Looking to upgrade, best CPU for PDX games?

[Thanius Kress]

Hello my dear friends, I'm currently sitting on a great budget for upgrading my build and I'm mostly interested in a new CPU+MoBo to run pdx games the smoothest way possible at x5 speed.
Currently own:
-Stellaris
-CK2
-HOI IV
-Vicky II
-EU IV
-Cities: Skyline
-Surviving Mars
Mostly play EU IV, HOI IV and Stellaris.
Current Build:
Intel i5 9600k cpu
RX Vega 56 8gb OC gpu
16gb Ram DDR4
1tb SSD + various 7200rpm 3.5 hdds
EVGA 850w psu
Asus TUF b360m gaming plus Mobo (I know, I know, no OC)
The current budget is 700usd, would like not to spend all on the project but don't mind doing it .

 

[Had a dad]

The reality is you have a pretty good rig. You have 6 cores which without hyperthreading gives each core it's full clockspeed without splitting it among threads. All Pdx games are hard on one core/thread as parallelism is limited for a lot of their games.

As you can see while the game runs 76 threads the majority of them aren't putting much stress on the threads/cores they are offloaded to. I have an i9 9900k (not OC cause...) and a 1070gtx and all pdx games are pretty fast on speed 5, but 700 isn't going to get you a really good GPU/GPU/MB/RAM

I'm an Intel / nVidia guy because of all the issues I've seen with AMD drivers, but that said the AMD CPUs that just released really aren't much cheaper than the intel ones that in some cases they don't outperform even with more cores / threads for just a little cheaper when you compare apples to apples of performance only.

The one advantage going to AMD could provide is if you have an m2 drive as AMDs are supporting PCI 4.0 which if implemented on the bus and device will allow a crapton of data exchange more than pci 3.0

 

[Thanius Kress]

The reality is you have a pretty good rig. You have 6 cores which without hyperthreading gives each core it's full clockspeed without splitting it among threads. All Pdx games are hard on one core/thread as parallelism is limited for a lot of their games.

As you can see while the game runs 76 threads the majority of them aren't putting much stress on the threads/cores they are offloaded to. I have an i9 9900k (not OC cause...) and a 1070gtx and all pdx games are pretty fast on speed 5, but 700 isn't going to get you a really good GPU/GPU/MB/RAM

I'm an Intel / nVidia guy because of all the issues I've seen with AMD drivers, but that said the AMD CPUs that just released really aren't much cheaper than the intel ones that in some cases they don't outperform even with more cores / threads for just a little cheaper when you compare apples to apples of performance only.

The one advantage going to AMD could provide is if you have an m2 drive as AMDs are supporting PCI 4.0 which if implemented on the bus and device will allow a crapton of data exchange more than pci 3.0

View attachment 514832

Noted, don't feel the need to replace gpu so a Mobo and cpu are the priority, do want to make the jump to i7 (or ryzen 7) if possible just torn regarding AMD or Intel.

 

[Thanius Kress]

Noted, don't feel the need to replace gpu so a Mobo and cpu are the priority, do want to make the jump to i7 (or ryzen 7) if possible just torn regarding AMD or Intel.

I do feel most pdx games get really slow mid to end game (another issue BUT) do feel like a new cpu would boost the experience.

 

[Had a dad]

Noted, don't feel the need to replace gpu so a Mobo and cpu are the priority, do want to make the jump to i7 (or ryzen 7) if possible just torn regarding AMD or Intel.

you realize your processor is rated as the 13th fastest on userbenchmarks?

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-9600K-vs-Intel-Core-i9-9900K/4031vs4028

 

[Thanius Kress]

Yup, just want to get the best build for the next 4 or so years.

 

[Had a dad]

since yours is a coffee lake too, you could get the i9 9900k you'll just have to flash the bios for it to work with your current MB

 

[Had a dad]

Yup, just want to get the best build for the next 4 or so years.

if thats the case do the i9 and get a watercooler so if you want you can OC it. I have yet to install mine (watercooler) cause (busy... not lazy.... honest )

 

[Thanius Kress]

since yours is a coffee lake too, you could get the i9 9900k you'll just have to flash the bios for it to work with your current MB

in your experience, is it worth getting I9 without being able to overclock?

 

[Had a dad]

in your experience, is it worth getting I9 without being able to overclock?

yeah, it's something you can always do later, and I've had multiple pdx games running at the same time just for stress testing the system, and it doesn't bat an eye

 

[Had a dad]

lets just say when I shared with some of my fellow betas how fast time was passing in one of the betas, it only took a moment for someone to ask what kind of rig I was running it on

 

[Thanius Kress]

Thanks! Nice to know

 

[Duuk]

lets just say when I shared with some of my fellow betas how fast time was passing in one of the betas, it only took a moment for someone to ask what kind of rig I was running it on

I know a forum you should wander into... but beware, they bring pitchforks and torches...

 

[Had a dad]

I know a forum you should wander into... but beware, they bring pitchforks and torches...

oh I'm aware, and it weird cause I tend not to have issues others have. Even when I've tested some saves where others say a game creeps along...

 

[Duuk]

oh I'm aware, and it weird cause I tend not to have issues others have. Even when I've tested some saves where others say a game creeps along...

Me too. I honestly think it's perception. What some people see as "completely unplayable" some people don't even notice.

While I do play on small maps, I play with maxed out empires, max speed, and I don't notice slow downs even at 2400-2450. So either I have a godlike PC (possible but unlikely) or my perception of "literally unplayable" is different.

 

[Had a dad]

Me too. I honestly think it's perception. What some people see as "completely unplayable" some people don't even notice.

While I do play on small maps, I play with maxed out empires, max speed, and I don't notice slow downs even at 2400-2450. So either I have a godlike PC (possible but unlikely) or my perception of "literally unplayable" is different.

I think some do have issues, but I also think some of them are related to how people treat their PC's. Some people install things that probably is best if they never had, things like left over temp files cause resources to be wasted, etc etc. Bad / out of date drivers, never updated bios's.... sooo many things. Also some stuff out there that is sold, just isn't as good as other components.

Even though in most tech support groups it isn't allowed to suggest to people to update their bios, I've had a number of people tell me good things can and do happen when it is done.

 

[Voigt]

I think the most sensible thing would be to buy a Z Chipset Mainboard, maybe delid your CPU and overclock it as high as possible.

9600k and 9900k should reach the same clockrates, with the 9900k juut having 2 core more and HT on, which both doesn't have an impact on Paradox Games.

6Cores is already plenty, no need for more cores, now you just need more clockspeed (combined with an high IPC, what Cofee Lake has)

Buu: I don't think you will see much of a difference, you are already pretty high performancewise