Upgrade from 4790k to 9700k

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aznwilsonchen

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Oct 21, 2016
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Now that the 9700k has been released, is it practical to upgrade now? I was going to wait for the prices to be lower before I pull the trigger. Or is it more ethical to just switch to the 8700k? Im currently running a GTX 1070 that will probably be switched to 1080TI later this year. Monitors at 1080@144HZ.
 
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chemmajorp53
Hard to tell, depends on how multi-threaded games get in the next few years. My best guess would be that it will still be competitive in 2-3 years. If you get the itch to upgrade, you can do it,you can still sell your 4790k, mobo, and RAM for a pretty decent amount of money, just be aware that you're not going to get that much more performance right now. My suggestion is to always wait until your hardware isn't letting you play games that you want to play at the settings you want and make an upgrade at that point. With CPUs it's a lot better to make few large upgrades every 5-6 gens rather than small ones every 2 gens or so.
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SkyBill40

SkyBill40

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Reviews, reviews, reviews. That's the very best advice I could give. And if you're sticking with 1080p, even at 144Hz, there's little reason to drop extra cash for a 1080Ti as you'd be wasting the horsepower unless a monitor upgrade to 1440p or greater is in your future.
 
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chemmajorp53

chemmajorp53

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Apr 5, 2013
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Honestly I wouldn't upgrade either unless you do a ton of high bitrate streaming or plan on getting a 1440p 144hz or 4k monitor. The 9700k might get you 10-15% more cpu performance in most games at a cost of almost $800 if you include RAM, and in my opinion that's not even close to worth it. Usually on this forum we try to suggest upgrades where you would be able to do something that you wouldn't have before if you bought new hardware, and it doesn't sound like that would be the case for you to be honest.
 
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vMax

vMax

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Aug 7, 2006
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I did pretty much what you did and for me I went with the 8700K and have not looked back. The 8700K is on par with the 9700K in gaming performance with maybe a couple of percentage points difference and the 6 Cores and 12 threads give it a lot of power for both gaming and productivity. You will definitely feel a difference between the 4790K and the 8700K.

Also the 8700K is a great overclocker with 5GHz well within reach with a good cooler. Couple the 8700K to the new Z390 platform and motherboards and you have a great high performance system that should see you through the next few years and if you need to upgrade in the future then the 9900K will drop straight in.

If you have a good GPU, then the 8700K will maximise the GPU to it's full. Why not the 9700K? Though I am sure it is also very good, I think at this point the additional threads of the 8700K just edge it and in terms of gaming performance there is hardly a difference, especially for high refresh rate (1080p 144Hz) and 1440P/4k gaming...Bottom line if you are looking to upgrade now then the new Z390 coupled to a 8700K (my preference) or a 9700K will do a great job providing you with one of the strongest gaming platforms for some time to come...

Oh and if you do not upgrade to the 8700K/9700K, I would definitely upgrade your ram to 16GB on the 4790K...but you are on DDR3...
 
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aznwilsonchen

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Oct 21, 2016
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my gpu is evga 1070. I was thinking of upgrading the ram but how long do you think my 4790k will last me?
 
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chemmajorp53

chemmajorp53

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Hard to tell, depends on how multi-threaded games get in the next few years. My best guess would be that it will still be competitive in 2-3 years. If you get the itch to upgrade, you can do it,you can still sell your 4790k, mobo, and RAM for a pretty decent amount of money, just be aware that you're not going to get that much more performance right now. My suggestion is to always wait until your hardware isn't letting you play games that you want to play at the settings you want and make an upgrade at that point. With CPUs it's a lot better to make few large upgrades every 5-6 gens rather than small ones every 2 gens or so.
 
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SkyBill40

SkyBill40

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Even with this, there's no specific guarantee it'll play nice and work right. It's always best to buy a matched pair or matched quad when you're considering RAM. Plan ahead and buy once.
 
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theonerm2

theonerm2

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Dec 28, 2009
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I thought about upgrading myself but it just doesn't seem worth it. My graphics card is a GTX 1080 ti. It's a lot of money for minimal gains in gaming to upgrade the cpu. I think if PS5 and the Next Xbox have 4 core 8 thread cpu's then the 4 core 8 thread cpu may last quite a bit longer. Think about it. They want a capable but cheap cpu and a 4 core 8 thread cpu fits the bill.
 
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theonerm2

theonerm2

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Dec 28, 2009
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As long as you get quality ram and have a decent board it usually works though. I mean for me it has. I can't speak for everyone else.
 
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