[SOLVED] i7 8700 vs i5 10600k - Did I Make a Mistake?

21stCenturyKen

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Mar 12, 2016
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10,510
Hello!

I am currently using a gaming PC with an i7 8700, Nvidia 2080 TI. With the 3080 ti's now available (got lucky in the Newegg shuffle), I decided to build a whole new machine and pass mine on to my wife.

I did a little research and decided to go with the i5 10600k for the new build, which seemed like a good choice at the time. However, I never really looked at comparisons with my current chip until last night, and it seems the two chips run neck and neck, with the 8700 winning out in some benchmarks (I know, not the end all be all), and the 10600 winning out in others. I definitely didn't expect them to be this close.

Are they really this close? My 8700 is a couple years old now, so I thought for sure I would be due for an upgrade moving to the 3080. Should I just stick with my 8700, and just pass my card to my wife (instead of the whole build)? Should I go for a bigger jump (say an i7 10700, or even i9?)
 
Solution
The 8th and 10th gen are all built on similar processes and architectures (Skylake 6th gen). If this is for gaming. The 10th gen of any kind won't make a big difference. You'll just get more cores which most games won't use. Plus a small clock boost with overclocking vs the turbo frequencies of the 8700.

The 11th gen is a much better IPC (Instructions Per Clock). Rocket Lake is base on a new architecture (Cypress Cove). It just runs hot because they couldn't put it on 10nm as originally intended.

Given what you have is already decent. I'd at least wait for Alder Lake (12th gen, Golden Cove architecture) towards the end of the year. It'll finally be on the 10nm node. It should have many improvements over the 11th partially due to the...
The 8th and 10th gen are all built on similar processes and architectures (Skylake 6th gen). If this is for gaming. The 10th gen of any kind won't make a big difference. You'll just get more cores which most games won't use. Plus a small clock boost with overclocking vs the turbo frequencies of the 8700.

The 11th gen is a much better IPC (Instructions Per Clock). Rocket Lake is base on a new architecture (Cypress Cove). It just runs hot because they couldn't put it on 10nm as originally intended.

Given what you have is already decent. I'd at least wait for Alder Lake (12th gen, Golden Cove architecture) towards the end of the year. It'll finally be on the 10nm node. It should have many improvements over the 11th partially due to the die shrink. It'll also introduce big and little cores in the higher end models. Greatly improving energy efficiency. As something like gaming can get exclusive use of the big cores. While the little cores run light stuff like system services, virus scanning, e-mail, &c. Similar to how Apple uses the big and little cores in M1.

How efficiently these will be used will be in part how well Windows 11 handles it.
 
Solution
that cpu should be good for now, from 6th gen to 10th gen they refresh the same core architecture with slight changes, so it wont matter by alot.

It only matters if you use a 3rd gen (like my pc) or a 4th gen intel processor, then it would be a really much difference (tho not by much) and much considered that it needs an updgrade :D