Haswell owner's, your upgrade path...

Tee Hee Johnson · 13 Oct 2017 at 13:10

Rroff said:
4820K @ 4.6GHz + GTX1070 with 2560x1440 monitor here - handles pretty much everything fine.

Similar here, but a 4790K.

I love upgrading, but I just don't see the point for now!

Stoner81 · 13 Oct 2017 at 13:22

I'm on a 4770K with GTX970 in SLI at 2560x1440 and no real issues, I do have to turn a few things down a bit now and then but nothing major and everything still looks pretty so I don't really see the point. I'm hoping I can get another 2 years or more out of this rig before my next upgrade.

Stoner81.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Oct 2017 at 13:23

If you are on Haswell,especially a Core i7 I think staying put is the best option. Another year to 18 months will mean that even Intel will have mainstream 8C CPUs,and both AMD and Intel will have moved onto better core designs,and maybe even things like DDR5 and PCI-E 4.0!

Aneskimo · 13 Oct 2017 at 13:41

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
If you are on Haswell,especially a Core i7 I think staying put is the best option. Another year to 18 months will mean that even Intel will have mainstream 8C CPUs,and both AMD and Intel will have moved onto better core designs,and maybe even things like DDR5 and PCI-E 4.0!

The only reason I was looking at CPU change was because making the jump to 1440p I’d get the monitor and GPU anyway so if I can grab a decent chip at a decent price I may start fresh.
It’s interesting you mention DDR5 I was thinking how much further DDR4 has got left in it, some of the speeds people are clocking is eye catching at the moment especially as coffee lake and Ryzen builds are getting spec’d with fast Ram

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:09

Aneskimo said:
The only reason I was looking at CPU change was because making the jump to 1440p I’d get the monitor and GPU anyway so if I can grab a decent chip at a decent price I may start fresh.
It’s interesting you mention DDR5 I was thinking how much further DDR4 has got left in it, some of the speeds people are clocking is eye catching at the moment especially as coffee lake and Ryzen builds are getting spec’d with fast Ram

I have an IB Core i7(a locked one) and I jumped to qHD too and managed to get a GTX1080. Only one game I noticed was CPU bottlenecked and that was my mega modded FO4 play through but even then at lower resolution and with a slower card sometimes I could see it too. The rest of the games I am getting solid performance.

You also have fast DDR3 too unlike many people who stuck with 1600MHZ DDR3 - so I would try overclocking and tweaking what you have now.

If anything looking at your card,at qHD you are mostly GPU bottlenecked - I even overclocked the GTX1080 and I got better FPS,indicating that I was still GPU bottlenecked in many games I tried at qHD.

The next 18 months is going to be very interesting. Ryzen shook up the market,and Intel had to respond with their biggest change in over 5 years in a consumer years. AMD will be releasing Zen+ on an improved 14NM node next year,then Intel will be launching Cannonlake/Icelake in late 2018 or sometime during 2019 on 10nm and AMD will be launching Zen2 on 7nm during 2019 too.

So the next 12 to 18 months is going to be showing some tooing and froing and if you are stuck on Haswell CPU and one that can be overclocked it should be enough for the timebeing methinks.

Aneskimo · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:24

Sensible side is saying go GPU and monitor, but the fun I had putting my parvum together makes me want to do a new build so hence if I find a bargain CPU I’d grab it.
The shocking thing is while I enjoyed building my rig I went with my full w/c loop to eventually get into overclocking I’m now sat here a good few years later still not touched my 4770k/ram/GPU

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:29

Aneskimo said:
Sensible side is saying go GPU and monitor, but the fun I had putting my parvum together makes me want to do a new build so hence if I find a bargain CPU I’d grab it.
The shocking thing is while I enjoyed building my rig I went with my full w/c loop to eventually get into overclocking I’m now sat here a good few years later still not touched my 4770k/ram/GPU

But the problem is that you need to stand back from all these launches and the hype and overexcitment that enthusiast forums generate. Remember many will change to new hardware like people buy new phones just because it is new and then suddenly the "old" stuff can't even run Minesweeper since its "too slow".

We had people ditch pefectly good CPUs,and then regret having spent the money and its happened so many times here.

In the end its really no point with the way things are going in the next 18 months unless,you really want to regret your purchase 12 to 18 months later and rebuild your rig again??

Plus if you have not overclocked your CPU with such a good motherboard and a proper loop,you are leaving performance on the table,and its better to just invest that money in a better card and a bigger SSD,etc.

jigger · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:37

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
But the problem is that you need to stand back from all these launches and the hype and overexcitment that enthusiast forums generate. We had people ditch pefectly good CPUs,and then regret having spent the money and its happened so many times here.

In the end its really no point with the way things are going in the next 18 months unless,you really want to regret your purchase 12 to 18 months later and rebuild your rig again??

Plus if you have not overclocked your CPU with such a good motherboard and a proper loop,you are leaving performance on the table,and its better to just invest that money in a better card and a bigger SSD,etc.

This.

I only look at ugrading when Im at the point Im no longer happy with the performance of something and even then I'll sit tight if nothing offers the performance I'm looking for at the right money.

I had a system die and wasn't impressed with what Intel had to offer for the money last time, so went the C230 and Skylake Xeon route and that just about made sense to me.

Born_2_Kill_83 · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:42

Watch the Digital foundry video, benchmarks at 1080p with 4790k show a big jump up with 8700k here's just one:

Born_2_Kill_83 · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:43

That's an overclocked 4790 as well, any-one thinking your not getting any benefit with a 8700k with a 4770 or 4970 your mistaken. Granted less of a jump with 1440p but you'll still gain fps.

Rroff · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:46

Something other than Ashes would be nice heh - I've rarely found the results relevant to anything other than Ashes itself whether testing CPU or GPU.

jigger · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:46

Born_2_Kill_83 said:
That's an overclocked 4790 as well, any-one thinking your not getting any benefit with a 8700k with a 4770 or 4970 your mistaken. Granted less of a jump with 1440p but you'll still gain fps.

So when are you upgrading then

Born_2_Kill_83 · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:46

That's why I added the video, take your pick.

Rroff · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:47

Born_2_Kill_83 said:
That's why I added the video, take your pick.

Sadly couldn't see any other results comparing the older CPUs in the video :s

Born_2_Kill_83 · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:48

jigger said:
So when are you upgrading then

Mean to say I beat you to it?

jigger · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:51

Born_2_Kill_83 said:
Mean to say I beat you to it?

Have you let RRoff know he's mistaken too.

DragonQ · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:52

Born_2_Kill_83 said:
That's an overclocked 4790 as well, any-one thinking your not getting any benefit with a 8700k with a 4770 or 4970 your mistaken. Granted less of a jump with 1440p but you'll still gain fps.

I don't think anyone disputes you will gain FPS. I can also gain FPS by adding an extra 100 MHz to my overclock. It's all about whether it's worth it.

Rroff · 13 Oct 2017 at 14:57

DragonQ said:
I don't think anyone disputes you will gain FPS. I can also gain FPS by adding an extra 100 MHz to my overclock. It's all about whether it's worth it.

Yup but also not just worth it but if you aren't struggling now even if you get a fair performance jump for your money is it worth it over holding out a bit longer and maybe saving some more money for something better again.

jigger · 13 Oct 2017 at 15:01

Rroff said:
Yup but also not just worth it but if you aren't struggling new even if you get a fair performance jump for your money is it worth it over holding out a bit longer and maybe saving some more money for something better again.

Huh?

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Oct 2017 at 15:08

So basically unless you run AOTS all day it means diddly squat and you do realise the benchmark is not indicative of gameplay?? A few months ago there computerbase.de showed some numbers which contradicted reviews,since it showed the Core i7 7700k at the top?? Why,the game dynamically adjusts some of the settings if you have a quad core CPU,meaning you can actually get better FPS in game outside the actual benchmark.

jigger said:
Huh?

I think he said even if you were to get a jump,it might be worth waiting longer for a bigger one,which I tend to agree with.

But its quite funny every time we have a new CPU launch,"suddenly" the one before it becomes crap on many tech forums.

In some ways its pretty great since it means a larger secondhand market for solid CPUs too which are not that old,so I suppose its good if people keep jumping to the next best thing!