Is it worth upgrading an old I5 at the moment?

[zqa20]

I currently own an old 3570k and although it still provides me good fps and doesn't hold back my 1080 ti for the most part I get quite a bit of stutter in game which can get real annoying. For example my CPU and GPU during hellblade give a solid 120+ fps at all times but i get this stutter which can ruin my experience.

I tend to go for the best CPU I can afford and I was wondering would the 2700x be a huge jump in terms of gaming performance or should i go for the 8700k?

 

[Rdslw]

Well check if 500 mhz of OC will not do the trick. In most cases 4 generations is A LOT. DDR4 ram will do magic and other parts like NVME SDD with 3GB/s R/W is insane jump.
If you can wait, then I would. 9'th generation will have mitigations for MEELTDOWN in hardware, so 10% lost from it will return...
it would mean you need to lower draw distance for now, no all ultra. If you cannot live with that, 8'th gen is still a lot.
Ryzen is not best gaming chip. If you do just games stay with intel.

 

[zqa20]

Well check if 500 mhz of OC will not do the trick. In most cases 4 generations is A LOT. DDR4 ram will do magic and other parts like NVME SDD with 3GB/s R/W is insane jump.
If you can wait, then I would. 9'th generation will have mitigations for MEELTDOWN in hardware, so 10% lost from it will return...
it would mean you need to lower draw distance for now, no all ultra. If you cannot live with that, 8'th gen is still a lot.
Ryzen is not best gaming chip. If you do just games stay with intel.

The chip is already running at 4.2 and i don't really want to push it any higher ;/. when it the 9000 series coming out?

 

[coozie7]

Before spending cash, try a little system TLC.

Use something like Ccleaner to clear out the system crud and freshen up the Registry ( make a backup when prompted ), a lot of minor but annoying nasties often lurk in the various .Temp folders scattered throughout Windows, including rogue coin miners.

Run virus and malware sweeps after the clean out.

Use Task Manager to stop too many programs from starting automatically-Ctrl+Alt+Del into Task Manager, then select the Startup tab, you may be surprised how much starts along with Windows.

Clean out the HDD manually, you'll almost certainly find several Gb of unwanted files and folders, mostly left behind by uninstalled software, also check the driver cache folders ( marked AMD and Nvidia ) these can hold several versions of drivers for rollback purposes and quickly amount to several Gb themselves. Once cleaned out, make a pot of Coffee and defragment the HDD.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I get quite a bit of stutter in game which can get real annoying.

How much ram does your system have?
If it is 8GB or less, then you may need to upgrade that.
Monitor ram usage and pagefile usage with MSI afterburner during gaming session. Post screenshot from moment, after you start experiencing stutters.

 

[dontlistentome]

I think the answer for you depends on a couple of factors:
1. Some games can use more than 4 cores/4 threads. This might be causing your stutter. If so, then maybe an i7 3xxx series CPU is all you need.
2. Sometimes stutter can be caused by other issues. The game itself can cause problems if unoptimized, it could be a driver issue, there are all sorts of variables. If this is the case, it's possible that this game will still have stuttering even in a new system.

I'm not familiar with that game so I can't offer information about it, but unless you figure out what's causing the stuttering now, you run the risk of seeing it again later with a new system.

 

[zqa20]

Before spending cash, try a little system TLC.

Use something like Ccleaner to clear out the system crud and freshen up the Registry ( make a backup when prompted ), a lot of minor but annoying nasties often lurk in the various .Temp folders scattered throughout Windows, including rogue coin miners.

Run virus and malware sweeps after the clean out.

Use Task Manager to stop too many programs from starting automatically-Ctrl+Alt+Del into Task Manager, then select the Startup tab, you may be surprised how much starts along with Windows.

Clean out the HDD manually, you'll almost certainly find several Gb of unwanted files and folders, mostly left behind by uninstalled software, also check the driver cache folders ( marked AMD and Nvidia ) these can hold several versions of drivers for rollback purposes and quickly amount to several Gb themselves. Once cleaned out, make a pot of Coffee and defragment the HDD.

I did all those steps a few months ago and the issue persists it works perfect fine on older games that don't utilize 4c4t CPUs that well but ever since ryzen and cofeelake modern games can cause me some gip in terms of smoothness ^^ Starting to regret not buying the 3770k as those extra threads would come in handy right now .

I have 16gb of ram


3570k has served me well and I'm happy a £170-£180 CPU has lasted me over 6 years.

 

[coozie7]

@ zqa90: Fair enough, mate, not everyone knows how to do that kind of maintenance and it was a bit of a long shot that those would help significantly anyway.

As a last resort, update the system software: Chipset drivers, sound and video drivers along with any mouse/KB/monitor drivers that may be available through the respective makers websites, although I feel the root cause is just the old CPU is struggling with current, better threaded titles, as you already suspect.

Intels 9XXX series should paper launch October but general availability won't be until later, expect launch prices to be high.

If you mainly, or exclusively game monitor rez should make the decision of upgrade choice: Intel has a significant advantage at HD resolutions and a VERY small advantage at 2K, once you move to 4K rez there's no practical difference between a i7 8700K and a R7 2700X.
If you regularly use other software check how threaded it is, it may be to your advantage to have better threaded performance ( AMD ) by trading a little gaming performance ( Intel ) for it.

Whichever way you move, you'll need to do a full reinstall of Windows AND your software to avoid future problems but link your current Windows license to a Microsoft account first: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-link-your-windows-10-product-key-microsoft-account AFAIK this will transfer even OEM or builder licences to the new system.

 

[zqa20]

@ zqa90: Fair enough, mate, not everyone knows how to do that kind of maintenance and it was a bit of a long shot that those would help significantly anyway.

As a last resort, update the system software: Chipset drivers, sound and video drivers along with any mouse/KB/monitor drivers that may be available through the respective makers websites, although I feel the root cause is just the old CPU is struggling with current, better threaded titles, as you already suspect.

Intels 9XXX series should paper launch October but general availability won't be until later, expect launch prices to be high.

If you mainly, or exclusively game monitor rez should make the decision of upgrade choice: Intel has a significant advantage at HD resolutions and a VERY small advantage at 2K, once you move to 4K rez there's no practical difference between a i7 8700K and a R7 2700X.
If you regularly use other software check how threaded it is, it may be to your advantage to have better threaded performance ( AMD ) by trading a little gaming performance ( Intel ) for it.

Whichever way you move, you'll need to do a full reinstall of Windows AND your software to avoid future problems but link your current Windows license to a Microsoft account first: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-link-your-windows-10-product-key-microsoft-account AFAIK this will transfer even OEM or builder licences to the new system.

Yeah I guess I'll wait for the 9000 series launch. What are the rumored prices for the top end chips?

 

[coozie7]

An Intel build with an eye on the budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£278.18 @ PC World Business)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£65.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£141.69 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£72.86 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £558.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 19:15 BST+0100

And from AMD we have:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor (£284.98 @ PC World Business)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£67.97 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£172.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£72.86 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £598.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 19:18 BST+0100

And yes, I've added the SSD, it's not clever, it's not top-of-the-line and it's not a blazingly fast PCI-E 3.0x4 NVMe either, but it's solid, quick and cheap ( cheapish anyway ) and if you have to reinstall, why not to a fast SSD?

 

[coozie7]

This is copied from TPU verbatum:

9th Gen Core Processor Price Leak by Czech Retailers Drop Hints on Possible MSRP
by btarunr Monday, 16:15 Discuss (59 Comments)
A number of retailers across Europe are coming up with early pricing of Intel's 9th generation Core-K processors, codenamed "Whiskey Lake" or "Coffee Lake Refresh." One such set of pricing, compiled by Czech publication Alza.cz confirms that our suspicions that Intel will establish a new $500-ish price-point in its MSDT (mainstream desktop) segment. We are not counting the anomalous / limited-edition Core i7-8086K in our assertion. The current Core i5-8600K is a $250-ish product, while the current platform flagship Core i7-8700K remains around $350. The upcoming Core i5-9600K (6-core/6-thread) and Core i7-9700K (8-core/8-thread) will succeed the two at nearly identical price-points. We expect Core i9-9900K to have a premium price around the $500-mark.

Intel arrested the growing popularity of AMD's Ryzen 5 1600 earlier this year, with its 8th generation Core i5 processors. The 2nd generation Ryzen 5 series only trade blows with Intel's competing offerings, with the Ryzen 5 2600X at best edging past the i5-8600K with a wafer-thin margin, in price-performance and absolute-performance. The Ryzen 7 2700X has more merits over the 6-core/12-thread i7-8700K, besides a slightly lower price, creating a competitive uncertainty that works to AMD's advantage; and which Intel hopes to plug with the 8-core/8-thread i7-9700K. The 8-core/16-thread i9-9900K could be double-digit percentage faster owing to HyperThreading and larger cache, and Intel could look to monetize that with a premium price.

 

[zqa20]

This is copied from TPU verbatum:

9th Gen Core Processor Price Leak by Czech Retailers Drop Hints on Possible MSRP
by btarunr Monday, 16:15 Discuss (59 Comments)
A number of retailers across Europe are coming up with early pricing of Intel's 9th generation Core-K processors, codenamed "Whiskey Lake" or "Coffee Lake Refresh." One such set of pricing, compiled by Czech publication Alza.cz confirms that our suspicions that Intel will establish a new $500-ish price-point in its MSDT (mainstream desktop) segment. We are not counting the anomalous / limited-edition Core i7-8086K in our assertion. The current Core i5-8600K is a $250-ish product, while the current platform flagship Core i7-8700K remains around $350. The upcoming Core i5-9600K (6-core/6-thread) and Core i7-9700K (8-core/8-thread) will succeed the two at nearly identical price-points. We expect Core i9-9900K to have a premium price around the $500-mark.

Intel arrested the growing popularity of AMD's Ryzen 5 1600 earlier this year, with its 8th generation Core i5 processors. The 2nd generation Ryzen 5 series only trade blows with Intel's competing offerings, with the Ryzen 5 2600X at best edging past the i5-8600K with a wafer-thin margin, in price-performance and absolute-performance. The Ryzen 7 2700X has more merits over the 6-core/12-thread i7-8700K, besides a slightly lower price, creating a competitive uncertainty that works to AMD's advantage; and which Intel hopes to plug with the 8-core/8-thread i7-9700K. The 8-core/16-thread i9-9900K could be double-digit percentage faster owing to HyperThreading and larger cache, and Intel could look to monetize that with a premium price.

$500/£450 for the 9900K? It's like intel wants people to buy the 2700x lol they're totally pricing themselves out ;/. I think at those prices i may actually give intel the middle finger and buy the 2700x assuming they go down a bit when the 9000 series comes out. I can't give nvidia the middle finger as I own a g sync monitor but i can to intel ^^.


I currently have a 120gb ssd and a 240 but I'll buy buying a 1tb on black friday .

 

[coozie7]

Just be aware the difference in performance between the big PCI-E NVMe drives and SATA ones isn't that great for us normal mortals, the benchmarks look good, but in reality the differences are a few seconds load/save/boot times while the price difference can be very significant.

If you're going to hold on for the upgrades, usual rules apply: Keep an eye on developments and prices. Expect to be flexible, ever since AMD launched Ryzen the CPU market has been a war zone, things may change in the coming months.
Either the i7 8700/K or R7 2700X is a large upgrade, but if you're on a tight budget and have a hankering for a 8C/16T CPU, the older AMD R7 17XX and 18XX parts are really, really cheap right now, and they're compatible with older 'B' and even 'A' 350 motherboards...Just to temp you.

 

[zqa20]

Just be aware the difference in performance between the big PCI-E NVMe drives and SATA ones isn't that great for us normal mortals, the benchmarks look good, but in reality the differences are a few seconds load/save/boot times while the price difference can be very significant.

If you're going to hold on for the upgrades, usual rules apply: Keep an eye on developments and prices. Expect to be flexible, ever since AMD launched Ryzen the CPU market has been a war zone, things may change in the coming months.
Either the i7 8700/K or R7 2700X is a large upgrade, but if you're on a tight budget and have a hankering for a 8C/16T CPU, the older AMD R7 17XX and 18XX parts are really, really cheap right now, and they're compatible with older 'B' and even 'A' 350 motherboards...Just to temp you.

I'll most likely go for a sata drive like (link below)...it's only going to be used for games so I should be happy . my Samsung evo 250gb will be used as my boot drive as my 120gb sanddisk can sometimes get close to full after a big windows update where a backup is needed.

https://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820331115&cm_re=1tb_ssd-_-20-331-115-_-Product

 

[coozie7]

Good plan.

Just for laughs here are my earlier builds with USA pricing:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($67.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $627.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 15:06 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $641.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 15:07 EDT-0400

And finally with aR7 1800X:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1800X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-D15 SE-AM4 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $579.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 15:08 EDT-0400

Note: I'm NOT trying to sell you anything, the R7 1800X build is for comparison and as a suggestion to consider.

 

[zqa20]

Good plan.

Just for laughs here are my earlier builds with USA pricing:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($67.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $627.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 15:06 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $641.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 15:07 EDT-0400

And finally with aR7 1800X:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1800X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-D15 SE-AM4 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $579.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-02 15:08 EDT-0400

Note: I'm NOT trying to sell you anything, the R7 1800X build is for comparison and as a suggestion to consider.

if I plan on overclocking quite a bit (I have h105 push pull) do you think it might be worth getting a better mobo?

 

[coozie7]

Always, pushing any OC will stress the MB VRMS so it'll definitely pay to move up to a better MB, just don't forget they'll need cooling, a top mounted rad will do the job well enough but if your system has a front mounted rad a rear or top mounted fan will be needed to keep cool air flowing over these critical components.