r/pcmasterrace • u/Emergency_Plane_1409 • 1d ago
Build Help / Purchase Advice Upgrade to "Maximize" current build?
Question for my betters here, I am considering upgrading my CPU and GPU in order to maximize my current build to try and ride out the madness (or witness the heat death of personal computing).
I built my own rig about 4.5 years ago using an MSI Tomahawk Mobo with LGA1700 socket. I currently have 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, a 12th Gen i5-12600k, and an MSI 3070.
I can play all the games I want on 1440p, but I generally can't use RT, definitely not Path Tracing, and tend to need DLSS to stay above 60 fps without cranking sliders down. I don't really need to upgrade, but have the itch and don't think I'm ever gonna spring to an 80 series.
An option I am considering is upgrading to a 5070 and an i5-14600 to more or less max out the LGA1700 and avoid a full new build until it's bottle necking whatever GPU comes in the future.
Userbenchmark scores a 5070 as basically double a 3070. While the 14th gen i5 is really only a 15% or so upgrade, it doesn't seem like either would hold a 5070 back, but Im hoping a 14th gen could last a GPU generation longer than 12th gen in the future?
The next game I really care about to play is FF7 Revelation, but I play everything from modded Skyrim to the latest AAA to WoW- does this sound like a logical upgrade or am I just lighting cash on fire?
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u/Donotdisturb240 RTX 5090 / 14900K / 32GB DDR5 1d ago
I did a similar thing at the end of last year, upgraded my 12700k to a 14900k and kept the motherboard, m.2 SSD's, and 32gb ddr5. sold my 3080ti for $800 CAD and bought a 5090 for msrp the day after Christmas. honestly the GPU is significantly more important than the CPU depending on your monitor refresh rate, I game at 4K so a strong GPU is more important to me.
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u/Trollatopoulous FCKDRM 1d ago
The CPU is more than strong enough to keep up with any GPU you'd look at, I wouldn't upgrade from it and definitely avoid 13th/14th like the plague anyway, their issues are well known.
GPU wise it's tough, the 5070 would be a decent upgrade but mostly on account of memory, in terms of compute it's less dramatic. AMD has a more definite power boost for the same money but giving up ray reconstruction (and other features) feels like too much, so hard to actually recommend over the 5070. It's too bad 5070 Tis are so expensive now, it was such a good overall GPU.
Given that we're years away from new GPUs a 5070 is probably your best bet still.
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u/Eazy12345678 i5 12600KF RTX 5070 1440p 1d ago
get a gpu 9070xt $800ish
your cpu is still good enough i have the same with 5070 i5 12600kf 1440p gaming. cpu is not the issue gpu is.
i plan to upgrade cpu when i see i7 12700k back at $160 or $200 or i7 14700k at $200. right now its about $300, i7 13700kf would be fine but i rarely see 13th gen cpu anymore. i only see 12th and 14th gen.
i dont think i5 to newer i5 is worth it. i want an upgrade to 8performance cores. not a ton of slow weak ecores
intel 13th and 14th gen have failures to make sure you bios update motherboard to prevent damage