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What's your CPU upgrade cycle?

I don't tend to upgrade until I either need to or there's a really good deal on a decent upgrade.

Intel i5 750
Intel i5 2500K
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Intel i7 12700K

The 12700K will be with me for a while, I reckon. I'm on a 4K monitor these days so improvements are less noticeable and I'm not gaming as much anyway.
 
Hard to even say now, up until a few years ago i was big into gaming, these days I can't be arsed with it at all. My last few CPU's have been 6700k, 2700x and my current 5900x which is a few years old now.
 
I usually get a mid to high end CPU, and make it last as long as possible. The last one I had was about 8-9 years old, and it was just not able to keep up, bottlenecking to the memory. I'm about 4-5 years into my current CPU/Mobo combo, and I can't see it struggling anytime soon.

I try and also get second hand stuff if possible, there is usually plenty around and I've saved a decent amount!
 
Typically I buy or build a new system rather than upgrading singular parts.

My path has been
AMD Athlon 2500 (I think)
Intel Quad Core Duo 6600
Intel 2500K
AMD Ryzen 1600

At a guess I'd say it's usually around every 5 years or a touch longer I replace a system.

My next thought though is to replace my 1600 with a 5800X in the next couple of months.
 
I generally upgrade when I get the bug, generally I don't really notice any difference tbh. But the selling the old stuff offsets the cost a bit anyway.
 
Used to upgrade every gen and buy the higher end components to maintain performance until the next cycle. But as I've got older, and following the pandemic, I've kinda fallen out of PC gaming and prefer the comfort of my living room/sofa than sittting at a desk. Plus, these last 2 years a lot of the AAA games have had shocking ports on PC which has further dampened my enthusiasm. So, currently sitting on a Ryzen 5800X3D with a Nvidia 3090 FE and an ultra wide 1440p monitor, which is well balanced performance wise and can run most games at >60fps unless there is heavy RT/PT ( pretty much just Cyberpunk 2077 ). My strategy going forward is probably to upgrade every 2nd gen now, or until I feel performance is lacking. I plan to have a look at the 8000 series AMD Ryzen ( or Intel equivalent ) ; same for GPU - I don't see any value in buying a 4090, as it would be bottlenecked by my existing CPU/monitor resolution.
 
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Used to upgrade all the time just to have new toys to play with. In more recent years I've tended to upgrade more sporadically.

I'll probably pick up a 5800X (which is the max my X370 will take) when I can pick one up for cheap as it's an easy upgrade without having to rebuild the whole system.
 
Athlon 1400 -> Athlon 64 2800+ -> Athlon x4 620 (I think?) -> I7 3770k -> 5820k and now 12700.

Seems to be when I can afford to or when the CPU is no longer capable.

I can't see me moving away from this 12700 for about 5 years (only bought a few months ago), CPUs really last a long time these days, there wasn't really even anything the 5820k couldn't do but I guess I got a bit of the upgrade itch.
 
keef247 said:
Pentium 1 133mhz oc'ed to 266mhz with motherboard jumpers haha!
Click to expand...

You must be mis-remembering as even with the 2.5x multi an 83MHz FSB you could hit 208MHz if you were lucky and ballsy with the voltage, if you had and your couldn't run it at 3x multi with 83MHz FSB as they just wouldn't boot. 200 classic or MMX could do 250MHz though. :)
 
hmm this might be hard

From what i can remember
P4
Alothon xp 2800
Alothon 64 3800 (got on release)
Q6600
Intel i7 960 ( i think)
Intel 3770K
intel 5930X (HDT)
Ryzen 1800X
Ryzen 2950X (bad decision for gaming)
Ryzen 5900X
 
i5 2500k
i7 7700k (delidded)
Ryzen 3600
Ryzen 5600
Ryzan 7700x

Resisting the urge to grab a 3dx model now as no real benefit for me. I always have the urge to upgrade but it used to be kept in check by the limited motherboard lifespan and no desire/ budget to do a full build.
 
Back in the Athlon days I switched so often. I swapped out to whatever overclocked better with lower volts. Now, it's few and far between upgrades. I just go for the best bang for buck when I can haha :D
 
Journey said:
You must be mis-remembering as even with the 2.5x multi an 83MHz FSB you could hit 208MHz if you were lucky and ballsy with the voltage, if you had and your couldn't run it at 3x multi with 83MHz FSB as they just wouldn't boot. 200 classic or MMX could do 250MHz though. :)
Click to expand...
It must have been the other way round then, a 166mhz to start with and a 233mhz overclock. it definitely was over 200mhz and was either a 133 or 166mhz cpu. The motherboard had a ridiculous amount of jumper configurations for different mhz, so I simply set it to the highest and risked it lol. It was a very expensive that cost thousands, the motherboard would have been very decent.
 
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