Transitioning to 3770K
Transitioning to 3770K
Hey! With Black Friday near, I'm thinking about a computer upgrade. It's been several years since I last built this thing, and I haven't kept up with the latest hardware trends. According to what I've read, Ryzen 3600/3700X offers solid value for the money, so I'm curious if it's worth it compared to Intel options like the 9600k or 9700k. I don't stream much and don't plan on doing so anytime soon. Right now I have two 1080p monitors at 60Hz, but I'd like to move up to 1440p or even 4K in the future (though not necessarily higher refresh rates). The games I enjoy include DCS: World Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Arma 3, Star Citizen, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, and some casual titles. As you see, my gaming is mostly light, but lately my system starts to lag even at 60fps with certain titles. I need advice on the best upgrade path right now—maybe a GPU refresh, or a CPU, RAM, and motherboard overhaul? My current parts are: an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU, a Cooler Master cooler, MSI Z77A-G45 motherboard, Crucial DDR3 memory, a 128GB SSD, a GTX 1070 Ti graphics card, and a Corsair case. Everything is free to buy. Prices listed are just for reference. Generated by PCPartPicker on Nov 12, 2019
It looks like a solid setup overall. Your GPU is still strong enough, so you probably won’t need an upgrade unless you plan to run 4K ultra games frequently. Consider boosting your RAM to DDR4 and possibly updating the motherboard as well.
What games? A 3770k should still allow you to reach 60fps no problem even in modern games so maybe there's some other problem here. Have you checked your cpu/gpu usage when you get drops? What about the thermals? You could try overclocking the cpu a little to see if that closes the gap.
Kingdom Come has been my main focus lately, and I usually drop to the low 30s when entering a city. It runs smoothly at about 50-60fps, with a CPU speed of around 4.2Ghz. I used to run it at 4.4Ghz but experienced BSODs, so I lowered it. I don’t recall my CPU temperatures, but it shouldn’t be throttling.
It doesn't seem to be a CPU issue at all. Benchmarks suggest KC is quite demanding on any GPU when running at ultra settings. TechPowerUp mentions that a 4-core/8-thread CPU is more than sufficient for 1080p60fps. Even though the average performance exceeds 60, you might still experience occasional drops. Also, keep in mind that as resolution increases (like aiming for 4K), your CPU's role becomes less significant and your game will rely more on the GPU.
Consider postponing and upgrade once NVIDIA launches its 3XXX GPU line.
CPU alone isn't a good choice here because it only has 6 cores and no high-end features. I tend to prioritize the 3700x over the 9700k, even though the latter often gives better performance. Sacrificing hardware quality for higher FPS isn't really a smart move.