Upgrade Path - Looking for Advice

Hey all! I’m looking for a bit of advice for my hardware setup.

Here’s my story;

I have a i7-4790K on a failing Z97 (LGA1150) motherboard. My GPU is a GTX 970 that has so far performed great. My monitor is 3440x1440 @ 60FPS.

Because of my failing motherboard, I’m forced to take action and purchase some hardware.

Option 1 - Replace failing Z97 board
I think the biggest downside to this option is that I would be buying old hardware, and most likely used or refurbished. I’m only including it incase someone knows of a place that sells them, otherwise let’s toss this one aside.

Option 2 - Buy all new CPU/MB/RAM (AMD)
I assume that something like this will cost roughly $600-$700. My thoughts are to go with AMD’s newest lineup & get a 3700x and a B450 board. I don’t need any of the features on the new x570 boards and have no plans to overclock. My current setup is still working for now so I don’t mind waiting a couple of weeks for stock levels to replenish. This would also allow me to get an M.2 SSD :slight_smile:

Option 3 – Buy all new CPU/MB/RAM (Intel)
I’ve also thought about sticking with Intel and going with a i7-9700 instead of AMD’s offering. In my experience, Intel is rock solid. I’m not sure how AMD’s CPUs are going to measure up but I guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks. I’ve had a rough go at finding benchmarks for WoW so hard to see if there will be any real difference in performance between the two brands.

What would you do? I appreciate any time spent on this discussion, if anyone cares to chime in – I’m all ears.

This would be a better choice

From what others have said on other threads, a 3600 matches a 9900k in WoW, here on this thread

Even if you decided to get a 3600 and wanting to upgrade to a 4000 series you can

Meanwhile if you happen to get Intel 9th gen now, that’s it based on rumors about 10th gen (meaning new socket so if you wanted a new chip you have to get a new board too)

Ryzen 3rd gen is making current Intel chips obsolete, consider that

That’s not the case anymore. Both vendors are quick race to the bottom, they’re commodity hardware and not SPARC servers after all.

The 3600 with an Asrock B450 Fatality mobo and 16GB of RAM costs about $400 these days. Best WoW experience you can get right now.

I think it probably makes sense to replace them both. If you can find a cheap motherboard that’s probably fine though.

I’m gonna disagree with the amd fanboys. I’ve seen no evidence the 3600 is equal to the 9900k beyond just anecdotal. every actual gaming review shows they are not equal, the 9900k is better. the 9700k and 8700k are better as well. If anyone has anything that demonstrates otherwise, then go ahead and post it.

Imo, for the most part amd and intel are roughly on par for price/gaming performance. In other words, no matter what you buy, the price of each amd and intel cpu is appropriately proportional to its performance. your plans 2 and 3 are both good, you won’t go wrong by getting a 3700x, or a 9700k, as you get what you pay for and they’re both gonna do great at warcraft. some mentions - if you care about intense productivity work, the amd cpu is going to be a better choice. also, if you think you’re going to upgrade the cpu regularly, amd is much better about not changing sockets, so you’re more likely to get more upgrades in with the same motherboard with amd, but this is a bit unpredictable.

the 3600 is a small exception. it is a no brainer for a budget gaming cpu and a very good value. but it is still just that - a value cpu that performs worse than any of the more expensive ones at tasks like warcraft. just because it isn’t blown out of the water compared to the more expensive cpu’s doesn’t mean it’s correct to say they’re the same - the differences are significant.

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The 3600 is 2% slower than a 9900K in WoW:

A 9700k and 9900k are of course better. Is it worth 2X the price for 2% more performance?

I didn’t have time to watch the three hour stream. Did they overclock the 9700k or 9900k or is this the typical AMD schtick where they purposefully gimp the intel system to make AMD look better?

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Pick up the 3700x and a B450 and enjoy it if it works. Performance is up there and even better then Intel when running multiple programs which everyone pretty well does already.

Stock gaming.

Of course. lol

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Stock vs stock, what’s the problem?

Stock vs stock benefits the AMD system only and isn’t indicative of the actual performance you can get out of an Intel SKU with a very basic OC. Seems par for the course for AMD. Every advantage they can get, right?

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Except single thread for the 9900k is only at 5 Ghz at stock speeds while the 3600x is 4.3 Ghz on the video aribeth linked

yet the 3600x is literally at neck to neck of a 9900k at lower clock speed

9900k video

first link, fps of the 3600x is within 2% and even at times same as the 9900k fps (180 average FPS in Waycrest Manor for the 9900k, 3600x averaged 165-170 fps at 4.3 Ghz and at times 180 fps during Lady and Lord Waycrest boss fight)

and no a 5 GHz all core OC didn’t save the 9900k either, he benchmark that too :rofl:

1440p Uldir benchmark, entrance 200 fps, M.O.T.H.E.R fight 120 fps average, overall 130 fps at the end

meanwhile, the 9900k average at 1440p is 145, while .01% lows and 1% lows of 9900k and 3600x are within 5 fps of each other, once again neck to neck

then finally hes using an Asus board, which they have become terrible for bios updates with ryzen, meanwhile gigabyte, asrock and I think MSI have gotten the updates that give the 3000 series better performance

so like aribeth said…

instead of assuming, you should probably pay attention of benchmarks lately especially with one of Intels favorite benchmark, Passmark

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/c7npcw/ryzen_3600_surges_to_the_1_place_on_passmark/

info is old now but imagine a $329 ryzen chip (and if you look at it, the $250 chip too) is making a 9900k look bad :rofl:

and if thats not a wakeup call, then maybe this is

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/cel28w/ryzen_outselling_intel_across_asia/

asia market is bigger than ours

so literally this
117 votes and 14 comments so far on Reddit

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Maybe you ought to actually look up some benchmarks yourself. If you aren’t up to date on information, you really shouldn’t be having this argument.

Simply screeching “iNtEl Is StIiL bEtTeR” doesn’t work, because it’s not true, and even in those cases/direct comparisons where it is close, well, let’s just say it’s not 6 years ago anymore. Get with the times.

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i’m aware the ryzen’s do great at passmark which is impressive, because of that i was expecting them to beat the intels at gaming performance but they don’t. so if you’re making the claim that the 9900k is better at every game except warcraft you’re going to need to present more compelling evidence than a 3 hour stream nobody is going to watch.

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You have a change of heart it seems, because 2 years ago you were the same way he was on the old forums :smiley:

I recognized that guild name btw

I wasn’t the same way as him, and I’m not the same as you were and are either. You were hyping AMD in a time where there was little reason to hype AMD. Never had a change of heart regarding you or this forum, my heart follows the products.

I don’t have brand loyalty, I have performance loyalty.

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Thanks for all of the replies everyone, appreciate all of the input.

My final decision was to purchase the 3700x, along with new ram/mobo/M.2. I actually just placed the order!

I came to this conclusion because I believe AMD’s offering will bring more to the table overall. I do plan on using software that can utilize all of the chip. I’m excited to see what my experience with AMD will be like, feeling optimistic!

Thanks again!

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I think you made a good choice. AMD has some very competitive products right now with good prices. Enjoy your upgrade!

You didn’t watch the vid so how can you make that statement?

The problem is Ryzen doesn’t consistently OC right now. Some people have Ryzen 3000s beating 9900Ks while others have it slower by 20%. Between silicon lottery on CPUs and firmware you have a massive array of performance diff on Ryzen 3000. AMD is sorting the mess out over time but it’s taking time.

This benchmark only shows performance in WoW of a 3600 (6 core) vs a 9900K (8 core). If you compare other games then the 9900K is a no brainer. WOW benefits a lot from the massive L3 cache but not all titles will.

Right now Intel has 0 chips worth buying at their price ranges. The 9700K and 9900K are slightly faster at times consuming 200% more power. Is the price worth it? That depends on who is buying. Intel’s Sunny Cove looks better on paper but it’s not out. A simple price change on 9K series will make Intel competitive again.

People need to stop fighting over their favor vendor and look at things the way they are.

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