Is it worth upgrading a 3930k?

[T0MMEN]

So my GF rig is currently : Asus rampage iv extreme x79, 3930k 4.5ghz, 12gb corsair 1600mhz ram and a gtx 970.

And ive seen TechYes talking about some xeon chips beeing better for gaming?

What xeon would fit a x79 board? And is it worth the upgrade?


She mainly plays games like PUBG and CSGO. And as i recall those games are very cpu intensive.

What do you guys suggest?

[SolarNova]

Is she in need of more FPS ?

 

I personally run a 3930k and see no reason to upgrade.

[Fasauceome]

You could get a better GPU first for better results, what's your performance target?

[T0MMEN]

3 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

Is she in need of more FPS ?

 

I personally run a 3930k and see no reason to upgrade.

Well, you see. In PUBG for example, i check msi afterburner after running a game of pubg. And the CPU usage is only like 40-50%, and same with the gpu. So im not sure what to upgrade.

As for my personal rig, i get 40% cpu usage and about 80% gpu usage (see signature)

Edit: I see you have paired it with a 1080ti, isnt the 3930k a bottleneck for that gpu?

[T0MMEN]

3 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

You could get a better GPU first for better results, what's your performance target?

I dont know, she has a 120hz monitor. And in pubg she only gets 80-110fps. And ive tried playing with that pc, its kinda shit

[CoutoSH]

4 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

You could get a better GPU first for better results, what's your performance target?

wouldn't the GPU get bottlenecked by the "old" CPU?

[T0MMEN]

4 minutes ago, CoutoSH said:

wouldn't the GPU get bottlenecked by the "old" CPU?

Thats what im thinking, no game that she plays utalizes the gpu 100%. Because of the "old" cpu that cant deliver information fast enough.

[SolarNova]

4 minutes ago, T0MMEN said:

Well, you see. In PUBG for example, i check msi afterburner after running a game of pubg. And the CPU usage is only like 40-50%, and same with the gpu. So im not sure what to upgrade.

As for my personal rig, i get 40% cpu usage and about 80% gpu usage (see signature)

Edit: I see you have paired it with a 1080ti, isnt the 3930k a bottleneck for that gpu?

Depends on the resolution and target FPS.

 

I have a 60hz display and use fast sync for 120FPS when i want it, otherwise i use DSR for 4k rendering at 60hz (the visual difference even on a 1080p display between 1080p rendering and 4k rendering is large). both of which the 1080ti handle nicely without being under utilized.

 

Ofc i can run 1080p benchmark programs i do notice a big difference in the score i should be getting vs what i actually get, and thats due to limited max FPS caused by CPU bottleneck.

 

However in terms of actual gameplay, i have yet to come across a scenario where i feel restricted by my CPU.

 

Long story short, if ur aiming for 144fps or 240fps and u cant reach it and ur GPU isnt maxed out, thats where a new CPU will help. However dont mistake a game engine or APi bottleneck for CPU bottleneck. make sure u have checked to ensure the game in question can actually run at super high FPS befor assuming its a CPU bottleneck.

[T0MMEN]

1 minute ago, SolarNova said:

Depends on the resolution and target FPS.

 

I have a 60hz display and use fast sync for 120FPS when i want it, otherwise i use DSR for 4k rendering at 60hz (the visual difference even on a 1080p display between 1080p rendering and 4k rendering is large). both of which the 1080ti handle nicely without being under utilized.

 

Ofc i can run 1080p benchmark programs i do notice a big difference in the score i should be getting vs what i actually get, and thats due to limited max FPS caused by CPU bottleneck.

 

However in terms of actual gameplay, i have yet to come across a scenario where i feel restricted by my CPU.

 

Long story short, if ur aiming for 144fps or 240fps and u cant reach it and ur GPU isnt maxed out, thats where a new CPU will help. However dont mistake a game engine or APi bottleneck for CPU bottleneck. make sure u have checked to ensure the game in question can actually run at super high FPS befor assuming its a CPU bottleneck.

PUBG on my pc runs at about 200fps. 

[Fasauceome]

7 minutes ago, CoutoSH said:

wouldn't the GPU get bottlenecked by the "old" CPU?

Not necessarily, although in the example listed

 

10 minutes ago, T0MMEN said:

I dont know, she has a 120hz monitor. And in pubg she only gets 80-110fps. And ive tried playing with that pc, its kinda shit

Pubg is pretty poorly optimized and is hard on the CPU. Other games would do better with a more powerful GPU though.

[CoutoSH]

Just now, fasauceome said:

Not necessarily, although in the example listed

 

Pubg is pretty poorly optimized and is hard on the CPU. Other games would do better with a more powerful GPU though.

gotcha! thx im kinda newbie

[T0MMEN]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

Not necessarily, although in the example listed

 

Pubg is pretty poorly optimized and is hard on the CPU. Other games would do better with a more powerful GPU though.

Indeed, but she only plays pubg and csgo. Both games are hard on the cpu. Thats why im wondering, is it worth it upgrading to a xeon? And what xeon would do a better job than the 3930k?

[Fasauceome]

Just now, T0MMEN said:

Indeed, but she only plays pubg and csgo. Both games are hard on the cpu. Thats why im wondering, is it worth it upgrading to a xeon? And what xeon would do a better job than the 3930k?

A Xeon would be roughly equal, you can get more cores possibly but that won't do you any good, clock speed matters. Possibly try pushing a higher overclock on the CPU?

[T0MMEN]

Just now, fasauceome said:

A Xeon would be roughly equal, you can get more cores possibly but that won't do you any good, clock speed matters. Possibly try pushing a higher overclock on the CPU?

I see, hmm. I dont think the cpu can do more than 4.5ghz, im already giving it 1.38 - 1.39v

 

[SolarNova]

 

4 minutes ago, T0MMEN said:

Indeed, but she only plays pubg and csgo. Both games are hard on the cpu. Thats why im wondering, is it worth it upgrading to a xeon? And what xeon would do a better job than the 3930k?

On the same socket a Xeon wont do any better.

A 3930k has enough cores, its the IPC improvements of newer CPU's that make them better. So goign for a xeon with mroe cores but worse IPC wont help.

 

 

Consider overclocking further. I run at 4.6ghz (offset OC, max vcore is about 1.368/1.37) and consider it a conservative OC. You should be able to hit 4.8ghz without to much hassle so long as u have a good enough cooler.

 

i dunno how pubg reacts to RAm speed increases so perhaps give that a try also.

[T0MMEN]

Heres another question.

My friend has a 2500k running at 4.8ghz paired with a gtx980.

And after a game of pubg, the cpu usage is pinned at 99%

While the gpu is about 50%

The pc gets roughly same amount of fps.

Why is it that on the 3930k the cpu usage is only 40% ?

[SolarNova]

1 minute ago, T0MMEN said:

Heres another question.

My friend has a 2500k running at 4.8ghz paired with a gtx980.

And after a game of pubg, the cpu usage is pinned at 99%

While the gpu is about 50%

The pc gets roughly same amount of fps.

Why is it that on the 3930k the cpu usage is only 40% ?

Cores

 

a 2500k has 4

the 3930k has 6 and hyperthreading (12)

 

they are same architecture (sandybridge) so the 2500k has a higher OC and thus faster cores, but only 4 of them. so it maxes out.

[Fasauceome]

Just now, T0MMEN said:

Why is it that on the 3930k the cpu usage is only 40% ?

Are you looking at total CPU usage or per cores? I bet threads are pegged at 100% out of the 12

 

But if there aren't any threads maxed out, more graphics card horsepower would improve performance.

[T0MMEN]

Just now, SolarNova said:

 

On the same socket a Xeon wont do any better.

A 3930k has enough cores, its the IPC improvements of newer CPU's that make them better. So goign for a xeon with mroe cores but worse IPC wont help.

 

 

Consider overclocking further. I run at 4.6ghz and consider it a conservative OC. You should be able to hit 4.8ghz without to much hassle so long as u have a good neough cooler.

 

i dunno how pubg reacts to RAm speed increases so perhaps give that a try also.

Yeah about the ram-speeds. I think one of the dimm slots is dead, so i can only run it at triple channel and not quad. And if I touch the ram speeds the pc wont boot. XMP is enabled tho, 9-9-9-24 1600mhz 12gb. 2x4gb and 2x3gb sticks.

[T0MMEN]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

Are you looking at total CPU usage or per cores? I bet threads are pegged at 100% out of the 12

 

But if there aren't any threads maxed out, more graphics card horsepower would improve performance.

Im just looking at the total usage in msi afterburner.

But why would a gpu change the performance when the 970 inst even fully utalized? 

[Fasauceome]

13 minutes ago, T0MMEN said:

Im just looking at the total usage in msi afterburner.

But why would a gpu change the performance when the 970 inst even fully utalized? 

What percentage utilization is it at? If it's in the 90% range it's basically fully utilized.

[T0MMEN]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

What percentage utilization is it at? If it's in the 90% range it's basically fully utilized.

50%

[Fasauceome]

7 minutes ago, T0MMEN said:

50%

Well that is a different story then, but it shouldn't be that low, unless you're at a really low detail level. Something else seems to be the issue.

[T0MMEN]

3 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

Well that is a different story then, but it shouldn't be that low, unless you're at a really low detail level. Something else seems to be the issue.

Every setting is on very low, including AA. But that doesnt fix the low fps problem. Even if u set AA on high. The fps stays the same, maybe a touch lower. But the gpu utalization gets bumped up a tiny bit. Im a bit lost here...

[Zando_]

30 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

 

On the same socket a Xeon wont do any better.

A 3930k has enough cores, its the IPC improvements of newer CPU's that make them better. So goign for a xeon with mroe cores but worse IPC wont help.

 

 

Consider overclocking further. I run at 4.6ghz (offset OC, max vcore is about 1.368/1.37) and consider it a conservative OC. You should be able to hit 4.8ghz without to much hassle so long as u have a good enough cooler.

I think the only Xeon that's a reasonable upgrade to the 3930K is the 1680v2 (8c/16t, at 4.6 it sits between the 2700X and 9900K), that's usually around $300 or so. AFAIK none of the Xeons newer than the v2s can OC, so you'd lose a massive chunk of clockspeed for a few more cores, which games won't use anyways so it wouldn't perform any better.