Ryzen 5 2600 upgrade to keep up with 3060Ti

[Shashman]

Hi all!

Been a while since I've posted here but it's that 'itch' time again.

I was one of the lucky sods who nabbed themselves a 3060Ti at RRP 3 months ago, but I feel like my trusty old Ryzen 5 2600 could be holding it back a bit. Is that the case? I'm happy with the performance, however I have a feeling that it could be even better, and this processor is over 3 years old now hence the aforementioned itch.

Full system specs are:

ASRock B450M-HDV AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6 Core CPU
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x 8GB) 3000MHz DDR4 RAM
Founders Edition 3060 Ti GPU
Corsair RM850 850 Watt 80 PLUS Gold Certified Fully Modular PSU
Adata XPG SX8200 480GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe
Adata Ultimate SU650 120GB 2.5" SATA III SSD
Deepcool Captain 120 EX 120mm Extreme Performance All-In-One Liquid CPU cooler
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv mATX case
AOC Q3279VWFD8 31.5" QHD IPS 75Hz Monitor

I don't really want to be spending more than 400, so what are my options?

I mainly play Escape from Tarkov, which currently I'm running at near enough maxed graphics settings, but I do experience the odd frame drop.

Cheers guys!

Edit: Sorry, forgot to say I game at 1440p
Edit 2: Not fussed about OC'ing

 

[mickyflinn]

1440p is more gpu bound.

https://www.techspot.com/amp/article/2201-four-years-of-ryzen-5-gpu-scaling/

 

[BogEyes]

I noticed a difference when upgrading from a 2600 to a 3600.

I was running a vega 56 at the time, but was at 1080p.

Running some benchmarks, the most noticeable factor was my average 0.1% lows, and 1% lows were higher, with the 3600.

Considering it was a sub £40 upgrade at the time it was well worth the money imo.

 

[Gray2233]

Use MSI Afterburners OSD to see if you'd actually benefit from a CPU upgrade, it will let you observe your CPU and GPU usage in real time.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Whilst the 3600 would be an improvement, the only CPU of choice here is the Ryzen 5600X*.
You won't regret it. I went from a 3600 to a 5800X and the improvement in gaming is huge.

*Or 5800X if you find a very good deal, but for gaming it is barely any faster than the 5600X.

 

[BogEyes]

Whilst the 3600 would be an improvement, the only CPU of choice here is the Ryzen 5600X*.
You won't regret it. I went from a 3600 to a 5800X and the improvement in gaming is huge.

*Or 5800X if you find a very good deal, but for gaming it is barely any faster than the 5600X.

What was noticeable if you don't mind me asking?

And what GPU/resolution are you on.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

I run 3440x1440 @ 75hz.

I found that games are now pinned to 75fps and never drop at all. All the lows have been raised on CPU bound games.
Coming from a 2600 you will definitely notice a difference with a 5600X (especially stutters), since the 2600 really doesn't have great single threaded performance.

It is correct that at 1440P many games are GPU bound rather than CPU bound, but the 2600 is not an equal match for your GPU .

 

[Rroff]

I run 3440x1440 @ 75hz.

I found that games are now pinned to 75fps and never drop at all. All the lows have been raised on CPU bound games.
Coming from a 2600 you will definitely notice a difference with a 5600X (especially stutters), since the 2600 really doesn't have great single threaded performance.

It is correct that at 1440P many games are GPU bound rather than CPU bound, but the 2600 is not an equal match for your GPU .

I wouldn't say it is that badly mismatched - I have my CPU overclocked to perform a little better than the 2600 in games and largely see ~97% GPU utilisation with my 3070FE in games at 1440p. The minimum framerates can be a bit of a bigger difference - I think this illustrates it fairly well:



Though it is 1080p the use of 8x AA makes it more representative vs 1440p in gaming.

With a 3060ti it will be slightly less pronounced (there will be some games where it is more or less of a difference).

 

[Shashman]

Cheers for the responses so far!

If I'm not mistaken, Escape from Tarkov is quite CPU-heavy? I've noticed times for example in the Woods map where frames will drop until I look at the ground for a bit, then they get back to normal. Also when I ADS sometimes I notice a significant (albeit temporary) drop in frames.

How much would I be looking at for a 5800X and motherboard? I'm really not fussed with bells and whistles.

What about a switch to Intel's 11400F? Apparently it's the new king in terms of bang for buck?

 

[mickyflinn]

You dont need a new motherboard a 5800x will work on yours with a bios update.

11400f and a b560 motherboard will cost about £250 + Depending on motherboard choice and is a great budget choice although i would get the 11400 as the intergrated gpu can be handy.

 

[Joxeon]

Whilst the 3600 would be an improvement, the only CPU of choice here is the Ryzen 5600X*.
You won't regret it. I went from a 3600 to a 5800X and the improvement in gaming is huge.

*Or 5800X if you find a very good deal, but for gaming it is barely any faster than the 5600X.

I went from a 3600 to a 5800X @1440p 144hz with an RTX 3080 and found there was barely any improvement in the majority of games.

SOTTR was the largest improvement I saw.

Watchdogs legion on the other hand like many games saw no improvement what so ever.

 

[Shashman]

I went from a 3600 to a 5800X @1440p 144hz with an RTX 3080 and found there was barely any improvement in the majority of games.

Wow, that's mad! Although to be fair you're more future-proofed now with the 5800X than with the 3600...

I also occasionally fire up Flight Sim 2020 btw, I would imagine improvements being more noticeable in that?

 

[Joxeon]

Wow, that's mad! Although to be fair you're more future-proofed now with the 5800X than with the 3600...

I also occasionally fire up Flight Sim 2020 btw, I would imagine improvements being more noticeable in that?

Yeah FS2020 should give a decent improvement since it only runs on 4 cores so single core speed is very important for that title.

A 5600X would be the natural upgrade choice since you already have the MB to support it but the cost is quite high for 6 cores so maybe worth waiting to see if they do a refresh in a couple of months so CPUs like the 5600X could end up heavily discounted.

 

[Shashman]

Ok thanks, that seems like a very good option then.

So how would I go about updating my BIOS? Last time I checked the update feature of my BIOS (couple of months ago, just out of curiosity), it told me no updates were available.

 

[Digital X]

Instructions here: https://www.asrock.com/support/BIOSIG.asp?cat=BIOS10

Version 4.40 is the latest for that board. 29th March 2021.

 

[Shashman]

Instructions here: https://www.asrock.com/support/BIOSIG.asp?cat=BIOS10

Version 4.40 is the latest for that board. 29th March 2021.

Ah amazing, thanks a lot!

 

[Shashman]

Would a switch to Intel be recommended?

 

[Digital X]

From me, no. You'd have to buy a board and CPU and could be looking up to £300 depending on what you buy (I haven't had Intel since the 3xxx series) You could always lower some graphic settings that have little visual impact to gain some FPS. I know that's not ideal as a lot of people want to max their settings and be done with it.

 

[Shashman]

I've found a Ryzen 5 5600X for £240... Very tempting now

 

[Digital X]

At that price I would definitely do it. Can always sell the old CPU and make a little back.