Consider your current system and needs before upgrading. Check compatibility, performance gains, and budget.
Consider your current system and needs before upgrading. Check compatibility, performance gains, and budget.
Hello everyone, next year I plan to upgrade to a 2070super or similar model. I'm looking for a CPU that can keep up with it in the future. Presently I'm using an Intel board (9400f) and want options for later upgrades. I only play games at 1440p and use this PC just for gaming. I prefer staying on the same motherboard that supports 8th and 9th generation Intel chips. Would switching to a Ryzen be a good idea? Should I consider an 8700, 8700K, 9600KF, 9700F or 9700KF? I'm open to spending more on a better cooler, currently I have a 120mm AIO. Or should I move to a 10th generation processor? My current setup is an Intel i5 9400f with Asrock B365M, Phantom Gaming, EVGA GTX 1070, Super SC EVGA 650G+, PSU 3000MHz, 8GB RAM, Coolermaster MasterLiquid, and a Thermaltake Commander C36.
Instead of relying solely on the 9400f, consider purchasing a CPU only when necessary to avoid unnecessary expenses.
If your only worried about gaming, no real point in Ryzen, at least not yet. As it sits right now, Intel is the FPS leader by a solid margin. Nothing huge, and not worth "not going Ryzen over" if you have other workloads that would benefit from the gains in cores Ryzen can provide, but for pure gaming, Intel is king. And with that, if you can get your hands on an 8700k for a good price (would also need a Z3xx motherboard so you can overclock.....), a 5 GHz 8700k is right up there with the best of em. The downside, you would need a new mobo, I would say just wait a bit. Right now, the 9400f is fine. Upgrading to any current AMD chip would net very little FPS gains, and upgrading to intel, while it would give you additional FPS, just isn't really worth it. I would see how Zen 3 does, and see how Intel reacts, or wait a bit and try and pick up some Z390/9700k parts for a steal in a few months once 10th gen is more common. But, yes, for gaming, currently, a "modern" (8700k or newer) at 5 GHz+ will get you the most FPS, Ryzen falls a solid % behind. Hopefully Zen 3 closes that gap!
Primarily due to concerns about the CPU limiting the GPU performance
It will bottleneck a bit. But... the term bottlenecking is thrown around a lot these days without a huge amount of correct definition of perspective... Every single CPU will bottle neck a GPU. This is a very extreme example, but it shoes the point well: an Intel 10900k @ 5.3 GHz is the fastest gaming CPU that exists right now, with that info, any other CPU "will bottle neck" when compared to this. All that means is, compared to a 10900k overclocked to 5.3 GHz all core, every single other CPU will perform a little worse. IF you had the cooling to do it, a 10900k@ 6 GHz would beat the 5.3, or really any modern Intel chip or Ryzen 3600 or better @ 6 GHz would also beat the 10900k. But.... that would take extreme cooling (liquid nitrogen) to actually do. Long story short, your 9400f will get less FPS than the 10900k will. My 5 GHz 9900k will get less FPS than a 5.3 GHz 10900k... A Ryzen 3600 will get possibly up to 15% less FPS than a 10900k at 5.3 GHz. But.... its all relative. If you have 1000 dollars, don't blow half of it on a 10900k which would result in a lower end GPU. It's all about balance. If you have a 9400f, I think the 2070 super actually makes a lot of sense. Will the 2070 live up to its full potential? No, probably not.... BUT, it will perform better than a 2060 would, and likely enough better where it makes the value of the GPU worth the upgrade over the 2060. You COULD get the 2060, and then sell your mobo and CPU and upgrade them to a used 9700k with a used z390 mobo, but depending on the game, those two systems would likely get similar FPS. This way, you have a 2070 super, and in ~6 months maybe you will be able to find a really good deal on someone dumping a 8700k or a 9700k and mobo to go with, THEN you can make that CPU upgrade which will make everything just a little more balanced and up your FPS again. Bit of an extreme example... but my point is just every CPU will bottleneck a GPU. Just have to determine what the sweet spot is and what makes most sense. Spending a bunch to go Ryzen doesn't make much sense, nor does buying new Intel stuff right now. Hope this makes sense
In practical terms, a 15% slowdown at 80 FPS means losing around 12 frames per second. With a powerful CPU upgrade, you might recover only half of those lost frames. How important is it to you? The improvement from the 2070S could far exceed what your current setup offers.