Ok so yes its a first world problem.
I am trying to figure out if I can justify £350 for a 3800x.
My current specs are as follows.
Asrock B450m Pro4
1800x 8c16t Ryzen
32gb (2x16) 2666 1.2v running at xmp then notched up to 2800
RTX 2080 S
240mm AIO with push pull fans
Phanteks evolve m with all matching pwm fans in every spot it takes a fan. 3 front, 1 rear, 2 roof with rad and push pull so 4
960 evo 256gb nvme
960gb ssd
500gb ssd
evga 700w bronze.
Its a solid rig. I am happy with it, make no mistake on that.
BUT. I feel as though the 1800x is holding back the rest of the system.
I have a 144hz 1440p g sync monitor for my primary and I feel as though I am not letting the 2080s eat.
My pc has evolved over the past few years. I picked up a 1600x and a b350m mortar board, 16gb 3000 c15 ram, 960 evo nvme with the evga power supply and recycled my old drives, case and r9 390.
Then I upgraded the r9 390 to a gtx1080 and the system felt really well balanced.
Then I picked up an 1800x used for a bargain with the intention of swapping the 1600x and ended up building the rig I have because the 1600x build is now my htpc because I have a vive.
Thing is like I said I feel as though the 3800x will really balance my system. What worries me is the ram I have.
Yes its a decent corsair lpx kit. 1.2v 2666 c16 (2x16gb) but we all know 3rd gen want ram 3200-3600 speed which I am pretty sure my kit will never reach.
32gb kits with 3600 speed are pretty much non existent and if they are they are very expensive.
So do I buy the processor knowing I cant get them past 2800 on a 1st gen chip on a 2nd gen board and have a crack at getting past 3000?
I am giving exactly 0 guarantees, but the zen2 imc might be stronger and thus might give you a ram speed bump. I currently have this weird 2x8 + 2x16 setup that wouldn’t boot past 2933 on an 1800x but seems to work at 3200c14 when paired with a 3950x. These are samsung B-dies though…
Holding it back from what … You don’t specificy what you use it for. I’m as guilty as the next guy for wasting money on pc bits but I doubt your CPU is the best place to upgrade.
Unless you are doing productivity tasks the CPU is unlikely a bottleneck. Consider a better PSU first, or a custom loop.
I’d buy nothing for now and wait for Zen3, which should be out this year.
Sure, you’re held back slightly by the 1800x, but its not like you’re in unplayable territory.
I think we’re close enough to zen3 now that upgrading to a 3800x will incur a little buyer’s remorse in 6-9 month’s time when you (quite likely) need a new motherboard as well as CPU for zen3, which promises another fairly hefty IPC improvement.
So yeah the price went down to £310 for the 3800x and £265 for the 3700x so it happened.
Cant see me having buyers remorse as it performs very well and unlink 1st gen stuff actually boosts to its rated speeds.
Couldn’t get my 2x16gb 2666 c16 1.2v kit to go past 2800 stable so maybe down the road ill pick up a 3600 speed kit
If you’re sticking with zen 2 then your next upgrade will probably be to zen 4/5 which hopefully will be very exciting if rumour is to be believed as it could have 2.5d or 3d stacked HBM2e and 12 cores per ccx. That’s a long way out though…
