AMD 2700x vs Intel 8700

johnrob

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Nov 22, 2014
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Which of these stock cooled, and in my case, non overclocked cpus will deliver better gaming perfomance at 2k resolution when paired with a 1080ti or RTX 2080?

Will there be enough of a difference for it to matter? Price wise they are about the same.

Aesthetically however, and this quite a bit to me, the ryzen cpu with it's wraith prism cooler is quite a bit further ahead in my book. As are the abundance of attractive ryzen b450 boards.

Is there any reason I should go with the i7? I would probably have to buy a cryorig C7 if I went team blue, because stock intel coolers are god awful ugly.

Does anyone have any experience testing these? All the reviews and benchmarks I see are comparing the 2700x against more expensive chips that don't include stock cooling.
 
Solution
With your apparent budget, do this right.

A balanced gamer will budget 2x the cost of the cpu for the graphics card.
By that rule of thumb, you should be looking at a stronger processor.
In that vein, why the aversion to overclocking?
There is perhaps some 30% better cpu performance available for little cost.
These processors(the 8700K) are unlocked and are designed to have their multipliers increased.
What the cpu maker can not do is tell you exactly how high your particular chip will go.
The 2700X will typically do 4.2 and the 8700K 5.0.

My suspicion is that if you are going to use a top end graphics card, you should be looking at the i7-9700K.

As to cooling, look first to your case.
A good case needs to have a good supply of fresh air to let a cooler do it's job.
Downdraft coolers like the cryorig C7 are not as effective as a tower type cooler which will typically need 160mm.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
You have many options there.
To me,
"pretty is as pretty does"
 

johnrob

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Nov 22, 2014
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Currently it's possible to find used 1080tis for less than $600...I bring up the RTX2080 as a possibility purely based on similar performance figures, and in the event that I will not be able to find a used 1080ti when I'm ready.

Overclocking either the 8700k or 2700x will require an expensive cooler, ($60+ for air, $120+ for AIO water), and a more robust motherboard which also will add $60-120 to the cost. With those price/performance variables thrown in it no longer makes a lot of sense to me.
 


As stated, the 2700X has the better cooler and has more room for its clock boosting tech to do its thing.

Intel, with its just barely adequate stock cooler, leaves little room at all for any boost technology to do its thing, especially if you're looking at multi-core boosts.


With a better cooler yet on the Ryzen, both clock boosting technologies really shine. No overclocking the base operating frequency required. Sticking with its stock cooler, there will be some of that still going on, though not at its full potential. If you have room, consider a Cryorig H7 or H5 cooler instead of the C7 which works better for smaller enclosures. Both CPUs would benefit from a high end cooler, but that moves away from your question.

In the sense of a hands-off - no overclocking, yet take advantage of built-in CPU clock boosting, AMD wins. In IPC alone, Intel does, although the difference isn't all that huge. The price-power ration favors AMD.

You've already stated aesthetically, AMD pleases your eye, so AMD wins there for you. Personally, I'd go for the AMD setup.

 
Solution

johnrob

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Nov 22, 2014
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I should have started with posting a budget target of ~$1700 for case and all components, including at least 1 tb of solid state storage. Also would like an almost entirely black color palette, with programmable addressable RGB lighting being preferred.

The i5 9600k has also piqued my interest, although I don't know that it is much better than the i5 8600k?

Peripherals and OS are not included in the budget.

Gaming and audio production are my only real performance goals.
 
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nLpKxG

The 8600k and 9600k are basically the same CPU, 9600K has a 100MHz higher base clock. I would still go with the 2700X or 2600X even though the 8700 will be a bit faster for gaming.

The build above is very well balanced if you don't plan on doing any serious overclocking and puts it all together in a little bit of a smaller package with the RAM and CPU cooler being RGB. You could add an LED strip, a couple fans, and an RGB header and have it looking like a light show if you wanted to.

EDIT: Didn't realize you said 1080 ti or RTX 2080 initially, still comes in under $1700 with the new video card

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BHnpWD
 

johnrob

Honorable
Nov 22, 2014
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I like that, I was gonna say the GPU I want would still be under budget, and even leave room for a better PSU.

Hard disk storage sure has come down. I paid that for a 2tb 2 years ago.

(454 total watts is out of the optimal efficiency band of a 550 watt PSU, would prefer 650+)
 
Here's an option list, with all the parts you required

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($304.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Scythe - SCNJ-4000 84.6 CFM CPU Cooler ($39.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($139.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($159.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2080 8GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($789.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake - View 31 TG RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($108.23 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($72.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1694.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-26 13:33 EDT-0400