CPU Advice

Telecaster · 21 Apr 2017 at 20:07

I've been holding off what to do whilst the whole Ryzen thing settled down, but it's about time I made a decision.

I have a GTX 1080ti coming (eventually, hopefully) and currently have an i3-4170 as a stop gap whilst I decided what to do, board is a Z97.

Ideally I'd like to keep this upgrade as cheap as possible but if the gaming performance is going to be so massive then I'd consider spending the cash on a new set up.

Is the 4790k a no brainer? Generally the machine is used for browsing and gaming at 4k, I don't skype, stream, have 35 tabs open or any of that stuff, it's literally either browsing with a couple of tabs open or gaming, the end.

Cheers.

LtMatt · 21 Apr 2017 at 20:16

Ryzen 1600 and overclock to 4Ghz, done.

darket · 21 Apr 2017 at 22:52

i7 4790k and overclock to 4.5ghz+, done.

Ill give you some sound reasoning to go with it. The 4790k is a cracking cpu and will do you just fine, it wont break the bank and (in the real world) do exactly the same job as a complete platform change. But but z97 is a dead platform Ryzen is future proof i hear some of you say. No if it does what you need it do nothing is a dead platform and by this time next year ryzen could well be obsolete compared to the competition, we just don't know.

Journey · 21 Apr 2017 at 23:47

I guess it depends on if it's a stop gap, or you plan on changing again sooner rather than later. If you have all the RAM you need, then that's a bonus and if you can pick up a 4790K for less than £250 you are on to a winner. Otherwise, you'd be looking at £430-450 for a Ryzen R5 1600, 16GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM, and a decent B350 motherboard, or a very low end X370 one. You might be able to get a decent chunk back on the MM for your current kit, depending on what it is.

Telecaster · 21 Apr 2017 at 23:57

I don't think there's much value in my kit, used boards and a bit of RAM won't make much of a dent in the nye on £500 for a new Ryzen set up.

I have to weigh up the cost of new CPU, board and RAM against what my needs are, I'm not sure I need anything more than 4c/8t as I only game and I can't see the needs for many cores being soon judging by the spec of your average gamer still barely running 1080p at 60hz or thereabouts.

It won't be a stop gap, I'm not much of a chop and change person, I fit and forget, so unless something dies or something new comes out that completely changes the game I'm likely to leave it alone.

Out of interest, given the news about Coffee Lake and Skylake X being bought forward, how badly gimped will I be running the 1080ti on the i3 until they are released?

MagicBoy · 22 Apr 2017 at 00:14

Depends on the games....

Journey · 22 Apr 2017 at 00:45

Telecaster said:
I don't think there's much value in my kit, used boards and a bit of RAM won't make much of a dent in the nye on £500 for a new Ryzen set up.

I have to weigh up the cost of new CPU, board and RAM against what my needs are, I'm not sure I need anything more than 4c/8t as I only game and I can't see the needs for many cores being soon judging by the spec of your average gamer still barely running 1080p at 60hz or thereabouts.

It won't be a stop gap, I'm not much of a chop and change person, I fit and forget, so unless something dies or something new comes out that completely changes the game I'm likely to leave it alone.

Out of interest, given the news about Coffee Lake and Skylake X being bought forward, how badly gimped will I be running the 1080ti on the i3 until they are released?

Think you have your answer then, buy a 4790K if you only need 4c/8t, no point in even thinking about the Coffee lake and Skylake X, since they'll set you back way more than £500 notes, and give you more than likely a 5-10% speed bump over the 4790K, or some extra cores you don't need.

geordiejc · 22 Apr 2017 at 00:59

I'd try and nab either a used 4590k ~£150 or 4790k ~£200. A new 4790k is the same price as 7700k, derp. Ryzen 1600 + Mobo + DDR4 ~£435 is the smart buy if you want to upgrade or for £40 less the 1600 I think the next 12-18 months will be indicative of if game developers intend to optimise for mainstream games for more cores, or not.

Haswell/DC is still a very strong architecture for modern gaming.

i miss my 4k gsync monitor

4k/144hz soon

Telecaster · 22 Apr 2017 at 09:36

4790ks go quick in the MM! I've seen three go within about 30 minutes of the for sale post going up!

The only reason I mentioned Coffee/Sky X was because they aren't out yet which gives me time to replenish the PC fund, where as if I were to buy now in time for the 1080ti coming then I'd probably be restricted to just a Haswell swap. Suppose it depends on:

A) how good Coffee/Sky X is, and how it's priced with AMD in mind,

B) how badly gimped I'd be running the 1080ti on an i3 for the summer.

Journey · 22 Apr 2017 at 10:51

So the even more sensible option, given that you can't get a 4790K easily, is purchase any 4c/8t CPU for 1150, that will see you through compared to the i3. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to pick up a 4770/4790 on eBay or something for less than £170, no overclocking, but if you consider how much the i3 is going to hold back a 1080Ti that's just set you back a small fortune.

Even more so if you are happy to put up with degraded performance on the 1080Ti using the i3, why even bother with the 1080Ti now, when the prices could end up falling as much as the cost of your CPU replacement in the next 6 weeks, so you end up with a free CPU upgrade effectively, and the Ti's might actually be in stock by then.

gavinh87 · 22 Apr 2017 at 11:00

In your shoes id be looking for a 4790k.
Unless you want a change and go ryzen of course.
I've found my 1700 at stock performs equally or better than my 4770 non k in games

Brazo · 22 Apr 2017 at 11:14

4790k will give better gaming performance than Ryzen and will give you your cheapest upgrade route. Indeed I can't see a 4790k needing to be upgraded for some time. My old one at 4.8ghz used to eat through anything I did and I had more demanding needs than you.

I only bought a 7700k as my mobo went bang.

geordiejc · 22 Apr 2017 at 12:01

Journey said:
So the even more sensible option, given that you can't get a 4790K easily, is purchase any 4c/8t CPU for 1150, that will see you through compared to the i3. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to pick up a 4770/4790 on eBay or something for less than £170, no overclocking, but if you consider how much the i3 is going to hold back a 1080Ti that's just set you back a small fortune.

Even more so if you are happy to put up with degraded performance on the 1080Ti using the i3, why even bother with the 1080Ti now, when the prices could end up falling as much as the cost of your CPU replacement in the next 6 weeks, so you end up with a free CPU upgrade effectively, and the Ti's might actually be in stock by then.

He has a point , pretty silly to buy a 1080 ti now.

robinbanks · 22 Apr 2017 at 12:14

another vote for the 4790k, All the the time and hassle of pulling out the old gear out and replacing it with ryzen just to have a possibility of a very small preformance gain down the line, To me isnt worht it.

Telecaster · 22 Apr 2017 at 12:41

geordiejc said:
He has a point , pretty silly to buy a 1080 ti now.

Why? I could find a 4790k and install it before the 1080ti even arrives at this rate, I've been waiting ages for it.

Aside from that judging how the pound is likely to go once the country fully commits to financial suicide, I can't see them going down much unless Nv decide to slash the prices if Vega is any good.

pastymuncher · 22 Apr 2017 at 13:55

I would drop a 4790k in and clock it. They have been going in the MM for around £150. Ryzen and it's motherboards need a hell of a lot of work before it's anywhere near ready for me to consider. I am not paying all that money to basically be a beta tester.

gavinh87 · 22 Apr 2017 at 13:57

pastymuncher said:
I would drop a 4790k in and clock it. They have been going in the MM for around £150. Ryzen and it's motherboards need a hell of a lot of work before it's anywhere near ready for me to consider. I am not paying all that money to basically be a beta tester.

It isn't as bad as you think. Ram compatibility is the worst and that should be sorted in May.

EvilFranky · 22 Apr 2017 at 14:03

robinbanks said:
All the the time and hassle of pulling out the old gear out and replacing it with ryzen just to have a possibility of a very small preformance gain down the line, To me isnt worht it.

How do you know it would be a very small performance increase?

If he needs more performance than a 4790K down the line, he'll have to change his whole set up anyway.

Journey · 22 Apr 2017 at 15:41

Telecaster said:
Why? I could find a 4790k and install it before the 1080ti even arrives at this rate, I've been waiting ages for it.

Aside from that judging how the pound is likely to go once the country fully commits to financial suicide, I can't see them going down much unless Nv decide to slash the prices if Vega is any good.

Ah yes, that old chestnut the pound falling against the dollar, it already happened prices adjustments have already happened, it's in the past, almost 12 months in the past. We are currently at $1.28:£1 a whopping 13 cents below the average for the first half of 2016 which is 9.2% lower, before the world was caught with its pants down.

As for Nvidia reacting to prices from AMD, it has happened in the past, and could happen again, look at what they tried with the GTX 260 and GTX 280 release. They tried to get the price of the GTX 280 out at $649, forced to drop it to $499 a couple of weeks later when AMD released the 4870, and the GTX 260 was only $299 down from $429!

Back on the real topic, you have said your fund for PC parts doesn't cover a full upgrade presently, so it's either get an i7-47xx(K) second hand if possible, or put up with your £800 or whatever insane price GTX 1080 TI you bought being crippled by an i3, and hoping that Nvidia don't make your investment worth 25-35% less in a few weeks, probably days after you received it.

Telecaster · 22 Apr 2017 at 17:35

Journey said:
Back on the real topic, you have said your fund for PC parts doesn't cover a full upgrade presently, so it's either get an i7-47xx(K) second hand if possible, or put up with your £800 or whatever insane price GTX 1080 TI you bought being crippled by an i3, and hoping that Nvidia don't make your investment worth 25-35% less in a few weeks, probably days after you received it.

Well they haven't done it recently so I'm not too worried that my 1080ti will drop £200 overnight, especially in the current climate. The only recent drop has been to the 1080/70 and that was to accommodate the Ti.

Seems like the 4790k is the wise choice at present, dropping £500 on Ryzen is a bit daft and waiting for Coffee Lake doesn't seem to make much sense, thanks for all the input!!