[SOLVED] I need to upgrade my motherboard and processor. Is the i5 8600K a safe CPU to get for gaming in the near future?

[cadco96]

Hi everyone,
I am currently running on an outdated motherboard that doesn't have the appropriate socket for newer CPUs. I have an i5 3570k processor, which as served me pretty well, but has on a few occasions now seemed to be too weak to handle some newer games. Most recently I have really struggled to run Warhammer: Vermintide 2. My GPU is a GTX 1070, and I really can't afford to upgrade that right now. My only intention is to continue gaming at 1080p, but my expectation is that with new gaming consoles coming out potentially late next year, I really need to at least upgrade my processor so that it isn't bottlenecking my GPU in some of these games.

I am really naive when it comes to processors. I don't really know what is "good enough". I would prefer to get one that I won't have to worry about upgrading for a good while, i.e. if there is going to be a bottleneck in the next couple of years I'd prefer it to just be my GPU. But I don't want to go overboard and spend money on more processing power than I need. I do some other work on my desktop but my processor is totally fine for that stuff. I like the price of the i5-8600k and people seem high on it, but I have no idea how long it will remain viable. It seems to me that games are more often beginning to rely on processing power.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[liamwhalley20]

have you considered overclocking perhaps?

 

[cadco96]

I did look into that, but it seems like my motherboard is not very good for overclocking, because I was only able to raise the speed of the cpu from 3.4 Ghz to 3.8 Ghz.

 

[InvalidError]

It seems to me that games are more often beginning to rely on processing power.

What micro-transaction cesspools pass for AAA games today do tend to favor more cores than they did a few years ago and this trend isn't going to stop, especially now that we have AMD bringing 12-16 threads down to mainstream pricing.

If you don't have any specific reason to want an i5-8600k immediately, then I'd recommend waiting until B550 motherboards become available and consider a Ryzen 3600/3700 at that point in late-2019/early-2020. All of 3rd-gen's rough edges will hopefully have been completely sorted out by then.

 

[M.AGamer]

Hi everyone,
I am currently running on an outdated motherboard that doesn't have the appropriate socket for newer CPUs. I have an i5 3570k processor, which as served me pretty well, but has on a few occasions now seemed to be too weak to handle some newer games. Most recently I have really struggled to run Warhammer: Vermintide 2. My GPU is a GTX 1070, and I really can't afford to upgrade that right now. My only intention is to continue gaming at 1080p, but my expectation is that with new gaming consoles coming out potentially late next year, I really need to at least upgrade my processor so that it isn't bottlenecking my GPU in some of these games.

I am really naive when it comes to processors. I don't really know what is "good enough". I would prefer to get one that I won't have to worry about upgrading for a good while, i.e. if there is going to be a bottleneck in the next couple of years I'd prefer it to just be my GPU. But I don't want to go overboard and spend money on more processing power than I need. I do some other work on my desktop but my processor is totally fine for that stuff. I like the price of the i5-8600k and people seem high on it, but I have no idea how long it will remain viable. It seems to me that games are more often beginning to rely on processing power.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

I would go with ryzen 3600 myself with a cheap b450 mobo you get the same perf as intel but cheaper and more threads +cheaper

 

[liamwhalley20]

i am with these guys and suggest a ryzen system instead of an i5

 

[cadco96]

Why do you all suggest the Ryzen processor? Looking at the 3600x it seems like it might be a slightly better value, but I am unsure. I've stuck with Intel in the past because I just know that it works. Are there any drawbacks to changing over to an AMD mobo and processor combo?

 

[InvalidError]

Looking at the 3600x it seems like it might be a slightly better value, but I am unsure.

While the i5 may still be better at (most) gaming for now, the Ryzen stands a much better chance of remaining relevant in the future where more heavily threaded software will become increasingly common. If you look at multi-threaded benchmarks to get a glimpse of what CPU scaling might look like in games a few years down the road, the i5 will get destroyed when we get there.

Intel sees the writing on the wall and rumors are that Comet Lake i5 will have HT enabled.

 

[sizzling]

I also vote Ryzen. The i5 can already see very high usage across all cores in some games. We saw with the older quad core i5’s drop from mid to high end for gaming down to entry level very quickly and I suspect the same is going to happen to the current i5’s. There is just no headroom.

 

[cadco96]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Having looked further into the value situation, which is even slightly affected by the fact that the Ryzen CPUs come with coolers, I have started to lean towards the AMD processors now. I'm still not sure if I should go to the 3600 or the 3600x. I've seen some people suggest that the 3600x is better if you don't plan to overclock, and overclocking is not something I have ever been super interested in, although I might change my mind if I learn more about it. My major concern is the motherboard situation. I've looked at the MSI Tomahawk motherboard which seems to have an option to update the B450 motherboard with a USB stick so that the 3600 CPU will work.

 

[InvalidError]

I'm still not sure if I should go to the 3600 or the 3600x.

Look at benchmarks, the two perform practically the same, so I'd say the 3600X is not worth the 25% extra it costs for the main benefit of having a slightly better stock HSF. Overclocking-wise, as long as you get a board with good enough VRM and slap a decent HSF on the CPU, you can simply enable PBO and forget about overclocking as both chips boost (self-overclock) pretty close to practical limits of manual tuning by themselves. Lower latency DDR4-3000+ delivers far more performance than manual overclocking does, so you should focus on that instead of core clocks.

 

[liamwhalley20]

yes i also second the 3600 instead of the x version, mostly due to the tdp difference. i mean you could easily overclock a 3600 to the same if not higher frequency (may not be less than 3600x tdp if you go higher voltage) but still less $. so choice is yours really but i and many others recommend the ryzen option just for the hell of the bang for the buck ratio in comparison to intel chips as of now. there just isn't a more sensible option right now

 

[cadco96]

I don't know if it is a good idea to ask additional questions in this thread, but...

If I go with the MSI Tomahawk motherboard and the Ryzen 3600, I should be able to update the BIOS with a flashdrive even though I do not have an earlier generation AMD CPU to do it with, right? That is my biggest concern with going for the AMD processor.

A tangential question, if anyone has experience with carrying a Windows license from one machine to another, does that work well? I have a Windows 10 digital license attached to my Microsoft account. I got the free upgrade from a personally purchased Windows 7 home years ago, and I'd like to be able to transfer that to the new Mobo/CPU combo rather than buy a whole new copy of Windows 10. Sorry if that is not an appropriate question for this thread.

 

[liamwhalley20]

yes you can flash without cpu in, you just need a usb drive and another pc to download the BIOS with.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkXunUAriE