Upgrade options for i5 4430?

[bulletinaction]

Hey, so this is my current rig for gaming:

- i5 4430 @ 3.0GHZ
- GTX 1060 6GB
- 16GB DDR3
- MSI G87-G45 Motherboard
- 650W Corsair Power supply
- 60HZ Monitor

This rig has held up consistently for around four years (excluding when I upgraded to the 1060). However, as the years progress, more and more games are becoming more optimized for the newer generation of Intel and AMD.

I recently bought Battlefield V, but I quickly realized that my dinky i5 is no longer a good fit for the game, and I get constant stuttering.

So now I'm at a crossroads. I can either:

A: bite the bullet and upgrade to one of the latest Intel generations, yet I would also have to upgrade my motherboard and upgrade to DDR4. This is a lot of money and I'm not that much of a gamer as I used to be. However, this would set me up for many future games to come. Or:

B: I can upgrade to a better Intel 4th gen (I'm thinking an i7 4770, i7 4770k, i7 4790k, etc.) save a lot of money, and *hopefully* still get a considerable increase in performance.

Do you think an upgrade from an i5 4430 to, say, an i7 4770k is worth it in 2018? Especially for newer, CPU intensive games? Or do you think that an upgrade to a 6th, 7th gen Intel would be more beneficial? Or do you think such a massive upgrade would not be worth the money considering I only want to game at 60FPS?

Thank you all!

 

[vapour]

what is your budget?
I will only buy 4790k if it is cheap
living in US?

 

[herrwizo]

4790k would be well worth it. They hit 4.5Ghz on air very easily, even without voltage tweaks, and that translates to 50% more performance per core WITHOUT counting additional 4 threads you get. When all cores and threads are utilized, you will gain roughly +100% performance. That's quite a boost for CPU limited scenarios. Now, getting one at a decent price is another matter entirely...

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

With your considerations, I'd go with the i7 route. For 60hz 1080p, with an I7 you will still be able to game nicely at that res. Getting a 'k' CPU will allow you to OC and offset the old architecture by having higher clock-speeds (which is still very important in games).

Along with your 16gb of ram and a GTX1060, you still have a year or two left in the tank with that system. Getting a 4790k will mean you don't really have to OC. Going for a 6th/7th gen I7 will not yield much better results than a 4790k, so i'd suggest seeing if you can snag that somewhere second hand.

Having 4c/8t (4790k) will be huge in terms of no stuttering and ample CPU resources for games like BF V which make use of more cores/threads. The old 4c/4t CPU - 4th/6th/7th gen are just maxing out.

 

[Jwpanz]

If you upgrade within the same generation then you will see an improvement. However, you will find yourself in the same spot in a shorter amount of time than you would be had you upgraded to an 8th/9th generation chip. There's also the Ryzen path to consider as they are cheaper and could help soften the blow to your wallet. Perhaps a Ryzen 5 2600 would be a good fit for you.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

4790k would be well worth it. They hit 4.5Ghz on air very easily, even without voltage tweaks, and that translates to 50% more performance per core WITHOUT counting additional 4 threads you get. When all cores and threads are utilized, you will gain roughly +100% performance. That's quite a boost for CPU limited scenarios. Now, getting one at a decent price is another matter entirely...

Yes, but just to be clear, not 100% performance boost in gaming. The difference in what the OP has now, and let's say with a 4790k, will be a nice FPS increase, but no-where near 100%. For other tasks, having the extra threads will make a difference, but not 100% increase either. Maybe in some synthetic benchmarks though.

 

[herrwizo]

Correct. I was trying to say CPU performance, not fps boost. Still, it should remove all bottlenecks even in most recent games.

 

[bulletinaction]

Thank you all! I decided to take your all's advice. Finding a 4790K for a good price deemed really difficult, yet I found a 4770K for $175 on eBay, so I went ahead and purchased it. I plan on overclocking it as well, too.

 

[vapour]

If overclocking, get a good cooler.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Thank you all! I decided to take your all's advice. Finding a 4790K for a good price deemed really difficult, yet I found a 4770K for $175 on eBay, so I went ahead and purchased it. I plan on overclocking it as well, too.

4770k is still a great option. Not too shabby. As vapour said, get a good cooler for OC'ing. Stock cooler won't help much.