Is an upgrade from a i7 5930k to i7 5960x worthwhile

[Melvis]

Okay all good advice. If I sold my 5930k to recoup some of the cost would the 5960x still be a waste of money? I have this thing about taking my socket to the best I can (within reason) so maybe this thinking may not be logical.

Thats always an idea really and I would be tempted to do that if I was in your postition as long as you think you can get a good enough return on your current CPU when you sold it to make it "worth" getting the 8core, if so then just do that.

Otherwise I honestly think that $400 could go on a AM4 platform and with the up and coming 4000CPUs that small gaming margin intel have now will basically be nothing.

2700x better for productivity but poor when Gaming. My 9700k at 5.2ghz beats 3900x when it's Gaming.

I wouldnt say the 2700X is poor at gaming, yes its slower then the 9900K but only by around 15% in worst case scenarios and really depends what GPU its tied with but still does just fine with gaming really over all.

 

[cucker tarlson]

Okay all good advice. If I sold my 5930k to recoup some of the cost would the 5960x still be a waste of money? I have this thing about taking my socket to the best I can (within reason) so maybe this thinking may not be logical.

well for gaming you're not gonna get much returns from 2 more cores if you're on 6/12 already

 

[phill]

I am still using my 5960X which is only lightly overclocked to 4.20Ghz, it's a bit of a cherry picked sample (something else to factor in when buying one, same goes for the 6950k) if it was me, personally I'd not bother.

Simply because, the X99 is a bit of a dead end platform, the cost of a replacement 5960X seems stupidly high in some places or times when they do come up for sale and yet they are quite a bit behind the second and third gen Ryzen's which I also have.
If your struggling to play games, watch videos or anything else that you do, then upgrade the system components; CPU and motherboard to a 3rd gen Ryzen, you're wallet, 1080 Ti and everything else will thank you for it. As @cucker tarlson mentioned, your on the 6C/12T CPU already, 2C/4T ain't going to do much more Since X99 is DDR4 as it's already been mentioned you've got that to transfer to another system

Save yourself some money by upgrading properly, you're wallet and you will thank you long term

 

[coyote]

I am still using my 5960X which is only lightly overclocked to 4.20Ghz, it's a bit of a cherry picked sample (something else to factor in when buying one, same goes for the 6950k) if it was me, personally I'd not bother.

Simply because, the X99 is a bit of a dead end platform, the cost of a replacement 5960X seems stupidly high in some places or times when they do come up for sale and yet they are quite a bit behind the second and third gen Ryzen's which I also have.
If your struggling to play games, watch videos or anything else that you do, then upgrade the system components; CPU and motherboard to a 3rd gen Ryzen, you're wallet, 1080 Ti and everything else will thank you for it. As @cucker tarlson mentioned, your on the 6C/12T CPU already, 2C/4T ain't going to do much more Since X99 is DDR4 as it's already been mentioned you've got that to transfer to another system

Save yourself some money by upgrading properly, you're wallet and you will thank you long term

Thank you. You have 3rd gen Ryzen, is it really superior to the 5960x?

 

[er557]

you could go for qs xeon e5 v3/v4, up to 22c/44t, it would work fine if you can find it cheap, for a killer all around workstation.
drop- in replacement cpu, mind you

google "youtube xeon e5 v4 gaming"

 

[phill]

Thank you. You have 3rd gen Ryzen, is it really superior to the 5960x?

I'm trying to get one from a local shop cheaper than advertised it's taking a little while lol But when I do get one through, I will of course be testing it I suppose I could test all of the Ryzens I have here with the 5960X... Would be interesting to do I think

What is it that you do with your rig that you feel like you need to upgrade it?

 

[er557]

I'm trying to get one from a local shop cheaper than advertised it's taking a little while lol But when I do get one through, I will of course be testing it I suppose I could test all of the Ryzens I have here with the 5960X... Would be interesting to do I think

What is it that you do with your rig that you feel like you need to upgrade it?

that is the first question OP needs to answer and work from there.
BTW, chinese ebay QS xeons are identical to retail xeon and much cheaper

INTEL xeon 10CORE E5-4627V4 QS 2.60GHZ CPU PROCESSOR for DELL R830 | eBay

No exception.

www.ebay.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thank you. You have 3rd gen Ryzen, is it really superior to the 5960x?

Yes. Easily.

 

[er557]

ryzen seems quite the leap when OP simply wants more longevity cheap

 

[lexluthermiester]

ryzen seems quite the leap when OP simply wants more longevity cheap

True, and advice has already be offered in that perspective. But his question was whether Ryzen was superior to his CPU, which it is and solidly so.

 

[Ferrum Master]

are you running dual or quad channel ?

Only rare IMC's handle 3000 on that platform, not on stock RAM timings either. Depends on the board. For mine going from 2400 to 3000 gives gaming boost withing margin of error ie 1-3%.

Yes. Easily.

BS. For gaming on 1080Ti? It will give nothing. Synthetics are a different story. But not gaming. Not many still compare old 5960X vs the new platforms.

It is even benched at stock. Overclocked the difference is lost altogether. The behavior is the same for most recent games with no exceptions when using 1080Ti. That's the point.

that is the first question OP needs to answer and work from there.
BTW, chinese ebay QS xeons are identical to retail xeon and much cheaper

INTEL xeon 10CORE E5-4627V4 QS 2.60GHZ CPU PROCESSOR for DELL R830 | eBay

No exception.

www.ebay.com

Those are locked, many boards doesn't take them also. Low base frequency parts, not suitable for gaming.

 

[coyote]

I'm trying to get one from a local shop cheaper than advertised it's taking a little while lol But when I do get one through, I will of course be testing it I suppose I could test all of the Ryzens I have here with the 5960X... Would be interesting to do I think

What is it that you do with your rig that you feel like you need to upgrade it?

I mainly game and I have noticed that on some games running at 1080p the CPU usage is getting a lot higher with my 1080ti than with my previous 1080. I figured that the 5960x may give me some more legroom when I eventually swap out the 1080ti for the next gen GPU either from Nvidia or AMD. Bottleneck calculator says that with 2080ti my 5930k is too weak but is good with 5960x so that is my reasoning with with this.

 

[er557]

Those are locked, many boards doesn't take them also. Low base frequency parts, not suitable for gaming.

locked parts, but are cooler, more robust, ihs is quality made, more energy friendly, boost to 4ghz~ when needed, run more stable, and in general support ecc and more ram, multi socket("cpu sli"), and are becoming relevant in todays multi core environment, do not bottleneck high end cards

 

[sepheronx]

If you decide to upgrade, give me your x99 board and processor. I would give it a new home!

Let that be indication that it is still a fantastic CPU and I wouldn't bother upgrading as I said earlier and what others have said.

I wonder though, would RAM speeds, even if it only supports up to 2400mhz DDR4, would bring that much benefit to the performance in quad channel?

 

[er557]

It would, because in quad channel each benefit is multiplied by four, so the faster you can run the ram, and the more you have of it, x99 will benefit from the bandwidth in intensive scenarios, and games need more copy speed than say read or write.

 

[sepheronx]

It would, because in quad channel each benefit is multiplied by four, so the faster you can run the ram, and the more you have of it, x99 will benefit from the bandwidth in intensive scenarios, and games need more copy speed than say read or write.

Yeah but if the processor can really work with that ram speed? Since the memory controller is on the processor. Normally I would agree but I recall that RAM speeds werent that huge of a benefit for Intel processors over new AMD Ryzen processors. But either case, if I am wrong than it is good option for an upgrade for sure.

 

[er557]

If I were in OP's place, i would order this specimen for 400$ from japan and call it a day.

Xeon LGA 2011/Socket R Computer Processors (CPUs) 2.5-2.99 GHz Clock Speed for sale | eBay

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2.6ghz base--->>> 3.1ghz turbo, 35MB L3 cache, soldered IHS, all server/workstation features supported, x99 motherboard compatible, QS stepping=qualification sample, not the same as ES(engineering sample).

14 cores, 28 threads, stepping is exactly as retail, boosts to 3.1ghz, can overclock bclk by another 5% for all cores(105 bclk x 31 =3255mhz), and on top of that this specimen is available to hack and boost all core turbo to 3.1ghz at the same time, with some tinkering with bios microcode. that is 35% overall multithread free performance boost. Those procs are very sturdy and made to withstand much more abuse, this is server grade hardware!

 

[xtreemchaos]

+1 for the 2700x +mobo, I game a lot on mine and it sure do game good, and overclocks real nice I found 4.2 all core the sweetspot @ 1.375 v.

 

[phill]

I mainly game and I have noticed that on some games running at 1080p the CPU usage is getting a lot higher with my 1080ti than with my previous 1080. I figured that the 5960x may give me some more legroom when I eventually swap out the 1080ti for the next gen GPU either from Nvidia or AMD. Bottleneck calculator says that with 2080ti my 5930k is too weak but is good with 5960x so that is my reasoning with with this.

You probably will do as the 1080 is a fair bit slower than a 1080 Ti, so the CPU will have to work a little harder to keep up. Is your CPU overclocked at all?

Well I wouldn't say that the CPU or the GPU is really going to be bottlenecked as such, I would say that the biggest problem (if you could call it a problem) is going to be the 1080P panel. If it's a high refresh rate panel then a slight lack of CPU power will not help it but will cut a few frames from what it could possibly manage. Even if it's not, then as long as you are getting your 60 fps and it's running smoothly is there really a problem?

I'd pay no attention to the calculators if I'm honest. I've had a 2600k running with my 1080 Ti and I've not seen any problems with it. It might be the games I play but everything I run, runs smoothly. I do run triple 1080P panels when gaming, I do like the immersion of the game with the wider angles. I feel they tend to worry people rather than help them.

I see that a Xeon has been mentioned, whilst these are still pretty good CPUs compared to some X99 CPUs, they won't help in gaming. The core clock is just too low down (for most of them) to help with the GPU at all. A mate tried it and it didn't go well. I believe he went then onto a Ryzen platform and hasn't looked back since. Upgraded a few times as well on top too

Let us know your CPU clock speeds, if you can get it overclocked a little bit if it's not already, I'm sure this will help a lot more than you think. Also with the RAM speeds, I run 2666Mhz speeds as my crap MSI board will only let me select 2667 or 3200.. Not so helpful... Getting some of these CPUs to manage 3000+ or so on the RAM is hard work and just puts more strain on the CPU/IMC etc, it really doesn't benifit much at all. It's not a Ryzen after all....

 

[er557]

well in that case it depends on the budget, maybe he can get away with an used i7 6950x. there are many options, including ryzen.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Bottleneck calculator says that with 2080ti my 5930k is too weak but is good with 5960x so that is my reasoning with with this.

Are you talking about this?

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

pc-builds.com

If so, take those results with a grain of salt. The results it shows for my hardware are nowhere near my actual performance levels. 53% my backside;

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

pc-builds.com

Your parts are at 18%, which isn't bad but isn't close to the actual performance either.

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

pc-builds.com

The only way you are going to know how your CPU stacks up is to look up benchmark scores for your card and then run those same tests yourself to see how your system compares. Then you will know if an upgrade is needed or if the difference is something you can live with.

 

[eidairaman1]

X99 is dead dead

 

[Durvelle27]

I'd suggest a Ryzen 3600 or 3700X if you need the cores

 

[cucker tarlson]

locked parts, but are cooler, more robust, ihs is quality made, more energy friendly, boost to 4ghz~ when needed, run more stable, and in general support ecc and more ram, multi socket("cpu sli"), and are becoming relevant in todays multi core environment, do not bottleneck high end cards

View attachment 140839

those things are never correct.

 

[er557]

Probably, but a nice aproximation with some salt, of percentage chance of any issues based on web benchmarks. Whether you have a bottleneck or not depends on your demands, refresh rate, settings, image quality, gaming habits, so many users like @lexluthermiester feel they have no bottleneck when the website says otherwise BY APPROXIMATION.