Why do you upgrade your CPU yearly/biennially (if you do it)?

[Vayra86]

I'm curious why lots of people do it despite gaining very little performance-wise, yet spending quite a lot on that.

E.g. I'm still on Intel Core i5 2500 running at 4.1GHz and I'm quite content with performance.

I'm not even sure I really want Ryzen 7 3700X (which looks like a very enticing upgrade) 'cause my CPU is quite alright for my GTX 1060 6GB and it's not like I encode videos, compile, render or stream 24x7.

Of course, if you're well-off (e.g. a European or American) then you might like the feeling of running the latest and greatest but other than that I'm just confused. With my salary of less than six hundred US dollars a month I'm really conservative in regard to spending.

Despite disposable income, which I do have, I have never seen the need to upgrade CPU quite so often. Bi annually is nuts. The only time that might have been a good idea was if you had a Nehalem and wanted to jump on Sandy Bridge, for example. The gap was significant.

One might say that today 'huge advances on core counts make it worth doing'... but no. Unless you have a need for the performance, but then you already had some form of Intel HEDT surely; if that was out of reach, then yes, now would be a time to upgrade more frequently as both Ryzen and TR offer a great upgrade path now at reasonable cost - but again, you'd do it once to ride this wave and stop at that.

People who upgraded from Haswell and Skylake quads to the 7700K... there have been quite a bunch of them, and today you barely see them in the wild, are a good example of completely stupid upgrades that might as well just burn the money right away. An upgrade only to gain a few hundred or even 500 mhz is silly. If you lacked that in the first place for good performance, you made a bad choice back in the day.

The best thing to do with CPUs is get some measure of overkill so it can last several GPU upgrades - and that applies only for MSDT/gaming rigs. Its the most (cost) effective way to go about it. Advances in CPU will be very slow from now on. Any investment made is one that will pay off.

 

[trparky]

Not even, I have multiple older neighbors who spend $200 or more on cable, phone and internet just for two boxes and "basic" package. The entire industry is a scam.

Damn, and I thought the $130 I pay for TV and Internet was expensive.

 

[Zareek]

Not even, I have multiple older neighbors who spend $200 or more on cable, phone and internet just for two boxes and "basic" package. The entire industry is a scam.

So true... Up here in the northeast our cost of living is higher so the wages are higher and they absolutely bend people over and umm, well you know... I know several people who spend $160-$180 a month on cable internet and home phone packages. One has HBO so that is like $20 a month right there.

 

[trparky]

I wouldn't waste my money on HBO.

 

[rtwjunkie]

How TF is possible to spend 200$ on cable tv monthly? I'm curious what such expensive offer contains? The most expensive i've seen in my life were around 50usd but i'm out of touch with tv services since many years so, ye.

I had internet and cable tv, no movie packages and only one higher tiered package because it gives me things I like such as AHC, BBC America, Science, ID, Natgeo, etc. that totaled to $185 per month.

Such is the state of affairs in the U.S. with each cable company effectively having a monopoly in its geographical area.

The result is now I spend $55 for Internet from the cable company and use Netflix, Amazon Prime and Philo TV. Those are roughly another $45 a month so it’s still expensive.

$200 is much more common than you might think.

 

[Splinterdog]

I wish I'd not come across this thread now as it's causing collateral thoughts in a GPU direction, mainly Nvidia for some reason...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I normally wait an age before swapping out a whole platform, Cpu/mem and motherboard.
Usually to the point where add in boards and devices can't keep it useable but no hardware gets (I can't back this up core series get binned) wasted everything I ever had(pc parts) got used until it was useless or sold.
However when I bought this platform and R2600X it was with the plan to swap this chip out for more cores because I very much believed chiplets were coming and zen 2 might be real ,I said as much years ago.
And my second PC is a g4400 sh#$ter on a terrible board , left over from mining, it will be more useful as a 2600.
As others said ,it's my hobby since cars are outside I can't mess with them as much.

And also I'm looking forward to 44 cores total crunching power for the fight against all sorts of shit(no seti here).

I'm into benches, but best no one,And I'm not sure who you would show off to in the real world about being a PC enthusiast or having an epeany PC and who uses their name online anyway

 

[spectatorx]

I had internet and cable tv, no movie packages and only one higher tiered package because it gives me things I like such as AHC, BBC America, Science, ID, Natgeo, etc. that totaled to $185 per month.

Such is the state of affairs in the U.S. with each cable company effectively having a monopoly in its geographical area.

The result is now I spend $55 for Internet from the cable company and use Netflix, Amazon Prime and Philo TV. Those are roughly another $45 a month so it’s still expensive.

$200 is much more common than you might think.

Well, that's interesting.

Many companies bundle internet+tv+other services offers which i'm not fan of, bundling i mean, as like i mentioned earlier i'm not watching tv since very long time so i'm not interested in such bundles but last time when i wanted to buy an internet option that was hard talk with consultants but eventually i found suitable option for me with just internet, no other services bundled.

 

[Tomgang]

I dont think its so common any more to replace a PC every 2-3 year as it whas back in the days with single/dual core CPU´s. As most Software/games have not keep up with cpu core amount aviable and with that been optimized for more cores. It has taken a long time exsample for games to move on from quad-core to hexa-core cpu, even throw hexa-core cpu´s has existed for desktop since like 2010/2011.

With that said, a friend of mine replace his CPU every year or seconds year. But mostly because he does a lot of benchmarking and compete in it.

For me in the other hand, i replace my CPU/entire pc when i have cramp every thing out of it (With my current system, i litterly have cramp every thing out ofit now. NMVe m.2 SSD, GTX 1080 TI, 6 core CPU overclock up to 4.75 GHz on air cooling and so on) and it no longer for fill my needs. With needs for me, that will mean keep games above 60 FPS with at least high/ultra settings. And sadly X58 can no longer do that in all games from 2019. My I7 980X struggles a bit to much with Far Cry New dawn and Metro Exodus. There are a bit to much lag spikes and FPS drop below 60 FPS. So after being on X58 for 10 years, its time to move on. That dosent mean i will drop X58 completly as the old system is still in fully working condision. It will be reused as a mix of retro gamer, guest gamer pc and a backup unit in case my new pc breaksdown and need a long RMA.

When it comes to GPU, i replace it every 3-5 years. But im thinking doing some thing else this time around. When i get a new PC, i have been thinking about getting a second used GTX 1080 TI and go SLI again. Haven been on SLI for almost 3 years and i miss it.

For my new build AMD Ryzen 9 3950X looks like a sweet CPU to get my dirty hands on together with a X570 based motherboard.

 

[trparky]

The bad part is, at least with my ISP (AT&T uVerse), many ISPs saddle you with a data usage cap (1 TB) but if you bundle Internet with TV service they make that data usage cap go away.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Not even, I have multiple older neighbors who spend $200 or more on cable, phone and internet just for two boxes and "basic" package. The entire industry is a scam.

Daim! Luckily here the price of cable TV is government controlled, so it can only cost so much. Sure, it stifles competition a bit, but at least no-one's being ripped off.

 

[spectatorx]

The bad part is, at least with my ISP (AT&T uVerse), many ISPs saddle you with a data usage cap (1 TB) but if you bundle Internet with TV service they make that data usage cap go away.

Data cap on internet in 2019 is the biggest bullshit of modern times. As on mobile connections i kinda understand that (balancing load on BTSes) on cable connection this makes totally no sense and the only thing which comes to my mind is ISPs want you to pay more money to unlock cap or something like this.

 

[xtreemchaos]

when i have to,about every 2 or 3 years, i do loads of image processing and stacking of images which is very cpu and ram dependent eg the more you have the faster you finnish, on a solar imaging run i have maybe as much 20,000 frames for each image and i try to publish with in a hour of taking the shots.

 

[trparky]

Welcome to the US where the regulatory bodies are absolutely feckless (useless).

Ajit Pai and the whole of the FCC is bought and paid for by the ISPs.

 

[StrayKAT]

Welcome to the US where the regulatory bodies are absolutely feckless (useless).

That's a double edge sword though. Regulations can be oppressive too, if it has nothing to answer to.

That said, even though it's not direct competition, streaming has wormed it's way in through a backdoor and disrupted the cable market. They'll have to drop prices eventually or join them.

 

[trparky]

That said, even though it's not direct competition, streaming has wormed it's way in through a backdoor and disrupted the cable market. They'll have to drop prices eventually.

Definitely. If I were to drop cable TV today it really wouldn't hurt me too badly since most of the TV shows that I watch are on CBS so a cheap subscription to CBS-All-Access would be able to satisfy my demand. I have a few shows on The CW that I watch but they offer their shows online for free.

Unfortunately, there's another person in the house that wants traditional TV service so we get stuck having to pay for TV service.

 

[Eskimonster]

My CPU is from 2012, im am going to build a new Ryzen 3 bamboo, i will still use my 1080 gtx tho.
Reason is reliabillity and mitigations.

 

[trparky]

Data cap on internet in 2019 is the biggest bullshit of modern times.

You get no argument from me on that one, it's just a money grab for the ISPs.

 

[birdie]

The reason why I started this topic is because in the recent poll about Ryzen 3 absolute most people said they were interested in new CPUs and less than 15% said they wouldn't upgrade yet. According to this topic everything is the opposite which is kinda confusing:

Are people lying or what?

 

[StrayKAT]

The reason why I started this topic is because in the recent poll about Ryzen 3 absolute most people said they were interested in new CPUs and less than 15% said they wouldn't upgrade yet. According to this topic everything is the opposite which is kinda confusing:

View attachment 125632

Are people lying or what?

Maybe this is where all of the Intel fans are

At least that's my case.

 

[64K]

The reason why I started this topic is because in the recent poll about Ryzen 3 absolute most people said they were interested in new CPUs and less than 15% said they wouldn't upgrade yet. According to this topic everything is the opposite which is kinda confusing:

View attachment 125632

Are people lying or what?

Bias most likely. One might also question why you have had an account here for 6 years and never filled in your system specs.

 

[birdie]

My specs are filled in but I chose not to show them. ;-) And I've had an account for just three years.

Edit: you're right, it's six years. Damn, I've become so stupid ;-) Or maybe I thought we still live in 2016.

 

[64K]

My specs are filled in but I chose not to show them. ;-) And I've had an account for just three years.

Math eludes you. You signed up for an account in 2013.

 

[xkm1948]

Kinda have to at this point. Been limping along on the X99 for too long.

Come on AMD gimme that 64C128T ThreadRipper 3

 

[dirtyferret]

The reason why I started this topic is because in the recent poll about Ryzen 3 absolute most people said they were interested in new CPUs and less than 15% said they wouldn't upgrade yet. According to this topic everything is the opposite which is kinda confusing:

View attachment 125632

Are people lying or what?

Because the poll is wishful thinking but your thread has real dollars to it. You can do the same thing with new cars or new kitchen appliances.