Upgrade from i7 9700k for Ultrawide 3440 1440 gaming

IainR

IainR

IainR

Associate
Joined
17 Jun 2006
Posts
391
Location
Ipswich
Hi all, I'm a bit out of the loop, so Im looking for some upgrade advice.

800-1K budget

Current Build

i7 9700k
16gb Teamgroup Vulcan DDR4 3000
ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero LGA 1151 (z390)

Zotac 3080 AMP Holo - not looking to upgrade
EVGA G2 850w PSU - Not looking to upgrade unless necessary for new build
Alphacool Eisbar LT 240 - Not looking to upgrade unless necessary for new build
Fractal R5 case - Would like to upgrade, usb 3 front connector no longer works, but its not essential if it will reduce budget from other parts of the build.

Main games are occasional Warzone, although less and less as its garbage, and MSFS2020. I understand this is intensive for any system, let alone running ultrawide. I have only just got into this thanks to my sons gamepass, and love the chill out factor.

I'm not looking for the highest end at my budget, but something that will keep me going for 4 years or so (my usual upgrade time frame)

Thanks in advance!
 
Tetras said:
Not an expert on FS2020, but I suspect you need a 4080 more than you need a new CPU. This looks like a GPU bottleneck to me at 1440p and you're playing at a higher resolution than that: https://youtu.be/baBN5fuYLGY?t=662
Click to expand...
Appreciate the reply, but I spent about 1k on the card about 1 1/2 years ago and its not what im looking to upgrade. DLSS works quite well with msfs and I adjust graphics settings to suit.
I play MSFS very casually, so its more of a system overhaul, slight future proofing im after. This system will go to my son.
 
Last edited:
IainR said:
I play MSFS very casually, so its more of a system overhaul, slight future proofing im after. This system will go to my son.
Click to expand...

Do you do anything else with the PC?

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £229.99
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) - £188.99

Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent Midi Tower Case - Black - £139.99
Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm - £119.99

Grand Total £1,031.15 (includes delivery at £13.20)

I included a cooler because the case doesn't actually say it supports 240mm (every other size :o) and I assume the 9700K will still need one? You could have course, get a different case and dump the cooler. This is an affordable air option.
 
Last edited:
Tetras said:
Do you do anything else with the PC?

I included a cooler because the case doesn't actually say it supports 240mm (every other size :o) and I assume the 9700K will still need one? You could have course, get a different case and dump the cooler. This is an affordable air option.
Click to expand...

Not really no, just the usual youtube, googling how to hide vegetables in pasta so a 12 year old boy doesnt notice them etc

I do dabble in other games, even though im an adult and should know better, I buy every new version of the battlefield games!;)
I do like to play other games now and again, F1, Dirt Rally etc
His current build is my old one, Gigabyte Z97X gaming 5, 4790K, 1080ti and hes currently using it for Roblox!
Its using an MSI MAG Coreluiquid 240r V2 AIO which is compatible with the system I will be giving him.

Thank you for the advice
 
Quartz said:
Your PC looks pretty much okay. 16 GB of RAM may not be enough for MSFS, though. What you should do is run your games with Task Manager active on another monitor and see where the bottleneck occurs.
Click to expand...
Thank you, its just I am in the position to drop my budget on an upgrade just now, I have actually adulted properly for the first time in my life and saved enough to refresh the system. I dont want to wait much longer and have 2 tyres blow on me, or turn my heating on and wipe out my savings!
 
Buy your son a 5600, b550 motherboard, 16gb of 3200mhz memory and maybe a fast 1tb m2 and save your money.

Oh and maybe overclock your 9700k.
 
Last edited:
mickyflinn said:
Buy your son a 5600, b550 motherboard, 16gb of 3200mhz memory and maybe a fast 1tb m2 and save your money.

Oh and maybe overclock your 9700k.
Click to expand...
The boy has a samsung SSD980 m.2 as his system drive, and a Crucial BX500 ssd as his gaming drive.

My 9700k has been sitting at 4.8ghz for a while now.

I run a hand me down system, and one of my nephews has expressed his jealousy at his cousin having a gaming pc. It's his birthday soon, so the boy gets mine, the nephew gets his, and I am in a position to upgrade. Thats all im looking for mate.
 
IainR said:
Not really no, just the usual youtube, googling how to hide vegetables in pasta so a 12 year old boy doesnt notice them etc

I do dabble in other games, even though im an adult and should know better, I buy every new version of the battlefield games!;)
I do like to play other games now and again, F1, Dirt Rally etc
His current build is my old one, Gigabyte Z97X gaming 5, 4790K, 1080ti and hes currently using it for Roblox!
Its using an MSI MAG Coreluiquid 240r V2 AIO which is compatible with the system I will be giving him.

Thank you for the advice
Click to expand...

Ahh, alright. I was just checking that you don't do any productivity stuff, like rendering. The 7700 non-X is a very solid gaming CPU and if AM5 pans out like AM4, then when you're ready to upgrade, hopefully there will be a drop-in CPU that's much better than the first gen CPU.
 
Tetras said:
Ahh, alright. I was just checking that you don't do any productivity stuff, like rendering. The 7700 non-X is a very solid gaming CPU and if AM5 pans out like AM4, then when you're ready to upgrade, hopefully there will be a drop-in CPU that's much better than the first gen CPU.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the build advice, currently in a you tube rabbit hole!
Thank you
 
Last edited:
IainR said:
The boy has a samsung SSD980 m.2 as his system drive, and a Crucial BX500 ssd as his gaming drive.

My 9700k has been sitting at 4.8ghz for a while now.

I run a hand me down system, and one of my nephews has expressed his jealousy at his cousin having a gaming pc. It's his birthday soon, so the boy gets mine, the nephew gets his, and I am in a position to upgrade. Thats all im looking for mate.
Click to expand...
Understandable.

Intel 13500 offers great price to performance gaming its around 7600x level but has 8 extra smaller cores which can be handy for multitasking.

Amd Brother @Tetras has that covered.
 
Last edited:
mickyflinn said:
Understandable.

Intel 13500 offers great price to performance gaming its around 7600x level but has 8 extra smaller cores which can be handy for multitasking.

Amd Brother @Tetras has that covered.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the advice. This is what I was scared off when I had my son being a PC dad. Gotta run the hand me down system or turn to only fans!
 
IainR said:
Appreciate the advice. This is what I was scared off when I had my son being a PC dad. Gotta run the hand me down system or turn to only fans!
Click to expand...
I have 2 sons, It's when they want better tech than you have you should worry . :D

let us know which route you take, but if you do go intel 13th gen make sure you get a b760 or z790 motherboard other wise b660 a z690 need a bios update to take the 13th gen cpu, bios flash button solves that if the motherboard on the latter.
 
I went from a 9900k recently. Upgraded to a 13600k and it’s really allowed my 3090 to hit its full potential better. 9th gen are starting to show their age and like you, in cpu heavy games I felt limited.
 
TBH the only thing I'd consider changing is upping the RAM to 32GB of 3600Mhz or 3200MHz. FS likes a lot of RAM. (not that clued up on Intel, will his 9700K like that?)

If you don't already have one I'd also consider a big NVME Drive, 1TB at least and put the OS and FS2020 onto that for faster texture streaming as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom