CPU upgrade for simulation games

[SuperAn]

Hi everybody, 

 

I'm in the market to upgrade my current system because my CPU is not powerful enough to handel late game Paradox games like Victoria 3 or EU4. 

Current set-up: 

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X

Mobo: X570 Gigabyte Aorus Pro 

RAM: 32GB DDR4 (Corsair Vengeance 3200Mhz C16)

GPU: Nvidia 3070 FE

PSU: 550Watt (Generic modular corsair gold rated PSU)

The question is with what do I upgrade? Quasi all the benchmarks online focus on FPS, which is almost completely irrelevant for me (I game on a 4K, 60hz monitor).

From anecdotal posts on the internet it seems that the Risen 7 5800X3D is the obvious upgrade to make and that it would be the best CPU for simulation games.

However, the 5800X3D cost 400 euro, which is fairly close to the price of a new DDR4 Z690 + i5-13600K build (I would recycle the ram, Cooler, GPU, PSU, SSDs from my old build), would be around 550 euros.

But then the question becomes, if I'm changing platforms anyway, am I not better of changing to a X670 board + Ryzen 5 7600X (Taking into account that I can change the CPU's again in 3 years again).

 

So I see 3 options: 

 

Option 1: 

Simple CPU swap: 3600x to 5800X3D

for ca 400 euro.

 

Option 2: 

New intel DDR4 build: 

cpu: i5-13600K

Mobo: MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4

for ca 550 euro 

 

Option 3: 

New AMD build: 

cpu: ryzen 5 7600X

mobo: Gigabyte AORUS X670 ELITE AX

RAM: 32 GB DDR5 6000Mhz (G.Skill Flare X5 F5-6000J3636F16GX2-FX5)

for ca 780 euro 

 

From a cost performance perspective, which option would be the smartest? 

Am I forgetting something?

I don't mind spending a bit extra if it allows for far better performance. 

 

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

[thekingofmonks]

Those types of strategy games have a lot to render on the map and must process every faction, diverse events, etc. It's not really surprising to see even such a decent CPU struggle to run them.

I know friends who play HOI4 with the R5 3600 and they play the game with some noticeable lag. I suppose you could look into ways of optimizing those games for them to run better because this CPU you have can still hold up for several years.

 

However, if you're really looking to upgrade, the 5800X3D might actually be a great choice. The large amount of cache will certainly benefit the game, and it may run even better than the newest CPUs that have relatively less cache.

[ChrisLoudon]

1 minute ago, thekingofmonks said:

However, if you're really looking to upgrade, the 5800X3D might actually be a great choice

Agreed.

 

You've got a pretty tasty system with 32GB ram (plenty) and a 3070 so if I was in your shoes, I'd keep everything the same and try and max out the CPU with the 5800X3D which is a great choice.

 

400 euros now will buy you another year at least, probably 2.

 

While you could argue that 550 euros gets you onto the latest Intel platform, you are stuck with DDR4 which will eventually die out leaving you with needed to upgrade the mobo and ram at a later date.

 

The X3D is a cracking chip and is still trading blows with the latest gen Zen 4 and 13th gen intel chips.

 

Once you come to upgrade again in a year or 2 you'll at least know that you've pretty much maxed out your current platform.

 

C

 

 

[SuperAn]

43 minutes ago, thekingofmonks said:

I know friends who play HOI4 with the R5 3600 and they play the game with some noticeable lag. I suppose you could look into ways of optimizing those games for them to run better because this CPU you have can still hold up for several years.

Thanks for the replies! What kind of optimizations would you suggest?

 

I'm indeed more inclined to upgrade to the 5800X3D, the other two options seems indeed a bit wasteful if the system as a whole works otherwise perfectly. 

[Ebony Falcon]

5800x3d for sure if u already on a am4 board

[SuperAn]

Ok, the 5800X3D is the way to go, I found a good deal for 329 euro, so I ordered it. 

Thanks for the help everybody!