Time to upgrade my CPU? It s from 2012

[ehume]

My 4790k has visibly slowed down on ordinary tasks since the Spectre/Meltdown patches. With a 3970x oc'd to 5ghz, you are set until they fix the S&M in hardware. So wait to 2020.

 

[LTC8K6]

My 4790k has visibly slowed down on ordinary tasks since the Spectre/Meltdown patches. With a 3970x oc'd to 5ghz, you are set until they fix the S&M in hardware. So wait to 2020.

My 4790K appears entirely unaffected for ordinary tasks.

 

[moonbogg]

14nm CPU's are boring already. Bring on the 10nm goods.

 

[Markfw]

My 4790K appears entirely unaffected for ordinary tasks.

I see he has an SSD, those are greatly affected. Do you have an SSD ?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I agree Mopetar. You would see some gains from an upgrade but I would wait for Meltdown/Spectre fixed CPUs before buying anything new. You don't want to lose the speed gains right away due to Meltdown/Spectre mitigations

This & memory prices are making me sit on my Q9650

 

[dark zero]

I m using a old 3970x (overclocked to 5GHz) with a titanxp.
I m using a 1080p screen at 120hz and this cpu is under heavy usage.

is it time to upgrade ?

Still can survive 1 year more. No joking. SB is the BEST uARCH Intel made since Conroe. So you can keep it in order to wait for an newer uARCH which allows to get more than 50% of performance increase in Single Core.

Currently I am using a Core i5 2400, so is not heavily needed an i7 for me. And a GT 1030 is enough for some casual gaming and Virtual machines and is enough for me.

I'll think seriously in 2 years

 

[LTC8K6]

I see he has an SSD, those are greatly affected. Do you have an SSD ?

Yes, 850evo boot drive.

It seems my Windows Insider PC with an E3-1231 V3 Haswell chip and an 850evo is patched for both Meltdown and Spectre and has good performance accord to Inspectre. Win10 17672.

I will have to check the specifics of my 4790K regular Win10 box for sure, but it does have an 850evo as the boot drive. It may not actually be patched for Spectre yet. Build 1803.

I will check both boxes again tonight to see what patches are reported.

 

[Headfoot]

This & memory prices are making me sit on my Q9650

Now that is a real old CPU. That thing is for sure holding back any modern gaming. Probably still fine for web surfing

 

[epsilon84]

I see he has an SSD, those are greatly affected. Do you have an SSD ?

From what I've seen on this matter, under worst case scenarios, NVME SSD drives are hit the hardest, SATA SSDs, while still affected, suffer far less (relative) performance degradation.

I only recently updated to a Spectre/Meltdown safe BIOS on my secondary rig (i5 6400 / B150M) and for day to day tasks I can't really notice any difference to speak of.

 

[epsilon84]

14nm CPU's are boring already. Bring on the 10nm goods.

Sorry, don't think Intel got the memo. Or... they got it, but you're still getting another round of 14nm!

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Now that is a real old CPU. That thing is for sure holding back any modern gaming. Probably still fine for web surfing

It’s just starting to show it’s age with gaming, however I have upgraded to video card and added an ssd.
I’m not a FPS junkie but games look and run acceptably to me.
I do have trouble with Civ 6 long load times between turns in multiplayer.

 

[Headfoot]

You say that, but the benchmarks don't bear that out. Core2 is very much dead for gaming, drops frames like crazy. It may still function, but it doesn't thrive or provide a good experience for modern games.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

You say that, but the benchmarks don't bear that out. Core2 is very much dead for gaming, drops frames like crazy. It may still function, but it doesn't thrive or provide a good experience for modern games.

That's my point, I'm pretty comfortable with less than ultra quality and I don't need 60 FPS. Makes life easier.

I planned on something new this year but as I said earlier meltdown, specter and mainly memory prices have changed that plan.

 

[epsilon84]

That's my point, I'm pretty comfortable with less than ultra quality and I don't need 60 FPS. Makes life easier.

I planned on something new this year but as I said earlier meltdown, specter and mainly memory prices have changed that plan.

I think as enthusiasts we often overlook what the 'average joe' is happy with, I know I myself can be guilty of this, as I find sub 60fps gaming frustrating.

Heck, up until a couple of years ago my cousin was still running an Athlon XP system that I had built for him in 2003, using some ancient GeForce card that I had long forgotten about. He was only playing older/retro titles and didn't really need anything better. Pretty sure he only upgraded because the motherboard was dieing in the end.

 

[wilds]

Sorry, don't think Intel got the memo. Or... they got it, but you're still getting another round of 14nm!

Nah, Moonbogg is getting a 10nm dual core laptop.

 

[UsandThem]

I think as enthusiasts we often overlook what the 'average joe' is happy with, I know I myself can be guilty of this, as I find sub 60fps gaming frustrating.

However, I do think that almost everyone would not be happy with under than 30 FPS as shown in the chart you posted. Plus, that's with a GTX 1070 which nobody with a Q6600 will likely have. The dips with a card like a GTX 970 type card would be worse.

I'd imagine even at regular settings the Q6600 would still dip down under 30 FPS in any recent game, which would cause the person to easily see stuttering while playing.

They might still be great for a business or "mom" PC, but they struggle with games. Even the new $60 Celerons/Pentiums mop the floor with them in that regard.

 

[epsilon84]

However, I do think that almost everyone would not be happy with under than 30 FPS as shown in the chart you posted. Plus, that's with a GTX 1070 which nobody with a Q6600 will likely have. The dips with a card like a GTX 970 type card would be worse.

I'd imagine even at regular settings the Q6600 would still dip down under 30 FPS in any recent game, which would cause the person to easily see stuttering while playing.

They might still be great for a business or "mom" PC, but they struggle with games. Even the new $60 Celerons/Pentiums mop the floor with them in that regard.

I think anyone still running a Q6600 with the intention for gaming wouldn't even be running a GTX 970, quite frankly, but I agree with you that fps dips like those would be very annoying indeed. But it all comes down to expectations at the end of the day. You'll get similar dips, albeit GPU limited, if trying to game at 1080P on a $100 APU like the 2200G for example, but people will still marvel at what you're getting for the money because its cheap.

A Q6600 is practically worth nothing these days, so throwing any basic graphics card and getting a game playable* has its merit, though I agree that a more modern CPU would be much better for that purpose.

*subjective IMO, depends on your fps tolerances

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Hey I have a Q9650

 

[moonbogg]

Nah, Moonbogg is getting a 10nm dual core laptop.

I want everything that doesn't exist yet. I hate my stuff because it sucks compared to the stuff that doesn't exist yet. This is the enthusiast curse. Among this list of awesome things as well as things that do currently exist, you will NEVER!, EVER! find something as low powered, boring, weak, pathetic, and useless for the enthusiast not to mention outright disgusting...as a laptop.

 

[ehume]

. . . you will NEVER!, EVER! find something as low powered, boring, weak, pathetic, and useless for the enthusiast not to mention outright disgusting...as a laptop.

Not even a tablet?

 

[IEC]

I want everything that doesn't exist yet. I hate my stuff because it sucks compared to the stuff that doesn't exist yet. This is the enthusiast curse. Among this list of awesome things as well as things that do currently exist, you will NEVER!, EVER! find something as low powered, boring, weak, pathetic, and useless for the enthusiast not to mention outright disgusting...as a laptop.

This is why I use my laptop to connect to virtual desktops hosted on real machines when I need to do real work.

At least that way I have something better than a 4c/8t "desktop replacement" that sounds like a hair dryer under any sort of serious load, minus the hair dryer sound.

Still doesn't fix the tiny 15.6" screen though. And even with a full numpad on the keyboard and an external mouse it is a decidedly mediocre experience.

7nm (and beyond) can't come soon enough. Hold on until 2019+!

 

[walk2k]

The Q9650 is also a good bit faster than a Q6600.

I have a 9650, but it's a 2nd pc not used much, it currently has my old GTX 680 in it. It can actually run something easy like Overwatch or Fortnite at acceptable FPS, but it's no great joy with demanding titles.

My other PC is from 2010, specs below.. and I've considered upgrades for 2 years now, starting with i6700k, 7700k, Ryzen1, 8700k, and now Ryzen2. Every time I look at it, just doesn't make sense. $700 (for AMD) to $1000+ (for 8700k plus water cooling), and that doesn't include video card? Naahhh.

I'll wait until at least late 2018 or 2019 for Intel to fix the exploits, maybe push out their 8-core enthusiast line. I game mostly, but I also stream on the same PC (H.264 is very cpu intensive) and do some 3D and video rendering. For the latter, my ancient X980 runs with the 6700k/7700k. For gaming, it's adequate, the Nvideo card plays a much larger role there.

 

[walk2k]

OP could also do something like used 4790k and get to keep the ram. Maybe not much of an upgrade (a little in games I'd guess, not as good in high-thread count tasks of course) but definitely cheaper than going full bore upgrade with $$DDR4

 

[Alienware Gamer ALX]

OP could also do something like used 4790k and get to keep the ram. Maybe not much of an upgrade (a little in games I'd guess, not as good in high-thread count tasks of course) but definitely cheaper than going full bore upgrade with $$DDR4

hey man, i loved your setup (980x @ 4ghz fantastic, i really wanted it )
thank you for the opinion, but this upgrade seems a waste of money and time


probably a 7980xe is not the best choice, but a 4790k-upgrade seems 100% useless

(op is using a 3970x@5ghz )

 

[jackstar7]

If I had the extra resources to upgrade from my 3770k, I would still wait based on how things are right now. S&M fixes, DDR5 on the semi-distant horizon... just seems like if you're good with what you've got, no need to jump into a new project and the (at least) hundreds of dollars that await.

My typical jonesing for upgrades stick to a new GPU and bigger SSDs. But I'm also not playing the newest games at this point, so my whole position is invalidated on AT.