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CPU/platform upgrade from i5 3570k

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Currently using an i5 3570k 4Ghz, z77 itx, 8GB, and a 3070 FE.

I am seeing CPU limitations now specially on Bluestacks emulator and the 3070 being underutilized. Now with Black friday deals approaching I am thinking of an upgrade.

Budget is around £300 for cpu, board, and ram. Cheaper is better.

All my research/googling is leading to ryzen 3600, a B450/B550, and 16g/32g of ram. Are there anything I am missing?

I rarely upgrade cpu as you can see with my current cpu.

Thanks.
 
Man of Honour
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Intel option for your budget would be 11400f and a b460/b560 motherboard . The b560 lets you run the memory at higher frequency than a b460 which limits memory to 2666mhz with the above 11400f.
 
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Would going intel not limit potential upgrade due to socket? Was thinking like 3600 to 5600 or something

I forgot to mention I dont mind going used as well from MM.

if you're okay with going used and looking at your budget I would go the 3600/ 5600 route with a B550 board (RAM capacity is down to you) because AMD have said their 3D cache CPUs will be the last to support AM4 so you have that upgrade path there. Going 11th Gen Intel would limit you unless if you go for a CPU such as the 11900k after a 11400f. But the B550 also gives you the Ryzen 9 5900x or 5950x should it be needed.

Personally I would recommend you go for the Ryzen 5 with a B550 board and minimum of 3200MHz RAM.
 
Soldato
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If you wait 2-3 months, you could maybe get a 12th gen. Alder Lake CPU for around £100, this would likely be called the Core i3-12100 or i3-12300. If you can stretch to a 12400, that would be even better.

and possibly get a B660 motherboard for another £100. Then spend the rest on a kit of 16GB DDR4 RAM. This is actually the super cheap bit, you can get 16GB RAM kits for ~£50 now.
 
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Soldato
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Im in the same boat with a 3570k. I personally want double the single core performance from my cpu, which is about 400 in cpuz so im gona be after something near 800. Which is going to be either the new alderlake 12600 or im hoping that theres gona be a 3d cache version of a 5600 that might get to them numbers.

All games use 1 core heavy so single core is still a big factor for performance even if games can use multiple ones even with a semi even spread, a lot of monitoring tools looks like the data shows shared ultilization but a dev of egosoft says they arnt that accurate like afterburner or even task manager to show truely how 1 core will be used more than others and x4 from ego is multithreaded but it hammers 1 core in particular so im gona go single thread as the main benefit of a upgrade so yeah i want 800 or near in cpuz benchmark for ST performance.

Probs cost a bit more than say just upgrading to a 3600 or 5600 but if it lets me not upgrade for another 7 years as i bought this around 2013-14 ish then it would be worth it.

Personally im trying to hold off cos i absolutly hate building new pcs, i mean its not hard but i just hate wiring em all up, doing the cooler etc. Suppose thats why i have put off upgrading for so long and just tried to do gpu upgrades.

I mean personally i can play pretty much anything i have except x4 smoothly on stations. I dont buy a lot of aaa games like cod or bf so maybe my cpu aint great there but the games i specifically have are all fine. Thats another reason why i havent needed to really upgrade. And anything that did have a issue is usually a game issue due to engine used or just crap port.

Im also wondering if i went amd, then id probs should wait for am5 boards as am4 is end of life more or less now, yes u can buy a 5600 and get later on a 5800 or 5950 but they will always be expensive for a LONG time. Intel well they use new chipsets every few years so im also wary or that for a way to expand cpus if i get whatever platform the alderlakes are on for example, as knowing me i get a alderlake 12600 then in 6 years time the socket for new intel cpus would have changed and it be like a new mb cpu and probs ram combo all over again. And the higher cpus for that board might still be expensive all them years later, who knows.
 
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Im fine waiting 2-3 months specially if it will be big benefit / lower cost. The slow down im experiencing are noticeable but not game breaking.

Im the same Skeeter, rewiring everything again is a pain. Plus it has been stable for its lifetime so far which is a blessing and curse (no reason to upgrade lol)
 
Soldato
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Ok, if I were you I'd spend the most on the CPU, at the mid/low end, the motherboard and RAM matter less, as I doubt you will be overclocking (accept for turbo boost) anyway. You can probably spend at least £150 on the CPU, assuming you stick with a DDR4 motherboard and RAM.

The 12400 /12400f (6 core CPU) should offer single core performance that is similar, or a bit better than current Zen 3 CPUs, like the 5600X and 5800X. Might as well wait for some reviews.
 
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Soldato
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Keep your eyes open for good used deals IMO, just got a Ryzen 5 3600X with a B450 Tomahawk Max for £130, and got 16GB 3600MHz C16 RAM and a 500GB M.2 SSD for another £85. They are pairing it with an RTX 3060, so should be a great system once they finally choose a case, and I get it built. :)
 
Soldato
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If you are looking to avoid any CPU bottlenecks (at least for now) with your RTX 3070, you could consider stretching to a 12700 / 12700K. You can see a review of a 128 player battle in Battlefield 2042, pushing a 12700K to it's limits, with 0.1% lows of 60 FPS here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fIf-C8UjWY&t=415s

The 12600K is still getting 1% lows of 68 FPS though, which is still pretty good. In general, Zen 3 CPUs still hold up well in this game, I wouldn't be surprised if Zen 3 CPUs with V-cache kept up with Alder Lake here.

You'll need some decent DDR4 to play this game really smoothly, which is discussed about 9 minutes into the video.

Halo Infinite has some pretty high CPU recommendations too...
 
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Is this a fair summary? Ive been thinking about it more leaning towards the all out option seeing how my i5 lasted. Maybe going top tier will last longer (could be false economy)?

Go used with bang for buck with ryzen 3600 or maybe intel 10 gen
Go new and mid range with alderlakes/rocketlake i5s and ryzen 5s
Go all out with i7 / ryzen 7 3d cache
 
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The only real problem besides waiting for the Ryzen 3D series is that the newest tech stuff is more expensive.
CES 2022 (big tech event) starts in early January so I am sure AMD will give us at least at a lunch date at this event.

Remember AMD might lower their whole Ryzen 5000 price range around Ryzen’s 3D launch, so you might be able to score a cheaper Ryzen 5600X or even a 8 core 5800X.
 
Soldato
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Also, with Alder lake out and Intel back on top I think we should see either a price drop on the 5600x or a non x 5600 variant at a sub £200 price point in the near future.

The 5600x looks ridiculously overpriced at near £300 in the current market IMO.
 
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Well someone managed to employ AMD to mine coins again so to me that is the reason why the prices don't fall. The question as always is whether to wait more or jump straight in to current offers? Perhaps this is the first decision before choosing a brand/platform.
 
Associate
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i5-10400f £128 b560 will let you set all core 4ghz runs cool and uses bugger all power
16GB RAM 3200 £45-50 with ram prices you might as well go 32gb
b560 board midrange 90-100 pick one with 3 m2 slots two will be unlocked and useable ( i5-11400f will unlock the other slot but performance is near identical but about £20 more if you can find one )

have the i5 in my system at the minute and perfect for my needs
 
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Associate
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Is this a fair summary? Ive been thinking about it more leaning towards the all out option seeing how my i5 lasted. Maybe going top tier will last longer (could be false economy)?

Go used with bang for buck with ryzen 3600 or maybe intel 10 gen
Go new and mid range with alderlakes/rocketlake i5s and ryzen 5s
Go all out with i7 / ryzen 7 3d cache

I was in a similar position to you and went with the i5 with dd5 and new tech starting to turn up things could change a lot in the next two years

my last i5-6600 lasted me five years just about
 
Soldato
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12700 / 12700f FTW. If you are going to upgrade, why settle for a half measure?

These CPUs should be available in Jan/Feb 2022. They should cost ~£300, based on the 12700KF prices.

Noctua is updating their coolers to support the LGA1700 socket in December and January, according to this list:
https://noctua.at/en/productfaqs/productfaq/view/id/247/

I'm curious what kind of cooler may be bundled with the 12700, I think the last rumour said Intel's cooler might only handle CPU power consumption upto 100 watts.
 
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No BF deals still catching my eyes. Might have to stick longer with my setup.

For cooling I use the Freezer 34 esports duo. Thankfully Arctic is suppling free brackets if there is proof of purchase of alderlakes
 
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