Comparing performance between AM4 and AM5 chips for your current game at 4K resolution.
Comparing performance between AM4 and AM5 chips for your current game at 4K resolution.
If you aim to invest close to $700 for a small boost, it might be wise. Based on my experience testing various CCD setups with a RTX 4090 at 4K 240Hz, it doesn’t justify the cost. For top-tier performance, you could upgrade, but there’s little reason to justify it under these conditions. One key reason for the change was enabling a 5800x3D upgrade path for my brother’s R5 3600. I also moved from a 3950x to a 5800x3D and overlooked the additional cores, making the 7950x3D a better fit.
I’ll bypass the usual checks and focus on the bigger picture—especially the upcoming 8800x3D or even 9800x3D. I’m keeping an eye on the 14700k and whatever comes next for Intel’s 14th gen. I want to highlight a common misunderstanding: CPUs still play a big role in 4K gaming. Many titles demand CPU-intensive tasks even at high resolutions, something I verified in Warframe, which can hit 1200 fps at ultra 1080p. On the AMD side, 3D v-cache is key, while Intel’s CPU cache size keeps improving across generations—10th, 12th, and 13th bring noticeable gains for games with heavy server-side processing. We’ll likely see more optimization in the coming years, so I’ll monitor Intel’s 14th gen closely. Summary from testing with a 4790k and 7950x3D. There was one case where frame rates matched, but it depended heavily on resolution and single-player draw calls. That shifted when I switched to 1080p.
This, plus one. AM5 isn't mature yet. Stability, performance, and component lifetimes are going to be worse than a 5000 series on AM4. AM4 is mature, and while it's not bulletproof, it's less likely, with a good board, to have problems. AM5 might scale similar to AM4, in which case you should wait for the next series of chips. This all includes chipset, I would wait at least for the second iteration. On AM4, the 3000 and 5000 chips and B450/B550 and X470/X570 were the best performers, with reasonable prices.