Question Will i5 9400f + 1660 ti enough for 1080p 60fps ?

[Anubis666]

I'm on a tight budget and i5 9400f is much less price than r5 2600 and 3600.

So will it be a good choice to go with it 9400f and 1660 ti build for 1080p 60fps gaming at VERY HIGH to ULTRA settings on all games till 2021.

Mainly I use it for pure gaming and some editing videos for YouTube (I can wait if it takes more time to process the upload).

I also planning but not sure to stream Dota 2, CS GO as these are high fps games and I hope it 9400f can handle it without dropping below 60fps.

If everthing is good to go then also plz suggest Good Motherboard and RAM which has good VRM but not high price something like b365.

 

[TerryLaze]

gaming at VERY HIGH to ULTRA settings on all games till 2021.

LOL ... no. The 1660ti is not going to get 60FPS at v.high/ultra 1080 in a lot of games that came out in the last few years and going ahead it will only get worse.
You will be able to enjoy any game just don't expect ultra,some manual tuning or high setting and you will be ok.

 

[Anubis666]

LOL ... no. The 1660ti is not going to get 60FPS at v.high/ultra 1080 in a lot of games that came out in the last few years and going ahead it will only get worse.
You will be able to enjoy any game just don't expect ultra,some manual tuning or high setting and you will be ok.

If not Ultra then atleast some settings high to Very high ?

 

[gordonmousedeer]

I don't know if LGA1151 motherboards like the ASUS PRIME B365M-A and ASRock B365M Pro4 are available in all country. However, Asus and ASRock have very responsive customer service. They won't immediately reply to emails but they will respond within days. I sent an email to the ASRock USA team and they said that even if I get an Intel Core i5-9400F with the R0 stepping and the ASRock B365M Pro4 that I get does not have the correct BIOS/UEFI version, the computer will still POST but will hang upon trying to boot into Windows. It is still possible to solve the problem by flashing the BIOS/UEFI to a newer and compatible version ("4.20" for the ASRock B365M Pro4) with Instant Flash. Some computer stores also offer the service of flashing the UEFI for a fee (prices are different). Most B360 motherboards are also affordable and unlike the (often) cheaper H310 motherboards have more DIMM slots for RAM, two times more PCI-E 3.0 lanes, and more M.2 slots. The earliest UEFI version of the GIGABYTE B360 M AORUS PRO (rev. 1.0) (earliest BIOS only supports the U0 stepping of i5-9400F), GIGABYTE B365M HD3 (rev. 1.0), GIGABYTE B365M POWER (rev. 1.0), and GIGABYTE B365 M AORUS ELITE (rev. 1.0) supports the Intel Core i5-9400F. I also recommend reading/watching motherboard reviews (if available for that motherboard) before making a purchase.

For RAM, 8 GB or 16 GB of DDR4 RAM running at a speed of 2666 MHz will be good enough for gaming. I saw that most motherboards that are compatible with 8th and 9th generation Intel Core microprocessors can only support a maximum RAM speed/clock cycle of 2666 MHz. Dual channel RAM is faster than single channel RAM (e.g. two 8 GB RAM is faster than one 16 GB RAM). However, the human eyes cannot see the difference so even single channel RAM is fine.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

Playing games should be fine, but streaming is going to push the i5-9400f down below 60 FPS, maybe closer to 30FPS. I think if you want to keep using the i5-9400f as your CPU of choice, then maybe squeeze the extra cash for the RTX-2060, then use the NVENC encoder to stream instead, which will won't rely on the CPU in order to encode. Take a look at the last 1/2 of this video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vCfYaK8Fn4&t=485s
in order to get an idea of how well the i5-9400f will perform relative to other CPUs and also at the end, there is a chart for streaming performance. Note that streaming with NVENC is quite good (but requires an Nvidia RTX card in order to do so).

 

[Anubis666]

Playing games should be fine, but streaming is going to push the i5-9400f down below 60 FPS, maybe closer to 30FPS. I think if you want to keep using the i5-9400f as your CPU of choice, then maybe squeeze the extra cash for the RTX-2060, then use the NVENC encoder to stream instead, which will won't rely on the CPU in order to encode. Take a look at the last 1/2 of this video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vCfYaK8Fn4&t=485s
in order to get an idea of how well the i5-9400f will perform relative to other CPUs and also at the end, there is a chart for streaming performance. Note that streaming with NVENC is quite good (but requires an Nvidia RTX card in order to do so).

Can't we use NVENC with 1660 ti? Though streaming is not a priority now.

I wanted the RTX 2060 but it's price is unchanged even after SUPER release.
Currently, 1660 ti is 90$ cheaper than 2060 and the RTX 2060 is just 20$ cheaper than RX 5700 here in my place..

Can 9400f perform good for editing game videos for YouTube atleast.?

I don't wanna spend much higher coz this build is just for 2years or 3 years Max... After that I'm plan to go 4k build straight away.

From the above video, it 9400f is still very good for gaming but 3600 is quite high price and some reviewers recommend after market cooler as it goes for 70 or above degrees when gaming and in summer here room temp reach 40+ degrees then ryzen gonna get..
And 9400f being less price I can afford the budget cooler to keep it cool.

 

[Anubis666]

I don't know if LGA1151 motherboards like the ASUS PRIME B365M-A and ASRock B365M Pro4 are available in all country. However, Asus and ASRock have very responsive customer service. They won't immediately reply to emails but they will respond within days. I sent an email to the ASRock USA team and they said that even if I get an Intel Core i5-9400F with the R0 stepping and the ASRock B365M Pro4 that I get does not have the correct BIOS/UEFI version, the computer will still POST but will hang upon trying to boot into Windows. It is still possible to solve the problem by flashing the BIOS/UEFI to a newer and compatible version ("4.20" for the ASRock B365M Pro4) with Instant Flash. Some computer stores also offer the service of flashing the UEFI for a fee (prices are different). Most B360 motherboards are also affordable and unlike the (often) cheaper H310 motherboards have more DIMM slots for RAM, two times more PCI-E 3.0 lanes, and more M.2 slots. The earliest UEFI version of the GIGABYTE B360 M AORUS PRO (rev. 1.0) (earliest BIOS only supports the U0 stepping of i5-9400F), GIGABYTE B365M HD3 (rev. 1.0), GIGABYTE B365M POWER (rev. 1.0), and GIGABYTE B365 M AORUS ELITE (rev. 1.0) supports the Intel Core i5-9400F. I also recommend reading/watching motherboard reviews (if available for that motherboard) before making a purchase.

For RAM, 8 GB or 16 GB of DDR4 RAM running at a speed of 2666 MHz will be good enough for gaming. I saw that most motherboards that are compatible with 8th and 9th generation Intel Core microprocessors can only support a maximum RAM speed/clock cycle of 2666 MHz. Dual channel RAM is faster than single channel RAM (e.g. two 8 GB RAM is faster than one 16 GB RAM). However, the human eyes cannot see the difference so even single channel RAM is fine.

We probably face stuttering because 8GB is not enough these days.
2666mhz and 3000mhz both almost have similar price but 3000mhz is easily available.
I'm thinking about ASrock b365 phantom gaming if not then Asus b365m tuf

 

[geofelt]

A balanced gamer will budget about 2x the cost of the processor for the graphics card.
You are spot on there.
I just read a comparison review of the 9400F and the ryzen 3600

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs. Intel Core i5-9400F: Mainstream Titans Clash

When we reviewed the new Ryzen 5 3600 we had plenty of positive things to say about it, and that was comparing it to the more expensive...

www.techspot.com

It includes gaming tests using 1080P at highest quality.
The graphics card used was a RTX2080ti to eliminate the graphics card as a restricting item.
All of the gaming tests showed the 9400F as capable of running 60fps using the 2080ti.
Of course your GTX1660ti is not as strong and you should not expect 60fps in fast action games.
Not because the 9400F is lacking but because fast action games need a fast graphics card.
If you want to hedge your bet on graphics, buy a EVGA card, they have a free 90 day upgrade option if you decide you need a stronger card.

Bottom line... I think your plan is appropriate.

Most any 300 series chipset motherboard will do.
As to ram, intel performance is not sensitive to ram speed; 2400 speed is fine.
You do want to buy a two stick ram kit to get dual channel operation.
I highly recommend a 2 x 8gb DDR4 ram kit. 8gb might be ok, but adding ram later is not guaranteed to work properly so it is much better to buy your 16gb ram up front.

 

[Anubis666]

A balanced gamer will budget about 2x the cost of the processor for the graphics card.
You are spot on there.
I just read a comparison review of the 9400F and the ryzen 3600

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs. Intel Core i5-9400F: Mainstream Titans Clash

When we reviewed the new Ryzen 5 3600 we had plenty of positive things to say about it, and that was comparing it to the more expensive...

www.techspot.com

It includes gaming tests using 1080P at highest quality.
The graphics card used was a RTX2080ti to eliminate the graphics card as a restricting item.
All of the gaming tests showed the 9400F as capable of running 60fps using the 2080ti.
Of course your GTX1660ti is not as strong and you should not expect 60fps in fast action games.
Not because the 9400F is lacking but because fast action games need a fast graphics card.
If you want to hedge your bet on graphics, buy a EVGA card, they have a free 90 day upgrade option if you decide you need a stronger card.

Bottom line... I think your plan is appropriate.

Most any 300 series chipset motherboard will do.
As to ram, intel performance is not sensitive to ram speed; 2400 speed is fine.
You do want to buy a two stick ram kit to get dual channel operation.
I highly recommend a 2 x 8gb DDR4 ram kit. 8gb might be ok, but adding ram later is not guaranteed to work properly so it is much better to buy your 16gb ram up front.

1660 ti is 2x the price of 9400f here. Rtx 2060 is still at high price else I would have gone for that just to get extra 5-10fps.

I'm okay with optimal settings as long as it's not down to medium or all high settings..

EVGA is not available in my country.

My only concern is the 9400f being dead after a year or 2 for upcoming games because benchmarks shows CPU usage as 80-100% with current latest games.

Also worried about performance with editing, uploading Game videos to YouTube. If 9400f can do the job even if it takes some extra time than ryzen then I have no problem picking Intel.
Ryzen 2600 lacks single threading ,losing approx 5-10fps compare to 9400f and ,3600 is on higher side for me.

My old i5 4440 with gtx 960 2gb had some serious multi tasking issues.. When I use to Alt tab while gaming DotA 2 with couple of tabs and video player then the screen used to get stuck.
I doubt it will also happen to 9400f ?

 

[geofelt]

The first thing multitasking requires is sufficient ram to hold the active part of all running tasks.
if 16gb is not enough, plan on more.

As to your upgrades, they are significant.
Your GTX960 has a passmark rating of 5822 and the GTX1660ti is 11490.
On the cpu side, your i5-4400 has 4 cores with a passmark rating of 6514 and a single thread rating of 1879.
The single thread rating is more important for gaming, the total rating is more important for multitasking.
The 9400F has 6 cores and a total rating of 12134 and a single thread rating of 2393.

If you do not already have a ssd for windows, I would put that high on my list for an upgrade.

 

[Anubis666]

The first thing multitasking requires is sufficient ram to hold the active part of all running tasks.
if 16gb is not enough, plan on more.

As to your upgrades, they are significant.
Your GTX960 has a passmark rating of 5822 and the GTX1660ti is 11490.
On the cpu side, your i5-4400 has 4 cores with a passmark rating of 6514 and a single thread rating of 1879.
The single thread rating is more important for gaming, the total rating is more important for multitasking.
The 9400F has 6 cores and a total rating of 12134 and a single thread rating of 2393.

If you do not already have a ssd for windows, I would put that high on my list for an upgrade.

Seems like it's the 2x performance for my old build..

16GB is more than enough for now. My old build has 8gb single stick 2400mhz ddr3.

Yes , I do have Samsung 860 Evo 500GB SSD. I bought it just for the new build.
So what are you thoughts regarding 9400f and 1660ti build.?
Is it worth for 2years gameplay and editing.?

 

[TerryLaze]

Can't we use NVENC with 1660 ti? Though streaming is not a priority now.

You can use nvenc with anything from an gt650 and upwards,so yes your 1660ti will do fine.

 

[geofelt]

Worth is something only YOU can determine.
It sounds like your proposed upgrade will be a significant one.
What happens two years out is unknowable.
You may find that some new game does not play as well as you like.
You may opt for a larger/higher resolution monitor.
or...
The time to upgrade is when the current pc no longer does the job for you.
You will have the option to upgrade graphics or processor to about another 2x performance
on the same motherboard/ram.

If budget is not an issue, change things out whenever new stuff comes out.
In two years time, what you see today will be replaced by better price/performance parts.

If budget is an issue, I think your plan is very reasonable.

 

[Anubis666]

Worth is something only YOU can determine.
It sounds like your proposed upgrade will be a significant one.
What happens two years out is unknowable.
You may find that some new game does not play as well as you like.
You may opt for a larger/higher resolution monitor.
or...
The time to upgrade is when the current pc no longer does the job for you.
You will have the option to upgrade graphics or processor to about another 2x performance
on the same motherboard/ram.

If budget is not an issue, change things out whenever new stuff comes out.
In two years time, what you see today will be replaced by better price/performance parts.

If budget is an issue, I think your plan is very reasonable.

As I plan on 4k build in late 2021 or early 2022,by then I probably get to see much better components. For time being in between and GTX 960 2gb isn't handling any new games unless I lower the graphics to mid or low ,which I don't want coz there is no point of playing game without experiencing the proper graphics.

So,for time being I want to upgrade without compromising on performance but within budget. so that it will run till I get solid 4k build once n for all.

As Nvidia and few videos on YouTube suggested 1660ti as solid 1080p gaming card, so I chose 1660ti as bare minimum.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

If you plan on upgrading in 2022, then I would say that your current plans are pretty decent. Since it looks like this is the most you can afford now, its pretty good and CPU/GPU are well balanced with each other. I orginally thought Nvenc only work on RTX cards for some reason, but thats obviously not correct, your 1660ti will work just fine. If you are planning on making youtube videos, the r5-2600 will be generally better (by how much depends on the software you use), but suffer in gaming performance on average(again depends specifically on the games you're playing). For pure gaming, the i5-9400f is still the better option. In the US at least, the r5-2600 is 140$ on Newegg while the i5-9400f is 150$.

Upgradeability I would say is a moot point (equal between Intel and AMD), since by 2022, I would imagine both AM4 and Z390/370 would be dead platforms, both replaced by newer generations.

Only suggestion is that if you place a heavier emphasis on video editing, then consider the r5-2600.

 

[Anubis666]

If you plan on upgrading in 2022, then I would say that your current plans are pretty decent. Since it looks like this is the most you can afford now, its pretty good and CPU/GPU are well balanced with each other. I orginally thought Nvenc only work on RTX cards for some reason, but thats obviously not correct, your 1660ti will work just fine. If you are planning on making youtube videos, the r5-2600 will be generally better (by how much depends on the software you use), but suffer in gaming performance on average(again depends specifically on the games you're playing). For pure gaming, the i5-9400f is still the better option. In the US at least, the r5-2600 is 140$ on Newegg while the i5-9400f is 150$.

Upgradeability I would say is a moot point (equal between Intel and AMD), since by 2022, I would imagine both AM4 and Z390/370 would be dead platforms, both replaced by newer generations.

Only suggestion is that if you place a heavier emphasis on video editing, then consider the r5-2600.

9400f is still competes with 3600 in gaming and 260p is behind it. And the price of 9400f is much cheaper like 35$ than 2600.

And the 1660 ti is good for present games but in a year it probably won't be as good as now just others said.
So that 5-10fps gain with 9400f should give me a good relief later, that is what my thought was and same reason I ditch ryzen 2600.
Games which gives more fps like 90 or 100 or more and difference between 9400f or 2600 or 3600 doesn't matter for me coz I run on 60hz monitor.
What matters is the games that are giving <70fps at present like SOTTR,ODYSSEY, WILDLANDS, Exodus,Anthem and some more.. that's where i5 9400f or 2600 matters. And the benchmarks shows 9400f is giving that 5fps gain over 2600..

I doubt the 9400f really that bad in editing videos?

 

[Anubis666]

A quick update.
I'm actually getting 1 year old 1070ti Aorus for the price of 1660ti..
Is it worth picking the used card for that price.?
Benchmarks shows it's performance is equal to RTX 2060.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

9400f is still competes with 3600 in gaming and 260p is behind it. And the price of 9400f is much cheaper like 35$ than 2600.

And the 1660 ti is good for present games but in a year it probably won't be as good as now just others said.
So that 5-10fps gain with 9400f should give me a good relief later, that is what my thought was and same reason I ditch ryzen 2600.
Games which gives more fps like 90 or 100 or more and difference between 9400f or 2600 or 3600 doesn't matter for me coz I run on 60hz monitor.
What matters is the games that are giving <70fps at present like SOTTR,ODYSSEY, WILDLANDS, Exodus,Anthem and some more.. that's where i5 9400f or 2600 matters. And the benchmarks shows 9400f is giving that 5fps gain over 2600..

I doubt the 9400f really that bad in editing videos?

Any real world difference between the 9400f and the 2600 will be smaller since you are running a 1660ti or something similar. Most benchmarks between the two use rtx-2080ti in order to get rid of bottlenecks. The 9400f is not really gonna be very bad at editing videos, but the 2600 is going to be a lot better at it than the 9400f.

I don't know if you are in the US or some other country, but in the US at least, the r5-2600 is 140$ on Newegg while the i5-9400f is 150$. I'm not sure if you're trying to saying that prices are different in your location or not...

 

[Anubis666]

Any real world difference between the 9400f and the 2600 will be smaller since you are running a 1660ti or something similar. Most benchmarks between the two use rtx-2080ti in order to get rid of bottlenecks. The 9400f is not really gonna be very bad at editing videos, but the 2600 is going to be a lot better at it than the 9400f.

I don't know if you are in the US or some other country, but in the US at least, the r5-2600 is 140$ on Newegg while the i5-9400f is 150$. I'm not sure if you're trying to saying that prices are different in your location or not...

Not from the US. Like I said i5 9400f is much cheaper than ryzen 2600.
I just converted to Dollars just to show the difference in pricing here.

Here is my query,
For 1080p without any compromise. Pick the combo. No bottlenecks whatsoever..

I5 9400f or ryzen 2600 with 1660ti
I5 9400f or ryzen 2600 with Vega 64( will stretch a bit)
Or 3600 with 1660 ti or Vega 64 ( if above 2 combo fails. RTX 2060 is still a high price GPU than Vega 64 here).

Also there is a used 1 year old 1070 ti Gigabyte Aorus for sale at the price which is similar to1660 ti price.
Good deal or not?