9600KF Upgrade

[Antony101]

Hi guys,

I've currently got a 9600KF sat in an MSI Z390 MEG ACE with 32GB of DDR4 memory. I recently upgraded my 3060Ti to a 7800XT and it now appears I'm getting some CPU bottlenecks in certain games.

What would be a budget friendly upgrade I could make to bring the PC more up to date? Please be honest however as I'd rather have to spend more money than end up with something that won't last me a couple of years at least.

I currently game at 3440 x 1440 if that has any bearing on what CPU I'd look at. My PSU is an old Corsair AX750 that has served me extremely well, I'd rather not have to replace this if possible but understand it's getting on a bit.

EDIT: I'm not sure if this should be in the "New to PC gaming & upgrade advice" section instead.

 

[Antony101]

If I could source a 9900k second hand would that be a decent upgrade or would you say save the money and just go for the full socket change?

 

[Antony101]

Just a quick question, with me having a 7800XT would there be any benefit from getting an AMD processor? Is there any benefits unlocked from both components being AMD?

 

[Antony101]

Okay, so I'm looking at grabbing these two;

Intel Core i5 12600KF
MSI PRO B760-P WIFI DDR4

All in it's £292 delivered.

Would you say this is a good call or should I hold out for further drops?

Are the MSI PRO boards any good, I see they are aimed at workstations and not gaming?

 

[Antony101]

Motherboard wise I just need it to drive my DT770s via the 3.5mm jack and then rear USB is just speakers and wireless mouse and keyboard. I quite like how understated it is. My MEG ACE has a load of random LEDs and RGB and it's a bit annoying to be honest.

I don't mind paying a few quid more if I'd see some noticable difference but the PC is used soley for gaming so it doesn't need anything too fancy.

 

[Antony101]

Overclock that 9600kf

I can get it running reasonably stable at around 4.8GHz / 4.9GHz but anything above that and it either stutters or blue screens. I'd rather just upgrade to something straight forward and stable as I don't have the time to put much effort into getting a stable overclock.

 

[Antony101]

My upgrade plans are now on hold as my car is looking like it'll need a new turbo so I'm going to have to pour my money into that pit.

Once the car, the missus and the kid are all happy I'll revisit this

Thanks for the help so far though, with a bit of luck they'll be a few more options around when I look again in a month or two!

 

[Antony101]

I'm starting to revisit this now as the car is hopefully sorted now. I thought maybe a 7600X maybe a better option than putting money into a dead Intel socket. What are people's thoughts on this?

 

[Antony101]

31st AMD will be releasing there newest CPU's 9000 series, hopefully that will push down prices.

New AMD processors are due out at the end of the month so maybe worth waiting

I had heard something was coming but didn't realise it was so soon, thank you.

If I'm looking at a budget upgrade to get me into DDR5 and AM5 is a cheap 7600X worth it these days? I'm assuming the 9000 series isn't going to be "cheap" on release.

 

[Antony101]

The 7600x is a solid choice but doesn't come with the stock cooler the 7600 mite be wiser choice for a budget build.

DDR5 600OMHZ is what you should aim for, ideally c30 but not really that important.

I have a 360mm AIO cooler so from that aspect I don't need to worry. I just want to get rid of my 9600KF as it bottlenecks my 7800XT in a few games now. I've also discovered an issue with some of my memory so it's pushed me to swapping to DDR5. It's a budget upgrade more so than a budget build.