Is upgrading my CPU worth it?

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Kenta1561

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Jul 13, 2017
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Hello,

I currently have an Intel i5-4440 in my computer and I am considering an upgrade with a budget of about 200-250/300$. I already know that upgrading my CPU will lead to an obligatory upgrade of my motherboard (Gigabyte B85M-HD3) with an LGA1150 socket so the respective budget refers only to the price of the processor.

I did some research and found some chips that are currently on the market with a good performance and decent pricing such as the i5-7600k or the Ryzen 5 lineup but I'm in doubt whether I will benefit from this upgrade, seen from a gamer's perspective.

To me it seems questionable if an upgrade is worth it in general as I haven't heard anyone stating that upgrading to current mainstream CPUs will have a major effect on performance.

Besides that I am wondering if my 4440 paired with a GTX 1060 (6G) is the cause of a potential bottleneck as I've recognized a high usage (90-100%) of my CPU.

So, my general question is: Is this the right timing to upgrade an i5-4440? - If so, can you give me a recommendation? Or should I wait until a processor with more performance is released?

Kenta1561

PS: I apologize for any mistakes in language as I'm not a native speaker.
 
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MrN1ce9uy


If you just wanted to go with Ryzen I suppose there would be no need to wait. Some games will benefit from more cores, some won't. So again, it will depend on the games you play. It's becoming more common for games to utilize more...
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LORDPrometheus

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An i5 4440 is probably sufficient to run most modern games but there is reason to upgrade if you feel like the system is not performing as well as you want it to. Upgrading to a new Intel or Ryzen chip will require a new CPU motherboard and ram as you will need a ddr4 kit and you currently have a motherboard that uses DDR3. In terms of bottleneck you will be getting around 14 to 20% lower performance because of the outdated CPU. a valid upgrade path would be either a Ryzen 5 1500x or ryzen 5 1600. this would require a new motherboard and at least 8gb of ddr4 ram. upgrading to that would cost up to $400. going to intel i would get an i5 7600 non K series chip unless you plan on overclocking it which requires an i5 7600k or other k series chip. this with again a new motherboard and at least 8gb of ram will come out to about the same price as the ryzen upgrade.
 
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Kenta1561

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Jul 13, 2017
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Do you mean by it comes out that they are going to present it to the public or that it actually goes on sale?
Are they expected to offer significantly more performance in terms of gaming than AMD's Ryzen processors and make them worth waiting?
Can games benefit from high-core counts?

Kenta1561
 
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MrN1ce9uy

MrN1ce9uy

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If you just wanted to go with Ryzen I suppose there would be no need to wait. Some games will benefit from more cores, some won't. So again, it will depend on the games you play. It's becoming more common for games to utilize more cores/threads.

I would expect Intel's Coffee Lake to offer more performance than Ryzen in gaming due to higher clock speeds. But it might not matter unless you're going for high frame rate / high refresh rate gaming.

It also would not matter that Intel is faster than Ryzen if you are streaming while gaming because Ryzen would have more threads per dollar and would be the better value for streaming/gaming.

I think just gaming Intel will continue to be faster, while gaming and streaming Ryzen will continue to be faster. Unless Coffee Lake surprises us with the hexa-core i5 being able to keep up with the Ryzen 5 in streaming.

Long story short, AMD delivers better value while Intel delivers faster frame rates. You mentioned the i5-7600K and that's why I said wait until Coffee Lake because I read (rumors) that it could launch in August. It could offer the hexa-core i5-8600K as the same price as the 7600K was at launch.
 
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Kenta1561

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Jul 13, 2017
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Thank you very much for the detailed answer. I will take the advices into consideration and wait until Coffee Lake gets released soon, hopefully with a great increase in performance compared to the competition and the current generation of Intel processors.

I don't plan to stream and play games at the same time thus, as you've already suggested my preference would be to buy an 8th Gen i5 or even an i7 if it won't be too expensive.

Kenta1561
 
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