So, after many.....many years. I have decided to upgrade my PC. I am leaving NvidIa and going full team red for the first time. I was intel/Nvidia for years and then i switched to AMD processors for the build I am currently using but I think it's time to wave goodbye to team green.
Originally i was going to get the 5800x and a GTX 4070. Then, after a lot of vodka and youtube videos i decided that i wanted to try out DDR5 and the newest Ryzen 7000 series CPU's. I had the Ryzen 1700 since release and EVERYONE said to just use the stock cooler, which i have been but it isn't really great at all and i have seen it peaking at 95C many times so i wanted a better cooler. The problem is, the cooler i picked doesn't fit in my old case so I chose the Corsair 4000D purely because of that reason. I also have been an Nvidia fanboy for years but i decided on trying out AMD cards so i picked the 6950XT for $40 less than the 4070 was going to cost me. The MOBO I chose because I have had problems with my current ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F and after looking into it, the new ASUS MOBO's are having the EXACT SAME memory issues i was having in 2017 so i am jumping off the ASUS ship.
What I read, DLSS 3.0 is like magic and running 1440p games, you'd possibly benefit from it if you stick to Nvidia. I don't know how much $40 means to your budget but I would invest in that solely because of that. THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH AMD GPUs, buy it's something I'd consider.
If I was building today, I'd certainly go DDR5 as you are.
I can't comment on stock cooler as I also value quiet operations because it's annoying when I'm gaming next to a jet engine, so even though the cooler might be overkill, I want them quiet. I haven't tested stock cooler but a nice Noctua was in my budget.
Same with my case, Be Quiet! 500DX but again, because I want as silent as possible while gaming.