question Is upgrading from a 3600 to a 5600x or a 5800x worth it?

[LiamOT21]

ive got what i would consider a pretty beefy rig with a 3080 fe, a rog x570-f 16 (soon to be 32gb) 3200mhz ram and a ryzen 5 3600, however i wanted to upgrade my cpu even though im on a fairly tight budget. Im gaming at 1440p and want to maximise my frames as much as i can, i cant be bothered to list what my settings are on games so lets just say that i play maxed everything which in most cases i do. i play a mix of games like league warzone csgo you name it ive probably played it, however in some titles i feel i could be getting more frames than im getting. as ive said previous im on a tight-ish budget but would be able to purchase a 5600x no problem, however with the frame difference im not really sure its worth it. The 5800x however i think i would need to look 2nd hand which isnt exactly an issue i dont believe but it'd be harder to get one at a good price. What should i do in this situation? spend the extra for the 5800 or just go for the 5600? im also going into this with the mindset of im not actually gonna pay full price either as i will have a cpu to sell which my brother has already offered to buy but im in a bit of a pickle trying to decide. TIA

[dizmo]

I wouldn't bother. Save up and get an AM5 based system.

[tdkid]

from the 1600 to the 5950x being released in roughly a 2 year span. i would say its not worth replacing your 3600 to a 5600x or 5800x because there is not going to be much difference. 

 

AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600

Graphics Model

Discrete Graphics Card Required

# of CPU Cores

6

# of Threads

12

Max Boost Clock 

Up to 4.2GHz

Base Clock

3.6GHz

Thermal Solution (PIB)

Wraith Stealth

Default TDP / TDP

65W

 

Ryzen™ 7 5800X Desktop Processors

Graphics Model

Discrete Graphics Card Required

# of CPU Cores

8

# of Threads

16

Max Boost Clock 

Up to 4.7GHz

Base Clock

3.8GHz

Thermal Solution (PIB)

Not included

Default TDP / TDP

105W

 

if you were going from a AM3 socket CPU to an AM4 socket CPU then i could see the want to upgrade but not right now. if you are not having any issues, i would wait.

[freeagent]

It depends on what is worth it to you.. I went from a 3600XT to a 5600X and thought it was worth it. I couldn't get the 5600X when I built this so that XT was always meant to be a placeholder. AM5 is a year away still.. and there is always something new around the corner if you wait just a lil more. After awhile you get used to seeing everyone use the newest while you keep waiting for the next best thing..

[CryingWimp]

IMO 6 cores in 2021 is entry level. I wouldn't pair a entry level CPU with a 3080-3090, already many of the latest AAA games will run better on more cores with a top tier RTX 3000 GPU.

 

The most recently released AAA games with a 3080-3090 are starting to show the first signs that 6 cores is not enough, until now its been enough. AAA games released later this year and over the next few years are only going to get harder to run than anything currently out and some already are smoother on 8 cores. If you want to enable RTX in games that can run at high FPS with RTX enabled this problem becomes even more apparent.

 

The 5800x is really expensive compared to the 5900x and Intel. A 5900x will always resell for more than a 5800x, so its actually less than $100 difference. The 3900x is reselling for more than the $100 difference over a 3800x right now, so the faster 3900x has actually been cheaper to own. The 5900x will likely follow a similar trend, and if it prevents an upgrade by even a month for every year you own it, it will be cheaper than the 5800x. They are priced way to close together.

 

The 5900x is very expensive though. The 10850k is faster than a 5600x and a teeny tiny bit faster than a 5800x and cheaper. Only the Ryzen 9s are faster than the 10 core i9s at gaming.

 

If your lucky enough to live near microcenter a 10850k is $319. You could swap to intel for less than a 5800x  and have a faster CPU. If your lucky enough to live near by.

 

IMO 6 cores with 32GB of ram and a 3080 is unbalanced. Almost everyone who claims otherwise hasn't actually used a 3080-3090 in the latest games with more than 6 cores. Either of the 5800x/10850k/5900x will be a much better match.

 

My Ryzen 3600 OC'ed to 4.2Ghz while waiting for my Zen3 to arrive was CPU bottlenecking my 3090. I had microstutters in CoD Cold War. CPU bottlenecks cause microstutters. Warzone is one of the games that run smoother on 8 cores with a top tier GPU.

 

If the only option right now is a 5600x vs the 3600 within your budget, honestly I'd wait a bit until I could get a 5800x/10850k/5900x. The 10850k is cheaper and faster than a 5800x, you'd have to sell your MB though. Already owning a 500 series board is the only thing that makes the 5800x make any sense on a budget, or compared to the less than $100 difference after resale of the 5900x. 6 core to 6 core 1 generation apart won't be a big upgrade.

 

The 5600x will only stomp on your 3600 in lightly threaded games. Anything your unhappy doing with a 3600, you'll likely be unhappy using a 5600x. You'd have a better experience tweaking your game settings than getting a 5600x IMO.

[LiamOT21]

a very mixed result something which ive found on other forums to, my problem with waiting for am5 is just the cost mainly, i mean im looking at a whole new motherboard (which are gonna be expensive on launch) ontop of the am5 cpu which will also from what i can tell is gonna be expensive. comparing a 3600 to an am5 cpu im gonna go ahead and guess am5 is 2nd to none in comparison, however comparing a 5800x to an am5 i know there will be a significant difference however money for value wise i think that it will be fairly close, maybe am5 will just pull ahead though. i just know that the 3600 is capable of doing what i do with ease which is gaming, but even still im wanting to upgrade for the extra few fps. im also looking at it as "future proofing" (every gamers way of justifying expensive parts) and i feel as if my cpu will let my down on future titles like the new battlefield for example, im really stuck on what to do here as my gut feeling is to just go ahead with it and buy the damn chip, but at the same time its a lot of money for a few frame difference. gonna look at some more comparisons, ask on some other forums etc and hopefully i reach a decision that im happy with. Thanks everyone!

[Mark Kaine]

7 hours ago, freeagent said:

and there is always something new around the corner if you wait just a lil more.

yeah but usually these things come in cycles, new cpu lines (not bogus upgrades from 1st gen to 2nd gen) every 3-4 years or more.

Gpus every ~2 years.

 

 

So buying a few months before that cycle ends is frankly just not smart and certainly not informed - and ppl regret it every time.

 

Case in point we know new intels this year, amd next year, right? so definitely worth waiting in most cases. Especially because a lot of stuff wont be  compatible. cpus, mobos, ram…(psus?) 

7 hours ago, LiamOT21 said:

 

 

3 hours ago, LiamOT21 said:

am5 is just the cost mainly

yeap, am5 is gonna be pretty much a whole new pc, so it really depends, do you *really* need an upgrade now, or do you want a whole new, much faster pc in a couple of months, or both?  

 

Anyways u have a 3080, a 3600 is bottlenecking that hard, so its worth upgrading imo, especially if you dont want to buy a whole new pc anytime soon

 

 

 

 

 

 

[freeagent]

Yup I hear you. You can wait a year for a 20% bump, or buy now and be happy.  The same hype is built up every year.. year after year. When my rig wont do what I want it to I will give it to my kids and buy a new one.. There will always be disappointment with this hobby.. sooner or later.

[Mister Woof]

3600 is still pretty potent, you'll get the most out of your 3080 most of the time.

 

I'd spend your money on something else, but if you want the last drop out if the 3080 then a 5600x/5800x makes sense.

[LiamOT21]

Yea I get where everyone is coming from, waiting is a risk but can be worth however I’m just thinking the cpu prices are going to be high (especially if we get all the scalpers coming back to play) new mobos which also might be scalped and in my case might even need an upgraded psu, I think I’m gonna pull the trigger on the 5800x, anyways there’s always Christmas if something better comes out ;)

[Mister Woof]

CPUs escaped scalers for the most part - at least nothing like for GPUs.

[freeagent]

The scalpers were the third party sellers at Newegg who marked them up a minimum of a hundred bucks plus high shipping, or free if the CPU was @ or close to $1K.. sometimes.

[Mister Woof]

51 minutes ago, freeagent said:

The scalpers were the third party sellers at Newegg who marked them up a minimum of a hundred bucks plus high shipping, or free if the CPU was @ or close to $1K.. sometimes.

The 5600x and 5800x have been pretty easy to land at msrp, it's just the 5900x and 5950x that have been hard to find

[freeagent]

Up here in In Canada the 5600X is on sale for 379, but when I bought it I paid 430 and tax so about 450 and change. I think I paid 806 taxes and shipping For my 5900X, and 5 days  later the price dropped 50 bucks off. Still kinda miffed about that. I bought from Newegg and they shipped it.. none of those third party deals for me. Like I said they were more than a hundred bucks more than Newegg wanted. That’s ok, apparently I am made of money.

[Tsuness]

I upgraded my 3600X to a 5800X about a week ago and have noticed huge differences in MSFS 2020 between the two CPUs. It helps that Amazon was selling the 5800X for $50 off though so you can buy it for less than $400. Pretty happy with the upgrade. 

 

[LiamOT21]

9 minutes ago, Tsuness said:

I upgraded my 3600X to a 5800X about a week ago and have noticed huge differences in MSFS 2020 between the two CPUs. It helps that Amazon was selling the 5800X for $50 off though so you can buy it for less than $400. Pretty happy with the upgrade. 

 

awesome! yea i think with the 5800x ill have to buy second hand/bid on one as new is just to much for me, think im going to go for it though.