[SOLVED] Upgrade path for this pc?

[721831101]

Its a r7 1700 ,B350F with gtx970
Decided to get a 6700xt for 1080p144Hz gaming

But figured that 1700 is too weak for the target fps, before getting a whole new setup, anything worth upgrading?

 

[tennis2]

https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b350-f-gaming-model/helpdesk_cpu
Looks like your current board would support a Ryzen 3600 or 3700X.

TBH, I'd wait until AM5 launch this fall.

6700XT is plenty capable for 1440p, 144Hz gaming.... monitor upgrade?

 

[jeremyj_83]

Its a r7 1700 ,B350F with gtx970
Decided to get a 6700xt for 1080p144Hz gaming

But figured that 1700 is too weak for the target fps, before getting a whole new setup, anything worth upgrading?

According to the CPU support list you can get Ryzen 3000 series on that motherboard. Zen 2 CPUs are still very good and capable for gaming. Would be a "cheap" and easy upgrade for a system. An R7 3800X is under $300 and getting that will extend the life of your system for a while. Then when everything is ready for an upgrade DDR5 will be the main RAM out there and a lot cheaper.

 

[Bob.B]

Its a r7 1700 ,B350F with gtx970
Decided to get a 6700xt for 1080p144Hz gaming

But figured that 1700 is too weak for the target fps, before getting a whole new setup, anything worth upgrading?

Test with what you have and then make a decision.

 

[721831101]

TBH, I'd wait until AM5 launch this fall.

6700XT is plenty capable for 1440p, 144Hz gaming.... monitor upgrade?

I dont want the ddr5 tax

 

[721831101]

An R7 3800X is under $300 and getting t

Compared to cost of new 12400F and b660, roughly 320usd
So new one seems more promising lol

 

[jeremyj_83]

Compared to cost of new 12400F and b660, roughly 320usd
So new one seems more promising lol

One of these upgrades can be done in a few minutes where as the other will take hours and has a higher chance of issues. IMO my time is worth more than a few FPS and that needs to be added into the cost equation as well. For example when I am needed to do IT Consulting, I am a VMware Administrator, my time is billed at $150/hr. If all I need to do is change a CPU and it takes 10 minutes you are billed for 15 minutes (billing is done to the nearest 15 minutes) so $37.50. That puts the cost of the CPU at $330 when time is added. Now if I need to do a motherboard change that can easily take 2 hours because of everything involved. All of a sudden that $320 is almost doubled, $620, when my time is added.

 

[721831101]

is change a CPU and it takes 10 minutes you are billed for 15 minutes

This is the difference between a hobby and a job
Besides you surely want to charge more regardless what customer gets

 

[jeremyj_83]

This is the difference between a hobby and a job
Besides you surely want to charge more regardless what customer gets

Doesn't matter if it is a hobby or a job. My time is still worth something. If I can get 90% of the FPS and have the job take 10 minutes instead of 2 hours that is extra time for myself. In reality 2 hours is being generous. Since the OP would be going from AMD > Intel, the number of possible things to go wrong just in the OS is much higher. That means the OP will most likely also need to do a fresh OS install which is time consuming. Hope s/he doesn't lose critical data, etc... All the extra possible headaches for not much gain just isn't worth while. Do note that while I am an IT Professional I am also a hobbyist. I've built many computers in my life and I've never just done a motherboard swap due to all the possible issues.

 

[tennis2]

Knowing that you're sitting below the perf/$ curve with past gen hardware, it all boils down to cost. And that's certainly not a black-and-white metric.

Generally people's "hobby" time is highly variable also depending on their work & family load, but generally pretty worthless. Hobby hours can range from 0$/hr to Jeremy's $150/hr, or more. That's something every individual needs to measure personally. Perhaps more importantly here is the potential for downtime. If this is a mission-critical (business-use) machine, then less downtime is better. If it's a personal/gaming machine, you can probably get away with even a week or 2 of downtime (depending on your gaming addiction withdrawals).

I recently did a CPU+mobo+RAM+SSD replacement, and actually assembled the new bits outside my case with a spare PSU (GPU if needed) to get everything (OS & software) set up before I made the physical switch. Minimizing downtime to the 2-3 hours it took me to disassemble my old system from my case and install the new bits.

My additional thoughts on your scenario:

• Ryzen 3000 series will provide a much-needed uplift in per-core performance compared to your 1700X.
• New Ryzen 3000 CPUs are more expensive than their performance reflects. Especially when you have things like the Ryzen 5500 for $140 on the market.
• You'll have to decide whether you can give up a couple cores for a cheaper 3600/3600X or if a 3700X/3800X is required for the 8C/16T.
• Buying a new motherboard just to support a current-gen CPU opens up a whole can of upgrading worms. Replace/upgrade the existing RAM? Since you'll [assumedly] be reformatting at that point, time for a higher capacity SSD? It also means you're going to strip everything out of your case and re-assemble, as opposed to popping off the CPU cooler and swapping in a CPU. Downtime = see above.
• If you end up with Ryzen 5000 system, that's 1.5 years old now and due for a pretty significant replacement with Ryzen 7000 this fall alongside AM5 which will assumedly have at least an additional generation of CPUs to upgrade to past the 7000 series. Yes, there's always something newer/better/faster on the horizon.
• On the DDR5 premium. Maybe easier to consider this less as +$$$ and more of a percentage of the build cost. An extra $100 on RAM sounds like a lot, but if it's only 10% more cost in a $1,000 upgrade....meh?