Future proof cpu

[graemeneilan]

Hi folks. I need some advice with cpu future proofing. I don't earn a lot of money as I'm a maintenance operative so deciding on hardware is crucial. At the moment the i9 9900k has blown amd away with the Ryzen 2700x clock speeds and overclocking. If I were to purchase a i9 9900k it would take me well over a year to put a rig together because the money but if I were to get a 2700x I would be able build a bit faster as it's cheaper. My main concern is if amd bring out a 2800x cpu to compete with the i9 9900k and the 2700x lacks. Just wanting the best I can get because I won't be upgrading for a long time after this (money). Thanks for your help.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Either CPU will be good for quite a long time. The other option you would have with AMD is to put a cheap CPU, like the Ryzen 2 2200G, into the system right now and then wait for the Ryzen 3's that will probably be released in April and are supposed to have about 15% higher IPC than the Ryzen 2s.

 

[graemeneilan]

Either CPU will be good for quite a long time. The other option you would have with AMD is to put a cheap CPU, like the Ryzen 2 2200G, into the system right now and then wait for the Ryzen 3's that will probably be released in April and are supposed to have about 15% higher IPC than the Ryzen 2s.

Thanks for the help. The good thing is I can still use my rog genome tower and my Corsair rm750i PSU for new build but everything else mobo, ram, and probably by the time I do build a new gpu as I have a x4 880k cpu and gtx 1060 gpu. I really love gaming but boy it's expensive.

 

[jeremyj_83]

https://www.anandtech.com/show/9793/best-cpus
Food for thought for CPUs for the next year.

 

[King_V]

I don't think it's economical to go for the Best Of The Best Of The Best in the hopes that you won't have to upgrade for a long time.

I suspect that, usually, it's better to go "pay 50% of the price of the top chip to get 80% of the performance" and maybe make less expensive upgrades a little more frequently.

But, what do you define as a "long time" to not upgrade?

Among PCs I've owned, what was a beast of a system in 2008 performed more or less what a low-end budget system performed in 2016-2017.

Things flattened out through generations of Intel CPUs because of lack of competition from AMD until recently.

But, my son games at his mother's house with an i5-2320 combined with a GTX 660Ti 3GB, on a 1920x1080 screen. (PC purchased Feb 2012, GPU was admittedly gotten for free from someone about 2 years ago, though prior to that it had a mid-range for 2012 gpu that I'd added)

He uses an i5-6400 with an R9 285 (previously R7 250E) at my place on a 2560x1080 screen. (purchased a little over a year ago, previously he had a budget small desktop system)

I'm using an i5-4340 with a GTX 1080, but that graphics card was mostly so I could game reasonably on a 3840x1600 screen (I needed the horizontal resolution for work purposes, though. Purchased PC Jan 2015, added some more RAM later, got the R9 285 when I got the PC, but then moved it to my son's PC when I got the GTX 1080 for my system in Feb this year).

While I sometimes consider upgrading my PC (more modern CPU/MB/RAM), to be honest, I don't think any of my use-cases need it. It would have to be an insanely good deal for me to consider it.

For my needs, these machines have lasted.


Do you have a PC currently? Is it lagging in anything you're using on it (games or otherwise)?

 

[t99]

9900k isn't guaranteed that it would furureproof just because it performs great now. Sounds like bad choice for you unless you need to game 1080p 120 /144fps max setting, it's great for that.

Gaming higher than 1080 the difference shrinks a bit. 2700x still hits 100fps in most games vs 9900k doing like 160 in the same games. Unless your a top 1% player in these AAA games the difference really doesn't matter much. 100fps vs 160 will help get that kill by your response going thru sooner, but at what cost?

You have to figure out as a non pro player is it worth spending 800$ on a cpu and motherboard for gains you really won't notice for the most part. I'm not saying a benefit does not exist, but it scales horribly in regards to price. You can buy an 8600k full system with a 1070ti for a little more than 1,000$.. A 1070ti, 9900k and MB cost a good 1200$ and you still need another 200+ in components plus good cooling.

If you get it make sure you buy at least a 1080ti, 120hz+ display and plan to play at only 1080p. Games look so much better above 1080p, seems like a waste to only play at 1080p with higher end hardware, but it makes sense for the top 1% of competitive gamers or people with huge stream numbers. The games you play also matter. Lower quality games like MOBAs, overwatch, csgo can run at more than high enough fps even on a non 9900k. The 9900k specifically shines the most when aiming for constant 120/144 fps 1080p max setting. Some games still had pretty large leads at 1440p, but overall it's significantly lower.