Cheap upgrade from i5 4670K to pair with 2070 Super?

[bobboberts]

Due to getting a 3070 I gave my 2070 Super to my stepson, paired with my old system based on an i5 4670K. He runs 2 1080p screens at 60hz and almost exclusively plays multiplayer on Call of Duty Warzone, Modern Warfare and the latest Black Ops. He also has Discord running for voice chat and would like to also stream at some point.

Now it seems that CoD is generally coded terribly, so running both screens and opening Discord tanks the frame rate. I've played with all the settings, made sure drivers are all up to date and monitored performance via Task Manager. The CPU is constantly maxed-out and I obviously is bottlenecking the GPU.

Having already bought Xmas presents, he (we) have no real money to throw at the problem, which would seem to be to build a new system around the 2070 Super - but I have no idea what CPU would show an appreciable benefit in real-world terms for him, taking account of his situation. He wants to move to a 144hz monitor at some point, too (though will stay at 1080p).

Is there a relatively cheap CPU option that would make a good bit of difference? No preference in going Intel or AMD, price and good performance are king here. What should I be looking at? I honestly don't have any real budget in mind, other than cheap, because obviously this is going to need a full rebuild so the cost of RAM and a new MB will quickly escalate costs. But if I get a good idea around CPU it's a start.

Guidance very much appreciated!

 

[bobboberts]

@pc-guy Would that CPU have the grunt to allow the 2070 Super to hit higher frame rates if he gets a 144hz monitor down the line? He wants >100fps (because his friends get that with a worse card - 1660 Supers - but Ryzen 3600s).

 

[bobboberts]

Budget? I went from an i7 [email protected] to a Ryzen 3600@stock (4.2Ghz) and COD MW and Warzone was like a different game.

The 3600 was an interim chip to Zen 3 but had I known a Ryzen 3600 would make that much difference I would have sold my Intel setup years ago

Well this is the big question. If getting an i7 4790K would give a decent boost then that's obviously the cheapest option and would probably be a good option for 6-12 months until he can save some money; if a new system is required then when I previously had a casual look I think a CPU, MB and RAM could be found for about £350 with some sensible shopping around - but I don't know where we would find that cash. So I'm kinda hoping a cheap 4790K can be found that would do the job - not helped by the fact that I can't access the Member's Market for a long time yet!

 

[bobboberts]

ya it will. your 4c4t i5 is being hit hard. 4770k 4790k is around £60-£80 second hand. it is a bit of a gamble tho as the CPU is so old.

Thanks, that's good to hear.

if you boy just play CoD etc FPS games the 4770k or 4790k is plenty. the 2070s will get him the >100FPS he wants @ 1080p.

the 4c8t will become limiting when you ae talking about the latest greatest games. at 1080p 4c8t CPU will be hammered pretty hard. black ops might struggle to hit 100fps

Just so I understand the longer term issue, when you say the latest games do you mean those which start to use 6/8 cores, or just anything newer in general?

A net spend of £150-ish as outlined by @Joxeon above seems reasonable if I thought I could sell the old kit for £120/130 but I'm not sure I could. If I could therefore find a 4790K for £60-80 as you suggest then I could probably swing that as a late addition to his Xmas presents and be comfortable with that.

 

[bobboberts]

So is the consensus that a, let's say £70 4790K (if I could find one), even if only for a short-term stopgap (no more than a year) is pointless? Bear in mind that £70 would not be taken from a future budget for a proper upgrade, so consider it a 'free' purchase.

Viewed in consideration of the above, for a better gaming experience in that short period, is it still a bad idea?

 

[bobboberts]

I wouldn't bother with a 4790k as it will end up costing as much as a new CPU.

Selling the old CPU ram and mb then you would be looking at a net spend of around £150 for this.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-10400F 2.90GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £139.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B460M-D3H (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £79.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey= £55.99

Total: £286.47 ​

So I am coming around to the reality that a new build is going to be in order. Is the 10400F a significant step-up in real-world situations? The jump to a 3600 isn't going to be possible so if there are good alternatives around a similar price point to that chip, what are they?