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9600k - Should I upgrade?

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Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2006
Posts
4,689
Just after some opinions here, on whether I should upgrade my current 9600k CPU.

I'm about to move my rig over from it's current home of a Fractal Define Nano in to a Streacom DA2 with a custom water loop incorporating both the CPU and graphics card.

As it's such a small and tight build to complete I'm wondering whether I should upgrade my CPU at this time too, to be more "future proof" (I know this doesn't really exist), as upgrading at a later date will be a royal pain in the ***!

The build will have two 240mm radiators, one 30mm thick and the other only 17mm thick and the tiniest of reservoirs, so the cooling capacity won't be the greatest, but it will be sufficient for low noise and decent enough temperatures even with a 3080 pulling upwards of 300w.

Do you believe I should slap in a 9700k or 9900k at this point in time, or is it really not worth it for the extra money as a gamer?
 
There are a few games that aren't keen on 6 thread CPUs and suffer in the lows, but they're still in a minority right now, so I'd say it depends what your plans are. If you can get a 9700/9900 at a decent price and plan to keep the PC awhile, then I'd consider it. Otherwise, if you're not playing the games that care, then I'd just make do until the next overhaul.
 
i have a 9600k clocked to 4.8ghz and have no issues in games but i only play at 75hz/fps. The only game so far that taxes my cpu is warzone. 60-70% (80% max spike) load at most everything else is under 50% load for the most part of other games i play. However games are taking more use of more than 8+ threads and would benefit from 8+ threads over 6 threads. If your not cpu bottlenecked then you will be fine for a good 2 years at most. If your have the cash then get a 9700k or if budget allows and a deal strikes you get a 9900k. You will be thankful in the next 2 years when 6 threads just wont cut it. 6 threads are in the same position now as 4 threads were 2-3 years ago. What hz is your monitor?
 
i upgraded from a 9600k to a 9900k and there was quite a difference for me with games that could utilise the extra cores. Some games would stutter abit and wouldn't be as smooth but with the 9900k its flawless. Hoping it will last quite a few more years yet before i need to even look at cpu's again.
 
It will be only a slight bump not worth it. I would wait for either Intel Alder Lake or the next AMD Zen 4, but if you have the money to spend and really want something new, by all means.
 
The difference you'd see depends on what games you play and how many hertz your monitor runs at, not many will be limited by the 9600K at this point. If you do I'd go for the 9900K as only 2 more cores without hyperthreading on the 9700K really doesn't seem worthwhile in any scenario.
 
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