[SOLVED] 3700x vs 10600k 1440p gaming

laker1706

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Hi guys sorry for posting so much but I'm buying a new CPU in a few hours and I've been set to buy the 10600k but I the mobo is gonna cost me so much more than I expected that it got me to think again about the 3700x.
  1. 10600k with a decent z490 mobo(MSI GAMING PLUS/ASUS PRIME P/ASUS TUF GAMING PLUS) is going to cost me about 600$
  2. 3700x with an MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX is going to cost me about 540$ or even 500-520$ if I'll go with a TUF or AUROS mobos.

Few things to mention:

I already have a noctua nhu12s so I am gonna buy a tray version of either CPU.

I am gonna overclock the if needed.

I will be gaming on a 144hz 1440p monitor.
(mostly Call of duty).

I have a HyperX Fury 2400MHz which I'm not planning on upgrading, if I am gonna buy the 3700x I'm gonna try to overclock it to 3000mhz.

So, which CPU do you think I should buy?
 
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AMD doesn't have a RAM issue. There are a few good 3600MHz CL16 kits out now for under $100 too.

I enabled XMP in my BIOS, memory runs at 3200MHz, no issues.

For 1440p gaming, get a 2070 Super or 5700XT and a nice monitor. At this point whatever platform is cheaper to build is the right choice. There is little difference between the two at 1440p.

I will give AMD the edge due to PCI4 4.0, the storage options for NVMe are not as limited compared to 3.0.
Which video card are you looking to get? At 1440p you tend to be mostly GPU limited and there tends not to be a huge difference between most CPUs. Generally speaking if you're not getting an RTX 2080 or better, there won't be much difference between Intel and AMD CPUs in gaming at 1080p, let alone 1440p.
 
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laker1706

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Which video card are you looking to get? At 1440p you tend to be mostly GPU limited and there tends not to be a huge difference between most CPUs. Generally speaking if you're not getting an RTX 2080 or better, there won't be much difference between Intel and AMD CPUs in gaming at 1080p, let alone 1440p.

Close enough, 1080ti.
 
Close enough, 1080ti.

Okay, I run what is effectively the same setup as your proposed 10600k build, 8700k overclocked to 4.9GHz with a 1080Ti. Most of the time I am GPU limited when gaming at 1440p, the big exceptions being the recent Assassin's Creed titles where I hit a slight CPU bottleneck but those games are insanely CPU heavy.

The Ryzen CPUs are more sensitive to RAM speed and there is no guarantee you can get your 2400MHz modules up to 3000MHz at all, or if you do you may have to use some extremely loose timings negating that clock advantage. Having said that in most games you probably still would be GPU limited with a 3700x even if it was hobbled a bit by slower RAM and at least with 3rd gen Ryzen I think there is the possibility of tuning the Infinity Fabric speed independent of RAM speed to try to improve performance with the slower RAM.

Bottom line is you probably will get fairly similar performance with either CPU with Intel having a small edge on some older games that are heavily single thread dependent. The AMD setup is a bit cheaper and if you're willing to tinker with RAM and infinity fabric tuning you can probably get it into a decent state despite re-using slower RAM modules. If you want something simpler that works best straight out of the box for you, then the Intel build might be the better choice.
 

laker1706

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Okay, I run what is effectively the same setup as your proposed 10600k build, 8700k overclocked to 4.9GHz with a 1080Ti. Most of the time I am GPU limited when gaming at 1440p, the big exceptions being the recent Assassin's Creed titles where I hit a slight CPU bottleneck but those games are insanely CPU heavy.

The Ryzen CPUs are more sensitive to RAM speed and there is no guarantee you can get your 2400MHz modules up to 3000MHz at all, or if you do you may have to use some extremely loose timings negating that clock advantage. Having said that in most games you probably still would be GPU limited with a 3700x even if it was hobbled a bit by slower RAM and at least with 3rd gen Ryzen I think there is the possibility of tuning the Infinity Fabric speed independent of RAM speed to try to improve performance with the slower RAM.

Bottom line is you probably will get fairly similar performance with either CPU with Intel having a small edge on some older games that are heavily single thread dependent. The AMD setup is a bit cheaper and if you're willing to tinker with RAM and infinity fabric tuning you can probably get it into a decent state despite re-using slower RAM modules. If you want something simpler that works best straight out of the box for you, then the Intel build might be the better choice.
The 10600K is only a bit faster IF running a 2080Ti, but, they are pretty much equal with a 2060 Super. (Getting high frame rates needed for 1440P gaming at 144 Hz is much more dependent on the GPU for most games)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW84hUjMxHc

(Call of Duty MW 1440P comparisons at 9:05 in video)

Thank you for the detailed answers guys.

GPU bottleneck is no factor for me as I will probably upgrade it in a year or so...I think the only thing that is stopping me from going with AMD is the RAM issue...still got about 2 hours to think 😅
 
AMD doesn't have a RAM issue. There are a few good 3600MHz CL16 kits out now for under $100 too.

I enabled XMP in my BIOS, memory runs at 3200MHz, no issues.

For 1440p gaming, get a 2070 Super or 5700XT and a nice monitor. At this point whatever platform is cheaper to build is the right choice. There is little difference between the two at 1440p.

I will give AMD the edge due to PCI4 4.0, the storage options for NVMe are not as limited compared to 3.0.
 
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