3770K -> 7700K a bust?

blitzgp1

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I've been reading some threads about upgrading to a 7700 from a 3770 and they didn't seem very enthusiastic. I had an issue with my CPU heatsink and thought "hey, this thing is 5 years old, time to upgrade!" I have a new system build in my shopping cart, but I am having second thoughts now. I use it primarily for gaming.

Current system:
-3770K (stock speed currently but I honestly don't notice a difference from the 4.4ghz)**
-ASUS Maximus V Formula
-16GB RAM
-GTX 980TI
-1440 monitor @ 144hz
-All SSD storage

I guess I am a little confused how upgrading from ddr3 to ddr4, 5 years of research, and an extra 14 watts projects "meh"

**Actually it has been at 4.2 Ghz for a long time. I forgot that AI suite 2 didn't work in win10 and I changed it in the bios
 
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Depends largely on what you do with your system. It's clearly faster in most cases at most tasks. But if you're gaming, and limited by the GPU, then you're not going to see any difference really. It's not going to double your FPS, it's going to maybe give you a 5-10% boost.

Now in anything OTHER than gaming, it's likely to be a big improvement. Encoding video, rendering, etc will all be much faster. It's also going to run cooler and eat less power in general.
 
For gaming it should help out better on your Min FPS and since you are using 144hz it should also help out on the highs. I agree that it wont be as large as switching video cards but your card is still really good. I would look more at min frame tests for the specific games you are playing to see if it matters.
 
I was in same boat and decided to wait for 7820X or 7900X to make it a more meaningful upgrade. Only a few more weeks of waiting.
 
I did it, it is 'snappier' but the difference isn't huge. I probably got a bigger difference in day to day use from a new ssd as my old one had dropped to 200mb/sec after 4.5 years

Even with that, my old drive is like new after doing a surface refresh with hd sentinel (there's less aggressive ways but I'm one for the lazy).

Positives. My frame rates are more consistent, I do play DCS which is one of the very few games that gets a boost. If you haven't got an adaptive sync monitor though, do that first. Modern monitors are far better and will give you a more perceptible improvement.

So in priority for you (and seriously your PC is exactly what I had 6 weeks ago) I'd go g-sync > graphics card > cpu and then if don't use vr, play DCS or Arma then just put the money in savings and wait.
 
well I did an upgrade from 3770K to 6700K and it was a very noticeable upgrade. my 3770K was at 4.5ghz and it was and at stock clocks the 6700K was faster, games were way smoother with a considerable jump in minimums which as a 120hz user is to be grateful, once overclocked to 4.8ghz the difference just increased even more.

However something draw my attention and is the fact that you are running your 3770K at stock and said you don't notice any difference at 4.4ghz, may I ask in what kind of task? because if its at desktop usage, web browsing, office work, etc of course you don't going to notice any major difference specially with SSD, however in gaming is HUGE, from stock 3.5ghz to 4.5ghz it's a whole 1ghz overclock and it was a night/day difference to me while gaming, not only with my actual 980TI but that machine passed from 660Ti, to 780, to 780Ti, to 980 and 980Ti and then AMD 280x and 390X, with every of those cards the overclock was really needed in most games to enjoy as high as possible FPS, so in your case factoring 30% speed bump and about 25% IPC jump, it's gona be a hell of upgrade from your actual platform.
 
Really depends on the game. Not going to be hugh jump 2011 sandybridge was the last huge jump in generations. Really only improvements have been in power consumption. So your utility bill will lower by .75$
 
IMO Hold off. If new games are feeling a bit slow get a cheap 1080GTX and sell the 980ti
 
I'm on 4770k and planning to hold out until the new HEDTs are out too (either i9 or the new Ryzens).
 
Save ya sheckels and get Ryzen or Threadripper.
 
The quickest road to disappointment is upgrading a CPU that doesn't actually hold you back. Upgrading a CPU simply because of it's age is stupid. When you have a reason to upgrade, then upgrade.
 
For gaming alone, definitely no reason to upgrade unless you need extra CPU power for something else. Gaming just doesn't stress the CPU nearly as much as the video card. I just moved from a 980Ti to a 1080Ti and everything runs really well again on the games side of things.

What I suggest is since it seems as if you are kind of ready to build a new system, buy the video card first (assuming you are buying a new one like a 1080Ti). Plug it into your machine. If that doesn't improve things for you then you can always go follow through and build the rest of the rig. But really that will most likely be enough for a primarily gaming only use.
 
There aren't big enough gains going from an overclocked 3770K to a 7700K, IMO. There's a benchmark video that shows that at 1440p resolution, a 4.5 Ghz 2600K performs, on average, only 6% worse than a 6700K at 4.4 Ghz. So, the difference between a 3770K at 4.4 Ghz and a stock 7700K in 1440p gaming might be something like 8%, on average.

Also the 7700K has some heat problems, and isn't a good overclocker, when performance gains are looked at.

Additionally, AMD and Intel are both ramping up CPU standards, and I think that 4 cores / 8 threads is about to become obsolete as a new purchase. AMD is already doing 8 cores / 16 threads for consumer CPUs, and I think that Intel is also going to have more cores in its future consumer CPUs. I wouldn't buy a new CPU with only 4 cores, at this point. I personally wouldn't buy a new CPU at this point anyway, because I think we're at the end of one long-running CPU phase, and are entering into a new one.

From the perspective of 3770K -> 7700K, I wouldn't upgrade right now. And from the perspective of where the CPU market is, and is about to go, I again wouldn't upgrade right now.
 
The quickest road to disappointment is upgrading a CPU that doesn't actually hold you back. Upgrading a CPU simply because of it's age is stupid. When you have a reason to upgrade, then upgrade.

My 3770K at even 4.8 bottlenecks like a mofo in some games. Seems those same games can utilize more cores so hopefully a new i9 will help, plus I'm looking forward to all the new features as well!
 
My suggestion (which echoes many above): Upgrade your GPU. Put the MoBo+CPU+DDR4 money into a killer GPU, like a factory OC'd 1080Ti, if you plan to stick with nVidia. 1440p @ 144Hz with upper ranges of eye candy can be taxing on a 900 series with newer games; I feel it at 1080p @ 144Hz...
 
My advice is to add another 980ti and call it a day

I wouldn't. mGPU support and performance returns on investment has been faltering for quite some time now. Moving to a single faster GPU would be a much wiser choice. ...and this is coming from me, someone that has used mGPU numerous times in the past:

Voodoo2
6600GT
7800GT
8800GT
GTX 275
GTX 780

...there were some sGPU configs in between some of those (GTX 570 after the 275, for example).

Don't get me wrong: in games that would scale well, mGPU was nice. But the added power draw and tremendous heat output is something to seriously keep in mind when determining which route is the best for the end goal.
 
My suggestion (which echoes many above): Upgrade your GPU. Put the MoBo+CPU+DDR4 money into a killer GPU, like a factory OC'd 1080Ti, if you plan to stick with nVidia. 1440p @ 144Hz with upper ranges of eye candy can be taxing on a 900 series with newer games; I feel it at 1080p @ 144Hz...

At least until Vega (and let's be honest, even probably after), if you want something faster than a 980Ti it ~has~ to be an nVidia.
 
well I did an upgrade from 3770K to 6700K and it was a very noticeable upgrade. my 3770K was at 4.5ghz and it was and at stock clocks the 6700K was faster, games were way smoother with a considerable jump in minimums which as a 120hz user is to be grateful, once overclocked to 4.8ghz the difference just increased even more.

However something draw my attention and is the fact that you are running your 3770K at stock and said you don't notice any difference at 4.4ghz, may I ask in what kind of task? because if its at desktop usage, web browsing, office work, etc of course you don't going to notice any major difference specially with SSD, however in gaming is HUGE, from stock 3.5ghz to 4.5ghz it's a whole 1ghz overclock and it was a night/day difference to me while gaming, not only with my actual 980TI but that machine passed from 660Ti, to 780, to 780Ti, to 980 and 980Ti and then AMD 280x and 390X, with every of those cards the overclock was really needed in most games to enjoy as high as possible FPS, so in your case factoring 30% speed bump and about 25% IPC jump, it's gona be a hell of upgrade from your actual platform.

Pretty much agree with everything you say in this post and I'm in the exact same boat as you except I still have the 3770K. The fact that OP didn't notice is sort of mind boggling. The OC'd 3770K is/was amazing value for the money.
 
Shit I was hoping to justify an upgrade after 3 years with my current setup. I'm feining for that new pc parts smell dammit. I don't wanna wait! Wahhhh!!
 
Im on a 3570k with a GTX 1080, I'm in the same boat. I was waiting on ryzen, kept hoping for patches or bios upgrades that would convince me the platform would improve. Since it's become obvious that there's not going to be much more performance squeezed out of the AMD chips I'm waiting on x299. Be patient, I agree there isnt much sense buying a 4 core cpu for a gaming desktop you expect to last for the next 4 or 5 years. Kaby lake is just a filler product, better stuff is just a few months away.
 
ARMA 3 and PUBG would beg to differ.
I should have changed that statement with a "Most of gaming just doesn't stress the CPU nearly as much as the video card." ;)

I still stand by the idea though. If your on a 3770K you aren't going to see nearly as much of a performance boost upgrading your CPU vs upgrading a 980Ti to a 1080Ti with most games. I know I just did the exact upgrade and I recommend it if you are waiting around for the AMD Threadripper / Intel Skylake-X chips to come out like I am. :)
 
I'm wondering of the X299 will be another half-assed filler with a huge pricetag aiming at the professional and not the enthusiast. I'm sure the new cpu's for Z270 boards will be a nice change tho unless the 7700k is the last of it's breed before another socket change along with DDR5.
 
I'm wondering of the X299 will be another half-assed filler with a huge pricetag aiming at the professional and not the enthusiast. I'm sure the new cpu's for Z270 boards will be a nice change tho unless the 7700k is the last of it's breed before another socket change along with DDR5.

I kind of doubt it. 7700k was a half assed filler that isn't really better than my 5 year old 3770k. But the X299 is offering notably higher core count with solid frequencies, plus all the other goodies that come with a HEDT platform. Granted most people won't need all that, but if you are an enthusiast and power user it is a lot of be excited about.
 
Indeed! I am excited, more so as I had to change underwear several times. Last time I upgraded, it was from an X58 platform to Z77 and then to my current setup. The performance difference didn't wow me, but was nice. I want an upgrade that will knock my sox off so to speak.
 
I actually can give you some decent info on that because I had a similar rig to OP, except I went 3570K @ 4.5 GHz to 6600K @ 4.6 GHz. The only time there was a difference was in CPU heavy games and even then it only mattered when running at 4K. I have a 980 Ti and when running for example GTA V (CPU heavy game) in 4K, I would sometimes drop under 30 fps. With the 6600K I get a pretty solid 30 fps instead. At the 1440p resolution I usually play at it was already running perfectly fine on the 3570K.
 
I would not at this point upgrade from a 4 core to another 4 core it makes no sense.If you do an upgrade go for a 5820k or something its more future proof as more and more games are starting to take advantage of more then 4 cores.Or wait till august when intels new 6 cores come out.I went from a 3570k to a 3930k and probably wont need to upgrade for a few years yet simply because having the extra 2 cores made a huge improvement to games running smoother.I didnt gain much in raw fps but games like tombraider my 3570k could not run smooth in certain areas as soon as i tried it with the 3930k it cut right through it no problem.
 
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