AMD Zen Architecture vs Intel, and AMD Vega vs Nvidia Volta?

[Icaraeus]

Should I go with AMD Zen / Intel i7 + Volta / Vega, or should I wait out for an even later architecture? I want to be able to jump to 4K or 5K resolution (I have a 5K 27" monitor)

I currently have Intel i5 3570 (3rd gen) 3.8ghz, with AMD Radeon R9 270X.

 

[sizzling]

Higher resolution is no more CPU intensive than 1080p, all the extra workload is on the GPU. Are you wanting to game at 4k, if yes you need a gpu upgrade, your CPU isn't too bad. For 5k your you really want sli 1080's to play modern games at 60 fps

 

[Icaraeus]

Some games will require higher than Intel i5, and I am asking between AMD Vega vs Nvidia Volta. I have zero interest in Nvidia Pascal (GTX 1080).

 

[13thmonkey]

intel probably, but no one knows, and no one knows for the GPU as nothing is known at this time.

 

[neblogai]

High resolutions need GPU power, but if you have Z- series motherboard and custom cpu cooler, you may want to overclock your current CPU to 4.2-4.3GHz.

 

[sizzling]

No one has benchmarks of Vega or Volta, any comments would be pure speculation. Until they release and we see actual benchmarks in real world games its impossible to answer. While your correct some games do benefit from an i7 when talking about 60 fps or less the differences are negligible, they only really become material when going for high fps for high Hz monitors. As far as I know no 4k or 5k monitor goes over 60Hz so we are not talking high fps situations. However if you have the money for a good 4k setup the cost difference for going i7 is negligible in the grand scheme of the total cost.

Pure speculation but we are only just seeing a single card (1080) able to maintain 40fps or greater at 4k in modern games at decent settings. I very much doubt next gen cards will push decent fps at 5k without going dual card.

 

[Icaraeus]

Okay thanks! I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I think I'll only upgrade when hardware becomes sufficient enough to handle 5K well, as I have a 5K monitor.

 

[sizzling]

I expect a lot will depend on if you are willing to go multi gpu. 5k (5120x2880) is 14.8 megapixels, 4k (3840x2160) is 8.3 megapixels. Seeing as 4k is only just getting reasonable performance with a single card and good performance with 2 I really expect we are several generations from 5k gaming at 60fps average, it is nearly 80% more pixels to render than 4k.

 

[Icaraeus]

I expect a lot will depend on if you are willing to go multi gpu. 5k (5120x2880) is 14.8 megapixels, 4k (3840x2160) is 8.3 megapixels. Seeing as 4k is only just getting reasonable performance with a single card and good performance with 2 I really expect we are several generations from 5k gaming at 60fps average, it is nearly 80% more pixels to render than 4k.

Yes but although 5K is near 80% more than 4K, you do not necessarily require a literal 80% faster video card for it. For example, running a game at native 4K requires roughly 2.5 - 3x faster video card than at 1080p -- not 4x literally.

 

[sizzling]

That is true but the point is 5k is a significant step up over 4k and 4k is pushing current hardware quite hard