[SOLVED] Should I buy a new GPU or a new a CPU

[m2net]

Hi all,

I saved some money for upgrading my Gaming Computer, i have now a I7-7700 with a GTX 1070.

I wanted to make a partial upgrade now, my budget allow me to either buy :

• Nvidia RTX 2070
• I5-10600F + Motherboard B460M AORUS PRO ( for the new CPU )

What do you suggest guys ? I need to buy one choice, so i can play some of the upcoming games without problems ( Cyberpunk, Black Ops, Valhalla,...)

 

[Darkbreeze]

What resolution are you gaming at? What refresh rate?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Neither. Keep saving until you can get a 10th Gen Core I7.

-Wolf sends

 

[m2net]

What resolution are you gaming at? What refresh rate?

I have an AOC 24" 1920x1080 at 144Hz

 

[madmatt30]

They're both solid mid range components from yesteryear.

Which makes that kind of decision very awkward, especially for modern or upcoming titles with regards to 144htz gaming.

Depending on what kinds of settings your expecting to play at I'd say the GPU first but wait until the new nvidia cards release to make an informed decision.

 

[RTX 2080]

I have an AOC 24" 1920x1080 at 144Hz

I'd say wait a bit longer irregardless of which you decide. There is a high likelihood that with the next gen Ampere GPUs (imminent release) you will be able to get 2070 performance at a lower price than a 2070. Also, if I was going to go to the trouble of upgrading my motherboard and CPU, I'd want to for sure double the number of cores / threads and budget enough for a Z-series motherboard.

If you have to upgrade one right now, I'd go for the better CPU; 4 cores / 8 threads is starting to bottleneck the latest games and I'm sure you'll regret getting a 2070 if the Ampere GPUs end up being all they've been rumored to be.

 

[m2net]

i followed some reviews to check the best CPU to get now, for future games, most of those websites recommended the i5-10600K, do you think it won't be enough for future games ?

I think that the higher tier CPUs like the 10th generation of I7 and I9 are much expensive than this one, and i don't know if it's worth it to pay this load of money in CPU only !

 

[madmatt30]

i followed some reviews to check the best CPU to get now, for future games, most of those websites recommended the i5-10600K, do you think it won't be enough for future games ?

I think that the higher tier CPUs like the 10th generation of I7 and I9 are much expensive than this one, and i don't know if it's worth it to pay this load of money in CPU only !

I think 6c/12t is exactly where you want to be for the next 3 years.

The issue here is I'd personally go with ryzen for upgradability, is the 3700x (or even the 2700x which in the uk at least is incredibly cheap) not within budget?

 

[RTX 2080]

i followed some reviews to check the best CPU to get now, for future games, most of those websites recommended the i5-10600K, do you think it won't be enough for future games ?

I think that the higher tier CPUs like the 10th generation of I7 and I9 are much expensive than this one, and i don't know if it's worth it to pay this load of money in CPU only !

Well, 6 cores / 12 threads is a pretty good place to be right now; if you were to pair a i5-10600k with a decent Z490 motherboard, you would be able to get much higher sustained clock speeds than anything AMD has on offer.

I mean no disrespect to madmatt30 (and feel free to respond to this if you think I'm full of it) but high boost clocks are important for hitting high refresh rates (more important than cores and threads to a degree) and right now the best that the Ryzen 3700x can do is 4.4 GHz on one core: Link. On the other hand, the i5-10600k can boost all the way up to 4.8 GHz on one core: Link. It gets better though. If you look at this Link here and scroll down to the 10600k, you will observe that the top 73% of the processors they binned (almost three-quarters) were capable of 4.9 GHz on all cores. Contrast that with the 3700x's ability to hit 4.4 GHz max on only one core, the i5-10600k seems easily like the superior high refresh rate CPU in my opinion.

 

[dorsai]

I would upgrade the GPU...at this point the CPU is still more than capable...it may not be cutting edge any more, but the fact is it's still an 8 thread Intel chip so the GPU is the bigger factor for you today.

 

[m2net]

my only choices for CPU depends on my budget are :

• I5-10600K
• I7-9700
• Ryzen 7 - 3700X
• Ryzen 7 - 3800X
• I7-10700 ( as maximum budget )
  

 

[Phaaze88]

@RTX 2080
You've left out IPC; it's not a 1:1 comparison as you've posted.

 

[Rodrigodrt]

If you want more frames, GPU, regardless of the CPU, if you want some frames and overall performance, CPU

 

[m2net]

as i can see here in this review done by Techspot I5-10600K Benchmarks, the I5-10600K bypass the Ryzen 7 3700X by far, at gaming, it's basically same or lesser by 5 to 10 FPS from the i9-9900K and even better in some games.

I'm really confused

Still can't make my mind between those choices :

• I5-10600K
• I7-9700
• Ryzen 7 - 3700X
• Ryzen 7 - 3800X
• I7-10700 ( as maximum budget )

 

[Darkbreeze]

right now the best that the Ryzen 3700x can do is 4.4 GHz on one core: Link. On the other hand, the i5-10600k can boost all the way up to 4.8 GHz on one core: Link.

This makes it painfully obvious that you lack understanding of how CPUs actually work, because these type of comparisons literally have nothing whatsoever to do with how one compares to another unless they are from the same manufacturer, in the same generation. If they are not, then it's literally irrelevant.

Differences in cache, IPC, latency, overhead, memory speed, memory bus DESIGN, number of cores and even workload TYPE, all make what amounts to a much larger difference than simply what the "clock speed" is. So, that's a really bad statement and way to offer comparative opinions on processors. This has been true since, well, it's always been true, so everybody should pretty much know that by now.

 

[Darkbreeze]

as i can see here in this review done by Techspot I5-10600K Benchmarks, the I5-10600K bypass the Ryzen 7 3700X by far, at gaming

What?

I see less than ten FPS difference in almost every title, less even if you look at the minimum/1% FPS scores rather than the peak scores which almost don't matter because problems don't typically occur at peak FPS, they occur at minimum FPS.

Plus, the i5-10600k is a 115 dollars more than the Ryzen 3600, which is a TERRIBLE price to performance ratio just to gain a few FPS that aren't going to make any difference for the most part anyhow. It's not enough of a difference to put you near or over 144fps for most games, and both are clearly well above 60fps on most titles, so really, there is zero benefit to those extra frames in this scenario. Now, that could change if you are trying to run competitively with much lower settings than most people are going to run, but even so, I suspect you'd find that the differences were STILL not far apart. Plus, the Ryzen motherboards that can be used with the 3600 are much cheaper overall than the cost of the unlocked Intel boards. You can get an EXCELLENT B450 Gaming Pro Carbon Max for like 165 bucks. Any equivalent quality Z series Intel board is going to cost you well north of 200 dollars.

Besides which, unless you DO run competitively, at low settings, and need maximum CPU performance to keep the frame rates very high, I agree with madmatt that upgrading the graphics card is probably your much better upgrade right now for most games and most scenarios.

 

[m2net]

What?

I see less than ten FPS difference in almost every title, less even if you look at the minimum/1% FPS scores rather than the peak scores which almost don't matter because problems don't typically occur at peak FPS, they occur at minimum FPS.

Plus, the i5-10600k is a 115 dollars more than the Ryzen 3600, which is a TERRIBLE price to performance ratio just to gain a few FPS that aren't going to make any difference for the most part anyhow. It's not enough of a difference to put you near or over 144fps for most games, and both are clearly well above 60fps on most titles, so really, there is zero benefit to those extra frames in this scenario. Now, that could change if you are trying to run competitively with much lower settings than most people are going to run, but even so, I suspect you'd find that the differences were STILL not far apart. Plus, the Ryzen motherboards that can be used with the 3600 are much cheaper overall than the cost of the unlocked Intel boards. You can get an EXCELLENT B450 Gaming Pro Carbon Max for like 165 bucks. Any equivalent quality Z series Intel board is going to cost you well north of 200 dollars.

Besides which, unless you DO run competitively, at low settings, and need maximum CPU performance to keep the frame rates very high, I agree with madmatt that upgrading the graphics card is probably your much better upgrade right now for most games and most scenarios.

I really like your analysis, about the price, in my country the price of i5-10600K + Gigabyte B460M Aorus Pro < Ryzen 7 3700X + Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite

i don't know if that's a good thing or bad anymore

 

[Phaaze88]

i5-10600K + Gigabyte B460M Aorus Pro

Eh? You're throwing away one of the main selling points of the K SKU and Intel's gaming king edge: overclocking.

 

[RTX 2080]

This makes it painfully obvious that you lack understanding of how CPUs actually work, because these type of comparisons literally have nothing whatsoever to do with how one compares to another unless they are from the same manufacturer, in the same generation. If they are not, then it's literally irrelevant.

Differences in cache, IPC, latency, overhead, memory speed, memory bus DESIGN, number of cores and even workload TYPE, all make what amounts to a much larger difference than simply what the "clock speed" is. So, that's a really bad statement and way to offer comparative opinions on processors. This has been true since, well, it's always been true, so everybody should pretty much know that by now.

100%, architectural differences make all the difference when it comes to CPUs. I suppose I oversimplified the issue because it seemed beyond the scope of what I was trying to illustrate in that paragraph, that I perceive the i5-10600k to be a better gaming processor for his purposes than the Ryzen 3700x.

However, if he insists on using a B-series motherboard, than yeah, he'd be better off with a Ryzen CPU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I really like your analysis, about the price, in my country the price of i5-10600K + Gigabyte B460M Aorus Pro < Ryzen 7 3700X + Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite

i don't know if that's a good thing or bad anymore

Well, you may be right, for your region. We don't get many folks from Tunisia, and I have no idea even where to begin looking for hardware retailers online for that region if there even are any. I suspect you have to either order out of region or buy from local shops if it's anything like other parts of the continent or parts of upper Europe or South America. And when that's the deal, then all bets are off.

 

[m2net]

Eh? You're throwing away one of the main selling points of the K SKU and Intel's gaming king edge: overclocking.

You are right, i think i'm gonna go with the I5-10600K + Gigabyte Z490 UD

 

[RTX 2080]

You are right, i think i'm gonna go with the I5-10600K + Gigabyte Z490 UD

Close, but before you buy that particular motherboard, I would urge you to read this article. In the "best value motherboard" section, it specifically called out the Gigabyte Z490 UD with this sentence:

"There are also a number of motherboards to avoid in this price range: the Gigabyte Z490M Gaming X and Z490 UD are subpar when it comes to VRM quality and struggle to overclocked well. "

I would highly recommend that you read the article to ensure that you get the motherboard that fits your needs at a price you can afford.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, when you buy one of the bottom two or three boards, from ANY chipset family, you kind of expect that.

I can't imagine why anybody would pay 127 dollars for that bottom of the barrel board anyhow when for a few bucks more you could at least get something acceptably decent in terms of entry level quality in the ASRock Pro4. The Pro4 has pretty much universally been the best go to budget offering for a lot of chipsets through the years and while I don't see a review specifically for the Z490 Pro4 I'd be incredibly surprised if it wasn't on par with the features and quality of previous gen Pro4 offerings.

 

[Phaaze88]

ASRock Pro4. The Pro4 has pretty much universally been the best go to budget offering for a lot of chipsets through the years and while I don't see a review specifically for the Z490 Pro4 I'd be incredibly surprised if it wasn't on par with the features and quality of previous gen Pro4 offerings.

Uhh...

Spoiler

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdgNEXpBrfg

Video Index 00:00 - Welcome back to Hardware Unboxed
03:39 - Asus Prime Z490-P
05:05 - Gigabyte Z490 UD
06:55 - MSI Z490-A Pro
08:39 - Asrock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4
10:24 - Asrock Z490 Pro4
11:58 - Test System
13:08 - Stock Core i9-10900K Performance
15:27 - No power limited 10900K Performance
16:03 - Core i9-10900K 5.1 GHz OC
16:32 - Core i5-10600K 5.0 GHz OC
17:48 - Final Thoughts

I can't attest to the feature set, but the VRMs on this version are 💩, even with the 10600K.

 

[RTX 2080]

Well, when you buy one of the bottom two or three boards, from ANY chipset family, you kind of expect that.

I can't imagine why anybody would pay 127 dollars for that bottom of the barrel board anyhow when for a few bucks more you could at least get something acceptably decent in terms of entry level quality in the ASRock Pro4. The Pro4 has pretty much universally been the best go to budget offering for a lot of chipsets through the years and while I don't see a review specifically for the Z490 Pro4 I'd be incredibly surprised if it wasn't on par with the features and quality of previous gen Pro4 offerings.

The article I mentioned in my last post specifically makes reference to that board:

"As for boards you should avoid at all costs: the Asrock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4, Z490 Pro4, Z490M Pro4 and even the Z490 Steel Legend. We're hoping Asrock can fix the Steel Legend with a BIOS update but for now we've seen that board throttling the VRM well before time. "