Need advice on upgrade outlook for 2020

[1Wolf]

My gaming machine is pretty long in the tooth now. 3770K based machine I built in 2012.

Gaming machine. Lean heavily towards simulation stuff. 80% is spent in DCS in VR with the Oculus. I used to do alot of FSX stuff (but not anymore). Probably 20% playing other titles.

I haven't built a machine in many years and am not as current as I used to be. Last I knew intel was sliding but still reigned for IPC gaming performance which is what I always needed...especially with DCS in VR. I'm hoping some of you guys with more recent experience might be able to offer some advice...

My question is with regard to timeframe and outlook in 2020. When would you look to build? Early in 2020? Wait for something or another until summer? Wait until the end of 2020? Is there some particular event or news from intel or AMD that I should be looking for?

Thanks!

 

[grifter_66]

I'm in the same boat and planned on building something new around mid year, give or take. (Waiting for the new 3 series RTX cards). My current system is still hanging on but I'm definitely getting the "new build itch" so I'm looking forward to reading some of these replies.

 

[King_Potato]

the 9900k and ryzen 7 3800x will have great single threaded performance for the older games, and have enough cores to remain future proof for the time being. Given the market recently i'd wager though a Ryzen build would be more future proof for upgrade-ability. It really depends on how much you want to spend. You could go lower or higher. With vr games, if i'm not mistaken, tend to be more gpu bound so (~75-90hz) you could get away with a ryzen 5 2600x-3600. I wouldn't go any lower than a 2600x. a 2600x you will see some gains in single threaded performance but not a huge amount. a 3600 will be a lot more noticeable. the ipc of ryzen 3000 series has really raised the bar and made amd competitive with intel.

 

[Mega6]

I think I'm going to wait until Ryzen 4k desktops drop (Zen3) at the end of the year. The Zen2s should be dirt cheap then and if Zen3 is that good, it's there to be had.