Question Upgrade from i3-12100F to what?

[Lil'John]

I've got a 'gaming lite' computer that I'd like to upgrade the CPU. I do mainly Mechwarrior 5 with mods, Roguetech, and other AAA(low requirement) games.

It is setup as:
MB ASRock B660M-HDV
CPU i3-12100F
32GB Ram
Nvidia GTX 1050ti
Windows 11

According to ASRock, it supports 12, 13, and 14 gen processors. But given the 'low end' nature of the motherboard, I know that K cpus are a bit of a waste since I can't overclock... I know I do gain some speed but is it worth going that route?

In looking at wiki, it almost looks like i5-14500 and i5-14600 ranged CPUs are a good spot whether I look at K or not. I get more performance cores(6) and add in efficiency cores. The 14600KF looks intriguing; 30% performance for ~$50 more.

I know the graphics card could use an upgrade but I don't think it is my current bottle neck.

 

[In2Photos]

You can tell which device is the bottleneck by monitoring CPU and GPU usage during gaming. How much CPU is being used? GPU? Also, what resolution do you play at? With only 4gb of VRAM and 3 generations old I'd say the GPU is the bottleneck, but we need more information.

 

[ondma]

I've got a 'gaming lite' computer that I'd like to upgrade the CPU. I do mainly Mechwarrior 5 with mods, Roguetech, and other AAA(low requirement) games.

It is setup as:
MB ASRock B660M-HDV
CPU i3-12100F
32GB Ram
Nvidia GTX 1050ti
Windows 11

According to ASRock, it supports 12, 13, and 14 gen processors. But given the 'low end' nature of the motherboard, I know that K cpus are a bit of a waste since I can't overclock... I know I do gain some speed but is it worth going that route?

In looking at wiki, it almost looks like i5-14500 and i5-14600 ranged CPUs are a good spot whether I look at K or not. I get more performance cores(6) and add in efficiency cores. The 14600KF looks intriguing; 30% performance for ~$50 more.

I know the graphics card could use an upgrade but I don't think it is my current bottle neck.

Any of the 12(3,4)400 series would give you six cores as well. Any hex core would be a good upgrade, but that is a pretty low end gpu also. What sort of problems are you having? If you are having stuttering, it is most likely the CPU. If you are just getting a low framerate that improves with lower resolution or image quality, it is probably the gpu.

E cores, at the present time anyway, do not do much if anything for gaming, although perhaps future games will (hopefully) be programmed to use them.

 

[Lil'John]

Roguetech is a memory hog as well as a core hog.

I'm not upset with graphics performance in MW5. To me, less critical performance hit than 'issues' with Roguetech.

I am playing windowed mode on a 4k monitor(2xxx res)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I had that board for a brief time, it's hot garbage; literally.

Even a 14500 is going to be wasted money because it'll never reach full performance as those VRMs will cook first. I'd look for around a used 12400 for dirt cheap if you can use the extra threads. I'd definitely ditch that 1050ti though. It's probably why the game is eating so much ram; because it has to swap in and out of the 4GB frame buffer so often.

It's free advice, take it or leave it. Spend your money how you want.

 

[Lil'John]

<snip>

Even a 14500 is going to be wasted money because it'll never reach full performance as those VRMs will cook first. I'd look for around a used 12400 for dirt cheap if you can use the extra threads. I'd definitely ditch that 1050ti though. It's probably why the game is eating so much ram; because it has to swap in and out of the 4GB frame buffer so often.

It's free advice, take it or leave it. Spend your money how you want.

I can't say I've had a problem with the board but I'm also not pushing it since I know it isn't a performance board.

From the first about five minutes of that video, the guy strikes me as dumb. His nitpick is throwing premium performance CPUs on a low end board and then it not performing like it would on a Z performance board. This kind of kills his very valid point of non-quality parts on the board.

Roguetech is a known memory hog. It has zero to do with my video card in this case. The minimum recommended memory is 16GB. It is also a thread hungry monster since it appears to do a heavy traversal tree AI to determine movement.

What do you think a practical limit on CPU watt will be for the MB? Replacing MB isn't in the cards. If I'm replacing a MB, I'm going a completely different route.

As I noted, video card is already a noted issue but it isn't my primary wall right now. Thus, it isn't slated for replacement yet.

 

[In2Photos]

I'm shocked that a 1050ti isn't your bottleneck at 4k. I don't see how you aren't limited by not only it's power, but also it's lack of VRAM at that resolution. Please report your CPU, GPU, and VRAM usage during these games. You can use something like MSI afterburner to show the values on screen.

 

[Lil'John]

I'm shocked that a 1050ti isn't your bottleneck at 4k. I don't see how you aren't limited by not only it's power, but also it's lack of VRAM at that resolution. Please report your CPU, GPU, and VRAM usage during these games. You can use something like MSI afterburner to show the values on screen.

I'll look into that.

I don't think I stated my video use very well My monitor is 4k. I play in windowed mode most of the time. So for example, my Roguetech window is 1920x1080.

As an example of how 'bad' Roguetech is, while on a settings menu, it is tying up 17GB of 32GB ram.

But to repeat: I am making no claim that the video card is great. My claim is I don't feel it is my current bottleneck.

 

[In2Photos]

I'll look into that.

I don't think I stated my video use very well My monitor is 4k. I play in windowed mode most of the time. So for example, my Roguetech window is 1920x1080.

As an example of how 'bad' Roguetech is, while on a settings menu, it is tying up 17GB of 32GB ram.

But to repeat: I am making no claim that the video card is great. My claim is I don't feel it is my current bottleneck.

Ok, that makes more sense, playing at 1080p and not 4k. And system requirements are pretty low for Roguetech except for RAM. So there may not be a bottleneck at all in that game. CPU requirement shows 4 threads at 4.2 GHz. So your 12100 is right there assuming you have adequate cooling to allow it to reach its boost frequency.

Based on your current motherboard I think a 13400 would be as big of an upgrade as you could go without potentially being limited by the boards VRMs.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

This kind of kills his very valid point of non-quality parts on the board.

No it doesn't. There should not be a board that can't run an i5 K at stock properly, period. The performance and thermals in a normal usage scenario/typical case and fan setup are horrendous.

What do you think a practical limit on CPU watt will be for the MB? Replacing MB isn't in the cards. If I'm replacing a MB, I'm going a completely different route.

Since you play CPU demanding games I wouldn't go past the lowest i5 XX400 of any supported generation unless you don't mind leaving a lot of performance on the table along with extra money. Because it is just going to underperform to the point that the 12100 could potentially perform almost as well. A used 12400/f is as much as I'd spend on for that board personally. But again, you money spend it how you want. You lost me at thinking Steve Walton is dumb without even watching the whole video. Then if you still think he is dumb, well, that's on you.

 

[MrTeal]

Even a 13400F is likely going to throttle in that board at least somewhat. It's effectively a 12600kf with a 65W limit, but even capped at 65W the PCB under the VRMs was hitting 100°C under sustained load with a i5-12600k.


If your bottleneck really is CPU and core count, you might be best selling or repurposing the 12100F with the existing board, and just replacing it with a new CPU/MB combo.

 

[Rigg]

This is why I suggested that you buy a 12400F/MSI PRO B660M-A (or 5600/b550) and pair them with an RX 6600 when you were planning this build. I made you fully aware of the VRM limitations of most of the motherboards in this price tier before you bought your board. I suggested spending extra $15 (at the time) on the MSI Pro B660M-A because of it's improved power delivery and so you'd have a better CPU upgrade path.

 

[Rigg]

What are you using for storage? You left that out of the OP.

EDIT:
Have you followed the performance tips from the official Rougetech Wiki? The page file and CPU affinity settings are probably critical. It also seems like a good plan to relaunch the game often. The game engine seems to be extremely single thread bound according to the Wiki. Also seems leaky and heavily dependent on the page file so a fast SSD probably helps.