should i upgrade my cpu to match my 6800xt?

I have a red devil 6800xt in a system with an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz , 16 GB memory, and SSD HDs. Is it worth it to upgrade the CPU and motherboard for gaming at 1440p?

Because how money is worth and that it change depending of the amount those question are extremelly subjective.

Do you have performance issues in some games, if the answer is no, then it make waiting for better cpu at better price make sense.
you have performance issues, it is possible to look at your CPU usage during those if it is heavy and if when you look at 1440p 6800xt benchmark of said game you see a giant difference in the lowest 1% and your frame rate, it make it really interesting to upgrade.

The answer is almost certainly maybe it is, in some game even with RT at ultra at 1440p the difference between CPU is massive, like Cyberpunk.

Video like those can give some idea:


But your next CPU would be better than a 9700K and your GPU is a giant amount better than a RTX 2080, so the different would even be larger.

If by the question you mean, are you missing a significant amount of your 6800xt performance, the answer is almost certainly yes (outside playing easy to run cpu wise game)

If I was in your position I'd bump up my post count and wait for someone here to sell off their Zen3 or even Zen2 systems. Either way you're moving up.

i sort of have an extra 6800xt at the moment

my "main computer" is a 6900xt with a 5900x. I decided to put this in an older system that was running a 970. My impression without benchmarks is the games played on this system by the kids like war thunder arent any different but maybe im wrong. Initially i was hoping to just put in a new cpu but then i realized the motherboard isnt going to accept anything worth doing so now im trying to decide if i should do anything at all for a while.

dhodson66 said:

i sort of have an extra 6800xt at the moment

my "main computer" is a 6900xt with a 5900x. I decided to put this in an older system that was running a 970. My impression without benchmarks is the games played on this system by the kids like war thunder arent any different but maybe im wrong. Initially i was hoping to just put in a new cpu but then i realized the motherboard isnt going to accept anything worth doing so now im trying to decide if i should do anything at all for a while.

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have you tried configuring a frame counter and just testing yourself? You could swap the 6800xt from both systems and do your own comparison.

For game like war thunder, it could be over the monitor FPS limit with old cpus I could easily imagine.

That CPU is a laughable bottleneck in some games. Hell my overclocked 4770k was a pretty big bottle neck on just a GTX 1080 TI so I can't even imagine how bad it is on a 6800 XT. My overclocked 4770k could not even hold 50 FPS in parts of some games even many years ago. I literally doubled my minimum frame rates in some games by upgrading to the 9900k.

ill probably just wait for the new amd chips to release in a few weeks. hopefully the 5900x will go on sale. i need that, a motherboard, cooler, a psu, and another windows to complete parts i have already.

Frame pacing will be better, lows and averages will be wayyyy better. I would hold off till Rocket Lake comes and Ryzen 7. A lots of cheap parts/combo's will be had for Ryzen 5 and 12gen intel chips. The jump to next gen will be pretty substantial from the leaks but in gaming its un-clear how much better things will be.

If YOU notice it is holding you back then yes. Depends on what you play. Besides it is hard to recomend a 6 core or less these days for a gaming CPU if playing modern titles.

Upgrade it. I went from 4790k to 3600x to 5600x and there was a big difference in BF2042. So, yea I guess it depends on the games

Try to find used 5600X (many people will sell, wanting to upgrade to 7000 series), get new Motherboard, RAM can be used (recommending 3600Mhz CL14 - it's really worth it, if you set IF to 1:1:1.
You can sell old parts, but I would just hide them somewhere, with time buy some small GPU with 4GB VRAM, 400W PSU, and some cheapest case and made NAS from it, or give it to family. It may be worthless to sell, but usefull in future.

Vengance_01 said:

I would hold off till Raptor Lake comes and Ryzen 7.

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Fixed that for you.

+1 on buying some cheap Ryzen 5600X / motherboard.... HUGE jump in performance, you don't seem like you need the latest and greatest.

I want to upgrade from my RX 580 to RX 6600, for now I just can't afford changing the 6700k and mobo and PSU. I play mostly GOW, Death Stranding and GTA V on a 60Hz regular 1080p monitor, no need for more. Would the 6700k be too much of a bottleneck for me?

4 cores from an older 4th gen intel CPU is simply NOT enough for modern games. I guess it depends on what games you play but if you were playing older games then your 6800xt is probably overkill anyway. In modern CPU intensive games there would be a HUGE difference especially at lower resolution 1080p/1440p. Overall, I highly recommend upgrading your CPU / Motherboard / RAM. You could get into an AM4 system for fairly cheap. B550 motherboard, 5800x, & some DDR4 RAM.

Playing on skylake CPU may not be THAT bad, 6800XT is overkill for FHD. That said, there are more benefits from more cores in CPU, and in FHD, CPU may be the bottleneck (there is always bottleneck, no matter what you do, otherwise you would have unlimited number of frames per second) - but if you target is 50-60FPS you still may get it.

As of future investments, it's hard for advise now. You may get some cheap AM4 motherboard with 5600/5600X, and DDR4 3200/3600Mhz CL16/CL14, but new AMD platform is AM5, on AM4 all you could upgrade would be 5800X3D.
On Intel same story, if you would get 13Gen CPU, for future you will need upgrade motherboard.

So cost-wise I would stick to Skylake and collect founds for Ryzen 5600, B550 motherboard, and some RAM.

Honestly get as much GPU you can now. Then grab a new board and CPU later

Ok guys, so I'm getting the AMD 6600 XT and pairing it with the old i7 6700k by now. Even though it is a weak cpu for that video card, I'm sure it'll pump hard enough for 1080p/60Hz. I am personally fond of blue team for cpu's and red team for gpu's. Future says I'll be getting some 13th gen rig to push the new Radeon to its top performance.

Upgrade deals ARE out there, even for the cash constrained.

I recently purchased a combo off of the [H] For Sale forum for $180 that had an Asrock Taichi x370, 2x8G matching sticks of DDR4-2666, and a Ryzen 7 1700 with Wraith Spire cooler (Thanks, Chance_P). This was replacing a Lenovo Core i5 3xxx something-or-other ThinkCentre desktop for my cousin's wife that would not take an upgraded video card (her nVidia 660 was not working for the new game she wanted to play, and that particular Lenovo had known issues with newer video cards not even POSTing - I tried like hell to get my spare Radeon RX570 going in that machine, but no dice). The combo is rock solid, and after 3 different BIOS flashes to get it to current, she is drop-in-replacement ready for a better CPU whenever she wants it. Is it the fastest stuff? No, but she did get her entire core system replaced for $180 (still borrowing my spare RX 570 which works great with her game - both of her monitors are 1080p, so performance is definitely not an issue).

To be complete - she had an empty ATX tower case sitting around in the attic, and she had already replaced the power supply in the Lenovo with a Corsair 750W due to prior PSU failure a couple of years back. We migrated over the power supply, the hard drive and the SATA SSD (for OS) from the Lenovo into the new case and did a fresh Windows Install on the SSD. On top of all of that she insisted on doing the build herself while I supervised. I accepted payment for my labor in Waffle House . She didn't have a bunch of money to spend on this, but I did not see any better deal bang-for-buck wise and she has SO MUCH room to upgrade later on the cheap when/if she wants to.