Question Is it worth upgrading to gain FPS or not ?

[jmfel1926]

Hi,

I have the current system:
i5 9600k
Asus Prime z390m-plus
16GB DDR4 4200Mhz
Asus RTX 2070 SUPER

I am planning on playing Starfield and some other games on 1440p and i was thinking of makis some small upgrades to gain some extra FPS. I do not want to spend a lot of money so a GPU upgrade is not an option. I was wondering upgrading Motherboard and CPU basically, maybe to a i513600. I have seen some youtube videos that only changing CPU, you can actually gain a fair amount of FPS. I could consider changing RAM also , but have read that DDR5 will not make such a huge impact... ?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Lutfij]

Getting anything past the 10th Generation will automatically mean you move to the latter generations, and by that a new motherboard, while sticking to your current ram kit. If you're going for DDR5 then you might as well look at a DDR5 ram kit to pair with your new CPU and motherboard purchase which also brings up AMD's AM5 platform.

You didn't state how much your budget for the upgrade would be. Your location and preferred site for purchase?

Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model.

 

[jmfel1926]

CPU: i5 9600k
CPU cooler: Cooler master hyper 212 rgb black edition
Motherboard: Asus prime z390m-plus
Ram: G skill trident z rgb 16gb 3200mhz
SSD/HDD: 2TB Samsung 860 SSD
GPU: MSI Geforce RTX 2070 SUPER OC 8GB
PSU: Corsair PSU Vengeance 750M 80 Plus Silver (from 2019)
Chassis: Phantek P400S
OS: Windows 11 64bit
Monitor: Asus Rog Swift PG278QR 1440p 165Hz 1ms

I live in Sweden and usually buy from webhallen or komplett or netonnet.
Budget for a CPU and motherboard, considering the rest will fit on the new motherboard, is around 500 USD / 5000 SEK. If DDR5 is to be added and we cannot avoid it, then another 150 USD.

 

[geofelt]

A cpu change is a big upgrade.
Your i5-9600K has 6 processing threads and a passmark rating of 10914. T
hat is when all 6 threads are fully busy. (not very likely when gaming)
Of more importance to gaming is the single thread performance rating of 2809.
The comparable number for a I5-13600 is 20 threads and 33524/4061

PassMark - Intel Core i5-13600 - Price performance comparison

Price might be $250-$300.
You should find i5-13400 I5-13500 or possibly i5-13600K within that range.

Since you already have DDR4 ram, plan on keeping it.
Only if you need more than 16gb would you change it out.
Gaming and not multitasking at the same time does nor need more than 16gb.
A lga1700 B760 motherboard with ddr4 support is likely <$150.
The MATX motherboards will be cheaper.

Lga1700 socket is a bit different so your hyper212 will need an adapter.
Or, you might opt for a stronger cooler with a 13600K.

One last consideration is that your windows license may not be valid if it is oem and tied to your original motherboard.

 

[jmfel1926]

Ok, thanks for this information. To the bottom line, if i make the upgrade, change cpu, motherboard and possibly a cooler, keep my ddr4 will i see a fair gain in fps? will it worth it? as an example , in Ghost recon breakpoint that i play a lot, in 1440p all settings ultra i get 30 to 40 fps average. Could that go up to 50-60 ? Similarly for other games , will i see gains of more than 20-30 fps?

 

[geofelt]

Ok, thanks for this information. To the bottom line, if i make the upgrade, change cpu, motherboard and possibly a cooler, keep my ddr4 will i see a fair gain in fps? will it worth it? as an example , in Ghost recon breakpoint that i play a lot, in 1440p all settings ultra i get 30 to 40 fps average. Could that go up to 50-60 ? Similarly for other games , will i see gains of more than 20-30 fps?

A very good question.
Some games are gpu limited, some are cpu limited.

Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited and a cpu upgrade will be worthwhile.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Ideally to be a big upturn in FPS,. you would need both a new CPU and GPU. Any of those Intel chips will be very good. The 2070 is the problem. Although pretty beastly in it's day, now for new AAA games it is only enough to max out 1080p. 1440p, will be less.

The CPU sends pre-rendered frames to the GPU. The faster the CPU the quicker the GPU can get the data and begin rendering. Going up to a 13500 or so, will give you a few extra FPS, but without the GPU upgrade, that's all it will be.

 

[Bob.B]

CPU: i5 9600k
CPU cooler: Cooler master hyper 212 rgb black edition
Motherboard: Asus prime z390m-plus
Ram: G skill trident z rgb 16gb 3200mhz
SSD/HDD: 2TB Samsung 860 SSD
GPU: MSI Geforce RTX 2070 SUPER OC 8GB
PSU: Corsair PSU Vengeance 750M 80 Plus Silver (from 2019)
Chassis: Phantek P400S
OS: Windows 11 64bit
Monitor: Asus Rog Swift PG278QR 1440p 165Hz 1ms

I live in Sweden and usually buy from webhallen or komplett or netonnet.
Budget for a CPU and motherboard, considering the rest will fit on the new motherboard, is around 500 USD / 5000 SEK. If DDR5 is to be added and we cannot avoid it, then another 150 USD.

When you run your games with the settings you want take a look at how busy the cpu/gpu are might give a clue as to what area needs help.

 

[jmfel1926]

Tried 3 games ...

Ghost Recon Breakpoint - 1440p Ultra settings CPU 99% GPU 99% pretty much the whole time ... average fps 45-55
Hitman - 1440p Ultra CPU between 90 and 99% and GPU 99% pretty much the whole time ... average fps 60
God of War 1440p Ultra settings - CPU between 85 and 99% (mostly above 90%) and GPU 99% ... average fps 70

Lowered to 1080p in Breakpoint, Ultra settings, CPU 98% mostly , GPU 98% all the time, average FPS went up to 55-65 ...

It looks like its not really worth the upgrade?

 

[bill001g]

I suspect your GPU is going to limit you first hard to say. If you look at the newest gamer nexus video they tested starfield on some older cards. A 2060 was getting less than 40fps on medium at 1080. The CPU they were using was a 12700k.

This means it is GPU limit. You might get a bit more with FRS/DLSS but it looks like you need much better systems than what they claim is the minimum.

 

[geofelt]

Something is off.
Hardly likely to have both a cpu at 99% and gpu at 99% at the same time.

 

[jmfel1926]

When just walking around, lets say in Ghost Recon, CPU goes up and down depending on the content. It can go down to 70% then 85% , but that is like with no action/enemies/explosions etc.
If i start shooting around, looking here and there intensively or meet some enemies that produce smoke/fire etc from the gunfight, it goes up and stays at 99% ... GPU never goes under 99%...

 

[geofelt]

When you are talking about cpu% Is that for the whole processor, or for an individual thread?
You can get a good insight as to how a game uses the cpu by looking at task manager.
Select the performance tab and right click on the cpu graph to select logical processors.

 

[jmfel1926]

Ok, something interesting happened. Decided to check RDR2 in ULTRA settings, 1440p and CPU is not used more than 50% while GPU is 99% all the time ... I get a decent amount of 45-50 FPS average (which was not the case when I first played the game). DLSS really makes a difference when ON.

On GR Brekpoint, all CPUs are 100% no matter what ...

What does that mean ? Could it be that RDR2 is well optimized while GRB is not? I think that RDR2 graphics are way better/more demanding that GRB ....