Question i5 9400f/9600k or Ryzen 5 3600/3600x upgrade for 1080p gaming on ultra (GTX 1070)

Nov 14, 2019
5
2
15
Hello everyone!
I'm trying to upgrade my old pc to something better, but I can't decide what kind of CPU I should buy in order to achieve 60 fps/1080p with ultra or at least very high settings.
I watched a lot of videos looking for some benchmarks to decide, but I must say that it's pretty hard, since most of them just focus on FPS, sacrifing graphics and the rest of what the processor is capable of...
I don't have much money right now, so I want to keep my budget as low as possible and I want to keep my GTX 1070 for now, so I'm focusing on processor/motherboard and ram.

I love emulators, especially Yuzu and Cemu, and I want to be able to play at 1080/4k upscaled and 60 fps.
Also, sometimes I keep 2 games open while playing, like Magic the Gathering Arena and Final Fantasy XIV, for example, while listening to music or watching streams/YT videos...

Here's my current setup:
i5 4690k (not OC'ed)
MSI Z97 Gaming Motherboard
16gb 1666mhz of Ram
GTX 1070 EVGA OC Edition
120GB SSD Corsair Neutron (or something like that, it's from 2014)
Asus 144hz Monitor, 1080p

I'm aiming for:
Ryzen 5 3600/3600x (it's a $25 difference between them here in my country) or
i5 9600k/9400f (the difference here is high, around $180)
AsRock B450 or something similar, with RGB... (I might sacrifice the RGB)
16gb ddr4 2666mhz/3000mhz
Samsung Evo 860 SSD 480gb or Kingston 480GB a400 (kingstom is half the price here)

So please, it would be great if you guys help me deciding which setup would be better in order to make a good upgrade while saving some money.
 
This is simple, Ryzen 5 3600 (like NightHawkRMX wrote already), you wont fell the diference between that and the "X" one. I would not buy a Core i5, not today, not tomorrow, probably not unlil the 10xxx parts arrive (those may actually come with 6 cores and 12 threads).

About the SSD question, If you can find the Crucial P1 for a reasonable price (https://www.crucial.com/esp/en/z97-pro-gamer/CT13073862) that will be a better choice than any the ones you mention.

Now, between the two SSD you wrote, yes the EVO is without a doubt the best performance hands down.
But honestly, in an all day usage, like windows loading times, browser, word, excel, etc. loading times, games loading times, I don't think you will be able to "feel" a diference between the two. There are some special task on which the Samsung will perform way better and you will feel and sense the diference, but not many you can come across on a daily gaming rig usage.

I can share you my experience if its worth anything, where I live Samsung is also very expensive compared to other brands like kingston, so I bought a Kingston UV400, 240GB, and I been using it since July 2017, already suffered 3 Windows reinstall and lots of deletes and writes (the main games I play always goes to my SSD), and its been working flawlessly since day one (and I hope it will still do a for a long, long time).

Finally, the money you save by skiping the R5 3600X put it towards getting some beefier RAM like 2 x 8GB @3200MHz kit (make sure whatever you get is compatible with the mobo you chose, you can check this on your mothebroard oficial site).

Cheers!
 
Last edited:

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Asus Tuf Gaming or Gigabyte Aorus Elite are the best boards for the money. Which is relatively cheap. Even the x570's only run @ USD$180, and rival anything in the USD$300 range.

The 3600X is nothing more than a 3600 that ppl charge more for because it's clocked slightly higher. Has about the same OC ceiling as the 3600, so really doesn't get much of an OC (if any) at all. The 3600X is for those whom absolutely refuse to tinker and want 'out of the box' best performance. Personally I'd rather pay less, click one button, and get exactly the same results.

With a B450 mobo, ram speeds are almost always limited to 3200MHz. Which is fine since the sweet spot for 2nd Gen is 3200MHz. The sweet spot for 3rd gen is 3733MHz, but that's currently only attainable on x570 mobo's. Won't hurt the 3600 a bit to run at 3200MHz, since that's the default memory controller speed anyway.

Right now, 3200MHz ram is almost exactly the same, if not less, than many 2400MHz kits, due simply to competition. So you'll probably find that buying 3200MHz ram will be cheaper overall for a decent kit, than buying a slower or faster speed.
 
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Nov 14, 2019
5
2
15
This is simple, Ryzen 5 3600 (like NightHawkRMX wrote already), you wont fell the diference between that and the "X" one. I would not buy a Core i5, not today, not tomorrow, probably not unlil the 10xxx parts arrive (those may actually come with 6 cores and 12 threads).

About the SSD question, If you can find the Crucial P1 for a reasonable price (https://www.crucial.com/esp/en/z97-pro-gamer/CT13073862) that will be a better choice than any the ones you mention.

Now, between the two SSD you wrote, yes the EVO is without a doubt the best performance hands down.
But honestly, in an all day usage, like windows loading times, browser, word, excel, etc. loading times, games loading times, I don't think you will be able to "feel" a diference between the two. There are some special task on which the Samsung will perform way better and you will feel and sense the diference, but not many you can come across on a daily gaming rig usage.

I can share you my experience if its worth anything, where I live Samsung is also very expensive compared to other brands like kingston, so I bought a Kingston UV400, 240GB, and I been using it since July 2017, already suffered 3 Windows reinstall and lots of deletes and writes (the main games I play always goes to my SSD), and its been working flawlessly since day one (and I hope it will still do a for a long, long time).

Finally, the money you save by skiping the R5 3600X put it towards getting some beefier RAM like 2 x 8GB @3200MHz kit (make sure whatever you get is compatible with the mobo you chose, you can check this on your mothebroard oficial site).

Cheers!
Asus Tuf Gaming or Gigabyte Aorus Elite are the best boards for the money. Which is relatively cheap. Even the x570's only run @ USD$180, and rival anything in the USD$300 range.

The 3600X is nothing more than a 3600 that ppl charge more for because it's clocked slightly higher. Has about the same OC ceiling as the 3600, so really doesn't get much of an OC (if any) at all. The 3600X is for those whom absolutely refuse to tinker and want 'out of the box' best performance. Personally I'd rather pay less, click one button, and get exactly the same results.

With a B450 mobo, ram speeds are almost always limited to 3200MHz. Which is fine since the sweet spot for 2nd Gen is 3200MHz. The sweet spot for 3rd gen is 3733MHz, but that's currently only attainable on x570 mobo's. Won't hurt the 3600 a bit to run at 3200MHz, since that's the default memory controller speed anyway.

Right now, 3200MHz ram is almost exactly the same, if not less, than many 2400MHz kits, due simply to competition. So you'll probably find that buying 3200MHz ram will be cheaper overall for a decent kit, than buying a slower or faster speed.
Thank you so much! I'll get a ryzen 5 3600!
Mobos are really expensive here, the cheaper ones go for $200 at least, so I'm thinking about which one I should buy...
I read that the MSI 450 series have a flashbios button, that auto updates the bios for you, so you don't need an older ryzen core to make 3600 work... so I think I'll stick to them... But I can't decide which model...

MSI B450 Tomahawk looks great! The MSI B450 Gaming Plus too!
 
Thank you so much! I'll get a ryzen 5 3600!
Mobos are really expensive here, the cheaper ones go for $200 at least, so I'm thinking about which one I should buy...
I read that the MSI 450 series have a flashbios button, that auto updates the bios for you, so you don't need an older ryzen core to make 3600 work... so I think I'll stick to them... But I can't decide which model...

MSI B450 Tomahawk looks great! The MSI B450 Gaming Plus too!

Thats true about some MSI mobos, just remember you still need a pendrive and a PC with internet conection to download the BIOS and put it inside the pendrive
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkXunUAriE


Cheers!
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
I know Asus and MSI have had bios installer/updater software for years, dunno about the rest, but that's entirely different than the ability to update the bios without a cpu.

So for instance if you bought a B450 mobo, and the 3600, and it happened to be a pre-3rd gen rdy manufacturing date, so had an older bios, for most mobo's you'd still need to get the cpu recognised, to get into bios, to use the bios updater. That'd mean using AMD freebie updater service, paying a fee for a shop to do it, returning the mobo for a newer version or having the vendor deal with AMD.

There are some mobo's, I know Asus higher tier does, where you do not need a cpu installed first to update the bios, just a viable bios file on a USB drive, plug it in, and it works itself.

But the 2 abilities, no matter what they are called, are different.
 
Nov 14, 2019
5
2
15
I know Asus and MSI have had bios installer/updater software for years, dunno about the rest, but that's entirely different than the ability to update the bios without a cpu.

So for instance if you bought a B450 mobo, and the 3600, and it happened to be a pre-3rd gen rdy manufacturing date, so had an older bios, for most mobo's you'd still need to get the cpu recognised, to get into bios, to use the bios updater. That'd mean using AMD freebie updater service, paying a fee for a shop to do it, returning the mobo for a newer version or having the vendor deal with AMD.

There are some mobo's, I know Asus higher tier does, where you do not need a cpu installed first to update the bios, just a viable bios file on a USB drive, plug it in, and it works itself.

But the 2 abilities, no matter what they are called, are different.

That's true, and most stores suck here, so I have to buy it already updated from internet =/