F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop Decide whether to upgrade your CPU or not.

Decide whether to upgrade your CPU or not.

Decide whether to upgrade your CPU or not.

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GamerDania
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12-19-2019, 08:52 PM
#1
Hey there, so here’s the situation. I first built my PC in 2014 and haven’t touched it much since. My understanding of components released after 2015 is pretty limited. Until now, everything ran smoothly, but now I’m diving into design work and using tools like Premiere Pro, SolidWorks, Keyshot, and Adobe CC. They’re running smoothly until rendering 1080P clips in Premiere Pro or YouTube on Chrome gets sluggish. Research says 8GB RAM isn’t enough, so I’m thinking about upgrading to 32GB. I’m also considering a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and DDR4 RAM for future-proofing. Recent discussions suggest my current i7-4790K is still solid, but adding 32GB DDR3 RAM would cost around $300 in Australia, while the full upgrade—CPU, board, and 32GB DDR4—would be about $650. Is that a smart move, or should I just stick with DDR3 and save $300? My current setup includes an i7-4790K at 4.0GHz, an 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3, GTX970 GPU, M.2 SSD, 256GB SSD, and a 1TB WD Blue HDD running Windows 10.
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GamerDania
12-19-2019, 08:52 PM #1

Hey there, so here’s the situation. I first built my PC in 2014 and haven’t touched it much since. My understanding of components released after 2015 is pretty limited. Until now, everything ran smoothly, but now I’m diving into design work and using tools like Premiere Pro, SolidWorks, Keyshot, and Adobe CC. They’re running smoothly until rendering 1080P clips in Premiere Pro or YouTube on Chrome gets sluggish. Research says 8GB RAM isn’t enough, so I’m thinking about upgrading to 32GB. I’m also considering a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and DDR4 RAM for future-proofing. Recent discussions suggest my current i7-4790K is still solid, but adding 32GB DDR3 RAM would cost around $300 in Australia, while the full upgrade—CPU, board, and 32GB DDR4—would be about $650. Is that a smart move, or should I just stick with DDR3 and save $300? My current setup includes an i7-4790K at 4.0GHz, an 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3, GTX970 GPU, M.2 SSD, 256GB SSD, and a 1TB WD Blue HDD running Windows 10.

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RobsonMeH
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12-20-2019, 04:29 PM
#2
Check out the 32 gig options. Prices for DDR3 are now lower and won’t be that expensive—probably under $300, even in AU dollars. If you’re happy with what you have, hold off on the Zen 3 upgrade.
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RobsonMeH
12-20-2019, 04:29 PM #2

Check out the 32 gig options. Prices for DDR3 are now lower and won’t be that expensive—probably under $300, even in AU dollars. If you’re happy with what you have, hold off on the Zen 3 upgrade.

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SashaUHC
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12-26-2019, 04:51 AM
#3
I think the problem might be with the RAM because the GPU seems to handle it well. The CPU could also be affected due to limited cores and L3 cache.
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SashaUHC
12-26-2019, 04:51 AM #3

I think the problem might be with the RAM because the GPU seems to handle it well. The CPU could also be affected due to limited cores and L3 cache.

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XQsess
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12-27-2019, 02:35 PM
#4
IMO that depends on how critical this is for your education and how you expect for the investment to pay for itself. If you know that it will I'd get onboard with the latest platform. If you feel there's a 50/50 chance this career path is going to go up in smoke then I'd probably check if RAM and/or your CPU are the bottleneck and look from there to find inexpensive second hand parts. Old server platforms can sometimes be goldmines for cheap high performance workstations.
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XQsess
12-27-2019, 02:35 PM #4

IMO that depends on how critical this is for your education and how you expect for the investment to pay for itself. If you know that it will I'd get onboard with the latest platform. If you feel there's a 50/50 chance this career path is going to go up in smoke then I'd probably check if RAM and/or your CPU are the bottleneck and look from there to find inexpensive second hand parts. Old server platforms can sometimes be goldmines for cheap high performance workstations.

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