Debating CPU/mobo upgrade.

Do I go with a Ryzen 7 1700, Ryzen 5 1600, or try an Intel Core i5-7600K Kaby Lake 3.80 GHz LGA 1151?

They're all within about $50-60 of each other with a motherboard at Microcenter, curious what the opinions here are. Recently started using an nVidia 680 GTX and had my mind opened to how long I've had blinders on, wondering if I should try a Kaby Lake just to see how Intel is lately.

 

Web poll on...uh, techpowerup.com I think, showed that like 40% of respondents - LARGE majority - wanted to go Ryzen with their next system rather than anything Intel. Of course, one should never trust web polls when deciding on what to do. Still, AMD seems to have captured huge mindshare with their new chip, there hasn't been anything like it since the end of the P4 days. That must mean something, right?

I would have bought Ryzen without a doubt if AMD had supported AVX256 and 512, but that's only because I'm an insane geek. If one doesn't have silly specific demands like that you can live very happily with Ryzen, and an 8-core Ryzen with 128-bit AVX probably delivers about the same FP througput as the equivalent clocked 4-core Intel chip with 256-bit AVX. Performance needn't suffer, necessarily.

 

I'll sell you my old sandy bridge

If I were going to upgrade my CPU today it'd be a tough choice. Intel is going to win the gaming battle, but I'm a big supporter of the underdog. I'd likely go Ryzen 7 1700.

Any point in my sending you that second 680? (Actually dual 680s in SLI are pretty respectable even today as long as you're not trying to game at 4k)

 

What kind of Sandy ridge and how much, those run on DDR3 don't They?

And hell yeah there's a point to sending the other 680! I've already learned more than I freaking ever expected to already from just one....cant wait to try SLI!

 

Yes. DDR4 didn't come until intel broadwell, like 3 gens after sandy bridge.

 

Shouldn't a 8600k be in the mix as well? Might have to wait a bit for availability, but 6 cores with Intel IPC/clock rates would be pretty sweet.

 

To answer your question I'd have to ask you when your next (as in not this one) upgrade would be? AMD stated that it plans to keep socket compatibility for IIRC 4 years with Ryzen. So if you need an upgrade path with the same mobo I would go Ryzen. If you're gonna ride out this upgrade until 'the end' and then start anew my suggestion will be different. So it all really depends on how long you plan to stay with this upgrade. If Ryzen I would suggest the 1600/x or less with a good mobo (what is it 370). The thing is I think there's a chance ddr5 will launch in 2018 or 2019 which would mean if you want to stay with the latest and greatest for your next upgrade would require a new mobo anyway. But like Dr. Evil mentioned the 8600k should be in the mix especially when the cheaper chipsets come out. Basically I think its 1600/x vs 8600k. But it really depends on what you do with your machine... is the only intensive thing you do gaming?

edit - there's also pcie 4 and 5 expected at the end of 2017 and 2019 respectively.

 

If you were going to go Ryzen, as a 1700 owner I'd recommend going with a 1600x. You'll have a better experience overall for your needs unless you need serious core crunching performance. So I agree with above, 1600x vs 8600k.

 

"A bit", like until next year...

Hm, no way PCIe 4 is coming (for PCs) by end of this year - no CPUs on the horizon supporting it, and no GPUs either. Maybe in routers and other specialized gear for datacenters. From where I'm standing it seems PCIe 4 is fairly DOA, with PCIe 5 coming relatively soon after and much higher performance target.

 

Yeah I was just quoting an article... but why do you call it DOA? Because PCIe5 is going to come soon after?

 

I can get a Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming 3 AM4 ATX motherboard and a Ryzen 5 1600 w/wraith cooler (the 1600x doesn't come with cooler) for $253.55 including tax and pick it up tomorrow from Microcenter. It's DAMNED hard to beat that value anywhere.

The only thing killing me is the ass-rapey DDR4 prices. I really want to get 16GB, but the cheapest I've seen for 2x8GB of PC2400 is like $130...and it was $99 just a month or so ago!

If I could find a memory solution for cheaper than $100 I think I could almost talk my wife in to it, today I figured out a way to close our pool without buying an air compressor so I figure I'll do that and then hope she's impressed... <sigh>

And for when I'm getting my next upgrade? Who knows? Next time I can, next time I get something, next time I need one? My config tends to change a lot and often.

 

Is the included fan good enough for overclocking? You're gonna want to overclock to 3.9/4.0ghz. Also isn't RAM speed real important for Ryzen? The infinity fabric speed is tied to RAM speed and latency seems to affect performance alot. I think you should go for 3000 or 3200 speed DDR4. You could always buy 2 four GB sticks now and more later when prices come down, the MB you linked does have 4 slots for memory.

 

The Ry5 1600 only goes up to 2933Ghz in memory speed, the 1600x maxes out at 3200.

I don't think it's worth the minimal gain really to go over PC2400 right now and just OC and see how lucky I get.

 

that's a great advice. AMD have on their side that when Ryzen 2 comes out your old Ryzen mobo is going to be compatible with it. In my case I have a middle range CPU -Ryzen 1500X- that does the job well, hopefully for a long time and when PS5 and Xbox 3 are out I could make the upgrade. Plus I have a 4k freesync monitor which I plan to use for a long time, so if AMD keeps doing a good job I am happy..

 

Where do you get that from? I don't believe there's any limitations in memory speed between the Ryzen CPU models. Any official speeds are maximum 2666Mhz.

 

It will not be a minimal gain. On Ryzen, from 2400 even to just 2933, it will be a huge gain. Unlike most of the other reviewers, I'm using a pair of cheap 2.x16GB 3200 RAM which is not really that much more expensive than its 2400 version (of course the 2400 came with a lower latency). It is probably the same chip but with a 3200 profile. I can't run it at 3200, but I can run it at 2933. I tested it against 2666 (same RAM, simply change the bios setting) and the gain is around 10% from 2666 to 2933 (around 10% increase in performance for 10% increase in RAM speed). Of course my use case involving using all the available cores (offline rendering), but looking at those game benchmark, you can gain a stupid amount of performance just by using a faster RAM on Ryzen.
Of course if you can find the RAM setting to reach 2933 (or even more) from that 2400, that's fine too, but I'm lazy, thus I use the timing provided by the RAM. I'm not those people that try to find the tightest timing. I simply choose 2933.
Btw, my RAM does boot at 3200, but unstable in Windows.

 

A Linus tech video I accidentally watched on Youtube, so the info IS dubious. LOL

 

Also, it seems like it's $80us for 4gbx2 ddr4 pc2400. Sucking, it's never gonna happen.

 

Have u considered getting a part time job?

 

Not until my kids all graduate and they don't actively need me, which won't be for a year or two.