CPU or gpu upgrade or just fix up my system

[Elijahcrabtree]

Well I like to game and the main game I play is just arma 3 adventually battle royal and etc.. I'm gonna be having around 400$ should I get i7 7700k or get an a better nvidia gpu I have a g4620 and a rx 470 seems to do decent in gaming but I want more stable fps

 

[Atomicdonut17]

Running an RX 470 with any Pentium isn't recommended. Don't get me wrong, it works just fine, but you have issues with the lack of cores. Get an i7 7700k first. You'll probably see major improvements. Afterwords, later you can get something like a 1060, 580, or higher on up.

 

[Ecky]

Arma 3 isn't all that well threaded. The i7 would help mostly by virtue of having higher clockspeed, rather than from its extra cores and threads.

 

[Elijahcrabtree]

Running an RX 470 with any Pentium isn't recommended. Don't get me wrong, it works just fine, but you have issues with the lack of cores. Get an i7 7700k first. You'll probably see major improvements. Afterwords, later you can get something like a 1060, 580, or higher on up.

Okay thank you! But do you think I should do all around upgraded I feel the i7 would get terribly hot because my case has terrible air flow I was thinking of getting a better case with way better air flow and my mobo wouldn't even be able to use the i7s overclocking and upgrading to a z270 mobo and perhaps getting an ssd

 

[Spring1898]

With $400, I don't know that the i7 is the best use of the money, UNLESS you are planning on spending more money to upgrade your system down the line to handle more games.

And since it sounds like your motherboard is not a Z series, you will not have enough to upgrade both at this time (which would be around $450-$500 in total) to take advantage of the 7700k's overclockability.

So do you plan on demanding more and more from your system, or do you only want to spend a little bit to improve your experience?

A locked i5 would do that cheaper, pair more evenly with the RX 470, and you would not have to upgrade anything else in your system, and the additional money could be spent improving the airflow in your case and/or purchasing a better one.

BUT, if this is just the first step in spending $800+ to do a total upgrade within the next few months, then the 7700k is certainly a good way to go.


Ryzen is another option you could get into for the $400 range, but that is a different discussion.

 

[Elijahcrabtree]

With $400, I don't know that the i7 is the best use of the money, UNLESS you are planning on spending more money to upgrade your system down the line to handle more games.

And since it sounds like your motherboard is not a Z series, you will not have enough to upgrade both at this time (which would be around $450-$500 in total) to take advantage of the 7700k's overclockability.

So do you plan on demanding more and more from your system, or do you only want to spend a little bit to improve your experience?

A locked i5 would do that cheaper, pair more evenly with the RX 470, and you would not have to upgrade anything else in your system, and the additional money could be spent improving the airflow in your case and/or purchasing a better one.

BUT, if this is just the first step in spending $800+ to do a total upgrade within the next few months, then the 7700k is certainly a good way to go.


Ryzen is another option you could get into for the $400 range, but that is a different discussion.[/
Well I definetly plan on investing more money into build especially after selling extra parts and making more money it's going into build and I thought about a ryzen 1600x with a 370x mobo but the performance just wasn't that good compared to an i7 or i5 I'm looking for something that will give me the best fps and that'll future proof me for a while

 

[Spring1898]

In that case, the 7700k and a motherboard upgrade are good starts.
If you buy new, you are around $300 for a 7700k, $160 for a decent Z270 motherboard.

You may also want to check your PSU if it is sufficient to handle the 7700k.
That should get you started. The rest will follow as you have time/money



In regard to Ryzen, a 1600 is the better option over the 1600x since all Ryzen chips max out overclocks at the same level and the 1600 comes with its own (and very decent cooler)
Also if you are not utilizing SLI or a lot of extra devices to eat up all the PCI-e lanes, there is no need to go with a X370 and you would be fine with a B350
(this is only to clarify)

 

[Elijahcrabtree]

In that case, the 7700k and a motherboard upgrade are good starts.
If you buy new, you are around $300 for a 7700k, $160 for a decent Z270 motherboard.

You may also want to check your PSU if it is sufficient to handle the 7700k.
That should get you started. The rest will follow as you have time/money



In regard to Ryzen, a 1600 is the better option over the 1600x since all Ryzen chips max out overclocks at the same level and the 1600 comes with its own (and very decent cooler)
Also if you are not utilizing SLI or a lot of extra devices to eat up all the PCI-e lanes, there is no need to go with a X370 and you would be fine with a B350
(this is only to clarify)

Okay so you think for sure the future proof option would be the i7 7700k? I see bench marks the ryzen is slower but it just came out and isn't optimized yet for a lot of games and 6 cores with 12 threads seems good. Intels coffee lake will adventually be coming out soon supposedly realesing around summer and they supposedly have an i5 with 6 cores I want something to last for a long time what would you think is best for that? Wait for coffee lake and let money stack or get ryzen or an i7?

 

[Spring1898]

Either choice would not be wrong.

My suspicion is that Coffee lake will not be that much of an improvement over Kabylake (as it is still built on 14nm), insofar as Skylake was not over Haswell, and Kaby lake was simply a clock increase. Plus delidding and overclocking the 7700k up to near the 5ghz range should keep it relevant with whatever Coffee Lake offers.

If you can afford to wait until the middle/end of Summer (August is supposed to be the annoucement) then waiting could get you a Coffee Lake i5 6/6.
The caveat is two fold.
1st, we don't know if the clock speeds of the i5 6/6 will be the same as the 4 core counter parts. The X-series chips with more than 4 cores have always been slower than their consumer 4 core counterparts.
2nd, we don't know what the price will be. It could turn out the 6/6 is nearly as expensive (or more than) the 4/8 i7.
To me that is a lot of "ifs" to put off upgrading now.

You would not be misserved by an i7 4/8, and in gaming applications (no streaming video editing, etc), I would theorize that you would not notice a substantial difference between a 6/6 and a 4/8 or 6/12, for at least as long as your build stays relevant, probably until at least the generation after Coffee lake (2+ years away).


The optimization of Ryzen is unlikely to overtake the inherent limitations of the current line up, namely, the lower IPC and Clock speeds compared to Intel.
Zen2 may correct both of those issues (or not), and it is supposed to use the same motherboards as Zen1. So in theory if it does, you could simply upgrade the CPU down the line. BUT you will likely not be well served by the additional cores and threads (beyond 4/8) which you will not use if you are only gaming. It is true that more games take advantage of >4 threads, but I think it is unlikely it will improve to such a degree that you will be limited by 4/8 by the time you are ready to upgrade again.
The only benefit Ryzen has at this point is that it is and will likely be a cheaper upgrade path.


But this only matters if you plan to upgrade the rest of your system. An i7 with a 1070 is not going to perform any noticeably better than a 1600 with a 1070, but it will cost more. You are probably looking at a 1080 performance or above to fully take advantage of the 7700k.

 

[Elijahcrabtree]

Either choice would not be wrong.

My suspicion is that Coffee lake will not be that much of an improvement over Kabylake (as it is still built on 14nm), insofar as Skylake was not over Haswell, and Kaby lake was simply a clock increase. Plus delidding and overclocking the 7700k up to near the 5ghz range should keep it relevant with whatever Coffee Lake offers.

If you can afford to wait until the middle/end of Summer (August is supposed to be the annoucement) then waiting could get you a Coffee Lake i5 6/6.
The caveat is two fold.
1st, we don't know if the clock speeds of the i5 6/6 will be the same as the 4 core counter parts. The X-series chips with more than 4 cores have always been slower than their consumer 4 core counterparts.
2nd, we don't know what the price will be. It could turn out the 6/6 is nearly as expensive (or more than) the 4/8 i7.
To me that is a lot of "ifs" to put off upgrading now.

You would not be misserved by an i7 4/8, and in gaming applications (no streaming video editing, etc), I would theorize that you would not notice a substantial difference between a 6/6 and a 4/8 or 6/12, for at least as long as your build stays relevant, probably until at least the generation after Coffee lake (2+ years away).


The optimization of Ryzen is unlikely to overtake the inherent limitations of the current line up, namely, the lower IPC and Clock speeds compared to Intel.
Zen2 may correct both of those issues (or not), and it is supposed to use the same motherboards as Zen1. So in theory if it does, you could simply upgrade the CPU down the line. BUT you will likely not be well served by the additional cores and threads (beyond 4/8) which you will not use if you are only gaming. It is true that more games take advantage of >4 threads, but I think it is unlikely it will improve to such a degree that you will be limited by 4/8 by the time you are ready to upgrade again.
The only benefit Ryzen has at this point is that it is and will likely be a cheaper upgrade path.


But this only matters if you plan to upgrade the rest of your system. An i7 with a 1070 is not going to perform any noticeably better than a 1600 with a 1070, but it will cost more. You are probably looking at a 1080 performance or above to fully take advantage of the 7700k.

Okay thank very much!!!! That really explained everything and gave me more incite then I even originally had!