Intel

2600k > 6700k > 9700k > 13600k is my upgrade path,

I recently went from an i5-3330k to an i7-12700k. The jump was noticeable to say the least.

I upgraded from the first I5 to the last I5 😂 (1st gen to 14th gen)

I5 6500 to i5 13600kf.

When the next one comes out

Every few generations. My last CPU was an i9 9900k, current one is an i9 13900k.

4790K -> 5960X -> 9900K

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have no intentions of moving any time soon... 9900k is still ripping for me

i have a ryzen 2600 & 1060 rn, would jumping to 15th gen next year do anything for me without a gpu upgrade?

upgraded from athlon x2 to 7800x3d, now i just need save some money for 4090 to go from geforce 8600...

I upgrade hhen new RAM is released (DDR4 -> DDR5), I had an i5 from the sixth generation. Upgraded to an i7 of the fourteenth gen.

4770k > 8700 >10900k >13900k

every other, i got a 13900KF, will upgrade with zen6 or Arrow Lake, whatever is better at the time, probably zen 6 X3D

Use based, like i had an i7 4770K then when I was overseas I was mostly on laptop (desktop replacement) with a 6820HK, upgraded my laptop to 9750H, then I built my rig with a 9700K, sold to a friend, built another rig with 10700K, sold to a friend, came back stateside built the latest and greatest at the time lol so 10900K, skipped 11th, didnt want early adopter 12th, got 13th. If the price is right, IPC is great, everything is good maybe a 15th gen but if you want everything ironed out after a new platform then it'll be 16th if we go by the tick tock process.

8K/9K - went with 9K

10K/11K - went with 10K

12K/13K/14K - went with 13K, I could've gotten the 14700K for cheap but I got the 13K brand new for $280 so... $280 vs $400 lol

15K/16K - if stable platform 15th if theres any sales, 16th if i want most of the stuff ironed out

The difference with 11th -> 12th gen was DDR5, you can keep your good DDR4 kit if you didn't want to jump ship, initial DDR5 was trash, no availability, no kits, barely to no kits with XMP.. this was the early adopter phase and you had kits going for $300-400 now they're what like $80-$100 for a good 32GB kit with a good xmp.

Now that DDR5 is has pretty much settled the transition to 15th/16th will probably be easier.

But to answer your question, sometimes I just line it up with GPU release:

4770K I had a 970

6820HK I had a 970M (laptop)

6820HK I had a 1070 (laptop)

9750H I had a 2060 (laptop)

9700K I had a 2080

10700K I had a 2080 Super

10900K I had a 3080

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5800H I have a 3070 (AMD laptop)

13700K I have a 4080 (had a 4070Ti, had a 4090)

Depends on needs and cpu. I kept my previous cpu (i7 2600k) for about 10 years but thats an anomaly due to anemic cpu performance progress during that time period and me also not doing anything seriously cpu intensive. 2600k had also very good oc gains and hyperthreading aldo carried compared to just 4c/4t cpus. Previously i owned pentium iii -> pentium 4 -> core duo E6750.

I went from 7800x to 13700k and felt like that was as long as I could possibly wait. So give or take 5-6 years.

When I upgrade the Video Card i guess? I have 10700k right now. I’m jumping to RTX 4070 TI from 2070 Super. I did consider upgrading to 14700k but I think it’s unnecessary. I don’t want to change the motherboard.

When you feel things are not functioning the way it is. On laptops, I previously jumped from 3rd Gen (i5-3210M) to 8th Gen (8550U), and now currently on 12th Gen (12700H+RTX 3060). Buying the U series was a mistake, if not I would have not gotten my 12th Gen laptop and probably bought a new one with the 14th Gen. My guess is, every 5-6 years should be good enough. Anything less than 3 years is not recommended unless you really need to extract and use every bit of processing power that the new gen delivers.

For the gaming scenario, most games above 1080p are GPU throttled and not CPU, so you might not gain a lot. My 12700H literally has the same performance as your 10700K and I would wager a guess, that it can last for 2-3 more years at least. Use the money to get a new GPU (if you game), or a better monitor.

I typically upgrade annually if not every other year. If you're thinking of upgrading to another Intel platform, I'd definately reccomend waiting for 15th gen. There's going to be some major changes coming with 15th and 16th gen platforms. Not only to the silicone but also to quite a few other things. It's very exciting what's coming! And honestly, good call on waiting for 15th gen instead of going with current platforms as we're towards the end of their life cycle. Good luck and have fun!

When the typical games require double the amount of cores of my current cpu to play smoothly.

I ran my 10850k for ~3 years, before getting a super cheap 5800x3d from a friend going to am5. Will be going to 7800x3d or 7900x within the next month. But I have a mental problem and upgrade a lot 🤣.

When new one comes out.

six generations is a good time.

whenever the mood strikes me

10700K to 15th gen or 7800X3D (for gaming) will both be good upgrades.

I tend to upgrade when I “need”. 2600K —> 8700K because VR performance was getting weak and Battlefield V couldn’t maintain 60 fps on the OC 2600K. 8700K —> 9900K because Microcenter had a $249 sale on 9900K, figured why not. 9900K —> Ryzen 7 7700X because I wanted new platform features, and I was getting back into flight simulation in VR, and I knew that the 7800X3D would plug in and work great (and it did). The 7700X was a large upgrade from the 9900K in some other games though too — Apex Legends, for example.

Before the 2600K I always had a rule of ‘can I get 3x the performance out of the new chip? If yes, then upgrade’. That was easy in earlier days - but now 3X performance takes a really long time.

When the tech excites me or if my current platform if annoying me. Basically, I don’t try to logic it, I just use my machine until I decide I both want and can afford to build anew.

I think trying to time it or play the measuring game is a fools errand unless you’re using it as a workstation or something.

i7 4790k to i7 7700k to i9 12900K just last year. So am moving to 15th or 16th gen or probably 17th gen in the next few years.

Only reason I upgraded to 12900k was because Windows 11 do not support 7th gen and below and in the upcoming update for Windows 12.

I do a whole system build every 5 years or so, around the time my previous is starting to show its age but is still sellable. Fx6300/GTX770>9700k/GTX1080>13700kf/RTX4090

Depends what you use your pc for.

I seem to average every 6-7 years since I started building myself. Phenom ii x4 965 in 2010, i7 7700k in 2017, and I'm looking to upgrade to either a 12900k or 7800 x3d next month.

every 5-7 years.

every time a new one comes out :( its really stupid

I went from i5 7500 to i5 8600K to 9700K to 9900K to 12600K to 14700K. So whenever the fancy takes me.

Only when my pc won’t provide an enjoyable experience. I went from a X5690 to a i7-12700k last December and I still felt like it would have had a bit more life in it if it supported AVX instruction sets.

Still on 8th gen, still does all I need. Will leave it till its forced on my by no longer doing what I need or 10 goes out of support since I cant put 11 on it.

it depends i went from a 4690k to a 8700k then did a 9900k but then waited till the 7900x3d to take a leap over to amd. the performance gains ive had have been middling till the 7900x3d that was a good leap

I'm jumping from Ivy Bridge to Alder Lake at present... so jumping 9 generations?

Depends, i went 8700k ->11700K -> 13600K so 2/3 years usually.

5930k --> 12900k

i5 7500 -> i7 13700K.

Old rig suffers from major CPU bottleneck and has a toasted GPU, so I decided to upgrade.

ill do it when they make a 56 thread cpu.

Ryzen 2600 to a 13600k. Was pretty noticeable but could also be the 2060 to the 3080 that helped too.

When it can no longer maintain over 60 fps in a game I am playing. Usually works out to every 6 years or so

When it breaks or I can't do the things I want to do in an acceptable amount of time. I have 10th gen i5 now. I don't plan to upgrade anytime soon.

6700k->12600KF->13900K

I have 6th gen Pentium G4400 and other than playing 4K HDR it still is sufficient for me. So it will depend upon the people not the processor generation

I upgrad when I need more performance. Recently went from a 8400 + 1050ti to a 13400 + 6700xt

I went from 3700x to 5800x to catch a sale and one generation was not enough to justify it imho. I am considering 15th gen though with DDR5. Especially since I have gotten back into MMOs, which can really put a single-core to the test.

When I have money

any else rocking 4th gen?

Every 3 to 4 generations I believe. Personally went from 4460 to 8500 to 13500