Upgrade Zen 2 to Zen 3? Worth it?

The last two posts explained exacty why I'm planning on upgrading to a 5950X from my 3900X *eventually*. I'm talking at least a year from now, maybe 1.5. That'll give AM5 and DDR5 time to mature and I'll still get a pretty fucking massive boost on my CPU, enough to end the glory that has been my time on AM4. (I got a 1700 on x370 at launch.)

Also it'll likely end up as my wifes box for years and if not it'll definitely live as my media server probably in perpetua.
 
I will evaluate once Zen for Threadripper comes out. Unless I am being limited somehow with the 3960x, probably not unless just wanting it and can afford it. Maybe a 5970x in other words.

Plus I am also very hesitant on first generation of boards, memory and maybe even the processors using DDR5. Late 2023, 2024 maybe.
 
Sadly, I'll have to wait a little bit for a 5000 series. Just a month or three. But, that'll give supply a chance to catch up.

I'll use it to musical-chair swap stuff in my rigs. I'll end up with 4 AM4/Zen2 or Zen3 rigs. And then I'll not upgrade cpu/mobo for several years. Like...3 or more. At least.

I'll use the intervening time to upgrade the gpus.

I'm not on the upgrade every cpu cycle path. Heck, I only just swapped out my 4790k about 10 months ago. So, I'll be on this series for awhile.
 
Starfalcon said:
Yeah but if you do wait, you get to be the new tech beta tester. Plus you get to pay top dollar for the new DDR5, if you foget how expensive DDR 4 and DDR 3 were when they were brand new.
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And deal with all the initial teething pains, but for RAM/platform/CPU/etc all at once. I always give it 6-9 months when a totally new platform comes out, if I can.
 
c3k said:
Sadly, I'll have to wait a little bit for a 5000 series. Just a month or three. But, that'll give supply a chance to catch up.

I'll use it to musical-chair swap stuff in my rigs. I'll end up with 4 AM4/Zen2 or Zen3 rigs. And then I'll not upgrade cpu/mobo for several years. Like...3 or more. At least.

I'll use the intervening time to upgrade the gpus.

I'm not on the upgrade every cpu cycle path. Heck, I only just swapped out my 4790k about 10 months ago. So, I'll be on this series for awhile.
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Heh, that was me this summer.
10700K+Z490 replaced my 6700K gaming system
6700K gaming system replaced my wifes 8350 gaming system
8350 gaming system replaced crappy PhenomII HTPC (Phenom II became a NAS) - end chain one.

... 3960X replaced 1700 X370 workstation
x370 workstation replaced best friend's wife's broken gaming system, sold broken gaming system parts to recoup cash
8350 HTPC replaced by x399/1950X bought from gaming parts swap.
New room-scale VR built with used parts (x570+3950X, net-new).

End chain 2. End result is 2 intel gaming systems, 2 TR systems, a nas, and a room scale VR. If TR based on Zen3 is amazing, I'll upgrade the 3960X to the 5960X or similar, move the HTPC parts (1950X) to the NAS, and buy an extra TRX40 board for the HTPC to swap in place.

Edit: Oh, and I got to finally light that bloody 8350 motherboard (sold the CPU) on fire. Fuck that board.
 
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AM4 has earned a place in history I think for many reasons but most of all longevity. I've seen reports already of 300 series boards running 5000 series cpus supposedly with no issues. 😃 BTW lopo are ya finished upgrading yet?
 
I think a 3700X is still perfectly fine and will last through the current console generation...
 
Yeah I'd say you could afford to wait. I just upgraded from a quad core Xeon to a 3900X for $380USD six months ago. The new Zen3 CPU's are attractive but not a must have unless you really want it.
 
learners permit said:
AM4 has earned a place in history I think for many reasons but most of all longevity. I've seen reports already of 300 series boards running 5000 series cpus supposedly with no issues. 😃 BTW lopo are ya finished upgrading yet?
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Ayup. Pretty much done, I think. The only real question is what Zen3 Threadripper looks like - the 1950X/x399 combo is really really touchy on RAM (can't get above 2666 w. SoC @ 1.2 and RAM at 1.4V), so... upgrading that wouldn't suck. At the same time, it's a Plex server, runs 2 core VMs, and shares out the rest of the resources on a nested ESXi host, so... it doesn't really need the speed right now either. The games that get played on it are minor.
 
Just built a system around a 3900x. Couldn't pass it up for $330. May upgrade to a 5900x next year and upgrade my server with the 3900x.
 
c3k said:
Now that I've read the reviews, I can feel how my 3700x is slowing my typing on this forum. I mean, it seems like the characters are being sent through a molasses bath before they appear on the screen.

Sigh.

I feel the need for a 5800x. Or something.

;)

Seriously? Yeah, I'm gonna buy one of these, toss it in my X570, grab the 3700x that's being displaced and toss it into the x470, then grab that loose 2700x and buy a B550 mobo and get rid of the 8350 bulldozer that's holding up my htpc. So, yeah...AMD nailed it.

Crap. Once I swap out one 3700x, I may need to swap out the other...and replace the 2700x. I see future upgrades...

Lisa: thank you.
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Yeah, for me the chain is 3400G <-- 3700X <-- (hopefully) 5900X. Right now, the middle computer is without a CPU (since a 5900X is basically impossible to find, and there are enough people to feed all of the scalpers in the world), so the 3400G is continuing its duties as a server, inside of a HTPC chassis. :D
 
learners permit said:
AM4 has earned a place in history I think for many reasons but most of all longevity. I've seen reports already of 300 series boards running 5000 series cpus supposedly with no issues. 😃 BTW lopo are ya finished upgrading yet?
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To use 5000 series on x370 Taichi, we have to flash x470 bios mod. But problem is ASrock is saying they won't support 5000 on x470 boards until January. Wait is probably similar on my asus x470-F strix. I half-expect a buggy mess, too.

Anyway, I think 5000 series is worth it for esports, when you have for example the 360Hz ASUS monitor.
 
Kalessian said:
To use 5000 series on x370 Taichi, we have to flash x470 bios mod. But problem is ASrock is saying they won't support 5000 on x470 boards until January. Wait is probably similar on my asus x470-F strix. I half-expect a buggy mess, too.

Anyway, I think 5000 series is worth it for esports, when you have for example the 360Hz ASUS monitor.
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I had a 3900X in my cheaper X370 board for a while before upgrading to an X570, the power requirement is the same (potentially better) for the 5000 series, so I don't see any reason it couldn't be done physically.
I know there is the ROM size issue, but I don't imagine that's insurmountable unless board makers simply choose to NOT update BIOS.
 
TheSlySyl said:
I had a 3900X in my cheaper X370 board for a while before upgrading to an X570, the power requirement is the same (potentially better) for the 5000 series, so I don't see any reason it couldn't be done physically.
I know there is the ROM size issue, but I don't imagine that's insurmountable unless board makers simply choose to NOT update BIOS.
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Yes it it purely a vendor-supplying-bios problem. Also I thought of another reason 5000 series is worth it: if you run cutting edge emulators. Even PS1 emulation with all the latest upscaling and perspective correction can overwhelm modern CPUs.
 
Now that Nvidia is releasing their version of SAM that won't be exclusive to the 5000 series chips, I'm a little more inclined to keep my 3900X and get an Nvidia card.
 
Epos7 said:
Now that Nvidia is releasing their version of SAM that won't be exclusive to the 5000 series chips, I'm a little more inclined to keep my 3900X and get an Nvidia card.
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I thought it was going to be nvidia + intel? Is it going to work with amd cpu + nvidia cards?
 
Absolutely worth it! Now that I have a 5600x I can tell this is one stupid fast chip. Don't think of fast as being the HUGE number of cores that it lacks. This things new cache and infinity fabric is beast mode. If youre a gamer that can afford a $300 upgrade then shit yeah this gen is so much faster.
 
Epos7 said:
Now that Nvidia is releasing their version of SAM that won't be exclusive to the 5000 series chips, I'm a little more inclined to keep my 3900X and get an Nvidia card.
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I like your idea! That means one more 6800xt on the market that I can snatch up for myself!
 
That’s great news! Hopefully it happens because I lucked out with the 3080. Don’t feel like going through another gpu lottery for the 6000 series.
 
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