Question i7 8700k in 2022?

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

I'm currently gaming on a 1440p 165MHz monitor and just upgraded to a 3080 Ti from my 2080. The CPU is an 8700K overclocked to 5Ghz on all cores. I'm on 1440p now but I am considering 4k.

Do you think jumping to a 12900K would yield a huge increase in FPS?

 

[sizzling]

As a test drop the resolution to 1080p. If you see a boost in FPS then you are not being limited by the cpu. If the FPS stays about the same it could be the cpu holding you back. Also what FPS are you getting? Let’s say you get 150fps, would you really notice if it went up to 180-200 when you have a 165Hz monitor?

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

As a test drop the resolution to 1080p. If you see a boost in FPS then you are not being limited by the cpu. If the FPS stays about the same it could be the cpu holding you back. Also what FPS are you getting? Let’s say you get 150fps, would you really notice if it went up to 180-200 when you have a 165Hz monitor?

Hey thanks for the reply. Going from 150fps to 200fps I may notice only a marginal difference, if I had a 240hz or 360hz monitor that is, which I don't. As for the FPS I'm seeing it depends on the game. Something like Overwatch I'm maxed out at 165fps but a more graphically heavy game like RDR2 for example I'll see a lot lower than that. At the start of that game I see anywhere from like 70-100fps with pretty much all the settings cranked.

 

[mdd1963]

Certainly, if you go to 4k, your 8700K will still remain well ' more than enough' for a few more years...

 

[Nighthawk117]

Your 8700K is still a very capable chip today. However a 12900K will extract more from a 3080 Ti than the 8700K can, will it give you a huge boost in average FPS? Well it depends on what you define as huge, in terms of average frame rate 30% would probably be the more optimistic end of the spectrum but it will depend on the game. What it will do however is give you a significant boost in minimum frame rates in more demanding titles, in something like Battlefield 2042 you could get potentially up to a 50% boost in min frame rates meaning the 12900K will hold a high frame rate more consistently. I think your unlikely to achieve a stable 165hz in RD2 at 1440p max settings regardless of what CPU you have. Would you see an improvement with the 12900K, definitely yes. Will it be worth all the expense? Please come back and tell us should you decide to upgrade

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Certainly, if you go to 4k, your 8700K will still remain well ' more than enough' for a few more years...

Yep it seems that at 4k they are all similar in performance. At 1440p though it's a bit different.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Your 8700K is still a very capable chip today. However a 12900K will extract more from a 3080 Ti than the 8700K can, will it give you a huge boost in average FPS? Well it depends on what you define as huge, in terms of average frame rate 30% would probably be the more optimistic end of the spectrum but it will depend on the game. What it will do however is give you a significant boost in minimum frame rates in more demanding titles, in something like Battlefield 2042 you could get potentially up to a 50% boost in min frame rates meaning the 12900K will hold a high frame rate more consistently. I think your unlikely to achieve a stable 165hz in RD2 at 1440p max settings regardless of what CPU you have. Would you see an improvement with the 12900K, definitely yes. Will it be worth all the expense? Please come back and tell us should you decide to upgrade

Thanks for the reply. I understand what you're saying and those minimum frames is very important. I don't know if I will be doing it though. I'd need a new Mobo, the CPU and RAM and I just ordered another 16GB of DDR 4 RAM haha. The CPU is pretty expensive though at over $600. I wonder how a 12700k fairs. One other thing to consider is that at 4K these CPUs all seem to give about the same performance. I'm not sure about the minimum FPS as I don't remember if I saw that in the benchmark I watched but the Average FPS was all pretty much equal between all the CPUs at 4k. Guess I will wait and see for now.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Thanks for the reply. I understand what you're saying and those minimum frames is very important. I don't know if I will be doing it though. I'd need a new Mobo, the CPU and RAM and I just ordered another 16GB of DDR 4 RAM haha. The CPU is pretty expensive though at over $600. I wonder how a 12700k fairs. One other thing to consider is that at 4K these CPUs all seem to give about the same performance. I'm not sure about the minimum FPS as I don't remember if I saw that in the benchmark I watched but the Average FPS was all pretty much equal between all the CPUs at 4k. Guess I will wait and see for now.

You are on the edge of whether you should upgrade or not. If you were building from scratch I would not recommended a 6 core chip to go with a 3080ti, but you already have the 8700K so it doesn't cost you anything. If you did upgrade I would stick with DDR4 though, I haven't seen anything that justifies the expense in DDR5 for games. The 12700K is as good as the 12900K, the latter is up to 19% faster overall because it has slightly higher clocks, a slightly bigger cache and 4 more efficiency cores. In games though they are basically the same as they share the same number of P cores but with the tiniest clock differences (100mhz all core boost). Here in the UK it's 52% more money for the 12900K for no gaming advantage so I'd buy the i7 if I was building now. I would expect either to last a very long time.

Even at 4k there will be differences between the CPU's. What a new chip will give you, particularly at that resolution is better frames due to consistent frame times not necessarily more frames so motion for example will be smoother. How perceivable that will be to you on a day to day basis I'm not sure, it will largely depend on the game.

Cyberpunk for example will be noticeably better in the most demanding scenes on a 12th gen chip if you run with max ray tracing and stuff like that even at 60hz, though that is a fairly rare exception.

I am confident you are leaving some performance on the table, I think you will notice a difference. What I'm not sure about is how consistently you would notice any improvement, and when you do will your reaction be 'oh that's nice' or 'omg this is amazing'. I would expect the former to be more common than the latter.

Upgrades are more impressive when there's something that you don't like about your current system. If your generally very happy with the 8700K's performance and this is more speculative about whether or not it's worth it given you have a new graphics card. Then maybe you should wait until you move to a game where you feel I could use a little bit more here.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

You are on the edge of whether you should upgrade or not. If you were building from scratch I would not recommended a 6 core chip to go with a 3080ti, but you already have the 8700K so it doesn't cost you anything. If you did upgrade I would stick with DDR4 though, I haven't seen anything that justifies the expense in DDR5 for games. The 12700K is as good as the 12900K, the latter is up to 19% faster overall because it has slightly higher clocks, a slightly bigger cache and 4 more efficiency cores. In games though they are basically the same as they share the same number of P cores but with the tiniest clock differences (100mhz all core boost). Here in the UK it's 52% more money for the 12900K for no gaming advantage so I'd buy the i7 if I was building now. I would expect either to last a very long time.

Even at 4k there will be differences between the CPU's. What a new chip will give you, particularly at that resolution is better frames due to consistent frame times not necessarily more frames so motion for example will be smoother. How perceivable that will be to you on a day to day basis I'm not sure, it will largely depend on the game.

Cyberpunk for example will be noticeably better in the most demanding scenes on a 12th gen chip if you run with max ray tracing and stuff like that even at 60hz, though that is a fairly rare exception.

I am confident you are leaving some performance on the table, I think you will notice a difference. What I'm not sure about is how consistently you would notice any improvement, and when you do will your reaction be 'oh that's nice' or 'omg this is amazing'. I would expect the former to be more common than the latter.

Upgrades are more impressive when there's something that you don't like about your current system. If your generally very happy with the 8700K's performance and this is more speculative about whether or not it's worth it given you have a new graphics card. Then maybe you should wait until you move to a game where you feel I could use a little bit more here.

Thanks for the reply and I agree with this

 

[Nighthawk117]

Thanks for the reply and I agree with this

Your welcome

 

[boju]

If go 12th gen you better read drm issues with games not recognising efficiency cores. Some will get fixed and possibly workarounds. 8700k is still fine for a good while yet so maybe wait for next gen if efficiency cores does not remain a thing or you play games that aren't affected / most likely get fixed

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...0088261/processors/intel-core-processors.html

Intel 12th Gen DRM Issues and the Corresponding 'Fix'

Some games and applications with DRM software can’t recognize 12th Gen Intel Core Processor, causing them to crash or not load.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[Nighthawk117]

Good point, don't quote me but I think disabling the e-cores in the bios get's around it? 13th gen will double the number of efficiency cores but keep the P cores the same apparently.

 

[boju]

Not sure on that, possibly you're right.

Was kinda hoping e cores were a temp fix for their short comings until next couple of gens.

 

[Nighthawk117]

I must admit I'd prefer to bulk up on the full fat ones as well, I want my full set of graphs on the task manager. 14th gen will increase the number of P cores though, possibly double them but also keep the e cores, though salt needed for final counts.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

No. Upgrading from 8700K to 12900K will not result in a dramatic boost in FPS. Some games will show a modest improvement of 10-20% whereas others will show no improvement at all.

 

[jlin0821]

If go 12th gen you better read drm issues with games not recognising efficiency cores. Some will get fixed and possibly workarounds. 8700k is still fine for a good while yet so maybe wait for next gen if efficiency cores does not remain a thing or you play games that aren't affected / most likely get fixed

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...0088261/processors/intel-core-processors.html

Intel 12th Gen DRM Issues and the Corresponding 'Fix'

Some games and applications with DRM software can’t recognize 12th Gen Intel Core Processor, causing them to crash or not load.

www.pugetsystems.com

I hope all other apps can use them too they do want to be more like ARM

 

[Nighthawk117]

As far as I understand it, the DRM issues are largely resolved now. Multi-threaded apps can already use the little cores, however games don't tend to benefit from them so the thread scheduler in Windows 11 will put game related threads on the P cores first.