Question Deciding Between 9800X3D vs Ultra 7 265K

[BlakeW]

Hi all,
As the title says, I'm currently tossing up between upgrading to the 9800X3D or going with the Ultra 7 265K.

Here’s my current system, which I’m planning to fully replace (GPU upgrade will come later this year, probably a 5080 though):

• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K
• Motherboard: ASUS Strix Z390-F
• Memory: 2x8GB Corsair 3600MHz CL18
• GPU: Gigabyte RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8GB

I also play pretty much all of my games with settings as high as possible at native 1440p and only lower them when unable to get desirable frame rates. I am also aware that just a CPU platform upgrade won't be as significant as the future GPU upgrade will be with my games frame rates.

I know the Ultra 7 265K didn’t blow anyone away in gaming benchmarks, and in some cases, it even fell short compared to counterpart 14th gen CPUs. That said, I’m still considering it due to Intel’s solid performance in productivity and creative workloads. I also tried to find solid benchmarks for recent 265k's as apparently intel has fixed some things but I was unable to find anything concrete.

My main uses cases are Gaming, Software development, Video editing and 3D modelling. My spare time is mixed between developing games and playing games, I'd say 40/60 between gaming and developing. With the games being primarily CS2 and finishing whatever the latest AAA game is.

So my main question is: Which platform would be the better overall pick for my use case? I know AMD’s 3D V-Cache is insane for gaming, but I’m curious how the 9800X3D holds up in productivity workloads. Would Intel still be the better middle ground overall, or is AMD's gaming performance and productivity absolutely fine for my workloads?

Considering I haven't upgraded in such a long time I am not stressing about longevity of the sockets or anything like that, just looking at making the best decision I can without regretting the decision. But being able to potentially upgrade just my CPU in the future to a new generation is also a nice factor to consider.

I've basically converted my current systems parts into their modern day counterparts to get an idea of the costs I am expecting (here in Australia). I know I haven't included cooling as I will probably just end up going with a Corsair Titan 280 RX or 360 RX which is absolutely fine for both options based on my research.

AMD Build:

• CPU: Ryzen 7 9800X3D – $889
• Motherboard: ASUS Strix X870-F WiFi – $819
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance 2x16GB 6000MHz CL30 EXPO – $199

Intel Build:

• CPU: Core Ultra 7 265K – $599
• Motherboard: ASUS Strix Z890-F WiFi – $599
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance 2x16GB 6000MHz CL30 – $199

As you can see, the Intel system at least here in Australia is $500+ cheaper so I am also taking that into account. I could also probably compromise on a lower quality motherboard as realistically something like the TUF Z890 Plus or the B850 Plus or B850-F for AMD will probably do just fine.

I have done some quite extensive research but I’m still on the fence. My main concern is, how beneficial will the 9800x3d be at 1440p with my planned 5080 upgrade compared to something like the 265k while also taking into consideration literally everything else outside of gaming. Would the 265k be worth the fps hit to gain the much bigger productivity win? Or is the 9800X3D even worth if if I’m not playing games at 1080p low like in all the benchmarks? I’m just not sure.

So with all that said and done, based on everything I've said, what seems like the genuinely better overall approach? I'm also not interested in other CPU's other than potentially the 7800X3D as benchmarks didn't show too much of a major difference.

Thanks for any assistance, based on your responses I'll have one or the other ordered within the month. Please try and explain why you made your suggestion also if possible, will help out a ton with the final decision.

 

[Lutfij]

My main uses cases are Gaming, Software development, Video editing and 3D modelling.
You might want to mention the names of the app's you wish to tax the system with, without stating an etc in that line so we're able to figure out which platform would net you more.

what seems like the genuinely better overall approach?
Go with AMD and call it a day. Then again we don't know the predicaments you might be going through which might dictate you in wanting to save more on an alternate route(Intel).

If you plan to recycle your PSU from your current build, please mention the make, model and age of your PSU. Likewise, please include the make and model of your case.

 

[JayGau]

This Intel CPU has 20 cores/20 threads compared to 8 cores/16 threads for the 9800x3d. So, of course the 265k wins in productivity tasks. But the x3d beats the intel chip by a good margin in both gaming and efficiency. Here is the conclusion in an comparison article I just found:

"Although the Core Ultra 7 265K is an impressive new effort from Intel, we were more impressed with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D overall. This is due to its excellent gaming performance (via AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology) and superior energy efficiency compared to Intel’s current offerings. If you’re among the majority of PC builders putting together a desktop for gaming, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the better choice."

Also, if you are interested in productivity, forget about the 7800x3d. Prior to the 9000x3d chips, AMD was putting the cache die on the top of the compute die, so they had to cripple the cores to prevent overheating which made those CPUs mediocre at pretty much anything else than gaming. The 9000x3d models have the cache die under the compute die so they don't have this problem and can run at full clock speed (and can be overclocked, unlike the previous x3d gens).

 

[thestryker]

Here's how I see it between these:

• 265K is better for multithreaded operation so if your development work falls under this category that'd be the way to go
• 9800X3D is a better choice if not as it will be about the same in lightly threaded and much better for gaming
• Z890 has better platform connectivity than anything AMD has (X670 can up to two PCIe 5.0 x4 slots which while I don't find it beneficial is the one thing that could be better)
• If platform longevity is important to you AMD should be the better choice as Zen 6 will likely be on AM5
• Any Intel platform has lower idle power consumption than X870/X670 (B850/B650 should be about the same as Intel since it is the dual chipsets causing high idle)

Should you decide to go Intel I'd suggest going with DDR5-7200 CL34 as it shouldn't be much higher cost and will be higher bandwidth with lower latency.

 

[BlakeW]

My main uses cases are Gaming, Software development, Video editing and 3D modelling.
You might want to mention the names of the app's you wish to tax the system with, without stating an etc in that line so we're able to figure out which platform would net you more.

what seems like the genuinely better overall approach?
Go with AMD and call it a day. Then again we don't know the predicaments you might be going through which might dictate you in wanting to save more on an alternate route(Intel).

If you plan to recycle your PSU from your current build, please mention the make, model and age of your PSU. Likewise, please include the make and model of your case.

Primary apps are: Unity (3D development), Blender, DaVinci Resolve, Visual Studio, Photoshop

Games: All, I buy most positively reviewed games. Most common played games right now are CS2 and Arma Reforger.

I didn’t mention it but I’m already planning on purchasing a new PSU, current PSU is a Corsair RM750x with the selected upgraded one being the RM1000x.

My case is the Corsair 500D SE