Worth upgrading from a 4770k at this point?

Ihaveworms

Ukfay Ancerkay
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Jul 25, 2006
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This weekend is tax free weekend in my state. Given that, I was looking at possibly upgrading my computer.

Current specs are:
i7-4770k @ 4.2ghz
32gb RAM
1070 GTX


I play on a 1440p 144hz monitor. The game I play most now is Escape from Tarkov and want to play Cyberpunk when that comes out. At this point, the 3700x is over a year old. Is it worth spending several hundred dollars in CPU, RAM, and motherboard to upgrade from the 4770k?
 
That setup just meets the minimum recommended hardware requirements for Cyberpunk. The Haswell (4th Generation) and Broadwell (5th Generation) CPUs are already in their "legacy" support phase, which means that there will be no more bug fixes ever for these CPUs while critical security fixes may not last much longer. And as time progresses, newer software may not run properly or at all on such a 7-year-old CPU platform.

Under these circumstances, a CPU platform upgrade is worthwhile, especially if you can get it for a fair price.
 
Haswell CPUs still offer good per-core performance. You will held back a bit in any game that can make good use of more than 4 cores, but at least your CPU has hyperthreading. I upgraded from an overclocked Intel 5820K (6-core Haswell-E) to a 3900X this last Christmas and in most games the performance was basically the same.

And as time progresses, newer software may not run properly or at all on such a 7-year-old CPU platform.

That seems pessimistic to me. I can't think of anything that wouldn't run on a 9.5 year old Sandy Bridge CPU, and even a 13 year old Core2Quad system would still be capable of running just about anything (although slowly in some cases). In what situation would someone have issues running software on a CPU that is only 7 years old?
 
This weekend is tax free weekend in my state. Given that, I was looking at possibly upgrading my computer.

Current specs are:
i7-4770k @ 4.2ghz
32gb RAM
1070 GTX


I play on a 1440p 144hz monitor. The game I play most now is Escape from Tarkov and want to play Cyberpunk when that comes out. At this point, the 3700x is over a year old. Is it worth spending several hundred dollars in CPU, RAM, and motherboard to upgrade from the 4770k?

Get a 3600/3700 non-x, x, or xt, add a mb. You most likely can reuse your ram. The current Ryzens benefit from process maturation so the bins are excellent. Is it worth it... that's always up to the users pov. Old SB chips are pretty darn slow for one thing. You could wait for Ryzen 3, but you will be paying full price then. And a setup now might not be as cheap when Ryzen 3 releases, but then again you will have had the fun/benefit of being on a new Ryzen 2 setup for the 5 months up to the new release.
 
Get a 3600/3700 non-x, x, or xt, add a mb. You most likely can reuse your ram. The current Ryzens benefit from process maturation so the bins are excellent. Is it worth it... that's always up to the users pov. Old SB chips are pretty darn slow for one thing. You could wait for Ryzen 3, but you will be paying full price then. And a setup now might not be as cheap when Ryzen 3 releases, but then again you will have had the fun/benefit of being on a new Ryzen 2 setup for the 5 months up to the new release.

I think he has to get new ram, he probably has DDR3. OP you would benefit from a CPU upgrade but that 1070 will struggle in Cyberpunk.
 
I think he has to get new ram, he probably has DDR3. OP you would benefit from a CPU upgrade but that 1070 will struggle in Cyberpunk.
Yeah I would need to get new RAM. I'm still on DDR3. It is sad that a 1070 is going to struggle in cyberpunk when it is only 1 generation old. If that's the case, I feel like there isn't a big point in me upgrading now if I need to wait for nividia 3xxx series. By then new AMD cpus would probably be around the corner.
 
I would wait for 4000 chips to hit and ppl start dumping current hardware. No point in upgrading till you know what you need to run the game at the level you desire.

I think this is the best advice. Really the 1070 is okay for 1440p/144hz but ideally you would want a 1080 ti or greater card.
 
this is relevant to my interests... I have a i7 4770k (@4.4Ghz) /16GB DDR3 and a RX580.... it is old af (video card is newer due to old card eating crap)... I've been debating a upgrade for the last couple years now....

However mostly I'm just doing work on the pc nothing too demanding for various reasons gaming hasn't really been happening much for months now...

It is my birthday in 2x weeks and one option for birthday gift ... is a pc upgrade, but I'm not sure that it doesn't make more sense to wait till oct~ (or whatever) for 4600 / 4700 upgrade options with the new desktop ryzen non apu chips?
 
this is relevant to my interests... I have a i7 4770k (@4.4Ghz) /16GB DDR3 and a RX580.... it is old af (video card is newer due to old card eating crap)... I've been debating a upgrade for the last couple years now....

However mostly I'm just doing work on the pc nothing too demanding for various reasons gaming hasn't really been happening much for months now...

It is my birthday in 2x weeks and one option for birthday gift ... is a pc upgrade, but I'm not sure that it doesn't make more sense to wait till oct~ (or whatever) for 4600 / 4700 upgrade options with the new desktop ryzen non apu chips?

I just upgraded from a 4770K setup. (OC 4.4ghz and 16GB DDR3) to a 3700X system (details in my sig)

YES it is worth the upgrade. I have seen benefits across the board in every game I have played.

In theory the Ryzen 3 Chips will be faster, but the question really is... are you running into problems? I was running into stuttering in some things I was doing so I pulled the trigger for a new CPU/RAM/Mobo/SSD.

I was forced to upgrade after that from my GTX 1080 to a RX 5700 XT (1080 died), but I've been impressed with the 5700XT as well.
 
We've plateaued with 4 core parts when it comes to gaming. A good 4-core/8-thread CPU might have another year or less left before you start to see ambitious games really struggle on them.

I look at consoles as the inspiration for hardware optimization. Xbone and PS4 use 8-cores/8-threads, but they're really terrible 8-cores by today's standards using Jaguar architecture running at less than half the clock speed (1.6-1.7GHz) of any respectable desktop CPU. That's what current games were developed to run on.

This upcoming generation of consoles (3 to 4 months away now) Have 8-cores/8or16-threads of Zen-2 running at 3.2+GHz. Better IPC, more than double the clock speed, more threads. This will be the new MINIMUM they develop games for. Yes, 1 or 2 cores will be locked out for the OS and services (same as xbone/ps4), but that's still a hefty 6 cores and 12 threads they have FULL control over. And this is dedicated HW, we all know how they can optimize for lower spec consoles, and we need considerably faster PC hardware just to match console performance.

IMHO, I think people with 6-core CPUs are going to be struggling in 2 to 3 years, and 4-core owners are going to be on borrowed time very soon. Desktop Jaguar APUs were not good on the day they launched, and you see the performance they are able to squeeze out of those crappy chips, and what you need on desktop just to get similar performance. The console Zen2 APUs are almost identical to their desktop counterparts, you know... the Zen2 that many argue has dethroned Intel?

If I were looking to future-proof for the next 3 or 4 years when it comes to AAA games, I wouldn't use anything less than a 3700X or 9900K/10700K.
EDIT: And that would be just for playing games. If you're looking to do anything other than play games like streaming or recording in 3 or 4 years with a current CPU, 3900X or 10900K.
 
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We've plateaued with 4 core parts when it comes to gaming. A good 4-core/8-thread CPU might have another year or less left before you start to see ambitious games really struggle on them.

I look at consoles as the inspiration for hardware optimization. Xbone and PS4 use 8-cores/8-threads, but they're really terrible 8-cores by today's standards using Jaguar architecture running at less than half the clock speed (1.6-1.7GHz) of any respectable desktop CPU. That's what current games were developed to run on.

This upcoming generation of consoles (3 to 4 months away now) Have 8-cores/8or16-threads of Zen-2 running at 3.2+GHz. Better IPC, more than double the clock speed, more threads. This will be the new MINIMUM they develop games for. Yes, 1 or 2 cores will be locked out for the OS and services (same as xbone/ps4), but that's still a hefty 6 cores and 12 threads they have FULL control over. And this is dedicated HW, we all know how they can optimize for lower spec consoles, and we need considerably faster PC hardware just to match console performance.

IMHO, I think people with 6-core CPUs are going to be struggling in 2 to 3 years, and 4-core owners are going to be on borrowed time very soon. Desktop Jaguar APUs were not good on the day they launched, and you see the performance they are able to squeeze out of those crappy chips, and what you need on desktop just to get similar performance. The console Zen2 APUs are almost identical to their desktop counterparts, you know... the Zen2 that many argue has dethroned Intel?

If I were looking to future-proof for the next 3 or 4 years when it comes to AAA games, I wouldn't use anything less than a 3700X or 9900K/10700K.
EDIT: And that would be just for playing games. If you're looking to do anything other than play games like streaming or recording in 3 or 4 years with a current CPU, 3900X or 10900K.
Yeah I followed that logic pretty much to a T, coming from a 7700k. I tell you it was almost like going from a q6600 to an i7 920 and almost hitting 20 fps in crysis at 1680x1050 for the first time.
 
We've plateaued with 4 core parts when it comes to gaming. A good 4-core/8-thread CPU might have another year or less left before you start to see ambitious games really struggle on them.

I look at consoles as the inspiration for hardware optimization. Xbone and PS4 use 8-cores/8-threads, but they're really terrible 8-cores by today's standards using Jaguar architecture running at less than half the clock speed (1.6-1.7GHz) of any respectable desktop CPU. That's what current games were developed to run on.

This upcoming generation of consoles (3 to 4 months away now) Have 8-cores/8or16-threads of Zen-2 running at 3.2+GHz. Better IPC, more than double the clock speed, more threads. This will be the new MINIMUM they develop games for. Yes, 1 or 2 cores will be locked out for the OS and services (same as xbone/ps4), but that's still a hefty 6 cores and 12 threads they have FULL control over. And this is dedicated HW, we all know how they can optimize for lower spec consoles, and we need considerably faster PC hardware just to match console performance.

IMHO, I think people with 6-core CPUs are going to be struggling in 2 to 3 years, and 4-core owners are going to be on borrowed time very soon. Desktop Jaguar APUs were not good on the day they launched, and you see the performance they are able to squeeze out of those crappy chips, and what you need on desktop just to get similar performance. The console Zen2 APUs are almost identical to their desktop counterparts, you know... the Zen2 that many argue has dethroned Intel?

If I were looking to future-proof for the next 3 or 4 years when it comes to AAA games, I wouldn't use anything less than a 3700X or 9900K/10700K.
EDIT: And that would be just for playing games. If you're looking to do anything other than play games like streaming or recording in 3 or 4 years with a current CPU, 3900X or 10900K.

I knew it, my clocked FX with it's 8 threads can serve me few years more ! :ROFLMAO:

This things depend so hard... and to be said that only top CPU (will) matter...
 
That seems pessimistic to me. I can't think of anything that wouldn't run on a 9.5 year old Sandy Bridge CPU, and even a 13 year old Core2Quad system would still be capable of running just about anything (although slowly in some cases). In what situation would someone have issues running software on a CPU that is only 7 years old?
I am not talking about the gaming software that's currently available. I am talking about the software that comes out after CyberPunk. Moreover, chipmakers have become increasingly dictatorial. The next popular game will be expected to not run properly, if it will even run at all, on a CPU platform that's more than three years old.
 
The next popular game will be expected to not run properly, if it will even run at all, on a CPU platform that's more than three years old.

Why? What requirement would a game have that would cause that sort of compatibility issue?
 
Why? What requirement would a game have that would cause that sort of compatibility issue?
They won't, if that were the case people wouldn't have been able to run 2500k's for as long as they did. New features will be left out and games may start using more threads, but they aren't going to just stop working on a 3 year old CPU. He's being overly dramatic/exaggerating.
 
They won't, if that were the case people wouldn't have been able to run 2500k's for as long as they did. New features will be left out and games may start using more threads, but they aren't going to just stop working on a 3 year old CPU. He's being overly dramatic/exaggerating.
Actually, I have already experienced that in real life. I was forced to upgrade to a newer platform because the programs that I use the most will not work properly on anything that's more than three years old. And it is not the performance; it's the feature support that old CPU platforms simply lack completely. It's no wonder why I have been mini-ranting against "future-proofing" in other forums.
 
Actually, I have already experienced that in real life. I was forced to upgrade to a newer platform because the programs that I use the most will not work properly on anything that's more than three years old. And it is not the performance; it's the feature support that old CPU platforms simply lack completely.
Ok, and since you failed to mention whatever proprietary software your using is, I'm going to guess it's not a game like you were talking about originally.
From your quote "The next popular game will be expected to not run properly". When have you known this to be true? Never.

Sure some small apps with specific requirements may require new features, but this is by far the exception and not the rule.
 
Ok, and since you failed to mention whatever proprietary software your using is, I'm going to guess it's not a game like you were talking about originally.
From your quote "The next popular game will be expected to not run properly". When have you known this to be true? Never.

Sure some small apps with specific requirements may require new features, but this is by far the exception and not the rule.
I did not mention the software because I didn't want to throw this thread off topic (it has absolutely nothing to do with gaming, which I don't currently do).

At any rate, the OP should check the minimum requirements first, then go up from there. There is a big difference between running that game at all and running that game well enough to use regularly.
 
My gaming pc in my living room is still running a 4790 (no k), 16gb ram, 5600 XT. I would love it to last me until AMD's next socket, really dont want to build a new system with the last of the AM4 cpu's and have no upgrade path. So I'm looking at about 1.5 years? Maybe a little more? Eeek!
 
Get it up to 4.5 GHz, and you should be good for a while longer. Put your money toward a better GPU later this year, when both NVIDIA and AMD have brought out the next-gen stuff that'll make 2080 Ti-level performance more affordable, and keep a close eye on how Zen 3/4th-gen Ryzen pans out.

I've compared my own 4770K system against an i9-9900K build at a local makerspace, and the difference in performance from the CPUs was just plain underwhelming for the additional cost of a 9900K. I noticed far more benefit from borrowing one of the RTX 2080s in said 9900K build for troubleshooting and a little benchmarking.

Granted, I was mostly prioritizing ArmA 3 and DCS World VR performance with said benchmarking, and both titles are notoriously limited by things like single-threaded performance and even memory bandwidth on the CPU side of things. They won't benefit much from additional cores like modern AAA titles will. (DCS loves GPU in VR mode, though; even a 2080 Ti struggles at times, according to the forums.)
 
With ddr4 so cheap now, I would upgrade. You could get a B550 + R5 3600 + 16GB DDR4 for around $350. That would set you for a few years and you would still have a solid upgrade path.
 
My gaming pc in my living room is still running a 4790 (no k), 16gb ram, 5600 XT. I would love it to last me until AMD's next socket, really dont want to build a new system with the last of the AM4 cpu's and have no upgrade path. So I'm looking at about 1.5 years? Maybe a little more? Eeek!

Your 4790k had no upgrade path either and is 6 years old. A 3900x/3900xt/3950 would last at least as long and after 6+ years there would be plenty of new technologies that you probably wouldn’t want to stay on the same platform anyway.
 
I noticed the Ryzen 3 3100 is back it stock at the egg for $104.99 + $5 over MSRP it's the next best Climax after the $85 1600 AF as they game alike and that Ryzen 3 1200 may be the AF model no one is talking about .
 
I noticed the Ryzen 3 3100 is back it stock at the egg for $104.99 + $5 over MSRP it's the next best Climax after the $85 1600 AF as they game alike and that Ryzen 3 1200 may be the AF model no one is talking about .

I wish the 3300X was in stock somewhere. Might pick up a combo during BF this year....
 
My gaming pc in my living room is still running a 4790 (no k), 16gb ram, 5600 XT. I would love it to last me until AMD's next socket, really dont want to build a new system with the last of the AM4 cpu's and have no upgrade path. So I'm looking at about 1.5 years? Maybe a little more? Eeek!
As RamonGTP stated, Socket LGA 1150 is a dead socket. Plus, the cost of new DDR3 RAM has started to increase because no new desktop PCs use that type of RAM any more. In fact, 32 GB of DDR3 RAM now costs more money than all but the highest-performing DDR4 RAM of equal capacity.
 
Your 4790k had no upgrade path either and is 6 years old. A 3900x/3900xt/3950 would last at least as long and after 6+ years there would be plenty of new technologies that you probably wouldn’t want to stay on the same platform anyway.
As RamonGTP stated, Socket LGA 1150 is a dead socket. Plus, the cost of new DDR3 RAM has started to increase because no new desktop PCs use that type of RAM any more. In fact, 32 GB of DDR3 RAM now costs more money than all but the highest-performing DDR4 RAM of equal capacity.
I know there's no upgrade path for me, I dont think there ever was. Wasnt the 4790 the last LGA 1150? As of right now its still fine for gaming but I imagine 6-12 months from now its going to be a problem. My hope is that I get 12 more months before I really want to upgrade and by then AMD's next socket will hopefully be 6-9 months away and I'll try to be very patient.
 
I know there's no upgrade path for me, I dont think there ever was. Wasnt the 4790 the last LGA 1150? As of right now its still fine for gaming but I imagine 6-12 months from now its going to be a problem. My hope is that I get 12 more months before I really want to upgrade and by then AMD's next socket will hopefully be 6-9 months away and I'll try to be very patient.

Thats my point, there never was an upgrade path for you but you went for it and it has lasted this long. Even if you could upgrade it today you probably wouldn’t want to due to newer features on the latest chipsets. So AM4 not having an upgrade path really isn’t an Issue, especially if you’re going with an R9 for the CPU.
 
I would make the jump now if it was me as Steve has the MSI B550M Pro VDH WiFi reviewed here and it's $105 board and the Ryzen 3 3100 is in stock at $104 and the Oloy DDR 4 3600 Mhz 16Gb Kit for $60 .. Now that's $270 but you have the magic key to unlock Gen 4 for video card / Nvme and another upgrade path as that board can handle a 3950x and what ever comes next .

 
I'd wait until Zen3 and Ampere #s come in, and honestly evaluate your workloads.

There's no reason to buy right now unless you have invoices you can't clear bc the PC is old.
 
With ddr4 so cheap now, I would upgrade. You could get a B550 + R5 3600 + 16GB DDR4 for around $350. That would set you for a few years and you would still have a solid upgrade path.

Yeah prices are crazy low right now.

I still can't bring myself to upgrade my 4790K + 16GB DDR2133 though because I know it will make zero difference in the games I'm currently playing. I'm getting too old to upgrade just for the fun of it.
 
I'm following along this thread as I'm in the same boat except I'm on an even older CPU: I7-3770 (non-K). Holding on with the tips of my fingers for the new Ryzens since I also have to buy console(s?) in a few months. My poor wallet!
 
This weekend is tax free weekend in my state. Given that, I was looking at possibly upgrading my computer.

Current specs are:
i7-4770k @ 4.2ghz
32gb RAM
1070 GTX


I play on a 1440p 144hz monitor. The game I play most now is Escape from Tarkov and want to play Cyberpunk when that comes out. At this point, the 3700x is over a year old. Is it worth spending several hundred dollars in CPU, RAM, and motherboard to upgrade from the 4770k?

Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a massively upgraded version of the engine The Witcher 3 ran on which could already see frame drops and stutters from the 0.1 and 1% lows with a 4770k. If that game is particularly important for you to run well I think an upgrade could be warranted. The 4770k will definitely run it but probably not going to be the best experience. Prices will drop with Zen 3 coming and it might be a perfect time for it.
 
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Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a massively upgraded version of the engine The Witcher 3 ran on which could already see frame drops and stutters from the 0.1 and 1% lows with a 4770k. If that game is particularly important for you to run well I think an upgrade could be warranted. The 4770k will definitely run it but probably not going to be the best experience. Prices will drop with Zen 3 coming and it might be a perfect time for it.
Thanks for that update. The game will run, albeit rather poorly, on Haswell. And at even 1440p, any upgraded GPU will be bottlenecked by the CPU for CyberPunk 2077. 4k gaming just isn't mature enough to be used on a daily basis.

So, if the OP can only afford a CPU upgrade or a GPU upgrade but not both, then I would go for the CPU upgrade first, then a GPU upgrade as needed although ideally I would upgrade both.
 
Thanks for that update. The game will run, albeit rather poorly, on Haswell. And at even 1440p, any upgraded GPU will be bottlenecked by the CPU for CyberPunk 2077. 4k gaming just isn't mature enough to be used on a daily basis.

So, if the OP can only afford a CPU upgrade or a GPU upgrade but not both, then I would go for the CPU upgrade first, then a GPU upgrade as needed although ideally I would upgrade both.

Definitely CPU first as a GTX 1070 is already being bottlenecked to some degree on that engine with a 4770k. Upgrading his GPU alone would likely net near enough as makes no difference the same performance.
 
Yeah prices are crazy low right now.

I still can't bring myself to upgrade my 4790K + 16GB DDR2133 though because I know it will make zero difference in the games I'm currently playing. I'm getting too old to upgrade just for the fun of it.
Flight Sim 2020 brings my 4790k to it's knees at 3440x1440 with medium/low settings.
IMG_8953.PNG
I'll be upgrading as soon as AMD releases the new chips.
 
I looked today and the Ryzen 5 3600 is petty died on stock now .. but it's like they drove the price up to make see the XT
 
I'm probably going to wait till late this year or early next year at this point.
 
I'm probably going to wait till late this year or early next year at this point.

Good call. AMD is really putting Intel’s feet to the fire and prices just keep getting more reasonable. You’ll get an actual very noticeable increase in performance that way.
 
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