Upgrade from 6600K or wait?

[Vinno]

Hey all,

I'll try to keep this quick, I'm currently running an i5 6600k OCd to 4.5 along with a RTX2080.

My pc is used for gaming mostly, along with some web browsing etc.
I game at 1440p and prefer to have everything on the highest settings for each game.

Up until the last few months that has been no problem at all, but in games such as Gears 5, The Outer Worlds and recently Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order I have been having issues. The games generally run at 60fps but I get stuttering here and there along with a spike to 100% CPU usage.

It's not a deal breaker but it's starting to annoy me a bit. I've been reading that 4 core CPUs are starting to struggle in modern games so I've been looking at possible upgrade paths.

I'm thinking that I should wait for the next gen of Intel's in the first half of next year? But with the black Friday sales maybe it's a good time to upgrade now?

Budget isn't a massive concern. The AMD 3950 is beyond my price range, but I could push the boat out and get something like the i9 9900k or even KS if it was a truly great upgrade which will last me 5 years or more.

Any help would be great.

Cheers!

 

[LePhuronn]

If you're considering dropping £600 on a 9900KS then I'd strongly consider a Ryzen 3900X instead as you get 4 more cores. Yes, the KS will give you a bit better gaming performance, but it's marginal: whether it's worth it over 4 more cores and the ability to upgrade your CPU for 1 more generation is entirely up to you.

And then also consider your 2080 is doing most of the work so you're not likely to be CPU bound, which means you can save a boatload of money by getting a 3800X or even 3700X and not see much performance loss, especially if you have a G-sync screen paired with your GPU.

Have a trawl through a load of 1440p gaming reviews with the 9900K, KS, 3700X and 3900X and see what comes up.

 

[alec]

Fastest gaming CPU on market is 9900KS.
While you say budget is not a concern, cooling/noise might be. It is the most power hungry desktop CPU on market.
Any Ryzen 3k will not bottleneck any modern game at 60fps

 

[Journey]

Whack in a cheap 6700K or 7700K, to tide you over. Will be interesting to see what Intel have to offer in Q1 '20

 

[orbitalwalsh]

depends on the game your playing ^^^ 9700k makes sense over 9900k personally . 10 core intels should be interesting, if still 14nm then speed should get a bump up along with small IPC . if 10nm then i havent a feeling speeds wouldn't increase due to new node but slightly cooler/less power

https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews...c_performance_review_and_optimisation_guide/6

https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/software/gears_5_pc_performance_review_optimisation_guide/6

so least going 3700x/9700k you'll see some lifts with more to come in future . as for PS5/Xbox using 8 Core ryzen - it will be up to the company Porting to PC to get good scaling across the CPU cores . Current ones already multicore and used to max but **** poor ports render most of them 2/4 cores via PC Port

 

[IT Troll]

You are going to have to get a new motherboard to go Intel 9th gen and so it is definitely worth considering AMD instead. If you are set on Intel then the KF chips are often overlooked. I picked up a 9900KF (with same stepping as 9900KS but with 3-years warranty) for less than a 3800X.

 

[Orange Nexus]

Total £348


CPU R5 3600 £179

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am4-processor-retail-cp-3b9-am.html

Motherboard MSI B450 MAX £99

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-socket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-33t-ms.html

RAM Ballistic 3200 CL 16 £70

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...gb-kit-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-udimm-my-20b-cr.html

When Ryzen 4000 arrives, then decide if you need to upgrade.

 

[humbug]

Total £348


CPU R5 3600 £179

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am4-processor-retail-cp-3b9-am.html

Motherboard MSI B450 MAX £99

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-socket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-33t-ms.html

RAM Ballistic 3200 CL 16 £70

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...gb-kit-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-udimm-my-20b-cr.html

When Ryzen 4000 arrives, then decide if you need to upgrade.

This, you don't need a £500 CPU, the 3600 is a sub £200 CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads, its equivalent to an 8700K while you can get a decent Motherboard, RAM and the CPU for the cost of the 8700K alone....

 

[Orange Nexus]

This, you don't need a £500 CPU, the 3600 is a sub £200 CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads, its equivalent to an 8700K while you can get a decent Motherboard, RAM and the CPU for the cost of the 8700K alone....

Best overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RjS3AhDyJg&feature=youtu.be

Then Ryzen 4000 will eventually be Best for Gaming. It is INEVITABLE..

 

[humbug]

Best overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RjS3AhDyJg&feature=youtu.be

Then Ryzen 4000 will eventually be Best for Gaming. It is INEVITABLE..

Yeah, IMO Ryzen 4000 will take everything from Intel, everything.

 

[Vinno]

Thank you for the replies guys.

When Ryzen 4000 arrives, then decide if you need to upgrade.

Going AMD and then upgrading again later down the line seems like the more favourable option. But when the Ryzen 4000 comes out won't I then need to get a new motherboard again?

How long are we expecting to wait for Ryzen 4000? I wouldn't mind going this route if the wait is going to be quite a while.

A friend of mine was trying to sell me on the 3600 earlier actually. He recently upgraded and can san nothing but good things about it.

 

[humbug]

Thank you for the replies guys.



Going AMD and then upgrading again later down the line seems like the more favourable option. But when the Ryzen 4000 comes out won't I then need to get a new motherboard again?

How long are we expecting to wait for Ryzen 4000? I wouldn't mind going this route if the wait is going to be quite a while.

A friend of mine was trying to sell me on the 3600 earlier actually. He recently upgraded and can san nothing but good things about it.

The Motherboard that Orange Nexus linked will be compatible with Ryzen 4000, AMD promised AM4 compatibility all the way up to and including Ryzen 4000 and they have come good on that so far, i'm running a 3600 on a first generation Ryzen Motherboard, i bought it along with a Ryzen 1600.

Ryzen 4000 is due mid next year, roughly around June.

Edit: it will likely need a BIOS update to make it Ryzen 4000 compatible when it lands.

 

[Vinno]

I have spent most of the evening looking at reviews, and it looks like I have a bit of thinking to do lol.

I don't like the idea of doing a "budget upgrade" with the view to upgrade again within a year or two. But it seems more appealing than throwing £500 at an intel CPU which I can't upgrade should I need or want to and having to buy a new motherboard also.

Is this just a very bad time for someone in my position to upgrade? I feel like there is something of a comprimise in either of the choices.

 

[LePhuronn]

Is this just a very bad time for someone in my position to upgrade? I feel like there is something of a comprimise in either of the choices.

No, it's a fantastic time to upgrade if you disregard Intel entirely, as really you should.

Zen 2 is monstrously good. Ryzen 3000 matches or beats Intel in every real-world metric that counts, and Ryzen does trail the performance gap isn't that big but is substantially cheaper, and in the case of gaming you can put the money saved towards a bigger GPU which will net you a bigger gaming boost anyway. You have solid motherboard choices from B450 and X470 last generation, X570 boards from the current generation which don't break the bank and B550 boards coming very soon. All of these boards will take a Ryzen 4000 CPU next year with a BIOS update. So there is actually an upgrade path, and it's entirely possible that Ryzen 3000 and 4000 CPUs may retain a healthy resale value come 2021 so if you want to upgrade again, you can offset the cost of a new AM5 system by selling your old kit.

So what compromise is there with Ryzen?

 

[4K8KW10]

These two tables show that the best gaming CPUs are the Ryzen 9 3900X with 87.5/79.3 FPS 1%/0.1% lows in RDR2 and the Ryzen 9 3950X with its super high 1%/0.1% lows in AC.

Worth mentioning is the super low 6.3 FPS 0.1% low on the i7-9700K and 17.1 FPS 0.1% low on the i5-9600K - those are very poor gaming chips in the RDR2, specifically.

 

[IT Troll]

Worth mentioning is the super low 6.3 FPS 0.1% low on the i7-9700K and 17.1 FPS 0.1% low on the i5-9600K - those are very poor gaming chips in the RDR2, specifically.

Also worth mentioning that this is a known engine bug when exceeding 120 FPS is medium settings. Doesn’t affect other slower CPUs or if quality/resolution is increased.

 

[4K8KW10]

Also worth mentioning that this is a known engine bug when exceeding 120 FPS is medium settings. Doesn’t affect other slower CPUs or if quality/resolution is increased.

I wouldn't call the lack of threads a "bug" lol The engines simply demand and require more threads. You also see that the Ryzen 5 3600 with SMT off does the same thing in the other game.
Increasing the settings/resolution shifts the workload more towards the GPU, hence "the bug" becomes less obvious..

 

[IT Troll]

I wouldn't call the lack of threads a "bug" lol

OK, explain the 8 thread 7700K result then.

Very similar frame rate cap bug was found in GTA.

 

[TrM]

I wouldn't call the lack of threads a "bug" lol The engines simply demand and require more threads. You also see that the Ryzen 5 3600 with SMT off does the same thing in the other game.
Increasing the settings/resolution shifts the workload more towards the GPU, hence "the bug" becomes less obvious..

sorry but isn’t that the point though ? Yes ryzen 3900x is good gaming chip in game but still behind the 9900k with setting turned down on a 2080ti and talki about the best gaming chips require the best gpu.

but it’s well known that gta5 and now rdr2 has some sort of issue above x FPS and that is there engine limitation not a bug. You cherry pick stuff to try and make the point that 4 core and 6 core CPU’s are dead. But there not.

I would really love to know how many 2080ti owners here have a quad core intel or even a 6 core intel that doesn’t play at 4K 60hz or 4k 120hz we’re it doesn’t matter what cpu they have.

mall that graph shows me and what a lot of people already know a balanced system is a high priority. And most users with a quad core intel cpu will be on 2070’s amd 5700 or lower or older gpu’s and even rdr2 stats change a lot becouse there systems without going to low and 720p can’t hit the limitations in rdr2 to have such a bad experiance.

we take to much information from a 2080ti at 1080p/720p to show performance merits between CPU’s when the end user will never see it becouse they don’t want to drop 1k plus for a gpu.

 

[Orange Nexus]

I have spent most of the evening looking at reviews, and it looks like I have a bit of thinking to do lol.

I don't like the idea of doing a "budget upgrade" with the view to upgrade again within a year or two. But it seems more appealing than throwing £500 at an intel CPU which I can't upgrade should I need or want to and having to buy a new motherboard also.

Is this just a very bad time for someone in my position to upgrade? I feel like there is something of a comprimise in either of the choices.

You can go and wait for a 3950 or just get a 9900K. Just informing you that Ryzen 4000 is around the corner and even B450 boards will work. Got a R5 3600 myself on a cheap B350 paired with a 5700XT. If you have a 2080 Ti, then the R5 3600 will not be the best place holder. Maybe a R7 3800 at less than £400. But £400 for just a cpu to be paired with a 2080?