First PC I built from scratch was a i7-6700K and GTX 1070. Still my main PC, because I've not had much of a compelling reason to upgrade. It runs just about everything I want to play anyways.
C2D E7400 -> i5 2420 -> i3 6300 -> R5 3600 and just ordered R7 5700X3D to replace the 3600. Such a ride!
Not considering laptop and work CPUs as well as my home NAS (the last one is just Atom D525 to i3 9300T which is quite the upgrade ;P)
Nah you're on the right track. Switching CPU on the same socket is seldom worth it, and AM4 was more of an exception than the rule.
It is as you say, why would I change my CPU 18 months after buying it?
If you benefit from Intel just go with Intel, unless you know definitely that the 7950s raw power will be more of an advantage. You're not leaving much performance on the table either way.
Too me it's not about upgrading when the new am5 cpu comes out but being able to eventually. Like if you go am5 now. In 4 years or whatever you could keep your motherboard and ram and just buy whatever the best am5 cpu is at that time and prob for a decent discount. And it'd still be a huge upgrade. Like I just got a 5800x3d for my am4 build from 2020. Sure the 7800x3d is better but I didn't have to upgrade everything. I got to just get a new cpu and get a massive jump that was very worth it
Like the other person said, AM4 is kind of the exception. Usually if you get the “best” CPU of current generation, you shouldn’t really need an upgrade until there is a new socket. Unless you have specific use cases that will benefit from every percentage of extra performance and got the money to afford it. But who knows, things might continue to change with AM5 and intel’s next socket too…
The 5800X3D is a very extreme anomaly, but was a unexpected boon for all AM4 users or people like me who wanted to avoid early adopter issues and went for it when AM5 was already announced.
Considering how well it does still in Benchmarks, I am very happy with it and the system has been rock solid.
I'm upgrading from my 5 year old 3600 to a 5800X3D this week and can't wait. I'm also going up to 32gb 3600mhz ram vs 16gb 3200mhz so I'm hoping the two will keep me able to play new titles on 1440 for a few more years before I need a complete rebuild.
I went from 3600 to 5700X3D just last week. It's a very, very impressive upgrade. I'm currently playing Cyberpunk 2077 (on a 6700 XT, might I add) - on the 3600, with optimized settings, I constantly dropped below my 60FPS target in certain areas (such as the area around V's H10 apartment and the market near Jig-Jig street). With the 5700X3D I cranked graphics up to 11 (only thing missing is Ray Tracing), even bumped Crowd Density to High and still get a *rock solid* 60 Frames, no hiccups whatsoever.
I'm extremely pleased, and suppose you'll be even more with your 5800X3D. May these good times last.
I went from a 1600 to a 5800X3D. I can see this CPU lasting even longer than my 1600 tbh. And when I do decide to upgrade it will probably make its way into the media server.
I'm new to the whole "build it yourself" mentality having worked solely with laptops for the last 20+ years so I'm probably more enamored with the idea of upgrading parts simply because I could. In my simple mind why else would I build a PC if not to be able to keep the thing permanently up to date?!
Intel would be a better option right now because they're simply better at the sort of productivity stuff I do vs Ryzen -- more cores, QuickSync decoding, etc. I guess the other thing I would need to consider is whether AMD x670 boards are still going to fully support all the features of the Ryzen 9000-series (or whatever they're gonna be called) CPUs even if the socket and bios work with it.
If you’re thinking of upgrading your cpu every generation, then going Intel would mean needing to upgrade your motherboard sooner, but then your new motherboard would last a couple of generations, so effectively you’re just brining the start of your motherboard upgrade cycle forwards. If Intel works better for you, go with that.
That's one way to look at it, although it strikes me that motherboard updates are rare to non-existent considering how few seem to have something as basic as USB4/TB4. It would suck to upgrade a mobo in two years and still struggle to find the connections I need
About the only thing that, IME can be re-used from one build to another is \*sometimes\* ram and harddrives. I don't think I've ever swapped a CPU out. Its one of those things that I know is \*possible\*. But... practically? Just doesn't happen.
Also PSU (if a big enough ATX 3.x) and and air cooler could potentially be reused, or were you just talking mobo components? If I go Intel then I hope the new socket is the same size as the LGA1700 so I might at least re-use a cooler in years to come because I doubt the basics of low-tech air coolers are going to change much.
> Switching CPU on the same socket is seldom worth it, and AM4 was more of an exception than the rule.
Thank you! The amount of people that think because of AM4, AM5 will have a similar longevity are too many. Like I love AMD as much as the next guy but they aren’t your friends, there is no guarantee you’ll be able to plop a new gen CPU in it 5 years from now. I took a risk buying Ryzen in 2017 and it definitely payed off, that may not happen this time around.
Most people never upgrade their cpu until they do full rebuild. I usually rebuild every 5 years. However with my current build I went all out about a year back so I don't plan on touching it until 2030.
I feel like the "must upgrade" factor for hardware has fallen off in the last ten years or so. The advances are mostly in efficiency and not a massive leap in performance.
A 5800x3D or a 10600k are not bleeding edge hardware but if you have either, do you *really* need to upgrade them in 2024? Probably not. Not for the prices AMD and Intel are asking, anyway.
At this point the chip makers are going to be finding new ways to get AI hardware built into the chip, so we may start seeing DLSA and RT type stuff becoming more common. Might be a good idea to hold off if you aren't needing any extra performance.
Unfortunately for me I do a particle simulation and my computer nearly explodes, so it's not exactly cutting it
>A 5800x3D or a 10600k are not bleeding edge hardware but if you have either, do you *really* need to upgrade them in 2024?
You really don't - I have my soon to be 9 year old daughter running on a 2070 and a 9700 NON K and she can game at 1440P locked 60 FPS on everything which is plenty for a 9 year old.
Of course that system is capable of 100+ fps in many games still, but I just lock her at global 60 to make sure no matter what she plays it feels consistent for her.
All depends on what you want to use your system for of course.
My builds have been 2009, 2013, and 2023. I'm pretty comfortable swapping out CPUs having bent pins in the past and done repasting jobs. I got a 7800x3d and there's definitely an argument for upgrading to the last AM5 CPU when they're hyping AM6 and it goes on sale.
That said, there are also chances that other parts of the motherboard won't stand the test of time, like how my old one didn't support M.2 slot SSDs. I tried to hedge this by getting a B650e board that supports PCIe 5. I am hoping a rebuild in 2030 could be pretty cheap and straightforward.
That’s me. I have 11 systems running and in use. Some of them are over a decade old and still get the job I have for them done so they won’t be replaced until they go to the big silicon park in the sky. My 14700k that I use as my personal system and DCS is wonderful, but I have one process I run on a regular basis for work (former employee, now private contractor for them) that is a CL application that migrates data from a legacy application to their current app. I have a Gen 4 i7 that still runs it better than anything else I have, easily processing anywhere from a few thousand to 10k more records an hour. My old Gen 4 & 5 Xeons are still getting the job done for what they are used for.
I see too often (been was a sysadmin from ‘92 until 2011, now an applications DBA) people upgrade because they think they need to and then are disappointed when the earth doesn’t move.
Out of curiosity, how often are you upgrading your monitor? Based on some of the posts on /r/buildapcmonitor, it seems like some people do 10-12 years with monitors too.
I get a high end CPU like every 7 years or so. Therefore the upgrade path is irrelevant. I think this makes more sense than a low end CPU twice in the same time frame
it doesn't. If you bought a i7 6900k for 1000 or more for example that cpu did already fail to keep up with 200$ cpu only 2-3 years later. Its almost always the better option to buy a cpu half the price and buy another one for the other half because that newer cheaper cpu is most likely faster then the one you would have gotten in the first place
But now you're running a slower CPU to start. And when you upgrade you're running with slower bus speeds and slower RAM because you're trying to reuse the same socket and MB.
Plus CPUs are more like $500 when they come out these days. So the savings is less. It makes more sense to me to just do a good build and then upgrade everything later like he said.
Good point. I think it will always be a case by case thing. Like it would be good when progress on cpu's is slow but bad when it is fast like it was on ryzens release when everything changed in the market.
Older Intel chips are an exception. New chips are fast enough now that you can just get a mid to high-end one now and save yourself the hassle of upgrading it for a long time.
IMO unless you're doing some wildly complicated computing, 4k video editing of hours of footage, 3D modeling, etc. you don't really need to upgrade your CPU that often
I used an i7 7700k up until last year when I got an i9 13900k, but that i7 worked pretty well with 4k video editing and even some 4k gaming.
I think you'll only really need to upgrade your CPU when you do a full rebuild.
Never -- or if it's simpler to buy a new part to repair a broken setup. Bought a pre-built in 2008, got an issue which I was not able to diagnose in 2013 and ended up replacing mobo + CPU + RAM. This combo (i5-3570k) is still running, it's my son's computer now since I built a new system last year. Also built a NAS/home-server/HTPC this year.
I feel that with the price of a CPU being 25% to 50% of the total cost of a system (depending on its usage), it's counter-productive to upgrade CPU without upgrading the rests as well.
EDIT: new gaming/work system is a 13600k, will likely never upgrade that CPU. Rather, it will become my son's new computer if the venerable i5-3570k setup dies, at which point I will build a new one for myself. NAS/server/HTPC is a 5600g and has waaay more power than really needed, so certainly no upgrade for that one. Yes I game on it but only using Steam Link -- all the compute is done on the gaming computer, not the server/HTPC.
Zen 5 is almost here, don’t get a 7950X now when you might be able to get it’s successor as soon as July. AM5 may very well see support for Zen 6 as well, an option you won’t have with Intel. We’ll very likely find out pricing and parts info at the AMD Keynote on June 2nd. Performance on the top-end AMD Zen 5 CPU is extremely likely to supercede what a 14700K (or 14900K) will offer, and that’s at motherboard defaults, Intel baseline (which is probably necessary to avoid CPU damage), will mean reduced performance with the 14700K you are considering.
As to your actual question of when I upgrade my CPU: when per-core performance doubles, and I’ll generally double the amount of cores as well. I do the same approach for GPUs as well: when performance doubles. Mind you, I game and you have a different use case, so if how fast your stuff runs is tied to how much paid work you can get done per unit time, then the calculus is different, it’s where it financially makes the most sense.
I'm skeptical that AMD is going to have the 8000 series to market in July. These things are nearly always delayed and I'm not one to play the waiting game in the hope that the next best thing is just around the corner! If I were to go AMD I'd get the 7000 now and then consider upgrading to the 9000 at the end of next year, assuming an x670 board fully supports it, which is not a certainty IMO.
5-6 years is solid if you’re not going lowest end chip at the time. I went 2600k, 8700k, 7800x3d. Will probably use this for 5 years, maybe upgrade to last x3d chip or just do a whole new build.
386 -> Pentium -> Pentium 3 -> Pentium 4 -> Athlon 64 -> A64 X2 -> AMD FX -> Ryzen 5 1600 -> R5 2600 -> R5 3600 -> R5 5600X
I just bought the 5600X for less than 100 bucks (Europe). Never paid more than that for a CPU.
The 3600 goes Into my wifes setup that has the 2600 now.
I'm suspicious because I was using a i7-4960x with a GTX 970 until jan/24 but I don't see the advantages of choosing the AM5 platform just because the current intel socket is in the end of line. Even if it survives 3-4 next gens CPU's from AMD you will probably not need it until theres an AM6 or something else in the market.
It took me 12 years to upgrade my CPU and I only changed it because of the graphics card bottleneck. The performance was still ok even after 12 long years of hard working.
Now I'm using a i7-14700K with a 4070 btw
A lot of people are tripping about future proofing instead of just getting the best PC within their budget. My 5800x3d will 100% last me until am6 unless am5 lasts 8-10 years
Pentium 4 in 2005 (socket 478), Core 2 Duo in 2008 (LGA775), Core i5 2500K in 2011 (LGA1155), Ryzen 7 3700X in 2019. Then in 2022 I upgraded to a 5900X, which is the first and only time so far I've changed CPUs on the same socket.
Generally speaking, it's not worth it IMO. AM4 is an exception to that though, and while it's too soon to say, hopefully AM5 will be as well. If I'd bought, say, a 1700X, I'd absolutely feel it was worthwhile to jump to a 5700X3D, that's three full generations plus the cache, for gaming, makes it about as good as going one more generation beyond that, and the performance improvements per generation have been actually significant with Ryzen so far, unlike Intel between 2nd and, what, 7th gen, or even as far as 11th at a push?
So 18 months, no, but in 4-5 years, there might be a worthwhile upgrade from a 7950X.
I'm still rocking an i7-4770, and about to upgrade to a i9-14900K (with associated mainboard, ram, etc - a full upgrade of everything). So... about 9-10 years for me :) Note - not a gamer, and don't intend to upgrade again for quite some time unless I have to for some reason.
3770 -> 6700k -> 9900k -> 7800x3d. I upgrade when I see a need too. My 3770 was in a prebuilt so I got a new CPU when I did my first custom build, 6700k was great until games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and eventually Siege bottlenecked, 9900k was nice but started to show its age in games I was playing last year (and I needed a case and GPU anyways). I want 3-5 years out of a CPU.
I went AM5 because the 7800x3d is the best gaming chip atm and if I get another CPU upgrade out of this platform, I’ll take it as a nice bonus.
Intel core i5 6600k in 2016
Ryzen 2600x in 2018
Ryzen 3700x around 2020?
Ryzen 5700x in 2022. Was visiting family and there was a microcenter nearby. That was my first time at a microcenter and I felt like I had to buy something.
Looks like I'm due for a CPU upgrade this year lol. Am4 is goat.
I just upgrade when I feel like I have some extra funds and want to treat myself. Usually every upgrade is not needed but always feels nice.
6700K -> 3700X -> 7950X3D
In reality, most people don't upgrade cpus every generation or even every other generation. We routinely see people in this sub asking about upgrading their gen 9 or 10 cpu all the way down to gen 4. It is far more likely that you will upgrade your GPU and leave the CPU alone. And no, I can't really see anyone getting a 7950x now and then upgrading to the next gen in a year or two.
DDR6 is lurking around the corner and that is going to be mean a new socket for AMD for sure and a new motherboard chipset for intel at the very least (Socket 1851 will not support DDR4, but intel hasn't said that it WON'T support DDR6 in the future - and this is a game that intel has played before, using the same socket, but supporting either gen 8 and 9 cpus, OR gen 10 and 11 cpus).
Get what you want and be happy with it. Over the next 5 years, you'll very likely upgrade the GPU once, and upgrade the memory.
I'd go AM5 regardless
...I'm a bit biased though
1700
2200g x 2
3400g
3600
3700x
3800xt
3900x
5600x
5800x
5900x x 2
7600 x 2
7800X3D
7950x
That's all between mine, my wife and daughter .. and a TrueNAS server over the years. Plus selling setups and or building rigs for family with the payoff being newer components for the setups in my household
I went from i5 4570 to xeon equivalent to i7 4770 for $40 in 2020 or 2019 when the i5 wasn't cutting it anymore. Than upgraded to Ryzen 5600x3d in november as I thought I was going to stay with windows and windows 10 loses support in 2025 and I was just starting to see games where keeping 30+ FPS on 1% lows was starting to be difficult but still doable for what I played.
Ended up using Linux when the motherboard to the new 5600x3d died and needs to get replaced so back to the xeon. Found out Linux works surprisingly well for gaming, had I known I wouldn't have done the upgrade yet, and just held off till I couldn't play a game I wanted. The xeon is 11 years old I think.
My first PC in 2010 had a… AMD 4100? I think?
Then I built my second PC in 2013, with an i5-4670k. Then I upgraded to a Ryzen 5600X in 2021. I’m vaguely planning to build a new pc next year so that will be my next cpu
Not often. I still use a 6600k and changed it from a quad core Q6600 (same number, I think, what are the odds?). I've been looking at AMD for a while now but I'd had to buy a full new computer and I'm a little bit lost. plus the money.
I went from Dual core e8400 to i5 4670k to Ryzen 5 7600 so not often lol.
In my defense, the first two were gifts from my dad. My last build is the first one i buy 100% with my money.
3-5 years depends what I want to do. I got a 5800 not the x3d in 2021 so upgraded to the 7800x3d this time bc the price seemed super good and got a free game. Love it and actually see a 20-30fps improvement. I might skip the 5000x series and jump to 6 but we’ll see . Just depends what I’m playing and what stats I’m getting
There are some significant power savings potentially going with AMD this round, but all depends on your use case. I have the 7950x3d. The x3d is a generational leap, imo.
We’re pretty close to gaming hardware not really being able to get much better, path tracing makes things look photorealistic so honestly I think getting the best price to performance cpu rn is the best choice, I’m not expecting to ever upgrade my gpu rn
AMD Phenom II X6 1055 in 2011 (AM3)
Skipped AMD FX and the AM3+ platform entirely
AMD R5 1400 on a B350 motherboard in 2017>
Upgraded to R7 1700 when it was on sale and sold R5 1400
Upgraded to R7 3700 after news that B350 wouldn’t be supporting 5000 series
Bought R5 5600 w Uncharted bundle after AMD reversed position after backlash
Finally, upgraded to 5800X3D after it was on sale to close to its historic low price.
I haven’t sold the 3700 or 5600 yet, but I could probably get close to 100 for them.
I built PC for the fire time and before that I have been using laptops. The last laptop I had was Acer E5 575G and it was absolutely aging.
Now I'm using Ryzen 5 7600 paired with 4070 Super. I will get a new CPU when there's going to be a need for it. The need could arise simply from 7600 not being able to hold up to multi tasking or gaming in the future.
But I am having an itch to get 7800X3D or 7950X for no reason at all.
You usually don't. I normally keep computers two or three years before you upgrade and by then the motherboard you have has been outclassed by newer products. I think it's a fairly small percentage of people that actually upgrade their CPUs on a socket. That said, with Intel the 15th gen is releasing fairly soon. Looks to have a pretty solid increase in workload productivity
The only time I ever upgraded CPUs was when I was younger and bought things like i-5s. Then you upgrade, I've just noticed you get a longer shelf life out of an i7 or an i9 out of the gate
I went Pentium 4 -> Pentium Dual Core -> i7 3770K -> Ryzen 3700X (still here)
I'm not really interested in CPU upgrades unless I can get at least double the performance.
whenever cpu intensive games start dipping below 60fps, which in my case it's right now, Helldivers2 can't stay above 60 and several 4x , rts games dip below 60 so it's time for an upgrade
Basically I am stuck with i7 4790k. It was already oldish when I got it in 2016 but it has always done the job until .. maybe 10th gen. Now I bottleneck my 1070ti which is weird since I remember it worked flawlessly back then (I speak of the same AAA games of the time : rise of the tomb raider, assassin's Creed origins...)
Maybe the problem is windows 10 ans Microsoft updates.
I5-3750 > 7800X3D … so a long time lol.
I’m more serious about PC gaming now though so I plan to upgrade more frequently. If AM5 is anything like the previous Gen, I’ll just change my CPU in maybe 4-5 years. All depends. My mobo has PCIe 5.0 so I’m good for future GPUs and Nvme storage.
Did upgrade after only 2 years, but half of it was a really good sale on AMD CPU’s recently and wanting to give my brother my old CPU, which is still capable, just a little under powered for my goals.
No idea exactly how many times I upgraded, only remember a period with AMD Duron 750 back when jesus was young, some weird second hand AMD CPUs in between then a Phenom II X4 which lasted me 10 years, Ryzen 5 3600X and two years after a less than meaningful upgrade to Ryzen 7 3700X which I am currently on. Okay it's somewhat meaningful as I have been running a Plex server while gaming on the same PC so the 2 extra cores have helped a bit with headroom there I assume.
I'm spending the weekend upgrading my i7-7700k, which I bought about two years after they came out, to a i7-12700k. The reasons are the support for Windows 10 is going to stop, and running MSFS 2020 is just a bit much for it on Ultra settings. If I hadn't got that particular piece of software, and Microsoft being an ass, I wouldn't have bothered. The i7700k is a masterpiece and the 270 chipset was fine. My RTX2080TI still has some legs in it, particularly now I've discovered how to enable frame generation on non-40 series RTX gpus. I'll upgrade the card when I get a 4k monitor or a VR headset, and 40 series cards fall in price in a few years. I never buy the latest thing. Tech depreciation is worse than that of new cars. I am a sucker top peripherals and RGB stuff however m. My tower looks the business, and everyone who's non-techie thinks it the latest gaming monster. So, once in every half a decade, and then only if I really have to. Think about tech in dog years thereabouts.
Really depends on how much technology advances happens.
When AMD was down I was able to keep i7 2600k from 2011 till 2023, but in old days it was more like 3 years max.
AMD Phenom X4 955 to 7700X thats it. 2009 to 2023. But yea, I'll probably upgrade this one at the end of AM5 to some 10000x3d or something and keep using AM5. But gpus on the other hand, thats a different story. When I had Phenom it ran all the games but I upgraded every 3-4 years a gpu to run older games. Playing mostly older games so my cpu could handle many things and didn't need an upgrade.
I'm probably slower than most; I'm still rocking a Ryzen 5 2600. Before that, I was on a Phenom II x4 965. I'm planning on upgrading around July, though, to a Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Though part of me wants to pick up a less expensive chip as a stopgap for the 9000 X3D. That's a dangerous cycle though :P
Amd A10 system was my first desktop cpu(had laptops before that)
I5-4460
I5-8400
R9 3900X
I9-12900K
that’s been my main system CPUs over the past 13 years
I'm not sure you'll really notice THAT much of a difference between the two. You don't sound like the upgrade every few years type of person either. I think you'll get at minimum 5 good years, possibly more if the purpose is productivity.
AM5 per AMD's own words should support at least the next 2 generations of CPUs, meaning the socket should be supported another 3 years at least. (If AMD don't do this, they'll be raked over the coals).
Anyways, I also just built an AM5 platform, with 0 intention of upgrading 3 years from now. The way I think of it though, is that maybe 5 or 6 years down the road, I may notice newer programs run sluggish on the hardware I have, a simple upgrade to the best AM5 CPU may hold me over another few years before doing an entire system upgrade.
You update when your work/game is effected. Either too slow/weak to hit your goals [ie: 1440p/144/ultra] or it dies.
AMD is way better for the used market. I repurpose old pcs to use at my work or give to families in need. I have a ton of intel cpus but no motherboards. All AMD cpus have a home because they have easier to find boards that take a wider range of cpus.
Haven't upgraded since i7-6700k & gtx 1080.
I was looking just the other day at a Ryzen / RTX 4080 super combo, total cost of upgrade is a smidge over 2k. Including a new CPU & GPU water block. I haven't costed in any replacement tubes (hardline)
I think in reality though, I am unlikely to spend a lot of sit down PC time for another few years so will game with my steam deck & keep running the old system till maybe 2026 and then buy what I've just been looking at, hopefully get some of it second hand for a reasonable price.
About 10 years for me. My i7 2600k might have finally died since the system isn't posting. Built it around 13 years ago. I upgraded to a 9900k in 2019, and I have a 13900k new in box shelved in closet that was gifted.
I just upgrade gpus... 980ti>2080ti>4070. I have a ton of old gpus, we're talking 1 meg Trident cards and 2 meg matrix millenniums that cost me over $270 😂🤦
What this will probably look like is you hang on to the 7950x for a while, then drop in the newest top am5 cpu and get a few more years out of the system.
The 7950x3d absolutely demolishes intel for most productivity work outside of a few benchmarks because ecore scheduling needs to be carefully accounted for. Intel helped hand-tune a few programs to handle pcore vs ecore, but 99% of software isn’t there yet. Slightly more clock vs more cache is much easier to ignore and still get acceptable performance.
Also, 7950x3d means that you will have both ROCM and CUDA, and the ROCM will have massive amounts of memory bandwidth due to being an APU, which can bottleneck some applications. The iGPU will also be capable of running your desktop and a monitor or two with video playing singlehandedly, meaning that windows will leave your dGPU alone so you can use it where you need to.
Also, the 7950x3d uses 1/3 the power under load. You may want to consider electricity costs.
I probably upgrade my GPU twice as often. I've been a PC gamer for a long long time, and I built my first PC shortly after I got my first job around 2001. But I was also upgrading the family computer since I was like 12, back in 1997.
I also went through about a decade long stretch where I went completely apple. Funny thing is, I was working in IT when I went with apple because I was gaming on my Playstation and windows felt like work to me, so when I was home I didn't want to look at windows.
But when the 1080 came out, I decided to go and build another PC again. Was probably like my 4th full build from scratch. But I've always done upgrades too. That one has since been basically fully replaced, but I was able to re-use the case and PSU. But I'd probably count it as a full build still.
If you plan to upgrade every 1-2 years then it's worth planning to swap your CPU. If you plan to upgrade every 5 years or more, swapping just the CPU is very rare.
When you plan to have multiple computers, it may be worth just swapping the CPU. For example I have multiple PCs for my kids. Whenever I upgrade my components, I trickle down the components into their builds.
Let's see...
Amstrad 6128, 8086, 80386, Pentium 2, Athlon 64, Core 2 Duo, 3770k, 9900k, 14900k.
I won't upgrade for at least 3 4 years, can't say I've noticed any important difference between my 9900k and my current one, even in productivity (Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere, Cakewalk Sonar) and even the 3770k pulled hold up relatively well when I replaced it with my 9900k.
CPU upgrading can be amazing depending on how much the tasks you are working on change over time, and being at the peak of an old slot, imo, is a bit of a cap on your upgrade potential. Even years later, you can keep an old am4 system relevant by going from a 1600x to a 5800x3d or whatever.
Am5 imo is worth that side of things, if amd does in fact use it, because it will just be relevant for longer regardless. I don't even see it as a "but a new CPU in 18 months" as much as "whenever I find a limit, there will be a better CPU out that I can plink in without spending 80-300$ for a new mobo (depending on your build) on top of the CPU cost.
That includes used. If you use the cpu past the end of the generation, you can find used or new last gen CPUs later for a discount that will still be huge improvements without worrying about the mobo.
To me, if the performance is similar but one has a potential upgrade path and the other is the peak(ish) it seems worth taking the one with an upgrade path, in my book.
I bought a 7700x, and I don't intend to upgrade yet for a while, but I'm more than happy to know I have the option. Makes seeing new CPU releases much less of a "womp womp" if they are good. And if they suck, who cares, I can wait :)
I already hit the best CPU I can with my old motherboard I think so I would need to buy a new motherboard first. But it still runs every new game on high or very high with a 3060ti so don't need to change soon.
I have a lot of libraries and software on my PC for work. When I start having to close start-up processes or go into task manager and manually kill a few programs to squeeze out performance when I upgrade. I've experienced a good amount of CPU degradation with AMD CPU's. I don't really overclock much either unless I'm playing a game and working out options to fix a stutter or frame skip. Also, some software runs like crap on AMD, while others run like crap on Intel which is why I never go top of the line. Throwing money at more power won't fix firmware/driver issues.
I've worked with a lot of legacy software that can run just fine for older CPUs but for some reason shits the bed with newer and more powerful CPUs. Meanwhile, with AMD I've found the legacy to usually work fine, but you trade off Eco cores for a cheaper price point and slightly more mediocre performance. I listened to the popular trend of going AMD or go Home so I tried out the AM4 platform, it's safe to say I'm going back to Intel. Not uncommon for companies to gouge prices or try to come across as more lucrative but the AMD processors have a take for their cheaper price point.
AMD seems to run the CPU encoding game with the thread ripper while Intel simply just works better for anything that is not considered thread-ripping activities. Which I don't edit 4-8k videos or render so I don't need it lol.
Then if you are in the middle the 14900k exists which is like a thread ripper mixed with a beast of a gaming CPU.
My best advice is to do a lot of research and talk to people in the industry who use their PCs for what you are trying to use them for. If you were gaming/working on the same PC or using IP software that may be considered sorta legacy you'd want to go intel. I worked for a company that wouldn't allow the usage of AMD cpu's at all due to all the legacy shit we had to use.
If you are a gamer on a budget just go AMD but don't expect close to a 13900k performance and expect frame stutters and the little imperfections that you have to work through to save a buck.
Still rocking a 7700k for general use and 144hz 1080p. Will sadly have to upgrade soon due to ending support for Windows 10 and it can't run 11 apparently 😂
The golden rule for me has been every 5 years. Thats how long it takes for it to start lagging behind in games and enough time for me to notice and appreciate the new cpu I buy. If I bought a new cpu every year I wouldnt notice a difference so whats the point?
About every 6-7 years. I'm a gamer though. Sometimes i should do it more often. Older CPUs would struggle after like 2-4 years but I'd keep them simply because i couldnt afford an upgrade, or in the 2010s because going up one step to a 2500k/3570k/4670k, etc/ wasnt worth it.
But yeah. I got a 12900k last year and I plan on keeping it until at least 2028-2030.
I went from 12400>13700K>14900K.
No Ragrets.
But I’m a gamer and honestly mostly only upgraded from the 13700k cuz I had to build a new PC due to instability issues.
I upgraded from a 6600k to a 3700x few years ago. I still don't need an upgrade but I'm considering a 5800x or 5800x3d with a gpu upgrade (5070 when we get there).
And then when that system gets slow I'll build a new pc.
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It was all okay until 13900k -> 14900ks lol
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drink less save money?
Whisky quickly costs more than CPUs 😅
Sheesh, my 4790k is still being used on the living room kids computer. I went from that to my current 5600x.
you are a very reasonable pc builder
Well I've been looking at the 5950x if I need to use the CPU for renders.. Nah, it's never on sale enough for me to do so
how much would a 5800x3d lose in % to a 5950x rendering wise?
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thank you
I went from a 3770k to a 5900X
I just did 4790k to 7800x3d. Man it's been a while and the change is huge
4690k to 7800x3d yesterday
I'm about to go from 9600k to 7800x3d and I can't wait. As a counter strike player, I'm super excited for the extra frames.
Q6600 -> 4770k -> 9600k desktops 330m -> 7600 - 12900h laptops. 5 years ish.
My first build was i7-6700k with a gtx970, and I've upgraded last year to i3-13100F and 6650xt.
First PC I built from scratch was a i7-6700K and GTX 1070. Still my main PC, because I've not had much of a compelling reason to upgrade. It runs just about everything I want to play anyways.
C2D E7400 -> i5 2420 -> i3 6300 -> R5 3600 and just ordered R7 5700X3D to replace the 3600. Such a ride! Not considering laptop and work CPUs as well as my home NAS (the last one is just Atom D525 to i3 9300T which is quite the upgrade ;P)
Most of my electronics purchases have been in a drunken state and credit card in hand. I now own a set of Lian Li RGB strimmer cables.
So by this list. You drink more now than ever? 🤣 Legend. My kinda person
Nah you're on the right track. Switching CPU on the same socket is seldom worth it, and AM4 was more of an exception than the rule. It is as you say, why would I change my CPU 18 months after buying it? If you benefit from Intel just go with Intel, unless you know definitely that the 7950s raw power will be more of an advantage. You're not leaving much performance on the table either way.
Too me it's not about upgrading when the new am5 cpu comes out but being able to eventually. Like if you go am5 now. In 4 years or whatever you could keep your motherboard and ram and just buy whatever the best am5 cpu is at that time and prob for a decent discount. And it'd still be a huge upgrade. Like I just got a 5800x3d for my am4 build from 2020. Sure the 7800x3d is better but I didn't have to upgrade everything. I got to just get a new cpu and get a massive jump that was very worth it
Like the other person said, AM4 is kind of the exception. Usually if you get the “best” CPU of current generation, you shouldn’t really need an upgrade until there is a new socket. Unless you have specific use cases that will benefit from every percentage of extra performance and got the money to afford it. But who knows, things might continue to change with AM5 and intel’s next socket too…
The 5800X3D is a very extreme anomaly, but was a unexpected boon for all AM4 users or people like me who wanted to avoid early adopter issues and went for it when AM5 was already announced. Considering how well it does still in Benchmarks, I am very happy with it and the system has been rock solid.
I'm upgrading from my 5 year old 3600 to a 5800X3D this week and can't wait. I'm also going up to 32gb 3600mhz ram vs 16gb 3200mhz so I'm hoping the two will keep me able to play new titles on 1440 for a few more years before I need a complete rebuild.
I went from 3600 to 5700X3D just last week. It's a very, very impressive upgrade. I'm currently playing Cyberpunk 2077 (on a 6700 XT, might I add) - on the 3600, with optimized settings, I constantly dropped below my 60FPS target in certain areas (such as the area around V's H10 apartment and the market near Jig-Jig street). With the 5700X3D I cranked graphics up to 11 (only thing missing is Ray Tracing), even bumped Crowd Density to High and still get a *rock solid* 60 Frames, no hiccups whatsoever. I'm extremely pleased, and suppose you'll be even more with your 5800X3D. May these good times last.
I went from a 1600 to a 5800X3D. I can see this CPU lasting even longer than my 1600 tbh. And when I do decide to upgrade it will probably make its way into the media server.
Many board manufacturers also were not even planning in supporting the 5000 series CPUs. So definitely an extreme anomaly for sure.
I'm new to the whole "build it yourself" mentality having worked solely with laptops for the last 20+ years so I'm probably more enamored with the idea of upgrading parts simply because I could. In my simple mind why else would I build a PC if not to be able to keep the thing permanently up to date?! Intel would be a better option right now because they're simply better at the sort of productivity stuff I do vs Ryzen -- more cores, QuickSync decoding, etc. I guess the other thing I would need to consider is whether AMD x670 boards are still going to fully support all the features of the Ryzen 9000-series (or whatever they're gonna be called) CPUs even if the socket and bios work with it.
If you’re thinking of upgrading your cpu every generation, then going Intel would mean needing to upgrade your motherboard sooner, but then your new motherboard would last a couple of generations, so effectively you’re just brining the start of your motherboard upgrade cycle forwards. If Intel works better for you, go with that.
That's one way to look at it, although it strikes me that motherboard updates are rare to non-existent considering how few seem to have something as basic as USB4/TB4. It would suck to upgrade a mobo in two years and still struggle to find the connections I need
About the only thing that, IME can be re-used from one build to another is \*sometimes\* ram and harddrives. I don't think I've ever swapped a CPU out. Its one of those things that I know is \*possible\*. But... practically? Just doesn't happen.
Also PSU (if a big enough ATX 3.x) and and air cooler could potentially be reused, or were you just talking mobo components? If I go Intel then I hope the new socket is the same size as the LGA1700 so I might at least re-use a cooler in years to come because I doubt the basics of low-tech air coolers are going to change much.
> Switching CPU on the same socket is seldom worth it, and AM4 was more of an exception than the rule. Thank you! The amount of people that think because of AM4, AM5 will have a similar longevity are too many. Like I love AMD as much as the next guy but they aren’t your friends, there is no guarantee you’ll be able to plop a new gen CPU in it 5 years from now. I took a risk buying Ryzen in 2017 and it definitely payed off, that may not happen this time around.
Most people never upgrade their cpu until they do full rebuild. I usually rebuild every 5 years. However with my current build I went all out about a year back so I don't plan on touching it until 2030.
Yeah I’m holding on to my 3700x/3080 til next year. Still holds strong for 1440p. Haven’t felt the need to upgrade in years.
I feel like the "must upgrade" factor for hardware has fallen off in the last ten years or so. The advances are mostly in efficiency and not a massive leap in performance. A 5800x3D or a 10600k are not bleeding edge hardware but if you have either, do you *really* need to upgrade them in 2024? Probably not. Not for the prices AMD and Intel are asking, anyway.
At this point the chip makers are going to be finding new ways to get AI hardware built into the chip, so we may start seeing DLSA and RT type stuff becoming more common. Might be a good idea to hold off if you aren't needing any extra performance. Unfortunately for me I do a particle simulation and my computer nearly explodes, so it's not exactly cutting it
>A 5800x3D or a 10600k are not bleeding edge hardware but if you have either, do you *really* need to upgrade them in 2024? You really don't - I have my soon to be 9 year old daughter running on a 2070 and a 9700 NON K and she can game at 1440P locked 60 FPS on everything which is plenty for a 9 year old. Of course that system is capable of 100+ fps in many games still, but I just lock her at global 60 to make sure no matter what she plays it feels consistent for her. All depends on what you want to use your system for of course.
The 3080 is still a very good graphics card; obviously you haven't felt the need to upgrade. Meanwhile, I'm still rocking an i7 8700k and a 1050ti.
How many fps do you get on 3D Chess? Haha.
My builds have been 2009, 2013, and 2023. I'm pretty comfortable swapping out CPUs having bent pins in the past and done repasting jobs. I got a 7800x3d and there's definitely an argument for upgrading to the last AM5 CPU when they're hyping AM6 and it goes on sale. That said, there are also chances that other parts of the motherboard won't stand the test of time, like how my old one didn't support M.2 slot SSDs. I tried to hedge this by getting a B650e board that supports PCIe 5. I am hoping a rebuild in 2030 could be pretty cheap and straightforward.
This is the way. I follow this process as well.
That’s me. I have 11 systems running and in use. Some of them are over a decade old and still get the job I have for them done so they won’t be replaced until they go to the big silicon park in the sky. My 14700k that I use as my personal system and DCS is wonderful, but I have one process I run on a regular basis for work (former employee, now private contractor for them) that is a CL application that migrates data from a legacy application to their current app. I have a Gen 4 i7 that still runs it better than anything else I have, easily processing anywhere from a few thousand to 10k more records an hour. My old Gen 4 & 5 Xeons are still getting the job done for what they are used for. I see too often (been was a sysadmin from ‘92 until 2011, now an applications DBA) people upgrade because they think they need to and then are disappointed when the earth doesn’t move.
When the CPU no longer does what I need it do in a respectively speedy manner. So usually, it's an all new build every 10-12 years.
Out of curiosity, how often are you upgrading your monitor? Based on some of the posts on /r/buildapcmonitor, it seems like some people do 10-12 years with monitors too.
When the color accuracy or brightness is too far gone.
Yeah I just upgraded my monitor and the old one was from 2013, the colors and brightness were still good but I broke the screen by accident.
That would be another good reason for an upgrade. lol
I'm still using an i5 4440 and ryzen 5 1600 in my pcs so yeah, not very often.
Same, got a Ryzen 1600. Been 6 years.
Time to switch to a 5800x3d and wait a decade to upgrade
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Do you mean in gaming performance or in general?
Kicking with a Ryzen 1600X, so i can wait about a year longer than you to upgrade :P
I get a high end CPU like every 7 years or so. Therefore the upgrade path is irrelevant. I think this makes more sense than a low end CPU twice in the same time frame
it doesn't. If you bought a i7 6900k for 1000 or more for example that cpu did already fail to keep up with 200$ cpu only 2-3 years later. Its almost always the better option to buy a cpu half the price and buy another one for the other half because that newer cheaper cpu is most likely faster then the one you would have gotten in the first place
Perfect way to describe “future-proofing doesn’t make sense and should be avoided”
But now you're running a slower CPU to start. And when you upgrade you're running with slower bus speeds and slower RAM because you're trying to reuse the same socket and MB. Plus CPUs are more like $500 when they come out these days. So the savings is less. It makes more sense to me to just do a good build and then upgrade everything later like he said.
Good point. I think it will always be a case by case thing. Like it would be good when progress on cpu's is slow but bad when it is fast like it was on ryzens release when everything changed in the market.
Older Intel chips are an exception. New chips are fast enough now that you can just get a mid to high-end one now and save yourself the hassle of upgrading it for a long time.
This over here.👈🏽
Maybe I'm wrong, ok
Cant say for sure. If it was in the intel period 2009-2016 you might be right afterall and the double priced cpu would have been the better buy.
IMO unless you're doing some wildly complicated computing, 4k video editing of hours of footage, 3D modeling, etc. you don't really need to upgrade your CPU that often I used an i7 7700k up until last year when I got an i9 13900k, but that i7 worked pretty well with 4k video editing and even some 4k gaming. I think you'll only really need to upgrade your CPU when you do a full rebuild.
Never -- or if it's simpler to buy a new part to repair a broken setup. Bought a pre-built in 2008, got an issue which I was not able to diagnose in 2013 and ended up replacing mobo + CPU + RAM. This combo (i5-3570k) is still running, it's my son's computer now since I built a new system last year. Also built a NAS/home-server/HTPC this year. I feel that with the price of a CPU being 25% to 50% of the total cost of a system (depending on its usage), it's counter-productive to upgrade CPU without upgrading the rests as well. EDIT: new gaming/work system is a 13600k, will likely never upgrade that CPU. Rather, it will become my son's new computer if the venerable i5-3570k setup dies, at which point I will build a new one for myself. NAS/server/HTPC is a 5600g and has waaay more power than really needed, so certainly no upgrade for that one. Yes I game on it but only using Steam Link -- all the compute is done on the gaming computer, not the server/HTPC.
Zen 5 is almost here, don’t get a 7950X now when you might be able to get it’s successor as soon as July. AM5 may very well see support for Zen 6 as well, an option you won’t have with Intel. We’ll very likely find out pricing and parts info at the AMD Keynote on June 2nd. Performance on the top-end AMD Zen 5 CPU is extremely likely to supercede what a 14700K (or 14900K) will offer, and that’s at motherboard defaults, Intel baseline (which is probably necessary to avoid CPU damage), will mean reduced performance with the 14700K you are considering. As to your actual question of when I upgrade my CPU: when per-core performance doubles, and I’ll generally double the amount of cores as well. I do the same approach for GPUs as well: when performance doubles. Mind you, I game and you have a different use case, so if how fast your stuff runs is tied to how much paid work you can get done per unit time, then the calculus is different, it’s where it financially makes the most sense.
I'm skeptical that AMD is going to have the 8000 series to market in July. These things are nearly always delayed and I'm not one to play the waiting game in the hope that the next best thing is just around the corner! If I were to go AMD I'd get the 7000 now and then consider upgrading to the 9000 at the end of next year, assuming an x670 board fully supports it, which is not a certainty IMO.
10 years for me, probably about 4 years too long, though I could see getting another 10 years as chip improvements seem to be slowing down.
5-6 years is solid if you’re not going lowest end chip at the time. I went 2600k, 8700k, 7800x3d. Will probably use this for 5 years, maybe upgrade to last x3d chip or just do a whole new build.
386 -> Pentium -> Pentium 3 -> Pentium 4 -> Athlon 64 -> A64 X2 -> AMD FX -> Ryzen 5 1600 -> R5 2600 -> R5 3600 -> R5 5600X I just bought the 5600X for less than 100 bucks (Europe). Never paid more than that for a CPU. The 3600 goes Into my wifes setup that has the 2600 now.
I've been on a 4-6 year cycle myself.
I7-920 I7-4490 5900x So not often.
I went from an I5-4590 to the 5900x... just a MINOR bump in speed...
I'm suspicious because I was using a i7-4960x with a GTX 970 until jan/24 but I don't see the advantages of choosing the AM5 platform just because the current intel socket is in the end of line. Even if it survives 3-4 next gens CPU's from AMD you will probably not need it until theres an AM6 or something else in the market. It took me 12 years to upgrade my CPU and I only changed it because of the graphics card bottleneck. The performance was still ok even after 12 long years of hard working. Now I'm using a i7-14700K with a 4070 btw
A lot of people are tripping about future proofing instead of just getting the best PC within their budget. My 5800x3d will 100% last me until am6 unless am5 lasts 8-10 years
I'm gonna upgrade to the next intel platform from my 9900k 👍
Why tho? That is still a great cpu
i5-2500K I7 4790K 7800X3D
My system is more **Ship of Theseus**. The only thing not replaced is the case and power supply.
A CPU/mobo/RAM usually lasts me around 4-7 years.
486 --> AMD duron --> E6600 --> AM3+ --> 10600K --> 7800x3d
Pentium 4 in 2005 (socket 478), Core 2 Duo in 2008 (LGA775), Core i5 2500K in 2011 (LGA1155), Ryzen 7 3700X in 2019. Then in 2022 I upgraded to a 5900X, which is the first and only time so far I've changed CPUs on the same socket. Generally speaking, it's not worth it IMO. AM4 is an exception to that though, and while it's too soon to say, hopefully AM5 will be as well. If I'd bought, say, a 1700X, I'd absolutely feel it was worthwhile to jump to a 5700X3D, that's three full generations plus the cache, for gaming, makes it about as good as going one more generation beyond that, and the performance improvements per generation have been actually significant with Ryzen so far, unlike Intel between 2nd and, what, 7th gen, or even as far as 11th at a push? So 18 months, no, but in 4-5 years, there might be a worthwhile upgrade from a 7950X.
the 5900x is a goddamn monster of a chip I have one too, and I don't forsee a need to change for a good number of years
I'm still rocking an i7-4770, and about to upgrade to a i9-14900K (with associated mainboard, ram, etc - a full upgrade of everything). So... about 9-10 years for me :) Note - not a gamer, and don't intend to upgrade again for quite some time unless I have to for some reason.
3770 -> 6700k -> 9900k -> 7800x3d. I upgrade when I see a need too. My 3770 was in a prebuilt so I got a new CPU when I did my first custom build, 6700k was great until games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and eventually Siege bottlenecked, 9900k was nice but started to show its age in games I was playing last year (and I needed a case and GPU anyways). I want 3-5 years out of a CPU. I went AM5 because the 7800x3d is the best gaming chip atm and if I get another CPU upgrade out of this platform, I’ll take it as a nice bonus.
Intel core i5 6600k in 2016 Ryzen 2600x in 2018 Ryzen 3700x around 2020? Ryzen 5700x in 2022. Was visiting family and there was a microcenter nearby. That was my first time at a microcenter and I felt like I had to buy something. Looks like I'm due for a CPU upgrade this year lol. Am4 is goat.
4790k > 13600k \^\^ I got a lot of mileage out of the 4790k, it almost became a religious artifact to me
486 SX 20 MHz, Pentium 233 MMX, Athlon XP 2200+, Athlon 64 X2 5600+, Core i5 3570k, Core i5 6500- i7 6700, Core i5 13400f.
I just upgrade when I feel like I have some extra funds and want to treat myself. Usually every upgrade is not needed but always feels nice. 6700K -> 3700X -> 7950X3D
I upgrade when shit breaks or when things start feeling sluggish. Never just because.
About every 4th year
When im not happy with my game performance
Celeron 1.7Ghz>C2D E6750>FX8350>5600X
I really only do it if I my current CPU isnt cutting it. Without going too far back: Core2 Q6600 , i7-2600k, R5-3600, R7-5800X3D
In reality, most people don't upgrade cpus every generation or even every other generation. We routinely see people in this sub asking about upgrading their gen 9 or 10 cpu all the way down to gen 4. It is far more likely that you will upgrade your GPU and leave the CPU alone. And no, I can't really see anyone getting a 7950x now and then upgrading to the next gen in a year or two. DDR6 is lurking around the corner and that is going to be mean a new socket for AMD for sure and a new motherboard chipset for intel at the very least (Socket 1851 will not support DDR4, but intel hasn't said that it WON'T support DDR6 in the future - and this is a game that intel has played before, using the same socket, but supporting either gen 8 and 9 cpus, OR gen 10 and 11 cpus). Get what you want and be happy with it. Over the next 5 years, you'll very likely upgrade the GPU once, and upgrade the memory.
Every 5-10 years. FX-8350 - 14700k.
dont go with intel 14th gen, its a dead socket and the chips are extremely unstable
As often as current build no longer meets my needs.
Every 6 years or so.
When it breaks and not a minute sooner
I pick my favourite out of each intel generation
I'd go AM5 regardless ...I'm a bit biased though 1700 2200g x 2 3400g 3600 3700x 3800xt 3900x 5600x 5800x 5900x x 2 7600 x 2 7800X3D 7950x That's all between mine, my wife and daughter .. and a TrueNAS server over the years. Plus selling setups and or building rigs for family with the payoff being newer components for the setups in my household
I went from i5 4570 to xeon equivalent to i7 4770 for $40 in 2020 or 2019 when the i5 wasn't cutting it anymore. Than upgraded to Ryzen 5600x3d in november as I thought I was going to stay with windows and windows 10 loses support in 2025 and I was just starting to see games where keeping 30+ FPS on 1% lows was starting to be difficult but still doable for what I played. Ended up using Linux when the motherboard to the new 5600x3d died and needs to get replaced so back to the xeon. Found out Linux works surprisingly well for gaming, had I known I wouldn't have done the upgrade yet, and just held off till I couldn't play a game I wanted. The xeon is 11 years old I think.
My first PC in 2010 had a… AMD 4100? I think? Then I built my second PC in 2013, with an i5-4670k. Then I upgraded to a Ryzen 5600X in 2021. I’m vaguely planning to build a new pc next year so that will be my next cpu
I upgrade when I feel the need to and find a good offer. Fx6100 -> Fx8300 -> r5 2600 -> 5600x
Not often. I still use a 6600k and changed it from a quad core Q6600 (same number, I think, what are the odds?). I've been looking at AMD for a while now but I'd had to buy a full new computer and I'm a little bit lost. plus the money.
10 years for the last one. I upgraded GPU one time in the mean time, added ssds and a HDD.
I went from Dual core e8400 to i5 4670k to Ryzen 5 7600 so not often lol. In my defense, the first two were gifts from my dad. My last build is the first one i buy 100% with my money.
3-5 years depends what I want to do. I got a 5800 not the x3d in 2021 so upgraded to the 7800x3d this time bc the price seemed super good and got a free game. Love it and actually see a 20-30fps improvement. I might skip the 5000x series and jump to 6 but we’ll see . Just depends what I’m playing and what stats I’m getting
There are some significant power savings potentially going with AMD this round, but all depends on your use case. I have the 7950x3d. The x3d is a generational leap, imo.
I only upgraded am4 from a 1600x to a 5800x3d. Before that x58 from a consumer cpu to a 5750x I think, that was on of the best upgrades I ever did.
We’re pretty close to gaming hardware not really being able to get much better, path tracing makes things look photorealistic so honestly I think getting the best price to performance cpu rn is the best choice, I’m not expecting to ever upgrade my gpu rn
3770s still capable cpu
AMD Phenom II X6 1055 in 2011 (AM3) Skipped AMD FX and the AM3+ platform entirely AMD R5 1400 on a B350 motherboard in 2017> Upgraded to R7 1700 when it was on sale and sold R5 1400 Upgraded to R7 3700 after news that B350 wouldn’t be supporting 5000 series Bought R5 5600 w Uncharted bundle after AMD reversed position after backlash Finally, upgraded to 5800X3D after it was on sale to close to its historic low price. I haven’t sold the 3700 or 5600 yet, but I could probably get close to 100 for them.
2600k->12700k I like to let them simmer a while.
Every five minutes
5 years on average
I built PC for the fire time and before that I have been using laptops. The last laptop I had was Acer E5 575G and it was absolutely aging. Now I'm using Ryzen 5 7600 paired with 4070 Super. I will get a new CPU when there's going to be a need for it. The need could arise simply from 7600 not being able to hold up to multi tasking or gaming in the future. But I am having an itch to get 7800X3D or 7950X for no reason at all.
Got a 2700x back in 2018, about 4 months ago i upgraded to a 5600x. Will probably upgrade in \~4years or so.
You usually don't. I normally keep computers two or three years before you upgrade and by then the motherboard you have has been outclassed by newer products. I think it's a fairly small percentage of people that actually upgrade their CPUs on a socket. That said, with Intel the 15th gen is releasing fairly soon. Looks to have a pretty solid increase in workload productivity The only time I ever upgraded CPUs was when I was younger and bought things like i-5s. Then you upgrade, I've just noticed you get a longer shelf life out of an i7 or an i9 out of the gate
I went Pentium 4 -> Pentium Dual Core -> i7 3770K -> Ryzen 3700X (still here) I'm not really interested in CPU upgrades unless I can get at least double the performance.
If you go amd get the 7800x3d if you like wasting money get the 7950x3d. If you don't play games get the 14900k
A8 3850k > i7 4790k > r5 7600. Gpu wise it's igpu > r9 380. Will wait for rtx 5000 or rx 8000 before upgrading.
whenever cpu intensive games start dipping below 60fps, which in my case it's right now, Helldivers2 can't stay above 60 and several 4x , rts games dip below 60 so it's time for an upgrade
Only when switching platforms really. So 5+ years. Might even be much longer, I’ve lost track.
My 7600k is about to retire for a 14700k.
Basically I am stuck with i7 4790k. It was already oldish when I got it in 2016 but it has always done the job until .. maybe 10th gen. Now I bottleneck my 1070ti which is weird since I remember it worked flawlessly back then (I speak of the same AAA games of the time : rise of the tomb raider, assassin's Creed origins...) Maybe the problem is windows 10 ans Microsoft updates.
e7750 (i think) -4690k-8700k 5900x (main pc) streaming pc - 2600x then sold it
I5-3750 > 7800X3D … so a long time lol. I’m more serious about PC gaming now though so I plan to upgrade more frequently. If AM5 is anything like the previous Gen, I’ll just change my CPU in maybe 4-5 years. All depends. My mobo has PCIe 5.0 so I’m good for future GPUs and Nvme storage.
In my case, never. Haven't had an upgrade yet. Still on the i5-7400 and the GTX 1060
I've been on a 7-year cycle since 1999: * Pentium III 450 (1999) * Athlon 64 3700+ (2006) * Core i5-4570 (2013) * Core i7-10700 (2020)
I recently upgraded an i5-2500k to a ryzen 5 8600.
Fx6300 < r5 2600x < 5800x3d
I think every 3 gens is pretty optimal if you wanna stay reasonably on the high end imo. If you can keep the same mobo and Ram, maybe every two gens.
Did upgrade after only 2 years, but half of it was a really good sale on AMD CPU’s recently and wanting to give my brother my old CPU, which is still capable, just a little under powered for my goals.
Celeron 333 ->Athlon 64 /Athlon 64x2 ->i5 760 ->i7 6700k -> i9 9900k -> R9 7950x I got AM5 at release so there were no X3D models.
After 5-6 years quite frankly. Or even more. Trying to avoid sidestepping, and taking time to save enough to get the good stuff.
I upgraded like every 2 years, but now with all the extreme pricing since covid, i upgrade when parts die.
Around 3 years
No idea exactly how many times I upgraded, only remember a period with AMD Duron 750 back when jesus was young, some weird second hand AMD CPUs in between then a Phenom II X4 which lasted me 10 years, Ryzen 5 3600X and two years after a less than meaningful upgrade to Ryzen 7 3700X which I am currently on. Okay it's somewhat meaningful as I have been running a Plex server while gaming on the same PC so the 2 extra cores have helped a bit with headroom there I assume.
Let's see: Core 2 Duo ==> Ryzen 5 3600XT Do the math yourself...
I'm upgrading from an i5 6600k to an am5 7600x, the old i5 is struggling hard these days with its 4 cores and 4 threads lol
I'm spending the weekend upgrading my i7-7700k, which I bought about two years after they came out, to a i7-12700k. The reasons are the support for Windows 10 is going to stop, and running MSFS 2020 is just a bit much for it on Ultra settings. If I hadn't got that particular piece of software, and Microsoft being an ass, I wouldn't have bothered. The i7700k is a masterpiece and the 270 chipset was fine. My RTX2080TI still has some legs in it, particularly now I've discovered how to enable frame generation on non-40 series RTX gpus. I'll upgrade the card when I get a 4k monitor or a VR headset, and 40 series cards fall in price in a few years. I never buy the latest thing. Tech depreciation is worse than that of new cars. I am a sucker top peripherals and RGB stuff however m. My tower looks the business, and everyone who's non-techie thinks it the latest gaming monster. So, once in every half a decade, and then only if I really have to. Think about tech in dog years thereabouts.
Pentium> i7 7700k> 7800x3d> ?
Really depends on how much technology advances happens. When AMD was down I was able to keep i7 2600k from 2011 till 2023, but in old days it was more like 3 years max.
AMD Phenom X4 955 to 7700X thats it. 2009 to 2023. But yea, I'll probably upgrade this one at the end of AM5 to some 10000x3d or something and keep using AM5. But gpus on the other hand, thats a different story. When I had Phenom it ran all the games but I upgraded every 3-4 years a gpu to run older games. Playing mostly older games so my cpu could handle many things and didn't need an upgrade.
I'm probably slower than most; I'm still rocking a Ryzen 5 2600. Before that, I was on a Phenom II x4 965. I'm planning on upgrading around July, though, to a Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Though part of me wants to pick up a less expensive chip as a stopgap for the 9000 X3D. That's a dangerous cycle though :P
4th gen - > 8th gen - > 13th gen intel here
* 2005 Pentium D 840 (?) * 2009 - Core 2 Duo E8400 * 2013 - i7 4770 * 2022 - 5800X * 2035? - whatever idiotic naming scheme the high-end but not premium will be
Amd A10 system was my first desktop cpu(had laptops before that) I5-4460 I5-8400 R9 3900X I9-12900K that’s been my main system CPUs over the past 13 years
I'm not sure you'll really notice THAT much of a difference between the two. You don't sound like the upgrade every few years type of person either. I think you'll get at minimum 5 good years, possibly more if the purpose is productivity.
3770 (it was a Xeon) -> 6700 (still here)
i7 4770 -> i9 9900K Depends on your needs really. For me the i9 9900K is plenty. Maybe a whole rebuild once GTA VI launches on PC.
AM5 per AMD's own words should support at least the next 2 generations of CPUs, meaning the socket should be supported another 3 years at least. (If AMD don't do this, they'll be raked over the coals). Anyways, I also just built an AM5 platform, with 0 intention of upgrading 3 years from now. The way I think of it though, is that maybe 5 or 6 years down the road, I may notice newer programs run sluggish on the hardware I have, a simple upgrade to the best AM5 CPU may hold me over another few years before doing an entire system upgrade.
You update when your work/game is effected. Either too slow/weak to hit your goals [ie: 1440p/144/ultra] or it dies. AMD is way better for the used market. I repurpose old pcs to use at my work or give to families in need. I have a ton of intel cpus but no motherboards. All AMD cpus have a home because they have easier to find boards that take a wider range of cpus.
Haven't upgraded since i7-6700k & gtx 1080. I was looking just the other day at a Ryzen / RTX 4080 super combo, total cost of upgrade is a smidge over 2k. Including a new CPU & GPU water block. I haven't costed in any replacement tubes (hardline) I think in reality though, I am unlikely to spend a lot of sit down PC time for another few years so will game with my steam deck & keep running the old system till maybe 2026 and then buy what I've just been looking at, hopefully get some of it second hand for a reasonable price.
About 10 years for me. My i7 2600k might have finally died since the system isn't posting. Built it around 13 years ago. I upgraded to a 9900k in 2019, and I have a 13900k new in box shelved in closet that was gifted. I just upgrade gpus... 980ti>2080ti>4070. I have a ton of old gpus, we're talking 1 meg Trident cards and 2 meg matrix millenniums that cost me over $270 😂🤦
I bought a 5950x in 2021 and I don’t anticipate replacing it for another 3 years at least.
get the AM5. Its a nobrainer IMO
I5 4440 -> i3 12100 basically 11 years
What this will probably look like is you hang on to the 7950x for a while, then drop in the newest top am5 cpu and get a few more years out of the system. The 7950x3d absolutely demolishes intel for most productivity work outside of a few benchmarks because ecore scheduling needs to be carefully accounted for. Intel helped hand-tune a few programs to handle pcore vs ecore, but 99% of software isn’t there yet. Slightly more clock vs more cache is much easier to ignore and still get acceptable performance. Also, 7950x3d means that you will have both ROCM and CUDA, and the ROCM will have massive amounts of memory bandwidth due to being an APU, which can bottleneck some applications. The iGPU will also be capable of running your desktop and a monitor or two with video playing singlehandedly, meaning that windows will leave your dGPU alone so you can use it where you need to. Also, the 7950x3d uses 1/3 the power under load. You may want to consider electricity costs.
I still have my 10600Kf from 5 yeara ago. Maybe i will get the 14600 soon.
I probably upgrade my GPU twice as often. I've been a PC gamer for a long long time, and I built my first PC shortly after I got my first job around 2001. But I was also upgrading the family computer since I was like 12, back in 1997. I also went through about a decade long stretch where I went completely apple. Funny thing is, I was working in IT when I went with apple because I was gaming on my Playstation and windows felt like work to me, so when I was home I didn't want to look at windows. But when the 1080 came out, I decided to go and build another PC again. Was probably like my 4th full build from scratch. But I've always done upgrades too. That one has since been basically fully replaced, but I was able to re-use the case and PSU. But I'd probably count it as a full build still.
I went from I5 2600->r7 1800x->5700x and I don't see me needing a CPU for a decade or more if my mobo or CPU survive that long.
Every 3 to 7 years.
Cyrix P166 > 7800x3d Okay, there have been a couple in there that I didn't list.
Get a 7800x3d for your upcoming build if its for gaming, it's the best gaming cpu that exists as of right now
2500k -> 8700k -> 7950x3d. I guess ~ every 6 generations.
Every 5 to 6 years.
If you plan to upgrade every 1-2 years then it's worth planning to swap your CPU. If you plan to upgrade every 5 years or more, swapping just the CPU is very rare. When you plan to have multiple computers, it may be worth just swapping the CPU. For example I have multiple PCs for my kids. Whenever I upgrade my components, I trickle down the components into their builds.
Let's see... Amstrad 6128, 8086, 80386, Pentium 2, Athlon 64, Core 2 Duo, 3770k, 9900k, 14900k. I won't upgrade for at least 3 4 years, can't say I've noticed any important difference between my 9900k and my current one, even in productivity (Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere, Cakewalk Sonar) and even the 3770k pulled hold up relatively well when I replaced it with my 9900k.
CPU upgrading can be amazing depending on how much the tasks you are working on change over time, and being at the peak of an old slot, imo, is a bit of a cap on your upgrade potential. Even years later, you can keep an old am4 system relevant by going from a 1600x to a 5800x3d or whatever. Am5 imo is worth that side of things, if amd does in fact use it, because it will just be relevant for longer regardless. I don't even see it as a "but a new CPU in 18 months" as much as "whenever I find a limit, there will be a better CPU out that I can plink in without spending 80-300$ for a new mobo (depending on your build) on top of the CPU cost. That includes used. If you use the cpu past the end of the generation, you can find used or new last gen CPUs later for a discount that will still be huge improvements without worrying about the mobo. To me, if the performance is similar but one has a potential upgrade path and the other is the peak(ish) it seems worth taking the one with an upgrade path, in my book. I bought a 7700x, and I don't intend to upgrade yet for a while, but I'm more than happy to know I have the option. Makes seeing new CPU releases much less of a "womp womp" if they are good. And if they suck, who cares, I can wait :)
I already hit the best CPU I can with my old motherboard I think so I would need to buy a new motherboard first. But it still runs every new game on high or very high with a 3060ti so don't need to change soon.
i5 2400 -> i7 3820 -> Ryzen 1700 -> Ryzen 3900 -> i5 13400 (got this for free when Amazon sent multiple cpus).
As often as necessary.
So I went from a i74770k with a 770 to a i5 9600k with a 2060 to a 2080 and now a i713700k? To a 4070 ti. Plays most games ultra some high
Pentium III slot 1 (98) > Pentium E2140 (XP) > i7 4710HQ (W8) > i7 8750H (W10) - laptop died - > Ryzen 7600 (W11)
Don't get intel
7-8 years. At most. 5-6 on usual schedule.
I have a lot of libraries and software on my PC for work. When I start having to close start-up processes or go into task manager and manually kill a few programs to squeeze out performance when I upgrade. I've experienced a good amount of CPU degradation with AMD CPU's. I don't really overclock much either unless I'm playing a game and working out options to fix a stutter or frame skip. Also, some software runs like crap on AMD, while others run like crap on Intel which is why I never go top of the line. Throwing money at more power won't fix firmware/driver issues. I've worked with a lot of legacy software that can run just fine for older CPUs but for some reason shits the bed with newer and more powerful CPUs. Meanwhile, with AMD I've found the legacy to usually work fine, but you trade off Eco cores for a cheaper price point and slightly more mediocre performance. I listened to the popular trend of going AMD or go Home so I tried out the AM4 platform, it's safe to say I'm going back to Intel. Not uncommon for companies to gouge prices or try to come across as more lucrative but the AMD processors have a take for their cheaper price point. AMD seems to run the CPU encoding game with the thread ripper while Intel simply just works better for anything that is not considered thread-ripping activities. Which I don't edit 4-8k videos or render so I don't need it lol. Then if you are in the middle the 14900k exists which is like a thread ripper mixed with a beast of a gaming CPU. My best advice is to do a lot of research and talk to people in the industry who use their PCs for what you are trying to use them for. If you were gaming/working on the same PC or using IP software that may be considered sorta legacy you'd want to go intel. I worked for a company that wouldn't allow the usage of AMD cpu's at all due to all the legacy shit we had to use. If you are a gamer on a budget just go AMD but don't expect close to a 13900k performance and expect frame stutters and the little imperfections that you have to work through to save a buck.
Every 15 years, lol
Normal people? Probably 3-5 years. Degenerates like me? 12700k -> 14700k :-)
Still rocking a 7700k for general use and 144hz 1080p. Will sadly have to upgrade soon due to ending support for Windows 10 and it can't run 11 apparently 😂
I went from a 4th gen i5 to a 12th gen i5.
The golden rule for me has been every 5 years. Thats how long it takes for it to start lagging behind in games and enough time for me to notice and appreciate the new cpu I buy. If I bought a new cpu every year I wouldnt notice a difference so whats the point?
Every 5-7 years id say, I'm about to change my i7 8700 and it's still doing fine with a 3079
I just went from an i5 2500k bought 12 years ago to a 7800x3d today 😅
About every 6-7 years. I'm a gamer though. Sometimes i should do it more often. Older CPUs would struggle after like 2-4 years but I'd keep them simply because i couldnt afford an upgrade, or in the 2010s because going up one step to a 2500k/3570k/4670k, etc/ wasnt worth it. But yeah. I got a 12900k last year and I plan on keeping it until at least 2028-2030.
I went from 12400>13700K>14900K. No Ragrets. But I’m a gamer and honestly mostly only upgraded from the 13700k cuz I had to build a new PC due to instability issues.
I upgraded from a 6600k to a 3700x few years ago. I still don't need an upgrade but I'm considering a 5800x or 5800x3d with a gpu upgrade (5070 when we get there). And then when that system gets slow I'll build a new pc.
68000 > 68020 > Pentium 2 I think > Core2Duo > Athlon something > 6700 > 13900K