Need help upgrading gaming pc

[Dandapani]

I built my pc in 2018 and since it was my first computer i had less knowledge on parts compatibility for future upgrades. 
My build was i5 8400, B360 pro vdh, gtx 1060ti with 400 watt psu and 2400mhz ddr4 memory. My case wasnt efficient in cooling. 
 

in 2019 i upgraded my gpu to rtx 2060 super and i had to upgrade my psu along with it. Later i upgraded my case due to heating problems. 
 

recently i discovered that if i had to upgrade my cpu and mobo. I need to upgrade my ram because currently im using ddr4 2400mhz. and the next gen intel cpus require atleast 2666mhz memory and ryzen will need upto 3200mhz. 
 

Are 2400mhz not good in 2020 ?

 

How should i plan for my cpu upgrade ?

[boggy77]

2400 is good enough for intel. ryzen benefts more from ram speed, intel not so much. you can upgrade your cpu to a 8700 or 9600/9700 using the same motherboard. just make sure you update the bios before the switch.

[SwiftGTi]

Hi There,

Can you please clarify your CPU upgrade path intention, please?

Also, can you list your actual memory manufacturer and model number?

 

True, to take full advantage of last gen Ryzen, you should use 3200MHz memory. But it will run on slower ram. Same is true for Intel. 10th gen lists 2999MHz as a max frequency, but 2666MHZ on certain SKUs. But this is max frequency. So, I would guess 2400MHz is still supported, but not optimal (you have to read the fine prints). Another approach would be to try to overclock your current memory. Not ideal, but could be done. That would be my approach, but I know not everyone is comfortable doing this. 

[Dedayog]

DDR4 2400 is fine for any CPU, you just get a little more oomph from higher clocked RAM.  Intel gets a bump and AMD gets a larger bump.

 

No need to upgrade RAM tho as it's less than 5% increase from 2400 to 3600 speeds realistically net.

 

Conversely, you can get a Ryzen 5 3600 and motherboard for probably the same price as the 8700   Keep the RAM and have a solid 6c/12t CPU to last a while, with upgrade options.

 

[Dandapani]

14 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

DDR4 2400 is fine for any CPU, you just get a little more oomph from higher clocked RAM.  Intel gets a bump and AMD gets a larger bump.

 

No need to upgrade RAM tho as it's less than 5% increase from 2400 to 3600 speeds realistically net.

 

Conversely, you can get a Ryzen 5 3600 and motherboard for probably the same price as the 8700   Keep the RAM and have a solid 6c/12t CPU to last a while, with upgrade options.

 

yes i can get ryzen and a mobo for less price that 8700 i checked with the seller. 

But ryzen 5 3600 needs a memory spec of 3200 mhz right to function optimally?

so i am thinking of suspending my upgrade for 2020 and upgrade cpu, ram, mobo together in 2021. 
i will probably go with ryzen 5 3600, mobo and 3200mhz

or

i5 10600, mobo and 3200mhz (higher ram to help for the next upgrade in future)

 

[Dandapani]

21 minutes ago, SwiftGTi said:

Hi There,

Can you please clarify your CPU upgrade path intention, please?

Also, can you list your actual memory manufacturer and model number?

 

True, to take full advantage of last gen Ryzen, you should use 3200MHz memory. But it will run on slower ram. Same is true for Intel. 10th gen lists 2999MHz as a max frequency, but 2666MHZ on certain SKUs. But this is max frequency. So, I would guess 2400MHz is still supported, but not optimal (you have to read the fine prints). Another approach would be to try to overclock your current memory. Not ideal, but could be done. That would be my approach, but I know not everyone is comfortable doing this. 

My intention of cpu upgrade is to get a good Gaming performance. 
my current ram is - crucial 2400mhz ddr4  8gb (x2). Total 16 gb. 
 

My current mobo supports only 2666mhz. So even if i get an intel cpu i will have to upgrade the mobo to support a higher memory ram (without oc. I am new to oc and i dont want to do it). 

 

[SwiftGTi]

20 hours ago, Dandapani said:

My intention of cpu upgrade is to get a good Gaming performance. 
my current ram is - crucial 2400mhz ddr4  8gb (x2). Total 16 gb. 
 

My current mobo supports only 2666mhz. So even if i get an intel cpu i will have to upgrade the mobo to support a higher memory ram (without oc. I am new to oc and i dont want to do it). 

 

Hi There,

 

Well, you just answered your question. Either way you go, Ryzen or 10th gen Intel, you will need a Motherboard. Since you're not comfortable overclocking your memory or manually tuning it, you will have to get a new set. Otherwise, you will probably get into compatibility issues, it won't just be a question of speed. I totally overlooked that in my first post, sorry about that.

 

I'm going to get off topic here, but why are you looking to upgrade? If it's just for gaming, that CPU should be more than adequate. If you're having issues running games, I would start trouble shooting issues first. I'm currently running an old i7-4770K, non overclocked, with an EVGA 1070 Superclocked which is overclocked (on top of the factory overclock), 8GB of ram running XMP profile (no idea as far as speed and timing goes). The CPU is cooled by a Fractal Design Celsius S36 AIO, so it can properly boost and not throttle under any circumstances. The case, a Corsair Obsidian 450D, is full of fans and running tuned profiles. But the point is, this is a really old system and I don't have any issues running any games at this point in time. So, why would you? Unless you have underlying issues that needs to be addressed.

 

So, before spending money on new components that might not even solve what you want to solve, you might want to put a little more efforts into this. But, if you just want to be on the bleeding edge of things, which I can totally understand, this is totally different.

[Aree Soothsayer]

21 hours ago, Dandapani said:

My intention of cpu upgrade is to get a good Gaming performance. 
my current ram is - crucial 2400mhz ddr4  8gb (x2). Total 16 gb. 
 

My current mobo supports only 2666mhz. So even if i get an intel cpu i will have to upgrade the mobo to support a higher memory ram (without oc. I am new to oc and i dont want to do it). 

 

You can look into the just released 3100 and 3300x cpus that amd just released. At 100$ and 120$ they don't gobble your wallet as much. Howevere I do agree with Swift, you should check your pc and see just what is gimping your gaming.

[Dandapani]

21 hours ago, SwiftGTi said:

Hi There,

 

Well, you just answered your question. Either way you go, Ryzen or 10th gen Intel, you will need a Motherboard. Since you're not comfortable overclocking your memory or manually tuning it, you will have to get a new set. Otherwise, you will probably get into compatibility issues, it won't just be a question of speed. I totally overlooked that in my first post, sorry about that.

 

I'm going to get off topic here, but why are you looking to upgrade? If it's just for gaming, that CPU should be more than adequate. If you're having issues running games, I would start trouble shooting issues first. I'm currently running an old i7-4770K, non overclocked, with an EVGA 1070 Superclocked which is overclocked (on top of the factory overclock), 8GB of ram running XMP profile (no idea as far as speed and timing goes). The CPU is cooled by a Fractal Design Celsius S36 AIO, so it can properly boost and not throttle under any circumstances. The case, a Corsair Obsidian 450D, is full of fans and running tuned profiles. But the point is, this is a really old system and I don't have any issues running any games at this point in time. So, why would you? Unless you have underlying issues that needs to be addressed.

 

So, before spending money on new components that might not even solve what you want to solve, you might want to put a little more efforts into this. But, if you just want to be on the bleeding edge of things, which I can totally understand, this is totally different.

This is exactly what my friend recommended. 

 

I just felt that 2400mhz ram with i5 8400 was a bit outdated if i want to run games from 2020 or later. 
 

I dont do online competative gaming, i play rpgs mostly and i like good graphics. 
 

Example - i was just wondering if this build will support cyberpunk 2077, ac valhalla

i prefer balanced gameplay between high graphics locked at 60fps. 
 

Just an off topic mentioning - i have ocd and i like to keep everything perfect. 
so i just felt that my pc wasn’t up to the mark and is outdated. 

[SwiftGTi]

3 hours ago, Dandapani said:

This is exactly what my friend recommended. 

 

I just felt that 2400mhz ram with i5 8400 was a bit outdated if i want to run games from 2020 or later. 
 

I dont do online competative gaming, i play rpgs mostly and i like good graphics. 
 

Example - i was just wondering if this build will support cyberpunk 2077, ac valhalla

i prefer balanced gameplay between high graphics locked at 60fps. 
 

Just an off topic mentioning - i have ocd and i like to keep everything perfect. 
so i just felt that my pc wasn’t up to the mark and is outdated. 

CPU and RAM wise, you're all set as far as I can see. We'll talk more about Cyberpunk 2077, as it seems to be way more demanding than A.C. Valhalla. With the RTX 2060, you'll probably be able to play the games with medium to high graphics in HD right around 60 FPS. Just don't expect to enable real time ray tracing. Unless they are able to have a fine granularity in the way you enable ray tracing in the game. That would be the smart way to go about it, but I just don't think it's worth the effort for the developer. So, if you like ray tracing and really want to enable it, you might need to upgrade your video card, for Cyberpunk 2077 that is. But wait for actual game benchmarks to come out before making an actual choice. Be smart about it, as I'm just going on the small amount of information that have leaked so far about the game. You can always keep a good video card and upgrade the Motherboard/CPU/RAM at a later time, when you become CPU bottleneck. 

 

I don't know how long you'll be able to go with your current CPU, as the new generation of consoles will drastically change the way games have been programmed so far (more core and more threads). So, if you don't need any upgrades, keep on amassing your money for a future upgrade. If you need an upgrade for one of the games you mentioned, it  will "just" be a video card, which you'll be able to keep for a while if you choose it wisely. It's still not clear to me if you are having issues with your system or not.

 

As a last note, I'm trying to help you make a decision, but not telling you what to do. Your reality is yours and yours only. I don't know all the specifics of it. So, feel free to ask any questions you might have, if any, and I'll do my best to answer them. The more direct and precise the questions, the better the answers will be.

[Dandapani]

On 5/8/2020 at 8:58 PM, SwiftGTi said:

CPU and RAM wise, you're all set as far as I can see. We'll talk more about Cyberpunk 2077, as it seems to be way more demanding than A.C. Valhalla. With the RTX 2060, you'll probably be able to play the games with medium to high graphics in HD right around 60 FPS. Just don't expect to enable real time ray tracing. Unless they are able to have a fine granularity in the way you enable ray tracing in the game. That would be the smart way to go about it, but I just don't think it's worth the effort for the developer. So, if you like ray tracing and really want to enable it, you might need to upgrade your video card, for Cyberpunk 2077 that is. But wait for actual game benchmarks to come out before making an actual choice. Be smart about it, as I'm just going on the small amount of information that have leaked so far about the game. You can always keep a good video card and upgrade the Motherboard/CPU/RAM at a later time, when you become CPU bottleneck. 

 

I don't know how long you'll be able to go with your current CPU, as the new generation of consoles will drastically change the way games have been programmed so far (more core and more threads). So, if you don't need any upgrades, keep on amassing your money for a future upgrade. If you need an upgrade for one of the games you mentioned, it  will "just" be a video card, which you'll be able to keep for a while if you choose it wisely. It's still not clear to me if you are having issues with your system or not.

 

As a last note, I'm trying to help you make a decision, but not telling you what to do. Your reality is yours and yours only. I don't know all the specifics of it. So, feel free to ask any questions you might have, if any, and I'll do my best to answer them. The more direct and precise the questions, the better the answers will be.

Thank you very much for the information, it will definitely help me taking a better decision. 

 

I will probably wait till 2021 to upgrade the cpu and ram. As far as performance with the current build, im not seeing any issues. 

Regarding the ray tracing i think my current gpu (rtx 2060 super) supports it, although im not interested in using it. I just need a consistent 60 fps performance with considerably good-high graphics.