:
- Overview of the entire build
- Processor used for Skytech Azure 2 ST-AZURE2-0611-B-SK
- Graphics Card (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti)
- RAM and Hard Drive
- Conclusion
Overview of the Skytech Azure 2 (ST-AZURE2-0611-B-SK)
The Skytech Azure 2 is going to be a step up from the Skytech Nebula discussed in my last post. This is a PC that I would build if I were going to upgrade from the Nebula. In my opinion, it’s a little more well-balanced than the Skytech Nebula, since it has almost the latest generation i5 processor (i5 13600K). However, at the time of this writing, Intel did just release in October 2023 their 14th generation processors.
This PC also has 32GB of RAM. That’s a lot of RAM. That being said, you also have a 4070 Ti graphics card. You’ll need that amount to play some games, like Hogwartz, which has been noted to take upwards of 22GB of RAM and 13GB VRAM. Wow!
That being said, with this combination of power, you should be able to play most AAA titles on max settings at higher resolutions for years to come.
Processor used for Skytech Azure 2 ST-AZURE2-0611-B-SK
As I mentioned earlier, the Intel i5 13600K is almost the latest generation processor. You should note the K used in the processor name – this means that you can overclock this PC if you would like to. Plus, you have a pretty beefy power supply in order to handle overclocking. Just make sure you don’t overdue it and keep an eye on heat. That being said, I probably wouldn’t recommend overclocking this processor right off the bat. You shouldn’t need to for most AAA titles on max graphics settings on higher resolutions like 1440P or even 4K.
Graphics Card (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti)
The RTX 4070 Ti is the latest generation of NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards. It’s a midrange graphics card but it is absolutely an upgrade from the RTX 3070 Ti. Benchmarks like from ShadowSeven show the RTX 4070 Ti with the Intel i5 13600K dominate 1080P with an average FPS of 74 on CyberPunk 2077. In fact, you will be playing most AAA titles on max graphics settings on 1080P and 1440P resolution and maintain high FPS. Only when you get to 4K will you start to notice sub-60 FPS, but you most likely will still achieve higher than 50 FPS, which is hardly noticeable from a performance perspective.
RAM and Hard Drive
32GB of DDR5 5200MHz RAM is for future proofing. The only game on the market today (December 2023) that there are reports of it requiring this much ram is Hogwarts Legacy. Otherwise, it’s not going to be a bottleneck in any sort of gaming that you do in 2023 and likely 2024 and beyond. Although requirements are advancing for games, most games today operate at optimal performance with just 16GB of RAM.
In terms of the hard drive, 1TB of NVME storage capacity is very fast and provides for a lot of space. That being said, many will find that after years of owning a PC, it’s often beneficial to have an external drive with cheap storage to offload media like videos and pictures. I recommend something like the Buffalo LinkStation pictured below. This gives you 4TB of capacity (2TB after mirroring / RAID 1) and is a good all-around backup target.
Conclusion
Overall, the Azure 2 prebuilt PC from Skytech Gaming is a performance machine that will drive FPS to high levels on 1080P, 1440P and be able to keep up with demands of 4K monitors. I personally don’t like ultra-wide monitors and opt for two 4K monitors, like the INNOCN 28″ 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 IPS Computer Monitor, pictured below. These will be able to provide you with the immersive gaming experience at 4K without bogging down performance too much. Plus, when you consider the cost of monitors, these are fairly inexpensive for 4K.
