How to tell if your motherboard can handle the upgrade?

[shoyu]

Is there a site, guide, or something else that'll help you determine how much of an upgrade your motherboard can handle? I enjoy building my own PCs, but I'm hardly an expert on the matter.

In my case, I'm looking to upgrade my CPU, but I don't want to have to upgrade my motherboard as well (along with any other parts that might need to be changed too). So I want to see what's the best possible CPU my motherboard can handle. Currently, I have a Gigabyte GA-X99-Phoenix SLI and a Intel Core i7-6800K 3.40GHz 6 core. The socket type is LGA2011-3.

Thanks in advance.

[aileron]

That's correct but it isn't just about the socket. As new processors come out and the mobo stays the same eventually one will come out that the bios (software that's inside chips on the mobo) doesn't support even if it physically fits in the socket. The compatibility lists and mobo manufacturer's website that were linked above are the way to go.

[Garrett]

Motherboards have a CPU socket, and it's impossible to install an incompatible CPU because every socket has a physical shape unique to the processors it supports. Find out which socket your MB has and you can easily look at the specs of any processor and see if it shares a socket with your MB.

[Baron Baldric]

Any of these is compatible: i7-6850K i7-6900K, i7-6950X .... but I do not find sense, you already have a processor that can run all the games perfectly.

[TelperionST]

There's a ton of good PC hardware advise and linked videos on this site. It looks a little daunting at first, but there's a ton of information there.

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

Here's a nifty little tool for the future, if you someday want to build your entire PC from scratch.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/


The short answer is that you are at the upper limit of what your motherboard can handle. If you want to upgrade into the i8 or i9 processors, then you need to upgrade your motherboard.

Looks like you have a Broadwell-E i7-6800K CPU, which is a very good mid-range CPU. You could upgrade to the 6900K (8 cores) or 6950X (10 cores), but here's the bothersome thing: more cores doesn't automatically mean better performance. This is particularly true when it comes to gaming, because a lot of games don't even support 6 cores, which is what you have now.

You could upgrade to the 6850K, which would give you a .2 upgrade to your Core frequency (~3.4 GHz --> ~3.6 GHz), but I doubt you will notice any significant difference.

Why do you need to upgrade your CPU? A lot of times you'll be perfectly fine with a mid-range CPU and motherboard, if your GPU is powerful enough.

[Saskia]

Also, a complete list of every CPU your motherboard supports:

https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherbo...10#support-cpu


Google is your friend!

[Saskia]

Here you go, a benchmark list for every Socket LGA2011-v3 CPU available:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/socketType.html#id21

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

The only thing I can suggest is going to the mother board manufacturer website and find out yourself. Expertise is hardly remembering every single detail about a subject, but knowing where to find that information.