CPU & MB upgrade from i5, to i7?

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sproggs

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Sep 8, 2017
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Hey all!

Situation: I did my first build a few years ago and am just doing my first major upgrades to it. I started by going from a GTX 960 to a 1080 Ti and the performance while gaming has been phenomenal! I now have an aging Intel i5 4690k (OC'd to ~4.2ghz) which is my new bottleneck (~13%) so I'm looking to upgrade to an i7 to compete with the 1080 Ti.

Problem: My ASUS Z97-e MB only supports up to the 5th gen of Intel CPUs! I went to userbenchmark.com and looked at the performance differences between my current CPU, a 4th/5th gen i7, and a 7th/8th gen i7, and wasn't surprised to find the latest gen i7s have the best all around scores.

Question(s): Given my build, would upgrading from my current CPU to a 4th or 5th gen Intel i7 provide a significantly noticeable performance increase for the money? OR If I'm going to spend ~$400 on a new processor, should I invest some extra dough (I'm thinking $200-400) in a new MB as well and get a newer gen i7?

MB: ASUS Z-97E LGA 1150
OS: Windows 10 Home 64
CPU: Intel i5 4690k @ 3.5ghz (OC @ 4.2)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 GAMING, 11G-P4-6696-KR, 11GB GDDR5X, iCX Technology
RAM: 2x8gb DDR3 G.Skill TridentX 1600
HD: WD 1TB SATA 7200 rpm 6GB/s 64MB cache
PS: EVGA SuperNova 750w
LC: CoolerMaster Seidon 240M
SC: Asus Xonar DGX 5.1
NC: TP-Link TG-3468 PCI-E
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 932 Advanced
Display: ASUS VG278HV 27" 144 Hz 1MS (GTG) 1920 x 1080

My most demanding task is probably gaming; however, I'm a student and often have multiple tabs and windows open as well and have strongly considered going the dual monitor route.

Thanks all!
 
Solution
DRagor
Well, the point is, IF you decide to go to new CPU, no matter if 6th, 7th or 8th gen or even Ryzen, you have to count in new RAM as well. So it goes like up to 400 for CPU, 200+ for MB and around 200 for RAM, totaling 800. IF you can spend that much, then I think it just might be worth it, lets say it-8700(k), a nice z370 mobo and 16 Gb of DDR4-3000 or 3200 RAM.
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DRagor

DRagor

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Jan 23, 2017
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Well, the point is, IF you decide to go to new CPU, no matter if 6th, 7th or 8th gen or even Ryzen, you have to count in new RAM as well. So it goes like up to 400 for CPU, 200+ for MB and around 200 for RAM, totaling 800. IF you can spend that much, then I think it just might be worth it, lets say it-8700(k), a nice z370 mobo and 16 Gb of DDR4-3000 or 3200 RAM.
 
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A

aquielisunari

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Mar 31, 2011
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How did you come to the 13% bottleneck amount and with which games?

https://s5.postimg.org/8pkn9rhqf/2018_PC.png with a Vive.
 
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sproggs

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Sep 8, 2017
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510
Thanks for the heads up on the RAM! I wasn't aware that I would need new RAM to upgrade the CPU...and that would be even I stuck with an i7 4xxxk?

As for the 13% bottleneck, that was a number pulled when I plugged my components into pcpartpicker. I haven't measured my exact bottleneck but my CPU does max out when playing Blizzard games, SWBF II, and a few others.
 
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DRagor

DRagor

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Jan 23, 2017
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No, If you keep your motherboard and only swap CPU, you don't need to change RAM. Only when swapping to newer generation CPUs.
 
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sproggs

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Sep 8, 2017
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Got it. Thank you.

I'm currently looking at ASRock's lineup of Z370 boards...it looks like the Killler SLI/ac and the Prof Gaming i7 are the "best" boards (rating, compatibility, price, etc); but the real difference between all of them is not apparent to me :p
 
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