[SOLVED] Upgrade from Ivy Bridge i7-3770 to a Ryzen 5 3600?

Jul 30, 2019
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I've had my current PC for many years now, only upgrading the GPU and adding some RAM and it has served me great. No problems with it atm.

Current Relative Specs:
i7-3770, stock cooler | AMD RX 480 | 16GB DDR3 RAM

I use it mostly for photo editing and playing games (2k resolution usually medium settings).
My question is would it be worth the money to upgrade to a Ryzen 5 3600? It would cost me about €800 for all the upgrades (CPU, Motherboard, RAM and Cooler).

  • Will photoshop run any better?
  • If I upgrade my GPU, will my i7-3770 hold it back?

Thanks.
 
Solution
There's a definite bonus to over sizing the cpu cooler. No matter what you do, how hard you push the cpu, the fans won't spin up much at all and will remain quiet. With a smaller cooler, under heavy loads, you'll get some decent rpm, and the corresponding noise. Any fan, even Noctua starts to get audible above @ 900rpm.
Running at 2k, you wont see as big of a performance jump. At 1080p you would see a nice jump. For photoshop, the single core boost will improve performance, but I guess it would depend on how it runs now to see if it was worth it.

If it were me, I would look at getting a better GPU and hold onto your 3770. Your 3770 will be just fine for gaming at 1440p with a new GPU. For gaming, you will see a much better boost in fps than you would by getting a 3600. With that being said, the 3600 is a great CPU.
 

hftvhftv

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Running at 2k, you wont see as big of a performance jump. At 1080p you would see a nice jump. For photoshop, the single core boost will improve performance, but I guess it would depend on how it runs now to see if it was worth it.

If it were me, I would look at getting a better GPU and hold onto your 3770. Your 3770 will be just fine for gaming at 1440p with a new GPU. For gaming, you will see a much better boost in fps than you would by getting a 3600. With that being said, the 3600 is a great CPU.
Then again though, OP will experience jumps at 1440p in CPU demanding games.

What games do you play? The 3770 will hold back most $250 and up graphics cards.
 
Jul 30, 2019
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Then again though, OP will experience jumps at 1440p in CPU demanding games.

What games do you play? The 3770 will hold back most $250 and up graphics cards.
The most demanding kinda games I'd play would be Tomb Raider, Witcher 3, Civ6, GTA5, etc.

Also, I should have mentioned the i7-3770 can't be overclocked obviously but I would plan on overclocking the Ryzen 3600.

Thanks Guys!
 

InvalidError

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I've had my current PC for many years now, only upgrading the GPU and adding some RAM and it has served me great. No problems with it atm.

would it be worth the money to upgrade to a Ryzen 5 3600?
If "no problems at all" means you are still happy with your i7-3770 in pretty much everything of material importance to you then I'd say you aren't ripe for an upgrade yet. In my book, no upgrade mainly for upgrade's sake is worth the trouble.

Also, I should have mentioned the i7-3770 can't be overclocked obviously but I would plan on overclocking the Ryzen 3600.
While you technically can overclock Ryzen 3000 CPUs, there is almost no point in doing so as you typically gain only 3% more performance over Power Boost Overdrive and may actually lose performance in some cases. Manual overclocking is almost dead.
 

Karadjgne

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The difference in cpus will be highly game dependent. I play Starwars The Old Republic just fine on my i7-3770K/gtx970 at max settings with no discernable lag. Except during 24man world boss fights, where there's SO much data from SO many people and sources, requiring basically 24 pc's worth of effort. Then I need to disable a bunch of area stuff like floating names, blooms, etc. I get into that about once a week for maybe 20 minutes. For me, I can live with that loss, it's optional and temporary and quite specific and doesn't affect other gameplay. So for me, an upgrade to Ryzen simply isn't cost effective, or warranted.

The decision you need to make as far as upgrade is similar. Just what can you live with and without. Fps is nice, but after a point it's honestly nothing more than a benchmark.

I'd upgrade the gpu first, it's hardest hit by resolution, very minimal if any hit to the cpu. If fps still isn't playable (according to you) then worry about swapping to Ryzen.
 
Jul 30, 2019
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Sounds like folks think I should stick with what I have, and only upgrade my CPU if I'm upgrading my GPU.
I was thinking a processor that's 7 years old at this point would be ripe for an upgrade but as was said, if I'm not having issues at the moment, there's no need.
Thanks for all the input :D:D
 

logainofhades

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Moderator
I've had my current PC for many years now, only upgrading the GPU and adding some RAM and it has served me great. No problems with it atm.

Current Relative Specs:
i7-3770, stock cooler | AMD RX 480 | 16GB DDR3 RAM

I use it mostly for photo editing and playing games (2k resolution usually medium settings).
My question is would it be worth the money to upgrade to a Ryzen 5 3600? It would cost me about €800 for all the upgrades (CPU, Motherboard, RAM and Cooler).

  • Will photoshop run any better?
  • If I upgrade my GPU, will my i7-3770 hold it back?
Thanks.


There is no way that should cost 800, for those components, as you can get a 3700x, and a 1660ti, for a bit more than that. The stock cooler is sufficient.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£299.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard (£181.68 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£77.13 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£259.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £818.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-30 18:11 BST+0100



Or if your really wanted to settle, for the 3600.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.97 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler (£23.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard (£181.68 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£77.13 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£259.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £731.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-30 18:13 BST+0100
 
Jul 30, 2019
6
0
10
There is no way that should cost 800, for those components, as you can get a 3700x, and a 1660ti, for a bit more than that. The stock cooler is sufficient.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£299.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard (£181.68 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£77.13 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£259.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £818.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-30 18:11 BST+0100



Or if your really wanted to settle, for the 3600.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.97 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler (£23.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard (£181.68 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£77.13 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£259.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £731.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-30 18:13 BST+0100
These were the parts I had picked out.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/hXtm4q

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£199.98 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X52 Rev 2 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£124.69 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H2 10 g Thermal Paste (£11.49 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard (£262.20 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (£139.95 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £738.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-30 18:41 BST+0100

I live in Ireland and the market for PC components isn't very big - I get my stuff mostly from amazon.co.uk (free shipping with prime!) Obviously need to convert the GBP to EUR. This was about €800.

I know I could save a lot on air cooler vs water without a hit to performance. I picked fast RAM cas that's what Ryzen 3000 loves. I could choose a cheaper motherboard to be fair (even a decent b450 board?)

If I was on a strict budget, I would go with your parts for sure
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
I was thinking a processor that's 7 years old at this point would be ripe for an upgrade but as was said, if I'm not having issues at the moment, there's no need.
The CPU may be seven years old but mainstream CPU performance progression has been practically frozen for the first five of those years, which makes you only two to three years behind current mainstream performance.

My i5-3470 is still 100% stable, does everything I need it to do well enough that I have no plans to replace it and AM5 may very well be out before I change my mind. When I built my current PC, I was expecting to upgrade again 3-4 years later as usual or at the very least start to get the upgrade itch. Seven years later, nothing on the market inspires me since the same 500 Canukistan pesos I spent back then including taxes still only buys me about the same performance so upgrading currently still makes no sense to me unless my current PC blows up.
 

logainofhades

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Moderator
In reality, 3200 c16 is really good enough for Ryzen 3000. Price/performance, spending more doesn't make much sense, to me.



https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-zen-2-memory-performance-scaling-benchmark/



Such expensive cooling, and board, are wasted on a 3600, as well. Maybe if you were running an R9 3900x, or the upcoming 3950x, but not a 65w 3600, that isn't going to overclock much more than what it can boost to anyway.
 
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Jul 30, 2019
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In reality, 3200 c16 is really good enough for Ryzen 3000. Price/performance, spending more doesn't make much sense, to me.



https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-zen-2-memory-performance-scaling-benchmark/



Such expensive cooling, and board, are wasted on a 3600, as well. Maybe if you were running an R9 3900x, or the upcoming 3950x, but not a 65w 3600, that isn't going to overclock much more than what it can boost to anyway.
Interesting, you seem to know your stuff hades! Might play around with the component choice some more in light of your information :)
 
Jul 30, 2019
6
0
10
The CPU may be seven years old but mainstream CPU performance progression has been practically frozen for the first five of those years, which makes you only two to three years behind current mainstream performance.

My i5-3470 is still 100% stable, does everything I need it to do well enough that I have no plans to replace it and AM5 may very well be out before I change my mind. When I built my current PC, I was expecting to upgrade again 3-4 years later as usual or at the very least start to get the upgrade itch. Seven years later, nothing on the market inspires me since the same 500 Canukistan pesos I spent back then including taxes still only buys me about the same performance so upgrading currently still makes no sense to me unless my current PC blows up.
Intel have, for sure, been lacking in innovation - their CPU's have been so samey and incremental for ages now. Hopeful AMD continue to put out awesome products and drive competition that was missing for so long :p

RIP Moore's Law
 

Karadjgne

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There's a definite bonus to over sizing the cpu cooler. No matter what you do, how hard you push the cpu, the fans won't spin up much at all and will remain quiet. With a smaller cooler, under heavy loads, you'll get some decent rpm, and the corresponding noise. Any fan, even Noctua starts to get audible above @ 900rpm.
 
Solution
Sounds like folks think I should stick with what I have, and only upgrade my CPU if I'm upgrading my GPU.
I was thinking a processor that's 7 years old at this point would be ripe for an upgrade but as was said, if I'm not having issues at the moment, there's no need.
Thanks for all the input :D:D

If it were me, I would upgrade my GPU now and worry about the CPU later. The 480 is not really a 2k card. You would see a very nice performance bump looking at a 2060 or higher.
 

Karadjgne

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Maybe, maybe not. The 2060's biggest advantage over the 480 will be sheer graphics ability. Where the 480 will struggle with higher settings at decent fps, the 2060 will get high/ultra without issue, at maybe the same fps. The fps will be game depending, just how much is cpu limited vrs graphics capped.