future proof system upgrade: i5 7600k or ryzen 5 1600x??

[willsmithy]

i know this question has been asked quite a bit since the ryzen 5 release and ryzen was looking to be a better value option with more cores/threads but with a current cashback offer of ~£70/80 off asus mobos with intel cpus i'm now pretty torn. intel route would probably be about £50 cheaper with better performance on legacy games, more choice in mainboards and curently a lot more potential for overclcocking but ryzen looks like it could perform better in the long run with optimisation and potentionally has more roadmap for future upgrades?
im only looking to game at 1080p in the short term but am looking to futrureproof my build for as long as possible but not pay the earth for it

looking for advice from more hardcore enthusiasts who might have a better idea on this kinda thing because last time i upgraded my build i super cheaped out on my cpu (still running a pentium here) with the intent on upgrading but never found the money before most my other components were obsolete

 

[Supahos]

Drop down to a 1600 instead of a 1600x they seem to have practically identical oc potential. You also won't need a cooler for 3.7 maybe even 3.8ghz as the stock cooler is fairly capable. That will probably be enough to make the ryzen build cheaper. Also at least in the US b350 boards are a good bit cheaper than z270 so that rebate would still leave a 1600/b350 build on identical footing

 

[Viking2121]

I would say it depends on what you are doing to call it "future proof".

For starters, Ryzen 1600x is slower core for core than the i5 7600k, Ryzen seems to only top out at 4ghz where even the 7600k at 4ghz is still faster and it can be overclocked upwards of 5ghz, So if overclocking is your thing, the i5 might be the better option.

Now games these days are still using about 4 cores or less, and them games that can use upwards of 8 threads can't use all 8 threads effectively, or the difference between 4 and 8 threads are not anything to cry over. The 1600x has 12 threads, the CPU will rarely hit 50% usage in games.

Now if you do what I do, I always have twitch or youtube open on my other screen and I do have a few camera's around my house so I can monitor my ill grandfather when im at home just in case of an emergency, which will use around 10 15% of the CPU, I also record gameplay, so 12 threads do help me quite a bit as I use Software encoding for the best quality, playing Grand Theft Auto 5 with SLI (SLI will use more CPU) and recording I always seem to peg my 5820k at 70 - 80% at 4.6ghz. My i7 3770s at 4.2ghz would fall flat on its face.

So it depends on what you want to use the system for, if you want to game and record or even stream, the 1600 or the 1600x and some fast ram will help you and will probably do better than the i5 7600k ever could. Simple gaming I'd stick with the i5 7600k.

 

[jowen3400]

1151 is dead. So to the OP for the future proofing is the AM4 this is not even a debate.

As for speed and what not then the i5 is faster. But the Z270 or z170 is the last of that 115(0) port.

 

[oscarajung]

Remember that 7600 will only give you a few extra frames above 90 FPs, meaning if you have a midrange GPU you won't see that much difference. Also, remember that games just will like many cores more and more the next few years and that Ryzen 1600 is better at everything else. Intel is now launching 6 cores with no HT - don't get a 4 core i5 now. Those days are gone.

I would say it depends on what you are doing to call it "future proof".

For starters, Ryzen 1600x is slower core for core than the i5 7600k, Ryzen seems to only top out at 4ghz where even the 7600k at 4ghz is still faster and it can be overclocked upwards of 5ghz, So if overclocking is your thing, the i5 might be the better option.

Now games these days are still using about 4 cores or less, and them games that can use upwards of 8 threads can't use all 8 threads effectively, or the difference between 4 and 8 threads are not anything to cry over. The 1600x has 12 threads, the CPU will rarely hit 50% usage in games.

Now if you do what I do, I always have twitch or youtube open on my other screen and I do have a few camera's around my house so I can monitor my ill grandfather when im at home just in case of an emergency, which will use around 10 15% of the CPU, I also record gameplay, so 12 threads do help me quite a bit as I use Software encoding for the best quality, playing Grand Theft Auto 5 with SLI (SLI will use more CPU) and recording I always seem to peg my 5820k at 70 - 80% at 4.6ghz. My i7 3770s at 4.2ghz would fall flat on its face.

So it depends on what you want to use the system for, if you want to game and record or even stream, the 1600 or the 1600x and some fast ram will help you and will probably do better than the i5 7600k ever could. Simple gaming I'd stick with the i5 7600k.

 

[Viking2121]

Remember that 7600 will only give you a few extra frames above 90 FPs, meaning if you have a midrange GPU you won't see that much difference. Also, remember that games just will like many cores more and more the next few years and that Ryzen 1600 is better at everything else. Intel is now launching 6 cores with no HT - don't get a 4 core i5 now. Those days are gone.

I would say it depends on what you are doing to call it "future proof".

For starters, Ryzen 1600x is slower core for core than the i5 7600k, Ryzen seems to only top out at 4ghz where even the 7600k at 4ghz is still faster and it can be overclocked upwards of 5ghz, So if overclocking is your thing, the i5 might be the better option.

Now games these days are still using about 4 cores or less, and them games that can use upwards of 8 threads can't use all 8 threads effectively, or the difference between 4 and 8 threads are not anything to cry over. The 1600x has 12 threads, the CPU will rarely hit 50% usage in games.

Now if you do what I do, I always have twitch or youtube open on my other screen and I do have a few camera's around my house so I can monitor my ill grandfather when im at home just in case of an emergency, which will use around 10 15% of the CPU, I also record gameplay, so 12 threads do help me quite a bit as I use Software encoding for the best quality, playing Grand Theft Auto 5 with SLI (SLI will use more CPU) and recording I always seem to peg my 5820k at 70 - 80% at 4.6ghz. My i7 3770s at 4.2ghz would fall flat on its face.

So it depends on what you want to use the system for, if you want to game and record or even stream, the 1600 or the 1600x and some fast ram will help you and will probably do better than the i5 7600k ever could. Simple gaming I'd stick with the i5 7600k.

Currently, right now there are a handful of games where they can utilize more than 4 threads, the games that do are not vary good at that. Next GEN games will slowly lean towards more threads is possible, But you do have to remember the i5 will overclock much further and the games that like CPU clock speed will benefit more from the higher overclocked 7600k vs a 4ghz 1600x.

The 1600x is a good deal, I'm not going to say it isn't, I'm going by benchmarks, the 7600k almost always beats the 1600x in raw fps, even in Battlefield 1 a heavily multi threaded game, the 7600k often come out front with mid range and high-end graphics solutions, now it isn't a huge lead, but the superior single threaded performance out does the 6 core 12 thread 1600x, not to mention the overclock ability of the 7600k with is far far better than the 1600x.

Personally, for what I do I'd choose the 1600x, but I don't just game, 5 years down the road the both of these CPU's would be replaced with something else. 5 years down the road heavily multi threaded games will still be just a handful, DX12 is still not much of a thing and won't be for some time.

This is why I kept my reply as even between the CPU's as I could, both have draw backs, both have their strong points.