I recently bought a €350 gaming PC with a GTX 1070, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and an Intel Core i7-6700K. I mistakenly assumed that an i7 would have at least eight physical cores, but this sixth-generation chip only has four cores and eight threads. I'm concerned that it may struggle when gaming while also running apps such as Discord and YouTube Music.
My current motherboard uses the LGA1151 socket, but it seems newer CPUs with more cores are not compatible with it. I have a very limited budget, ideally under €50 for the CPU and under €50 for the motherboard. Is there a worthwhile upgrade that would work with my existing RAM and GTX 1070, or should I simply keep using the current system?
4 Answers
If you can find the parts cheaply, a used Ryzen 5 2600 or 2600X with an inexpensive B350 motherboard would be a more meaningful move. It gives you six cores and twelve threads and should handle gaming alongside Discord and music better. Just confirm that the board includes the correct BIOS support and that your existing DDR4 memory is compatible.
A 6700K is old, but it is still usable for gaming, especially with a GTX 1070. A cheap upgrade on the same platform would be a used i7-7700K, but it only adds a small amount of performance and may not be worth €50. Also, the LGA1151 socket is confusing: eighth- and ninth-generation Intel CPUs use the same physical socket but require a 300-series motherboard, so they will not work in most sixth- or seventh-generation boards.
You do not need to replace the GTX 1070 immediately. It can still handle 1080p gaming if you use reasonable settings and, where supported, an upscaling option such as FSR. A newer graphics card with ray tracing would be an upgrade, but it is not necessary to solve the multitasking concern. For now, monitor CPU usage, background processes, temperatures, and frame-time stutter before deciding.
Try using the computer as-is before buying anything. The GTX 1070 is also an older card, and in many games it will become the limiting component before the i7-6700K does. Check your CPU and GPU usage while gaming: if the CPU is constantly near 100% while the GPU is sitting well below full usage, then an upgrade makes sense. Otherwise, replacing the processor probably will not improve performance much.
The games themselves are mostly fine. My bigger concern is multitasking with Discord, music, and other apps open while playing newer games. I’ll still check the actual CPU and GPU usage before spending money.
The overclock on the GTX 1070 helps a little, but it does not change the basic point: an overclocked older GPU can still be the bottleneck in many games.