CPU upgrade or nay?

[cptwilk]

quick question. I have a 6600k oc to 4.6ghz and playing games like Stellaris and hearts of iron 4 in the mid to late game is incredibly slow with cpu maxing to 100%. would a 6700k help me with this or would say a ryzen 1700x upgrade be worthwhile, with its more actual cores?. im on a 240mm AIO so cooling isn't an issue and my main use case is these sorts of games, iv looked around on  the internet and cannot find anything definitive about what these games can utilise so not sure which route to go whether or not to upgrade.

[cj09beira]

hard question.

[SirFlamenco]

1700x FTW

[cptwilk]

indeed hence asking here lol, struggling with what to do yet its really hampering my enjoyment. i can afford to upgrade but just not sure what tangible benefits it may bring all round. i literally only game but want the best experience or any at all lol. HOI4 is unplayable atm. my graphics card is the evga gtx 970 ssc and it's always been comfortable at 1080p so im pretty sure it's not that. 32gb 3200mhz lpx ram aswell and os and games saved onto m.2

[Skiiwee29]

are you using the iGPU on the CPU to play games? That is what I think is happening and why you are maxxing out. If that is the case, I would recommend you buy a GPU. 

 

EDIT: New post shows you have a 970 as your graphics card. Your CPU should not be at 100% in games, you likely have something in the background taking up processing power. 

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

6 minutes ago, cptwilk said:

quick question. I have a 6600k oc to 4.6ghz and playing games like Stellaris and hearts of iron 4 in the mid to late game is incredibly slow with cpu maxing to 100%. would a 6700k help me with this or would say a ryzen 1700x upgrade be worthwhile, with its more actual cores?. im on a 240mm AIO so cooling isn't an issue and my main use case is these sorts of games, iv looked around on  the internet and cannot find anything definitive about what these games can utilise so not sure which route to go whether or not to upgrade.

If you're only playing those games, it seems like the engine only uses 3 cores (this is for CK2) so I wouldn't see much use in upgrading.

 

[Damascus]

6700k is a great CPU, have one meself.  It will offer an improvement over the i5 and won't require new Mobo.  If I were in  your shoes I'd get RYZEN but I have heavy autocad workloads so I've got a very specific work case.  I suggest upgrading GPU around VEGA launch as well, lots of GPU's will go down in price and it will be einteresting to see

 

TLDR:

6700K should give good, tangible improvements to gameplay

Get a new GPU for max perf gain with new GPU

[cptwilk]

i thought as much about gpu im happy to wait for that and see what future holds as i plan to go to 4k when i finally do so that's definitely for next year. are the new kaby lake chips not able to run on the z170 boards then?, i thought id heard somewhere they might be backwards compatible with a bios update or am i dreaming that lol, i only ask as the prices for 6700k's are pretty much the same as 7700k  and for the same price and same motherboard id have gone kaby lake for the extra oc headroom.

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

38 minutes ago, cptwilk said:

6700k's are pretty much the same as 7700k  and for the same price and same motherboard id have gone kaby lake for the extra oc headroom.

6700k's are significantly cheaper, and while the extra OC is nice, it's really not worth the price difference.