Question Best possible CPU upgrade ?

djexperia2

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Hello,

To start of - this is my hardware :

CPU : I5 8400
Motherboard : ASUS H310
Cooler : RAIJINTEK Juno X
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GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
RAM: 16GB, DDR4

And so my question is, what is the best possible upgrade for my CPU without changing motherboard and cooler ? Also to be a bit more specific, I'm upgrading to achieve better performance in CPU intensive games. I'm a bit worried about my GPU getting a bit outdated, I don't know what bottleneck issues a cpu upgrade could cause, and also I'm a bit short on the money side of things, so I can't really upgrade everything as of right now.

Some suggestions or tips / experience with upgrading a similar rig but would much appreciated!
 
Your board supports both 8th and 9th gen. CPUs, so look for the multithreaded chips like the 8th gen. i7s like 8700 and its variants, or 9th gen. i9s like 9900 and variants. But be aware, it is a budget line board with basic VRM, not really made for hardcore gaming. 9900 could be a tall ask thermally even though it supports it.

Unless you are facing major issues, it would be wiser to stick with what you have currently and save more for a better upgrade. Your current configuration looks pretty well balanced in that range.
 
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What is your budget?

Here is a list of supported cpu upgrades for your motherboard:
The stronger upgrades may well need a better cooler.
CPU centric games need a strong single thread processor.
Run the cpu-Z bench test and look at the single thread rating.
On your I5-8400, it should be about 451:
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/xyws8u/1

I might guess that a I7-9700K @566 would be about the strongest viable upgrade given the cooler restriction. Even then, perhaps not unless your case has very good ventilation.

I think there are more viable options to be had by upgrading to more current gen processors like the i3-10100.
 
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djexperia2

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What is your budget?

Here is a list of supported cpu upgrades for your motherboard:
https://valid.x86.fr/bench/kn2lme/1
The stronger upgrades may well need a better cooler.
Cpu centric games need a strong single thread processor.
Run the cpu-Z bench test and look at the single thread rating.
On your I5-8400, it should be about 451:
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/xyws8u/1

I might guess that a 9600K @522 would be about the strongest viable upgrade given the cooler restriction. Even then, perhaps not unless your case has very good ventilation.

I think there are more viable options to be had by upgrading to more current gen processors like the i3-10100.

Hello, thank you for taking the time to respond, and I'm sorry for replying so late.
My budget is around 200 euro. I still haven't upgraded since my financial situation is not in the best spot, but I'm still thinking about it all the time.
I ran the cpu-z bench test and the result was 427.3 on single thread.
I'm looking at the options and i3-10100 doesn't seem like that great of an upgrade based on benchmark videos that I looked at. I was also considering to upgrade the cooler, but I don't know how much that might add to the costs and also I would prefer to avoid water cooling, or any similar messy cooling types, but maybe some cooler options for my rig would be appreciated.
Overall I honestly don't know at this point what's the best option, because there's no way I can afford a full new rig.
 
A used I7-9700K should be available for your 200 euro budget.
Since your motherboard does not support overclocking, your cooler should suffice. ...Barely.
Your I5-8400 has 6 processing threads and a passmark rating of 9239.
That is when all 6 threads are 100% busy.
The single thread rating, which is probably more important is 2404.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8400+@+2.80GHz&id=3097
By comparison, the I7-9700K has 8 threads and a rating of 14551/2898:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-9700K+@+3.60GHz&id=3335

To go much stronger is going to require not only a stronger cpu, but a new motherboard also.
 
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djexperia2

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Hello, thank you for taking the time to respond, and I'm sorry for replying so late.
My budget is around 200 euro. I still haven't upgraded since my financial situation is not in the best spot, but I'm still thinking about it all the time.
I ran the cpu-z bench test and the result was 427.3 on single thread.
I'm looking at the options and i3-10100 doesn't seem like that great of an upgrade based on benchmark videos that I looked at. I was also considering to upgrade the cooler, but I don't know how much that might add to the costs and also I would prefer to avoid water cooling, or any similar messy cooling types, but maybe some cooler options for my rig would be appreciated.
Overall I honestly don't know at this point what's the best option, because there's no way I can afford a full new rig.

Okay, I will look into the I7-9700K. Thank you a lot for the response.
 

djexperia2

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What is your budget?

Here is a list of supported cpu upgrades for your motherboard:
The stronger upgrades may well need a better cooler.
CPU centric games need a strong single thread processor.
Run the cpu-Z bench test and look at the single thread rating.
On your I5-8400, it should be about 451:
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/xyws8u/1

I might guess that a I7-9700K @566 would be about the strongest viable upgrade given the cooler restriction. Even then, perhaps not unless your case has very good ventilation.

I think there are more viable options to be had by upgrading to more current gen processors like the i3-10100.

My friend offered a 8700k since he got a new rig, how is that for an upgrade?
 

storm-chaser

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Hi

I would recommend the 9600KF, just as capable as the 9900K / 9700K and pulls less power. The 9600KF with a moderate 5.0 GHz overclock will net you about 615 points in the CPU z benchmark.

The 9600KF is still blisteringly fast, no need to spend more money on an 8 core 9th gen chip.
 
My friend offered a 8700k since he got a new rig, how is that for an upgrade?
8700K is only a fair upgrade for gaming.
It is a good upgrade for multithreaded apps with 12 threads, but the single thread performance upgrade is not great.
You can get a decent idea of cpu capabilities by looking at the passmark performance numbers. Look at the single thread performance more than the multithread performance.
Or, look at the cpu-Z bench single thread performance.
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/pzi81n