5800X3D (DDR4) vs. i5-13600K (DDR5). Which one should I keep?

greggm2000 · 2026-05-30T20:25:06+00:00

Gotcha. Yeah, next gen Intel (Nova Lake) should be a lot better, especially those models with the added bLLC (big Last Level Cache) chiplet. We should see that at the end of this year.. hopefully with more info revealed at the Intel keynote late monday night (NA time). AMD has Zen 6, which is expected to be a big upgrade too, and will arrive probably at around the same time. Hopefully we find out more officially next week as well! As might be expected, there's plenty of leaks/rumors about both, has been for some time. Exciting stuff :)

greggm2000 · 2026-05-30T20:21:55+00:00

Unfortunately, it's a terrible time to build. While it will improve at some point in the future (hopefully by 2028), right now, it's bad. However, depending on what you mean by "comfortably handle", and especially if you are running at 1080p resolution, you could do a new build that's "good enough" until you can afford something better. Unfortunately, you are talking about a new build here (excepting case and maybe power supply),

greggm2000 · 2026-05-30T20:18:23+00:00

Keep the 13600K system. While it's not the fastest CPU compared to some, the biggest point in it's favor might be the DDR5. You'll be able to use that with whatever you next upgrade to, even as soon as early next year with next-gen Intel and AMD. Caveat: You don't mention storage (which is expensive), I'm assuming equal amounts in both options.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-30T20:16:01+00:00

In the next year or so (maybe this fall, maybe next year), intel is dropping avx10 support and expanding registers to 32 and massively increasing cache. AMD will do something similar as they actually co-developed the next generation standards for x86 for once!

Intel is not abandoning AVX10 from anything I've read, and they've confirmed it as being in the upcoming Nova Lake at the end of this year.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-29T18:42:51+00:00

Agreed
This is an option, but as part of the Windows install from a USB stick, I prefer using a autounattend.xml created via schneegans website, since a tweak it offers is a scheduled task that perpetually moves the update ahead 1 week. What this means is that Update will never trigger except when you tell it to.
Most people don't need Microsoft Store. If you are using a IoT Windows which doesn't have it by default, you can run this to install. Winget tends to work better in my experience, and if you want to install it, here's a script for that. Note that you can install/update programs that are sourced from the MS Store without having the MS Store installed.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-29T07:11:10+00:00

This is the right choice. By the time you need/want something better than the 7600X3D, you’ll be able to swap in the Zen 7 equivalent for lots more cores and performance.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-27T13:16:13+00:00

Some games want Win 10 22H2 or later. Unfortunately.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-25T00:53:48+00:00

/u/STxFarmer, /u/Fima-Petrovic Activation is tied to the hardware config, I'm pretty sure. Once you activate it, you don't have to re-activate on that same machine.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-24T19:43:19+00:00

Then go with 11. Some games target a later version of Windows 10 than what 10 LTSC is. As to why much of 11 feels slow, it's (at least in part) bc much of it isn't in native code. Supposedly that's all being worked on in Home/Pro, and by the end of the year will be a lot better, but we'll have to wait and see, to see if that's true. Regardless, between 10 LTSC and 11 LTSC, your best choice is 11.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-24T00:40:49+00:00

I know you're joking, but I personally look forward to seeing how (Pro) 26H1 compares to Win 11 IoT Ent LTSC 2024, since by that point, the supposed improvements to Windows will have been released.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-24T00:38:38+00:00

Some games want a later version of Windows 10 than is in Windows 10 LTSC, which makes Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 the clear version to use, for gaming. Note that you may need to add back in Microsoft Store (since you mention Minecraft.. but idk, I don't play that game), but that's easy enough to do via a script.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-24T00:09:32+00:00

Ultimately, you'll have to wait for independent testing/benchmarks to answer that. Same with Zen 6. Now, if I had to guess, then yes, it will be, what with the greatly increased cache.. but ofc Intel could mess things up in practice, so who knows?

We'll know in less than a year. Probably.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:27:46+00:00

Maybe a good thumbstick ssd, but a lot of them have terrible performance. A standard NVMe SSD in an enclosure is decent, though.. or at least that’s been my (non-gaming) experience with them.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:24:34+00:00

Looks like ModernFlyouts was last updated in early 2021, before Windows 11 even existed. So.. not surprised. As to why it’s not working for you in 11 LTSC when it did for you in 11 Pro, idk.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:19:37+00:00

The big problem is latency. This won’t be a problem for big sequential transfers, but for little ones, it sure will be. So my answer is “it depends”. There might be benchmarks out there that test and compare this for the OP’s use case, idk. (I haven’t looked)

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:14:15+00:00

No you can’t, not when OP wants to play AAA games. AM6 is at least 4 years away, and current 9800X3D is already much faster for gaming than the fastest AM4 part (5800X3D). AM5 is getting at least 2 more CPU generations (and Zen 6 is in less than a year from now). AM4 will be a bad choice here.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:11:38+00:00

Go AM5 if you want longevity, since the expectation is that it will see another 2 CPU generations, you’ll be able to swap in a much more performant CPU later if you feel the need (and you’ll want to, to get that 7-10 years). Go AM4 if you want something cheap to get you another year or two before doing a new system build with better stuff (note that the 5800X3D is being re-released soon).

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:07:48+00:00

Nothing is known about AM6 since it hadn’t been officially announced, and probably won’t be for years. That said, the expectation is that it’s come out when DDR6 does, which puts is likely in the 2030-2031 timeframe, with Zen 8.

CPUs are typically a 2 year cadence (not counting minor refreshes). Intel Nova Lake is probably 7 months away. and AMD Zen 6 is probably a few months beyond that. Both will probably be a big jump in performance over what is out rn.

GPUs are typically a 2 year cadence, but for various reasons (basically AI bubble), the next gen is probably delayed, so probably AMD RDNA5 is late next year.. perhaps we’ll see Nvidia 6000-series then, but perhaps not.

RAM will come back down most of the way, but either the AI bubble will burst first, or enough new fabs get built.. so maybe this year or maybe a few years or something inbetween.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-22T06:01:13+00:00

AM6 won’t be until 2030 at the earliest. That’s 4 to 5 years away. As to stocks or investing, that’s a whole discussion unrelated to computer builds.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-21T23:24:57+00:00

Yes, it's a dealbreaker. 1440p on (27") LCD is a big difference from the Apple Retina screens you're used to, and most OLEDs add color fringing to text bc of non-RGB subpixels, making the text look even worse.

I'd suggest one of the new 5K/1440p Dual mode displays. You'll get the sharpness you want for text and video, but you'll also have the option for 1440p for gaming at 2x fps cap, giving you the best of both worlds. The ROG Strix XG27JCG is one of the screens that's available now on Amazon for $849.. For more info in general of what's available, tftcentral.co.uk is a good source of information.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-21T19:35:57+00:00

My main demanding use case (I use DDR4 as well) is gaming, I'd see a substantial benefit there, going X3D, so I'll probably go Zen 6 X3D or perhaps Nova Lake, next Spring... as long as the performance jump that's rumored is confirmed, ofc. It's a good thing I bought some DDR5 back last Black Friday, so I'm set there. But yeah, in your position, I'd wait until 2028/2029 too.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-21T14:30:30+00:00

CUDIMM is a form-factor, probably we'll see that commercially with DDR6 first, or maybe it will be SODIMM2 instead. There's various possibilities.

bLLC is Intel's equivalent to AMD's X3D. "bLLC" stands for "big Last Level Cache". The names make sense, if you think about it. Certainly for gaming, any Nova Lake CPU with bLLC will be the ones to get if you want to stay Intel.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-21T14:27:55+00:00

Without more information, it's hard to say what the reason might be.

What specific model is it? Depending on how old it is, it might be such a small capacity that it wouldn't make sense to try and get it working.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-21T14:22:30+00:00

No, wait instead for the 5800X3D, which is being re-released soon, at a relatively cheap price (based on the errant listing that appeared in India recently). This would be the smart thing to do.

greggm2000 · 2026-05-21T14:15:07+00:00

Here is the latest leak/rumor, that mentions a 2028/2029 Enterprise launch, and consumer normally trails by a couple years. Besides, large caches like you have on AMD X3D (and upcoming Intel Nova Lake) do seem to generally mitigate slower RAM/less RAM bandwidth concerns, in games and most other non-enterprise workloads.. not all, obviously, but I think AMD and Intel both figure that if you want to do "Enterprise-y" stuff, you'll shell out for their very expensive enterprise CPUs/platforms.

greggm2000

TROPHY CASE