Future proofing my pc

[brett.denooijer]

Hello, currently I have a zotac 1050ti and an fx 4350. I would like to upgrade my cpu to a ryzen however I was thinking of either getting the 2600 or 1700. Would this bottleneck too much because I would buy a ryzen that doesn’t bottleneck with it but I don’t wanna upgrade in the next year. So could I put in a r7 1700 or a r5 2600 with my 1050ti and still get at least 60 frames ? My pc will have 16 gb of ddr4 ram. Please help

 

[Eximo]

What part are you concerned about bottlenecking? Bottlenecking isn't bad, just means some part of your PC has capabilities that are limited by another component. Whatever component is the limiter is the performance you will get.

For games that will almost certainly be the 1050Ti unless you are running at 640x480 trying to achieve the highest frame rate possible. Then the CPU will likely be the limiting factor.

You will get at least 60FPS in any title you are already getting 60FPS with a new CPU if that is your question.

I see nothing wrong with pairing either of those CPUs with the 1050Ti. R7-1700 really only if you need all those cores for video streaming or doing video encoding. I would take the R5-2600 if you want gaming performance. Should overclock a tiny bit faster and the 2000 series optimizations on memory latency are worth it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

You really need to prioritize what type of use you value most. The only thing the 1700 beats a equally priced Intel CPU at (i5-8500) is workstation tasks that can actually use all 8 cores. In gaming the 8500 is faster. The Ryzen CPUs are also more prone to wild frame rate fluctuation than Intels are, including the 2000 series.

Lastly, it's not just the CPU you'll need to buy. You're talking about changing MB platforms and RAM standards, so you'll have to get the CPU, MB, and RAM. This will cost you $450 or more if you do it right and get 16GB RAM.

The bottom line is, if you want best gaming performance you go Intel, if you want best workstation, editing, etc, performance, you go AMD, but with compromises on gaming performance.

And for the record, there is no such thing as "future proofing". It's an often used term but means nothing. The best you can hope to do is make yourself more future ready for a few years, but with a GPU like the 1050 Ti, you will be very limited on graphics power and VRAM going forward. More and more games now don't even allow max texture settings with 4GB or less VRAM.

 

[Eximo]

On average that is true. But there are outliers and they will increase over time.

Ryzen is the safer 'Future proof' choice for several reasons.

Buying an 8th gen CPU on the eve of the 9th gen release, eh, not ideal. Might make some sense to wait and see if their lower end offerings are any better. But more importantly you are not likely to see any further options for the Intel LGA1151-v2 socket. AMD has promised at least one more generation for AM4. Basically until DDR5 is a thing, AMD is likely to stick with it.

An r5-2600 with its SMT, Six cores / 12 threads is the better workstation processor for that reason, but DX12 titles, and several new releases, can actually utilize those additional threads. On DX11 titles, hands down, Intel is faster.

Basically moot, since the 1050Ti is going to be the biggest factor in gaming performance anyway.

It will be interesting to compare Cannonlake at (Intel 10nm) and Ryzen 2 (at TSMC 7nm) when they are both available. But my guess would be a new socket for Intel at a minimum.

 

[brett.denooijer]

What part are you concerned about bottlenecking? Bottlenecking isn't bad, just means some part of your PC has capabilities that are limited by another component. Whatever component is the limiter is the performance you will get.

For games that will almost certainly be the 1050Ti unless you are running at 640x480 trying to achieve the highest frame rate possible. Then the CPU will likely be the limiting factor.

You will get at least 60FPS in any title you are already getting 60FPS with a new CPU if that is your question.

I see nothing wrong with pairing either of those CPUs with the 1050Ti. R7-1700 really only if you need all those cores for video streaming or doing video encoding. I would take the R5-2600 if you want gaming performance. Should overclock a tiny bit faster and the 2000 series optimizations on memory latency are worth it.

You really need to prioritize what type of use you value most. The only thing the 1700 beats a equally priced Intel CPU at (i5-8500) is workstation tasks that can actually use all 8 cores. In gaming the 8500 is faster. The Ryzen CPUs are also more prone to wild frame rate fluctuation than Intels are, including the 2000 series.

Lastly, it's not just the CPU you'll need to buy. You're talking about changing MB platforms and RAM standards, so you'll have to get the CPU, MB, and RAM. This will cost you $450 or more if you do it right and get 16GB RAM.

The bottom line is, if you want best gaming performance you go Intel, if you want best workstation, editing, etc, performance, you go AMD, but with compromises on gaming performance.

And for the record, there is no such thing as "future proofing". It's an often used term but means nothing. The best you can hope to do is make yourself more future ready for a few years, but with a GPU like the 1050 Ti, you will be very limited on graphics power and VRAM going forward. More and more games now don't even allow max texture settings with 4GB or less VRAM.

So should I set out and buy the i5 8400 ? Because I am mainly gaming and light video editing.

 

[Frag Maniac]

So should I set out and buy the i5 8400 ? Because I am mainly gaming and light video editing.

I agree with what Eximo said that it might be a good idea to wait for Intel's new CPU release to see what prices and performance are like. If nothing else it will likely drive down prices of their current offerings. Not sure I agree Ryzen will be better for DX12 titles though because we've already seen a fair amount of those, and whether Dx12 gets utilized better in a multithread sense going forward, Ryzen is still a slower chip that fluctuates more in frame rate than Intel. What I'm saying is latency affects performance as much as multi thread capability, so those factors are pretty much a wash.

As far as 8th gen Intel being old already, no way. Even though it has 6 cores vs 8, it will be quite some time before any games actually NEED 8 cores. There's hardly any hex thread games so far on PC. And keep in mind when you add more cores, the clock speed has to drop to account for the added heat. This is why Intel Coffee Lake is the fastest for gaming. It strikes a balance between cores and speed. You add to that Ryzen's Infinity Fabric being shackled to RAM speed, very limited in OCing, and very vulnerable to wild frame rate fluctuation, and it's a gamble for anything but workstation use.

And no, I was referring to the 8500 because it's roughly same price as the 1700, which seemed like your max CPU budget. Any way you go though this is a complete platform upgrade required, so you'll need to afford CPU, MB, and RAM all at once, which will likely be at least $450 at current prices.

 

[brett.denooijer]

So should I set out and buy the i5 8400 ? Because I am mainly gaming and light video editing.

I agree with what Eximo said that it might be a good idea to wait for Intel's new CPU release to see what prices and performance are like. If nothing else it will likely drive down prices of their current offerings. Not sure I agree Ryzen will be better for DX12 titles though because we've already seen a fair amount of those, and whether Dx12 gets utilized better in a multithread sense going forward, Ryzen is still a slower chip that fluctuates more in frame rate than Intel. What I'm saying is latency affects performance as much as multi thread capability, so those factors are pretty much a wash.

As far as 8th gen Intel being old already, no way. Even though it has 6 cores vs 8, it will be quite some time before any games actually NEED 8 cores. There's hardly any with 6 core support so far. And keep in mind when you add more cores, the clock speed has to drop to account for the added heat. This is why Intel Coffee Lake is the fastest for gaming. It strikes a balance between cores and speed. You add to that Ryzen's Infinity Fabric being shackled to RAM speed, very limited in OCing, and very vulnerable to wild frame rate fluctuation, and it's a gamble for anything but workstation use.

And no, I was referring to the 8500 because it's roughly same price as the 1700, which seemed like your max CPU budget. Any way you go though this is a complete platform upgrade required, so you'll need to afford CPU, MB, and RAM all at once, which will likely be at least $450 at current prices.

Okay thank you just looking for a good cpu that will last quite a while paired with the 1050ti

 

[brett.denooijer]

So should I set out and buy the i5 8400 ? Because I am mainly gaming and light video editing.

I agree with what Eximo said that it might be a good idea to wait for Intel's new CPU release to see what prices and performance are like. If nothing else it will likely drive down prices of their current offerings. Not sure I agree Ryzen will be better for DX12 titles though because we've already seen a fair amount of those, and whether Dx12 gets utilized better in a multithread sense going forward, Ryzen is still a slower chip that fluctuates more in frame rate than Intel. What I'm saying is latency affects performance as much as multi thread capability, so those factors are pretty much a wash.

As far as 8th gen Intel being old already, no way. Even though it has 6 cores vs 8, it will be quite some time before any games actually NEED 8 cores. There's hardly any with 6 core support so far. And keep in mind when you add more cores, the clock speed has to drop to account for the added heat. This is why Intel Coffee Lake is the fastest for gaming. It strikes a balance between cores and speed. You add to that Ryzen's Infinity Fabric being shackled to RAM speed, very limited in OCing, and very vulnerable to wild frame rate fluctuation, and it's a gamble for anything but workstation use.

And no, I was referring to the 8500 because it's roughly same price as the 1700, which seemed like your max CPU budget. Any way you go though this is a complete platform upgrade required, so you'll need to afford CPU, MB, and RAM all at once, which will likely be at least $450 at current prices.

Okay thank you just looking for a good cpu that will last quite a while paired with the 1050ti

 

[nobspls]

The best future proofing is keeping as much money in your pocket. Stuff only gets faster and cheaper. A year from now the same $100 will get you that much more. Building to future proof is to over commit to much money on gear that is guaranteed to be slower.

What you want to do is to figure out what is your requirements and build to that as cheaply as possible without cutting corners in quality, reliability, and stability.