What CPU would be worth upgrading from a i7-2600 or stay

[AlienC]

Currently have a i7-2600 GTX 1050ti low profile 32gb ddr3 ram 2.5tb of ssd and 8tb hdd all in a HP 8200 Compaq

Thinking about upgrading in the future. A 1080ti looks good for value or a 1080.

What CPU should I upgrade to to utilize the high end GPU's just for strictly gaming.

I will be playing some intensive CPU bound games with a bunch of physics and simulation type stuff.

I know 8700K is basically the king but trying to save money if possible but also want the best bang for buck.. basically where diminishing returns versus price starts..

My logic is a 1080ti is pretty much 3 to 4x the performance of a 1050 so the price for me is justified. However with CPU I don't know how much say a jump from a i7-2600 and motherboard to say a low end or mid range 8th gen cpu like a 8100 or 8400 will be in terms of performance and architecture difference.. somebody more expertised please enlighten me on best cpu choice or replacement or to just keep the Sandy bridge (but my research says the Sandy bridge might bottle neck me or cause quite a bit of loss or gap in performance compared to something maybe better)

What is the sweet spot cpu mobo build for just purely high end GPU single card gaming.

May or may not multi monitor or go 4K.

Also is my ram ok? Or should I jump to ddr4.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

U have no choice but ddr4 for AMD ryzen or 7th or 8th Gen Intel stuff.

Z370 board
8600k cpu
120mm or 140mm cpu cooler
2x8gb ddr4, 2666 or better
Sdd + hdd
Windows 10 64bit

[Ronnie]

And remember to buy a blower style gpu or u will have a big problem with heat

[Arya]

Postat inițial de Ronni002:

And remember to buy a blower style gpu or u will have a big problem with heat

I think you've got it backwards :)

Blower style cards struggle with overheating. They have small heatsinks, inefficient airflow and tend to pool hot air. Heatsink cooled cards are much more efficient and run much colder, while Hybrid and Liquid cooled cards can reach even colder temps.

Cooling is a major concern for Nivida Pascal cards. The latest version of GPU boost is very finnicky and won't deliver absolute 100% clock speed unless the GPU is at or below 68-70 degrees. It won't throttle the card, but it will knock off a couple of FPS and that's wasted potential.

I would pick entirely based on cooling system. For an air-cooled card your best option is Asus Strix, which is what I have. Strix can be a little noisy, but they cool like a demon and have very impressive stock overclocks. For liquid cooling, your absolute-best option is to buy a Blower Card and upgrade it with EK's aftermarket LQ conversion kits.

[Ronnie]

Postat inițial de Wolfey:

Postat inițial de Ronni002:

And remember to buy a blower style gpu or u will have a big problem with heat

I think you've got it backwards :)

Blower style cards struggle with overheating. They have small heatsinks, inefficient airflow and tend to pool hot air. Heatsink cooled cards are much more efficient and run much colder, while Hybrid and Liquid cooled cards can reach even colder temps.

Cooling is a major concern for Nivida Pascal cards. The latest version of GPU boost is very finnicky and won't deliver absolute 100% clock speed unless the GPU is at or below 68-70 degrees. It won't throttle the card, but it will knock off a couple of FPS and that's wasted potential.

I would pick entirely based on cooling system. For an air-cooled card your best option is Asus Strix, which is what I have. Strix can be a little noisy, but they cool like a demon and have very impressive stock overclocks. For liquid cooling, your absolute-best option is to buy a Blower Card and upgrade it with EK's aftermarket LQ conversion kits.

I know that blower styles arent as effective but he has an old small case with quite bad air flow and and a asus strix would use the same hot air mutiple times

[Arya]

Postat inițial de Ronni002:

I know that blower styles arent as effective but he has an old small case with quite bad air flow and and a asus strix would use the same hot air mutiple times

Fair enough, I missed that. Sorry :)

Given the limited space, a liquid cooled card like a Seahawk may be a good idea. They're relatively compact, and exhaust directly out of the case. Small cases are where LC cards and CPUs shine the brightest.

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

To begin with GTX 1180 seem like it will be faster than the GTX 1080Ti and it should cost less (then again at release maybe not) so you may want to wait with buying a graphics card now since it's very late into this generation. You already have a graphics card of this one .. =P

As for CPU it depends. If you were only to play in 4K resolution then your i5 2500K may still hold up. If you want to play competitive shooters in 1080p then the i7 8700K will run games faster. Of course it will be able to run stuff like Fallout and Far Cry and such faster too but it may not matter all that much and if you run them in 4K then close to not at all I guess.

The i5 2500K will always be an insecure CPU too it seem? And if hardware is starting to fail on you that could also be a reason for upgrade.

The i5 8400 is pretty decent for games but if you were to spend the money into a 1080Ti then I don't think you should cheap out and get those cheaper CPUs. The price difference isn't all that massive relative the cost of the graphics card. i5 8400 + GTX 1080 of course work but for a 1080Ti why not get the best CPU with the 8700K? (The 8086K is just a better binned one with the same multi-core turbos.)
Soon Z390 and an 8 core CPU will be released too, though that one may be more expensive, I guess in part because it's actually quite a bit superior to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and as such it deserve to cost more. Personally I would find that interesting too just to have the best and be able to use it for long. If you get something like the i5 8400 maybe soon you wish you could run more threads or get annoyed that it have a lower clock-rate and doesn't keep up. Plus it's performance with multi-threaded loads are lower of course.

The Ryzen processors have a hard time keeping up in games in part due to higher memory latency and lower clocks, something which is also true for the Intel high-end desktop platform Skylake-X which just as Ryzen use a different bus to connect the cores to each other than the Intel mainstream platform Coffee lake.

I'd say wait and then get the GTX 1180 or 1170 when they are released and pick up Z390 + 6 or 8 core processor whichever you want. Unless the insecurity of your current processor feel like a problem but right now Coffee lake is also insecure though there will be patches in August, they haven't told the public in what way they are insecure though so not all that many may be capable of exploiting it. Eventually Intel will release 10 nm desktop CPUs and eventually improve the actual cores they are using too. AMD will release 7 nm improved cores too the next time around but possibly they will keep on releasing once a year in spring and maybe it won't happen before new year. The RAM latency I guess will remain since it's part of the design of the processor and the design is there to support more cores. Intel also changed bus when increasing the support for more cores. Can't know for sure whatever the 8 core one will use ring bus even and how well that will perform with 8 cores.

Also say upgrading to i5 8400 will not give you as much advantage over your i5 2500K plus you'd still spend money on motherboard and RAM. So if you upgrade I'd say do it all in and in a way which make you happy with the upgrade and so that you can use it for quite some time again. Well, that or always going with a "good enough for me" approach, like getting i3 8100, 8 GB DDR4 and B360 board now and live with that and later get the same tier of stuff some time in the future. Then again buying that twice to in the end end up with something like an i7 8700K may cost as much as getting it straight ahead =P, two i3 tier products, two B-motherboards, two half sized memory kits = same price as the i7 + Z + larger memory kit from the start.

[Null_User]

I agree with the above poster that if you are going for a best of the lot GPU, might as well try to aim for top or near top on CPU too. I don't know the details much, but at least I know that anything i-7 made by Intel after 2016 and with a "K" on it should handle the 1080Ti like a boss. SURE, you must always do your research. You may also want to check what hardware other people use with the games you play, and their experiences.

As for ram, if you go modern, your mobo will most likely support or require DDR4 anyway, so build to last. You don't want to spend money on something that will be obsolete quickly.

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Intel 7th and 6th gen processors do support DDR3L but that's a low voltage variant of DDR3. DDR3 use more volt and the CPUs aren't speced for / doesn't officially support it. If you actually got a motherboard with support for that socket and DDR3 your RAM may work in it but you may also damage the CPU using it. Plus those CPUs are just quad-core like the one you already have and new cost about as much as the 8th gen. So ...

I guess one option would be getting a high end desktop / server Intel board with a used cheap Xeon with 6 cores but still have DDR3 support if one just wanted to do a kind of a an upgrade.

X79 boards with DDR3 support exist. I don't know what the processors cost. X58 boards exist too and 6 core Xeons for those boards are very cheap but they are also as old as your current processor. Then again sure two more cores and more PCI-express lanes and such.

Insecure for infinity too.

Here's a $40 used X5670 for an X58 board (they are likely $150 or so) which support Xeon against an i5 2500K:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiqfWwI3Zx8

[Null_User]

hah. Haven't seen the term "X58" in awhile. I had one of those. Pretty much exploded in my face....

[hawkeye]

I use an i7-2600 set to run at 4.3 GHz and a 1080ti. Works OK.

There are several videos on youtube that discuss upgrade paths for the i7-2600. More or less you would be looking at a 6-core coffee lake to make the expense worthwhile.

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Was i7 2600 even. Then i5 8400 is even less of an upgrade.

Postat inițial de hawkeye:

I use an i7-2600 set to run at 4.3 GHz and a 1080ti. Works OK.

There are several videos on youtube that discuss upgrade paths for the i7-2600. More or less you would be looking at a 6-core coffee lake to make the expense worthwhile.

But likely 8 core will be at most $100 more soonish so why not wait a bit more =P

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Due to the OP's PC specs and alike; best bet is you start over from 100% scratch.
Build a brand new system using a nice new roomy case with tons of fans and airflow.
You can reuse your old Drives and GPU, that's about all.

[InfinityJosh]

8700 or 8700k if you want a futureproof upgrade.
Someone will tell you i5 is enough, just like few years ago an Haswell i5 was recommended for gaming and anything higher was a waste of money.
2018 is running and Haswell i7 is still a very good CPU, i5 Haswell is on pair of a 8th gen Pentium...

Never save on CPU if you want something futureproof.
If you plan to build from scratch again in 4/5 years go for i5 8400 but you won't be able to upgrade the GPU to 1280ti due to bottleneck.
Unlikely a 8700 even non K would be a good match again.

If you want to save money buy a 8700 non K, H310M MB and buy 8GB RAM (can add later another stick).

[Bad 💀 Motha]

8700K + Z370 + 2x8GB of 2666 or higher

Don't cheap out... otherwise WTF are you even upgrading for.

[InfinityJosh]

Postat inițial de Bad_Motha:

8700K + Z370 + 2x8GB of 2666 or higher

Don't cheap out... otherwise WTF are you even upgrading for.

If he is on a budget a good H310M, 1 stick 8gb ram 2666 and a non K 8700 could be a cheaper but great upgrade.
Also keep case and storage.

But yeah if you have money what you wrote is the way to go.