UPGRADE 5930K to 5960X or Xeon make a difference for gaming

dpoverlord

[H]ard|Gawd
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Would love to know if this change would push gaming where it needs to be. I have a feeling is see 0 difference.

Now is the time to trade that 5930K in on Ebay for a 5960X. Its what i did 6 months ago. Cheap upgrade.
For games I feel I won't see any improvement over my 5930k. What type of improvement are you seeing? My 3090 runs Cod black ops 4k at 110 fps. With RTS it drops to 80. If a 5960x would push it to 120 gsync on my 4k 55 LG CX I'd see that being worth it. My gut says it won't make a difference though 🤷‍♂️ thoughts?
 
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Would love to know if this change would push gaming where it needs to be. I have a feeling is see 0 difference.


I've thought about it but aren't they $300-700? For games I feel I won't see any improvement over my 5930k. What type of improvement are you seeing? My 3090 runs Cod black ops 4k at 110 fps. With RTS it drops to 80. If a 5960x would push it to 120 gsync on my 4k 55 LG CX I'd see that being worth it. My gut says it won't make a difference though 🤷‍♂️ thoughts?

The 5960X has 2 more cores, 4 more threads and 5MB more cache, but games rarely use more cores than you have currently. We are starting to see games that benefit from going beyond 6 cores, but they are rare. Cyberpunk 2077 being one of the few that do. Frostbite games can as well, but your primarily GPU limited at 4K. The cache would be nice, but it's not going to make a massive difference in your frame rates.
 
The 5960X has 2 more cores, 4 more threads and 5MB more cache, but games rarely use more cores than you have currently. We are starting to see games that benefit from going beyond 6 cores, but they are rare. Cyberpunk 2077 being one of the few that do. Frostbite games can as well, but your primarily GPU limited at 4K. The cache would be nice, but it's not going to make a massive difference in your frame rates.
That's what I thought, wonder if anyone here has benched it with a 3090
 
That's what I thought, wonder if anyone here has benched it with a 3090

Probably not. Most of the guys buying RTX 3090's are running at least a 9900K with it. I suspect a fair portion of the people that have an RTX 3090 are probably running either a 10900K/10850K or a Ryzen 7/9 5000 series CPU. A lot of the people who buy $1,500 GPU's are probably the same people that always run the latest motherboards and CPU's. I'm sure there are exceptions like yourself, but the vast majority of enthusiasts who would buy an RTX 3090 over a 3080 or something else are likely the type to upgrade everything fairly often.
 
Would love to know if this change would push gaming where it needs to be. I have a feeling is see 0 difference.


For games I feel I won't see any improvement over my 5930k. What type of improvement are you seeing? My 3090 runs Cod black ops 4k at 110 fps. With RTS it drops to 80. If a 5960x would push it to 120 gsync on my 4k 55 LG CX I'd see that being worth it. My gut says it won't make a difference though 🤷‍♂️ thoughts?


You got the V6...but are you man enough for the V8?;):D Look at the end of the day when you hand that X99 rig on or sell it you'll have it running with one of the best CPU options it can have. As I said elsewhere, it's not that expensive to do. In the few benches I did (I'm not big into them, I have a life) I was getting around a 20% or so boost over my 5820K running at 4.4GHz. I don't have any records but it was significant for the low outlay.
 
You got the V6...but are you man enough for the V8?;):D Look at the end of the day when you hand that X99 rig on or sell it you'll have it running with one of the best CPU options it can have. As I said elsewhere, it's not that expensive to do. In the few benches I did (I'm not big into them, I have a life) I was getting around a 20% or so boost over my 5820K running at 4.4GHz. I don't have any records but it was significant for the low outlay.

This is such bullshit. Through and through. Perhaps some benchmarks showed an improvement, but in games, he's not going to see a 20% increase. That's just not going to happen.
 
In the few benches I did (I'm not big into them, I have a life) I was getting around a 20% or so boost over my 5820K running at 4.4GHz. I don't have any records but it was significant for the low outlay.

When I upgraded from my 5820k @ 4.5Ghz to my 3900X I more than doubled the numbers on many synthetic benchmarks that are unrealistically multi-threaded such as cinebench, etc. Gaming performance difference was tiny.
 
When I upgraded from my 5820k @ 4.5Ghz to my 3900X I more than doubled the numbers on many synthetic benchmarks that are unrealistically multi-threaded such as cinebench, etc. Gaming performance difference was tiny.

I ran a Core i7 5960X for almost five years. "Upgrading" to a AMD Threadripper 2920X was similar for me. I had huge increases in benchmark scores, but gaming performance was either the same or worse. After that, I jumped to a 9900K.
 
Are the Broadwell based i7-6000 series significantly better? E.g. the 6900K is like ~$200 on eBay.
 
Are the Broadwell based i7-6000 series significantly better? E.g. the 6900K is like ~$200 on eBay.

No, they are not at all. Their IPC is slightly better but they also don't clock as well as the Haswell-E CPU's do. For example: The 5960X could clock to 4.4GHz or 4.5GHz. The 6950X could only clock to 4.3GHz and that being safe is debatable as both Kyle and I degraded a couple these by doing that. It took about the same time as well. Realistically, with less voltage and avoiding degradation these are probably only really capable of 4.2GHz, maybe less. Basically, due to the clock speeds falling slightly, the IPC gains were a wash. The CPU's with identical core counts and cache perform functionally the same. Broadwell-E is a different architecture, so it might do better in a couple of benchmarks and worse than others, but when we reviewed the 6950X, it was a dud. It was no better than the 5960X it replaced as far as gaming was concerned. There were people who liked them because they had two more physical cores, and that was valid for applications that could leverage them. That's the only time the loss in clock speed, higher temps, etc. was worth it.
 
This is such bullshit. Through and through. Perhaps some benchmarks showed an improvement, but in games, he's not going to see a 20% increase. That's just not going to happen.

Okay....like that was uncalled for. :unsure: This is meant to be fun. Just a cheap upgrade. Never said I ran games.
 
Okay....like that was uncalled for. :unsure: This is meant to be fun. Just a cheap upgrade. Never said I ran games.

There probably is a 20 percent increase in application benchmarks, but not n gaming. It's fun and all but not if it leads to this guy buying something and being disappointed in it.
 
There probably is a 20 percent increase in application benchmarks, but not n gaming. It's fun and all but not if it leads to this guy buying something and being disappointed in it.

It's like a hundred bucks maybe after selling off the old chip. Compared to most of the overpriced crap and dumb ideas I've seen pushed on Hardforum over the years, it's hardly a huge deal or a terrible idea.:rolleyes:

At least you can buy a 5960X...
 
If you're not planning to invest in a new platform for a few years a 5960x would be a solid upgrade. I'd skip broadwell to be honest they overclock like garbage and aren't really much faster at the same clock speed since their mesh doesn't seem to overclock as well either. I don't play either of the games you mentioned so I can't really say how the performance would be different if any.
 
Thought I would pose this question again.

Just got a 4090 and feel no itch to change out my motherboard yet.

Someone is selling 5960x and was curious if it would be that huge with current games or waiting for a whole new mobo setup in 2 years makes more sense.
 
Thought I would pose this question again.

Just got a 4090 and feel no itch to change out my motherboard yet.

Someone is selling 5960x and was curious if it would be that huge with current games or waiting for a whole new mobo setup in 2 years makes more sense.
You would be in a even worse situation. It is time for a platform upgrade no ifs ands or buts. You were knee capping that 3090 already. You will not get much better performance in games with a 4090 then you did with the 3090. Hell the latest CPUs are bottle necking the 4090 in some cases at 4k even. You would of achieved better performance with a platform upgrade then you are with the 4090.
 
You would be in a even worse situation. It is time for a platform upgrade no ifs ands or buts. You were knee capping that 3090 already. You will not get much better performance in games with a 4090 then you did with the 3090. Hell the latest CPUs are bottle necking the 4090 in some cases at 4k even. You would of achieved better performance with a platform upgrade then you are with the 4090.
I was trying to research this but it seems at 4k the bottleneck is more GPU though than CPU no?

The problem for me is that I am having a hard time getting excited about any of the new chipsets. I am not seeing a HUGE upgrade honestly.
My main application "gaming" still feels smooth and the 3090 was a HUGE upgrade for me in this area.
 
I was trying to research this but it seems at 4k the bottleneck is more GPU though than CPU no?

GPU usage is higher at 4K, but ultimately both are part of the equation. I used my overclocked 5820k with my 2080 for a while and when I upgraded to a Ryzen 3900X you could feel the difference. With that said, I still use the 5820k in my backup computer and it's still fast enough to get the job done if you aren't after top-end performance. But the only reason to have spent the money on a 4090 is if you ARE after top-end performance.

If you are intent on remaining on the X99 platform, AT LEAST upgrade from a Haswell-E to a Broadwell-E (higher-end 6-series). I don't think you will see much improvement going from a 5830k to a 5960X for gaming because they are both Haswell-E. The 5830k already has 6 cores and most games still don't make effective use of more than that.

But seriously, you could get a Ryzen 5800X3D for $300, a B550 or even a B450 motherboard for $50-$100, some cheap DDR4 3200-3600 for $50-$100, all for $500 or less total (less than 1/3rd of what you paid for the 4090) and have a system that I guarantee would be noticeably faster than your 5830k.

Was your GPU usage capped at 100% when you were using the 3090? Is your GPU usage capped at 100% while using the 4090? If not, then something else is the bottleneck.
 
GPU usage is higher at 4K, but ultimately both are part of the equation. I used my overclocked 5820k with my 2080 for a while and when I upgraded to a Ryzen 3900X you could feel the difference. With that said, I still use the 5820k in my backup computer and it's still fast enough to get the job done if you aren't after top-end performance. But the only reason to have spent the money on a 4090 is if you ARE after top-end performance.

If you are intent on remaining on the X99 platform, AT LEAST upgrade from a Haswell-E to a Broadwell-E (higher-end 6-series). I don't think you will see much improvement going from a 5830k to a 5960X for gaming because they are both Haswell-E. The 5830k already has 6 cores and most games still don't make effective use of more than that.

But seriously, you could get a Ryzen 5800X3D for $300, a B550 or even a B450 motherboard for $50-$100, some cheap DDR4 3200-3600 for $50-$100, all for $500 or less total (less than 1/3rd of what you paid for the 4090) and have a system that I guarantee would be noticeably faster than your 5830k.

Was your GPU usage capped at 100% when you were using the 3090? Is your GPU usage capped at 100% while using the 4090? If not, then something else is the bottleneck.
I doubt he is seeing 100% usage with the 3090 let alone a 4090. People forget that the CPU also effects minimum frame rate and times. Like I said some instances I seen are bottlenecking a 4090 with the best current CPUs.
 
That's great input!

I am totally down for upgrading the CPU/ Chipset. I had been originally waiting for Meteor lake as I thought Raptor Lake could not really be upgraded.

7950x3d_hwtimes-jpg.2591077

Would the upcoming 7950X3D be worth it?

I have been using ASUS for my motherboards and intel for my ships for so long, I was trying to move to a platform that would last another 5 years.
 
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You could honestly; sell your motherboard and CPU, purchase a 5800x and X570 motherboard, reuse the rest, be out of pocket very little if anything, have a significant uptick in performance, and an upgrade path to 5800x3D or 5950x.
 
I was trying to research this but it seems at 4k the bottleneck is more GPU though than CPU no?

The problem for me is that I am having a hard time getting excited about any of the new chipsets. I am not seeing a HUGE upgrade honestly.
My main application "gaming" still feels smooth and the 3090 was a HUGE upgrade for me in this area.
If you get a 12th or 13th gen Intel or a Zen 4 CPU, the upgrade will be huge in everything. These CPUs are pretty incredible. I've had my 12700k for a year and it still impresses me.
Hell, even the 5800x3D often has minimum framerates which match the average framerates of its Zen 3 family.
That's great input!

I am totally down for upgrading the CPU/ Chipset. I had been originally waiting for Meteor lake as I thought Raptor Lake could not really be upgraded.

7950x3d_hwtimes-jpg.2591077

Would the upcoming 7950X3D be worth it?

I have been using ASUS for my motherboards and intel for my ships for so long, I was trying to move to a platform that would last another 5 years.
Zen 4 X3D should be pretty amazing for gaming. However, Zen 4 is a brand new platform and I am seeing plenty of frustration from people building them. RAM compatibility issues, buggy behavior, not all motherboards getting the same amount of attention with bios updates, etc. Even seen a few reports of premature CPU death.

If you want Zen 4, I would spend some time researching motherboards, to try and find ones which have better support and may be working well for people.

Otherwise, Alder Lake and Raptor Lake are solid. There weren't many issues when they were new, really. Just some apps/games which don't like the e-cores, so you have to turn them off (or the app/game was patched to fix the issue, so you don't have to turne them off). I couldn't even tell you anymore, the name/title of something, which absolutely requires you to turn off the e-cores. If there still is anything, its a very small list.

Lots of motherboard choice, too. Becuase Z690/B660 and Z790/B760 support both 12th and 13th gen. If you aren't trying to overclock DDR5 super high and don't care about PCIe 5.0 SSD-----you can probably save some money and buy Z690 or B660
 
If you get a 12th or 13th gen Intel or a Zen 4 CPU, the upgrade will be huge in everything. These CPUs are pretty incredible. I've had my 12700k for a year and it still impresses me.
Hell, even the 5800x3D often has minimum framerates which match the average framerates of its Zen 3 family.

Zen 4 X3D should be pretty amazing for gaming. However, Zen 4 is a brand new platform and I am seeing plenty of frustration from people building them. RAM compatibility issues, buggy behavior, not all motherboards getting the same amount of attention with bios updates, etc. Even seen a few reports of premature CPU death.

If you want Zen 4, I would spend some time researching motherboards, to try and find ones which have better support and may be working well for people.

Lots of motherboard choice, too. Becuase Z690/B660 and Z790/B760 support both 12th and 13th gen. If you aren't trying to overclock DDR5 super high and don't care about PCIe 5.0 SSD-----you can probably save some money and buy Z690 or B660
Thanks!

I've never been a big memory overclocker. To me the 1% increase vs price wasn't worth it.

I love what I'm seeing with the AMD boards as they might be able to handle my 8 Drives (4 WD SATA + 4 Samsung SSD's), but it seems the price is like 1k wow! However, EVGA has the 690 classified@ $390 and seems not much of a difference over the Kingpin model.

I'm leaning towards the 13900k, am I missing anything major if I choose to save $400/$500 on the 690 platform over the 790?

I've been an Asus builder for the last 3 generation's but EVGA for gpus was my go to. Loved my ASUS RAMPAGE V for its amp jack (AKG gaming headphones), build quality and flexibility (aka:SATA needs). Wild that new boards have limited slots and few SATA ports. Not sure I want to spend more converting to M.2 when an 8tb M.2 is 1k.

I of course could change the SSD to M.2 but it didn't seem like it would be that huge of a difference for games when I already have these drives.

Love your our input in the motherboard /chip realm. My Rampage had a good run
 
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