Question Upgrading from i5 6600k?

[MBurner]

At some point in the future I was planning on playing Starfield, just not on release because my GPU and CPU were vastly under powered to do so.

Well my GPU ended up suddenly failing on me necessitating an unexpected upgrade to a 3060 12gb and now the only thing holding me back is the cpu so I figured I may as well look into what would make for a good upgrade.

I knew very little about gpu's, I know even less about cpu's. I'm not sure how much I'm looking to spend because I don't know what the value even is for a "good" one or even what a good one would be, I'm not looking to break the bank though.

On top of that I'll have to replace the motherboard as well and I know even less about that than I know about cpu's.

Any suggestions?

 

[Lutfij]

How much do you have to spend towards the motherboard CPU and ram combo? Preferred site for purchase? Your location?

 

[Lafong]

Motherboard, CPU, and RAM: you can do a pretty good job for 500 dollars on up. Less if you have to.

 

[MBurner]

How much do you have to spend towards the motherboard CPU and ram combo? Preferred site for purchase? Your location?

Not really sure what my budget would be at the moment as I'm not even sure what the average prices of "good" replacements would be to begin with. Maybe like... 300? I've tried looking at prices myself and without knowing how anything performs and whats better than what the prices are kind of all over the place. As far as ram goes though unless it's necessary as some cheaper deal I ended up upgrading that for another reason a couple years back so it's one of the more up to date things in my build, Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16. No preference for sites though I've usually used Newegg and Amazon in the past. And US.

 

[Lafong]

300 dollars; Intel machine

Look at an i3-13100 CPU

Intel® Core™ i3-13100 Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Core™ i3-13100 Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

B760M motherboard from maybe MSI or Gigabyte; these come in DDR 4 and DDR 5 variants; go with DDR 4 variant unless budget allows.

16 gb of DDR4 RAM in a 2 x 8 kit.

 

[MBurner]

300 dollars; Intel machine

Look at an i3-13100 CPU

Intel® Core™ i3-13100 Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Core™ i3-13100 Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

B760M motherboard from maybe MSI or Gigabyte; these come in DDR 4 and DDR 5 variants; go with DDR 4 variant unless budget allows.

16 gb of DDR4 RAM in a 2 x 8 kit.

I've been asking around elsewhere as well and was told my current cpu's main issue is being 4 cores, which would be the same for the i3-13100 I think?

they pointed me to this bundle deal from microcenter, I just don't know enough about motherboards or cpus, especially between amd and intel, to tell how good or comparable it is. The ram is simple enough to get and that seems like it's old and thrown in to pad out the bundle compared to what I already have but I'm not sure if they're also trying to pawn off the rest of the set or if thats where the value is.

https://www.microcenter.com/product...s-v-16gb-ddr4-3200-kit,-computer-build-bundle

 

[Lafong]

Current generation CPUs do a lot more work per clock than 2015 CPUs, regardless of core count....as you can see from these benchmark scores:

6600k; 4 cores; 4 threads; clockspeed 3.5 ghz; passmark score 6328; single thread score 2336

13100; 4 cores ; 8 threads; clockspeed 3.4 ghz; passmark score 14944; single thread score 3740

Ryzen 5 5600X3D; 6 cores; 12 threads; clockspeed 3.3 ghz; passmark score 22039; single thread score 3224.

So...core and thread advantage to Ryzen; single thread score advantage to 13100.

I don't know if the Ryzen core and thread advantage would be more important in your use case than the Intel single thread advantage.

Either would have a major advantage over the 6600K. How "noticeable" that would be to you in real life would depend on what you do with the PC. You might notice the difference only occasionally if you rarely ask a lot of the CPU.

Nothing wrong with Ripjaws RAM as far as I know.

Micro Center generally is price competitive and has some good stuff. I'd at least see what you can find there on an Intel bundle in the same price range.

If you can spend 400 or 500, obviously consider DDR 5 and a stronger CPU.

 

[MBurner]

Micro Center generally is price competitive and has some good stuff. I'd at least see what you can find there on an Intel bundle in the same price range.

If you can spend 400 or 500, obviously consider DDR 5 and a stronger CPU.

I checked microcenter and the closest bundle they have for intel is an i7-12700K for $50 more.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006465/intel-core-i7-12700k,-msi-z690-a-pro-wifi-ddr4,-gskill-ripjaws-v-16gb-ddr4-3200-kit,-computer-build-bundle

I still don't quite understand enough about the differences between any of these if you'd recommend one over the other or anything.

 

[Lafong]

12700K: passmark score 34763; single thread score 4055;

This CPU has a different design than the others you mention. It has 8 "Performance" cores clocked at 3.6 ghz with 16 threads and 4 "Efficient" cores clocked at 2.7 ghz with 4 threads. The performance cores do the heavy lifting and the efficient cores concentrate on lesser background tasks.

12 cores and 20 threads total.

You need to look at the specification sheets of each of the motherboards to find out if they have the features you need.

Do you need 1 M.2 drive port? Or 3? Or none? What generation M.2 drives do you own now or might you buy in the future?

Do you need 4 USB connectors? Or 8? What speed?

Do you need Display Port or HDMI monitor connections? How many?

Do you need 2 case fan connections? Or 4?

I can't help you with questions related to gaming.

And you need to decide what is the absolute top dollar you can spend. 350? 400, 450, etc.

Look around for a package with an i5-13400 if you can find one. It also uses Performance and Efficient cores.

Intel Core i5-13400 Benchmark

You've got a 6600K now. So do I. It appears you upgrade very rarely. So do I.

For that reason alone, I would spend as much as I possibly could now since you want longevity and a PC that is still at least tolerably good 2, 4, or 6 years from now.

Keep digging at Microcenter and Newegg.

 

[MBurner]

12700K: passmark score 34763; single thread score 4055;

This CPU has a different design than the others you mention. It has 8 "Performance" cores clocked at 3.6 ghz with 16 threads and 4 "Efficient" cores clocked at 2.7 ghz with 4 threads. The performance cores do the heavy lifting and the efficient cores concentrate on lesser background tasks.

12 cores and 20 threads total.

I'm less concerned about the motherboard than I am about the cpu. The board from the amd set would meet my needs but the extra slots and ports and all on the one from the intel set wouldn't hurt.

I'm more clueless when it comes to everything about the cpus. I still don't quite get the importance of the cores and the threads or the differences between how they work and how it actually translates to performance or likely longevity. I found the userbenchmark site and it shows the intel performing 19% "better" but does that actually translate to that much of an increase in performance in most scenarios? And is it worth other factors like it's apparent double the power draw?

As far as pricing goes this is my general ballpark, I was settling around 300 but if the intel set is vastly superior I'd put in the extra 50 but going higher would be pushing the budget.

 

[Lafong]

You can get an i5-13400 and a 16 gb kit of DDR4 for about 250, to give you something else to look at.

You still have not been specific on what you do with the PC.

90% gaming? 50, 20?

At what settings if primarily a gaming machine?

Mostly productivity and general purpose? 80% of the time?

Do you make money with this PC?

Do you do strenuous tasks 5 minutes a day? 50 minutes? 5 hours? PC at idle 55 minutes per hour?

Is the CPU the best place to spend the last 50 dollars (from 300 to 350)? Rather than cooling or storage or 32 GB RAM?

Are you highly concerned about power draw?

If you are largely driven by benchmarks, why fight that? Go with whatever benchmarks you can find. No point in second guessing yourself after the purchase if you have that tendency.

You may be bogged down in worrying about stuff that wouldn't much matter, depending on above answers. Easy to do that.