Worth upgrading CPU on my current AM4? Or just wait and rebuild?

[RiskyBomberPT]

Hello, I'm looking towards an upgrade for my system as I've been experiencing some slowdowns, specially on Apex or very crowded places in WoW, on what I assume might be due to low IPC and very low boost performance on my CPU (R5 3600). I've messed around with settings until I eventually gave up, my CPU rarely gets to 4.1 GHZ other than occasional spikes, and mostly sits at 3.9 to 4.0 GHZ. Considering it should boost up to 4.2GHz, either that's bollocks or I've got a really unlucky sample. Manual overclocking seems to not help either, and instead just ruins stability or has me pumping the voltage to uncomfortable levels.

 

My idea is, should I wait, extend budget, and rebuild my entire platform later this year, with AM5 or even Intel (saving maybe the GPU, Drives, Case, PSU), or upgrade CPU for now and be done with it? Is there something else I should look to upgrade instead?

I'm trying to go for a more price/performance approach, so upgrading the whole platform would be a consideration if sticking to my current AM4 platform (mobo/ram) would hold me back even with a CPU upgrade. I'm not sure how good my current motherboard is, or the RAM for that matter, and if they can still "hold up" with just a Zen 3 upgrade. Or am I just wasting money with the Zen 3 upgrade and not really fixing my issues here? I really can't tell and so I'm here asking for help.

 

Budget (including currency): possibly no more than 400€ (=400$), willing to extend if reasonable

Country: Portugal

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly gaming (Apex Legends, League, VALORANT, Genshin, WoW) at 1440p 144Hz, occasionally streaming to friends over discord.

My Current Build:

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

MOBO: MSI B450-A PRO MAX (on Agesa 1.2.0.2 as some people claim the newest versions lowered frequency boosting / PBO performance, so I just played it safe)

RAM: HyperX Fury 3466MT CL16 2x8GB

GPU: PNY RTX3060ti XLR8 REVEL EPIC-X RGB Dual Fan

SSDs: NVME Toshiba RC500 (500GB), Crucial MX500 (1TB)

PSU: Bitfenix Whisper M 650W

COOLER: Arctic Freezer 34 DUO

CASE: Phanteks Eclipse P400A with included 2 fans + 2x Arctic P12 PWM PST fans

MONITORS: LG 27GN800-B (1440p 144hz, main monitor), PHILIPS 243V7QDSB (2nd monitor, 1080p 75hz)

 

Here's the best pricing at my local retailers, VAT included:

5600X 240€

5700X 330€

5800X 330€

5800X3D 500€ (quite a bit above budget but maybe it could go down in price next month? though is it really 170€ worth of value over a regular 5800X?)

 

If my MOBO can handle something as high as the 5800X stable, would I need a new cooler? I'd have to factor that into the pricing too.

 

Thanks for helping.

[Fasauceome]

5 minutes ago, RiskyBomberPT said:

I've messed around with settings until I eventually gave up, my CPU rarely gets to 4.1 GHZ other than occasional spikes, and mostly sits at 3.9 to 4.0 GHZ. Considering it should boost up to 4.2GHz, either that's bollocks or I've got a really unlucky sample

4.2 is the single core boost speed. Most users will get around 3.6 to 3.9 all core without overclocking or PBO with a beefy air cooler. The 32 duo you have is good, but not amazing. You might consider some voltage tweaking, but I digress.

 

5 minutes ago, RiskyBomberPT said:

My idea is, should I wait, extend budget, and rebuild my entire platform later this year, with AM5 or even Intel (saving maybe the GPU, Drives, Case, PSU), or upgrade CPU for now and be done with it? Is there something else I should look to upgrade instead?

I'm trying to go for a more price/performance approach, so upgrading the whole platform would be a consideration if sticking to my current AM4 platform (mobo/ram) would hold me back even with a CPU upgrade

Your motherboard is a good board, so I wouldn't jump to replace it just now.

 

For cost/performance one of the best strategies historically has been to wait for the new thing to come out, and buy the last generation at a super low price. I bet you can find a Ryzen 9 5900X or 5800X3D on eBay secondhand very easily when Ryzen 7000 series is released. Either would fit nicely in your motherboard, and with a CPU cooler upgrade, you will get a superb CPU performance increase.

[RiskyBomberPT]

Just now, Fasauceome said:

4.2 is the single core boost speed. Most users will get around 3.6 to 3.9 all core without overclocking or PBO with a beefy air cooler. The 32 duo you have is good, but not amazing. You might consider some voltage tweaking, but I digress.

 

Your motherboard is a good board, so I wouldn't jump to replace it just now.

 

For cost/performance one of the best strategies historically has been to wait for the new thing to come out, and buy the last generation at a super low price. I bet you can find a Ryzen 9 5900X or 5800X3D on eBay secondhand very easily when Ryzen 7000 series is released. Either would fit nicely in your motherboard, and with a CPU cooler upgrade, you will a some superb CPU performance increase.

That's nice to hear, considering I get a good deal on a 5900X/5800X3D and my motherboard is good to go for those, what cooler would you recommend to pair with them?

 

Btw I forgot to list it, the 5900X is retailing for 440€ (=440$), VAT included.

 

Thanks for the quick response

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, RiskyBomberPT said:

what cooler would you recommend to pair with them?

You could opt for the larger air coolers like the dark rock pro 4

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/product/F3gzK8/be-quiet-dark-rock-pro-4-505-cfm-cpu-cooler-bk022

Or the NH-D15S 

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/product/xCL7YJ/noctua-nh-d15s-8252-cfm-cpu-cooler-nh-d15s

Zalman has been making some good coolers recently. The CNPS 16X is a good option

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/product/CQsnTW/zalman-cnps16x-49-cfm-cpu-cooler-cnps16x-white

And if you can find a listing locally, the CNPS20X is worth considering too.

[Jeppes]

Freezer 34 duo is equal to d15 on GN review with a 123W 3800x when noise-normalized to 35dB, so swapping not worth it.

[RiskyBomberPT]

18 hours ago, Jeppes said:

Freezer 34 duo is equal to d15 on GN review with a 123W 3800x when noise-normalized to 35dB, so swapping not worth it.

Oh that's even better! I might just stick with it for the time being then and keep a close eye on temps. I can let loose the RPMs as well.

 

Googling and looking through information on coolers I did come across people talking about hot VRMs with their higher end CPUs, so I'm wondering, would my setup be good at keeping the VRMs cool? This is how my setup is right now:
2x Front - Intake

1x Top, towards the back - Exhaust

1x Back, Exhaust

and the CPU cooler, with 2 fans, pointing towards the back of the case

 

I'm afraid the flow against the motherboard might not be enough for the VRMs to stay cool, should I swap my airflow direction, as in, intake from the back/top and exhaust out the front, as well as flip the cpu cooler fans so they push towards the front? Or will I be fine just as is? I'm not sure I can check VRM temperatures digitally, though if I can I'd like to know how, I usually use CPUID HWMonitor for my temps, but I don't think it shows VRMs anywhere.

[Jeppes]

7 minutes ago, RiskyBomberPT said:

Oh that's even better! I might just stick with it for the time being then and keep a close eye on temps. I can let loose the RPMs as well.

 

Googling and looking through information on coolers I did come across people talking about hot VRMs with their higher end CPUs, so I'm wondering, would my setup be good at keeping the VRMs cool? This is how my setup is right now:
2x Front - Intake

1x Top, towards the back - Exhaust

1x Back, Exhaust

and the CPU cooler, with 2 fans, pointing towards the back of the case

 

I'm afraid the flow against the motherboard might not be enough for the VRMs to stay cool, should I swap my airflow direction, as in, intake from the back/top and exhaust out the front, as well as flip the cpu cooler fans so they push towards the front? Or will I be fine just as is? I'm not sure I can check VRM temperatures digitally, though if I can I'd like to know how, I usually use CPUID HWMonitor for my temps, but I don't think it shows VRMs anywhere.

Nothing to worry about.