Is it Ryzen 9 5900X upgrade time?

[GreenSmoke]

Would a Ryzen 9 5900X be a waste of $525 or a worthy upgrade to my sig? Will my RAM hold the line with the processor or hold it back? Do I have a different bottleneck I should be considering?

I don't plan over overclocking. I play old man games like Cities Skylines and Age of Empires. New stuff is cool, my current PC is meeting my needs, but I don't want to buy something that would server absolutely no purpose. If it makes my computer reboot faster or my games perform a little better, that would be nice. If I probably won't notice any difference, it's not for me.

Any advice or comments are welcome, thanks in advance.

 

[EarthDog]

1. Worth it is up to you. There are plenty of benchmarks around to show you the difference between the processors (we reviewed it on the front page, for example). That said, 5000 series is a nice jump from 3000. Do you need more cores/threads?

2. Your RAM would be fine.

3. For gaming, your bottleneck is that GPU. I don't imagine a 2060 pushing 144 FPS on Ultra across most titles.


In the end, from what you've said, I'm not sure it's worthwhile. You game at a higher res so you won't get a significant bump in most games (but a bump nonetheless).

 

[GreenSmoke]

I guess I should also mention, I am very noise sensitive. Fan noise drive me crazy, so one reason I have the graphics card I have and the build I have in general was a lot of homework about the noise levels. I usually adjust the graphics based on the noise vs. the actual visuals in games. If the fans start to spin up, the graphics go down.

That being said, I am open to other suggestions around the $525 mark that would improve my overall experience if the processor isn't my best option.

I'll look into some video card options but if you know any good quiet options off the cuff that you think would be a better use of the money, I would appreciate the hand up

 

[Janus67]

I think at this point the question is: are you happy with the performance that you have in what you do? If you aren't using applications that would benefit from more than 6c/12t CPU or playing games that will run at ultra high settings and benefit from above 60-fps [first person shooters, some driving games, etc] then it probably isn't that useful for you to upgrade the CPU or GPU.

Going beyond the card that you have, with the existing market, would likely put you above your budget at this point. For example, an RTX 3070 would be a bump from what you own, but last I checked those are $700-800+ and that's IF you can find them in-stock.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I'd look at 5800X instead. It's fast and it's hot. Under 400 bucks too.
The exiledairman was over by our place and was saying the 5800 (non x oem) was very inexpensive. Said 262$, but I don't know from where.

Good Luck!

 

[trents]

CPU prices have risen some do to supply chain problems but they are not crazy high. I can't say the same for GPU prices which have not only risen because of supply chain issues but because of the crypto mining craze. IMO, upgrading the GPU would not be as cost effective as upgrading the CPU. But really, it doesn't seem to me you will benefit much from any upgrading based on your usage. I think you probably just have the upgrade "itch". If anything, I would look at upgrading your 860 EVO SSD to a PCI-e NVME 4x4. That's pretty cost effective and will give you noticeably faster boot and game load times.

 

[Nebulous]

Right now the 5800X is pretty cheap @ $386.99 at newegg . << Linky

For the price, it'll be a nice upgrade over the 3600 you have. The 5800X is unlocked and with a few tweaks will net you a core or 2 @ 5.0Ghz. Be advised it does run alittle hot so unsure if your current cooler will suffice.

 

[DaveB]

Right now the 5800X is pretty cheap @ $386.99 at newegg . << Linky

For the price, it'll be a nice upgrade over the 3600 you have. The 5800X is unlocked and with a few tweaks will net you a core or 2 @ 5.0Ghz. Be advised it does run alittle hot so unsure if your current cooler will suffice.

The 5800X is $329.99 at Microcenter plus $20 off a motherboard combo. Because of the heat produced, it might be a bit noisy though.

 

[GreenSmoke]

CPU prices have risen some do to supply chain problems but they are not crazy high. I can't say the same for GPU prices which have not only risen because of supply chain issues but because of the crypto mining craze. IMO, upgrading the GPU would not be as cost effective as upgrading the CPU. But really, it doesn't seem to me you will benefit much from any upgrading based on your usage. I think you probably just have the upgrade "itch". If anything, I would look at upgrading your 860 EVO SSD to a PCI-e NVME 4x4. That's pretty cost effective and will give you noticeably faster boot and game load times.

I wont say you hit the nail on the head, but you certainly didn't miss by much. Its more of a "you are a terrible person to buy presents for" and my birthday and Christmas line up well for a combo gift.

That may be a better idea though. I will look into the PCI-e NVME 4x4

 

[stompah]

Cities Skylines and Age of Empires??? Very CPU/GPU intensive games. If you aren't running Threadripper and dual 3090s are you even a gamer?

/sarcasm

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Seriously, I would bank that $500 and save more for a DDR5 system. Currently you can get a 12700k for about $450, $350 motherboard and 32GB of RAM for $300. $1,100 today gets you a nice upgrade with a great outlook towards the future. To me that is the best way to go for you, today. $500 into a DDR4 system in my opinion is not netting enough performance or providing any additional upgrade path for it to make sense.

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What I would do instead is buy a 240/280/360mm AIO (pick the largest that can fit in your case.) An oversized AIO is likely to lower your temps/fan speed enough that you can run your 3600 at full boost speed or beyond without bothering your ears.

AMD releases its AM5 platform next year and is reported to be backwards compatible with AM4 coolers. So when AMD releases it's next gen CPUs they will likely be cheaper than Intel's offering, MBs will be cheaper and hopefully DDR5 will have come down in price and have been tweaked a bit to allow for better performance.


By doing this you will be better positioned to have a strong upgrade path for the next 5ish years. AMD likes to keep their socket design for a while and hopefully they continue so.

 

[Janus67]

Their noctua cooler is pretty much considered the quietest and best performing on the market in that regard. I don't think they'd be able to improve much with an AIO.

If they did go the GPU route my 3080 ftw3 is whisper quiet even when mining. I have a 3080 ftw3 hybrid that is also quite quiet.

 

[GreenSmoke]

Janus and trents, you have steered me right in the past.

I ran with trents' suggestion and snagged an XPG 2TB GAMMIX S70 Blade M.2 4x4. I already installed it (but boy will I act overjoyed when I open the empty box for birthday/christmas) and the benchmarks look impressive compared to what was in there previously.

I might consider a GPU if the market sorts itself out. I also looked up the 3080 ftw3 but it looks to be mined out, so to speak. Maybe once the supply chain sorts itself out. I would be interested around the $900 mark, given the Janus whisper of approval. I am not sure I would pull the trigger but I have a lot of time to think about it.

Thanks for all the help and advice. I still probably need to come up with some other ideas.

 

[trents]

Did you notice any difference after installing the XPG 2TB GAMMIX S70 Blade M.2 4x4?

 

[GreenSmoke]

Without metrics its mostly speculation but I think Rocksmith loaded faster.

It might reboot a little faster, but I don't reboot often, so hard to tell. I didn't notice any difference playing Smite.

The other stuff I haven't played for a while so I doubt I could tell much difference. It is 2TB instead of 1TB, so there is that benefit also.

 

[EarthDog]

Yeah, it's mostly negligble, storage upgrades. Unless you're going from platter to M.2, there isn't much of a difference you 'feel' (on paper/benchmarks though...). For sure next upgrade should be a GPU so you can 144 ultra on that monitor.......quietly.