Where to go from 3930K @ 4.5GHz?

Y

yenniedn

2[H]4U
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Nov 26, 2007
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Hello [H]:

It's been a long time since I've been active here and I know this topic's probably been brought up many times before, but...

I used to upgrade my system every year, sometimes a couple of times a year but have been on the 3930K based system in my sig for what seems like forever now (probably 4-5 years?). Have backed down the OC on the 3930K to 4.5GHz for some time now b/c I never really needed anything up in this ballpark anyways.

Haven't really been keeping up with every release but always had the inevitable itch to upgrade every once in awhile. Yet every time I checked the specs and reviews, nothing seemed compelling enough to move up from the 3930K. This time around I've gone one step further and did just pick up a good deal on a gtx 980ti due to everyone dumping them for the 1080's, a couple new 850 Pro SSDs, a Corsair H115i to better fit my case, and have 64gb of DDR4 coming from Amazon. So I'm partially down the path and, knowing me, once I upgrade even just one component, the rest of the pieces' days are numbered.

Was looking at a 6700K w/ EVGA Z170 Classified setup but, aside from being able to go to 64gb of DDR4, that seems like a nominal upgrade at best while losing two cores in the process.

Three kids and a lot of everyday life means I don't really game anymore but am holding on to hope that some future game is going to make me want to start again so I do want to have hardware that's somewhat capable of handling the load (plus the hardware junkie in my just can't justify having average, mainstream components). Most of my time is spent on work stuff (MS Office suite), basic internet, and Photoshop.

Aside from the 6700k, have also read up on the 5930k, 5820k. Of course there's the 6800k, 6900k, and others coming down the pipe. What would you guys suggest? I'm trying to be "reasonable" in budgeting any upgrade this time around - i.e. would like to spend about $300-$400 each for the CPU and mobo if possible (trying to avoid spending $600+ just for a CPU).

Thoughts?
 
Honestly if you're just doing light gaming, that 3930k is still perfectly fine
 
Doesn't sound like you have any reason to upgrade from what you have now, but I do understand the upgrade bug and it is going on 5 years since the release of the 3930K. Instead of a whole platform upgrade I would instead look at replacing your 780 Ti with a GTX 1070 (or 1080, if you want to spend that much). Plus we have some new stuff on the horizon for next year that will make a platform upgrade make more sense at that time, like PCI-E 4.0.
 
outers said:
Honestly if you're just doing light gaming, that 3930k is still perfectly fine
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Armenius said:
Doesn't sound like you have any reason to upgrade from what you have now, but I do understand the upgrade bug and it is going on 5 years since the release of the 3930K. Instead of a whole platform upgrade I would instead look at replacing your 780 Ti with a GTX 1070 (or 1080, if you want to spend that much). Plus we have some new stuff on the horizon for next year that will make a platform upgrade make more sense at that time, like PCI-E 4.0.
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Ugh, this is what I was afraid I'd hear ;)

I'll have the GTX 980Ti, new SSD's, and H115i later this week. I might just upgrade those components now and hold out for another cycle. RAM can always go back to Amazon as needed.

I did find a good deal on a Asus Rampage V Extreme and 5930k combo . . . it would barely cost me anything to move from my 3930k and Rampage IV Extreme and it would allow me to use the DDR4. All it'll cost me is the time to do the move and that would make it that much easier to hold out for that next true upgrade. Seems worth the work if cost is minimal, right? Unless I'm missing something like the 5930k not being able to OC well or easily?
 
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I'd honestly just hold out for skylake at this point. I dont think the 5930k is going to offer you much benefit.
yenniedn said:
Ugh, this is what I was afraid I'd hear ;)

I'll have the GTX 980Ti, new SSD's, and H115i later this week. I might just upgrade those components now and hold out for another cycle. RAM can always go back to Amazon as needed.

I did find a good deal on a Asus Rampage V Extreme and 5930k combo . . . it would barely cost me anything to move from my 3930k and Rampage IV Extreme and it would allow me to use the DDR4. All it'll cost me is the time to do the move and that would make it that much easier to hold out for that next true upgrade. Seems worth the work if cost is minimal, right? Unless I'm missing something like the 5930k not being able to OC well or easily?
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yenniedn said:
I did find a good deal on a Asus Rampage V Extreme and 5930k combo . . . it would barely cost me anything to move from my 3930k and Rampage IV Extreme and it would allow me to use the DDR4. All it'll cost me is the time to do the move and that would make it that much easier to hold out for that next true upgrade. Seems worth the work if cost is minimal, right? Unless I'm missing something like the 5930k not being able to OC well or easily?
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That 5930k should be a good upgrade from a 3930k. If you can upgrade for really cheap, I would go for it. You should be set for another few years at least.
Not sure how much increase you will actually see in games though unless it is something that is CPU limited with what you have now.

As for looking at the Z170 setup, it only has Dual Channel RAM. In order to get the same throughput as your current setup can in Quad channel with DDR3-1600, you would need DDR4-4000.

I am sorta in the same boat as you. I had a 3820, upgrade to the 4930k because I got it cheap, and see absolutely no reason to upgrade to a newer platform whatsoever.

To top it off, the newest BIOS lists NVMe in the BIOS itself, so I should be able to add an NVMe PCIe card at some point if I ever want to.
 
Hold out for Skylake-E, unless you really want a shiny today. In which case, I'd suggest the 6900K if you can afford it. +2 cores, improved perf/clock, and better platform.

I wouldn't bother moving to a six core Broadwell-E at this time if I were you.
 
Huh, I'm in the same boat as the OP. Just saw the reviews of the new Broadwell-E. I'm underwhelmed. I've got my 3930K @ 4.4Ghz, 32GB, and a 980GTX. Hardly seems worth the bother of upgrading. Hmm.
 
I'm running an OCed 2500K with 980Ti SLI and am seeing a minimum FPS increase of ~5-7 if I drop $600 on a new full base Skylake setup (CPU/motherboard/RAM). So... yeah.

If you upgrade right now, you're an idiot.

I initially used gentler language, then decided there was a point to be made.

Don't be an idiot.
 
I had a 3930K at 4.3GHz, then sold it and got a cheap 1650V2 @4.5GHz which is a 4930K equivalent (only paid $30 after the sale of the 3930K). Then I went out and purchased a X99 platform and a 5820K @4.4GHz, and now I have an Extra Spicy 2690 V4 on the way - which will be interesting to see how the IPC improvements hold up with lower clock speeds (the one I have coming has a max turbo of 3 GHz).

To be honest, not much changed for games. Sure benchmark scores for the CPU went up, but gaming did not see much improvement that I could readily quantify. Perhaps minimum frame rates went up a bit, but that would primarily be the cause of gaming at 1080P which is usually more CPU bound. Although some of the games that I play struggle at 1080P with every last in-game setting maxed out (usually a bad game engine, or just insane graphical quality).
 
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yenniedn said:
Ugh, this is what I was afraid I'd hear ;)

I'll have the GTX 980Ti, new SSD's, and H115i later this week. I might just upgrade those components now and hold out for another cycle. RAM can always go back to Amazon as needed.

I did find a good deal on a Asus Rampage V Extreme and 5930k combo . . . it would barely cost me anything to move from my 3930k and Rampage IV Extreme and it would allow me to use the DDR4. All it'll cost me is the time to do the move and that would make it that much easier to hold out for that next true upgrade. Seems worth the work if cost is minimal, right? Unless I'm missing something like the 5930k not being able to OC well or easily?
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Do it (if is cheap) mainly for a reason, to preserve in time the value of your setup as much possible.
 
If you want to upgrade the processor regardless of need then it depends on how big your monitor/monitors are and how many of those 980TI's you want to run and if you want to encode or something. Your current cpu is quite sufficient for most things. If you at some point want to run PCI express Solid States and what other hardware you would like to run on the PCI express bus. The 40 PCI express bus processor for the new generation is the 6850K for $617 bucks. 6 core and more "efficient" but with somewhat crappy clock rates.
You may or may not get a decent overclock out of it. It is underwhelming for the performance to price combination. Maybe AMD's Zen could cause a price drop later this year. Unless ofcourse you really want to go multicore crazy and get a 6950X for over 1700 bucks.

I run a old 3770K at 4.5GHZ and just have not found the need to upgrade. My Rog board does use some tricks for PCI express bandwidth with a extra small processor on board. I did test a pci express Solid state and it worked like crap due to the P4X chip. So I too am pondering that upgrade and how much I want to put into it.
 
On a Side note, have you played the new DOOM game? It is pure, old-school fun. I would imagine an old-timer like yourself will enjoy it. It may just refill your drive to start gaming again.
 
I went from a 3930K @ 4.6, with 64GB of Ram to a 6700K @ 4.7 with 16GB of RAM. No difference at all. I waited four years so I figured it was time. It wasn't. Save your money or upgrade storage/GPU if needed.
 
Where to go? Preferably for a drink. There really is nothing to upgrade to, is there?
 
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