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How often do you upgrade your CPU and Motherboard

I used to upgrade every year or two max when I was on Intel back between the Q6600 and 9900K days, but since switching back to AMD in Dec 2020 on AM4 with a 5950X I which I ran for about 3yrs until I picked up a 5800X3D as a simple drop in upgrade, AM4 has been the longest platform I've used so far. Been running AM5 with a 7950X3D for 2 months and I can see this platform lasting quite a while as long as the board doesn't die. Really is nice to know that even a few years down the line I can still stay in the high end just by dropping in a new CPU which makes staying up to date much cheaper than swapping out the board as well now that they are much more expensive than they used to be.
 
Interesting about the long upgrade times(not unexpected). It makes the argument about drop in upgrades / dead platforms a bit pointless. By the time most want to upgrade it will be a different platform anyway.

It’s a nice option but not really essential.
 
When necessary - if it wasn't for many games/launchers phasing out Windows 7 support I'd probably still be just using my 2013 X79/1650 V2 setup but built a 14700K with 4080 Super setup for gaming.

Prior to 2013 I was upgrading relatively frequently as things moved on fairly quickly.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Christ they ran hot though the AIO I had could barely keep up with it the E6600 before, no trouble
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G0 stepping Q6600 was OK though only 10 watt lower TDP but it was a lot more manageable than the original - I had one on a custom water cooler at 1.6v (max VID) 3.825GHz fine - did run it around 4GHz but lots of extra power/heat for no real performance uplift and harder to get stable.
 
  • Pentium II 400MHz
  • Althlon 1.2GHz
  • Core 2 Duo E6700, 2.67 GHz (4 MB L2, 1066 MHz FSB)
  • Core 2 Duo E4500, 2.20 GHz (2 MB L2, 800 MHz FSB)
  • Opteron, Socket 939
  • Core 2 Quad Q9550s, 2.83 GHz (2×6 MB L2, 1333 MHz FSB, 65 W TDP)
  • i5-8600K

My list. (over 43 years)

Before that we, my father, had the original IBM PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_XT , and a Pentium PC.

no set period.
 
cosmogenesis said:
I have a 5800x/X570 system with 32 GB 3600 DDR4 and for the games I play I am OK, so its been 3 years now.
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If you’re main use is gaming then the likelihood is that upgrading the gpu will be much more worthwhile.

I’m still running a 5800X and the only reason I’m considering an upgrade is because I already have a 4090
cosmogenesis said:
I was thinking about the uplift from 7xxx series Ryzen to 9xxx series which does not appear to be worth it for gamers yet. but for 5xxxx series owners it might be worth it.
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For a gamers no matter which CPU you’re on the 9000 series is not worth it yet as it’s current pricing is not competitive when the 7800X3D exists and is much faster while cheaper than all but the 9600X. The 9800X3D may change that but it’ll need to be quite a bit faster than the 7800X3D given it’ll probably be around 30-50% more expensive at least at launch.

I’m going to wait a few months before upgrading as intel is launching which is rumoured to be oct 10th, AMD will have new boards in September and will probably launch the 9800X3D around then as well to counter Intel and there will probably be price cuts on all the rest of the stuff so Black Friday could be a great time to buy.
 
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My current cpu is a 2016 i7 7700k so that's given me 7 or 8 years service, might upgrade late this year or next year. I can still play the latest games on high settings. Before that cpu I had a i5 2500k for 6 years. Both in built to order pc's from Overclockers :)
 
I used to upgrade once or twice a year back in the 90's early 2000's. Recently not really felt the need too much. I bought a Ryzen 1700 and a 370 Mobo in 2017 with 16GB of RAM. I still have the Mobo but I bought a 2nd hand 3900x last year and 32 GB of RAM. The BIOS is nice and mature and gives no issues now. I updated to an NVME 1TB drive and the GPU to a 2080TI a couple of years or so ago, and don't feel the need to update any further just yet, although I have been looking at 3080 TIs and 4070s just recently. I may feel the need to update the Mobo and processor but for now it still does the job even at 4k resolution in all games I play.
 
When I have to or want to. More the latter nowadays.

It’s not really like the Q6600 days now, which is more positive than negative.

Those days were pretty tough, and don’t know where people used to get the money for the constant upgrades every year or two.

You had all the nForce chipsets, and separate Intel and ATI crossfire motherboards. Must have gone through three or four motherboards in a short span simply because technology was moving so fast.
 
Used to be every year for something but my current set up (gpu apart) is now 3yrs old - nothing is pushing me to upgrade at the moment.
 
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My last upgrade (AM5) was to get better PCIe speed/lanes. My old CPU (3900X) was still fast enough but the AM4 X370 chipset was a bit of a joke.
Hopefully, this board will last 5+ years.
 
I'm another where it has got longer and longer between upgrades - mostly due to changes in personal circumstances. It used to be better than annually, moved to annually, then every other year, etc. My current set-up will be six years old next year. But it is a 9820x running at 4.8GHz, so it's stilll keeping up.
 
Used to be every couple of years back in the Pentium 4 days. Seemed to be much bigger jumps/benefits with games and software to justify the cost. Back then I didn't have grown up stuff to have to pay for either.

More recently my X99/5820K combo has done me for 10 years, just some graphics card updates along the way - 780ti, 1080ti, 2080ti. Still a solid and capable setup.

However just bitten the bullet and updated everything - mostly because I "wanted to" - 14900K, 4090, NVME etc. Unless there is something truly ground breaking around the corner I don't see anything in this setup changing for 4-5 years.
 
I upgrade the odd component relatively regularly. With Mobo/CPU I tend to keep them a bit longer. I always keep my old rig as a spare. Currently got an i7 8086K in there. I stripped the custom loop out when I moved it into a smaller case.
My current 5900 has been in since Covid. So about 3+ years. Will probably upgrade it this year or next.
 
Shortest gap is the 8 months between current 7800X3D and previous 5800X3D, though that increases to ~28 months if include the 5800X before it on the same mobo. Longest wait I have gone is 64 months from i7 5820K to 5800X. On average I would say somewhere around 3 years...
 
I used to upgrade every 6 months during the 2000's but as the technology has slowed down i find upgrading pointless most of the time ( except for GPU ) im still rocking a 3900x on my main PC with a 4080 which is probably hugely bottlenecked but i can still play all my games with all the eye candy on @ 120Hz! only lately i have felt the itch as i built a friend a 7800x3d build which just felt snappier but then it does have the SN850X drive where's mine has an older slower SSD

i do use it for work too so i was thinking about the 9900X but with all the negative reviews it's put me off so I'm now waiting for the X3D variants so this PC barring the GPU is 5 years old :eek: which is probably the oldest PC i've ever had, i do have a sim rig with a 5800x3d and a 4090 im tempted to upgrade that then put the 5800x3d in my work PC hmm decisions, decisions :cry:
 
Stu999 said:
Interesting about the long upgrade times(not unexpected). It makes the argument about drop in upgrades / dead platforms a bit pointless. By the time most want to upgrade it will be a different platform anyway.

It’s a nice option but not really essential.
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Yeah, I think it's pretty inconsequential. The main time I'd consider an in-place CPU upgrade is if I'd initially bought something at the bottom of the line and could later upgrade to something better in the same family, or if a more niche product comes out of the blue (Like the X3D chips) but you had already built the machine. In either case socket longevity doesn't really matter.

I brought my 5950x knowing full well it was the last CPU in that socket, and did the same again with my 14900k, because they were the best CPUs for what I needed at that time. Granted it is a little different when you can justify them as business purchases and not purely personal, but it's not like their performance drops when a new product is released. (14900k performance just drops when it degrades itself to dust :D)
 
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