CPU upgrade ideas?

Is it actually worth making the jump from my Phenom 2 x4 3.4 BE over to the

?

I mean, I was reading online that you can overclock this thing without much trouble—get it up to 4.0 GHz easily, and apparently, some people even hit 4.5 or even 5.0 GHz, which sounds wild

This one was my original plan, but man, it’s a bit pricey. Maybe I could save a few bucks there...
But if that first option is solid, I might just pull the trigger on it. Both sets of reviews look pretty stellar, honestly.

Here is what else I'm running.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, 4GB of RAM, EVGA 500 W1, and an ASUS ROG Maximus

Given the motherboard you're running and the current price gaps, picking up an fx 6300 would be a solid best buy, especially since the fx 6350 is asking quite a bit more...

I'm running a Ryzen 5 3600 on an ASUS board paired with a Sapphire HD7770—honestly, I’ve been pretty happy with the setup
Everything holds up fine for me—from grinding through just about any game to handling various dev environments without a hitch...

David Sanders4 said:given your motherboard and how much you're saving, the Ryzen 5 3600 would be a total steal, especially since something like an FX 6350 costs way more...

so yeah, upgrading from what I've got right now actually makes sense.

if I could actually swing getting an 8350, do you think it'd run okay on my current board?

Jeremy Fowler4 said:I'm running a Ryzen 5 3600 on that ASUS board, paired with a Sapphire HD7770, and honestly, I'm pretty happy with it.
everything I throw at it works fine... everything from playing basically any game to grinding through different software suites...

thanks, did you overclock it?

Kenneth Jackson3 said:thanks, have you overclocked it yet?

not yet—I haven't really leaned into that side of things since my major is fine arts technology🙂... besides, I'm planning to drop an SSD in first and see if there's even a point to overclocking... maybe down the road, but I wouldn't touch it without an aftermarket cooler...

I suspect overclocking an HD 7770 isn't going to net me much of a gain, and honestly, I have a feeling I might actually end up losing performance instead...

David Sanders4 said:I mean, I don't think overclocking an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 is gonna do much, and honestly, it feels like you might actually lose performance...

lose what, exactly? 🤷

I was thinking about grabbing this Intel Core i7-4770K just so I could toss in a decent NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 later on and have a more solid gaming rig.
My biggest worry, though—and maybe I'm overthinking this—is that I'll end up regretting not going for a beefier CPU right out of the gate.

Do you think I could get anything for my old Intel Core 2 Quad, maybe like $167?

Looking at your current setup, I see you're running an Intel Core 2 Quad. Honestly, unless you decide to part ways with that chip, you might want to reconsider this move. If you were to sell it, you could potentially pick up something like an Intel Core i5-4460 or even an Intel Core i7-4770K. With an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 paired with those, you aren't going to see a massive performance leap regardless of which of those three processors you choose. My main concern was just the potential downside—the unnecessary power draw, the extra heat from higher clock speeds, and the small chance of hardware failure down the road.

David Sanders4 said:so now I see you're running an Intel Core 2 Quad. Honestly, unless you sell that thing, you might be better off looking at something like an Intel Core i5-4460 or maybe even an Intel Core i7-4770K. I mean, if you stick with that NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780, you probably won't notice a massive jump regardless of which of those three CPUs you pick... I was mostly thinking about the loss, you know? Like, just wasting power and dealing with extra heat because of higher clock speeds, and who knows, maybe it'll just burn out eventually...

and yeah, newer games pretty much eat CPUs for breakfast. Plus, I do music production, so having a solid processor is actually a huge deal for me. I've already got my sound card sorted, so in about a week I'm heading out to grab some more RAM and a new CPU. As for the graphics card... maybe after the New Year.

And why would you even swap out that CPU? Is it actually bottlenecking you in anything?

If you're really dead set on an upgrade, aim for a much bigger jump; your best bet would be an Intel Core i7-3770.
But if you're looking for a noticeable performance boost in gaming, you're picking the wrong part—that Intel Core 2 Quad is already pushing that NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 to its absolute limit.

When it comes to gaming, this would be a massive jump for Call of Duty—which I play, like, WAY too much, especially when the squad is online. And specifically for that game, since this processor is just straight-up too weak right now.
As for everything else, when I'm recording music, I use a ton of VST plugins, and the better the plugin, the more it absolutely eats up the CPU. Right now, I can maybe manage about 5 or 6 loaded tracks, but I need at least 10. That’s why I need a beefier processor and another 4 GB of RAM, which I'll probably pick up soon.

That’s exactly why I want to make that big leap with the Intel Core i7-4770K. But I was wondering how big of a jump it would actually be with an Intel Core i5-4460, because I know it only has 3 physical cores and I don't really know...

By the way, I've got my Intel Core 2 Quad pushed to 3.7 GHz and it's been fine, I guess. Only thing is it hits like 40-42°C, but whatever.

I’d definitely suggest going with the Intel Core i7-3770. It’s just a step up from $367. Honestly, I wouldn't even bother looking at the Intel Core i7-4770K because, at the end of the day, it’s basically the same processor just with a slightly higher clock speed

Ryan Hayes82 said:you should definitely grab the Intel Core i7-3770. it’s just a step up from the $367. honestly, don't even bother looking at the Intel Core i7-4770K because it's basically the same chip, just with a higher clock speed

hmm, okay, I see. so once I pick up a new GPU, I can just grab an aftermarket cooler for the CPU and maybe, I don't know, push it up to 4 GHz? right?

EDIT: yeah, definitely going with the 3770. I just did some digging online and it looks like a ton of people are overclocking it to 4 or even 4.2 GHz.

thanks!

In that case, you should definitely save up until you can grab an Intel Core i7-3770. Personally, I’d head over to Walmart for that one.

Take a look at the last two posts here:
http://forum.pcekspert.com/showthrea...=94651&page=60

Look, the guy basically disabled turbo, undervolted it to 1.3 V, and bumped it up to 4.0 GHz without any issues. Mind you, he didn't stress test it for very long—just 20 minutes of Prime95—so we still need to see how it holds up. But honestly, things like that usually come down to the silicon lottery. Just make sure you pick up a solid cooler.

Timothy Kim60 said:I guess he just disabled turbo, undervolted it to 1.3V, and bumped it up to 4.0 GHz without any issues.

Yeah, I've mentioned a few times now that Intel tends to be pretty conservative with stock voltage. Some people were actually able to undervolt an Intel Core i7-4770K down to 1.22 V at best... and they still ended up with practically a 100W TDP.

Look, I'm fully aware it’s standard practice for them to set the voltage slightly higher than necessary. What really blows my mind, though, is how they actually bumped it up significantly compared to stock settings—even alongside the undervolting (they'll likely push it past 4.0 GHz during testing)...

Maybe I could grab some kind of aftermarket cooler for maybe $67 if they even have any? Just nothing that's going to be super loud, I guess

Listen, any Walmart would have hyper 212 evo
in stock.

Alright, cool, let's roll with this too

I'm kind of torn here, honestly

I'm running a Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.4GHz
with an MSI R7770

Should I prioritize upgrading my GPU or the CPU first?

The processor is definitely the bottleneck, mostly when I'm playing Call of Duty, but then again, if I can grab something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?id=13349
then that would be the move...
but I don't want that old Phenom to absolutely choke out the performance. Of course, if I actually shell out the cash for something like that, I'd probably have to wait until summer—maybe even fall—to deal with the CPU.

Which Intel options would sit in the same ballpark as the one I linked above?