A little upgrade help please

[Flake87]

Currently I have an i7 5820K and I thinking (not going to) about upgrading in the near future. The AMD 5900 is an attractive price ATM with discounts available, and bundles on offer, but there is a new CPU suposedly to be launched in the Autumn which will give and indicated 10 - 15% uptick in performance but some newer features which are eye wateringlu expensive such as DDR5

The Question is and I know a lot here is going to be unknown, is the wait for the new CPU going to be worth it, or is it better to just buy into the existing tech, or even wait some time for prices to fall on the new release ?

 

[Dg834man]

What you want to use the pc for? Current cpu overclocked?

 

[Tetras]

If you're happy with the performance you have (5820K is pretty good), then I'd just wait it out. While the world economy tanks I can't imagine there will be a buying frenzy of computer parts any time soon, so I wouldn't rush to buy.

 

[Flake87]

The PC is used for 4K gaming with a 3080 occasionally, but probably like everyone else it is used as the main home PC.

Perhaps it's a more philosophical question than an urgent need to upgade. The 5820 won't run Windows 11 which for me is no big deal other than staying up to date. The current 5900 AMD CPU will double the performance of the current CPU but as you say I haven't really come across anything the 5820 struggles to run. The current pricing of the AMD CPUs is quite attractive, and the X99 motherboard I have is fetching a surprising amount of money on the bay.

The new Ryzen to arrive in September allegedly offers more performance and DDR5 PCIe5 and will of course cost substantially more money than the older generation, is that a price worth paying?

As for the world economy yes it is in trouble, but producers aren't going to reduce their prices much. Maybe there will be the odd bargain from companies going bust, but the worst scenario is the Chinese invasion of Taiwan and the scorched Earth policy for high tech installations like TSMC which will cease to exist in that eventuality which might not be so remote as we would all like to think. The consequences of that for the world would be grim indeed.

 

[Drollic]

At this stage with that cpu and res I'd wait for amd release, ddr5 and pcie5.

 

[Tetras]

The PC is used for 4K gaming with a 3080 occasionally, but probably like everyone else it is used as the main home PC.

Perhaps it's a more philosophical question than an urgent need to upgade. The 5820 won't run Windows 11 which for me is no big deal other than staying up to date. The current 5900 AMD CPU will double the performance of the current CPU but as you say I haven't really come across anything the 5820 struggles to run. The current pricing of the AMD CPUs is quite attractive, and the X99 motherboard I have is fetching a surprising amount of money on the bay.

The new Ryzen to arrive in September allegedly offers more performance and DDR5 PCIe5 and will of course cost substantially more money than the older generation, is that a price worth paying?

As for the world economy yes it is in trouble, but producers aren't going to reduce their prices much. Maybe there will be the odd bargain from companies going bust, but the worst scenario is the Chinese invasion of Taiwan and the scorched Earth policy for high tech installations like TSMC which will cease to exist in that eventuality which might not be so remote as we would all like to think. The consequences of that for the world would be grim indeed.

Yeah, I was just meaning, I wouldn't rush to buy a 5900 because of the price right now, since I can't see them suddenly soaring in price. If anything, when the new stuff launches, I'd expect to see them fall. If the Chinese invade Taiwan I think we'll all have bigger problems than the price of a new CPU.

DDR5 seems to be falling quite quickly at the moment, so it might be a reasonable deal by September. Don't you already have a big bundle of DDR4, though? That would probably sway me towards AM4 or 12th gen if I had 32GB or 64GB of decent DDR4 already. Then replace the whole lot in maybe 5 years time.

 

[MissChief]

The issue with waiting is cost. While DDR5 is coming down in price it’s still expensive. AM5 boards are going to be expensive and likely a little flaky until the BIOS matures. I’d be surprised if you get change from £700 for a mid range board, an equivalent x800 CPU and 32GB DDR5 of a good brand and timings. You can get the equivalent AM4 kit for less than £500.

 

[Journey]

The Question is and I know a lot here is going to be unknown, is the wait for the new CPU going to be worth it, or is it better to just buy into the existing tech, or even wait some time for prices to fall on the new release ?

I understand the dilemma, especially if you don't upgrade very often. I would say if you want a long term platform investment, then awaiting AM5 seems like the sensible choice, its not like AM4 is going anywhere is AM5 is too expensive/not enough difference for you to justify the added expense. We are looking at potentially less than 3 months now with a speculative launch in September being on the cards, which isn't all that far away.

The key will be buying in at a sensible price point, and staying away from things like over priced motherboards with features you'll never use and no extra performance. X670 boards are supposed to be starting from ~£150-60, and B660 boards at the ~£85-100 at launch, and the X670E will be the premium £250+. As for DDR5 prices are going to continue dropping all the way through Q3 this year, so you should be able to get a decent kit of 32GB (2x 16GB) for under £150, that will be 6000/C40, and most of those kits are now capable of 7000/C36+, so a £50 premium over a 32GB DDR4 3600 kit now. AMD are also again speculatively looking to go in strong against Raptor Lake for pricing so sub £350 for 8c/16t parts, potentially even sub £300 with core counts on Raptor Lake going up due to increased E-cores. All-in you could probably spend between £600-700 on a really solid platform that will last many years, and hopefully a good few CPU generations will be just a BIOS update and drop it in affair.