Question Should I upgrade to 4790K?

[noxitide]

Hey everyone,

I know this may be a question that gets asked a lot, but I built my computer in 2015, when I think a lot of people did, so there seems to be questions about this specific architecture.

This is my system:

Intel 4690K (cooled w/ CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i)
GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 Intel Z97
MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G
16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series (4x4GB) 1600

can't remember my PSU, it's either 550 or 600W, probably Corsair
I have a SSD for C: and two 1TB hard drives for storage.
A Meshify-C case with as many fans as fit in the case, so lots of airflow.

What component should I upgrade? I don't want to upgrade to new architecture because that's a heck of a lot of money. If I only upgraded one component in my system, what should it be? The 4790K? Or should I consider a different graphics card? Should I go M.2 for boot drive?

WRT what I use it for, I use rpg games, mmos and simulation/tactics games, like Northgard and Maplestory 2. I've noticed a bit of lag not related to the janky MS2 servers when playing and want the smoothest experience I can get. I'm also one of those heathens who has 15 bajillion tabs and programs open at any given time, hence the 16GB memory. I haven't been heavily into the computer building game SINCE 2015 so I'm not sure what's good or what has aged well and what hasn't. I want to keep my build running for as long as I can, I don't see the point in throwing away a 4 year old computer. If/when I upgrade some components, I'm going to get some cables from Cable Mod and give it a good clean and spruce to get it back to like-new.

Please let me know what you think and/or any other changes I could make to the system (cooling, storage, etc.) that would give it another 4 years of life.

 

[WildCard999]

Check your CPU & GPU usage on games that aren't performing well. If it's the CPU then consider overclocking if you haven't done that yet (I would think 4.3-4.4ghz may be achievable). The 4790K would be good with the extra threads however it depends on how "cheap" you can get it for. I've seen it for the price of an 9th gen i5 & motherboard.

As for upgrading a new GPU could be good although you'll need to make sure the PSU will handle a stronger GPU.

 

[noxitide]

What GPU is recommended these days? If I were to upgrade the whole kit and kaboodle, I'd probably go AMD for cost reasons, and that's completely out of my knowledge-base, since when I built in 2015, AMD was laughable. The AMD Ryzen 2700 seems like a good (?) processor but honestly AMD is really confusing to me.

 

[WildCard999]

What GPU is recommended these days? If I were to upgrade the whole kit and kaboodle, I'd probably go AMD for cost reasons, and that's completely out of my knowledge-base, since when I built in 2015, AMD was laughable. The AMD Ryzen 2700 seems like a good (?) processor but honestly AMD is really confusing to me.

Depends on your budget & resolution.

 

[vMax]

Right now the biggest change you can make is to get a better GPU, something like the GTX 1660Ti, RX 5700/5700XT or 2060 Super. Saying that, the games you play also like CPU and RAM so you are in a tough area.

Ryzen would be cost effective for an immediate boost so a Ryzen 2600/2700 or 3600 plus B450 motherboard and 16GB RAM and then the GPU or GPU first....tough choice and it all comes down to budget...

AMD have greatly improved so I would not worry on the CPU side.

 

[noxitide]

Right now the biggest change you can make is to get a better GPU, something like the GTX 1660Ti, RX 5700/5700XT or 2060 Super. Saying that, the games you play also like CPU and RAM so you are in a tough area.

Ryzen would be cost effective for an immediate boost so a 2600/2700 or 3600 plus B450 motherboard and 16GB RAM and then the GPU or GPU first....tough choice and it all comes down to budget...

I've just gotten a new job, and tbh, I got my paycheck today and I'm ... shook ... I've been living off 13k a year and just had 3k dropped in my account. I'm terrified.

So, presumably, in a couple months, my budget will increase.

What it sounds like is that I can go to a better GPU because it will work with my current system, and then later upgrade the rest of the system to modern architecture. Is it still the case that certain GPUs work better with AMD or Intel?

 

[WildCard999]

Either a AMD or Nvidia GPU will work fine with that build.

 

[Karadjgne]

Cpu sets the fps limits. It pre-renders only so many frames. Then ships those to the gpu, which puts them on screen according to resolution and detail settings. In that it either lives upto the fps limit set by the cpu, or fails.

So a gpu cannot increase fps. It is whatever the cpu says it is. All a better gpu can do is increase its fps outputs to that cpu ceiling. Once you pass it, fps minimums are all that count.

You have a K cpu, Z mobo and adequate cooling. You are experiencing lag at times. That's a cpu issue. Whether that's lack of clock speeds or simply too much for the cpu is unknown.

I've got a 3770k/970 OC to 4.6GHz and have no issues in my games. Except multi-player. 8man teams no worries, 16man and I'm turning off fly-text (cpu bound setting) and very minor lag, 24man bosses and I'm hurting with 10-20fps at times.

So even an i7 with high clocks has limits, they'll only be relieved by a cpu with combined fast clocks and higher IPC than 3rd gen Intel. 4th gen isn't much better, maybe 10%.

It'll run @ $100 to upgrade, with sale of the i5, which is the cheapest option. If your C drive isn't already ssd, upgrading that'd help a little too (Sata or m.2 is same thing, different socket).

But honestly, you and I both are getting to the point where software is overtaking the ability of our pc's, which are fast approaching 'Retro' status comparatively.

 

[vMax]

I've just gotten a new job, and tbh, I got my paycheck today and I'm ... shook ... I've been living off 13k a year and just had 3k dropped in my account. I'm terrified.

So, presumably, in a couple months, my budget will increase.

What it sounds like is that I can go to a better GPU because it will work with my current system, and then later upgrade the rest of the system to modern architecture. Is it still the case that certain GPUs work better with AMD or Intel?

As said by others AMD or Nvidia. On price, the GTX 1660Ti at roughly $250 is great for the performance you get and then the RX 5700 on the AMD side at $329..ish and followed by the RTX 2060 at $325 and the RTX 2060 Super at circa $400

Oh and congratulations on the new job....

 

[noxitide]

Karadjgne, that's really informative since your system is similar. It's a bit funny (and sad) that a 4 year old computer is "retro"!

It's good to know that the games I'm doing need GPU, CPU and RAM, that tells me that upgrading parts of the system may not make substantive improvements. It's still capable right now so long as I manage the settings appropriately, so I can start saving up for a new system, instead of spending on small upgrades right now.

Final question, I promise, is there anything that's going to be coming out soon that's going to blow everything out of the water? Or is AMD Ryzen/B450/2060 Super a good choice going forward the next couple months?

 

[WildCard999]

There's apparently going to be a GTX 1660 Super coming out in October which looks interesting.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-gtx-1660-ti-october-gddr6,40474.html

There's also talks of the B550 boards coming out soon as well, the Ryzen 3600(X) would be a nice upgrade. You'll also need to upgrade to DDR4 but I'd hold off until we see what speeds the B550 boards support, 3200mhz is pretty standard for Ryzen but 3600 could be better for 3rd gen.

 

[theonerm2]

I've just gotten a new job, and tbh, I got my paycheck today and I'm ... shook ... I've been living off 13k a year and just had 3k dropped in my account. I'm terrified.

So, presumably, in a couple months, my budget will increase.

What it sounds like is that I can go to a better GPU because it will work with my current system, and then later upgrade the rest of the system to modern architecture. Is it still the case that certain GPUs work better with AMD or Intel?

Ryzen 5 3600, msi b450 tomahawk, 16gb 3200 ddr4, RX 5700 XT.... Get these parts.

You have money for it now. I think...

 

[King_V]

Either I missed it, or it hasn't been answered yet.

Before even thinking about a GPU upgrade, tell us about your monitor. What is its:

• Resolution
• Refresh rate
• Does it have FreeSync, GSync, or neither?
  • If FreeSync, what is the FreeSync range?

 

[noxitide]

Either I missed it, or it hasn't been answered yet.

Before even thinking about a GPU upgrade, tell us about your monitor. What is its:

• Resolution
• Refresh rate
• Does it have FreeSync, GSync, or neither?
  • If FreeSync, what is the FreeSync range?

My monitor is the LG 34UM88 - so ultra-wide, 3440x1440, Free Sync. I believe it's 60Hz.

I used to have 144 Hz monitor, but it was smaller and I wanted the screen real-estate. Haven't noticed a difference in terms of refresh rate.

 

[King_V]

For 3440x1440 @ 60Hz, I think the RX 5700 is the way to go. Cheaper than the 2060 Super, but performs better. If you were playing some of the latest first-person-shooters I'd say probably 5700XT to avoid dipping below 60fps.

However, given that the monitor (I found specs for a 34UM88-P) has FreeSync in the 40-60Hz range, then even some dips below 60 will be smoothed out with FreeSync.

 

[Karadjgne]

It's like baseball. You can buy a mitt, break it in, but throwing a tennis ball around really isn't the same thing. Or buy a bat or a ball. By themselves they are semi-useless. It's not until you get mitt, bat and ball that things really come together.

You can upgrade some odds and ends in your pc and get nothing to small amounts of performance upgrade, it won't be until you have cpu, ram, platform and gpu combined that things will drop into perspective.

There's nothing coming that's going to be earth shattering. Intel is going to see some small gains (as usual) as will amd in its next generation, but nothing like the gains seen by lga1155 over lga775 or Ryzen over FX.

 

[noxitide]

Ok that's really good information, the 2060 Super was looking real pricey! I'll take a look at both 5700 X and XT

ETA: Posted at same time as Karadjne, oops. Thank you, and your analogy is probably correct. I'm glad there's not somrhing earth shattering coming, I would probably get swept up in the hype.

 

[Karadjgne]

Hah. I used to sell vacuum cleaners when I was young, hype I understand quite well. Windows did it with multi-gpu DX12, nvidia did it with Turing, DLSS and ray tracing, Intel did it with Broadwell, Amd did it with FX, and again with FX. Microsoft has been doing it every few years since '94.

Gimme the goods, let me see how it runs and then I'll tell you if it was worth the wait. Until then, what works now, works.


Boy that sounded cynical.... Lol