Consider upgrading to either 3600 or 10400f based on your needs.
Consider upgrading to either 3600 or 10400f based on your needs.
I found a 3600 for $210 aud ($150 usd) and an mobo for $100 aud ($75 usd) should I buy? total $310 aud (220 Usd) or should I buy a i5 10400f with cheap b560 for $350 aud ($250 usd) I also saw a 7700k for $142 ($110 usd) which wouldn't require a mobo swap I'm running a i5 6500 and gtx 1060, the 6500 is 4c/4t cpu and the age is showing pretty badly with modern games but the 1060 still holds up well for me aleast
It doesn't really require a mobo swap, though compatibility isn't confirmed. The pencil lead trick carries full risk. Also, the 7700k from the 6600k offers minimal gain and may not justify the work. The only 1151 CPU that makes sense is possibly an 8700k, but even then the 10400 is essentially similar. With the 1060, are you certain the 6600k is indicating its age? I don't believe that's the problem. The 6600k usually works well with the 1060 regarding bottlenecks, and not too long ago people ran it with even more powerful GPUs. I suspect the 1060 isn't powerful enough to handle brand new AAAs at maximum settings across all platforms. Lower some of your settings and you should maintain a stable frame rate—no noticeable change.
It's a 6500, but it runs a bit slower than the 6600. The 6500 reaches 3.6 while the 6600 hits 3.9. Both are 4C/4T models that take advantage of extra cores and threads now.
Run a resource monitor during gameplay. Threads 0 and 1 are consuming heavily, while 2 and 3 remain under load, with extra work piling up on idle resources. CPU usage stays acceptable as long as it doesn’t hit 99% while the GPU stays at 60%. Yes, games can spread across multiple cores, but this usually doesn’t noticeably affect final frame rates, particularly with a 1060. The real difference in frames between a 6500 and 6600 is minimal; clock speed variations rarely matter in GPU-heavy titles. A higher thread count only matters significantly on a more powerful GPU, since the impact of extra tasks depends heavily on CPU core availability and small speed changes. A 6600k paired with a 1080ti will clearly beat a 5800x with a 1060 any time. A lot.
I chose the 3600 for its quick performance on productivity work, comparable gaming stats, and a better platform with PCIe Gen 4, overclocking options, and future upgradability to a 5000 series Ryzen 7 or 9 that would easily surpass even the 10900K.