What to keep between Ryzen 1600X and i5 9600k

[muppetthumper]

Hi folks
I've got a Ryzen 1600X system which I built 4 years ago, and have just inherited an i5 9600k system sans graphics card. I'm not going to keep both and wondered whether the performance differential should favour offloading the 1600X in favour of the 9600k for now? My usage is moderate - spreadsheets, too many Chrome tabs and some gaming. No video editing. To be honest the 1600X is performing fine, but the i5 comes with double (32GB) and faster RAM at 3000Mhz that I'm not sure my Ryzen Killer X370 motherboard could fully utilise.

I'm pretty agnostic brand wise and obviously there are other considerations around the associated components (no space for onboard wifi/bluetooth on the Intel motherboard, for one) & aesthetics.

I'll probably build a brand new Ryzen system when they move to AM5 socket. Any thoughts would be welcomed.

 

[Heisenberg]

i5 for me

 

[Gray2233]

Is this your motherboard: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X370 Killer SLI/index.asp#Overview ?

If so I'd swap the RAM and keep the Ryzen, if you need more cpu power at some point you could just pick up a cheap second hand 3000 series CPU up to a 3950X.

If you never intend to upgrade the CPU on the X370 you might be better off with the Intel.

 

[muppetthumper]

Is this your motherboard: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X370 Killer SLI/index.asp#Overview ?

That's the one yep. The new RAM isn't listed in the compatibility table but there is nothing to stop me testing it of course.

My next upgrade will be Ryzen but with AM5 socket, I won't bother upgrading current CPU if I keep the 1600X when we are just one or two generations away from AM5.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[humbug]

The 9600K is much faster per core than the 1600X, they are about equal in Multi threading, i would go for the 9600K for that reason.

 

[sanaxe1]

Keep 9600k

 

[Tetras]

Is this your motherboard: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X370 Killer SLI/index.asp#Overview ?

If so I'd swap the RAM and keep the Ryzen, if you need more cpu power at some point you could just pick up a cheap second hand 3000 series CPU up to a 3950X.

If you never intend to upgrade the CPU on the X370 you might be better off with the Intel.

I agree with this, that motherboard seems to have better upgrade potential and I think they even released a beta BIOS for Ryzen 5000.

If you swap to the 9600K, you'll be stuck on a platform that a 9900K (8 core, 8 thread) is your only upgrade.

You could keep the RAM for now, even if you run it at 2400 or 2666. Then if you upgrade to a Zen 2 or 3 CPU it can be set to run at stock again.

 

[HangTime]

Gotta be the 9600K surely given you have no intention of upgrading the GPU on the AM4 platform. Whereas that upgrade path might appeal to a potential buyer who wants to get a cheap second hand 1600X system now and then drop in a faster CPU somewhere down the line.

 

[MartinPrince]

Gotta be the 9600K surely given you have no intention of upgrading the GPU on the AM4 platform. Whereas that upgrade path might appeal to a potential buyer who wants to get a cheap second hand 1600X system now and then drop in a faster CPU somewhere down the line.

This.

For your stated usage, with gaming bring the most taxing and that you plan to get an AM5 Ryzen when they eventually come out.

 

[KungFuSpaghetti]

9600k easily, gen 1 Ryzen cores are pretty weak comparatively.