Upgrade advice

[tfboy]

After reading cat-the-fifth's Ryzen upgrade thread with interest, I'm contemplating the belief I could do with an upgrade.
Current system is in my profile.

Usage nowadays is mainly CPU-based stuff - transcoding (video content, including some 4k / h.265) and rendering (Keyshot). My graphics card isn't even in use at the moment, I've taken it out and have been relying on the onboard CPU GPU. It's good enough to run Half Life 2 at 1920x1080 - so that gives you an idea how up to date I am with games!

Whilst my LP2475w monitor was very good, it's probably due an update too as I'd like a little more resolution, but picture fidelity is a must. I do a lot of photography work and have calibrated monitors so this is important.

My Coolermaster case is massive so no real limitations on motherboard size. I'd stick to using my current SSD and just reinstall W7 - I'm yet to update to W10 and prefer the control I have on updates with the old OS, at least whilst the software is still supported on that platform.

Another problem pushing me to update my system is I've ALWAYS had a BSOD when powering up from cold in the morning. A reboot always fixed this. I was never able to trace it down to the root cause. I've just lived with it, but have now, more recently, suffered from BSOD in the middle of the day. A clean reinstall would probably sort that as the current W7 install goes back to the build, around 3-4 yearso ago.

Budget isn't too much of a problem, but I want a sweetspot. I appreciate I'm going to have a whole motherboard, RAM and CPU update to move to either the current Intel or AMD platform. I'll probably sell my current system in components or find another home for it.

So, with that in mind, what do you think?

[Andy00900]

A higher resolution monitor would definitely make video editing and rendering much more enjoyable, I always find the HUD is taking up too much of the screen on 1080p. I'm not sure any one brand will always be perfect for fidelity but obviously stick to IPS and consider moving to 27".

I can't see your profile yet as I'm new to the forum, but some of the Ryzen chips look much better value than Intel for a workstation machine.

[Andy00900]

I can see your profile now.

I think you'd get a good performance upgrade switching to a Ryzen 5 2600x or 7 2700x, also ending BSOD every day sounds like a must.

[tfboy]

Thanks Andy

Current system:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
CPU: i5 3570K @ 3.8GHz
Memory: 16GB (4x4GB Crucial)
Storage: 512GB OCZ Vector SSD for OS + 600GB WD Black Data
Graphics card(s): 560 Ti
PSU: Corsair RM 650W
Case: CM Silencio 550
Operating System: W7 Ultimate 64bit
Monitor(s): HP LP2475w + Dell 2001FP
Internet: VM 350Mb

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I don't know how I missed this thread! ATM,the Intel CPUs still have not quite recovered from the pricing inflation they have and the AMD CPUs lack integrated graphics.

What software are you using? This will determine what you need to aim for,and whether Intel or AMD is better.

[tfboy]

LOL CAT-THE-FIFTH !

Mainly Photoshop / Lightroom / LRTimelapse which uses Adobe Camera RAW and ffmpeg for creating timelapse and massive panoramas.
Video editing is transcoding via Handbrake (so ffmpeg).
I also do quite a lot of DCP mastering using OpenDCP with Kakadu encoding.
Rendering is using Keyshot with basic 3D modelling via Creo. Keyshot uses CPU power exclusively, no GPU at all.

I have the old 560Ti card which is now of course quite old. I have an older passive GPU, probably a 5500 or something like that.

The frequency at which I play games is quite low, although it would be nice to be able to enjoy them every once in a while. But the emphasis is more on energy efficiency and silence than eeking out the last few FPS on the latest 3D titles.

[jshalyf]

I agree with the Ryzen 2700x (CPU, motherboard and RAM) upgrading. For the monitor, grab a 4k 32-inch one such as Dell U3219Q. Double check whether your 560ti supports 4k 60hz output.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

LOL CAT-THE-FIFTH !

Mainly Photoshop / Lightroom / LRTimelapse which uses Adobe Camera RAW and ffmpeg for creating timelapse and massive panoramas.
Video editing is transcoding via Handbrake (so ffmpeg).
I also do quite a lot of DCP mastering using OpenDCP with Kakadu encoding.
Rendering is using Keyshot with basic 3D modelling via Creo. Keyshot uses CPU power exclusively, no GPU at all.

I have the old 560Ti card which is now of course quite old. I have an older passive GPU, probably a 5500 or something like that.

The frequency at which I play games is quite low, although it would be nice to be able to enjoy them every once in a while. But the emphasis is more on energy efficiency and silence than eeking out the last few FPS on the latest 3D titles.

Intel has an edge with Adobe software at the highest end IIRC,but down the range it is much closer especially with the price increases:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/ar...nchmarkResults
https://www.hardware.fr/articles/975...ptics-pro.html
https://techgage.com/article/a-perfo...-processors/4/

Looking at LRTimelapse they seem to be showing off a Threadripper CPU on their FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/lrtimelapse/

Finally!! The new #Lightroom CC Classic 7.2 maxes out processor usage when exporting. Great news for all #LRTimelapse users! This means you will finally take advantage of your multi-core PC or Mac when exporting from Lightroom too, as you already do when creating Visual Previews in LRTimelapse 5! Life is getting better

https://us.hardware.info/reviews/826...p-and-premiere

HandBrake seems slightly faster on Intel:

https://img.purch.com/r/711x457/aHR0...dlMDE1LnBuZw==
https://techgage.com/wp-content/uplo...-HandBrake.png

This is because CFL has wider AVX units than Ryzen.

Keyshot does quite well on Ryzen:

https://www.legitreviews.com/amd-ryz...eview_205588/4

Some Creo benchmarks:

https://www.bjorn3d.com/2018/10/amd-...aming-beast/4/
https://img.purch.com/test-ryzen-200...1DcmVvLnBuZw==

TLDR - if price isn't an issue,Intel seems to have the edge for your workloads. However,I am only going by reviews a few months ago,and I don't know how much the software has changed since then. However,since the Intel CPUs have become more expensive the AMD CPUs seem to be better value overall.

A Ryzen 7 2700X with a decent stock cooler is closer in price to a Core i5 8600K or Core i5 9600K with no stock cooler.

A Ryzen 5 2600 is around £85 to £100 cheaper than a Core i5 8400.

[tfboy]

Thanks Cat for that really comprehensive answer

[tfboy]

Right, with the various black Friday deals, I'm probably going to settle for this:
Asus ROG STRIX B450-F
Ryzen 7 2700 which at £216 seems a good price
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-24000 (3000), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 15-17-17-35, XMP 2.0, 1.35V

As the Ryzen 7 doesn't have integrated graphics, I'll probably stick back my 560Ti card to get me going, but maximum resolution is 2560x1600 and obviously quite "slow" by today's 3D standards.

So, two questions:
1. Does the above spec seem sensible?
2. If I were to upgrade the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm not after the latest and greatest. Just something that's quiet, relatively frugal in terms of energy when just 2D and something that supports 4k resolutions (3D less important).

I'll be looking at a monitor upgrade too.