Do gamers benefit from hyper threading? 8700k vs 9700k

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Jan 12, 2014
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I'm going to be buying a CPU in the very near future and I'm wondering is it worth buying the 8700k 6c 12t CPU or waiting 2-3 months and get the 9700k which is rumored to be 8c 8t.

While gaming I do tend to have quite a few things open on my second monitor which is definitely taking it's tole on my 4c4t CPU and i was wondering. What would be better 2 extra cores (9700k) or 4 extra threads (8700k)?
 
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Isokolon


that means nothing. news travels fast, rumours even faster. especially in times of fake news where disinformation can be spread like late stage cancer. All it needs is one source claiming something and some other outlets copying this exact rumour and suddenly an anticipating crowd will elevate it to something fact-like when it's just a rumour.

I remember when it was all over the internet, that Bulldozer/Piledriver will be a game changer. We saw how that turned out.

While it's a possibility that the next i7 is a 8c/8t CPU it's just as likely that it won't be (especially if they bump i5s to 6c/12t, which could be -in theory- fare better in some applications in which scenario Intel would undermine it's...
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Personally, I'd chose the threads over cores. The 8700's already got six cores and mostly they're not all being used (to their maximum) while gaming. Also, being that games performance really comes down to the GPU, even a CPU that is a decent amount faster won't make much of a difference in gaming. If you're at 1080p that difference could be 100 fps vs 115 fps and you'll never actually see (with your eyes) the gain. At 4K, there would be no difference in fps, really. So I say build now or save for the best GPU you can afford - like an 1180...
 
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Well, you cant quite compare them like that, considering they arent the same processor to begin with.
Either processor would be fantastic for gaming as well as multitasking, what really matters is how much either is going to cost you, plus motherboard and RAM.
 
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Games can take advantage of extra threads, however it varies significantly between both game and program on if they are capable of using more hyperthreads or not.

With cores themselves it's easy, their either supported or not, but with hyperthreading some programs can't take advantage of them, some 15%, some 50% some 75% some 100% just depends.

If you're purely gaming, going with a 9700K is the wisest choice. It has been shown in the past, before optimizations came in that hyperthreading can have a negative affect to your frame rate, obviously once it's patched and optimized then you get a frame rate boost from SMT. So going with a 9700K would allow you to bypass any issues games have with hyperthreading.

Where as if you do anything workstation based or game streaming, then the extra threads come in really well.
 
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Thanks :) I guess I'll go with the 9700k. It's a shame that they're removing hyper threading from the i7 tbh, but maybe they might reduce the price too.
 
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I can guarantee you they won't reduce price

since we don't really know whether the next i7 have HT or not, there's not much point in this yet.
if you're in dire need of a new cpu just go for an 8700k.
if you don't mind waiting another 6 months, go for the 9700k
 
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its all over the internet that i7-9700 will be 8 core 8 thread (non-hyperthreading) and the op is simply asking on paper how that may compare with the 8700k's 6 core 12 thread hyperthreading. cores vs threads
the i9-9900 or whatever they're calling it will have the 8 core/16 thread.
usually we can all expect a minor increase in a refresh like this, not like its an i-10 or something completely new. but dropping the hyperthreading changes everything and im curious to see how they compare head to head as well

 
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that means nothing. news travels fast, rumours even faster. especially in times of fake news where disinformation can be spread like late stage cancer. All it needs is one source claiming something and some other outlets copying this exact rumour and suddenly an anticipating crowd will elevate it to something fact-like when it's just a rumour.

I remember when it was all over the internet, that Bulldozer/Piledriver will be a game changer. We saw how that turned out.

While it's a possibility that the next i7 is a 8c/8t CPU it's just as likely that it won't be (especially if they bump i5s to 6c/12t, which could be -in theory- fare better in some applications in which scenario Intel would undermine it's own sales)

as said, when in dire need of a CPU because you're running a 10 year old midrange chip, there's no point in delaying the upgrade for whatever a 9700k might bring, especially in terms of hyperthreading/no hyperthreading. I'm curious to see if they will really do another refresh or move to a 10nm process node and if they finally spend a few cents extra for a proper TIM. But we'll see.

whether it's worth buying an 8700k or waiting for a 9700k depends soley on whether you can wait for a new CPU line to be released or not. even if the 9700k turns out to be a 10c/20t 5,5GHz monstrosity released in 6 months, the 8700k still wouldn't be a bad buy today
 
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Solution

Your system/all your software sees all cores as equals so if an app can use the additional cores it can also use the additional HT threads.

If an app can use the additional cores it can also use the additional HT threads,what changes is only the degree of benefit,why? Because HTT works with the parts that the main thread leaves idle the more idle the more benefit you get and games usually use about half the units a heavy DC type app uses.

The same goes for real cores,the more of them you have the harder it is for the CPU to retain the maximum clocks on all of them,lower clocks have a negative affect to your frame rate.
 
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Well then explain to me why several games over the years had a negative impact on FPS when SMT was enabled?

Replying to your last part about lower clocks:

Maybe you have a lower clock speed, but you have two full cores that can be utilized by programs and don't need to worry about fighting for resources. But on the flip side, you are limited to only one thread per core so that does limit it's performance.
 
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For the exact same reason that some games run worse on more real cores,task manager spreads out the same amount of workload to more cores which means less utilization per core which makes task manager think that it should downclock and go into eco mode because why shouldn't it with so little utilization.
 
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Sorry to interrupt guys but my CPU/mobo seems to be playing up and I'm blue screening so I think I have to bite the bullet now. I've had issues with my CPU a few months ago but i simply put more volts into it to keep it stable.

Current CPU=3570k

Should I upgrade to the 2700x or the 8700k for 1080p 144hz gaming?

Now with the 8700k I won't upgrade it as they'll be no real upgrade path but with the 2700x I'll probably upgrade to to the 4700x in 2020 if i go down that route. With AMD will there be significant IPC gains to help their gaming performance? From what I've read in the past hour or so AMD is around 10% slower when it comes to gaming performance.

How much faster is the 2700x and the 8700k compared to my 3570k when it comes to gaming?
 
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8700k is a bit faster and both are far superior to the 3570k in gaming. Again, your GPU is what matters most so spend your money on the best you can afford. Maybe wait a month for the 1100 series....
 
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My 980 broke last week and EVGA sent me out a 1070 so there's no point in me buying an 11 series card
 
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Thanks btw. I think if things get much worse I'm just going to get the 2700x.

 
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That isnt true in terms of software seeing cores and SMT/Hyper threads the same. Software absolutely can tell which threads are sharing which core. Lots of software is designed with this in mind.
 
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For gaming its all about physical cores. Don't get swayed by threads or hyperthreading. So, two rules, get a new CPU for gaming if new CPU has at least as many real cores as your current CPU or more, and the cores are as fast or faster than your current CPU. If you can match or beat these two, then you can always benefit from more cores and/or faster speed.
 
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Yeah i'm thinking i7-9700 (no K) might be the way to go. Wonder if there will be i9-9900 (no k). With lower price, lower starting speed.



 
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