# Ryzen 3000 series- upgrade for photo editing and 4K gaming



## suedezu (Apr 24, 2019)

Hi guys,  

        I currently have the following system:     

* Intel Xeon 1230 v3 at running at stock speed 3.3 Ghz     

        Asrock B85 Pro4     

        Nvidia PNY GTX 1080ti     

        16.0 GB DDR3 running at 1600 MHz     

        Cryorig H5 Ultimate cooler     

        LG 27UK650 4K monitor     

        Samsung 850 EVO 256 GB boot drive     

        650 W power supply* 

        I use the system mainly for two things: editing photos as I am a working professional photographer and playing games at 4K. 

        For the editing part, the system runs OK but it's obviously not blazing fast. When I have large batches of photographs to process as I often do, CPU usage hits 100% and it does struggle a bit. How much faster would a Ryzen 3000 series CPU be in this specific scenario? 

        When it comes to gaming I noticed that even though the GTX 1080ti should be enough to run games at 4K 60 fps with high details, sometimes I only hit 50 fps on average and the gameplay isn't the smoothest. I know that at 4K I am GPU bound but wouldn't a much faster CPU improve at least 1% lows and the overall gaming smoothness?

        What motherboard would be a good choice for my uses? How much RAM and what RAM speeds?

        I am seriously contemplating to upgrade my 5 years old rig but I want to make sure I don't just upgrade for the sake of upgrading.

        Thanks in advance!


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## NdMk2o1o (Apr 24, 2019)

Asrock taichi x470, ryzen 2700x and 32gb ddr4 3000/3200 would be my recommendation budget depending obviously


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## suedezu (Apr 24, 2019)

Thanks for replying! I would like to wait for Ryzen 3000 series, probably the 3700x.  I hope for much improved IPC vs the Ryzen 2700x.

Regarding the RAM, dual channel or quad channel? What latency?


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## NdMk2o1o (Apr 24, 2019)

Well in that case you can only speculate until ryzen 2 is here with x570 motherboards... Also ryzen is only dual channel if you want quad channel you'll have to go threadripper, that doesn't mean you can't have 4 sticks of ram with ryzen it will just run in dual channel mode. Preferably 2 sticks are better for ryzen systems and anything cl14/cl16 will be fine.


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## suedezu (Apr 24, 2019)

NdMk2o1o said:


> Well in that case you can only speculate until ryzen 2 is here with x570 motherboards... Also ryzen is only dual channel if you want quad channel you'll have to go threadripper, that doesn't mean you can't have 4 sticks of ram with ryzen it will just run in dual channel mode. Preferably 2 sticks are better for ryzen systems and anything cl14/cl16 will be fine.



What about my question regarding the gaming performance while playing at 4K? Will Ryzen 3000 improve my 4k gaming experience?


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## dirtyferret (Apr 24, 2019)

suedezu said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I currently have the following system:
> 
> ...



Doubtful you see any difference at 4k, the 2700k and intel 9900k are only separated by 2% at 4k (see below).  As for IPC improvement I would not hold your breathe, history is not on AMD's side and they are re-using the same socket.  Even if they knock it out of the park with 5-10% IPC increase it would not be a major improvement at 4k.   I would say threadripper would be more meaningful for you if you are hitting a wall while doing photo editing.


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## suedezu (Apr 24, 2019)

dirtyferret said:


> Doubtful you see any difference at 4k, the 2700k and intel 9900k are only separated by 2% at 4k (see below).  As for IPC improvement I would not hold your breathe, history is not on AMD's side and they are re-using the same socket.  Even if they knock it out of the park with 5-10% IPC increase it would not be a major improvement at 4k.   I would say threadripper would be more meaningful for you if you are hitting a wall while doing photo editing.



I see what you mean. In this case maybe I'll stick to my current rig and save a ton of money.


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## dirtyferret (Apr 24, 2019)

suedezu said:


> I see what you mean. In this case maybe I'll stick to my current rig and save a ton of money.


sounds like a good plan


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## oxrufiioxo (Apr 24, 2019)

Unless you're consistently seeing less than 99% GPU utilization which is doubtful at 4k I would wait it out. I would imagine your Xeon is performing slightly slower than a 4770 unless you're able to OC it
but that should still be more than adequate for 4k gaming with a 1080 ti.


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## R0H1T (Apr 24, 2019)

suedezu said:


> What about my question regarding the gaming performance while playing at 4K? Will Ryzen 3000 improve my 4k gaming experience?


That depends on your GPU, the best CPUs for gaming are within 5~10% of each other @4k depending on their clocks & mainly game in question.


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## NdMk2o1o (Apr 24, 2019)

suedezu said:


> I see what you mean. In this case maybe I'll stick to my current rig and save a ton of money.





suedezu said:


> CPU usage hits 100% and it does struggle a bit


So what about this?


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## suedezu (Apr 24, 2019)

NdMk2o1o said:


> So what about this?



If I don't get a performance uplift higher than 5-10% in games I might stick with my Xeon for a couple more years. 

I have just played Metro Exodus and I get around 60 FPS at 4k with a bit of setting tweaking.

I have no doubt that photo editing  will improve in Photoshop with a new CPU with 8 or 16 cores, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM at 3000 mhz and a new motherboard but I wonder if the upgrade cost is worth it. The estimated upgrade cost is around 700 euros is my country.


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## R0H1T (Apr 24, 2019)

If it's related to work then it is worth it, you can save enough time with the latest gen of chips. For gaming @4k, your GPU will mostly decide the mileage.


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## NdMk2o1o (Apr 24, 2019)

So not worth it for work but you'd figure 5-10% performance increase would be worth it in gaming, I hear ya


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## silentbogo (Apr 24, 2019)

suedezu said:


> I have no doubt that photo editing will improve in Photoshop with a new CPU with 8 or 16 cores, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM at 3000 mhz and a new motherboard but I wonder if the upgrade cost is worth it. The estimated upgrade cost is around 700 euros is my country.


I doubt a new CPU will have that much of an impact even in photoshop. Adobe is so slow in implementing multi-core optimizations, that nearly 90% of standard filters are still unchanged since CS6 times or earlier, and Intel still wins in most Photoshop-related tests only because of the higher boost frequency when not fully loaded.
You'll be better off dumping that Xeon in favor of i7-4770K or i7-4790K (or non-K if you find it cheap enough), or just stick with that system for another year or two until you are up for a full system upgrade.


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## HenrySomeone (Apr 26, 2019)

Precisely - there will be minor differences in Adobe and probably zero in gaming at 4k (even a 1080ti is not enough for consistent 60fps)


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## Zareek (Apr 26, 2019)

Okay, so given your usage scenario. Irregardless of the IPC boost AMD produces with the Ryzen 3000 series you will more than likely be better off with an Intel CPU. The reason, Adobe massively optimizes their code for Intel processors and have for years. Intel is king of gaming, that may change but at 4K you are 99% GPU constrained anyway.



dirtyferret said:


> As for IPC improvement I would not hold your breathe, history is not on AMD's side and they are re-using the same socket.



Apparently you weren't around for AMD's Athlon days. They basically kicked Intel's butt in IPC  almost 2:1. They successfully improved their architecture year after year, had the first on chip memory controller, built and sold the first true multi-core CPU, created the x64 architecture extensions that are the epicenter of modern computing. History is actually on AMD's side.


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## dirtyferret (Apr 26, 2019)

Zareek said:


> Okay, so given your usage scenario. Irregardless of the IPC boost AMD produces with the Ryzen 3000 series you will more than likely be better off with an Intel CPU. The reason, Adobe massively optimizes their code for Intel processors and have for years. Intel is king of gaming, that may change but at 4K you are 99% GPU constrained anyway.
> 
> 
> 
> Apparently you weren't around for AMD's Athlon days. They basically kicked Intel's butt in IPC  almost 2:1. They successfully improved their architecture year after year, had the first on chip memory controller, built and sold the first true multi-core CPU, created the x64 architecture extensions that are the epicenter of modern computing. History is actually on AMD's side.


I was around but I guess you don't really know modern CPUs the past decade plus based on your comments.  No worries, everyone needs to start somewhere to educate themselves.


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## HenrySomeone (Apr 26, 2019)

Zareek said:


> Okay, so given your usage scenario. Irregardless of the IPC boost AMD produces with the Ryzen 3000 series you will more than likely be better off with an Intel CPU. The reason, Adobe massively optimizes their code for Intel processors and have for years. Intel is king of gaming, that may change but at 4K you are 99% GPU constrained anyway.
> 
> Apparently you weren't around for AMD's Athlon days. They basically kicked Intel's butt in IPC  almost 2:1. They successfully improved their architecture year after year, had the first on chip memory controller, built and sold the first true multi-core CPU, created the x64 architecture extensions that are the epicenter of modern computing. History is actually on AMD's side.



Agree with the first part, but *recent *history most definitely isn't on their side (including the marginal zen > zen+ bump) and besides in the Athlon days of old Intel gradually lost their way with their later Netburst designs (Northwood was still very competitive) and AMD was able to come out on top in 2004 - 2006 but then they got complacent and allowed team blue to strike back with the Core 2 duos and they honestly haven't fully recovered since...


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## Wavetrex (Apr 26, 2019)

If money amount is not a significant roadblock, I would go Threadripper 3000 series for the memory bandwidth.

Even a lower TR (let's say 16 cores only) would beat a theoretical 16-core Ryzen 3000 in productivity work due to having so much more bw, and probably double the cache as well (4 chiplets of 4 salvaged cores instead of 2 chiplets of 8 cores).

But... the wait might be long for TR 3000, I don't expect them to launch before September-October 2019


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## Zareek (Apr 26, 2019)

dirtyferret said:


> I was around but I guess you don't really know modern CPUs the past decade plus based on your comments.  No worries, everyone needs to start somewhere to educate themselves.



My point is the history of a company is more than the last decade. AMD has a history of innovation. I haven't had my head in the sand for the last 10+ years. The bulldozer through excavator processors were hopeless!


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## Darmok N Jalad (Apr 26, 2019)

Zareek said:


> My point is the history of a company is more than the last decade. AMD has a history of innovation. I haven't had my head in the sand for the last 10+ years. The bulldozer through excavator processors were hopeless!


But they did beat their own goals when it came to IPC gains on Zen vs bulldozer. Even at launch of Zen, they basically said they had more improvements to make but had to stop tweaking to meet deadlines. Zen 2 has some significant design changes for being on the same socket, so I think we will see some IPC gains along with adjustments to allow the chip to clock higher. Not long to wait to find out, I suppose.


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## Zareek (Apr 26, 2019)

If Zen 2 has more than a 3% IPC gain, I will be impressed. Intel has basically lived the last 10 years on 2-3% ipc gains. For me as a consumer, I don't really care who is number one. What I want is a competitor to keep Intel working  and to keep their pricing in check. They've proven several times now, that if no one else is pushing them; they will sit on their hands and slowly drip feed the market with less than modest improvements year after year.


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## suedezu (Jul 8, 2019)

Ryzen 3 series just launched and the reviews are already out.

Judging by the reviews do you think the Ryzen 3900x will improve 4K gaming using the same 1080 Ti that I currently own?


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## Vayra86 (Jul 8, 2019)

suedezu said:


> Ryzen 3 series just launched and the reviews are already out.
> 
> Judging by the reviews do you think the Ryzen 3900x will improve 4K gaming using the same 1080 Ti that I currently own?



Same thing really as 9900K. CPU performance for gaming plateaus and for 4K you are still and going to be GPU limited much more readily.


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## silentbogo (Jul 8, 2019)

If you are using Adobe products, then I doubt you'll see lots of improvement from switching platforms (AFAIK not much changed since Puget systems did their last overview in 2015). What you should do, is switch to core i7-4790K. Higher base clock will give you best of both - gaming performance and faster Photoshop ops. 

If you are just having an upgrade itch (but reading your opening post it does not look like it), then drop the CPU to R5 3600X paired with x470 board, and invest the change into a RAID-0 of 2x1TB Intel 660p's.


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## suedezu (Jul 8, 2019)

silentbogo said:


> If you are using Adobe products, then I doubt you'll see lots of improvement from switching platforms (AFAIK not much changed since Puget systems did their last overview in 2015). What you should do, is switch to core i7-4790K. Higher base clock will give you best of both - gaming performance and faster Photoshop ops.
> 
> If you are just having an upgrade itch (but reading your opening post it does not look like it), then drop the CPU to R5 3600X paired with x470 board, and invest the change into a RAID-0 of 2x1TB Intel 660p's.



I was thinking that along with the change in processor comes the switch to much faster RAM and maybe that coupled with a faster NVME SSD would speed up Photoshop. 

Regarding 4K gaming I was hoping the a better CPU would improve the 1% lows and .1% lows FPS in triple A titles. I am wrong to assume that?


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## Vayra86 (Jul 8, 2019)

suedezu said:


> I was thinking that along with the change in processor comes the switch to much faster RAM and maybe that coupled with a faster NVME SSD would speed up Photoshop.
> 
> Regarding 4K gaming I was hoping the a better CPU would improve the 1% lows and .1% lows FPS in triple A titles. I am wrong to assume that?



You're not wrong, a new CPU & DDR4 will make a great leap for the 1% lows. FYI 0.1%.... is not worth looking at.


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## suedezu (Jul 8, 2019)

Vayra86 said:


> You're not wrong, a new CPU & DDR4 will make a great leap for the 1% lows. FYI 0.1%.... is not worth looking at.


So a Ryzen 3600x or better coupled with my current 1080 Ti will significantly improve 1% lows FPS compared to my current Xeon 1230 v3 when gaming at 4k?


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## Vayra86 (Jul 8, 2019)

suedezu said:


> So a Ryzen 3600x or better coupled with my current 1080 Ti will significantly improve 1% lows FPS compared to my current Xeon 1230 v3 when gaming at 4k?



That seems logical yes, I haven't seen the performance first hand but the gap with previous gen Ryzen is major and its almost exactly on par with a much higher clocked 9900K in many games at the lowest resolutions (ie no GPU bottleneck). I can also reference my own use case; I moved from Ivy Bridge to Coffee Lake (8700K) and it was a HUGE jump even with the GPU pegged at 100% both prior and post upgrade. DDR4, platform, higher clocks and IPC add up for a nice boost in smoothness.

You don't see that metric in TPU's reviewing unfortunately and performance summaries don't do it justice at all, but its definitely there.


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## silentbogo (Jul 8, 2019)

suedezu said:


> I was thinking that along with the change in processor comes the switch to much faster RAM and maybe that coupled with a faster NVME SSD would speed up Photoshop.
> 
> Regarding 4K gaming I was hoping the a better CPU would improve the 1% lows and .1% lows FPS in triple A titles. I am wrong to assume that?


Yes, but not $500+ worth of improvement (especially at 2160p on a 60Hz monitor).... 
You'll definitely see more benefits from getting a 2133MHz+  DDR3 kit, but I'm not sure if your B85 board will be able to handle it. 
I had too much bad luck on non-Z AsRock boards with my G.Skill DDR3-2133 set, which worked at claimed speeds even on my ancient X58 rig (with all 6 slots populated!!!).


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## Vayra86 (Jul 8, 2019)

silentbogo said:


> Yes, but not $500+ worth of improvement (especially at 2160p on a 60Hz monitor)....
> You'll definitely see more benefits from getting a 2133MHz+  DDR3 kit, but I'm not sure if your B85 board will be able to handle it.
> I had too much bad luck on non-Z AsRock boards with my G.Skill DDR3-2133 set, which worked at claimed speeds even on my ancient X58 rig (with all 6 slots populated!!!).



Eh... but what does a 2133mhz DDR3 kit cost? If its more than 50 bucks, is it really worth it? Spending on old hardware... yikes. That upgrade is coming no matter what, so then you're stuck with an extra set of sticks you can't use. That and DDR4 prices are just now getting into the happy flow again, I'd grab my chance honestly. And fast, before Ryzen 3000 sales put pressure on the market. Its either NOW (as in this week, or the coming few days) or its another few months of waiting for the hype to cool off.


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## oxrufiioxo (Jul 8, 2019)

suedezu said:


> Ryzen 3 series just launched and the reviews are already out.
> 
> Judging by the reviews do you think the Ryzen 3900x will improve 4K gaming using the same 1080 Ti that I currently own?



unless you're rocking a really old dual core or 4 core with no hyperthreading no.


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## suedezu (Jul 8, 2019)

Vayra86 said:


> Eh... but what does a 2133mhz DDR3 kit cost? If its more than 50 bucks, is it really worth it? Spending on old hardware... yikes. That upgrade is coming no matter what, so then you're stuck with an extra set of sticks you can't use. That and DDR4 prices are just now getting into the happy flow again, I'd grab my chance honestly. And fast, before Ryzen 3000 sales put pressure on the market. Its either NOW (as in this week, or the coming few days) or its another few months of waiting for the hype to cool off.



Read both of your replies, guys, and thanks for your much appreciated insight.

I am not adding DDD3 RAM to my existing 6 year old CPU configuration. I will stick to my current config for a couple more months in order to see how the new PCI 4.0 interface performs. I am long past having upgrade itches and spending money on tech that doesn't bring significant improvments.

My current plan is to later on (soonest 6 months from now) buy  Ryzen 3900x, 32 GB DDR4 ram and a decent X570 motherboard. Will wait for PCI gen 4 Nvme SSDs to show up and see if they bring improvements to Photoshop and gaming. Later on I will sell my 1080 Ti and get a much better 4k capable GPU as I am fully aware that the GPU is the most limiting factor at 4K.


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## Zareek (Jul 8, 2019)

suedezu said:


> Read both of your replies, guys, and thanks for your much appreciated insight.
> 
> I am not adding DDD3 RAM to my existing 6 year old CPU configuration. I will stick to my current config for a couple more months in order to see how the new PCI 4.0 interface performs. I am long past having upgrade itches and spending money on tech that doesn't bring significant improvments.
> 
> My current plan is to later on (soonest 6 months from now) buy  Ryzen 3900x, 32 GB DDR4 ram and a decent X570 motherboard. Will wait for PCI gen 4 Nvme SSDs to show up and see if they bring improvements to Photoshop and gaming. Later on I will sell my 1080 Ti and get a much better 4k capable GPU as I am fully aware that the GPU is the most limiting factor at 4K.


I agree with everyone else on the 4K gaming, check out the 3900X in this Photoshop bench. Photoshop test is just above midway on the page, stupid auto-play video too. It is obviously a different test than TPU ran.


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 14, 2019)

suedezu said:


> So a Ryzen 3600x or better


I wouldn't even look at the 3600X unless the 3600 isn't available.


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## HenrySomeone (Jul 18, 2019)

suedezu said:


> Read both of your replies, guys, and thanks for your much appreciated insight.
> 
> I am not adding DDD3 RAM to my existing 6 year old CPU configuration. I will stick to my current config for a couple more months in order to see how the new PCI 4.0 interface performs. I am long past having upgrade itches and spending money on tech that doesn't bring significant improvments.
> 
> My current plan is to later on (soonest 6 months from now) buy  Ryzen 3900x, 32 GB DDR4 ram and a decent X570 motherboard. Will wait for PCI gen 4 Nvme SSDs to show up and see if they bring improvements to Photoshop and gaming. Later on I will sell my 1080 Ti and get a much better 4k capable GPU as I am fully aware that the GPU is the most limiting factor at 4K.


For something much better than a 1080Ti you will have to wait for Ampere at least and it obviously won't be cheap as RTG can't compete at all past mid range now, expect around 1500$ or so for a top tier card (but not Titan, that one will be 3k for sure)


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## suedezu (Dec 31, 2019)

I'm reviving this old thread as I still can't decide if I should upgrade to the 3900x or wait for the Ryzen 4000 series. I know it's a long wait ahead since the Ryzen 4000 series is rumored to launch in Q4 2020 but I wonder if the wait will be worth it. Heard the IPC improvements will be around 15% at best which does sound ok to me even if it's not ground breaking.

Should I wait or upgrade now?

The current Xeon 1230 v3 is a bit long in the tooth and struggles with some newer games. I get CPU usage around 80-90% in some newer and more demanding games (NFS Heat is one such example).


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## Vayra86 (Dec 31, 2019)

suedezu said:


> I'm reviving this old thread as I still can't decide if I should upgrade to the 3900x or wait for the Ryzen 4000 series. I know it's a long wait ahead since the Ryzen 4000 series is rumored to launch in Q4 2020 but I wonder if the wait will be worth it. Heard the IPC improvements will be around 15% at best which does sound ok to me even if it's not ground breaking.
> 
> Should I wait or upgrade now?
> 
> The current Xeon 1230 v3 is a bit long in the tooth and struggles with some newer games. I get CPU usage around 80-90% in some newer and more demanding games (NFS Heat is one such example).



The reality is, as long as you have to ask, you can wait, and the first reports on Ryzen 4000 are that its yet another leap forward in IPC/perf.

So is it worth waiting, yes. Can you make a great buy today? Yes.


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## suedezu (Dec 31, 2019)

Vayra86 said:


> The reality is, as long as you have to ask, you can wait, and the first reports on Ryzen 4000 are that its yet another leap forward in IPC/perf.
> 
> So is it worth waiting, yes. Can you make a great buy today? Yes.



This is the problem with PC upgrades. There will be always an upcoming processor or GPU that makes you wonder if you should wait.

A bit of a side question: how does a NVME SSD perform in a desktop environment compared to a SATA SSD? Are the speed improvements noticeable?


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## Vayra86 (Dec 31, 2019)

suedezu said:


> This is the problem with PC upgrades. There will be always an upcoming processor or GPU that makes you wonder if you should wait.
> 
> A bit of a side question: how does a NVME SSD perform in a desktop environment compared to a SATA SSD? Are the speed improvements noticeable?



Barely, I'd let price/GB be the determining factor before speed. The speed boost is there, but you almost never have workloads to use it.

You are right about the PC upgrade 'problem'. My approach is therefore to wait as long as possible. I know from experience the longer you wait, the more you 'feel' an upgrade. And let's face it, the performance curve never got steeper, but instead flattens out over time. You don't miss that much.


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## Zach_01 (Dec 31, 2019)

Yes, the rumors of 4000 series are very tempting to wait... but you will wait for this line and by then a lot rumors will go around for the next (5000?) series in all new socket (AM5?/SP5?), maybe(?) with DDR5 and all short of upgrades... and the waiting temptation will go all over again...

or

You can always go now with something like 3700X... double the cores/threads and with a nice IPC+clocks uplift from the E-3 1230 v3 and in 2-3 years or maybe 4 can upgrade to 4000 12-16core/24-32threads...

Just an idea...


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## suedezu (Feb 10, 2020)

Just a quick heads up on this pretty old thread.

I bit the bullet and upgraded to the following config:
Ryzen 3900x
Gigabyte Aorus Elite x570
32 GB DDR4 3200 Mhz Corsair Vengeance LPX
Samsung 970 Evo Plus Nvme 1 TB

The system is obviously blazing fast but I want to share my gaming experience.

Although I have the same 1080 Ti GPU and still play at 4K the same games as before, there is a NOTICEABLE improvement in game smoothness.

NFS Heat for example was running like crap (stuttering, frame rate drops) on my Xeon 1230 while using the same game settings. I also tried The Outer Worlds and this game too is also smoother while playing in 4k.  Shadow of the Tomb Raider is pretty much the same as before.

Granted my limited testing and game choices are not scientific nor exhaustive by any means, I think upgrading your CPU from a 4-core one to an 8 core or better CPU will improve your overall gaming smoothness. My guess is the 1% lows are much improved even though at 4k you are obviously GPU bound.

In regards to photo editing and Photoshop performance the improvement is HUGE but that was to be expected.

Happy camper here and glad I stopped the waiting game for the next great CPU!


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## Zareek (Feb 15, 2020)

I have zero regrets with regards to my Ryzen 3800X. It's been months and it still feels like a rocket ship. It blows my mind how much faster it feels versus my i5-9600 based PC at work. I feel like I'm being punished on Monday mornings going back to that after spending time on my home machine over the weekend.


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