[SOLVED] Best GPU option for very high end 4K gaming rig - Ryzen 9 3950X OR i9-10920X

[nathancorp]

Hello,

Im about to build a very high end system and plan to power it with the Nvidia RTX 2080i. I was wondering if that is the best graphics card for top tier gaming on a 4K screen as opposed to a SLI build? I currently have 2 x 1080s with SLI but they’re not doing so well with my 4K screen so I’ve heard it’s probably better to go for a single 2080i.

So basically i would like to know what the best GPU option is for 4K gaming and if I should consider SLI at all?

Here are the specs I’m looking at:


Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA G3 - 1000 Watt
Motherboard Asus® PRIME X299 Deluxe II
Processor Intel® Core™ i9-10920X 12 Cores - 24
Threads - 4.8GHz
Memory 128GB - 8x16GB - 2666MHZ
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2080 Ti 11GB - Founders Edition
Sound Card Creative® Sound Blaster Z
Networking On-Board Ethernet
Operating System Drive - SSD Samsung® 970 EVO Plus - 1TB SSD - M.2 -
PCI Express
Data Drive - SSD or HDD Samsung® 860 EVO - 4TB SSD - SATA
Data Drive - SSD or HDD Samsung® 860 EVO - 4TB SSD - SATA
Optical Drive LG 8x DVD Writer External
64-Bit Operating System Windows 10 Pro

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ALSO IF ANYONE HAS ANY EXPERIENCE GAMING 4K with Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti please share.

 

[DSzymborski]

The best bet is the 2080 Ti. SLI/CF are more or less dead outside of benchmarking in 2019.

 

[nathancorp]

The best bet is the 2080 Ti. SLI/CF are more or less dead outside of benchmarking in 2019.

That’s what I thought, thanks for confirming.

 

[DSzymborski]

That’s what I thought, thanks for confirming.

Yeah, it's just a hassle for everyone involved. Getting good drivers for SLI/CF always took up way too much effort for AMD and Nvidia for what is effectively a very niche market. There's a similar cost/benefit going on for game developers. From an opportunity cost standpoint, unless there's a real benefit in terms of scaling, it's hard to not see other things as a better use of everyone's time and effort.

 

[nathancorp]

Yeah, it's just a hassle for everyone involved. Getting good drivers for SLI/CF always took up way too much effort for AMD and Nvidia for what is effectively a very niche market. There's a similar cost/benefit going on for game developers. From an opportunity cost standpoint, unless there's a real benefit in terms of scaling, it's hard to not see other things as a better use of everyone's time and effort.

That pretty much sums up my experience with 2 x 1080s. No support, very glitchy and no major performance boost over disabling SLi. A Big percentage of the bugs and glitches I experienced disappeared upon disabling sli though so really didn’t want to go through this again. Just hoping the RTX 2080i can handle everything I through at it on a 4K screen.

 

[thomas4204]

I mean the best gpu out there is a RTX Titan

 

[nathancorp]

I mean the best gpu out there is a RTX Titan

I heard Titans are more used by professionals vs gamers. I am not a professional and the only application i have for GPUs is gaming and videos, is this not accurate?

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

The RTX 2080Ti is the top end right now for gaming cards. If you want to game in 4K it is going to be the card to go for... however, 4K is still monstrously hard to render for modern hardware in modern AAA games. That said, no amount of SLI is going to help you in games that don't support it and there are woefully few that do. You could try the RTX Titan, but it is only marginally better for an astronomically higher price.

So, unless you are going to be running extreme benchmarks to try to set records, don't bother with SLI.

Also, the 10920X is an HEDT CPU. It is meant for workstations... and isn't even the best at that. You'd be better served in gaming going with something like an i9 9900KS.

 

[thomas4204]

The RTX Titan only outperformed the 2080ti ( by a large amount) when it is paired with a overclocked copy due to bottlenecking

 

[thomas4204]

Wouldn’t the Ryzen 9 be a better gaming option? Intel is kinda panicking cause Amd is jut thrashing them with cpu’s

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

Wouldn’t the Ryzen 9 be a better gaming option? Intel is kinda panicking cause Amd is jut thrashing them with cpu’s

The 9900KS is still the top dog when it comes to gaming. If you want the absolute top FPS, pay out the nose for Intel. It is only ever so slightly better than the 3900X, but better is better.

As for the Titan, yes, it is better, but it isn't $1400 worth better.

 

[TeamUnknxwn]

Is no-one going to say anything about him having 2666mhz RAM?

 

[Phaaze88]

Is no-one going to say anything about him having 2666mhz RAM?

Doesn't matter as much since the OP won't be cpu limited @ 4K.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

Is no-one going to say anything about him having 2666mhz RAM?

Nope. Mostly because Intel CPUs are MUCH less sensitive to lower speed RAM than their Ryzen counterparts. Also what Phaaze88 said. With the GPU bearing the brunt of 4K rendering the CPU will be nowhere near fully utilized.

 

[Phaaze88]

Ryzen has a fair bit of it's performance 'gated' behind a specific frequency range.
-3200-3600mhz, for those who just want to plug-n-play
-3733, 3800 for advanced users

All Intel cpus starting with Skylake continue to scale upwards with faster ram, albeit with diminishing returns.
There's bigger gains to be had moving from 2666 - 3200, than 3200 - 3800, and the gains from 4000+ are quite small, plus the value of such a kit is a slap in the face; the price per gigabyte gets to absurd levels past 3733.

 

[nathancorp]

The RTX 2080Ti is the top end right now for gaming cards. If you want to game in 4K it is going to be the card to go for... however, 4K is still monstrously hard to render for modern hardware in modern AAA games. That said, no amount of SLI is going to help you in games that don't support it and there are woefully few that do. You could try the RTX Titan, but it is only marginally better for an astronomically higher price.

So, unless you are going to be running extreme benchmarks to try to set records, don't bother with SLI.

Also, the 10920X is an HEDT CPU. It is meant for workstations... and isn't even the best at that. You'd be better served in gaming going with something like an i9 9900KS.

Thank you, i totally concur, while the RTX Titan is a gaming god, the RTX 2080 Ti does all that i'd ever need without dishing out an additional 1.2-2K. Thanks for this i believe im locking in the RTX 1080i as my final GPU option as of now, i really appreciate everyone's responses, that was some solid info.

 

[nathancorp]

Hey everyone,

Theres been a development, the people im buying this from have recommended i go with AMD
Ryzen 9 3950X. They said it would outperform Intel i9-10920X in every way. Is this accurate? I have never used an AMD CPU before so i am skeptical. Which one is better, he says the AMD is cheaper and better, that normally makes me skeptical.

Any light shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DSzymborski]

If I were building right now, I'd go with the Ryzen. Intel's had very little improvement for a while.

 

[Phaaze88]

Hey everyone,

Theres been a development, the people im buying this from have recommended i go with AMD
Ryzen 9 3950X. They said it would outperform Intel i9-10920X in every way. Is this accurate? I have never used an AMD CPU before so i am skeptical. Which one is better, he says the AMD is cheaper and better, that normally makes me skeptical.

Any light shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Tried to use the same parts from your first list, and this is what turned up:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($749.00 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Pro WS X570-ACE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($328.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($668.00 @ Amazon) [$700+ for 3200-3600 kits]
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card ($1199.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Cooler Master COSMOS C700M ATX Full Tower Case ($404.97 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($176.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS60 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($139.99 @ Other World Computing)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM 24-bit 192 kHz Sound Card ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $5308.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-23 23:46 EST-0500


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-10920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core Processor ($700.99 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Prime X299-Deluxe II ATX LGA2066 Motherboard ($459.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 128 GB (8 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($629.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card ($1199.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Cooler Master COSMOS C700M ATX Full Tower Case ($404.97 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($176.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS60 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($139.99 @ Other World Computing)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM 24-bit 192 kHz Sound Card ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $5413.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-23 23:34 EST-0500


Not much cheaper with some of the parts you're looking at.

 

[nathancorp]

If I were building right now, I'd go with the Ryzen. Intel's had very little improvement for a while.

Thank you. Was thinking the same.

 

[nathancorp]

Tried to use the same parts from your first list, and this is what turned up:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($749.00 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Pro WS X570-ACE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($328.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($668.00 @ Amazon) [$700+ for 3200-3600 kits]
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card ($1199.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Cooler Master COSMOS C700M ATX Full Tower Case ($404.97 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($176.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS60 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($139.99 @ Other World Computing)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM 24-bit 192 kHz Sound Card ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $5308.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-23 23:46 EST-0500


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-10920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core Processor ($700.99 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Prime X299-Deluxe II ATX LGA2066 Motherboard ($459.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 128 GB (8 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($629.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card ($1199.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Cooler Master COSMOS C700M ATX Full Tower Case ($404.97 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($176.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS60 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($139.99 @ Other World Computing)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM 24-bit 192 kHz Sound Card ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $5413.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-23 23:34 EST-0500


Not much cheaper with some of the parts you're looking at.

Thanks but performance wise what would you suggest, is AMD Ryzen 9 3950X hands down faster? Are there any downsides to this processor compared to the Intel Core i9-10920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core Processor?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Phaaze88]

Thanks but performance wise what would you suggest, is AMD Ryzen 9 3950X hands down faster? Are there any downsides to this processor compared to the Intel Core i9-10920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core Processor?

Thanks in advance.

4K gaming - no - gaming PERIOD, they're both overkill, and I'd have a hard time picking either of them. The gpu will be the performance limitation at that resolution.
If this is for work, then hands down the 3950X.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W32jbZ2z8wI

While there's no 4K benchmarks here, both cpus would have identical performance in games anyway since the gpu is the weak link at 4K.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Nope. Mostly because Intel CPUs are MUCH less sensitive to lower speed RAM than their Ryzen counterparts.

Gaming performance with Intel can benefit as much or more from faster RAM as AMD does.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ram-speed-x470-pinnacle-ridge,6064-6.html
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ram-speed,5951-6.html

 

[nathancorp]

4K gaming - no - gaming PERIOD, they're both overkill, and I'd have a hard time picking either of them. The gpu will be the performance limitation at that resolution.
If this is for work, then hands down the 3950X.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W32jbZ2z8wI

While there's no 4K benchmarks here, both cpus would have identical performance in games anyway since the gpu is the weak link at 4K.

Its for gaming and work so probably just going to go with the AMD Ryzen 9 3950x then cause its cheaper and a lot of benchmarks show it out performs Intel.

 

[TJ Hooker]

What sort of work, if I may ask?