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Should I upgrade my computer?

StutterAndLag
Go to solution Solved by GamerDude,

IF that upgrade bug has bitten you hard, and that urge to upgrade is burning a hole in your pocket, then I'd suggest:

1. Change that case, what you have is terrible for airflow. Look a round for a case that suits your sense of aesthetics and post a link to it here for opinions.

2. Perhaps a more powerful CPU if your mobo supports them, like a 3700X or 3900X (check if your mobo support them, prolly need a BIOS flash)

 

You don't have to upgrade your GPU as the GTX 1080 Ti is still a very good card, but really depends on the resolution of your monitor and your expectations. Now is NOT a good time to buy GPU due to the crazy prices due to so many factors (COVID-19 affecting shipments, worldwide shortage of chips, $%#@ crypto-miners, $%#@ scalpers) forming the 'perfect storm'. You don't need an RT capable card for now, wait till hardware gets better and able to handle RT at high res RT gaming natively.

 

Other than that, I don't see a real need to do anything else till chip supply and prices have stabilized (prolly in a year or two). I happen to have an RX 6900 XT only because I'd gotten it earlier when prices, crazy as it was then, aren't at today's mind numbing levels. I got it at the beginning of the year at about 1350USD, which seems very reasonable by today's standard actually.

Hey everyone! Looking for some expert advice! 
 

I bought my PC back in 2017 and was thinking of upgrading. My pc runs everything fine but really want to use stuff like ray tracing and maybe a bit more FPS. Or is it even worth me to upgrade? 
 

Im not sure what exactly I need to upgrade. Or if I even can. Anyways, here is my setup: 

Asus GTX 1080ti 11gb

32gb g skill ram

ryzen 7 1700x 

I added the rest in the pictures below. Id appreciate any help :) 

 

61CA3615-F91E-44ED-847D-E4444223CEE5.png

4DCC90F1-0FE8-4387-98C7-7C3C08B16D78.png

C08DB7F3-FE80-4C8A-B3CE-AA11EE150286.png

2B2C4C49-D4B4-4AFC-8385-BE25BA46F8AE.png

0D198D14-021D-4355-923B-95A81E1F6654.png

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1 minute ago, StutterAndLag said:

Hey everyone! Looking for some expert advice! 
 

I bought my PC back in 2017 and was thinking of upgrading. My pc runs everything fine but really want to use stuff like ray tracing and maybe a bit more FPS. Or is it even worth me to upgrade? 
 

Im not sure what exactly I need to upgrade. Or if I even can. Anyways, here is my setup: 

Asus GTX 1080ti 11gb

32gb g skill ram

ryzen 7 1700x 

I added the rest in the pictures below. Id appreciate any help 🙂

 

61CA3615-F91E-44ED-847D-E4444223CEE5.png

4DCC90F1-0FE8-4387-98C7-7C3C08B16D78.png

C08DB7F3-FE80-4C8A-B3CE-AA11EE150286.png

2B2C4C49-D4B4-4AFC-8385-BE25BA46F8AE.png

0D198D14-021D-4355-923B-95A81E1F6654.png

just keep your setup, its already beastly, even in 2021

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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1 minute ago, StutterAndLag said:

Hey everyone! Looking for some expert advice! 
 

I bought my PC back in 2017 and was thinking of upgrading. My pc runs everything fine but really want to use stuff like ray tracing and maybe a bit more FPS. Or is it even worth me to upgrade? 
 

Im not sure what exactly I need to upgrade. Or if I even can. Anyways, here is my setup: 

Asus GTX 1080ti 11gb

32gb g skill ram

ryzen 7 1700x 

I added the rest in the pictures below. Id appreciate any help 🙂

 

61CA3615-F91E-44ED-847D-E4444223CEE5.png

4DCC90F1-0FE8-4387-98C7-7C3C08B16D78.png

C08DB7F3-FE80-4C8A-B3CE-AA11EE150286.png

2B2C4C49-D4B4-4AFC-8385-BE25BA46F8AE.png

0D198D14-021D-4355-923B-95A81E1F6654.png

You could definitely upgrade your case for better airflow (something like a 4000D Airflow, TD 500 Mesh, P360A ect) and your motherboard does support 3rd gen ryzen with a BIOS update.

Big nerd. 

 

 PCPartPicker List Link

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Ryzen 5 1400, Deepcool Gammaxx 400 V2 Blue, Biostar B450MH, Timetec 2x8GB 3200MHz CL16, Adata SU650 240GB, WD Blue 250GB 7200RPM, Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200RPM, MSI Aero GTX 1060 3GB, Cougar MG130G, Segotep 750W Fully Modular 80+ Gold, HP 22EB, Samsung S22E450D, Sceptre E205-W, Gamakay LK67 with Gat Reds and HK Gaming Chalk keycaps, Logitech G305 Lightspeed, Shure MV7, Gertisan Mic Arm, OneOdio Headphones, CM SickleFlow Blue Fan, Iceberg Thermal IceGALE 140MM Teal x2, Cougar case fan

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Keep it. You could sell your second 1080ti as nvidia killed sli in january so it's pretty much useless for any new games. It's going to get you a fair bit of money.

 

The biggest upgrade you could do for cheap really is a new cpu. The single core performance of a 1700x isn't that great and will be holding you back in games. Something as simple as a ryzen 3600 would benefit you greatly and would be a rather cheap upgrade.

 

As someone mentioned already a better case won't hurt at all as the current one has pretty terrible airflow. Taking out the pretty useless second 1080ti would help a lot too.

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Maybe you could upgrade to a more powerful CPU like the Ryzen 7 3700x or even the Ryzen 9 3900x, but if you're happy with how it already runs, there's not really any point.

 

Same goes for the GPU too - you have a very powerful card already, you'd need to buy at least an RTX 3080 to get any appreciable performance improvements, and prices on those cards are nuts! You could probably also sell one of your 1080Ti for a pretty good amount of money as well, given how crazy high demand for GPUs is now.

FormD T1 V1.1 Build

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 || Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX || RAM: 32 GB (2x 16 GB) 3,200 MHz CL16 Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 ||
GPU: EVGA GTX 950 SSC ACX 2.0 || Storage: 1x 128 GB Samsung PM851, 1x 256 GB Adata SU800, 1x 1 TB Crucial P5, 1x 2 TB Teamgroup MP34 ||
Case: FormD T1 V1.1 (Silver Panels/Black Mesh) || PSU: Corsair SF750 || Cooling: Noctua NH-L9a, 2x NF-A12x25

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I would upgrade the CPU but that is pretty much it. the Ryzen 7 first gen was good but AMD CPU's are a lot better now. I think you need to upgrade your MB if you get a 5th gen, i don't think an x370 works with 5th gen but i may be wrong. 

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7 minutes ago, MaxTGG said:

I would upgrade the CPU but that is pretty much it. the Ryzen 7 first gen was good but AMD CPU's are a lot better now. I think you need to upgrade your MB if you get a 5th gen, i don't think an x370 works with 5th gen but i may be wrong. 

only x470, b450, b550, and x570 work with ryzen 5th gen

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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1 minute ago, King of Memes said:

only x470, b450, b550, and x570 work with ryzen 5th gen

so I was right, ok thanks.

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24 minutes ago, StutterAndLag said:

Hey everyone! Looking for some expert advice! 
 

I bought my PC back in 2017 and was thinking of upgrading. My pc runs everything fine but really want to use stuff like ray tracing and maybe a bit more FPS. Or is it even worth me to upgrade? 
 

Im not sure what exactly I need to upgrade. Or if I even can. Anyways, here is my setup: 

Asus GTX 1080ti 11gb

32gb g skill ram

ryzen 7 1700x 

I added the rest in the pictures below. Id appreciate any help 🙂

 

61CA3615-F91E-44ED-847D-E4444223CEE5.png

4DCC90F1-0FE8-4387-98C7-7C3C08B16D78.png

C08DB7F3-FE80-4C8A-B3CE-AA11EE150286.png

2B2C4C49-D4B4-4AFC-8385-BE25BA46F8AE.png

0D198D14-021D-4355-923B-95A81E1F6654.png

Don't give in to the temptation demons 

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20 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Keep it. You could sell your second 1080ti as nvidia killed sli in january so it's pretty much useless for any new games. It's going to get you a fair bit of money.

 

The biggest upgrade you could do for cheap really is a new cpu. The single core performance of a 1700x isn't that great and will be holding you back in games. Something as simple as a ryzen 3600 would benefit you greatly and would be a rather cheap upgrade.

 

As someone mentioned already a better case won't hurt at all as the current one has pretty terrible airflow. Taking out the pretty useless second 1080ti would help a lot too.

I actually traded that 2nd graphics card for a firearm a few months back lol! But I guess it’s a good thing I did considering I couldn’t use it anymore. With that new cpu. Is it just drop in and use? And what all differences would I see? 

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8 minutes ago, King of Memes said:

only x470, b450, b550, and x570 work with ryzen 5th gen

So I would have to upgrade my MB if I wanted to use a Ryzen 9 3900x or something? 
and would that difference be huge in gaming? Or is it mainly the graphics card and ram that does that work. 

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Just now, StutterAndLag said:

So I would have to upgrade my MB if I wanted to use a Ryzen 9 3900x or something? 
and would that difference be huge in gaming? Or is it mainly the graphics card and ram that does that work. 

i dont think so, it might make a difference depending on the resolution your monitors is

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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2 minutes ago, StutterAndLag said:

So I would have to upgrade my MB if I wanted to use a Ryzen 9 3900x or something? 
and would that difference be huge in gaming? Or is it mainly the graphics card and ram that does that work. 

if you go for third gen i dont think so (may need a bios update) but for a 5th gen (such as a Ryzen 9 5900x) you would need an upgraded MB

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1 minute ago, King of Memes said:

i dont think so, it might make a difference depending on the resolution your monitors is

So mainly just the graphics card then ram I’m assuming. Do you know the difference between like a 8gb gpu to 11gb? Like if I went to a new 8gb card. Is that better then my 11gb? Because it’s a 3080/3090 or something 

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2 hours ago, StutterAndLag said:

So mainly just the graphics card then ram I’m assuming. Do you know the difference between like a 8gb gpu to 11gb? Like if I went to a new 8gb card. Is that better then my 11gb? Because it’s a 3080/3090 or something 

Just keep what you have for now, if you want, you can upgrade the CPU to a 2nd or 3rd gen Ryzen 7 or higher.

Here is the CPU support list:https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-x370-f-gaming-model/helpdesk_cpu

 

 

Gaming With a 4:3 CRT

System specs below

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X with a Noctua NH-U9S cooler 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 Aorus M (Because it was cheap)
RAM: 32GB (4 x 8GB) Corsair Vengance LPX 3200Mhz CL16
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC Blower Card
HDD: 7200RPM TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 1TB, External HDD: 5400RPM 2TB WD My Passport
SSD: 1tb Samsung 970 evo m.2 nvme
PSU: Corsair CX650M
Displays: ViewSonic VA2012WB LCD 1680x1050p @ 75Hz
Gateway VX920 CRT: 1920x1440@65Hz, 1600x1200@75Hz, 1200x900@100Hz, 960x720@125Hz
Gateway VX900 CRT: 1920x1440@64Hz, 1600x1200@75Hz, 1200x900@100Hz, 960x720@120Hz (Can be pushed to 175Hz)
 
Keyboard: Thermaltake eSPORTS MEKA PRO with Cherry MX Red switches
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IF that upgrade bug has bitten you hard, and that urge to upgrade is burning a hole in your pocket, then I'd suggest:

1. Change that case, what you have is terrible for airflow. Look a round for a case that suits your sense of aesthetics and post a link to it here for opinions.

2. Perhaps a more powerful CPU if your mobo supports them, like a 3700X or 3900X (check if your mobo support them, prolly need a BIOS flash)

 

You don't have to upgrade your GPU as the GTX 1080 Ti is still a very good card, but really depends on the resolution of your monitor and your expectations. Now is NOT a good time to buy GPU due to the crazy prices due to so many factors (COVID-19 affecting shipments, worldwide shortage of chips, $%#@ crypto-miners, $%#@ scalpers) forming the 'perfect storm'. You don't need an RT capable card for now, wait till hardware gets better and able to handle RT at high res RT gaming natively.

 

Other than that, I don't see a real need to do anything else till chip supply and prices have stabilized (prolly in a year or two). I happen to have an RX 6900 XT only because I'd gotten it earlier when prices, crazy as it was then, aren't at today's mind numbing levels. I got it at the beginning of the year at about 1350USD, which seems very reasonable by today's standard actually.

Main Rig: AMD AM4 R9 5900X (12C/24T) + Tt Water 3.0 ARGB 360 AIO | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme | 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600C16 | XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XTX | 256GB Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 (OS) | 4TB Lexar NM790 NVMe M.2 PCIe4x4 | 2TB TG Cardea Zero Z440 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD | 2TB Samsung 860 QVO SATA SSD | 6TB WD Black HDD | CoolerMaster H500M | Corsair HX1000 Platinum | Topre Type Heaven + Seenda Ergonomic W/L Vertical Mouse + 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G | iFi Micro iDSD Black Label | Philips Fidelio B97 | C49HG90DME 49" 32:9 144Hz Freesync 2 | Omnidesk Pro 2020 48" | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

2nd Rig: AMD AM4 R9 3900X + TR PA 120 SE | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Elite AX | 2x 16GB Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4 4000MHz | Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6900 XT | 500GB Crucial P2 Plus NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4.0 (OS)2TB Adata Legend 850 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 |  2TB Kingston NV2 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Leven JS600 SATA SSD | 2TB Seagate HDD | Keychron K2 + Logitech G703 | SOLDAM XR-1 Black Knight | Enermax MAXREVO 1500 | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, jaslion said:

Keep it. You could sell your second 1080ti as nvidia killed sli in january so it's pretty much useless for any new games. It's going to get you a fair bit of money.

 

The biggest upgrade you could do for cheap really is a new cpu. The single core performance of a 1700x isn't that great and will be holding you back in games. Something as simple as a ryzen 3600 would benefit you greatly and would be a rather cheap upgrade.

 

As someone mentioned already a better case won't hurt at all as the current one has pretty terrible airflow. Taking out the pretty useless second 1080ti would help a lot too.

the 1700x will not hold him back in games, its definetely powerful enough for a 1080 ti

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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6 hours ago, King of Memes said:

the 1700x will not hold him back in games, its definetely powerful enough for a 1080 ti

I do not agree with you here. Its been proven that a higher end cpu lets the 1080ti shine more even in todays games as the single core performance of a 1700x is just lower. It can be seen in benchmarks from back then with a 8700k and 1800x till now with past vs new products in a cpu lineup. The 3060 is a good example. It caps out at around a 3600 in terms of hitting its max framerates in games consitently and the 3060 is in general a bit slower then the 1080ti

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upgrading your cpu to 3600, 3700x (3800x if found at good price) is the best pet.

you gpu is still good so do not worry about that.

Also ray tracing is not worth it on any gpu other than 3080 and 3090 and they cost thousends of dollars right now.

 

6 hours ago, King of Memes said:

the 1700x will not hold him back in games, its definetely powerful enough for a 1080 ti

well not really. 1700x has like i5 6400`s performance in single core

QUOTE ME  FOR ANSWER.

 

Main PC:

Spoiler

|Ryzen 7 3700x, OC to 4.2ghz @1.3V, 67C, or 4.4ghz @1.456V, 87C || Asus strix 5700 XT, +50 core, +50 memory, +50 power (not a great overclocker) || Asus Strix b550-A || G.skill trident Z Neo rgb 32gb 3600mhz cl16-19-19-19-39, oc to 3733mhz with the same timings || Cooler Master ml360 RGB AIO || Phanteks P500A Digital || Thermaltake ToughPower grand RGB750w 80+gold || Samsung 850 250gb and Adata SX 6000 Lite 500gb || Toshiba 5400rpm 1tb || Asus Rog Theta 7.1 || Asus Rog claymore || Asus Gladius 2 origin gaming mouse || Monitor 1 Asus 1080p 144hz || Monitor 2 AOC 1080p 75hz || 

Test Rig.

Spoiler

Ryzen 5 3400G || Gigabyte b450 S2H || Hyper X fury 2x4gb 2666mhz cl 16 ||Stock cooler || Antec NX100 || Silverstone essential 400w || Transgend SSD 220s 480gb ||

Just Sold

Spoiler

| i3 9100F || Msi Gaming X gtx 1050 TI || MSI Z390 A-Pro || Kingston 1x16gb 2400mhz cl17 || Stock cooler || Kolink Horizon RGB || Corsair CV 550w || Pny CS900 120gb ||

 

Tier lists for building a PC.

 

Motherboard tier list. Tier A for overclocking 5950x. Tier B for overclocking 5900x, Tier C for overclocking 5800X. Tier D for overclocking 5600X. Tier F for 4/6 core Cpus at stock. Tier E avoid.

(Also case airflow matter or if you are using Downcraft air cooler)

Spoiler

 

Gpu tier list. Rtx 3000 and RX 6000 not included since not so many reviews. Tier S for Water cooling. Tier A and B for overcloking. Tier C stock and Tier D avoid.

( You can overclock Tier C just fine, but it can get very loud, that is why it is not recommended for overclocking, same with tier D)

Spoiler

 

Psu tier List. Tier A for Rtx 3000, Vega and RX 6000. Tier B For anything else. Tier C cheap/IGPU. Tier D and E avoid.

(RTX 3000/ RX 6000 Might run just fine with higher wattage tier B unit, Rtx 3070 runs fine with tier B units)

Spoiler

 

Cpu cooler tier list. Tier 1&2 for power hungry Cpus with Overclock. Tier 3&4 for overclocking Ryzen 3,5,7 or lower power Intel Cpus. Tier 5 for overclocking low end Cpus or 4/6 core Ryzen. Tier 6&7 for stock. Tier 8&9 Ryzen stock cooler performance. Do not waste your money!

Spoiler

 

Storage tier List. Tier A for Moving files/  OS. Tier B for OS/Games. Tier C for games. Tier D budget Pcs. Tier E if on sale not the worst but not good.

(With a grain of salt, I use tier C for OS myself)

Spoiler

 

Case Tier List. Work In Progress. Most Phanteks airflow series cases already done!

Ask me anything :)

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8 hours ago, SavageNeo said:

upgrading your cpu to 3600, 3700x (3800x if found at good price) is the best pet.

you gpu is still good so do not worry about that.

Also ray tracing is not worth it on any gpu other than 3080 and 3090 and they cost thousends of dollars right now.

 

well not really. 1700x has like i5 6400`s performance in single core

the i5 6400 is definetely adequate for the 1080 ti, plus, the 1700x has 8 cores, so it definetely has enough cores for modern gaming

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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8 hours ago, jaslion said:

I do not agree with you here. Its been proven that a higher end cpu lets the 1080ti shine more even in todays games as the single core performance of a 1700x is just lower. It can be seen in benchmarks from back then with a 8700k and 1800x till now with past vs new products in a cpu lineup. The 3060 is a good example. It caps out at around a 3600 in terms of hitting its max framerates in games consitently and the 3060 is in general a bit slower then the 1080ti

im calling bs on this one, the ryzen 5 3600 is perfectly adequate for gpus better than the RTX 3060. The RTX 3070 and Ryzen 5 3600 is a perfectly adequate cpu/gpu combination. and the 1700x is perfectly adequate for the 1700x, if he upgrades, itd be nice, but its not neccessary.

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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6 minutes ago, King of Memes said:

the i5 6400 is definetely adequate for the 1080 ti, plus, the 1700x has 8 cores, so it definetely has enough cores for modern gaming

Not really. The 6400 is a 4C/4T CPU. And while the 1700X is an 8-core, it's built on Zen. Upgrading from Zen to just Zen 2 is a huge performance bump (coming from experience).

2 minutes ago, King of Memes said:

im calling bs on this one, the ryzen 5 3600 is perfectly adequate for gpus better than the RTX 3060. The RTX 3070 and Ryzen 5 3600 is a perfectly adequate cpu/gpu combination. and the 1700x is perfectly adequate for the 1700x, if he upgrades, itd be nice, but its not neccessary.

1700X + 1080 Ti is alright, but 3600 + 1080 Ti would be better.

elephants

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honestly,  maybe a better cpu the rest seems to be fine and "ray tracing" is vastly overhyped,  it just makes everything look shiny,  and in most cases unrealistic,  basically blast processing all over again (look it up if you're unfamiliar)

 

Better wait for 4000 series  / DDR5... 1080Ti is still a very good card,  especially considering game development seems to have stalled hard in the fidelity department (since ps360 gen i wanna say)

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30 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Not really. The 6400 is a 4C/4T CPU. And while the 1700X is an 8-core, it's built on Zen. Upgrading from Zen to just Zen 2 is a huge performance bump (coming from experience).

agreed, i was mostly talking about the single core performance of it

 

30 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

1700X + 1080 Ti is alright, but 3600 + 1080 Ti would be better.

agreed, but does OP need to upgrade? no. I can only see issues with the 1700x and 1080 ti at 1080p Low 144hz, and in 2017, the 1080 ti for 1080p gaming would have been a waste. at higher resolutions like 1440p or 4k, the 1700x is perfectly fine with the 1080 ti

my signiture was cool, but its a lie now

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57 minutes ago, King of Memes said:

agreed, i was mostly talking about the single core performance of it

...Zen 2 has a lot better IPC than Zen. That's what Intel had over AMD then - while AMD had more cores, they were slower.

elephants

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