Upgrading from i7 6700k advice

Tmouse93

Tmouse93

Tmouse93

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Glasgow
Hey all

I am looking to upgrade some parts on my pc that have a few years on its back but has served me well. I have been looking at upgrading to something like a AMD 5800x or possibly a 5600x. Managed to get good deals on a Aorus x570 elite motherboard and some 32gb 3600mhz ram. (Both of them are still returnable if a current upgrade path doesn't make sense). Would it be sensible to upgrade now or wait for next gen CPUs? And knowing how crazy things have been recently with new stuff I don't really want to have to run the risk of having to wait like 2 years until I can get something at a reasonable price. Also is the new intel 12th gens worth considering as well?

I currently have a 1440p 144hz screen

Currently play a variety of games but mainly fps (battlefield) and rpg's. Also do some image editing on software such as capture one.

My current build:
Case: Fractal Design Define S
GPU: MSI rtx 2070 Super gaming X trio
CPU: intel i7 6700k 4.0GHz
CPU fan: Noctua NH-D15
RAM: corsair vengeance 2x8gb ddr4 2400mhz
PSU: EVGA Supernova P2 750W
 
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Intel Alderlake cpu just released but could still go 5600x or 5800x but depends on what you want to do.


Best to check oit somd reviews
 
Depending on how desperate you are, I would wait to see what next Ryzen brings.

But if you are looking to change basically now, Ryzen 5000 seems to have had a fair whack of a price drop due to either Intel or Black Friday. But new Alder Lake intel (especially the 12700k) seems to be a mint CPU for gaming from benchmarks. Its a difficult one to decide right now.

But given you have the x570 board. Go for a 5600x in the mean time cause they are pretty well priced right now.
 
Tmouse93 said:
Hey all

I am looking to upgrade some parts on my pc that have a few years on its back but has served me well. I have been looking at upgrading to something like a AMD 5800x or possibly a 5600x. Managed to get good deals on a Aorus x570 elite motherboard and some 32gb 3600mhz ram. (Both of them are still returnable if a current upgrade path doesn't make sense). Would it be sensible to upgrade now or wait for next gen CPUs? And knowing how crazy things have been recently with new stuff I don't really want to have to run the risk of having to wait like 2 years until I can get something at a reasonable price. Also is the new intel 12th gens worth considering as well?

I currently have a 1440p 144hz screen

Currently play a variety of games but mainly fps (battlefield) and rpg's. Also do some image editing on software such as capture one.

My current build:
Case: Fractal Design Define S
GPU: MSI rtx 2070 Super gaming X trio
CPU: intel i7 6700k 4.0GHz
CPU fan: Noctua NH-D15
RAM: corsair vengeance 2x8gb ddr4 2400mhz
PSU: EVGA Supernova P2 750W
Click to expand...

12700k would suit you well for gaming. This is a good time to invest into a new platform, Z690/DDR5 with the new Alderlake CPU's.

I'd not recommend buying new DDR4, AM4 or a Ryzen 5000 at this point, especially if your focus is gaming, as the alternative Intel is far more futureproof.
 
Dave2150 said:
12700k would suit you well for gaming. This is a good time to invest into a new platform, Z690/DDR5 with the new Alderlake CPU's.

I'd not recommend buying new DDR4, AM4 or a Ryzen 5000 at this point, especially if your focus is gaming, as the alternative Intel is far more futureproof.
Click to expand...

Is ddr5 going to worth it right now looking at how expensive it is now and to get a compatible motherboard? Is there that much of a performance boost relative to the extra cost?
Was definitely looking at the 12700k and almost was going to pull the trigger on a 12600k yesterday but felt that maybe waiting a bit longer to see where all CPUs stand and which one is going to be best value.
 
deardevildude said:
Depending on how desperate you are, I would wait to see what next Ryzen brings.

But if you are looking to change basically now, Ryzen 5000 seems to have had a fair whack of a price drop due to either Intel or Black Friday. But new Alder Lake intel (especially the 12700k) seems to be a mint CPU for gaming from benchmarks. Its a difficult one to decide right now.

But given you have the x570 board. Go for a 5600x in the mean time cause they are pretty well priced right now.
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Thanks for the info! Do you think it might just be best to hold out for maybe at least to see what the AMD 3d v cache processors are going to look like, and then see if Intel 12th gen might be the better option? Feel like getting a 5600x for short time might be a bit unnecessary if I then decide to switch to next gen AMD or Intel. Always so difficult when there are two new gens right upon us haha
 
Tmouse93 said:
Thanks for the info! Do you think it might just be best to hold out for maybe at least to see what the AMD 3d v cache processors are going to look like, and then see if Intel 12th gen might be the better option? Feel like getting a 5600x for short time might be a bit unnecessary if I then decide to switch to next gen AMD or Intel. Always so difficult when there are two new gens right upon us haha
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I would definately recommend waiting to see what AMD bring on their next platform if you're still okay with you 6700k for now. Because AMD's next platform may possibly be better if not the same as Intel 12th Gen for less price etc.
 
Tmouse93 said:
Is ddr5 going to worth it right now looking at how expensive it is now and to get a compatible motherboard? Is there that much of a performance boost relative to the extra cost?
Was definitely looking at the 12700k and almost was going to pull the trigger on a 12600k yesterday but felt that maybe waiting a bit longer to see where all CPUs stand and which one is going to be best value.
Click to expand...
All reviews unanimously agree that DDR5 is not worth it if you are just gaming. At 1080P resolution, you will see a 5% improvement on average and about 20% in a best case scenario (just 1-2 titles out of 10 or so tested), for 3 times the price of an equivalent DDR4. And this is at 1080p. At 1440p and 4k, the gains become a margin of error. Not only is it expensive, there is hardly any stock of these kits. Everyone is buying a cheap £110 Crucial 4800Mhz CL40 DDR5 RAM with the expectation of replacing it when higher speed DDR5 kits come out/prices come down/supply stablises etc. On top of this, the DDR5 boards start at MINIMUM £300 for a good mid-range board. The early adopters are being taken for a ride here and considering Raptor Lake next year will be supporting DDR4 there is zero value in going DDR5 unless you have money to burn.

Note this is just for gaming. DDR5 does show large gains in productivity tasks in some areas vs. DDR4
Tmouse93 said:
Thanks for the info! Do you think it might just be best to hold out for maybe at least to see what the AMD 3d v cache processors are going to look like, and then see if Intel 12th gen might be the better option? Feel like getting a 5600x for short time might be a bit unnecessary if I then decide to switch to next gen AMD or Intel. Always so difficult when there are two new gens right upon us haha
Click to expand...

I went from a 9900K to a 12700K and was facing the same dilemma. The way I see it, the 3D Cache Ryzen will definitely end up beating Alder Lake by slight margins but unfortunately the AM4 platform is completely dead after that while with Alder Lake you can still do a drop-in upgrade to Raptor Lake so if you are changing platforms, Alder Lake is your best bet. 3D Cache Ryzen is mainly for those who already have a X570 board and want to do a drop i nupgrade
 
Shaz12 said:
All reviews unanimously agree that DDR5 is not worth it if you are just gaming. At 1080P resolution, you will see a 5% improvement on average and about 20% in a best case scenario (just 1-2 titles out of 10 or so tested), for 3 times the price of an equivalent DDR4. And this is at 1080p. At 1440p and 4k, the gains become a margin of error. Not only is it expensive, there is hardly any stock of these kits. Everyone is buying a cheap £110 Crucial 4800Mhz CL40 DDR5 RAM with the expectation of replacing it when higher speed DDR5 kits come out/prices come down/supply stablises etc. On top of this, the DDR5 boards start at MINIMUM £300 for a good mid-range board. The early adopters are being taken for a ride here and considering Raptor Lake next year will be supporting DDR4 there is zero value in going DDR5 unless you have money to burn.

Note this is just for gaming. DDR5 does show large gains in productivity tasks in some areas vs. DDR4


I went from a 9900K to a 12700K and was facing the same dilemma. The way I see it, the 3D Cache Ryzen will definitely end up beating Alder Lake by slight margins but unfortunately the AM4 platform is completely dead after that while with Alder Lake you can still do a drop-in upgrade to Raptor Lake so if you are changing platforms, Alder Lake is your best bet. 3D Cache Ryzen is mainly for those who already have a X570 board and want to do a drop i nupgrade
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Supposedly looking online the next Ryzen chips won't be on AM4 Ryzen 5000 was the last to support it. So it will be on a new platform anyway.
 
Shaz12 said:
I went from a 9900K to a 12700K and was facing the same dilemma. The way I see it, the 3D Cache Ryzen will definitely end up beating Alder Lake by slight margins but unfortunately the AM4 platform is completely dead after that while with Alder Lake you can still do a drop-in upgrade to Raptor Lake so if you are changing platforms, Alder Lake is your best bet. 3D Cache Ryzen is mainly for those who already have a X570 board and want to do a drop i nupgrade
Click to expand...

Running a 5800x myself but if biting the bullet right now and having to buy mobo/ram as upgrading everything, I'd prob go with the intel below.

12700k Intel chip beats the 5900X in most instances, you'll have at least one more upgrade opportunity for the cpu, and mobo can take 4 nvme m.2 ssd's. If that's too pricey, drop to the 12600k which is up there with the 5800X. the 12600 and 12700 are much more efficient than the 12900 which I would keep well away from( from reviews I've seen), and also would not go down the ddr5 route at the mo as cost/performance doesn't warrant it. I'd also go with the k version as on £20 more and can help if have a gpu failure etc, where at least you can use the pc

If you're running AM4 already, then I'd wait for the 3d v cache chips as think 5000 series bit too expensive compared to intel at the mo. Hopefully black fri AMD will drop price. AM5 after that, but that's likely the end of next year( a long time to wait). If AMD say they'll support AM5 for 4 years or so, they'll mop up. DDR5 should hopefully of come down in price by then and got better, and not having to upgrade the mobo every other year like intel is just a 'yes' from me
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £799.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
Craig_d1 said:
Running a 5800x myself but if biting the bullet right now and having to buy mobo/ram as upgrading everything, I'd prob go with the intel below.

12700k Intel chip beats the 5900X in most instances, you'll have at least one more upgrade opportunity for the cpu, and mobo can take 4 nvme m.2 ssd's. If that's too pricey, drop to the 12600k which is up there with the 5800X. the 12600 and 12700 are much more efficient than the 12900 which I would keep well away from( from reviews I've seen), and also would not go down the ddr5 route at the mo as cost/performance doesn't warrant it. I'd also go with the k version as on £20 more and can help if have a gpu failure etc, where at least you can use the pc

If you're running AM4 already, then I'd wait for the 3d v cache chips as think 5000 series bit too expensive compared to intel at the mo. Hopefully black fri AMD will drop price. AM5 after that, but that's likely the end of next year( a long time to wait). If AMD say they'll support AM5 for 4 years or so, they'll mop up. DDR5 should hopefully of come down in price by then and got better, and not having to upgrade the mobo every other year like intel is just a 'yes' from me
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £799.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
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That build definitely is tempting. Is the Z690 Tomahawk going to be one of the better value boards or is there an opportunity to get something a bit cheaper? Or is it worth getting a decent board if I was to go with the 12700k instead of the 12600k?
 
Tmouse93 said:
That build definitely is tempting. Is the Z690 Tomahawk going to be one of the better value boards or is there an opportunity to get something a bit cheaper? Or is it worth getting a decent board if I was to go with the 12700k instead of the 12600k?
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Budget boards seem to be around the £190/£210 area, and you'll have to look into the power delivery that they have. The tomahawk has a 16+1+1 70a power delivery with what looks like a decent heatsink, 6 layer pcb, uses ALC4080 sound codec also, wifi 6 and supports bluetooth 5.2. That with 4 nvme slots makes it a solid board in my view. No rgb or anything, but a lot of those boards seem to be going north of £300.
One reviewer said if going budget board, then the gigabyte gaming x is worth a look.. it has a 16+1+2 60a power delivery, uses alc1220 codec, no wifi or bluetooth, but cheaper at £200.

Tomahawks are solid boards in amd universe, both B550 and X570, hence why I took a loot at the intel variant. Step up would be gaming edge then carbon. hard to see any reviews at mo, so really difficult to pinpoint a go to board for everyone. seeing some of the prices of boards(the strix f gaming / e gaming close to £400..wow), £260 seems reasonable for early bird adopters at mo...a few month back that ddr4 ram was £188 and out of stock, so think of it saving £60 on the Ram, asnd it might make you feel a bit better.

It's just what I'd be tempted with at the mo, so still ask around. I've had too many HHd failure to ever go back so the 4 nvme slots is appealing to me, esp as they really compete with sata ssd now in price
 
Wait till Q1 '22 for the 3DVcache Ryzen parts, then compare a against 12th Gen Intel.
DDR5 is really bad value now, your could buy a DDR4 board and bin it for the price increase your are paying for the RAM alone, case in point that 32GB 3600MHz is as low ~£100, and the boards are cheaper too.
 
why the 12700 over the 12600? Seems like all the benchmarks and reviews are praising the 12600 for the price and performance. Yes you get more power with the 12700 but not that much more compared to the 12600 at the cost of more heat and power consumption. Unless I've misunderstood something
 
cinek2 said:
why the 12700 over the 12600? Seems like all the benchmarks and reviews are praising the 12600 for the price and performance. Yes you get more power with the 12700 but not that much more compared to the 12600 at the cost of more heat and power consumption. Unless I've misunderstood something
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Single core 12600 consumes 31.2w compared to 12700 32.4w(12900 is 40.8w)..multi core 118.8/158.4/243.6, so in efficiency there not that much different, it's the 12900 which really sucks the power. And yes, the 12600 is a great cpu also and performs great. I just prefer the extra 2 cores,...as I said in 1st post, I've got an 8 core 5800X (hopefully let me keep my cpu for an extra year before needing upgrading compared to the 6 core)...if purely going on price to performance I should have just got the 5600X...but you could say the same with everyone that nought 5800X/5900X/5950X...in gaming, none of it makes sense compared to the 5600X...for me, the 12700k is a great cpu, beating the 5900X in most benchmarks, not drawing too much extra power, but for £150 less than the 5900X, so it's what I would go for...it's actually the cpu gamernexus are getting for there own build to use in their office, so it can't be that bad.
Intel sent out 12900 and 12600 cpu's to reviewers, not the 12700, so there aren't that many 12700 reviews, just from those that actually went to buy the cpu themselves...gamernexus/hardware unboxed both are positive reviews for 12700
 
The 3DVcache is interesting as well. Just not sure whether to upgrade to one of them now since I'm currently on an old intel system, plus upgrading to that now would be end of the line for that gen. Would the new intel socket be able to at least give one more cpu upgrade or do do they change more often when a new cpu is released?
Feel like it's coming to the decision of getting a 12600k/12700k now or just waiting for the next gen AMDs. The hard part is that it always feels like whenever something new comes out there is always the thought that "just wait for the next ones to come out and they will be much better etc". Why does upgrading have to be so difficult..
 
Tmouse93 said:
The 3DVcache is interesting as well. Just not sure whether to upgrade to one of them now since I'm currently on an old intel system, plus upgrading to that now would be end of the line for that gen. Would the new intel socket be able to at least give one more cpu upgrade or do do they change more often when a new cpu is released?
Feel like it's coming to the decision of getting a 12600k/12700k now or just waiting for the next gen AMDs. The hard part is that it always feels like whenever something new comes out there is always the thought that "just wait for the next ones to come out and they will be much better etc". Why does upgrading have to be so difficult..
Click to expand...
Intel usually do 2 cpu gens per socket so most likely another cpu but its not usually worth upgrading in the same socket only if you need more cores.

It's hard to choose because there always something around the corner.
 
Tmouse93 said:
The 3DVcache is interesting as well. Just not sure whether to upgrade to one of them now since I'm currently on an old intel system, plus upgrading to that now would be end of the line for that gen. Would the new intel socket be able to at least give one more cpu upgrade or do do they change more often when a new cpu is released?
Feel like it's coming to the decision of getting a 12600k/12700k now or just waiting for the next gen AMDs. The hard part is that it always feels like whenever something new comes out there is always the thought that "just wait for the next ones to come out and they will be much better etc". Why does upgrading have to be so difficult..
Click to expand...
All leaks have pretty much confirmed lga 1700 will support raptor lake even with DDR4.
 
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