[SOLVED] CPU upgrade advise

[Pixel03]

I’m currently thinking of upgrading my cpu (currently got a i7 7000k, RTX 2080 Super). Platform is used mainly for gaming. I'm in two minds if to upgrade to the i7 10700k or the i9 10900k) £200 in difference between the two.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[cdrkf]

I’m currently thinking of upgrading my cpu (currently got a i7 7000k, RTX 2080 Super). Platform is used mainly for gaming. I'm in two minds if to upgrade to the i7 10700k or the i9 10900k) £200 in difference between the two.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Honestly, with a bit of an overclock I think your current cpu is fast enough for the RTX 2080 Super already. There are a few titles that benefit from 6 cores / 12 threads, there's not a huge benefit so if you did want to upgrade then the 10700K would be ample being an 8 core / 16 threaded part and I think that should hold true for a good few years (especially given the new consoles are both 8 / 16 designs).

That said, I don't think either makes much sense as a CPU upgrade. The underlying architecture of the 10000 series is the same as your 7700K cpu. A large majority of games still rely quite heavily on single core performance to hit higher frame rates, and the single thread performance between a 7700K and a 10900K is essentially the same once both are overclocked to the ~5ghz mark (the 10k series can hit slightly higher speeds but's it's a fairly small boost).

Personally I would look at one of two things:
1: If you want to upgrade soon, look at a Ryzen 5000 series cpu instead - the R5 5600X is faster than any of the Intel 10K series in games thanks to having enough cores and very high IPC thanks to the updated architecture. If you want something more future proof the R7 5800X might also be worth a look although it's not nearly as good value wise.

2: Wait for Intel's 11th gen parts to release in 2021 - they are based on a revision of Intel's latest laptop cpu design which has a roughly 20% IPC boost over the Skylake core used in the 10th gen and look set to leapfrog the Ryzen 5000 series in gaming performance.