rtx 3060 Theseus PC: CPU fitting for 3060

[Enkelados]

Budget (including currency): 300€

Country: Germany 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Hogwarts Legacy, supreme commander, mega, lol, Anno 1800, Empire at War.

Other details 

Screen: 2x 1080 60hz (only one used for gaming)

A few hard drives including m.2.

750W PSU, 3060 12GB, 

 

As the title suggest I have already a functioning PC, that i have been upgrading since around 2007 starting with a phenom II.

 

Last spring i bought an rtx 3060 thinking I was buying a dip. 

 

I am running at the moment an i5 5600 with 16GB DDR3. As it turns out it seems to be bottlenecking the GPU in modern games.

 

 I would need new ram, MB and CPU in a package, what would be the most appropriate bundle? 

 

Googling i found websites that suggested Ryzen 9 and i9s, but that seems quite ludicrous.

 

I am tending towards Intel, as i play a few older games that need strong single cord performance, although i have an emotional preference for AMD.

 

My aim is to get a reasonable all around bundle that I can drive for the coming three or four years, before upgrading again.

 

If I wouldn't need to change ram and motherboard for that that would be great.

 

Tl;Dr:

 

- Lf: CPU+RAM+MB fitting for RTX 3060 12GB, focus on single core performance and upgrade path in three/four years.

 

 

 

[SorryBella]

11 minutes ago, Enkelados said:

I am running at the moment an i5 5600

5th gen is all mobile, are you sure it is an i5 and not a Ryzen 5?

[Enkelados]

15 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

5th gen is all mobile, are you sure it is an i5 and not a Ryzen 5?

Whoops, then I got the number wrong it is an i5 100%. If all 5000 are mobile It has to be a 4000 or 6000. I'll check in the morning.

 

But i don't think that's all that relevant as I'm going to give it to my brother anyway.

[Zando_]

2 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

5th gen is all mobile, are you sure it is an i5 and not a Ryzen 5?

There were 2 desktop chips, one i5 and one i7.

2 hours ago, Enkelados said:

Whoops, then I got the number wrong it is an i5 100%. If all 5000 are mobile It has to be a 4000 or 6000. I'll check in the morning.

Most likely an i5 6500, those are very common, and flipping the numbers around is so common that googling "i5 5600" gives results for the i5 6500. Though using one with DDR3 is uncommon, so unless you got one of the few DDR3 boards for skylake then it's gotta be a 4000 series.

2 hours ago, Enkelados said:

I would need new ram, MB and CPU in a package, what would be the most appropriate bundle? 

One of the modern quad core i3s, a B series DDR4 mobo, and RAM should scrape in around that budget:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Dxwscb

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€104.43 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€135.90 @ Alza)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€74.90 @ Alza)
Total: €315.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-11 05:32 CET+0100

 

Can drop to 16GB RAM to save a little bit, but I don't see the point as it's so cheap for a 32GB kit currently, and if you'll use anything that takes advantage of QuickSync then paying up for the non-F CPU is a good idea. That motherboard is the easy pick B660 I know of, someone may know a better model for the budget. That MSI one is just a reasonable price and has the VRMs to handle up to a 12900K if you enable power limits (by default they are disabled), with a BIOS update it'll do the same for 13th gen chips so you can upgrade in the future without needing a new motherboard.

[Enkelados]

 

8 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

5th gen is all mobile, are you sure it is an i5 and not a Ryzen 5?

 

5 hours ago, Zando_ said:

There were 2 desktop chips, one i5 and one i7.

Most likely an i5 6500, those are very common, and flipping the numbers around is so common that googling "i5 5600" gives results for the i5 6500. Though using one with DDR3 is uncommon, so unless you got one of the few DDR3 boards for skylake then it's gotta be a 4000 series.

So it was the i5-4670K CPU @ 3.40GHz. Had it memorized wrong.

5 hours ago, Zando_ said:

One of the modern quad core i3s, a B series DDR4 mobo, and RAM should scrape in around that budget:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Dxwscb

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€104.43 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€135.90 @ Alza)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€74.90 @ Alza)
Total: €315.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-11 05:32 CET+0100

 

Can drop to 16GB RAM to save a little bit, but I don't see the point as it's so cheap for a 32GB kit currently, and if you'll use anything that takes advantage of QuickSync then paying up for the non-F CPU is a good idea. That motherboard is the easy pick B660 I know of, someone may know a better model for the budget. That MSI one is just a reasonable price and has the VRMs to handle up to a 12900K if you enable power limits (by default they are disabled), with a BIOS update it'll do the same for 13th gen chips so you can upgrade in the future without needing a new motherboard.

Thanks for the Answer, is there a reason you went for a MB more expensive then the CPU? My understanding was nowadays it has basicly zero impact on Performance. 

A friend of mine recomended me this:

ASRock Phantom Gaming 4 AMD B550 So.AM4 Dual Channel DDR ATX Retail 98€

 

32GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4-3200 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit  74€   AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6x 3.70GHz So.AM4 BOX 169 €

summ: 341€

 

 

 

 

[SorryBella]

1 hour ago, Enkelados said:

is there a reason you went for a MB more expensive then the CPU?

You mention upgradeability as a priority, cutting off CPU for better board would give you better long run upgrade, although i highly doubt Intel will try to pull AM4 and support beyond Raptor Lake for the LGA1700, so that remains to be seen.

1 hour ago, Enkelados said:

A friend of mine recomended me this:

Definitely would be my pick for performance now. But that board would barely clutch through VRM wise for a 5800X3D upgrade which would be the logical endgame of AM4 platform, or the 5700X. If you can shop for B550-A Pro by MSI at a bit of an overbudget, youd be set.

[Zando_]

3 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

You mention upgradeability as a priority, cutting off CPU for better board would give you better long run upgrade, although i highly doubt Intel will try to pull AM4 and support beyond Raptor Lake for the LGA1700, so that remains to be seen.

^^^ Board I suggested has the VRMs to run the much faster chips from 13th gen. I don't expect 14th to be supported on current boards as Intel has never done that, but I do expect 13th gen chips to become cheaper on the used market as people upgrade in future, should make it easy to snag a 13600K down the line.

 

If you want to do similar on AM4 and eye the 5800X3D as the eventual best in slot, then like Claire said you need to get a better motherboard now, cheaper in the long run that way.

 

I would weigh the 5800X3D vs the 13600K as future upgrade options, and pick platform based off that. As you're at 60Hz you aren't going to notice the difference between a 12100 and a 5600X in games right now, both easily manage far above 60fps.

[Enkelados]

13 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

You mention upgradeability as a priority, cutting off CPU for better board would give you better long run upgrade, although i highly doubt Intel will try to pull AM4 and support beyond Raptor Lake for the LGA1700, so that remains to be seen.

Definitely would be my pick for performance now. But that board would barely clutch through VRM wise for a 5800X3D upgrade which would be the logical endgame of AM4 platform, or the 5700X. If you can shop for B550-A Pro by MSI at a bit of an overbudget, youd be set.

 

10 hours ago, Zando_ said:

^^^ Board I suggested has the VRMs to run the much faster chips from 13th gen. I don't expect 14th to be supported on current boards as Intel has never done that, but I do expect 13th gen chips to become cheaper on the used market as people upgrade in future, should make it easy to snag a 13600K down the line.

 

If you want to do similar on AM4 and eye the 5800X3D as the eventual best in slot, then like Claire said you need to get a better motherboard now, cheaper in the long run that way.

 

I would weigh the 5800X3D vs the 13600K as future upgrade options, and pick platform based off that. As you're at 60Hz you aren't going to notice the difference between a 12100 and a 5600X in games right now, both easily manage far above 60fps.

Thank you so much for your answers.

I feel like the upgradability was a little wrong a focus for me, as am4 ends and Intel doesn't do it anyway and ddr4 is going to be obsolete in a while.

 

But all this time talking about upgrading I didn't think about upgrading my current CPU.

Do you guys think switching to a 4770 or 4790 CPU would have any significant improvements in fps?

 

 A 4790k used seems to go for about 50€ in my area.

 

[DeerDK]

10 hours ago, Enkelados said:

 

Thank you so much for your answers.

I feel like the upgradability was a little wrong a focus for me, as am4 ends and Intel doesn't do it anyway and ddr4 is going to be obsolete in a while.

 

But all this time talking about upgrading I didn't think about upgrading my current CPU.

Do you guys think switching to a 4770 or 4790 CPU would have any significant improvements in fps?

 

 A 4790k used seems to go for about 50€ in my area.

 

If you can pick it up reeeeeally cheap, you can consider it. I was in the same situation and ended up deciding against it. The 4770/4790 wasn't readily available in Denmark at the time. I got a 5600x upgrade and loved it. 

Gamers Nexus did a revisit of the 4690k and 4790k a few years back. At that time the i7 was deemed aging but still relevant. Dunno how it would fare today. 

 

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by DeerDK
Link added