[SOLVED] What should I do?

[Angburmun]

Hello,

I have been the happy owner of an overclocked i5 6500 and a Z170 board for a couple of years from now. Unfortunately, I killed my cpu in an attempt to delid it.

The thing is that I don't need the PC a lot these days due to my lack of time because I am a student, can get by with an old computer of mine which has an AMD Athlon 760K and 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and I will though my GTX 1060 in there - though I am planning on upgrading to a GTX 1080 ti in the close future.

I enjoy playing videogames at a competitive level, and I was planning on starting recording videos and streaming. The thing is that I can go for a Ryzen 7 1700 and a X370 board for less than €200 - I already own 16GB of DDR4 RAM. Now the question is: should I go for it or should I wait until the third generation of Ryzen gets cheaper - getting a 2nd gen cpu would raise the price about €50, which I consider expensive for the bump in performance compared to the 1st gen - ?

I have also seen the Intel way, but for the same price I could only be getting an i7 6700k or an i7 7700k, which would have less threads and more and less the same performance in videogames.

Ah, and I almost forgot, I tend to overclock the hell out of any chip that comes to my hands.

Any help is appreciated,
Ángel.

 

[cdrkf]

Hello,

I have been the happy owner of an overclocked i5 6500 and a Z170 board for a couple of years from now. Unfortunately, I killed my cpu in an attempt to delid it.

The thing is that I don't need the PC a lot these days due to my lack of time because I am a student, can get by with an old computer of mine which has an AMD Athlon 760K and 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and I will though my GTX 1060 in there - though I am planning on upgrading to a GTX 1080 ti in the close future.

I enjoy playing videogames at a competitive level, and I was planning on starting recording videos and streaming. The thing is that I can go for a Ryzen 7 1700 and a X370 board for less than €200 - I already own 16GB of DDR4 RAM. Now the question is: should I go for it or should I wait until the third generation of Ryzen gets cheaper - getting a 2nd gen cpu would raise the price about €50, which I consider expensive for the bump in performance compared to the 1st gen - ?

I have also seen the Intel way, but for the same price I could only be getting an i7 6700k or an i7 7700k, which would have less threads and more and less the same performance in videogames.

Ah, and I almost forgot, I tend to overclock the hell out of any chip that comes to my hands.

Any help is appreciated,
Ángel.

Well I would avoid the 760K if you are planning on gaming (especially if competitive).

A Ryzen 7 1700 isn't a bad chip if overclocked, although depending on region you might be better looking at the new Ryzen 5 1600 'AF'- this is actually a re-branded Ryzen 5 2600 and will probably be a touch faster in most games than the 1700 thanks to the improvements made with the newer Zen+ core (and the fact that most games don't need more than 6 cores / 12 threads). The Ryzen 7 would be better if you are looking to stream using CPU encoding though. If you do look at the Ryzen 5 1600, just make sure it is the new 'AF' variant and not the older 'AE'- which is the first gen part.

Both Ryzen cpu's will overclock to ~ 4 ghz (you might get 4.1 to 4.2 out of the Ryzen 5 1600 AF as second gen tends to clock a little higher). Note that if you go for 3rd gen ryzen, there really isn't much overclocking headroom, the best option with those is to stick a strong cooler on the thing and enable the auto-overclocking 'PBO' options in the motherboard and you are about done. Manual overclocking requires turning off the turbo which will result in lower single thread performance when overclocked (although usually slightly better all core) so depends on what you are doing but for gaming PBO would be the best bet.

I think Ryzen is a better bet than the older i7's as 4 cores 8 threads is starting to show it's age- the i7's would probably be faster in older or lightly threaded titles when overclocked (thanks to Intel being able to hit 5+ ghz) but newer titles the 6 core or 8 core Ryzens are better. You also have a strong upgrade path with Ryzen whereas the 6700 / 7700K are the limit for that socket.

 

[Angburmun]

Well I would avoid the 760K if you are planning on gaming (especially if competitive).

A Ryzen 7 1700 isn't a bad chip if overclocked, although depending on region you might be better looking at the new Ryzen 5 1600 'AF'- this is actually a re-branded Ryzen 5 2600 and will probably be a touch faster in most games than the 1700 thanks to the improvements made with the newer Zen+ core (and the fact that most games don't need more than 6 cores / 12 threads). The Ryzen 7 would be better if you are looking to stream using CPU encoding though. If you do look at the Ryzen 5 1600, just make sure it is the new 'AF' variant and not the older 'AE'- which is the first gen part.

Both Ryzen cpu's will overclock to ~ 4 ghz (you might get 4.1 to 4.2 out of the Ryzen 5 1600 AF as second gen tends to clock a little higher). Note that if you go for 3rd gen ryzen, there really isn't much overclocking headroom, the best option with those is to stick a strong cooler on the thing and enable the auto-overclocking 'PBO' options in the motherboard and you are about done. Manual overclocking requires turning off the turbo which will result in lower single thread performance when overclocked (although usually slightly better all core) so depends on what you are doing but for gaming PBO would be the best bet.

I think Ryzen is a better bet than the older i7's as 4 cores 8 threads is starting to show it's age- the i7's would probably be faster in older or lightly threaded titles when overclocked (thanks to Intel being able to hit 5+ ghz) but newer titles the 6 core or 8 core Ryzens are better. You also have a strong upgrade path with Ryzen whereas the 6700 / 7700K are the limit for that socket.

Thanks for your reponse,

I have taken a look at the Ryzen 1600 AF, and its price comes to €200, far away from the €110 that the Ryzen 7 1700 would cost.

And as far as the Athlon is concerned, I have no problems with it, as I will only be staying with it as a replacement until I get the Ryzen.

PS: My cooling solution isn't a problem either, as I own an ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO.

 

[86zx]

i don’t expect third gen to get cheap for atleast another year if your willing to wait that long. Second gen I think will be worth it over first gen. And also you won’t see basicly any performance bump going from the 1060 to the 1080 ti on that system. I had a a10 5800k which is basicly the same cpu and the performance is close to an older i3. So I’d wait on the 1080 ti and go for the mb and cpu right now instead. You will get a decent bump in performance even with your 1060

 

[Angburmun]

i don’t expect third gen to get cheap for atleast another year if your willing to wait that long. Second gen I think will be worth it over first gen. And also you won’t see basicly any performance bump going from the 1060 to the 1080 ti on that system. I had a a10 5800k which is basicly the same cpu and the performance is close to an older i3. So I’d wait on the 1080 ti and go for the mb and cpu right now instead. You will get a decent bump in performance even with your 1060

Thanks for your reply,

I was exactly planning on that, first taking the Ryzen and then looking for the 1080 ti so its price comes a little further down.

In what regards the 2nd gen I don't see eye to eye with you since it is just the 1st gen packaged with a better memory controller and slightly higher clock speeds - at leats that is what I think. I believe an oc there would really cut corners performance wise.

 

[86zx]

Thanks for your reply,

I was exactly planning on that, first taking the Ryzen and then looking for the 1080 ti so its price comes a little further down.

In what regards the 2nd gen I don't see eye to eye with you since it is just the 1st gen packaged with a better memory controller and slightly higher clock speeds - at leats that is what I think. I believe an oc there would really cut corners performance wise.

It’s more refined and it’s die is shrunk to 12nm if you look at performance stats such as geek bench the 1700x gets 6000 and the 2700x gets 7155 that’s a healthy increase

 

[cdrkf]

It’s more refined and it’s die is shrunk to 12nm if you look at performance stats such as geek bench the 1700x gets 6000 and the 2700x gets 7155 that’s a healthy increase

It is... just keep in mind a large chunk of that performance increase on the 2700X is clock speed...

The 1700X is 3.4ghz base with a 3.8ghz boost, whereas the 2700X is 3.7ghz base with 4.3ghz boost clock.

If you overclock the 1700X it is much closer. 1700X typically overclock to 4ghz all core (you are looking 4.2ghz all core overclock on a 2700X).

IPC wise, the Ryzen 2000 series (Zen+ core) is roughly 4% faster than first gen thanks to improved cache timings. The big IPC boost is Zen2 (Ryzen 3000 series) which is 15 to 20% better IPC.

 

[86zx]

It is... just keep in mind a large chunk of that performance increase on the 2700X is clock speed...

The 1700X is 3.4ghz base with a 3.8ghz boost, whereas the 2700X is 3.7ghz base with 4.3ghz boost clock.

If you overclock the 1700X it is much closer. 1700X typically overclock to 4ghz all core (you are looking 4.2ghz all core overclock on a 2700X).

IPC wise, the Ryzen 2000 series (Zen+ core) is roughly 4% faster than first gen thanks to improved cache timings. The big IPC boost is Zen2 (Ryzen 3000 series) which is 15 to 20% better IPC.

I suppose but I don’t expect the 3000 series to get significantly cheaper any time soon it will drop some when 4000 comes out but it’s not gonna reach the cheapness of the 2000 series for quite a while might even take longer to drop than 2000 did because of how much of a performance bump it is in comparison

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I upgraded from a Ryzen 1700x to a Ryzen 5 3600 and it is definitely a noticeable performance difference in single thread. I would suspect you'll see prices drop in summer after 4000 series release.

That said, I did have my Ryzen 7 1700x clocked at 3.8ghz full time at 1.325 volts. But that may have been because I was on an ASRock B350 board as well. For comparison though, In cinebench at least the multi threaded test, my friend has a 2700x he left at stock. When my 1700x was overclocked, it performed a bit better than the 2700x. So if you get a decent board, the 1700/1700x will probably tide you over with a good cooler and a decent overclock. Which at that point, you could hold out for the 4000 series. I've seen speculation of another 10% ipc increase give or take.

Though one site says up to 17% which would be impressive.

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/r...to-20-percent-extra-perf-over-ryzen-3000.html

But at least if you go with the 1700 now and get on the platform, get an overclock to hold out for a while, then you can should be able to update the bios and jump over to a 4000 series later.

 

[Angburmun]

I upgraded from a Ryzen 1700x to a Ryzen 5 3600 and it is definitely a noticeable performance difference in single thread. I would suspect you'll see prices drop in summer after 4000 series release.

That said, I did have my Ryzen 7 1700x clocked at 3.8ghz full time at 1.325 volts. But that may have been because I was on an ASRock B350 board as well. For comparison though, In cinebench at least the multi threaded test, my friend has a 2700x he left at stock. When my 1700x was overclocked, it performed a bit better than the 2700x. So if you get a decent board, the 1700/1700x will probably tide you over with a good cooler and a decent overclock. Which at that point, you could hold out for the 4000 series. I've seen speculation of another 10% ipc increase give or take.

Though one site says up to 17% which would be impressive.

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/r...to-20-percent-extra-perf-over-ryzen-3000.html

But at least if you go with the 1700 now and get on the platform, get an overclock to hold out for a while, then you can should be able to update the bios and jump over to a 4000 series later.

Okay, I'll take that in mind, thanks for your feedback!

 

[Angburmun]

Hello,

I have found a Ryzen 7 1700 for €80 and an ASUS Prime X370 Pro for €70.

I am planning on moving to Ryzen and I was wondering if such prices were good value for what I get.

Thanks for your feedback,
Ángel

 

[King_V]

I can't speak to the motherboard, but, that seems like a very good price for the Ryzen 7 1700, assuming it's a legitimate site you trust.

 

[DrummerManSpike]

Those are great prices, but which retailer are you seeing them at?

 

[Angburmun]

Those are great prices, but which retailer are you seeing them at?

I have found them on a reliable second hand market, so this is great news!

Thanks for your reponses

 

[King_V]

Ok, as used . . well, they're still good prices, but it makes me a little more hesitant, only because of the inherent risks of used parts and that the manufacturer's warranty won't apply (well, at least in the US, it's not transferable, not sure in your country) - although I think the warranty is 3 years anyway, so even if transferable, depending on when the original owner bought it, the warranty might have little time left.