Best GPU upgrade for my older i5 9600K?

[Vario]

I'd do a 3060

 

[ShrimpBrime]

14100F will eat it alive on synthetic benchmarks or high FPS gaming with a higher end video card but in his situation none of those 3 things come into play.


For his use (light gaming at 75hz and office work) he's got some life. Most of the cards recommended are like 2-3x faster than what he's got now so he can easily extend some life into it if he really wants too.

Too late, but I'll re-reply!!!

No, not just on synthetic, which uses game engines.... to create the benchmark.... and games with built in benchmarks.... yeah, totally different subject.

Even his current 1650 with a platform upgrade would increase gaming FPS.

I only say this because I've experienced all this hardware already. I game with my 12 year old. BeamNGDrive is one of our favorites. He runs a 6700 XT. 5600G. The CPU underdogs the GPU a bit vs even my 12400F. Which both of these would improve gaming over a 9600K be a good bit. And these also played with 13600KF 13700K and 14700K processors. Not much difference 13th to 14th gen gaming over here.

DDR4 is EOL finally. It's like that old argument DDR1 is fine when DDR2 released. DdR2 is fine when DDR3 released. DDR3 is fine when DDR4 released. And here we are at the same old platform argument yet again.

Perhaps for a very short time from now, a few more seconds, the 9600K would still be considered modern computing, but that's about it. He's 5 generations behind.... almost 6.

 

[natr0n]

True, saving money isn't easy these days, I don't know their situation. Obviously can obtain money. Then sell 9600K to help fund new builds. Already said this. And it's my opinion only.

Everything idles 50w lol.

9600K would need to clock 6ghz+ to reach IPC of 14th gen at bone stock. 14100F is P-cores only 4 cores and 8 threads still kills a 9600K no matter how you want to look at it. No gimmicks.

If he's running cpu intense gaming like CSGO/2, then the platform upgrade is everything then.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

View attachment 354081

Lol. I've benched/gamed many cards and systems friend. I'm only stating facts based on experience. I have screen shots of any and all video cards mentioned in the thread across at least 30 "synthetic" gaming benchmarks including GPUPI calculated runs.

If you guys ever need a comparison screenshot for a particular benchmark or video card, I could always supply it. I don't have every single video card on the planet, but have done many low and mid ranged cards. It would be my pleasure.

1650 gddr6 and 13600KF with 103 bclk 5252mhz TimeSpy scored 4550pts "Legendary" with a GPU score of 4051pts. Cpu score 15246pts. Using B660-G gaming wifi and DDr5 2885mhz with 5200mhz 16gb kit. Gtx 1650 boost clock of 1790mhz. OP should be able to pull off 4000pts total and maybe 3800 to 3900pts gpu score. Cpu score maybe 8000 to 9000 pts. Roughly. Maybe lower maybe higher depending if he OCs the card. If not, considerably lower figures than everything I said here.

 

[natr0n]

No worries, I wanted to find a waving fist gif but chose this cause snoopy.

I like personally to squeeze most out of hardware or find reason/purpose to use/reuse stuff.

 

[wheresmycar]

I use this pc mainly just for work and some light gaming, I am using 1080p 75hz and I was just hoping to cheaply slap in a new gpu to slightly up performance to hold me off until I build a new pc cause this old tech isn’t worth much of anything

so 1080p, 75hz bottleneck, light gaming + an affordable solution: look to a RX 6600 or if you're happy to spend more a wider performance gapper RX 6600XT/6650XT. If you're playing demanding AAA titles with graphics settings topped out, i'd shift up a gear to a 12GB (VRAM) 6750XT. Some of these latter options will be overkill for a 75hz display but overkills are attractive seeing newer graphics intense titles are GPU famished. If you're playing mostly less graphics intensive titles.... any of the 8GB options will do nicely with a substantial performance lead over the 1650.

BTW, the 9600K is still a great gaming CPU, esp. considering the 75hz limit... not far off from one of my older machines carrying a 7700K. The only downer being its a single threaded chip which may show some signs of struggle in some CPU-heavier multi-thread optimised games but nowhere close to being obsolete.

 

[nomdeplume]

DDR4 is EOL finally. It's like that old argument DDR1 is fine when DDR2 released. DdR2 is fine when DDR3 released. DDR3 is fine when DDR4 released. And here we are at the same old platform argument yet again.

You've made nothing but sense thus far. Eventuality of DDR5 is pretty well assured. Dubious whether we are there yet though, in 15th gen or 9000. Can we address the very popular D4 board to pair with current gen being EOL though. Roughly what speed do you consider this happens at?

Perhaps for a very short time from now, a few more seconds, the 9600K would still be considered modern computing, but that's about it. He's 5 generations behind.... almost 6.

Lowly i5 8400 and CSM board running DDR4 XMP 2400 holds a solid 58 fps in 1440p with reasonable settings on a STRIX 1060 most places. I agree that we're inside the last minute on that. Obv a single gen newer K processor and faster RAM helps a tiny bit.

 

[joemama]

I use my 9600k with a 3070 for 2K gaming

 

[Dr. Dro]

You've made nothing but sense thus far. Eventuality of DDR5 is pretty well assured. Dubious whether we are there yet though, in 15th gen or 9000. Can we address the very popular D4 board to pair with current gen being EOL though. Roughly what speed do you consider this happens at?

I think that what Shrimp means is that DDR4 is "dead", as in; there will be no further platforms supporting DDR4 after Raptor Lake. Arrow Lake, like Zen 4, will support only DDR5 memory. Of course, it won't disappear overnight and it will take some time for it to reach obsolescence like DDR3 did, the last DDR3 platforms were released over 10 years ago, now.

Socket AM4's particularly long life is going to keep DDR4 around and in demand for some time to come, the stock of high-end AM4 motherboards will deplete soon, followed by the stock of quality motherboards, eventually all you will find is the super cheap entry level stuff, but you can count on Chinese sweatshops to pump out delectably low quality A320 and A520 boards into the 2040s if it must be, after all, you can still easily get G41-based socket 775 boards from white labels, usually with the most cringeworthy layouts and craptastic components you could dream of.

In general, I'd argue a 6C6T Coffee Lake is long in the tooth by now. Comparably low IPC, being a i5 it lacks cache, hyper-threading and is binned worse than say, a 8700K would be. It's hardly a great chip anymore, just like a Ryzen 5 3600 might have been a killer chip back in the day, but 4 years later? You probably want an upgrade. It cannot keep up anymore.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

You've made nothing but sense thus far. Eventuality of DDR5 is pretty well assured. Dubious whether we are there yet though, in 15th gen or 9000. Can we address the very popular D4 board to pair with current gen being EOL though. Roughly what speed do you consider this happens at?



Lowly i5 8400 and CSM board running DDR4 XMP 2400 holds a solid 58 fps in 1440p with reasonable settings on a STRIX 1060 most places. I agree that we're inside the last minute on that. Obv a single gen newer K processor and faster RAM helps a tiny bit.

Ehh... I have an i5 8400....

Here's some cpu performance comparison screen shots.

i5 8400 6c
CBR20 2264 pts at stock cause it's in an HP.


VS

14100F 4c8t
CBR20 3585 pts Stock (ME locked chip)


VS

i5 8500 6c
CBR20 2166 pts i5 8500 OC 4ghz


VS

5600G 6c 12t
CBR20 4063 pts OC 3.875Ghz


VS

12400F 6c 12t
CBR20 5561 pts OC 5170Ghz 129.25 BCLK


VS

i71355U 2P8E 1744pin BGA HP Mobile Raptor Lake
CBR20 2398 pts No OC 5ghz/3.2ghz P/E (12t)

 

[#22]

Nowadays 9600K is able to give ~100 fps in majority of the most demanding games, but there are just few when it drops below 60 fps. Smoothness won't be best too in general, but seeing somebody coming from 9600K and 1650, he is not a smoothness snob or just can't afford. Definitely changing the CPU, because potential bottleneck is here bad advice. Plus man can always spend bottlenecked GPU's performance on eye candy downscaling, so it won't be wasted. Buy simply whatever GPU you can afford, but I would avoid cards with 8GB of VRAM and less if you plan to play all of these demanding games and expect so for some time from now. I would put here some (used?) 3060 and treat is as a swan song of whole rig.

 

[Sunny and 75]

3060 12GB

This^

Make sure it's the one with the 12GB VRAM.

 

[Kyan]

This^

Make sure it's the one with the 12GB VRAM.

I think it's the best option around your budget

In general, I'd argue a 6C6T Coffee Lake is long in the tooth by now. Comparably low IPC, being a i5 it lacks cache, hyper-threading and is binned worse than say, a 8700K would be. It's hardly a great chip anymore, just like a Ryzen 5 3600 might have been a killer chip back in the day, but 4 years later? You probably want an upgrade. It cannot keep up anymore.

My R5 3600 is keeping up
I'm happy with it and I think that it can be a good extreme budget buy in very specific situation.

 

[Sunny and 75]

I think it's the best option around your budget


My R5 3600 is keeping up
I'm happy with it and I think that it can be a good extreme budget buy in very specific situation.

For sure.

 

[Vario]

I have a 3060 and 8600K system, works fine.
8600K is same thing as 9600K.

My 12900KS/4070ti Super system absolutely stomps it, but for just a cheap gaming rig at 1080P medium settings 9600K and 3060 is adequate and should be for 3-5 more years.

 

[Sunny and 75]

medium settings

It's capable of running high settings as well in some titles.

 

[tussinman]

It's capable of running high settings as well in some titles.

I'd say most titles. My old setup that I retired last year was 1080p 75hz with a 3770k and RTX 2060. All the semi recent titles I played on it (RDR2, FF7 Remake, God of War, Forza Horizon 5, Hitman 3, Elden Ring, Spiderman, Baldurs Gate 3, AC VI) where all high settings or higher.

A 3060 would be like 20% faster than my card and the 9600k even in real gaming would be at least 30-40% faster than my 3770k. Was using slow ram as well even by DDR3 standards