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

Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
59 (0.02/day)
Location
Sydney Australia
Processor i7 5930k
Motherboard MSI X99 SLI PLUS
Cooling Corsair H110i
Memory G.Skill DDR4 2400Mhz
Video Card(s) Gigabyte GTX 1080ti FE
Storage Samsung 256GB 840 Pro SSD x 2, Seagate 4TB Sata 3 HDD 64MB
Display(s) BenQ XL 2420Z 144Hz 1080p
Case Fractal ARC XL Full Tower
Audio Device(s) Bose USB Audio
Power Supply Seasonic 1050W 80 Plus Platinum
Mouse Logitech G502
Keyboard Logitech 510s
Software Windows 7 64Bit Home Premium
Hi everyone. Bit of a nube here so I hope I do not bother anyone with this question. My X99 board has a 5930k which I have had for the past 4-5 years. Do you think that swapping out the cpu to the 5960x would give me a bit more life for my rig. I am thinking that with the new consoles having 8 core cpus that next years games will start to favor 8 cores and the 5960x may give me a bit more life as long as I can buy a second hand one. My current specs are:
i7 5930k
MSI X99 SLI plus MB
16GB GSKILL DDR4 2400
GTX 1080ti founders edition.
Display BENQ 1080p 144Hz

Thank you for helping me.
 
You may get some modest increase in performance. 2 extra cores and 4 more threads will help quite a bit in multithreaded tasks and or tasks that really takes advantage of every core and thread. Also an additional 5mb of cache also may help too.

It all depends on the cost difference too. I mean, the 5930K shouldn't be a slouch at all and should be more than adequate for years more to come.
 
Hi everyone. Bit of a nube here so I hope I do not bother anyone with this question. My X99 board has a 5930k which I have had for the past 4-5 years. Do you think that swapping out the cpu to the 5960x would give me a bit more life for my rig. I am thinking that with the new consoles having 8 core cpus that next years games will start to favor 8 cores and the 5960x may give me a bit more life as long as I can buy a second hand one. My current specs are:
i7 5930k
MSI X99 SLI plus MB
16GB GSKILL DDR4 2400
GTX 1080ti founders edition.
Display BENQ 1080p 144Hz

Thank you for helping me.
Depends on the price and whether or not you OC. If you get it for a good price, say less than $40(including how much you can sell your 5930 for) and you can OC to 4ghz(should be easy on that board), then yes it would be worth it and you'd get more life out of that system. Otherwise, not really worth it. just overclock your existing CPU to 4, 4.1 or 4.2ghz and call yourself good.
 
The cheapest I see on Ebay is about $400 AUD. I live in Australia. Not sure what a 5930k would fetch.
 
The cheapest I see on Ebay is about $400 AUD. I live in Australia. Not sure what a 5930k would fetch.
Not gonna be worth it. Just OC your existing CPU(presuming you're not). It's an unlocked CPU so taking it to 4.2ghz with a modest voltage bump would be trivial on that board. To be fair however, for gaming, your CPU is not lacking. You'd get a solid boost from the aforementioned OC, but you just don't need to for games.
 
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You are on same socket and architecture .... yes ..... couple extra cores will help in VERY FEW applications .... it is not a dead socket but if you are going to spend $$$ ... upgrade to X299 chipset or similar ..... hate to say this ...... but even AMD offerings will be a major performance boost ! And of course ..... all depends on what you are doing ....... if it is just gaming ........ you might see a 10% increase on some games ... if it is video editing it will be a little more ..... if you just do FaceF*ck ... makes no difference and you are already wasting money ! I have a I7-5930 on my wifes PC and is loaded with all kinds of games and Adobe suite and other major software ..... all runs AWESOME .... has a Nvidia GTX-970 w/16gb 2133 memory .... runs everything perfectly .... Samsung SSD's as boot and a couple more now for storage ...... hard to tell the difference from my main PC ! Hope this helps ! Game On !!!
 
I wouldn't bother. Ryzen 4000 series should be out relatively soon, and we'll see what Intel comes up with... I'm not a fan of any of Intel's offerings at the moment because the architecture is effectively swiss cheese at this point with all the security vulnerabilities being found, with patches plugging those vulnerabilities, yet reducing performance. Cumulatively, it's not an insignificant loss... however, Ryzen doesn't conclusively beat Intel either, especially in gaming. So, if it were me, I would sit tight and see what Ryzen 4000 looks like, or possibly wait for the next architecture from Intel that's not a *lake refresh.
 
The cheapest I see on Ebay is about $400 AUD. I live in Australia. Not sure what a 5930k would fetch.

$400 AUS? Then naaa you can get a 2700X and a motherboard for that price here now on the second hand market
 
$400 AUS? Then naaa you can get a 2700X and a motherboard for that price here now on the second hand market
The 2700X would be better?
 
Again ... if you are just gaming ....... just upgrade GPU ........ and you have a 1080ti ... wouldn't even bother with that ! Your good !!! If you want to spend another $1000 for maybe extra 15fps .... have fun ...... try spending some $$$ on a GF ... MUCH more FUN ! ( GF = girlfriend or similar ) !!!! :)
 
I'd get the 6900k instead

and btw 5930k is fine,if you wanna improve performance in games I'd get a 4x4 3000 kit instead of 2 more cores,6/12 is plenty.
yes,there's an 8c in ps5,but it's a ryzen.take current 3700x stock,it's the same as 6700k oc in gaming
 
The 2700X would be better?

I really not up on your Gen CPU but going just by the clock speeds alone I would think the 2700X would be a good bit faster unless yours is OC over 4GHz? and of course then your on a platform that has many many upgrade paths as well so....
 
$400 AUS? Then naaa you can get a 2700X and a motherboard for that price here now on the second hand market

Also requires upgrading RAM since OP is using DDR3.

Depends on OP's budget.
 
Also requires upgrading RAM since OP is using DDR3.

Depends on OP's budget.

5930k uses ddr4 not ddr3 5930k platform is x99 family not x79. Read and think before posting/replying. Lol

2700x better for productivity but poor when Gaming. My 9700k at 5.2ghz beats 3900x when it's Gaming.
 
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5930k uses ddr4 not ddr3 5930k platform is x99 family not x79. Read and think before posting/replying. Lol

2700x better for productivity but poor when Gaming. My 9700k at 5.2ghz beats 3900x when it's Gaming.
OP did state DDR4 in OP but ... somehow ... i missed it ...

It was OP's system specs that threw me off since they state DDR3 and not DDR4: didn't notice that wasn't the same CPU as the one referred in OP.
 
Why has no one asked the basic questions??

What is the main usage? I assumed gaming with the consoles reference.
Are you currently achieving the fps you would like? Is your GPU being bottle necked? Are you trying to achieve a very high FPS? What games are playing and what FPS are you trying to get in those games?

As far as getting the most out the platform I would really look into what if anything is currently slowing you down and then the cheapest fix. 2400MHz DDR4 is really on the slower end and DDR4 is rather cheap right now. I don't think I would look at the 5960X its only 2 cores more than what you have. The only CPU I would look at is the 6950X for the aging platform. I don't really see a 5930K not hitting 120+ fps in almost all games. I cannot recommend a side grade to a 2700X as long as 6950X's are out there and the 2700X gets beat by 6C/6T CPUs and even 4C/4T processors in some titles.
 
Thank you for all your replies. i7 6950x is out of my price range something like $700 US. Use is mainly gaming. Was concerned as CPU isage in Shadow of Tomb Raider benchmark gets really high so I thought more cores might help.
 
If overclocked, with a 1080ti, you will gain pretty much nothing. I had 5820k and currently have the 5960X. The 5820K ran at 4.5GHz and this runs at 4.4GHz.

Getting a fresh Ryzen setup will give you allmost nothing. In certain games only the 2080ti will show CPU limits.

Upgrading to Broadwell is no use. It overclocks less and ends up slower.

Just keep it till it kicks the bucket or get a better GPU.
 
If overclocked, with a 1080ti, you will gain pretty much nothing. I had 5820k and currently have the 5960X. The 5820K ran at 4.5GHz and this runs at 4.4GHz.

Getting a fresh Ryzen setup will give you allmost nothing. In certain games only the 2080ti will show CPU limits.

Upgrading to Broadwell is no use. It overclocks less and ends up slower.

Just keep it till it kicks the bucket or get a better GPU.
Sounds like good advice.
 
nah i wouldnt bother changing to 5960x or even current cpu on the market.
i'd save your money for 2021 upgrades to be honest.
1080ti and 5930k still holds up very well getting over 100fps in games.
6 core cpu will still be relevant next year and most likely 2021.
As with 8 cores utilization for games you probably wont see a lot of it until 2021 tbh.
 
are you running dual or quad channel ?
2400 is pretty slow.get 3000.


5930k OC'd to 4.5ghz running QC will smash 2700x in gaming.I wouldn't bet on 3700x either to beat it.9700K might end up faster,but overall not by much really.That leaves 9900k,which is just bad value.It costs as much as a 2070 super,and for gaming,really,you're better off buying something half that price but gaming oriented.


that said,if you can get a 5960x for cheap,hell,why not.I'd do a ram upgrade first though.
 
Okay all good advice. If I sold my 5930k to recoup some of the cost would the 5960x still be a waste of money? I have this thing about taking my socket to the best I can (within reason) so maybe this thinking may not be logical.
 
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