Possible CPU upgrade?

Donny84

Donny84

Donny84

Associate
Joined
6 Mar 2013
Posts
286
Hi to all.

I was wondering if maybe my CPU is holding my rig back and whether it's time to upgrade. It runs high end games well without issues at the moment from what I can tell (as I know no different), but if I was to upgrade would I maybe see a nice FPS increase or so?

My current rig in it's entirety...

YOUR BASKET
[*] 1 x intel core i5-3570k 3.40ghz (ivybridge) socket lga1155 processor (77w) - oem £187.99
[*] 1 x Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 AMP Edition 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (ZT-P10800C-10P)= £619.99
[*] 1 x gigabyte z77-d3h intel z77 (socket 1155) ddr3 motherboard £89.99
[*] 2 x avexir core blue series 8gb (2x4gb) ddr3 pc3-12800c9 1600mhz dual channel memory kit (avd3u16000904g-2cw) - blue light £69.98
[*] 1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW)= £106.99
[*] 1 x Corsair CS650M 650W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020077-UK)= £84.95
[*] 1 x Crucial BX200 240GB SSD SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (CT240BX200SSD1)= £65.99
[*] 1 x WD Blue 2TB 5400rpm SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (WD20EZRZ)= £70.99
[*] 1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM= £17.99
[*] 1 x Cryorig R1 Ultimate Dual Tower CPU Heatsink with 2x 140mm Fan - Black = £72.95
[*] 1 x Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Tunable Gaming Mouse (910-004618)= £59.99
[*] 1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU)= £139.99
[*] 1 x Steelseries Siberia 840 Premium Wireless Gaming Headset (61230)= £199.99
[*] 1 x Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II 2.0 Speaker System (51MF1610AA003)= £59.99
[*] 1 x Corsair Gaming STRAFE RGB Cherry MX Red Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (CH-9000227-UK)= £149.99
[*] 2 x Corsair SP140 Twin Pack Blue LED Fans (CO-9050036-WW)= £24.95
[*] 1 x AOC AGON AG271QG 27" 2560 x 1440 IPS G-Sync 165Hz Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red= £689.99


I have around £1200 budget (doesn't mean I have to spend it all).
I've been reading good things about the i7-8700k Coffee Lake and was thinking about going with this.
Of course this would then mean I have to get new mobo and ram.
What would you guys recommend? Or if you guys have any other ideas for upgrades, please feel free to say :)

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
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Yep you would need a new Mother board to support the new chip set and DDR4 RAM. Also would be worth getting an SSD or M.2 drive for increased speeds. DDR4 RAM isnt cheap though unfortunately. Your GPU is fine, maybe a CPU upgrade could see some better performance with frame rate for newer games released 2017+
 
Yeh I've got 2x SSDs. 120gb for operating system and a 500gb for my games.
I play strategies, MOBAs and games like shadow of war etc.
 
What FPS do you get a the moment average?

Do you get any FPS drops and lag? And do you do any other CPU intense activities such as video editing?
 
It really depends on the budget you have? And if you are willing to purchase a new Board, memory and CPU.

What cooler do you currently have for your CPU? The new CPU's can get fairly hot so will need a decent cooler.
 
It might be worth upgrading then if you are willing to spend the money.

You could get a coffee lake and you will have enough to easily upgrade the MOBO and RAM. The cooler i believe will be fine but the coffee lake i7 8700K does have 6 cores but has a lower speed at stock.

I would want to upgrade just to get the 6 cores but unfortunately I have other things I need to save my money for :rolleyes:
 
Donny84 said:
So what motherboard and ram would you recommend for best bang for buck?
Click to expand...

£1200 isn't really best bang for buck money :D You can get a very decent system for that for example, I've just bought:

i7 8700k
16GB DDR 4 Trident Z RGB
Asus Maximus X Hero
X62 Kraken
S340 Elite case
Samsung sm961 512GB M.2 SSD
 
Yep as said above, you can easily get a good performing system for £1200, A recent build I did for someone late last year was around £1200 with new parts, case, I7 7700K, M2, HDD, H100i V2, 2X8GB RAM etc, GTX 1060. All branded, performance parts. So really for a MOBO you are looking for £120-£200, processor for the new coffee lake around £300 - £350 i believe, RAM is anywhere from £120 - £200 deepening on amount and the set. So around £600 - £800 all dependent on the parts you choose
 
Donny84 said:
Or if you guys have any other ideas for upgrades, please feel free to say :)
Click to expand...
Donny84 said:
So what motherboard and ram would you recommend for best bang for buck?
Click to expand...
Donny84 said:
OK.... can anyone tell me if this is ok? Or if theres a better alternative?
Click to expand...

No denying that the 8700K is fast - great performance/king of FPS - but the 8700K has trouble fulfilling all your bang for buck request for a gaming PC - but will admit your 165Hz screen does muddy the waters for bang for buck comparison (although it does have G-Sync).

If the Aorus aesthetics were not a concern you could get the very capable B350 Gigabyte gaming board coupled with 8 Pack 3200 memory and a Ryzen 1700 for as little as £576 - nearly £170 less that the 8700K and excellent bang for buck. If you opted for for the 1600 you would save ~£250. Both the 1600 and the 1700 will clock to 3.7GHZ across all cores with ease and paired with your GTX 1080 will munch through any modern AAA game at 1440p.

As stated there's no denying the punch of the 8700K for gaming/FPS - but if money 'was' a factor then Ryzen will still power through games at a very accommodating price. Plus, if you can wait until April they'll be new releases which will clock even higher...

I'm certainly not saying 'don't buy the 8700K' - just giving you a bang for buck alternative - especially the B350 combo. That all said i'm looking again at your IPS AOC @ 165Hz (great monitor) - the 8700K will have the advantage with constant higher average FPS which, as mentioned earlier, does muddy the results a little. If constant high FPS is important to you this will affect the bang-for-buck. But you have a G-Sync monitor which will, in theory, negate this as an issue but higher FPS equates to smoother gameplay whatever, so...

TBH, writing this up has made me look at the 8700K slightly differently when considering it for high refresh monitors and locking horns with a 1700/1800x performance/price ratio. There's still no denying the value of Ryzen for the average gamer but if raw FPS count is king then it could be argued that the 8700K value for buck creeps back in. Depending on its importance to the user and if he/she has Freesync/G-Sync - although higher FPS and large drops are still a factor even with these screens.

Well, that was pointless, I appear to have argued for both formats - buy what you can afford. :)

Some B350 and Aorus boards examples for you to look through:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £492.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​


The Aorus boards 1600:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £581.03 (includes shipping: £11.10)


​

The B350 board 1700:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £587.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

The Aorus and 1700

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £675.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
It really depends what level of performance you are after. Ryzen in a variety of forms is better value for money unless you want really high end gaming performance which you have to decide if it is worth the extra. Check performance comparisons for games / apps you are interested in.

To give you an example my machine plays bf1 at 1080p with 100 to 144 fps, limited to 144 refresh rate of monitor, normally closer to 144 than 100 fps. For my needs paying more for better performance is not worth it, and I get an 8c / 16t CPU as well.
 
Wow thanks for the input!
I think i'll still go with the 8700k though... but I'll likely go with 8pack memory you mentioned Plec.
I'm not really a fan of AMD... I'd prolly still go for the 7700k over the top AMD CPU.

Also with the memory I noticed that the 3600mhz version is only £10 more than the 3200mhz version. Best to go with that? or am I missing something?



VS





My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £778.97 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​
 
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Donny84 said:
I'm not really a fan of AMD... I'd prolly still go for the 7700k over the top AMD CPU.
Click to expand...
Heh, that would have led to a very different reply/persuation - but the 8700K seems a solid fit for you.

Donny84 said:
Also with the memory I noticed that the 3600mhz version is only £10 more than the 3200mhz version. Best to go with that? or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
No, the 3600 makes sense - you may not hit 3600 but the odds are you will in the future with BIOS updates - certainly higher than 3200MHz. If you can't hit it via XMP play with the voltages and timings.
 
Oh crap... one last thought before I make the purchase... will my 650w gold PSU be enough still? or will I need to upgrade that also?
 
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