Buyers question: Upgrading the CPU for the Pascal GPU:s

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petri0809

Commendable
Mar 7, 2016
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1,510
Hi.
I’m about to upgrade my GPU to GTX1070 or GTX1080 the next fall, but to do so I need to upgrade my CPU first. To enjoy the performance boost sooner I plan to upgrade the CPU and MOBO now, the problem being that I have been using AMD chips for past 10 years and Intel seeming to be the way to go now a days, I’m pretty lost.

My budget 450€ including CPU, MOBO and if needed RAM.

I’ve narrowed down the search to Intel i5 6600k (270€) and i5 4690k (270€) but I have no idea what to go with. Main problem being the question of RAM, do I go with the Haswell infrastructure and DDR3 or Skylake and DDR4. I already own a 16gb kit of high quality 1866 mhz DDR3 (Not the DDR3L sadly) and upgrading to DDR4 would set me back another 100€ or so. The main use of my computer is gaming so as I understand the DDR4 has no significant advantage to DDR3 in this sense.

QUESTION:
Should I buy the 6600k with 16gb of DDR4 (that pushes me about 100 € over my budget) or go with the 4690k and keep my old RAM. OR go with the 6600k and MOBO that supports DDR3 and risk damaging my new chip? OR go with something completely different? All so please suggest a MOBO good for over clocking the CPU in question.

Goal being not to bottleneck GTX1070 or GTX1080, get the most out of my money and not to upgrade the CPU/MOBO in the following 3-4 years (I’m ok with not playing the latest games on ultra settings).

My current system:
CPU/APU: AMD a10 6800k OC 4,7 ghz (Not utilizing the integrated graphics)
MEM: 16 gb 1866 MHZ DDR3 (Sniper Elite)
MOBO: Asus F2A85-V PRO
GPU: GTX 770 with 2gb VRAM
PSU: Corsair CX850M

Sadly buying used components is not a possibility, since the supply in my country is so low and prices are totally inflated.

All help is appreciated!
 
Solution
Ecky
Might I recommend an i7 4790K paired with a non-Z97 motherboard? The 4790K already turbos to ~4.4ghz, which is close to the maximum overclock you might expect, so it's somewhat pointless to buy an overclocking motherboard with it. You can save some money and get an H97 or even B85 board.

If you feel you can sell your current DDR3 at a reasonable price, Skylake would be a better choice, with better upgrade prospects.

I'm often an advocate of not buying overclocking parts, tbh. An i5 6600K + overclocking board + aftermarket cooler is often more expensive than an i7 6700 + non-overclocking board, and I'd almost always rather have the i7. Many games don't benefit much from the extra threads on the i7, but it's increasingly the case that...
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Archaic59

Archaic59

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Jan 6, 2015
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The Devils Canyon 4690K with your old DDR3 1866 will do a fine job with a new Pascal GPU and save you some euros. Pair the i5 with a good Z97 board and cooler and you'll have a strong system that will crush games for years to come. We still need to talk about your power supply, which is missing from your list.
 
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petri0809

Commendable
Mar 7, 2016
8
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Hi Archaic59 thanks for your reply!
I totally forgot to mention my PSU. I'm running a Corsair CX850M and i have an old Nexus RX-1K 1000W laying around.
 
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Archaic59

Archaic59

Polypheme
Jan 6, 2015
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Hmm. Your Nexus is likely 5-7 years old and only came with a 3 year warranty when it was new, which is not such a good sign as to its' overall build quality. The CX850M is not that good of quality to begin with so it makes for a tough call to upgrade or not. I suppose you could use the Corsair for now. I suspect it is newer than the Nexus. I recommend the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 motherboard to pair with the Devils Canyon CPU if you decide to go that way.
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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Might I recommend an i7 4790K paired with a non-Z97 motherboard? The 4790K already turbos to ~4.4ghz, which is close to the maximum overclock you might expect, so it's somewhat pointless to buy an overclocking motherboard with it. You can save some money and get an H97 or even B85 board.

If you feel you can sell your current DDR3 at a reasonable price, Skylake would be a better choice, with better upgrade prospects.

I'm often an advocate of not buying overclocking parts, tbh. An i5 6600K + overclocking board + aftermarket cooler is often more expensive than an i7 6700 + non-overclocking board, and I'd almost always rather have the i7. Many games don't benefit much from the extra threads on the i7, but it's increasingly the case that some do, and even at max-overclock, the i5 will only have maybe 10-15% extra single-threaded performance, whereas the i7 has more than 30% higher multithreaded performance.
 
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Solution
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petri0809

Commendable
Mar 7, 2016
8
0
1,510


You are correct. The nexus is about 7 years old, but the Corsair is just few months old. Correct me if I'm wrong but it was brought to my attention that the Pascal cards will be WAY more power efficient than my old 770. This is why it wouldn't even occur to me that i should upgrade it. Nevertheless, thanks for the hint!

Edit: It seems like the MOBO you recommended is a bit hard to come by, since all of my local retailers have discontinued it. I managed to find a retailer with few Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI boards, which seems to be quite similar spec wise, would you agree?
 
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petri0809

Commendable
Mar 7, 2016
8
0
1,510


Hi Ecky, thanks for the reply!
I already own a Noctua DH15 cooler that suits my OC needs just fine and I plan to use it in my next build as well. I haven't yet looked up any OC results for either CPU, but I have a hunch that in my country I7 + non OC board will still be more expensive than I5 + OC board.

Still I will be sure to add your suggestion to my list of things to compare!
 
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