Do I need a new CPU?

[shutupzac96]

 

Hi

My current gaming rig runs an i5-8400 with a GTX 1060 6GB

I’m possibly getting an RTX 3070 this year. Should I upgrade the cpu as well, or will my existing i5 be ok?

My motherboard is compatible with 8th and 9th gen intel all the way up to i9-9900k

I really don’t want to change boards if I can help it. 

All advice we come :)

[Dedayog]

If you get a 3070, definitely upgrade.  What board is it?  Can it OC a K chip?

 

Are you affording a drop in CPU upgrade, like the 9900K for $250-$300 or have funds for a full generational upgrade like a 5600X+motherboard, etc?

 

What's the rest of your system like?  PSU, especially.

[SavageNeo]

if you play at 4k, it will be fine.

if you play cpu heavy games, or at 1080p or 1440p your cpu will bottleneck. not by that much at 1440p but definetely at 1080p or at cpu heavy titles.

 

so yes you should upgrade. mayby used i9 9900f, i7 9700f or i7 8700 would be fine.

[shutupzac96]

20 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

If you get a 3070, definitely upgrade.  What board is it?  Can it OC a K chip?

 

Are you affording a drop in CPU upgrade, like the 9900K for $250-$300 or have funds for a full generational upgrade like a 5600X+motherboard, etc?

 

What's the rest of your system like?  PSU, especially.

I already need a new PSU for this 3070 so that isn’t an issue. 
 

My board is a ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING ATX

 

16GB of ram 
 

My monitor is a 1440p @144Hz so that’s my goal for playing 

[shutupzac96]

21 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

if you play at 4k, it will be fine.

if you play cpu heavy games, or at 1080p or 1440p your cpu will bottleneck. not by that much at 1440p but definetely at 1080p or at cpu heavy titles.

 

so yes you should upgrade. mayby used i9 9900f, i7 9700f or i7 8700 would be fine.

1440p@144Hz as that’s what my monitor can do. I play KSP, Cyberpunk, and Elite Dangerous among others 

[YoungBlade]

What types of games do you play and what settings do you target? The 8400 isn't a bad gaming chip, but it is starting to show some weaknesses in newer AAA titles and it can't push as many frames per second as newer CPUs. But whether that matters is very dependent on your use case.

 

If you intend to use the 3070 for 1080p or 1440p high refresh rate gaming (medium-low settings, aiming for max FPS), then you will absolutely need a CPU upgrade to take advantage of that. No question. If your motherboard can handle a 9900K, that would be a suitable option. A 9700K could also work well in those kinds of titles.

 

If you intend to play CPU intensive AAA titles at 1080p, you'll also notice some problems with the 8400. Those sorts of titles are starting to demand more from CPUs, and when the 8400 is asked to do all that plus push frames, something will have to give, and the first thing to go is likely frametime pacing. In this case, a 9900K would make the most sense, as it has those extra threads to deal with the demands of newer games.

 

However, if you want to play AAA titles at 1440p, then it'll depend on what sorts of settings you use. If you turn on ray tracing and ultra settings, then the 8400 is probably fine, because it won't need to work as hard to push frames. You'll be GPU bound and so wouldn't notice much difference with a different CPU.

 

If you are gonna game at 4K, there shouldn't be any problem. The 3070 is powerful, but 4K is so GPU demanding that the 8400 will be given very little work to do, so it'll be fine.

 

Since you don't intend to change platforms, I'd try out the 8400 and see how it fairs. If you're in game and the GPU is consistently above 95% usage, then clearly the CPU isn't holding you back too much. Whether that will happen depends on the factors mentioned above.

[shutupzac96]

3 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

What types of games do you play and what settings do you target? The 8400 isn't a bad gaming chip, but it is starting to show some weaknesses in newer AAA titles and it can't push as many frames per second as newer CPUs. But whether that matters is very dependent on your use case.

 

If you intend to use the 3070 for 1080p or 1440p high refresh rate gaming (medium-low settings, aiming for max FPS), then you will absolutely need a CPU upgrade to take advantage of that. No question. If your motherboard can handle a 9900K, that would be a suitable option. A 9700K could also work well in those kinds of titles.

 

If you intend to play CPU intensive AAA titles at 1080p, you'll also notice some problems with the 8400. Those sorts of titles are starting to demand more from CPUs, and when the 8400 is asked to do all that plus push frames, something will have to give, and the first thing to go is likely frametime pacing. In this case, a 9900K would make the most sense, as it has those extra threads to deal with the demands of newer games.

 

However, if you want to play AAA titles at 1440p, then it'll depend on what sorts of settings you use. If you turn on ray tracing and ultra settings, then the 8400 is probably fine, because it won't need to work as hard to push frames. You'll be GPU bound and so wouldn't notice much difference with a different CPU.

 

If you are gonna game at 4K, there shouldn't be any problem. The 3070 is powerful, but 4K is so GPU demanding that the 8400 will be given very little work to do, so it'll be fine.

 

Since you don't intend to change platforms, I'd try out the 8400 and see how it fairs. If you're in game and the GPU is consistently above 95% usage, then clearly the CPU isn't holding you back too much. Whether that will happen depends on the factors mentioned above.

I’m aiming to play cyberpunk at 1440@144Hz with the settings as high as the card will allow 

[YoungBlade]

5 minutes ago, shutupzac96 said:

1440p@144Hz as that’s what my monitor can do. I play KSP, Cyberpunk, and Elite Dangerous among others 

In that case, it looks like you mostly like open-world games, so a CPU upgrade could make sense.

 

KSP is basically always CPU limited, but it's a single-core limitation for the physics calculations. For a game like that, I typically don't care about framerates as much as stability. As long as the Kraken isn't coming for you regularly, the 8400 should be fine. Getting more cores probably wouldn't help with that, but the higher clocks afforded by the 9900K or 9700K could.

 

Cyberpunk is very CPU demanding, but even more GPU demanding. Since you intend to crank the settings, you'll probably be GPU bound. It could vary from location to location within the game world, but at 1440p high, I think the 8400 would be okay.

 

Elite: Dangerous doesn't look particularly demanding, so the 8400 should be fine, but I haven't played that game nor seen any benchmarks for it, so it's hard for me to say where it's going to push your system.

 

If you're not in a rush, I'd try out the 8400 and see. I know some people hate on the 6c/6t Intel chips, but until recently I was using a 9600K and when paired with a 2060 Super at 1440p with high settings, it performed virtually identically to my new 5900X in Control, Abzu, Tomb Raider, etc.