CPU & mobo upgrade advice needed please

darrenkarp

darrenkarp

darrenkarp

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Hi All,

So after 5+ years I want to upgrade my CPU and mobo from an i7 6700K (overclocked to 4.6ghz thanks to advice on this forum!). I don't necessarily need the latest Intel CPU, I'd prefer to stick with Intel) but something that'll run games like Flight Simulator, Star Citizen with improved performance. I don't also mind buying a used CPU either. My current and excellent mobo is a ROG Maximus Hero VIII.

Could someone give me some advice as to what my next steps should be please?

Cheers
Daz
 
It's a big step up in performance. What speed is your memory? Just asking because Intel 12*** and 13*** series cpu's can use both DDR4 and DDR5. If you have DDR4 3600mhz or more you could go for a DDR4 motherboard to keep costs down although DDR5 is the way to go if buying memory as well. How much do you want to spend?
 
What is your budget? Are you happy to re-use your memory as pastymuncher suggested?

If you want to keep your board, you could consider modding the BIOS, but rarely worth it in my opinion, due to the high cost of used 8th/9th CPUs.
 
Best thing to do is set a budget and the guys on here can fire a few builds at you.

If you list your PC specs that can help too.
 
darrenkarp said:
Would I be looking at a Z690 or Z790 mobo for the i5 13600K proc? I get so confused with this stuff!
Click to expand...

As Brackish said, we really need a budget, otherwise this is all just hypothetical. I'm not surprised you're confused.

Game specifics:
- As far as I'm aware, Star Citizen is one of the few games that can use lots of cores, but whether that applies equally to E-cores, I'm not sure.
- Flight Sim: I'm not certain about this either, does Flight Sim benefit from the cache of an X3D CPU?

The 7700 (or 7700X) is one of the best gaming CPUs right now, but later benches (with the 4090) have shown that 13th gen CPUs do actually need DDR5 to keep pace with AM5 CPUs. Having said that, if you have 32GB of decent DDR4, then I think I'd just keep it.

Z690 or Z790: whatever is the best value, the only snag is that Z690 will need the BIOS flashback feature, so if you don't like flashing the BIOS then stick with Z790. If you don't plan to overclock, then I'd consider B760 and the i5-13500, but without benchmarks, I'm not sure if Star Citizen or Flight Sim will benefit from the 8 E-cores.

If you like this type of game (large open world and simulators) and plan to keep it for awhile, then ideally I think I'd step up to an 8 P-core CPU.

Some options (includes delivery charges), AM5:

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £219.95
Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - £169.99

Grand Total: £739.43

Intel with 13700K:

Intel Core i7-13700K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £449.99
MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 - Intel Z690 DDR4 ATX Motherboard - £219.95

Grand Total: £680.44

Intel with 13700 non-K (13700KF just a placeholder, OCUK don't sell the non-K):

Intel Core i7-13700KF (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £419.99
Gigabyte B760 GAMING X DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard - £169.99

Grand Total: £600.48

Intel with i5-13500 (12600K is just a placeholder, OCUK don't sell the i5-13500)

Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - OEM - £259.99
Asus Prime B760M-A D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £154.99

Grand Total: £425.48
 
Great and thanks for all the replies. So it looks like an i7 is better than an i5 (no idea what the difference is though) and I do like to OC or at least have the ability to OC if I want. So it looks like an i7 13700k + K790 chipset mobo. I'm sure I can get some decent money back on my i7 6700K and ROG Hero VIII to lessen the pain but would I need new DDR5 ram or can I keep my DD4 at least for now?
 
darrenkarp said:
Great and thanks for all the replies. So it looks like an i7 is better than an i5 (no idea what the difference is though) and I do like to OC or at least have the ability to OC if I want. So it looks like an i7 13700k + K790 chipset mobo. I'm sure I can get some decent money back on my i7 6700K and ROG Hero VIII to lessen the pain but would I need new DDR5 ram or can I keep my DD4 at least for now?
Click to expand...

The i5-13600K has 6 P-cores (games prefer these) and 8 E-cores (usually great for things like rendering).
The i5-13500 has 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores, but I think these are like a rebranded i5-12600K, so it isn't quite as fast as 'true' Raptor Lake CPUs like the 13600K.
The i7-13700K has 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores, as does the 13700 non-K.
The i9-13900K has 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores.

B760 can't overclock (only memory). K CPUs can't overclock (they also have locked voltages which makes memory overclocking more limited).

Right now, there's not usually a whole lot of difference between the 13600K, 13700K and 13900K at 4K and to a lesser extent 1440p.

Star Citizen and Flight Sim might well be different, Star Citizen is well-known for being a CPU-hog, but I don't have any benchmarks to show you, so I'd try to investigate further before you buy anything. If you're buying a 13700K then you should definitely check what difference an X3D CPU makes too, unless you're 100% dead-against AMD. @humbug might be able to help, or head over to the Star Citizen thread.

I'm just making a guess that these types of games (open world & simulation) are more likely than most to benefit from 8 P-cores going forward, since you said you have no upper-end on the budget.

13th gen CPUs show a performance benefit with DDR5 & a 4090, but with most graphics cards at 1440p or 4K, the difference is not worth worrying about when it will save you £150-£200.
 
darrenkarp said:
No worries. So I need to decide between an i5 13600K and an an i7 13700K it would seem
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If you want to overclock, yes (not counting unlocking power limits for non-K CPUs).

This was only article/review I could find that included the game, but I don't know how accurate it is:

Star Citizen can be a highly CPU-intensive game, and the performance scales well with higher end processor. This is one of the few cases where having the Intel Core i7 13700K makes sense of the Core i5 13600K for gaming.

While the 13600K will still give you admirable performance, this is a game that simply performs better with higher-end hardware. The universe and all the elements in this game can be quite taxing on both the CPU and GPU, so the Intel Core i7 13700K is a safe bet.
Click to expand...

www.wepc.com

Best CPU for Star Citizen in 2024

Star Citizen is a multiplayer space exploration, trading, and combat simulation game. While the game is still under development, it has a large player
www.wepc.com www.wepc.com

There are YouTube videos which compare the two CPUs at 1080p in Flight Sim and I suspect the difference at 1440p or 4K with most GPUs will not be noticeable.
 
Tetras said:
- Flight Sim: I'm not certain about this either, does Flight Sim benefit from the cache of an X3D CPU?
Click to expand...
MSFS absolutely loves Ryzen X3D

forums.flightsimulator.com

AMD 5800X3D performance

It does look great, but Linus tech Tips numbers need a healthy dose of salt. They’re also showing the 12700K out performing the 12900K, and the 12900KS having a ~15% bump over the 12900K. Neither of those things should happen, which lead me to suspect their methodology overall. The French...
forums.flightsimulator.com forums.flightsimulator.com

I'd recommend waiting and seeing what the 7000X3D chips can do
 
darrenkarp said:
So now, which mobo should I get (Z790)?
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The main differences I am aware of are: Z790 can support one more hi-speed USB port and Intel converted some of the PCI-E 3.0 lanes to PCI-E 4.0.

In a practical sense, the main benefit of Z790 is that it supports 13th gen K CPUs out of the box, Z690 does not.

I don't know if Z790 boards perform better for overclocking.

I haven't seen any review roundups of Z790 yet, so I'm not sure about the general standard of boards, or if there's some boards to avoid, or to recommend. I do know that the MSI Z690-A performs well and there's quite a few posters on here who went with it and are happy with it. It also supports BIOS flashback with an unsupported CPU.
 
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darrenkarp said:
So now, which mobo should I get (Z790)?
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At the end of the day it's a dead socket so if looking to upgrade in the future it doesn't matter which one you go for because what CPU's are out now is it. The next gen will require a new motherboard again.

If you want to future proof a little then AMD is the way to go with a Ryzen X3D CPU but wait until the 7000 series CPU's launch. The good thing about AMD's socket AM5 is that it will be around for a few years and you will be able to drop in a new CPU further down the line. We have guys on here who went AM4 when it first came out several years ago and using their original motherboard have been able to drop in a 5000 series CPU just by updating the motherboard bios.
 
I have always ever bought ROG or Gigabyte mobo's in the past and need some advice as to if I should stick with those brands or go for something else, less expensive.
 
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