Age old upgrade the 3570k question

Canis Lupus

I've been here before.... I google.... I can't decide.....

Currently have the 3570k oc'd to 4.3 coupled with 16gb ram and a 1060 1080p screen.

For most games it's fine but I like playing BF1 and I reckon it's holding me back here. I get 60fps for the most part but oft times I'm groaning into the 30s/40s.

So I was browsing parts and an 8500 (8400?) mobo and ram isn't crazy expensive. I don't really want to go down the 2nd hand I7 route, ebay seems to all ship from the EU for the most part (I'm in aus) and I'm just not keen on messing about with 2nd hand parts that may or may not be in a good state and dealing with the aftermath if something goes wrong.

Am I wasting my time/money. Is it just the upgrade itch or will the switch make an impact on my gaming? Or should I pony up for a 1070/1080 and worry about the cpu etc in another year or so?

K.O.Kiki

You can pick up a GTX 1070 Ti for around €450, and sell the 1060 for around €200 (3Gb) / €260 (6Gb).

Will give you a better FPS than a CPU upgrade.
IIRC you might want to OC the RAM, too.

TerrorFirmer

It won't though in CPU bound titles which is exactly what he's talking about. BF1 is a real CPU killer.

An upgrade to an i7-3770K with a mild overclock will 100% eliminate this problem for about €130, as it's still a stellar CPU especially when overclocked.

Of course, up to you whether or not you want to do that, but the alternative otherwise is very expensive as you would need new board/CPU and RAM at probably €400.

There's no straight answer. In some games the CPU is holding you back, in others the GTX1060 would be assuming you're talking about running games at ultra settings.

Generally, the CPU is still perfect for about 90% of games.....but that's not much consolation for the other 10% if it's a game you play a lot like Battlefield 1 or upcoming Battlefield 5.

Difference between CPU and GPU bottleneck is that for the latter, you can reduce settings to hit 60fps. There's no way around a CPU bottleneck like you're describing in BF1.

For that reason I'd personally prefer an i7-3770 or i5-8400 + GTX1060 over an i5-3570 + GTX1070.

Canis Lupus

Your thinking is my thinking. All the other games I play like Overwatch, Warhammer TW, World of Tanks etc all run fine (reasonably speaking) and then I play a game of BF1 and it makes me sad and I do want the next BF games when it releases so I'll be even more handicapped.

The 3770k 2nd hand just makes me a bit nervous parting with the money in case it's a dud. I actually live in Australia and on ebay for the most part they're located in the UK. Some are on sale on Aliexpress but I probably trust them even less.

Lu Tze

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Your thinking is my thinking. All the other games I play like Overwatch, Warhammer TW, World of Tanks etc all run fine (reasonably speaking) and then I play a game of BF1 and it makes me sad and I do want the next BF games when it releases so I'll be even more handicapped.

The 3770k 2nd hand just makes me a bit nervous parting with the money in case it's a dud. I actually live in Australia and on ebay for the most part they're located in the UK. Some are on sale on Aliexpress but I probably trust them even less.

Gumtree maybe?

Canis Lupus

Lu Tze wrote: »

Gumtree maybe?

There's one up at the moment. I guess if they'll let me see it working. Even less keen to part with cash without seeing that

Lu Tze

Canis Lupus wrote: »

There's one up at the moment. I guess if they'll let me see it working. Even less keen to part with cash without seeing that

Keep an eye on CEX as well, they have no stock at the moment, but have a non overclockable model

https://au.webuy.com/search?stext=3770&view=list&inStock=1

If they have the same policy as here, you can return it if not working

Canis Lupus

Just found a dude selling one on facebook for $150. He's the best part of a two hour drive away but even with petrol money on the motorbike that seems like a bargain. I'll give the 3770k a whirl and if I find it no better I can always sell it on again especially after buying it nice and cheap. Thanks for your thoughts people.

Xenoronin

I upgraded from the 3570K to the 3770K about 10months ago. It is paired with a 1440p screen and a 1070. Going strong so far! I'll probably scratch the itch to upgrade in a year or two, but for now I'm happy. It was aimed at removing a bottleneck while running a media server and playing games at the same time, and it did that admirably.

Cuddlesworth

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It won't though in CPU bound titles which is exactly what he's talking about. BF1 is a real CPU killer.

An upgrade to an i7-3770K with a mild overclock will 100% eliminate this problem for about €130, as it's still a stellar CPU especially when overclocked.

Of course, up to you whether or not you want to do that, but the alternative otherwise is very expensive as you would need new board/CPU and RAM at probably €400.

There's no straight answer. In some games the CPU is holding you back, in others the GTX1060 would be assuming you're talking about running games at ultra settings.

Generally, the CPU is still perfect for about 90% of games.....but that's not much consolation for the other 10% if it's a game you play a lot like Battlefield 1 or upcoming Battlefield 5.

Difference between CPU and GPU bottleneck is that for the latter, you can reduce settings to hit 60fps. There's no way around a CPU bottleneck like you're describing in BF1.

For that reason I'd personally prefer an i7-3770 or i5-8400 + GTX1060 over an i5-3570 + GTX1070.

I get the style of thinking but its usually wrong, games are almost always gpu limited but gpu's can be held back by cpu's. A gfx upgrade to a 1080 for example on his overclocked cpu, would yield a much better upgrade then any cpu/mb/ram combo could.

In a year or two I could see the old 4/4, 4/8 cpu's really holding people back.

BloodBath

Battlefield is one of the few games that sees a big boost from hyperthreading. You simply won't get good stable frames with an old i5, even heavily overclocked. I also had a 3570k and BF4 used to get serious dips in 64 man multi until I changed to the 3770k. Both at 4.4Ghz.

If you're going for something new I'd wait for a nice 8 core / 16 thread. Gen 3 ryzen or something from intel. Maybe the DDR4 prices will go down someday.

TerrorFirmer

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I get the style of thinking but its usually wrong, games are almost always gpu limited but gpu's can be held back by cpu's. A gfx upgrade to a 1080 for example on his overclocked cpu, would yield a much better upgrade then any cpu/mb/ram combo could.

In a year or two I could see the old 4/4, 4/8 cpu's really holding people back.

That's literally what I said though? In his particular case, the CPU upgrade makes a lot more sense.

TerrorFirmer wrote:

Generally, the CPU is still perfect for about 90% of games.....but that's not much consolation for the other 10% if it's a game you play a lot like Battlefield 1 or upcoming Battlefield 5.

He could ugprade to GTX1080Ti SLI and still get bad frame drops in Battlefield 1 and BF:V.

What you're linked there is a single player benchmark for Battlefield 1. 64 player multi-player is a whole different ball game.

EoinHef

BloodBath wrote: »

Battlefield is one of the few games that sees a big boost from hyperthreading. You simply won't get good stable frames with an old i5, even heavily overclocked. I also had a 3570k and BF4 used to get serious dips in 64 man multi until I changed to the 3770k. Both at 4.4Ghz.

If you're going for something new I'd wait for a nice 8 core / 16 thread. Gen 3 ryzen or something from intel. Maybe the DDR4 prices will go down someday.

Unless you were thinking a i9 9900K then you might be waiting on a 8c/16t cpu from intel in the mainstream.

Read rumours about a leak earlier and the 9xxx series may just be a coffee lake refresh,same core count just clocked up to 100/200Mhz faster than the original coffee lake cpus.

BloodBath

Don't think we will be waiting long though and I'd gladly take an AMD offering. Gen 3 Ryzen at 7nm should be just fine.

EoinHef

BloodBath wrote: »

Don't think we will be waiting long though and I'd gladly take an AMD offering. Gen 3 Ryzen at 7nm should be just fine.

Does Ryzen 3 have a release date?

wotzgoingon

February/March/April 2019, either one of those months depending on how ready the 7nm is as they were held up with 12nm this year.

Canis Lupus

So just to follow this up in case anyone else is in the same situation. Got a crazy good deal on a 3770k when I posted in a facebook buy and sell group. $100 when it normally goes for 220ish here in aus? Was from a pc shop with a receipt so wasn't scared of being ripped off.

Anyway haven't messed much with settings and only oc'd to 4.2 right now but games like BF1 has jumped from a struggling 60fps to a comfortable 90-100 fps Overwatch before was over 100 fps but jumped around alot now I'm ticking along around the 144 mark and higher depending Haven't tried it out on anything else but reeeeally impressed for the money so far.

TerrorFirmer

Great, enjoy!