I built my PC about seven years ago and chose an Intel i5-9400F to keep the cost down. My current setup has a Gigabyte H370 HD3-CF motherboard, an overclocked GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, 16GB of RAM, and the i5-9400F. When I play games such as GTA V or Fortnite while streaming video with friends, my CPU reaches around 99% usage and the game starts lagging. I'm considering replacing the processor with a used i7-9700K. Would that be a worthwhile upgrade, or would I be better off moving to a newer platform?
4 Answers
Before replacing the CPU, upgrade from 16GB to 32GB of RAM if your budget allows. Modern games, browsers, streaming software, and voice chat can push 16GB pretty hard. That said, if your processor is consistently pinned at 99% while gaming and streaming, the 9400F is also clearly becoming the bottleneck.
A 9700K would be a noticeable improvement over the 9400F because it has twice as many threads, but it’s still an older platform. I’d only buy one if the price is genuinely low—roughly around $100 or less. At a higher price, putting the money toward a newer CPU and motherboard makes more sense.
Coming from a 9400F, the 9700K should improve gaming and multitasking quite a bit, especially because the extra threads help with streaming. It won’t be a night-and-day upgrade in every game, though, so the value depends entirely on the used price. If it costs much more than about $100, save for a newer platform instead.
I’d skip the 9700K unless you find an exceptional deal. A Ryzen 5700X with an inexpensive B550 motherboard would give you a much stronger and more upgradeable system for relatively little money. You could sell the old motherboard and processor to offset some of the cost.
I’m definitely going to move to 32GB eventually, but the CPU is the part that maxes out whenever I’m playing Fortnite and streaming. I’m tired of having to sit out when it’s my turn to stream.