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datiswous

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Hi I'm thinking of buying a new pc. Or at least mobo+cpu+memory (and possibly cooler). Last time I bought this combo was 10 years ago, so I thought maybe it's time for an upgrade.. I was thinking of going for AMD Ryzen, do you think it's currently really worth it to go for an AM5 cpu? All in all I find it kind of expensive and AM4 cpu's are still good performing, so I'm not sure I need the newest tech. On the other hand going for AM5 is more future proof I guess..

Also, I was first thinking of going for an X3d processor, but then gathered I'm actually not gaming that much (and not high demanding games) and the gpu will stay midrange anyway and thus be the bottleneck ? I wonder if the price of the 5800X3d will go down when the zen4 variant arrives.

Currently thinking about Am4 combo:

Ryzen 5700X

32 gb ram (3200mhz)

Asrock B450 Steel Legend

 

My current (Cooler master) cpu cooler is good enough I think, but I don't know if I still have the needed AM4 attachment (curently using it on an Intel cpu).

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Which graphics card are you going for? That's the most important component for a gaming PC. TBH, I would almost start with that, before thinking about the other components.

Especially for TDM, by the way. As far as I know, it heavily relies on the GPU.

Edited by chakkman
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Supposedly AM5 is going to support at least 3 cpu generations so if you are switching from Intel to AMD then that is probably the wiser move unless your Intel CPU is so old that a Zen 2 chip can beat it.

If you do have a weaker Intel CPU and don’t mind waiting a long time then get an AM4 motherboard and a cheap Zen 1 or Zen 2 generation CPU then wait for the price of X3D AM4 CPUs to drop in a year or two. Basically just pretend it’s a few years ago and treat X3D as your final upgrade path.

What Intel CPU do you currently run?

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So a Ryzen 3 3200 is about 20% faster than that CPU. Anything reasonably inexpensive in the Ryzen 3xxx to 5xxx series would still be an upgrade for you.

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20% in my opinion are barely noticeable and not worth spending money.

I would by an refurbished 3 year old workstation with warranty, sell whatever professional CAD card is in it and sell your old system and use the money for an faster GPU.

Your system isn't that bad, actually. My backup gaming system is slower, but in a pinch, it still works.

Did you upgrade to SSD? This was what I perceived as the most significant and cheap speed upgrade.

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9 minutes ago, s.urfer said:

20% in my opinion are barely noticeable and not worth spending money.

I would by an refurbished 3 year old workstation with warranty, sell whatever professional CAD card is in it and sell your old system and use the money for an faster GPU.

Your system isn't that bad, actually. My backup gaming system is slower, but in a pinch, it still works.

Did you upgrade to SSD? This was what I perceived as the most significant and cheap speed upgrade.

20% is for the bottom of the Ryzen range. For $98 a Ryzen 5 5500 is over 70% faster and goes up to over 200% faster in some scenarios. There are probably a spectrum of inexpensive options between the Ryzen 3xxx and Ryzen 5 5500.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

Still, finding an old workstation is not a bad way to go as a general practice but a lot of them are Intel based so the CPU upgrade path longevity might be more limited. At least the current gen Intel is socket compatible with the previous gen so you can get a last gen workstation and if there is a cutting edge low-end Intel CPU that beats the in-situ CPU in the workstation you can add that to the upgrade cost and probably recover a good chunk by selling the older CPU.

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16 minutes ago, s.urfer said:

Your system isn't that bad, actually. My backup gaming system is slower, but in a pinch, it still works.

Did you upgrade to SSD? This was what I perceived as the most significant and cheap speed upgrade.

No it isn't bad at all, yeah I use ssd for running software, I only have a 4tb hd for mostly media files. but I'm noticing some situations where I want my pc to be a bit faster (including gaming) and thought since I upgraded these parts 10 years ago it would be a logical time to start looking for an upgrade.

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15 minutes ago, nbohr1more said:

Still, finding an old workstation is not a bad way to go as a general practice but a lot of them are Intel based so the CPU upgrade path longevity might be more limited

I'm building my PCs for almost four decades now, and there was only one occurance, where I "only" upgraded the CPU. Since I only upgrade when I can really feel the difference, the old machinery is by then pretty much obsolete anyway...

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Your initial plan seems good if the prices are alright.

Americans have enjoyed great prices, and insane AM5 combo deals in recent months. Especially anyone lucky enough to be near a Micro Center. We're talking CPU discounts + free 16-32 GB DDR5 RAM kits.

I think AM4 is likely to be sufficient for anything you want to do, especially considering you were using a 4c/4t 4570S and jumping to the 8c/16t 5700X is a whopping +400% (5x) multi-threaded performance. It seems unlikely that many games will need a faster CPU than that throughout this decade since the current-gen consoles are 8-core Zen 2.

I don't want to make a prediction about 5800X3D pricing because you never know when AMD will just stop production. But in theory AMD can accumulate the necessary chiplets as leftovers from supplying customers with Milan-X Epyc chips.

Ryzen 5 5500 is a disabled Cezanne APU with half the cache of the 5600X/5700X/5800X. If 5600 is just a little more, I would get that instead.

I had to check if the 5700X comes with a stock cooler. It doesn't.

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Oh sorry, my mistake, I really really thought there was a boxed version with included cooler. Doesn't matter though.

8 hours ago, jaxa said:

Ryzen 5 5500 is a disabled Cezanne APU with half the cache of the 5600X/5700X/5800X. If 5600 is just a little more, I would get that instead.

It isn't, but thanks for pointing this out.

Edited by datiswous
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On 2/14/2023 at 5:46 AM, datiswous said:

Hi I'm thinking of buying a new pc. Or at least mobo+cpu+memory (and possibly cooler). Last time I bought this combo was 10 years ago, so I thought maybe it's time for an upgrade.. I was thinking of going for AMD Ryzen, do you think it's currently really worth it to go for an AM5 cpu? All in all I find it kind of expensive and AM4 cpu's are still good performing, so I'm not sure I need the newest tech. On the other hand going for AM5 is more future proof I guess..

Also, I was first thinking of going for an X3d processor, but then gathered I'm actually not gaming that much (and not high demanding games) and the gpu will stay midrange anyway and thus be the bottleneck ? I wonder if the price of the 5800X3d will go down when the zen4 variant arrives.

Currently thinking about Am4 combo:

Ryzen 5700X

32 gb ram (3200mhz)

Asrock B450 Steel Legend

 

My current (Cooler master) cpu cooler is good enough I think, but I don't know if I still have the needed AM4 attachment (curently using it on an Intel cpu).

AM4 dead platform at this point, save up some more for AM5, expected to have updates for 5 years at least.
7700X on AM5 will smoke the 5700X, though it won't be as cheap. So save up some more.

To be fair, the 5700X is still a good CPU, it just doesn't really give you an upgrade path.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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2 hours ago, AluminumHaste said:

AM4 dead platform at this point, save up some more for AM5, expected to have updates for 5 years at least.
7700X on AM5 will smoke the 5700X, though it won't be as cheap. So save up some more.

To be fair, the 5700X is still a good CPU, it just doesn't really give you an upgrade path.

Most people don't upgrade their CPU on the same motherboard, and don't need to. It's a good option to have, but an overrated talking point for AMD.

If datiswous can save a couple hundred bucks by going with AM4, he'll have a CPU that is likely sufficient for any game for the next decade, simply based on the predicted console cycle (PS6 and new Xbox expected in 2028, followed by years of games supporting the older systems). The 5700X is a fast, mature 8-core that will be overkill for light office tasks and offer decent enough multi-threaded performance, although core counts are likely to explode by 2030-2033.

Ryzen 7000 does offer a nice boost, especially from higher clock speeds. The iGPU can be helpful, allowing you to convert it into a powerful HTPC box with AV1 decode towards the end of its desktop life. Some of the aggressive deals we saw months after launch made it look much better, canceling out the higher platform cost. I think those deals are slowing down, unless you can get to a Micro Center.

The 5700X could be upgraded to a 5800X3D or 5950X down the line. I would only bother to do it if I was able to get a "fished it out of the trash" tier deal, like $100 for a used 5950X. I wouldn't be surprised if the 5800X3D is more expensive than 5950X in the long run, because the big AM4 gaming boost is more coveted than the 5950X's multi-threading. Semi-pros who needed the 5950X will gladly ditch it to upgrade to 24/32-core Ryzen, because time is money.

Edited by jaxa
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Well I can only speak to my own experience with AM4. I went from 1800x to 2700x to 3900x to 5800x with nothing more than opening case, take off cooler, put in new CPU and enjoy more performance. Each new CPU gave me better and more stable frames in the games I was playing.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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I was just thinking about my situation where "wife negotiation" would need to happen.

I would probably just look for a used i7-5775C 65W 6MB cache ( 34% performance uplift in Single Core and 108% uplift in multi-core ) and ride it out until better AM5 options are affordable. Hard to say if that would workout since these seem to still command $200 prices in the used markets but it's probably cheaper than going for DDR4 + AM4 mobo + AM4 CPU in most cases.

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I just upgraded my really old pc last weekend to am4.  Frankly, I'm kind of budget conscious and I don't really upgrade often so am5 wasn't on my radar.

I just checked and I can actually load up and walk around in Painter's Wife at something more than a few frames per second.  :)  I have some time this weekend, so I know what I'm doing.

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4 hours ago, Sneaker said:

I just upgraded my really old pc last weekend to am4.  Frankly, I'm kind of budget conscious and I don't really upgrade often so am5 wasn't on my radar.

I just checked and I can actually load up and walk around in Painter's Wife at something more than a few frames per second.  :)  I have some time this weekend, so I know what I'm doing.

How about them specs?

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