Can I straight-swap these processors, and will I see a benefit

[NorthernMenace]

Hello; I have an ASUS Prime A320M-K motherboard (AM4 socket) currently with a Ryzen7 1700X processor... possibly thinking about putting in another AM4 socket processor - something like a Ryzen 9 5950X or similar, hoping it will be just a straight swap although I will also put in a water cooler AIO type arrangement as machine gets hot when playing DCS. Is it as simple as swapping an AM4 for an AM4 -socket CPU? And will I notice any difference playing DCS with a better CPU?

 

thanks for any advice

Edited Friday at 09:26 AM by NorthernMenace

[Hiob]

IF(!) your motherboard (likely with the latest bios update if ever) does support 5000 series CPUs, you will most likely see "a" benefit. Unless that is, you are otherwise severley bottlenecked. 
Generally speaking, CPU, GPU and RAM should be somewhat in line with each other.

Make 100% sure you MoBo DOES support the CPU you are aiming for. The same Socket alone isn't a guarantee.

how much RAM do you have and what is your GPU?

[NorthernMenace]

Thanks for the reply. I have 32GB RAM; at present I have a 2070 8GB GPU although am also considering upgrading that too...

[Hiob]

Just saw your other thread. With 32 GB and a 3080TI you will definitely see a benefit from a 5000er CPU (especially in VR). However, if your MoBo does support it, I would recommend to go for a 5800X3D.

[Aapje]

The 5800X3D is no longer sold new, but you may be able to get a decent deal for it second hand. A 5700X3D should perform similarly in most games. Having very many cores is not so beneficial for games, while the X3D-cache has a big benefit.

An alternative is to upgrade to AM5, getting a cheapish AM5-motherboard, 64 GB of DDR5-6000 and a 7600X. For example, like this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TykKdH

DCS can really benefit from 64 GB of RAM, and by going to AM5, you are not spending more money on an obsolete platform. A big benefit of that route is that you later on do another big upgrade to a much faster X3D-CPU and get a big boost. The 7600X is about as fast as a 5700X3D/5800X3D, but where the latter is the end of the line, you can later on replace that 7600X with a 9800X3D or a future generation X3D-chip.

That new motherboard also has PCIe 4, so that means that it can use faster NVMe's and is more futureproof with regard to the PCIe speed for the GPU.

PS. It is absolutely not necessary to get an AIO cooler. Not sure what cooler you have on there (the stock one??), but there are very good air coolers for amazingly low prices, like the one that I specced in my build. These are more reliable and longer lasting than AIOs. Of course, regardless of air cooling or AIO, you need decent airflow into the case.

[NorthernMenace]

Well may I just say "thank you very much, Sir" because I had never heard of "PC Part Picker" before... then I saw the link you supplied was US/in USD so I thought "oh, that's a shame; a great idea but US focused." Oh no.... it's UK-too! Wow. I will now be having hours of fun with that.

One of the bemusing things about this for people like me (who built machines years ago and hasn't kept up with what everything means these days) is all the different combinations of chipsets, interfaces, etc. That website appears to check compatibility and do 'best price', what a fab idea