i5 7600K or Ryzen 1600X for watercooling?

[GuhLdaN]

Hi I'm looking to upgrade my current pc who as :

• 
  - i5 4590 3.3GHz
  - Asus H97 Plus
  - 1x8 GB DDR3 HyperX Fury (I know I should have bought 2x4)
  - Gigabyte GTX 970 OC Windforce (already overclocked)
  - Cooler Master G650M 650W
  - 128GB Intenso SSD
  - 1TB WD Green
  - Cooler Master Seidon 120

And I want to upgrade the CPU (which involves a new motherboard and new RAM), but I don't know if I should buy the 7600k or the Ryzen 1600X. I want to overclock the CPU and the GPU with a custom watercooled loop.

Thanks 😀

 

[Ecky]

The 1600X has almost zero overclocking headroom - all Ryzen CPUs top out around 4ghz regardless of what kind of cooling you have, so watercooling would be pointless. On the other hand, the 7600K simply doesn't have enough cores/threads to perform well in the most demanding games, and can be significantly outperformed by even a stock Core i7. I honestly think you'd get better performance than either by dropping a 4790K into your existing board and running it at stock with an inexpensive cooler like the Cryorig M9i or Hyper212, and it would cost a fraction of the total price since you don't need a new motherboard, RAM and $300+ cooling system as well.

 

[Ecky]

IMO, if you're going to buy Ryzen, get the 1600 non-X and don't bother with high-end cooling. Something like a Cryorig H7 for $35 will get you within 100mhz of what a $500 custom loop. If you're going Intel, don't get an i5, go for an i7. A 7700 non-K with stock cooler will outperform a 7600K OC'd under a custom loop in many cases, and come out far cheaper. My opinion: If you're going to get a custom loop, grab a 7700K or don't bother with watercooling at all, because you could have a better performing PC for the same price without it.

 

[GuhLdaN]

IMO, if you're going to buy Ryzen, get the 1600 non-X and don't bother with high-end cooling. Something like a Cryorig H7 for $35 will get you within 100mhz of what a $500 custom loop. If you're going Intel, don't get an i5, go for an i7. A 7700 non-K with stock cooler will outperform a 7600K OC'd under a custom loop in many cases, and come out far cheaper. My opinion: If you're going to get a custom loop, grab a 7700K or don't bother with watercooling at all, because you could have a better performing PC for the same price without it.

If I take an high end gpu, should I go for Intel or Ryzen?

 

[Ecky]

There's a case to be made for either. The 7700K is unrivaled in gaming performance, but the extra cores on a Ryzen CPU allow you to do things like streaming in the background with minimal impact, because on a Ryzen CPU you'll have more cores sitting idle. I'd lean toward Intel myself, and the Ryzen 1600 is a no-brainer when compared with an i5.

 

[geofelt]

Your I5-4590 with 4 threads has a passmark rating of 7224 and a single thread rating of 2113.
For most games, the single thread performance is most important.

For multiplayer games and batch multithreaded apps, the total rating is more important.

You can buy a I7-7700K which runs stock at 4.2 that has a rating of 12,202 and a single thread rating of 2587, a nice jump for either type of work.

The ryzen 1600 has a better total rating of 13794 primarily because of 12 threads vs. 8
but the single thread rating is 1870, not as good as you rI5-4590.

How well you can overclock is determined by the quality of your particular chip.
As of 1/13/17
What percent can get an overclock at a somewhat sane 1.4v Vcore.

I7-7700K
4.9 74%
5.0 56%
5.1 26%
5.2 5%

Ryzen seems to top out at 4.0 with the more expensive chips.

In either case, exotic or liquid cooling does not seem to be worth it if you have a decent airflow in your case.

A decent tower type air cooler with a 120 or 140mm fan will do the job and be quieter in the process.

 

[GuhLdaN]

Your I5-4590 with 4 threads has a passmark rating of 7224 and a single thread rating of 2113.
For most games, the single thread performance is most important.

For multiplayer games and batch multithreaded apps, the total rating is more important.

You can buy a I7-7700K which runs stock at 4.2 that has a rating of 12,202 and a single thread rating of 2587, a nice jump for either type of work.

The ryzen 1600 has a better total rating of 13794 primarily because of 12 threads vs. 8
but the single thread rating is 1870, not as good as you rI5-4590.

How well you can overclock is determined by the quality of your particular chip.
As of 1/13/17
What percent can get an overclock at a somewhat sane 1.4v Vcore.

I7-7700K
4.9 74%
5.0 56%
5.1 26%
5.2 5%

Ryzen seems to top out at 4.0 with the more expensive chips.

In either case, exotic or liquid cooling does not seem to be worth it if you have a decent airflow in your case.

A decent tower type air cooler with a 120 or 140mm fan will do the job and be quieter in the process.

Do you think it would be better to upgrade the gpu to a 1070 or 1080? (My budget is 600$) Or better save my money?

 

[Ecky]

What resolution and refresh rate?

 

[GuhLdaN]

What resolution and refresh rate?

I currently have a FHD 60hz, but I want change it to a 144hz

 

[Ecky]

A 1080 could stretch its legs at that resolution and refresh rate, depending on what games you're playing. By my estimation it's also a lot to spend on a gaming setup.

You may find any Ryzen CPU struggling in some cases to deliver 144fps where an i7 would do better.

 

[geofelt]

You now have a good cpu and a good graphics card.

Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer with many participants tend to like many threads.

You need to find out which.
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To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one or more cores. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.



It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system,
and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
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