No idea if I should upgrade or not

fritzo · 3 Oct 2021 at 16:47

And if I should, what to?

So I changed out my GPU and recased at the beginning of the year, after buying a 144hz 1440p ultra wide and needing a more modern GPU than a r290 to drive (great timing on my part…)

So current specs are as follows:
5820k @ 4.5ghz
16gb @2400mhz
Msi x99 krait mobo
Powercolor 6800XT red dragon
Corsair 850rmx
Sata Ssd’s

Cpu is water cooled, GPU is using the air cooler due to panic buying without due diligence and then finding no one made a water block for it…

So I’m getting a bit of an upgrade itch and debating relative merits of a cpu, mobo and ram upgrade

Obviously the current cpu and ancillaries are a few years old and things have moved on a fair bit however I’m not sure how much I’m currently being held back and whether an upgrade would give me anything tangible

Only really gets used for gaming and RDR2 being the only game that pushes anything currently, although I’m debating getting into sim racing

So I guess my questions are

Is it worth upgrading or wait it out another 6months / year (zen 4 / ddr5 etc etc)

Or upgrade now and if so what should I be looking at?

thanks Fritzo

khull · 3 Oct 2021 at 17:32

Slightly off topic, I thought EKWB did 6800XT waterblocks? you have a decent rig already so a custom loop would actually help in extracting performance

mickyflinn · 3 Oct 2021 at 17:51

Hold fire intel Alderlake release in 5 weeks.

fritzo · 3 Oct 2021 at 18:37

khull said:
Slightly off topic, I thought EKWB did 6800XT waterblocks? you have a decent rig already so a custom loop would actually help in extracting performance

I was checking left right and centre with all the various manufactures when I bought it and no one did a specific block

ekwb do a block for the Red Devil but nothing compatible with the red dragon not sure what the differences are and alphacool wanted me to take a pic of the PCB which obviously wasn’t going to happen

thinks may have changed now but the reason for the recase was due to thermals and going from an evolve x to an o11D seems to have solved it the GPU never goes above 85 on the air cooler so inclined to just live with it

fritzo · 3 Oct 2021 at 18:38

mickyflinn said:
Hold fire intel Alderlake release in 5 weeks.

seems sensible and in no rush I guess other than boredom lol

Joxeon · 3 Oct 2021 at 19:56

I doubt you will have much bottleneck especially with an AMD card which has less overhead than Nvidia so would probably hold on another year for Zen 4 / raptor lake and by that time DDR5 should have matured somewhat.

turbot1984 · 3 Oct 2021 at 20:05

like others have said I would hold on and do a big Alder Lake refresh ... IF ( and its a big IF) the 10 core 12600k ships for £300 ish, that will be a big boost from your venerable 5820K. Looks like the 16 core 12900K will be stupid money.

4K8KW10 · 3 Oct 2021 at 20:39

fritzo said:
And if I should, what to?

So I changed out my GPU and recased at the beginning of the year, after buying a 144hz 1440p ultra wide and needing a more modern GPU than a r290 to drive (great timing on my part…)

So current specs are as follows:
5820k @ 4.5ghz
16gb @2400mhz
Msi x99 krait mobo
Powercolor 6800XT red dragon
Corsair 850rmx
Sata Ssd’s

Cpu is water cooled, GPU is using the air cooler due to panic buying without due diligence and then finding no one made a water block for it…

So I’m getting a bit of an upgrade itch and debating relative merits of a cpu, mobo and ram upgrade

Obviously the current cpu and ancillaries are a few years old and things have moved on a fair bit however I’m not sure how much I’m currently being held back and whether an upgrade would give me anything tangible

Only really gets used for gaming and RDR2 being the only game that pushes anything currently, although I’m debating getting into sim racing

So I guess my questions are

Is it worth upgrading or wait it out another 6months / year (zen 4 / ddr5 etc etc)

Or upgrade now and if so what should I be looking at?

thanks Fritzo

Core i7-5820K is an old CPU.
Upgrade to Ryzen 9 5900X or wait two-three weeks for the new 12th gen Core i9 12... something.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Twelve Core 4.8GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £518.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit= £149.99
1 x MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £179.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo Black/White CPU Cooler - 2 x 120mm= £34.99
1 x Samsung 980 Pro 500GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £99.95

Total: £994.41 (includes shipping: £10.50)

RevBillyG · 4 Oct 2021 at 09:14

I'm in same boat, 5820k @4.5 with a 2070 Super. Also have the upgrade itch but I've decided to wait a little while longer since the CPU seems to handle my needs just fine.
That might change on the release of BF2042 though

Craig_d1 · 4 Oct 2021 at 09:19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFyPYuzZdFM&t=204s&ab_channel=HardwareUnboxed

hardware unboxed do a teardown of your gpu. 4m21 nice shot of the pcb

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt/5.html

and the reference

I'd be tempted to at hold off at least to alderlake release minimum. See how it performs and see what AMD do to pricing if it outperforms them. Hopefully might get a better idea on am5 release etc also

fritzo · 4 Oct 2021 at 10:26

Craig - good find, thanks for that

all - guess I’ll wait which always seems to be what happens whenever I get an upgrade itch lol

jigger · 4 Oct 2021 at 10:31

fritzo said:
And if I should, what to?

So I changed out my GPU and recased at the beginning of the year, after buying a 144hz 1440p ultra wide and needing a more modern GPU than a r290 to drive (great timing on my part…)

So current specs are as follows:
5820k @ 4.5ghz
16gb @2400mhz
Msi x99 krait mobo
Powercolor 6800XT red dragon
Corsair 850rmx
Sata Ssd’s

Cpu is water cooled, GPU is using the air cooler due to panic buying without due diligence and then finding no one made a water block for it…

So I’m getting a bit of an upgrade itch and debating relative merits of a cpu, mobo and ram upgrade

Obviously the current cpu and ancillaries are a few years old and things have moved on a fair bit however I’m not sure how much I’m currently being held back and whether an upgrade would give me anything tangible

Only really gets used for gaming and RDR2 being the only game that pushes anything currently, although I’m debating getting into sim racing

So I guess my questions are

Is it worth upgrading or wait it out another 6months / year (zen 4 / ddr5 etc etc)

Or upgrade now and if so what should I be looking at?

thanks Fritzo

Plenty of chips will give you a large boost but I think you have the answer.

Only really gets used for gaming and RDR2 being the only game that pushes anything currently, although I’m debating getting into sim racing

Get the game and see how the system holds out.