[SOLVED] 9700k or 3700x?

mel21

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Hi so i want to upgrade from my 6700k and i'll be giving it to my niece who plays minecraft, roblox and other games later on for kids.

I am conflicted on which one to get the 9700k or the 3700x
I've read a lot of post and I still can't decide some post says that the 3700x loses on game performance? (also seeing a lot of post about heating issue with this cpu) and that if I want purely just gaming and milk the fps then get the 9700k? but this cpu also has heating issues or has higher temp? unlike the 3700x and I'll need to upgrade my hyper 212 LED to a beefier or better cooler? Is it okay if I use the hyper 212 if i don't OC? and just use stock

I can't decide which one to get. I can't really find anyone on youtube that has this setup that shows low, medium, high settings on various games.
I am not one of those people that cares about maxing all my settings to high/ultra for that "gaming experience" since I am a cs player if you play cs or any knowledge about cs then you know a lot of us play on low settings its just what i grew accustomed to and when I play other games I either play medium settings or low for more fps and more smooth gaming.

I don't do any editing or any of that sort, tbh I thought about it LONG time ago but never really bothered with it all these years so I honestly don't plan to start now.
I've been asking my friends also some say the 9700k (fanboyish is the reason) some says 3700x (also fanboyish) but both had their reasons like for the intel just pure gaming and more fps, for AMD future proof for future games that will start using more cores? and for multi-tasking & streaming.

I do like AMD for future proof but i don't do any heavy multi-tasking just your regular (discord & chrome for watching streams/browsing, when gaming I only have discord open and close chrome since i dont need it) or streaming I just get on at night and game for a few hours then thats it lol

I've never OC any cpu in my life and don't really plan to since I have no interest in it and don't want to risk having issues later.

Honestly I just want to just purely game now a days. Any advice on which CPU to get?

Also my specs right now is

i7-6700k w/ Hyper 212 LED
EVGA 1080 FTW (Don't plan on upgrading it till new gpu comes out and hoping the 2070/2080 goes down in prices)
16gb ram 3000mhz
750watts powersupply
 
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Solution
If building a new system, I think AMD is the only way to go today. Socket 1200 (400-series motherboards) supports Comet Lake and Rocket Lake CPUs only, and Socket 1700 is expected to be out next year. While Rocket Lake is not out yet, preliminary leaked benchmarks do not show any significant gains over 10th generation Comet Lake CPUs which in themselves are not a significant upgrade over 9th generation. You do get extra cores at the expense of tremendous power consumption. Consequently, high end parts require expensive cooling solutions, and top notch power supplies.

On the AMD front, an x570 motherboard gives you ability to upgrade to 4000 Ryzens which are likely to have 15% faster IPC and be more efficient. (judging by the 2000 to...
the 9700k puts out a few extra frames when benchmarking, yes. it is technically the superior gaming chip however the difference is small.

checkout this comparison: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ryzen-9-3900x-7-3700x-review,6214-7.html

so the difference isn't very big (apart from Far Cry).
furthermore the 3700X has some extra threads which can help in certain situations and potentially in the future

there's no heating issues with the 3700X, in fact it's easier to cool than the 9700K, you just have to accept that it reacts a bit differently. due to the 7nm die heat builds up initially faster so your chip will idle at a higher temperature and you'd want to set a delay for fan operation when you set the fan curve. but that's like... takes 1min and you never have to touch it again. the 9700k however runs quite a bit hotter under load.

Both will do fine in any high end gaming build.

I personally upgraded to a 3700X from my 6700k, majorily since it was cheaper than a 9700k. both CPUs will last you as long as the 6700k did -- which still is a very capable CPU.

there are however the 10700k, a 3700XT or whatever it's called and B550 boards set to be available very soon so unless you have to buy this week, it can be worth to wait a few weeks.
 

mel21

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The advent of DDR5 later this year or early next year, takes away the so called "future proofing" from both platforms"...
https://www.dignited.com/62122/ddr5-specs-release-date/

If you are just gaming then this is your answer...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVBlCfb72M&t=483s


This was an advice my friend gave me to wait for the DDR5 but i dont see the use of DDR5 yet? maybe in a year or 2? especially since I am only trying to spend 600ish since the only thing I'll be upgrading is the CPU & Motherboard i already have a case, ram if I go intel if not and I go AMD theres a corsair 16gb 3600mhz for $77 on amazon.
 

mel21

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the 9700k puts out a few extra frames when benchmarking, yes. it is technically the superior gaming chip however the difference is small.

checkout this comparison: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ryzen-9-3900x-7-3700x-review,6214-7.html

so the difference isn't very big (apart from Far Cry).
furthermore the 3700X has some extra threads which can help in certain situations and potentially in the future

there's no heating issues with the 3700X, in fact it's easier to cool than the 9700K, you just have to accept that it reacts a bit differently. due to the 7nm die heat builds up initially faster so your chip will idle at a higher temperature and you'd want to set a delay for fan operation when you set the fan curve. but that's like... takes 1min and you never have to touch it again. the 9700k however runs quite a bit hotter under load.

Both will do fine in any high end gaming build.

I personally upgraded to a 3700X from my 6700k, majorily since it was cheaper than a 9700k. both CPUs will last you as long as the 6700k did -- which still is a very capable CPU.

there are however the 10700k, a 3700XT or whatever it's called and B550 boards set to be available very soon so unless you have to buy this week, it can be worth to wait a few weeks.

due to the 7nm die heat builds up initially faster so your chip will idle at a higher temperature and you'd want to set a delay for fan operation when you set the fan curve. but that's like... takes 1min and you never have to touch it again.


^^ This I've never read anyone saying this so this is the 1st time im hearing it
I saw some 10700k videos but tbh I don't think the upgrade to it is worth it? especially the price for the CPU & the new mobos are expensive.

I am only trying to spend under 600ish since the only thing I'll be upgrading is the CPU & Motherboard i already have a case, ram if I go intel if not and I go AMD theres a corsair 16gb 3600mhz for $77 on amazon, Case, PSU, FANS, & GPU is still only a 1080
 

Mickieg1994

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A 3700x will be a great chip for years to come but have a look at the price difference between that and a 3900x, sometimes the prices are pretty close and they can end up being a better deal, depending on sales and your location ofcourse, it will last much longer for AAA games and for even longer than that as an aged desktop, Also for the newest AAA games 8 cores is the sweet spot at the moment, it probably won't be in a year or two, i bought a 2700x to last me until AM5 and DDR5 come out and it's only about 10% slower then a 3700x

I think you could fit a 3900x in your budget and aim for 32gb of ram down the line too, a decent b450 board is all you need and you will be upgrading to a whole new platform by the time your 3900x is done
 
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mel21

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A 3700x will be a great chip for years to come but have a look at the price difference between that and a 3900x, sometimes the prices are pretty close and they can end up being a better deal, depending on sales and your location ofcourse, it will last much longer for AAA games and for even longer than that as an aged desktop, Also for the newest AAA games 8 cores is the sweet spot at the moment, it probably won't be in a year or two, i bought a 2700x to last me until AM5 and DDR5 come out and it's only about 10% slower then a 3700x

Also the 6700k is only 4 cores 8 threads? you will want alot more than that for most games nowadays or even a web browsing desktop if you want it to feel snappy and the price is still way too high for that kind of performance, unfortunately most of intels new line up suffers from being overpriced and running hot from what i have seen online

I think you could fit a 3900x in your budget and aim for 32gb of ram down the line too, a decent b450 board is all you need and you will be upgrading to a whole new platform by the time your 3900x is done


Do you think I should just wait till the DDR5 comes out? I dont see the benfit of waiting till it comes out and then upgrade. I mean they’ll be coming out along with new cpu and mobos thats compatible with it right?

Thats almost a whole new setup again if my psu last till then lol though its been years since ive had this and its been amazing till today but cant see what the future holds and i dont know how long I have left on my gaming habits lol some games have been boring lately and im trying to play more other games to get my thirst for gaming back.

I thought about the 3900x also but yea id need a pretty good ram for it and 32gb is a bit overkill? especially for what i do and games i play.
 

InvalidError

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The advent of DDR5 later this year or early next year, takes away the so called "future proofing" from both platforms"...
The first generation or two of chips after a new DDR standard show little to no benefit from it since early DRAM have substantially higher latency from the increased amount of internal multiplexing circuitry and lower operating voltage. People won't be rushing to buy DDR5 until DDR5 fast enough to consistently beat good DDR4 in real-world benchmarks reaches close to price parity with comparable DDR4.
 
This was an advice my friend gave me to wait for the DDR5 but i dont see the use of DDR5 yet? maybe in a year or 2? especially since I am only trying to spend 600ish since the only thing I'll be upgrading is the CPU & Motherboard i already have a case, ram if I go intel if not and I go AMD theres a corsair 16gb 3600mhz for $77 on amazon.
For AMD you will need faster RAM, but you already have sufficient RAM for Intel and since you are not interested in Overclocking...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-10700 2.9 GHz 8-Core Processor | $335.00 @ B&H
CPU Cooler | Corsair A70 61 CFM CPU Cooler | $29.99 @ Best Buy
Motherboard | ASRock B460 Pro4 ATX LGA1200 Motherboard | $99.99 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $464.98
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-02 12:35 EDT-0400 |


The first generation or two of chips after a new DDR standard show little to no benefit from it since early DRAM have substantially higher latency from the increased amount of internal multiplexing circuitry and lower operating voltage. People won't be rushing to buy DDR5 until DDR5 fast enough to consistently beat good DDR4 in real-world benchmarks reaches close to price parity with comparable DDR4.
Not about people rushing to buy, but manufacturers dropping compatibility...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5X-8vZtml8
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Do you think I should just wait till the DDR5 comes out?

I thought about the 3900x also but yea id need a pretty good ram for it and 32gb is a bit overkill? especially for what i do and games i play.
DDR5 won't be coming to consumer-friendly price points any time soon and initial performance is often worse than good previous-gen memory so there is no point in bothering with early adoption.

The main reason I would recommend getting 32GB now is so you don't have to worry about upgrading it later. If you get only 16GB today, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade to 32GB later once DDR4 has been discontinued and paying 2-4X as much for it if you want to buy new. I'm glad I put 32GB in my i5-34700 for only $200 almost eight years ago, otherwise I would have found myself wanting to upgrade from 16GB to 32GB during a period where DDR3 prices ballooned to ~$300/16GB.
 

mel21

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The first generation or two of chips after a new DDR standard show little to no benefit from it since early DRAM have substantially higher latency from the increased amount of internal multiplexing circuitry and lower operating voltage. People won't be rushing to buy DDR5 until DDR5 fast enough to consistently beat good DDR4 in real-world benchmarks reaches close to price parity with comparable DDR4.


Yeah i dont see the benefit of a DDR5 yet maybe in a few years especially since it will need a new mobo/cpu thats compatible with it, and the 10th gen and new ryzen arent/wont be compatible with it
 

mel21

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For AMD you will need faster RAM, but you already have sufficient RAM for Intel and since you are not interested in Overclocking...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-10700 2.9 GHz 8-Core Processor | $335.00 @ B&H
CPU Cooler | Corsair A70 61 CFM CPU Cooler | $29.99 @ Best Buy
Motherboard | ASRock B460 Pro4 ATX LGA1200 Motherboard | $99.99 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $464.98
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-02 12:35 EDT-0400 |



Not about people rushing to buy, but manufacturers dropping compatibility...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5X-8vZtml8


Ive never really bothered learning if the K or non-k has any big difference? I know that k means you can OC your cpu but do you lose any performance that the stock k-series have compared to the non-k?
 
Ive never really bothered learning if the K or non-k has any big difference? I know that k means you can OC your cpu but do you lose any performance that the stock k-series have compared to the non-k?
Not really, other than faster clocks out of the box. But it wont mater much as they would eventually turbo in the same range.

Compatibility with what? If OP buys a CPU and board that use DDR4 today, the board and CPU won't magically lose DDR4 support or gain DDR5 support tomorrow. If OP goes with the 3700X or 10700(k), I doubt he'll need an upgrade within the platform's useful life.

From future genrations, not current ones. OP mentioned upgradability in the initial post.
 

mel21

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DDR5 won't be coming to consumer-friendly price points any time soon and initial performance is often worse than good previous-gen memory so there is no point in bothering with early adoption.

The main reason I would recommend getting 32GB now is so you don't have to worry about upgrading it later. If you get only 16GB today, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade to 32GB later once DDR4 has been discontinued and paying 2-4X as much for it if you want to buy new. I'm glad I put 32GB in my i5-34700 for only $200 almost eight years ago, otherwise I would have found myself wanting to upgrade from 16GB to 32GB during a period where DDR3 prices ballooned to ~$300/16GB.

I see i’ll look around for a decent priced 32gb should it be 3000 or 3200mhz? So far what ive read those were the best mhz for a 3900x? Could be wronf and read an older article. I dont keep up with amd or intel that much so im still lacking in knowledge of what ram is good for ryzen. Theres articles on that i just read and follow but never sure lol.
 
I see i’ll look around for a decent priced 32gb should it be 3000 or 3200mhz? So far what ive read those were the best mhz for a 3900x? Could be wronf and read an older article. I dont keep up with amd or intel that much so im still lacking in knowledge of what ram is good for ryzen. Theres articles on that i just read and follow but never sure lol.
Ryzen will need 3600mhz or higher with tighter timing for best performance...
https://premiumbuilds.com/ram/best-ram-for-ryzen-3000/

With Intel you can add another 16gb of the same to the existing kit.
 

Mickieg1994

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Do you think I should just wait till the DDR5 comes out? I dont see the benfit of waiting till it comes out and then upgrade. I mean they’ll be coming out along with new cpu and mobos thats compatible with it right?

Thats almost a whole new setup again if my psu last till then lol though its been years since ive had this and its been amazing till today but cant see what the future holds and i dont know how long I have left on my gaming habits lol some games have been boring lately and im trying to play more other games to get my thirst for gaming back.

I thought about the 3900x also but yea id need a pretty good ram for it and 32gb is a bit overkill? especially for what i do and games i play.

Its entirely your choice, if you are unhappy with your performance in games then it's worth the upgrade now, as it will take a while to work out those kinks, price drops and product improvements before it becomes worth it at a consumer level and that will probably take another year after it's launched not to mention, compatible motherboards and multiple manufacturers having competing products available, so that you have a decent choice when you come to buy is more important than anything else

Yea i understand what you mean, like for cyberpunk 2077, that game will use all 12 cores no problem, as this moves on the new tomb raider and other AAA titles will start to use more and more cpu, and it would really suck if a game came out a year or two from now and then thats when you realise you should of bought a better cpu, i have a 2700x and in a game like ANNO 1800, i notice how my cpu is doing all the work and it kind of struggles as i build my city bigger and bigger, i notice it struggle, just a little bit but it's there , so it depends on the games you are playing too

32gb of ram may sound wild at first but many games nowadays will use 8-10 from what i have noticed while gaming, windows will use 2 and a web browser can use up to 5 if not more with a few tabs open, it adds up after a while, so come next year when AAA games are using over 10 normally you are going to want that overhead, especially as textures get bigger and more detailed the ram is more and more necessary, aswell as on chip cache for the cpu too which is 2x as much on the 3900x
 

mel21

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Not really, other than faster clocks out of the box. But it wont mater much as they would eventually turbo in the same range.

I see yeah from what i just saw for $465 thats not bad and i dont need to upgrade my ram and it saves me some money and will probably add that to when the new gpus come out and if 2070/2080 gpus prices goes down to a decent price hopefully be able to upgrade from my 1080. Thanks will keep this in mind and will keep reading more advices.
 

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
For pure gaming a 10600k, without a doubt. If you want to do any kind of video editing, and such, 3700x. I don't expect the 10700 to do any better, than the 10400 does, due to slower ram speeds, that a B460 platform would force you into.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-10600K 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490 AORUS ELITE ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $579.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-02 12:59 EDT-0400
 
For pure gaming a 10600k, without a doubt. If you want to do any kind of video editing, and such, 3700x. I don't expect the 10700 to do any better, than the 10400 does, due to slower ram speeds, that a B460 platform would force you into.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-10600K 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490 AORUS ELITE ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $579.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-02 12:59 EDT-0400
B460 supports upto 2933mhz. He already has 16gb of 3000mhz.
 

mel21

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Its entirely your choice, if you are unhappy with your performance in games then it's worth the upgrade now, as it will take a while to work out those kinks, price drops and product improvements before it becomes worth it at a consumer level and that will probably take another year after it's launched not to mention, compatible motherboards and multiple manufacturers having competing products available, so that you have a decent choice when you come to buy is more important than anything else

Yea i understand what you mean, like for cyberpunk 2077, that game will use all 12 cores no problem, as this moves on the new tomb raider and other AAA titles will start to use more and more cpu, and it would really suck if a game came out a year or two from now and then thats when you realise you should of bought a better cpu, i have a 2700x and in a game like ANNO 1800, i notice how my cpu is doing all the work and it kind of struggles as i build my city bigger and bigger, i notice it struggle, just a little bit but it's there , so it depends on the games you are playing too

32gb of ram may sound wild at first but many games nowadays will use 8-10 from what i have noticed while gaming, windows will use 2 and a web browser can use up to 5 if not more with a few tabs open, it adds up after a while, so come next year when AAA games are using over 10 normally you are going to want that overhead, especially as textures get bigger and more detailed the ram is more and more necessary, aswell as on chip cache for the cpu too which is 2x as much on the 3900x

I see yeah ive noticed my ram getting to 3-4 already when i have multiple twitch streams on since chromes such a ram hog 😒 32gb make sense then. I usually play FPS games like csgo, valorant, r6, Tarkov and sometimes modded minecraft and as i mentioned from the og post that i dont really care much for maxing my settings medium for me is fine as long as i get that smooth gaming especially for fps like csgo i play that in all Low settings lol but for cod and tarkov the fps is okay-ish but wish it could be better hence why i want to upgrade from my 6700k.

Will also keep this is mind and will keep reading more advice since i am actually not in a rush and could wait maybe another month or 2 if i dont see any price drop from these cpu’s. 3700x already drop to 275 from 285 so thats + and could use the rest $$ for a 32gb.

Thanks