Will I see a noticable difference ? 9900K Upgrade

[Boyohan]

Hi

 

My current PC is now 4 years old if you don't count my RTX 3080 that I got in December of 2020. 

I mostly use my PC for gaming and a bit of video editing (low level amateur stuff for my own use). 

I am thinking of upgrading my PC with new CPU/mobo and will probably go for a SFF ITX build. 

I am only keeping some of the storage and my GPU. 

You can see my full spec in my signature. 

 

But I am not sure if it is the right time to upgrade at the moment... 

 

I have tried to keep myself up to date and I've read a bit about the latest CPUs from Intels and AMD. 

But what I don't know very much about is the performance difference between the newest CPUs and my old 9900K. 

I am considering 13600K, 13700K, 7700X and 7900X... 

 

I don't care about getting XXX more points in Cinebench or other synthetic benchmarks. 

I want to know if I will see a noticable difference in day to day use. 

 

 

[jaslion]

Nope.

 

I keep telling people this but a 9900k is still a beast of a cpu. Will easily last this entirr console generation and then some. Doesnt even struggle much maxing a 4090, pushing it to the engine limits of games or achieving hundreds upon hundreds of fps in esports games.

 

So dont waste money and just keep what you have. A real upgrade would be w new gpu but then do you even need that?

 

 

[Dima Dolgov]

What resolution you are playing on ?

[Dima Dolgov]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Doesnt even struggle much maxing a 4090

bullshit !! i have the same generation (8700K 5Ghz) and its bottlenecking my 4090 AF !! Im getting same FPS as my "old" 3080 in all games !

So its a total waste of money to purchase 4090 with CPUs older than 12 Gen.

So I just ordered 13700K...hopefully to try to minimalize the bottnecking as much as possible...

[Boyohan]

5 minutes ago, Dima Dolgov said:

What resolution you are playing on ?

My main monitor has 1440p/165hz 

 

[jaslion]

Just now, Dima Dolgov said:

bullshit !! i have the same generation (8700K 5Ghz) and its bottlenecking my 4090 AF !! Im getting same FPS as my "old" 3080 in all games !

So its a total waste of money to purchase 4090 with CPUs older than 12 Gen.

So I just ordered 13700K...hopefully to try to minimalize the bottnecking as much as possible...

Carefull there as its not as simple.

 

What games are you playing at what settigs and resolution?

 

A 3080 is strong card and if you are playing at eg 1080p you will simply have too much card for too little resoltion.

 

Also a 9900k and 8700k are very different beasts especiallt in newer games.

[jaslion]

Just now, Boyohan said:

My main monitor has 1440p/165hz 

 

Absolutly fine for that

[Dima Dolgov]

Just now, jaslion said:

Carefull there as its not as simple.

 

What games are you playing at what settigs and resolution?

 

A 3080 is strong card and if you are playing at eg 1080p you will simply have too much card for too little resoltion.

 

Also a 9900k and 8700k are very different beasts especiallt in newer games.

Yes it is simple...dont buy only the latest GPU and hope you gonna get all the benefits from it...

All the newest AAA games... 3840x1600.... COD, Spideman MM,Hitman3,ACvalhalla,Horizon Zero,FarCry6, Plague Tale, Flight sim...

In Spiderman i never get more than 75 FPS WITHOT RT !!! with RT im getting 50-55

COD same thing...

[Ralf]

18 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I keep telling people this but a 9900k is still a beast of a cpu. Will easily last this entirr console generation and then some. Doesnt even struggle much maxing a 4090

9900k gives around 15% less fps compared to 12900k in Warzone 1440p ultra with a 3080Ti.

[xg32]

2 hours ago, Boyohan said:

My main monitor has 1440p/165hz 

 

TLDR: i wouldn't recommend upgrading just the cpu without a 4090

 

ive been thinking about the 9900k build and an upgrade, and it's basically down to a completely new build only if it comes with a 4090, and the choice is between a 13700k ddr5 and a 5800x3d atm.

 

For a 4090, switching from pcie3.0 to 4.0 is about 5%, the cpus are in general about 40-50% faster, and on very rare occasion, like in spiderman the 9900k is capped to 90-100fps lows vs the newer cpus.

 

If you keep the 3080, you'll see a 10% improvement except very fringe scenarios. 

[Origami Cactus]

30 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Nope.

 

I keep telling people this but a 9900k is still a beast of a cpu. Will easily last this entirr console generation and then some. Doesnt even struggle much maxing a 4090, pushing it to the engine limits of games or achieving hundreds upon hundreds of fps in esports games.

 

No, even at 5ghz overclock it struggles a lot compared to modern CPUs. It is intel 14nm+++++++++ after all. Maybe if all you play is r6 and and CS then you won't notice, but in all other games it is a major bottleneck.

[jaslion]

16 minutes ago, Dima Dolgov said:

Yes it is simple...dont buy only the latest GPU and hope you gonna get all the benefits from it...

All the newest AAA games... 3840x1600.... COD, Spideman MM,Hitman3,ACvalhalla,Horizon Zero,FarCry6, Plague Tale, Flight sim...

In Spiderman i never get more than 75 FPS WITHOT RT !!! with RT im getting 50-55

COD same thing...

Euhh. Thats something wrong with your pc not the cpu or gpu. A 4090 at a res less than 4k shouldnt have any issues with those games and a 8700k at stock can push at least half of these past 100 no sweat.

 

The ubi games and flight sim are different beasts entirelt however :p. One is fps murdered by drm and flight sim is flight sim

[SkilledRebuilds]

9900K vs 12900K via Anantech CPU benchmarking (accuracy? not sure)

Go through the list and do your calculations on how much better it is on certain tasks.

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2784?vs=2892

 

[jaslion]

29 minutes ago, SkilledRebuilds said:

9900K vs 12900K via Anantech CPU benchmarking (accuracy? not sure)

Go through the list and do your calculations on how much better it is on certain tasks.
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2784?vs=2893

Small oops there thats e cores only.

 

I am well aware the 9900k is slower but its not gonna struggle.

 

A 5ghz locked 9900k is about as good as a 12600 (not k) and that cpu has no trouble gaming.

 

 

Im not saying the 9900k is better at all I am saying it isnt struggling to play games. It will still with ease push you for 144fps in games that allow it.

 

The only exception would be denuvo bogged doen games like ubisoft (which is basically true for every ubi game), flight sim or very unoptimized games.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Spoiler

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1471461-will-i-see-a-noticable-difference-9900k-upgrade/?do=findComment&comment=15683381

32 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Small oops there thats e cores only.

Oof, thanks,  fixed the link.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, SkilledRebuilds said:

Oof, thanks,  fixed it

It shows theoretical and productivity performance but comparing it for games the differences are FAR less big. Still noticeable in games that can push hundreds of fps and are heavy to run but thats about it and those arent that common

[Boyohan]

@jaslion @Origami Cactus@xg32 @Dima Dolgov @SkilledRebuilds @Ralf

 

Thanks for all the replies. 

 

I have (mostly) read through your messages . 

While you don't really agree on everything I still got a feeling for what I can expect if I upgrade. 

 

If I try to summarize what you all have said: 

The 9900K is still a "capable" CPU but it is starting to show its age and is noticable slower compared to modern CPUs. 

But if I keep my 3080, I would only see about 10-20% difference. 

 

I usually skip 1 generation before upgrading. 

I've had GTX 580, GTX 770, GTX 1080 and now RTX 3080. 

So I am not looking to upgrade the GPU at the moment. 

 

So right now I am in some boring middle ground. 

The 10-20% difference is not enough for me to really consider upgrading. 

 

 

[JT89]

I just replaced my 9700k with a 7950x. While the 9700k wasn't a slouch, as others have said - it was starting to show its age and was significantly slower in the games I play (Vic3, for example). I probably wouldn't upgrade if you have 10th gen or higher, but that's a more a question of your use case and wallet. 

[Mick Naughty]

Depends on the game, something like pubg, going from a 9900k to 13900k was 150fps increase. Almost 100 more in 2042. 60-80 in MW2.
9900k isnt all that great, I wish I could keep it for 1080p but not much power left to record at the same time anymore for the recent cod even at 1440p.

[Mister Woof]

Also have a 3080.

 

Played 5ghz 8700k -> 5.2ghz 10900KF - > 5.5ghz P-core 13700KF

 

i shoulda got a new desk instead