I think I need an upgrade, please help.

[SirReal]

Built in Feb '16:

i5-6600k OC'd to 4.4
Sapphire Radeon Nitro R9 390X 8GB GDDR
16 GB RAM
1 TB/250G SSD
4TB HDD
msi z170a mobo
1440p 144hz (1440p 60hz secondary)


First, I work on my computer and it's 99.9% reliable for both work and games. It's probably used 90+ hours/week.

That said, my CPU is at 100% (100+ in resource monitor) while gaming. I don't NEED a GPU necessarily and the market is obviously fucked. Is there a good CPU upgrade available now or is it a wait thing? Also, I'm assuming a MOBO may be needed but I'm not 100%. Any tips would be great. What would you do if you were me?

Thanks a lot in advance for any advice.

[Kagthul]

Yes, you would need a new Motherboard. We’re two sockets on.

If you upgrade right now you can likely keep your RAM (though if its super slow like 2166 or something, consider upgrading anyway).

If you wanted to upgrade right now, id recommend the i5 11400 (-f if you want to save 15$, but that has no iGPU and i dont think the 15$ savings is worth it) of you want to keep it budget, paired with a B560 motherboard. If you want to overclock, grab an 11600K and a Z590 motherboard (though a Ryzen 5 5600G paired with a B550 would be competitive both price wise and performance wise)

For my money, id wait just a few weeks. Intel is releasing its 12th gen chips (“Alder Lake”) soon, and the leaked benchmarks show it beating the AMD competition handily. An i5 12400 will likely cost ~200$ or less, and perform as well as, or better than, a Ryzen 5 5600X, which is 300$.

Even if you cant wait, an 11th gen i5 or an R5 5600 (g or x) will still be quite the uplift in multicore performance, and even if Alder Lake (and the upcoming Q1 Ryzen 5000 refresh/slight die shrink) are going to be ‘faster’, its not going to be like 40% or anything like that.

[SirReal]

Thanks for the info! If I wait on an Alder Lake chip will I need a different board or is the z590 still OK?

[Usernameforforums]

Thanks for the info! If I wait on an Alder Lake chip will I need a different board or is the z590 still OK?

You need a z690 for 12th gen. Its lga 1700.

[Kagthul]

Thanks for the info! If I wait on an Alder Lake chip will I need a different board or is the z590 still OK?

As was said, youll need a new board, but they will debut at the same time as the CPUs