i7 3930k in 2020

[WolfDeville]

I built this rig back in 2013 and it's been rock solid ever since. I really don't see any reason to upgrade, apart from GPU which I intend to purchase a 3080ti or 3090 upon release. Am I missing out on anything apart from a few extra frames in games? I'd like to hear from people what their experience was moving from this relic CPU to a newer platform.

[Mateyyy]

It's still a solid chip today. With a good overclock on it, I'd say it's not too far off Zen 2 in terms of gaming performance at 1440p or higher.

[Haro]

At lower resolutions and high refresh rates. It will struggle. 

Though at 1440p or high resolutions in general then it'll probably be fine especially with an overclock in terms of gaming. 

[Levent]

Main limiting factor for pre IVB HEDT Intel chips is starting to be the PCIE2.0. However that is only a bottleneck in very limited number of situations. You are good to go for couple more years, as mentioned you really should overclock.

[WolfDeville]

5 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

It's still a solid chip today. With a good overclock on it, I'd say it's not too far off Zen 2 in terms of gaming performance at 1440p or higher.

 

3 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

At lower resolutions and high refresh rates. It will struggle. 

Though at 1440p or high resolutions in general then it'll probably be fine especially with an overclock in terms of gaming. 

 

2 minutes ago, Levent said:

Main limiting factor for pre IVB HEDT Intel chips is starting to be the PCIE2.0. However that is only a bottleneck in only limited number of situations. You are good to go for couple more years, as mentioned you really should overclock.

I've got a 4.5GHz overclock on it, I can reach 5GHz but my H150 struggles with it a little, even moreso in summer. I just can't comprehend how a 7 year old platform is still relevant... This industry is so stale.

[Mateyyy]

9 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

At lower resolutions and high refresh rates. It will struggle. 

I wouldn't really say it will struggle. 

4C/4T CPUs do struggle in today's AAA titles, because plenty of modern titles just plain need more threads. 

The 3930K is a 6C/12T with single-core performance that's at worst slightly below Zen 1 and at best slightly above Zen+, depending on the clock speed it's running at.

 

3 minutes ago, WolfDeville said:

I've got a 4.5GHz overclock on it, I can reach 5GHz but my H150 struggles with it a little, even moreso in summer.

4.5GHz is pretty good. 5GHz is kind of past the point of diminishing returns I'd say.

4 minutes ago, WolfDeville said:

I just can't comprehend how a 7 year old platform is still relevant... This industry is so stale.

Either that or it was just ahead of its time

[Haro]

4 minutes ago, WolfDeville said:

This industry is so stale.

Well it was a high end chip back in the day and is still a competent one today. 

And it's ipc isnt bad.

1 minute ago, Mateyyy said:

The 3930K is a 6C/12T with single-core performance that's at worst slightly below Zen 1 and at best slightly above Zen+, depending on the clock speed it's running at.

Fair enough, yea I guess it's still relatively good for how old it is in single threaded performance. 

[Levent]

Just now, WolfDeville said:

I've got a 4.5GHz overclock on it, I can reach 5GHz but my H150 struggles with it a little, even moreso in summer. I just can't comprehend how a 7 year old platform is still relevant... This industry is so stale.

Just the opposite, intel was really pushing the envelope back in the day and now software is making use of higher thread counts and optimisations.

[Biomecanoid]

53 minutes ago, WolfDeville said:

I built this rig back in 2013 and it's been rock solid ever since. I really don't see any reason to upgrade, apart from GPU which I intend to purchase a 3080ti or 3090 upon release. Am I missing out on anything apart from a few extra frames in games? I'd like to hear from people what their experience was moving from this relic CPU to a newer platform.

I have the Intel Xeon W3680 overclocked to 4ghz, 32gb ram, Raid SSD, and a humble Nvidia 1060 and i can new games like Metro Exodus in a Triple screen config with no issues.

 

Your CPU is of similar performance so you should be fine for some while.

 

 

 

[SolarNova]

1 hour ago, WolfDeville said:

I built this rig back in 2013 and it's been rock solid ever since. I really don't see any reason to upgrade, apart from GPU which I intend to purchase a 3080ti or 3090 upon release. Am I missing out on anything apart from a few extra frames in games? I'd like to hear from people what their experience was moving from this relic CPU to a newer platform.

I still use one. Have run it at 4.6ghz  since i got it, Ill likely need to push it further later this year if i want to get higher FPS.

 

Its solid, no issues atm.

 

The only thing u may need to take into account is that PCIe gen 4, and most Certainly Gen 3 can make a difference in the new cards vs gen 2.

U'll need to make sure ur motherboard has PCIe Gen 3 drivers enabled as the 3930k came shipped with motherboards running PCie gen 2 as they didnt get the Gen 3 license finalized in time. They are in fact Gen 3 , but run at Gen 2 on stock Bios.

 

if u intend on pushing past 120hz, ull see a significant improvement by upgrading to a newer CPU, even i have been thinking about upgrading now as i intend to aim for 4k 120hz using a CX 48" OLED display and new HDMI 2.1 GPU, however even at 120hz i fully understand that the 3930k WILL be causing a loss in performance in some games, that is assuming a new gPU can even handle 4k 120hz. pricing atm is troubling.

[WolfDeville]

24 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

I still use one. Have run it at 4.6ghz  since i got it, Ill likely need to push it further later this year if i want to get higher FPS.

 

Its solid, no issues atm.

 

The only thing u may need to take into account is that PCIe gen 4, and most Certainly Gen 3 can make a difference in the new cards vs gen 2.

U'll need to make sure ur motherboard has PCIe Gen 3 drivers enabled as the 3930k came shipped with motherboards running PCie gen 2 as they didnt get the Gen 3 license finalized in time. They are in fact Gen 3 , but run at Gen 2 on stock Bios.

 

if u intend on pushing past 120hz, ull see a significant improvement by upgrading to a newer CPU, even i have been thinking about upgrading now as i intend to aim for 4k 120hz using a CX 48" OLED display and new HDMI 2.1 GPU, however even at 120hz i fully understand that the 3930k WILL be causing a loss in performance in some games, that is assuming a new gPU can even handle 4k 120hz. pricing atm is troubling.

I have PCIE 3.0 enabled already and I am running a 1080p 144hz monitor but I will most likely be upgrading to a 1440p 144hz monitor when I get a new GPU.

[WolfDeville]

1 hour ago, Biomecanoid said:

I have the Intel Xeon W3680 overclocked to 4ghz, 32gb ram, Raid SSD, and a humble Nvidia 1060 and i can new games like Metro Exodus in a Triple screen config with no issues.

 

Your CPU is of similar performance so you should be fine for some while.

 

-snip-

Yeah I'm currently running a single GTX 980 and it's still perfectly capable of running modern titles at 1080p.

[Mister Woof]

1 hour ago, Mateyyy said:

I wouldn't really say it will struggle. 

4C/4T CPUs do struggle in today's AAA titles, because plenty of modern titles just plain need more threads. 

The 3930K is a 6C/12T with single-core performance that's at worst slightly below Zen 1 and at best slightly above Zen+, depending on the clock speed it's running at.

 

4.5GHz is pretty good. 5GHz is kind of past the point of diminishing returns I'd say.

Either that or it was just ahead of its time

Yep agreed.

 

OP - you bought into technology that at the time was considered extraneous, and when most people considered 4/4 chips "more than enough".

Looks like your investment paid off then.

 

I agree with the others in this thread - at higher resolutions, and as long as you are not going too crazy on GPU (I'd say a 5600 XT/2060 Super at most), you'll still have a good experience.

[WolfDeville]

1 hour ago, Mister Woof said:

Yep agreed.

 

OP - you bought into technology that at the time was considered extraneous, and when most people considered 4/4 chips "more than enough".

Looks like your investment paid off then.

 

I agree with the others in this thread - at higher resolutions, and as long as you are not going too crazy on GPU (I'd say a 5600 XT/2060 Super at most), you'll still have a good experience.

Yeah I kinda told myself at the time "spend a shit ton of money now and be set for the next 4 years", now I'm pushing 7 lawll. As I said in OP I'm gonna get either a 3080Ti or a 3090 and probably a 1440p monitor. I mostly a lot of 3D work that require GPU horsepower more than anything. I do game a little here and there but I'm confident the CPU won't hold the graphics card back too much, I'm still yet to play a game that brings my CPU usage anywhere near 100%, it usually hovers around 40-60%.

[Mister Woof]

2 minutes ago, WolfDeville said:

Yeah I kinda told myself at the time "spend a shit ton of money now and be set for the next 4 years", now I'm pushing 7 lawll. As I said in OP I'm gonna get either a 3080Ti or a 3090 and probably a 1440p monitor. I mostly a lot of 3D work that require GPU horsepower more than anything. I do game a little here and there but I'm confident the CPU won't hold the graphics card back too much, I'm still yet to play a game that brings my CPU usage anywhere near 100%, it usually hovers around 40-60%.

I think if your software program works off the GPU, and not gaming, then it should be okay. I don't know how much PCIE2 will limit those GPUs on those software, though. So it may impact it.

[WolfDeville]

3 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

I think if your software program works off the GPU, and not gaming, then it should be okay. I don't know how much PCIE2 will limit those GPUs on those software, though. So it may impact it.

I'll see how it goes. Worse case scenario I'll have to drop a bit of money on a newer AMD platform. CPU, Motherboard and RAM. Should only be around $1500 with these stupid aussie prices.