Thinking of Upgrading, Help Welcome
I built a computer back in 2020. Not the best time, I know. But it is what it is. Long story short, I think it's time for me to upgrade my CPU. I know my Mobo is limited to 10 and 11 Gen Intel CPUs, but I'm not against the idea of upgrading to a 12 Gen CPU and Mobo. Budget isn't terrible nor great. But don't have enough for a complete new system. Heard the 13/14 Gen Intel Line have some problems and also being power hogs. So I'm avoiding those for now. Little input or suggestions are welcome.

CPU: Intel I5-10600K
RAM: Corsair 64gb DDR4 RAM 3600
GPU: RTX 3070
Harddrive: Samsung NVME 1TB
Mobo: MSI Z490 A Pro
< >
Beiträge 115 von 24
Unless you looking to do 4K or 1440p Ultra settings. Best bet is keep this PC as is and save up for a brand new build.

Maybe add another SSD and do a clean install of Win11 23H2 or 24H2, if not Linux. But with Linux it might depend on the games you wish to play.

Look towards AMD AM5 7800X3D and RTX 5070 / Radeon 9700 XT or better for next build

12th Gen i7 or i9 would still need a better GPU to shine the way that really makes it worth doing. So better to save up more money and pull the trigger or cureent gen stuff when you have the money ready
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Bad 💀 Motha; 13. Jan. um 3:52
Wtf, your PC is better (and newer) than mine and I run 1440p on Ultra settings. :badluck:

My CPU upgrade is also a 2020 CPU upgrade but in 2024, something is seriously wrong here → look at my profile and my PC Specs, you will be shocked (apart from that GPU which may be weaker than the GTX 1080Ti but idk), my PC was built in 2016/2017 and first upgrade in 2024.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Phénomènes Mystiques; 13. Jan. um 4:17
Ursprünglich geschrieben von WinterSolstice:
Wtf, your PC is better (and newer) than mine and I run 1440p on Ultra settings. :badluck:

My CPU upgrade is also a 2020 CPU upgrade but in 2024, something is seriously wrong here → look at my profile and my PC Specs, you will be shocked (apart from that GPU which may be weaker than the GTX 1080Ti but idk), my PC was built in 2016/2017 and first upgrade in 2024.

You can't possibly play most modern games on Ultra without a modern Radeon or RTX GPU. You're simply running games at the max settings a 1080 Ti can do, many of which are unavailable to such old GPUs
1440p Ultra in what though?
In many modern games, it's proven that in most scenarios even a 3060 12GB can output a good 15-30 FPS more then what a 1080 Ti can do in those same games.
Sorry, I don't talk to people that I have blocked and everyone (except OP) here is blocked so - have a good day/evening. :csd2smile:
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Phénomènes Mystiques; 13. Jan. um 4:47
Ursprünglich geschrieben von Bad 💀 Motha:
Unless you looking to do 4K or 1440p Ultra settings. Best bet is keep this PC as is and save up for a brand new build.

Maybe add another SSD and do a clean install of Win11 23H2 or 24H2, if not Linux. But with Linux it might depend on the games you wish to play.

Look towards AMD AM5 7800X3D and RTX 5070 / Radeon 9700 XT or better for next build

12th Gen i7 or i9 would still need a better GPU to shine the way that really makes it worth doing. So better to save up more money and pull the trigger or cureent gen stuff when you have the money ready

Right on. Appreciate the input. I kinda figured the same thing. Always felt like the 3070 was held back by the low vram. Turns out, most say the same. That aside, I dont know much about AMD. What makes the AM5 7800x3d stand out? I noticed with some games Im more CPU bottlenecked than GPU.
Ursprünglich geschrieben von WinterSolstice:
Wtf, your PC is better (and newer) than mine and I run 1440p on Ultra settings. :badluck:

My CPU upgrade is also a 2020 CPU upgrade but in 2024, something is seriously wrong here → look at my profile and my PC Specs, you will be shocked (apart from that GPU which may be weaker than the GTX 1080Ti but idk), my PC was built in 2016/2017 and first upgrade in 2024.

Maybe GPU? 1080TI is the GOAT afterall. At times, I just feel like Im not getting the most out of my system. Granted Im not the best at building. So getting components that mesh together, not my strong suit. Your build seems better optimized.
you could possibly get far with an i7 or an i9 cpu. i am still on i7-8700k myself so, i am not really up to date on modern cpus.
10600k can get crazy performance uplift with a cache OC. Just increasing the cache multiplier by 2 increases performance to 10900k levels. If you decide not not upgrade the CPU you can squeeze some extra performance out of it.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Magma Dragoon; 13. Jan. um 9:25
You're in that tough "I have an aging mid-range system but newer options won't be worthwhile unless I have a high budget" spot in my opinion, so I agree with the first reply to wait.

But, it's nobody else's place to tell you to wait if you want more now. It's just that you sort of need a high budget to get a big enough jump. Else, if you absolutely want a moderate bump now, the best you'd probably be looking at would be a 12600KF/12700KF on sale or a 5700X3D. Or a cheap AM5 CPU like a 7600 but you'll be trading off cores/some performance for future upgradability, which is preference on if that's worth it.

Otherwise, a 10700K, 11700K, or 10850K are in-platform options but I honestly don't think they'd be worth it?
Ursprünglich geschrieben von WinterSolstice:
Wtf, your PC is better (and newer) than mine and I run 1440p on Ultra settings. :badluck:

My CPU upgrade is also a 2020 CPU upgrade but in 2024, something is seriously wrong here → look at my profile and my PC Specs, you will be shocked (apart from that GPU which may be weaker than the GTX 1080Ti but idk), my PC was built in 2016/2017 and first upgrade in 2024.
You don't even know if an RTX 3070 is slower or faster than a GTX 1080 Ti, yet... you're advising on the results they should get with one compared to yours?

As a rule of thumb, a given tier will be matched by the tier below it the following generation. It's not exact, but often true enough. So a x80 class would be (give or take) matched by a x70 class the next generation, and also (give or take) matched by a x60 class two generations later. So in this case, "1080 class ~= 2070 class ~= 3060 class". Again, not always exact since some generational replacements are better or worse than normal but it's close enough, most of the time.

"Ti" are just gap fillers between the vanilla tiers. Usually it's a refresh (sometimes it's a launch tier now) but they all sit in-between tiers, so it's slightly faster than the vanilla of the same tier but slower than the vanilla of the next tier up. For example, an RTX 3060 Ti is better than a RTX 3060... but worse than an RTX 3070. An RTX 3070 Ti is better than an RTX 3070... but worse than an RTX 3080. And so on.

So for reference, the GTX 1080 Ti is typically closer to the RTX 3060 non-Ti (it's between the vanilla RTX 3060 and the Ti but often closer to the vanilla).

References...

Scroll to "Relative Performance" to get an idea...

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1080-ti.c2877

Or...

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

(Keep in mind the FPS will depend on their game selection, but at 1440p it's now a sub-60 FPS card with their chosen games, so you're more looking at what GPUs it lines up with.)

The RTX 3060s (both) were mid-range products from what's about to be two generations old, but they're still relevant on the buying market even today, although basically as the "entry level floor" since the only options below them are either old or very budget stuff (RTX 3050/RX 6500 and so on). In other words, the GTX 1080 Ti represents what can be gotten in basically the lowest entry level options now, and they might even be better because Pascal lacks some newer features (like mesh shaders).

The GTX 1080 Ti was the flagship refresh... five generations and seven/eight years ago.

Is it still decent? Sure, that's a definite maybe depending on what games you play and your desired performance targets. Even stuff slower than that is still serviceable. But it's equal to low end (or less) performance in 2025. The entire RTX 30 series matches (or exceeds) it besides the RTX 3050. So yes, the RTX 3070 is often markedly faster.

The RTX 3070 itself is sort of low-ish in the mid-range bracket, and aging, but it's mostly still fine as long as you're not going after 1440p and/or ultra in the heavier games. Its VRAM capacity is its one possible weak point.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Illusion of Progress; 13. Jan. um 10:17
Ursprünglich geschrieben von andreasaspenberg575:
you could possibly get far with an i7 or an i9 cpu. i am still on i7-8700k myself so, i am not really up to date on modern cpus.

I thought the same also. But price to performance makes it a hard judgement. Especially since if I stuck to the same Gen, I feel id be be tapping out compared to a later Gen.
Ursprünglich geschrieben von Magma Dragoon:
10600k can get crazy performance uplift with a cache OC. Just increasing the cache multiplier by 2 increases performance to 10900k levels. If you decide not not upgrade the CPU you can squeeze some extra performance out of it.

I'm pretty amateurish at OCing. Is there any hard data or tests that you know of? I definitely curious. If there is also a "how to" im all ears.
Ursprünglich geschrieben von Illusion of Progress:
You're in that tough "I have an aging mid-range system but newer options won't be worthwhile unless I have a high budget" spot in my opinion, so I agree with the first reply to wait.

But, it's nobody else's place to tell you to wait if you want more now. It's just that you sort of need a high budget to get a big enough jump. Else, if you absolutely want a moderate bump now, the best you'd probably be looking at would be a 12600KF/12700KF on sale or a 5700X3D. Or a cheap AM5 CPU like a 7600 but you'll be trading off cores/some performance for future upgradability, which is preference on if that's worth it.

Otherwise, a 10700K, 11700K, or 10850K are in-platform options but I honestly don't think they'd be worth it?
Ursprünglich geschrieben von WinterSolstice:
Wtf, your PC is better (and newer) than mine and I run 1440p on Ultra settings. :badluck:

Im not super hard fixed to the budget. But definitely felt the "aging mid-range pc" lol Did some research and the 11th Gen is an upgrade, but the techies say its kinda of a rehash of the 10s and if I up to a 10900k its still outperformed by 12th gen. But if I go with 12th gen, im looking at a new mobo, ram, and possibly AIO. So definitely a rock and hard place. Granted, Im going from "I need help/suggestions" to "price to performance debate"
Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crispy Tiger:
Ursprünglich geschrieben von Magma Dragoon:
10600k can get crazy performance uplift with a cache OC. Just increasing the cache multiplier by 2 increases performance to 10900k levels. If you decide not not upgrade the CPU you can squeeze some extra performance out of it.

I'm pretty amateurish at OCing. Is there any hard data or tests that you know of? I definitely curious. If there is also a "how to" im all ears.
I don't have a 10600k so I'm not familiar with the specifics of it, but it isn't uncommon for overclockers to put together spreadsheets of 99% safe OCs. That is, if the chip can handle a given OC, what voltage makes it work every time? Maybe it just works with voltage on auto. Gamers Nexus discovered this behavior and made a video about it https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbHyF50m-rs
Cache OC was something people were excited about with 10th gen, because everybody thought big OC uplifts were a thing of the past. I'm sure you could find some people posting their results to get an idea of where to start
Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crispy Tiger:
Im not super hard fixed to the budget. But definitely felt the "aging mid-range pc" lol Did some research and the 11th Gen is an upgrade, but the techies say its kinda of a rehash of the 10s and if I up to a 10900k its still outperformed by 12th gen. But if I go with 12th gen, im looking at a new mobo, ram, and possibly AIO. So definitely a rock and hard place. Granted, Im going from "I need help/suggestions" to "price to performance debate"
For clarity, the phrase wasn't meant to be an insult of your hardware, but more the opposite.

All hardware goes through a phase, typically when it's half a decade old (give or take a couple years either direction) where it's in a phase I'd describe as "no longer really fast, but also not slow enough to justify replacing with anything outside of the latest/more expensive stuff" and that's where your hardware currently is in my mind.

Meaning that yes, stuff substantially faster than a 10th generation CPU exist... but the ones just above it aren't a big enough increase for the cost, and the ones further beyond won't be cheap. So that's what I meant by you're in that tough spot. You have to decide if it's worth spending a lot for an upgrade, and unless what you have now really makes you feel yearning for more, sometimes waiting another couple of years (this let's another CPU + GPU generation release usually, prices move, RAM/storage/motherboard offerings advance, etc.) and then looking at the market again.

If you already have 3,200 MHz RAM, then you can get a 12600KF/12700KF for $145/$190 respectively with a cheap DDR4 motherboard, and that might be a compromise option. But that presumes your existing RAM is good enough to reuse.

Otherwise, if you need to replace everything, I'd be looking at AM5 if you want to change now, or else sticking with what you have if you're willing to for another couple of years and seeing what the market looks like then. 10th generation isn't new and shiny anymore but it should have another few years left in it.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Illusion of Progress; 14. Jan. um 4:51
< >
Beiträge 115 von 24
Pro Seite: 1530 50

Geschrieben am: 13. Jan. um 3:44
Beiträge: 24