Question Is it worth upgrading at all ?...

[Spin Dr Wolf]

So I have an old i5 4690K currently at 4.5GHz with a AIO cooler on it (old NZXT Kraken if you're wondering) and a Sapphire Dual X R9 270X graphics card. Its obviously a bit outdated now, and was just about running Doom Eternal at 1080. I have recently purchased a nice shiny gaming laptop, which runs things great, and now a bigger monitor 1440. So the old desktop just can't keep up with anything run on it anymore. I was wondering if there is any point trying to upgrade it a little. I don't really need it to run anything tbh, but if i could get it running stuff reasonably would be nice to not have to get the laptop out the backpack as i also use it for work. Mostly just playing Modern Warfare 2 at the moment, need to get back to Cyberpunk, and have thus far missed out on Red Dead 2, so want it to be decent if i bother to upgrade.

I know I am unlikely to see much of a gain just by upgrading the GPU to a 2070 or similar, but if I also got a second hand 4790K and clocked that up a bit too would I see more benefit ? As i can do that for about £300, to build something around a new board would be at least double that, plus GPU choice.

 

[punkncat]

IMO, a humble mid range graphics card couldn't hurt. Keep in mind the age and output of your power supply, particularly if as old as the other components. I wouldn't go too deep in unless you have in mind to build another PC in the foreseeable future with the parts you purchase now.

 

[Spin Dr Wolf]

IMO, a humble mid range graphics card couldn't hurt. Keep in mind the age and output of your power supply, particularly if as old as the other components. I wouldn't go too deep in unless you have in mind to build another PC in the foreseeable future with the parts you purchase now.

Yeah I had wondered about that, it's only a 550W I think, if I got a 2070 i might need to upgrade that too. I might end up doing a complete rebuild just by creep.

 

[punkncat]

Yeah I had wondered about that, it's only a 550W I think, if I got a 2070 i might need to upgrade that too. I might end up doing a complete rebuild just by creep.

I have mentioned many times that I prefer to do my upgrades in a sort of "tick-tock" fashion. Typically the CPU/mobo/RAM in one go and then do video card and power supply on the other. The market for graphics cards went so wild there for a while that I just skipped that part of the upgrade path for a while.

Back on subject. At least for the next few years that 4th gen PC should be useful, particularly for productivity and such. Lowered settings would keep it capable of playing some older stuff, for sure. I would not spend, even used, the price that most of those 4790K are still on the market for.

 

[helper800]

Here is a good place to start if you are planning a new build anytime soon. Of course if you want the advice it will be best to ask for a build when you plan to do it for best prices on the best parts for your needs.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13400F 2.5 GHz 10-Core Processor (£204.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK400 ZERO DARK 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler (£34.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£130.27 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger D OC Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card (£369.59 @ Newegg UK)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (£50.94 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£111.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1032.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-04 20:02 BST+0100

 

[geofelt]

I think a cpu upgrade is best done with current gen and that will require a new motherboard.
A used i7-4790k costs about the same as a more modern I5-12100 which is twice as capable.
Offset to that is the requirement for a new motherboard and ddr4 ram.

 

[Spin Dr Wolf]

I think a cpu upgrade is best done with current gen and that will require a new motherboard.
A used i7-4790k costs about the same as a more modern I5-12100 which is twice as capable.
Offset to that is the requirement for a new motherboard and ddr4 ram.

So maybe a dumb question but why is that then ? Is it just about the memory bandwidth !?!
As looking at the specs for them both on the Intel website they have the same number of cores and threads, the 4790k is even a little faster stock, though 4MB more cache in the newer 12100.

 

[Lafong]

So maybe a dumb question but why is that then ? Is it just about the memory bandwidth !?!
As looking at the specs for them both on the Intel website they have the same number of cores and threads, the 4790k is even a little faster stock, though 4MB more cache in the newer 12100.

The 12100 accomplishes a lot more per clock than the 4790k.

 

[geofelt]

Best to not look at specs which can be misleading.
The 12100 is more capable because the better architecture lets it does more work per clock.
If you look up the passmark rating for the I7-4790K, you will see that it has 4 cores and 8 processing threads.
When all 8 threads are fully loaded it has a performance score of 8054.
The single thread score is 2462.
The single thread score is arguably the more important one for gaming.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4790K+@+4.00GHz&id=2275

By comparison, the I3-12100 also with 4 cores and 8 threads scores
13825/3489
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-12100&id=4687