Question An upgrade for an i7 4790K

[VermilionNeko]

Hi

What modern CPUs are worth upgrading to from an i7 4790K? I highly doubt I’ll be upgrading my PC any time soon, but I’m just curious. Every thread I’ve come across about this ends along the lines of ‘it’s not worth upgrading’, but is that still true in 2022? Obviously, I would need to upgrade the mobo and RAM too. I’m still rocking DDR3

Also, according to Bandai Namco support, my CPU is to blame and the cause of me experiencing random crashes in Elden Ring because it doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements.

Thanks

 

[shady28]

I swear I've read various forum posts even saying an i7 4790K bottlenecks a 1080...?

Yeah depends on the game as you said, and every PC has bottlenecks. I'm just saying, try to make sure the bottleneck doesn't show up as all cores at 100% on the CPU. Single thread bottleneck on one or two cores is different.

Below is with a 3080 - and these are all 1-3 gen old CPUs + a 4770K :

 

[Zerk2012]

Yeah depends on the game as you said, and every PC has bottlenecks. I'm just saying, try to make sure the bottleneck doesn't show up as all cores at 100% on the CPU. Single thread bottleneck on one or two cores is different.

Below is with a 3080 - and these are all 1-3 gen old CPUs + a 4770K :

And all of that has absolutely nothing to do with the game crashing, as in my link where the i5 2500K can run the game.

EDIT. I have no clue why people get sidetracked from the original question.

 

[shady28]

And all of that has absolutely nothing to do with the game crashing, as in my link where the i5 2500K can run the game.

EDIT. I have no clue why people get sidetracked from the original question.

Here's a reminder of the original question, since you seem to have forgotten it by the beginning of page 2 of the thread. I added emphasis to help you out....

Hi

What modern CPUs are worth upgrading to from an i7 4790K? I highly doubt I’ll be upgrading my PC any time soon, but I’m just curious. ,,,

 

[VermilionNeko]

I've still barely scratched the surface with researching various components, and I know they're not Zen 4... I suspect they're going to be too hard to get a hold of and be expensive. :-\ But I did check out PC Gamer's recommendations and what are people's thoughts on this motherboard and CPU...?

https://www.pcgamer.com/gigabyte-z690-aorus-pro-motherboard-review-benchmarks/

https://www.pcgamer.com/intel-alder-lake-core-i5-12600k-review-benchmarks-performance/

 

[VermilionNeko]

Not that recommended then...? :3

 

[shady28]

There's another review here.

https://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_z690_aorus_pro_review,1.html

If you are looking at the newegg deal for $250, that is a bang-up deal IMO. The VRM is plenty for 12900K and moderate overclocking. I have been thinking about getting one of these myself because of that deal.

https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-z690-aorus-pro/p/N82E16813145345R

 

[VermilionNeko]

What about the CPU? I did get an i5 once before - the 4670K I think it was. And there were those who said an i5 is all you need for gaming, but the i7s had the hyper-threading, which did end up helping in some games, so I went for the 4790K. But I understand they've all got hyper-threading now...? Even i3s...?

Would love more suggestions from peeps on hardware recommendations though. I always find researching, planning and shopping for new PC hardware/upgrades exciting. 😄

EDIT: Also, I'm not quite sure what to do about the PSU. I've usually just gotten budget ones, but certainly need something more robust.

 

[VermilionNeko]

I don't know how reliant this site is, but according to PC Build's Bottleneck Calculator, my current i7 is a bottleneck on my GPU. :3 However, for graphics card usage, with an i5 12600K, there'll be a 0.9% bottleneck. In fact, it says the 1080 is too weak for it. XD

 

[Eximo]

Those sites aren't comprehensive, they are more like averages.

If they take the latest CPU and put it at the top, great, but if I take practically any game and run it at high resolution and settings, then the GPU is the bottleneck. If you take any game and lower the resolution and settings for maximum FPS output, then the CPU becomes the limit. Some games have locked frame rates, so the point is moot.

There are too many variables for those calculators to account for. If they had a game by game listing for each resolution and typical low/medium/high/ultra settings, then maybe, but that is way too much work.

 

[VermilionNeko]

To resurrect an old thread - I've started playing Deathloop for the first time, and I've noticed that whilst in one of the main towns/cities (Updaam), the frame rate drops, but more importantly, looking at the Task Manager, the GPU is badly under-utilised! And I've even tried turning on the game's upscaling options. The same with Nvidia's own options in the Control Panel. I've set the game to use the highest graphical settings and I've upscaled it to use 1440p. However, no matter what I do, the Task Manager is reading that my GPU is using 14-18% whilst my CPU is using around 50-60%!

Will definitely need to look into upgrading sometime soon...