Keep "Older" R7 1700 and upgrade to R7 3800x once it drops to $250-ish OR push though for AM5

[FIXXX]

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/FIXXX/saved/#view=hcr9TW 

The system is from the end of 2017. Prices are what I paid at the time for each component.

 

Using an R7 1700 with Asus Prime X370 Pro so there's support for the 3800X (confirmed by their CPU support page)

Got X370 specifically knowing there's more chance of being able to maximize the value I can get down the line.

I expect the 3800X to drop further in the following year so once it's at $250 (about what I paid for the 1700 back then) - I will feel secure in getting it.

 

This choice appears to be the better option compared to Zen 3's  5800X which is only somewhat snappier than 3800x but would entail spending more on a motherboard which will be a dead end it's expected that AM5 is just around the corner, so-to-speak.

 

Am I missing something in this equation? I'd wager there are tons of people in my exact situation (jumped on the 1700 hype-train and are looking around for an upgrade).

Any opinions are appreciated!
 

 

*If a different forum section is better suited for this inquiry - move it at your leisure, thank you!*

[AndreiArgeanu]

The better question here is, do you need to upgrade? Does the current performance of the system meet your needs? If so you don't need and shouldn't upgrade and you  should probably wait for AM5.

[FIXXX]

Just now, AndreiArgeanu said:

The better question here is, do you need to upgrade? Does the current performance of the system meet your needs? If so you don't need and shouldn't upgrade and you  should probably wait for AM5.

In my workload (I work from home so the machine doubles as my home PC) it's fine enough. The gaming experience, though, is quite lackluster for the resolution of the monitor. For example i'm playing AC: Valhalla at this time and have to use Medium quality settings and FPS don't even reach 50 with severe dips.

 

As far as I can see - the only reasonable upgrade is the CPU because any GPU upgrade is severely bottlenecked by the 1700.

[AndreiArgeanu]

3 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

In my workload (I work from home so the machine doubles as my home PC) it's fine enough. The gaming experience, though, is quite lackluster for the resolution of the monitor. For example i'm playing AC: Valhalla at this time and have to use Medium quality settings and FPS don't even reach 50 with severe dips.

 

As far as I can see - the only reasonable upgrade is the CPU because any GPU upgrade is severely bottlenecked by the 1700.

If you can still hold on for another year or so then sure wait for AM5, but if this kind of performance is not acceptable then upgrading to a 3700 or 3800X whichever is cheaper, is a good choice. After all the 3700 or 3800X will extend the life of your system quite a bit before you need to upgrade.

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

In my workload (I work from home so the machine doubles as my home PC) it's fine enough. The gaming experience, though, is quite lackluster for the resolution of the monitor. For example i'm playing AC: Valhalla at this time and have to use Medium quality settings and FPS don't even reach 50 with severe dips.

 

As far as I can see - the only reasonable upgrade is the CPU because any GPU upgrade is severely bottlenecked by the 1700.

That's AC that isn't your system being bad. Just ubisoft wrecking their games performance with drm.

[FIXXX]

7 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

After all the 3700 or 3800X will extend the life of your system quite a bit before you need to upgrade.

That is indeed my expectation. Less than a year of waiting then for only $250 I can get easy 2 years more from it. Totaling at almost 5 years of daily use with a decent computing experience.

 

There's barely any value in selling any of the components CPU/MOBO/RAM so may as well wring everything the build can give.

[AndreiArgeanu]

7 minutes ago, jaslion said:

That's AC that isn't your system being bad. Just ubisoft wrecking their games performance with drm.

While the game hasn't been cracked yet I wonder if a crack that removes DRM will significantly improve the performance of this game, I've seen people with rtx 2080ti lagging quite a bit in AC Vallhala

[FIXXX]

7 minutes ago, jaslion said:

That's AC that isn't your system being bad. Just ubisoft wrecking their games performance with drm.

Should I expect improvements with subsequent patches? They did release one at almost 3GB a few days ago. Didn't feel too different though.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

While the game hasn't been cracked yet I wonder if a crack that removes DRM will significantly improve the performance of this game, I've seen people with rtx 2080ti lagging quite a bit in AC Vallhala

So far every ac or well bad running ubisoft game that had a crack that removed or fully turned of the drm started running a decent bit better to over twice as good. So yeah from that trackrecord I assume this is the case once more

[FIXXX]

Just now, jaslion said:

So far every ac or well bad running ubisoft game that had a crack that removed or fully turned of the drm started running a decent bit better to over twice as good. So yeah from that trackrecord I assume this is the case once more

I'm using Ubisoft+ to play ( around $14-$15 ) and ill finish the game by the time one month passes. Won't be playing it afterward so any nonDRM pirated versions will not be of any interest to me

[Tristerin]

Ive questioned myself a few times on this.  My answer is simple (for me) - overclock your 1700 tons of free performance.  With the OC on Ryzen Rig 1 I out perform 2700X @ stock etc.  Gaming wise my results from scouring online is averaging a 3600/X in performance with the OC.

 

[jaslion]

24 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

I'm using Ubisoft+ to play ( around $14-$15 ) and ill finish the game by the time one month passes. Won't be playing it afterward so any nonDRM pirated versions will not be of any interest to me

I mean then your problem is gone again :p. But yeah upgrading a system to play ubisoft games at 60fps is not a good idea as they do not seem to have any intention of using a less horrible drm method

[FIXXX]

27 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I mean then your problem is gone again :p. But yeah upgrading a system to play ubisoft games at 60fps is not a good idea as they do not seem to have any intention of using a less horrible drm method

Valhalla was merely an example.

[FIXXX]

43 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Ive questioned myself a few times on this.  My answer is simple (for me) - overclock your 1700 tons of free performance.  With the OC on Ryzen Rig 1 I out perform 2700X @ stock etc.  Gaming wise my results from scouring online is averaging a 3600/X in performance with the OC.

 

OCed it to base 3.6 Ghz (3.7 gives BSOD's) voltages are as low as I can get them and still be stable under sustained maximum load.

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

Valhalla was merely an example.

Part from watchdogs and ac all the other ubisoft games run fine and that is coming from someone who plays them on a by todays standards low end laptop. They barely run better on my much better desktop so yeah not really worth the upgrades

[Tristerin]

50 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

OCed it to base 3.6 Ghz (3.7 gives BSOD's) voltages are as low as I can get them and still be stable under sustained maximum load.

Gotcha so sounds silicon or cooling limited, so at that point I would upgrade the CPU as investing in a cooling solution wont give the same ROI (I.E. can still sell the 1700)

[FIXXX]

28 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Gotcha so sounds silicon or cooling limited, so at that point I would upgrade the CPU as investing in a cooling solution wont give the same ROI (I.E. can still sell the 1700)

Probbz sililcon since the cooler is 250W rated and at light loads it under 35C with 25C room temp.

Lottery passed me by

[Dr0y]

5 hours ago, FIXXX said:

The gaming experience, though, is quite lackluster for the resolution of the monitor. For example i'm playing AC: Valhalla at this time and have to use Medium quality settings and FPS don't even reach 50 with severe dips.

Correct me if I'm wrong but ... Unless valhalla is incredibly cpu intensive, another cpu won't be day and night.  It will help but it won't make the game much better for higher graphic detail at 1440 ... you need a better gpu for that if you want more fps and higher details. 

 

 

Also I'm trying to push through am5, ddr5 with an I7 4770 and an rx590 ... I want to upgrade so badly ... but I don't need to for now.

[FIXXX]

26 minutes ago, Dr0y said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but ... Unless valhalla is incredibly cpu intensive, another cpu won't be day and night.  It will help but it won't make the game much better for higher graphic detail at 1440 ... you need a better gpu for that if you want more fps and higher details. 

 

 

Also I'm trying to push through am5, ddr5 with an I7 4770 and an rx590 ... I want to upgrade so badly ... but I don't need to for now.

That's why I'm planning for nearly a year ahead.

The question of the GPU is quite clear and there's really no "if" but only "when". Plus it'll work in any motherboard or processor.

However, the CPU is something I need to think about since there are things to consider.

[Dr0y]

6 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

That's why I'm planning for nearly a year ahead.

The question of the GPU is quite clear and there's really no "if" but only "when". Plus it'll work in any motherboard or processor.

However, the CPU is something I need to think about since there are things to consider.

I'm saying that for now no the cpu is not worth it unless you start doing workload that will really leverage the power of the new cpu ... just wait for am5/ddr5 ... if you want to upgrade someting to have a bette gaming experience that would be the gpu in the short run ...

 

For now you can't really prepare for am5 since there's nothing about that ... so not much things to consider on that side until there's more info about it. 

[FIXXX]

21 minutes ago, Dr0y said:

I'm saying that for now no the cpu is not worth it unless you start doing workload that will really leverage the power of the new cpu ... just wait for am5/ddr5 ... if you want to upgrade someting to have a bette gaming experience that would be the gpu in the short run ...

 

For now you can't really prepare for am5 since there's nothing about that ... so not much things to consider on that side until there's more info about it. 

I understand.