After how many CPU generations do you typically upgrade?

Similar story...
I was holding out for a DDR5 build next cos my 6700K was still doing well enough.
Then due to a lack of 3080s in shops was forced to buy a 3090, but it wouldnt work in my 6700K system (Maximus VIII Hero, 4x4GB Corsair LPX, Seasonic Prime UIltra Titanium 750W).
On power up it gave an error code related to a memory problem and it would never post, no matter what was tried.
The problem wasnt memory related, its still working fine in the same system +1080ti as I type this.
So I built a gaming only machine for the 3090 with a 10700K CPU and faster ram.
The ram from my 6700K system works fine in that machine, I never did suss why my old machine doesnt like the 3090.
But damn, 6 months+ too early for the new machine!

 

Yeah, a bit annoying because same as you, I had zero complaints about the gaming performance of the 7700k (let's be honest, pretty much the same CPU as the 6700k). I game at 5120x1440 so CPU is almost never the bottleneck. But, unfortunately I had to pull the trigger. I went with AMD this time. Because I felt like why the hell not. Also, some people portrait me as an Intel shill so I thought I'd throw a curve ball.

Still, I wish I could've held out for another few months and gone with a next gen CPU with DDR5. If those turn out to be game breakers, I'll still upgrade. Maybe they won't be that much of a big deal for gaming.

 

I’ll say lol — that’s mammoth as you say

 

The system will still post with the R5 1600AE installed, it's just unstable. The memory controller appears to be damaged.

Try being in my boat..... I play only a handful of games. Mostly older games. I could upgrade every generation if I wasn't too lazy to. Most of the time, I look at new hardware, pick out the new bits...then empty my cart because I remember that the games I play don't need anything better than what I have and I'm really too lazy to replace hardware that does it's job spectacularly.... Most of my games I'm already running in excess of 200fps if I disable Radeon Chill.... I don't have a reason to upgrade anything (except the motherboard cuz it's having USB issues now) until Diablo4 launches.....and at that point, I should be able to get by with an R5 5600X without buying a new graphics card.

Btw, I never thought you were an Intel shill...... I've been accused of being an AMD shill.....and I'm looking at going all Intel for my next build....lol (yes, even an Intel graphics card if they can work out the driver issues by then)

 

I feel you brother.

It's fun to mix it up. Hence why I went with AMD this time. Maybe I should've just stuck with Intel, as all I use my rig for is gaming, when it comes to loading the CPU. I would've saved some cash and have same of not slightly better performance. But hey...

Same as you, I never felt like I needed to upgrade my CPU.

Hey, see you in Diablo 2 Resurrected. And then in D4. Can't wait for those games to come out. 16 threads (5800x) to play Diablo 2 remaster. Jokes.

 

Prebuilds are odd because some of them are “cheap” but have a lot of known quality control issues or skimp you on certain parts like cooling, a crappy mobo, slow ram that sorta thing.

Meanwhile you have the prebuilders who overcharge but some of them have a better reputation for customer support and build quality like MainGear from what I gather. In the Linus blind test they were the only one in the batch who didn’t have some glaring issue wrong with their prebuilt after it shipped.

5950X is a pain in the butt to keep cool from what I’ve read, but assuming one has an appropriate thermal solution for all those cores and threads, it’s basically the best consumer CPU available right now from what I gather. Just my experience perhaps but I’ve found many of these high end modern CPUs are rather difficult to keep at cool temps.

 

I already pre-ordered D2:Resurrected....lol Seen a few gameplay videos for it and I'm excited for the graphical update. Would be nice if they'd do the original Diablo as well. Then maybe I could finally play through it. Diablo4 will definitely be my next game purchase. I'm still undecided on Dragon Age 4 since I didn't like Inquisition at all but that game has been in development for so long, I don't have much hope for an actual release.

The last Intel system I built was the i5 6600K system that my son is currently using. That was initially built back in 2015. Only things missing are the case, PSU and GTX970 from 2015....lol It was replaced in 2017 by an R5 1600. For some reason, I've been called an AMD shill ever since.....not sure why though as I've owned far more Intel processors.... Looking to start out with DDR5 on an Intel system, just like I did DDR4. I just like to change things up when it makes sense to do so. As they say "variety is the spice of life".....

"Best" is relative.... For most consumers, the 5600X is actually the better option.

 

Hmm, don’t think my memory goes that far back

Current

• 2020 3960x AMD Threadripper 24 core 128 gb ram
• 2010 2x x5650 INTEL Xeon 12 core 48-96gb RAM

History

• 2006 INTEL QX something extreme quad core 8gb ram
• 2005 2x AMD Opteron 260 4 Core 8 gb RAM
• Had something in between - don’t remember
• 1997 Toshiba pentium Laptop 4mb RAM
• 1994 Pentium 75 - 133 - 8mb ram
• 1992 Compaq 386SX25 Laptop

Pre-historical my dad’s computers

• 1977 ABC Luxor Dual 5 1/4 Floppy
• PET not sure what year
• Sinclair ZX

 

Although I would see a definite noticible improvement if I upgraded my core parts (mobo/ram/cpu) as well as my gpu, I haven't made it a priority yet to do so, especially the gpu. Never since I started putting my pc's together (amd k6-2/geforce 4 mx440 era) has there been a time where I would go to the store and there were no video cards available. Anyways, I'm still running an FX-8320 with 32gb ddr3 and a gtx 970 and I can do a/v editing and gaming fine for the most part. I have run into a few games where I had trouble right off the bat (Detroit: Becoming Human), but then there's games like Doom Eternal which I can play on High settings @ 60+fps. So there can be quite a range of time that would satisfy the answer the OP, all depending on each person's preference/desires/budget. Do I need to upgrade a pc that has hardware ranging from 2012-2014? Of course not. Would it benefit me if I did upgrade? You betcha, but mostly just in the widening my options of what games I can play and/or at higher settings.

 

I think it very much depends on what you use your computer.

I was working for an extended time as a photo retoucher and was also photographing myself for work. So I had a specific need and built to accommodate that need.
My last build was at the beginning of COVID and I thought I would get involved in 3D rendering and drawing, but my job changed. So my last build is currently an overkill for what I use it for.

I could imagine that if one were into playing various games and at higher and higher hardware demands the need to upgrade frequently would be so much greater.

Most of us would probably get by with a single core Pentium CPU and 16 gb of ram ;-) and a 1GB GPU - surf the next, watch a movie, write documents and spreadsheets ( i know I am over simplifying it) but I am sure you all get my point!

we don't upgrade because we need it, but because we want to! ;-)

 

Of course you're right, I mean in terms of raw performance rather than price-to-perf to clarify.

 

I upgrade almost every generation. Sometimes i even upgrade on the same genration. But i have been thinking on skiping the first generation on AM5. Last time i ditched a generation was the whole 1156 platform.
But i confess that i really miss the old times (late 90s) when we could get 100% or more performance per generation.

 

GPUs I upgrade every generations when is possible and with CPUs my god that's different story,been for while on X58 and X5670 then X5690,bought 4790k which has been quite disappointing upgrade from rendering point of view,then sold it went with X99 and E5-2683 V3 then 5820k then 5930k and 5960X and at the end I just couldn't deal with BSOD almost every day and went after while with AMD and 3900X as first which as been one smooth sailing,no more issues with BSOD every morning and now I'm on 5950X and I'm very happy with switching from Intel to AMD

My plan has been to upgrade from X99 to X299 but after building two loops with 7960X and 7980XE I'm literally glad I didn't went with X299,I'm quite lucky I must say because I do build PCs and I tried every Intel CPU to the date and plus Xeons as well and I can't compare,wish more people would use ThreadRippers hahaha,because to the date I built only once loop with older 1950X and that's it

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

 

Not gonna list from the start but as of late I have gone Xeon 1620 > Ryzen 2700 > Ryzen 5800X.
So not very frequent but not a total slacker either.

 

Duron 850 --------> 2600XP Barton ---->3000+ Venice ------> 6300 Conroe ----> 8400 Wolfdale ------> i7 950 Bloomfield ------------> i7 5820k Haswell-E ------> i7 7820x Skylake-X --------> i7 10900k Comet Lake

As you can see from above, my upgrade cycle is random, longest was gong from i7 950 to 5820k, that was the time my son was born, so priorities were less on the hobby
I started with AMD but went Intel with the Conroe era and stayed with intel ever since. The prosumer wannabe me just simply liked the thought being on HEDT
nevermind that I game most of the time and only use pro work (aka v-ray rendering and thats all) from time to time. for my latest upgrade I was really eyeing on going back to AMD
with a 5900x but it was nowhere to be found and I couldn't justify getting a 5800x over 10900k when the 5800x was more expensive and had less cores.

 

My first AIO was a Corsair H110i GT and that had issues after just nine months of pretty light use, was a really good cooler until it developed scale on the copper cold plate, kept it for another 2 years after changing the coolant to Fesser F1, now on h115i platinum for nearly 2 yrs with no issues so far just a shame Corsair have only improved the rgb and gone slightly backwards in actual cooling performance, still....far less hassle than custom water cooling.

 

After my first post in this thread i reallly got nostalgic. These are all the processors i have owned, and some of them i still own. They are in the order i got hold of them. Some of them will make no sense for you. But i have tried alot of processors just for fun, and i still do that. And beware, this list will be long. I inherited the first two PCs from my dad when he upgraded. I also want to clarify that from 2006 i have upgraded to almost every new generation till date.

Inherited from my dad.
i486 OverDrive DX2ODPR66
Pentium 133MHz (The one wich i learned how to build PCs)
Pentium MMX 200MHz

I built these myself.
K6-2 400MHz
Athlon 1400 (Thunderbird)
Athlon XP 1700+ (Palomino)
Pentium 4 2400MHz, 533MHz Socket 478 (Northwood)
Pentium 4 2600MHz, 800MHz Socket 478 (Northwood)
Pentium 4 2400MHz, 533MHz Socket 478 (Prescott)
Pentium 4 3000MHz, 800MHz Socket 775 (Prescott)
Pentium D 805
Core 2 Duo E6400
Core 2 Quad Q6700
Core 2 Duo E8400
Core 2 Duo E8600
Xeon 3070
Core 2 Quad Q9300
i5-2400
i5-3470
Xeon 1220v2
Xeon 1230v2
i5-4690K
i7-5820K
i5-6400
i7-6700K
i7-7700
i5-8400
R7 2700 (Now in my oldest daughters PC)
R5 3600X
R7 5800X (Now in my girlfriends PC)
R9 5900X (My main gaming PC)

 

This is what I remember, not that many .

Intel Pentium III (700 MHz)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180
Intel Core i5-3470
Intel Core i5-4690K
Intel Core i5-8400
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

I'm planing to keep the 5800x until ddr5 gets mainstream.

 

Core2 Duo E6420
Athlon II X4 631
i5 7400

100 % my new CPU will support DDR5

 

The truth is that if you had gone with 2700x (like i did) instead of 7700k back in the day you could wait for zen4/am5 (like im doing) Windows11 would not be an issue and i can imagine 16threads being useful as today. That said im glad you upgraded and went amd.