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i5-8400 with RTX 2070 Super...Worth upgrade the CPU?

yannis76

yannis76

yannis76

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16 Aug 2004
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804
Hi,

I have a system with an RTX2070 Super and an i5-8400. Is it worth upgrading the CPU with a used i5-9600k or i7-8700k for strategy gaming at 1440p (mainly Total War)?

Thx
 
If it is very cheap the 8700K is nice, and even better if you have a board that supports over locking. However, it is unlikely you'll get one for below £150 which is the most it's worth really.
 
I have recently done this upgrade, in February I went from 8400 to 9700k with a gtx 1080.

The i5 8400 was doing fine, in games at 1440p 120hz but I wanted to grab an 9700k before they went EOL and the price shoots up.

You can get a new 9700k for about 320 and the 8400 sells for 80, so it's not a cheap upgrade.

I was quite surprised how much difference it made. Overwatch for example sits about 20 frames higher than it used to.

Borderlands was one of the few games that didn't really like my 8400. That was much smoother.

What surprised me was every game ran better even if it was only by a little bit.

So to sum up, the upgrade is not massive but it's definitely noticeable.
 
yannis76 said:
Hi,

I have a system with an RTX2070 Super and an i5-8400. Is it worth upgrading the CPU with a used i5-9600k or i7-8700k for strategy gaming at 1440p (mainly Total War)?

Thx
Click to expand...

Keep the RAM and sell the 8400 and Mobo, use the £130ish you'd get from the CPU/mobo and get the Ryzen 1600AF and a B450 Tomahawk board. You're outlay would be about £50-£60 and you'd have 6 cores 12 threads. Does more threads help with the strategy games? 1440p the GPU would be doing a fair bit of the grunt work.
 
subbytna said:
Keep the RAM and sell the 8400 and Mobo, use the £130ish you'd get from the CPU/mobo and get the Ryzen 1600AF and a B450 Tomahawk board. You're outlay would be about £50-£60 and you'd have 6 cores 12 threads. Does more threads help with the strategy games? 1440p the GPU would be doing a fair bit of the grunt work.
Click to expand...

1600 is a downgrade from the 8400 in nearly all games.

So that would be a really bad idea.

IMO the only worth while upgrades would be 8700k 9700k or sell up and get the latest gen AMD 3600x or higher.
 
imginy said:
1600 is a downgrade from the 8400 in nearly all games.

So that would be a really bad idea.

IMO the only worth while upgrades would be 8700k 9700k or sell up and get the latest gen AMD 3600x or higher.
Click to expand...

It's the 1600AF model (basically the Ryzen 2600) He'd get the 12 threads that his current CPU doesn't have. If the games he plays likes cores or threads then, for an outlay of around £50, it's a good option for him. He can pop in a better CPU down the line, on the same platform too.
 
At this time of year it`is all about waiting it out when comes to upgrading. Just make do with what you have for now.
 
You could get a ryzen 3000 CPU and b450 motherboard for the less than the price of an Intel CPU upgrade and you would have the option of dropping in a 4000 chip in a couple of years with up to 16 cores.
 
yannis76 said:
Hi,

I have a system with an RTX2070 Super and an i5-8400. Is it worth upgrading the CPU with a used i5-9600k or i7-8700k for strategy gaming at 1440p (mainly Total War)?

Thx
Click to expand...
Even at 1440p Warhammer II is still a CPU intensive game and also not optimised for multi-core. You are much better off going for a 9600k than a 8700K as it is newer silicon and even though the boost is 100Mhz less (4.6Ghz vs 4.7Ghz) it is much, much easier to reach 5Ghz clockspeed. It also doesn't have HT which is off little use to you and makes overclocking much easier. This will give you even more improvement over the ~4Ghz you have now if you're running at stock.

For games like Warhammer II you are much better off staying with Intel CPIU's so you should ignore the advice about going Ryzen.
 
yannis76 said:
Thanks, I am also checking i7-9700 different versions, k non k etc...
Click to expand...
While the 9700k is nice it would be a waste for you with Warhammer II, you'd get pretty much the same performance from a 5Ghz 9600K vs a 5Ghz 9700k. You're best bet is the 9600k, though if you can get a reasonable priced 9700K make sure it is the R0 (newer stepping), the older one is the P0. The 9600K only comes in P0.
 
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subbytna said:
Keep the RAM and sell the 8400 and Mobo, use the £130ish you'd get from the CPU/mobo and get the Ryzen 1600AF and a B450 Tomahawk board. You're outlay would be about £50-£60 and you'd have 6 cores 12 threads. Does more threads help with the strategy games? 1440p the GPU would be doing a fair bit of the grunt work.
Click to expand...
Best idea, solid upgrade path too
 
MartinPrince said:
Thanks, I figured as much. Hope you're overclocking that 9700K. ;)
Click to expand...

I haven't bothered yet I just pulled out my 8400 and put in the 9700k in and loaded the xmp and it's been sat like that since February.

I'm pretty lazy, I have a 1tb m2 nvme drive still in the box on top on my pc for last 2 weeks.

I will get round to turning it up to 5ghz at some point.
 
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