Question Looking to upgrade from a 4790k. Thoughts?

[CADDrummer]

Hello everyone!

Thanks in advance for all of the help and advice. Let's start with my build specs:

GTX 1080 FTW! edition
4790K with turboclock of 4.4GHz + Hyperthreaded
8x2 sticks of Moderate speed DDR3 (Hyper X)
MSI Gaming 5 Mobo
Basic Asus 144 HZ, 1 MS GTG monitor
Lots of case fans optimizing airflow and currently using a big fan dual fin/fan Noctua cooler.

Anyways, I recently helped a friend build a decent gaming rig using a new AMD CPU. Everything worked out well and he's loving his computer. I did, however, make the mistake of ordering 2 different sets of 2x16GB of DDR4 ram (unmatched and different brands entirely.)

So he kept the good set, obviously, and waved aside my mistake, thanking me for the help. He asked me if I needed the ram and I thought, why not? I'm using 16 GB of DDR3 and could use 32 GB of DDR4 if it's being offered.

Then I got home and realized that my CPU and MOBO don't support DDR4. Doh.

So here's my question, given that I already have a decent ram upgrade on hand, if I were to consider a new MOBO and Processor, which Processor should I consider? The 4790k is an absolute tank and hasn't really let me down at all. I'm not up to par with my knowledge of modern CPUs. I'm having a hard time finding good benchmarks and comparisons that are allaying my concerns...

In terms of what I use my PC for. Gaming, 2 monitors, usually Firefox open with several tabs, a game up on the 144HZ monitor. Rocket League (Which runs at like 250 FPS @ 1080p), Apex, Path of Exile, etc. I do currently have issues with Apex (although, EA and their games and client are horribly unoptimized...) which is a memory heavy and CPU heavy game and I'm noticing some issues. But nothing major. Recently some crashes citing a lack of memory. Hence the ram thing.

If I wanted a CPU that could handle maybe 1440p @ 144 FPS with my GTX 1080, are there any options or am I bottlenecked in the video card as well? Overall, is there a CPU that is actually hands down better, maybe 10-30% faster than my 4790k for my purposes that you guys could suggest to me? If you guys find some comparisons and benchmarks, please feel free to post them and I'll check them out to answer my own questions if need be.

If you need anything more from me just ask and I'll do my best.

Thank you guys and this lovely community for your help!

Cheers

 

[RodroX]

Hi, this is my personal take on the matter:

Today I believe, anything with 6 cores and 12 threads, with those 32 GB of DDR4 you mention will be great to pair with a GTX 1080 and playing at 1440p 144Hz. At that resolution and refresh rate really the GPU will become the weak point faster than the CPU.

As of your question if your GPU can handle that resolution and refresh rates, well it will depend on the title your playing, how well optimazed it is, and how many "eye candy" features/details are you wiling to sacrifice.

Since you already have a very good, but old, CPU I wouldn't go with anything other than the Ryzen 5 3600 or the Core i7 8700K as the really entry choices. If I wasin your place and budget allows it, and taking the future in consideration then the Ryzen 7 3700X, 3900X and Core i9 9900K (in that order) are the better options in price/performance.

I let the 9700K out for one reason only, it is today one of the best gaming CPUs, cheaper than the 9900K, but intel disable Hyperthreading on it so you only have 8 Cores/8Threads (which is awesome for today and maybe next year but you will feel the need for more resoruces sooner than later).

I also let out the Core i9 9900KS, which is basically the most powerfull gaming CPU out there. I don't think is worth the money. Heres why, it cost more than the 9900K (but you can enable mce on the motherboard and get similar performance using the 9900K); the performance gains are in line of dimishing returns (unless you try to OC to ~5.6GHz with a high end custom loop cooling -not aio- to get some extra FPS); and the main reason for me, it only comes with 1 year of warranty.

Cheers

 

[CADDrummer]

Hi, this is my personal take on the matter:

Today I believe, anything with 6 cores and 12 threads, with those 32 GB of DDR4 you mention will be great to pair with a GTX 1080 and playing at 1440p 144Hz. At that resolution and refresh rate really the GPU will become the weak point faster than the CPU.

As of your question if your GPU can handle that resolution and refresh rates, well it will depend on the title your playing, how well optimazed it is, and how many "eye candy" features/details are you wiling to sacrifice.

Since you already have a very good, but old, CPU I wouldn't go with anything other than the Ryzen 5 3600 or the Core i7 8700K as the really entry choices. If I wasin your place and budget allows it, and taking the future in consideration then the Ryzen 7 3700X, 3900X and Core i9 9900K (in that order) are the better options in price/performance.

I let the 9700K out for one reason only, it is today one of the best gaming CPUs, cheaper than the 9900K, but intel disable Hyperthreading on it so you only have 8 Cores/8Threads (which is awesome for today and maybe next year but you will feel the need for more resoruces sooner than later).

I also let out the Core i9 9900KS, which is basically the most powerfull gaming CPU out there. I don't think is worth the money. Heres why, it cost more than the 9900K (but you can enable mce on the motherboard and get similar performance using the 9900K); the performance gains are in line of dimishing returns (unless you try to OC to ~5.6GHz with a high end custom loop cooling -not aio- to get some extra FPS); and the main reason for me, it only comes with 1 year of warranty.

Cheers

So you recommend the i9 9900K/ Ryzen 3900X? With the 3700X being the sacrifice if I had a budget? Alright. I appreciate the extra info on the other CPUs and reasoning as well.

So basically, as long as I get close to single core clock speeds, but have more cores and threads, as well as the increased cache, I should notice improvements at 1440p and 144hz? Awesome.

Thanks for the input. Maybe others will chime in too and I can further increase my knowledge

Thanks again!