2500k to 7700k?

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Want to pick the hive mind about upgrades if I may!

Currently have a [email protected], 16gb 2133 with a gtx1070. The 1070 is unfortunately running in pcie2 x8 because I have an Intel 750 ssd in the second pcie slot.

It plays most things at decent frame rates and high settings, only on 1080p 60hz so not too taxing, I do use vr for Sims (racing/flying/elite).
Also use it for running solidworks at home but that's not too taxing as it's not particularly well multithreaded.

Looking at justification for upgrading to a newer CPU and ddr4 whilst keeping the 1070.

If I were to move to a 7700k overclocked (ideally up to the 4.8-5ghz range) with 16gb 3000 would I be seeing tangible increases in performance?

Obviously the current pcie limitations will be bottlenecking the 1070 somewhat but in all honesty would it be noticeable?

The 2500k is an absolute workhorse, never more than 60 degrees on air but it's aging architecture and no space to upgrade further.

Thoughts please :)
 
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Any particular reason for picking a 7700k, rather than something more recent like a 9/10700k, or even ryzen?

Regardless, you would definitely see a noticeable improvement switching from a 2500k, especially if you're using a 1080p monitor.
 
Soldato
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As above, why the 7700K?

Are you looking at buying a second hand bundle or something?

The 7700K wont be compatible with your current motherboard.

Unless you're getting an extremely good deal I wouldn't bother, the prices for second hand 7700K's are laughable as you can get better new for the same price.

As for PCI-E bottlenecking a 1070, that's not happening on your current board let alone anything modern.
 
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Mainly cost, I'm quite happy using older hardware (obviously with a 2500k:D) and buying second hand.
I should have mentioned that I'm on the tightest budget known to mankind, ideally 300ish for CPU/board/ram.

I'm certainly not adverse to a Ryzen, I get baffled with all the seemingly hundreds of different variations and generations though so don't know what would suit me best.

edit: pcie2 x8 isn't going to be restricting the 1070? That's the same as pcie3 x4 isn't it?
 
Caporegime
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Mainly cost, I'm quite happy using older hardware (obviously with a 2500k:D) and buying second hand.
I should have mentioned that I'm on the tightest budget known to mankind, ideally 300ish for CPU/board/ram.

I'm certainly not adverse to a Ryzen, I get baffled with all the seemingly hundreds of different variations and generations though so don't know what would suit me best.

edit: pcie2 x8 isn't going to be restricting the 1070? That's the same as pcie3 x4 isn't it?

3600
B450 board
16gb ddr4 Crucial Ballistix LT sport

Should be able to do the above for £250-£350
 
Soldato
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Mainly cost, I'm quite happy using older hardware (obviously with a 2500k:D) and buying second hand.
I should have mentioned that I'm on the tightest budget known to mankind, ideally 300ish for CPU/board/ram.

I'm certainly not adverse to a Ryzen, I get baffled with all the seemingly hundreds of different variations and generations though so don't know what would suit me best.
I find the cost of older used CPUs to be prohibitive for anyone who doesn't already have the motherboard. 7700k seems to sell for upward of £150 used. For that much, you could have a Ryzen 5 3600, which would outperform the i7 in just about every way.
 
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Ok that's good information from all thanks, will have to have a closer look into the Ryzen setup. Honestly I hadn't considered being able to buy new in that budget.

Withregards to cooling, I have a thermalright true spirit 140 which I would like to reuse, presume I'd just have to figure out an am4 bracket for it?
 
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Ok that's good information from all thanks, will have to have a closer look into the Ryzen setup. Honestly I hadn't considered being able to buy new in that budget.

Withregards to cooling, I have a thermalright true spirit 140 which I would like to reuse, presume I'd just have to figure out an am4 bracket for it?
Yep, no reason the cooler wouldn't work with the right bracket. Could be worth sending Thermalright an email to see if they still offer the free AM4 upgrade kit.
 
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Ok that's good information from all thanks, will have to have a closer look into the Ryzen setup. Honestly I hadn't considered being able to buy new in that budget.

Withregards to cooling, I have a thermalright true spirit 140 which I would like to reuse, presume I'd just have to figure out an am4 bracket for it?

Shop around as 3600 was at one point closer to £100 than £200.
 
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Looking at it, the B450 boards need the bios updating to suit the 3xxx ryzens with a reduced UEFI interface due to the rom size limitation, is this a real world problem or are the boards from OCUK already flashed?
Would I be better stumping up a little more for a 450 max or a 550 board? Likewise perhaps I should hold fire for a few months till the new generations (4000?) release and the prices might drop or are they pretty stable?

Being used to software where single core speed is king (solidworks specifically), I'm presuming that the drop down to a 4.2ghz 3600 from the 4.6ghz 2500 is still going to be far faster because the IPC is much higher in the new hardware? Makes me itch a little bit going down clock speeds, even if it's gaining 8 threads and 8ish generations of architechtural improvements.
 
Caporegime
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Looking at it, the B450 boards need the bios updating to suit the 3xxx ryzens with a reduced UEFI interface due to the rom size limitation, is this a real world problem or are the boards from OCUK already flashed?
Would I be better stumping up a little more for a 450 max or a 550 board? Likewise perhaps I should hold fire for a few months till the new generations (4000?) release and the prices might drop or are they pretty stable?

Being used to software where single core speed is king (solidworks specifically), I'm presuming that the drop down to a 4.2ghz 3600 from the 4.6ghz 2500 is still going to be far faster because the IPC is much higher in the new hardware? Makes me itch a little bit going down clock speeds, even if it's gaining 8 threads and 8ish generations of architechtural improvements.

I went from a 2500k to a 7600k to a 1700x to a 8500 to a 3600x

The upgrade to the 7600k was pointless. The 1700x was slow but had the cores.

The 8500 was okay but the 3600x is a beast. The 3600 is only 2-3% slower or something.
 
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Interesting that you found the 2500-7600 a minimal upgrade, I would have thought there was more improvement on the processors by that point. I know that post sandybridge, intel have sort of just bumbled along and there's been nothing really groundbreaking with regards to performance increase gen to gen.

Looking at a couple of reviews of the 3600, it puts it just above the 8600k in single core and trouncing it in multi core performance. Think my mind is made up, can get a 3600, b550m and 16gb 3600 for a little over 350 :)
 
Soldato
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I went 4670K at 4GHz to 7740X at 4.7GHz a couple of years ago, and got about 15-20%. Given the overclock on your 2500K you've likely see something similar. As said above 7700K is holding value well, Ryzen 3600/3600X is a good shout unless you need high single thread performance. (I did before anyone jumps on the 7740X purchase!)
 
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Looking at it, the B450 boards need the bios updating to suit the 3xxx ryzens with a reduced UEFI interface due to the rom size limitation, is this a real world problem or are the boards from OCUK already flashed?

This is always a thing with AMD as they keep the socket for longer than Intel, however any boards being sold new now would have 3000 series compatibility out of the box generally. It's the same way that B550 boards will support 4000 series, but they'll need a rom update once its available.
 
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Looking at it, the B450 boards need the bios updating to suit the 3xxx ryzens with a reduced UEFI interface due to the rom size limitation, is this a real world problem or are the boards from OCUK already flashed?
Would I be better stumping up a little more for a 450 max or a 550 board? Likewise perhaps I should hold fire for a few months till the new generations (4000?) release and the prices might drop or are they pretty stable?

Being used to software where single core speed is king (solidworks specifically), I'm presuming that the drop down to a 4.2ghz 3600 from the 4.6ghz 2500 is still going to be far faster because the IPC is much higher in the new hardware? Makes me itch a little bit going down clock speeds, even if it's gaining 8 threads and 8ish generations of architechtural improvements.

The B450 Mortar Max doesn't need a BIOS update for the 3xxx ryzens they are already set up for them , and they have a bigger footprint for the BIOS that's why they have the Max in their title .So they are absolutely fine as set up for them.
 
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Yeah I've been focusing on either a 450max (MSI seem to be the best regarded) or 550 so I know there's no faffing around with flashing before I've even started!

A general question regarding my current system bottlenecking. The 1070 is a Rog strix 8gb and is often running pegged at 100% with CPU around the 70s%, in this case is the change to the newer CPU likely to make any difference bar the increased pcie bandwidth going from pcie2 x8 to pcie3 x8/16. I've read it might be around 5% throttling of the GPU?

For reference I seem to be able to play CPU intensive games like DCS world in vr and still pull 60fps (low vr FPS doesn't affect me till below 45). Elite does drop when things get really hectic but the settings and sampling is turned right up, for the most part it runs 80fps and up.

Obviously going up the the Ryzen will enable me to upgrade the GPU in the future. Essentially, if the GPU is pulling 100% load and the CPU isn't then it's not being bottlenecked is it?

edit1: if I drop the graphical settings on DCS/Dirt rally/elite the fps goes up (but obviously looks a bit potato so gets turned back on till I can maintain 60-90 fps. I think I need to do some comparison testing. Doom 2016 pulls 150-200fps on ultra. Am I going to spend 300+ quid on a potentially marginal gain? I don't noticeably suffer from stutter and things are buttery smooth, all games are with running on the Samsung pro 500gb or the Intel pcie nvme SSD.

edit2: just done a couple of quick and dirty tests on the following: -
Hitman 2 - 100% cpu load, 7% gpu load
DCS world in VR - 95% cpu load, 80% gpu load
Stalker SOC running autumn aurora - 70% cpu load, 85% cpu load
Projectcars 3 - 90% cpu load, 50% gpu load (runnin VR settings in pancake mode though)
Doom2016 - vsync@60hz 90% cpu load, 50% gpu, vsync off pulls 200fps solid with loads of monsters at that particular bit but pegs both cpu and gpu at 100%.

So yes, it is bottlenecking :)
 
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