Question Ideal Coffee Lake CPU for gaming/rendering?

[Genralkidd]

I currently have an i7 8700T that seems to be failing (constant BSOD's and hanging especially during times of high file I/O despite clean install of Windows 10). So I figured it's time I upgrade to something much better and more reliable. What's the ideal CPU for an LGA 1151-300 board when being used for gaming and video rendering? I was looking at the 9700 CPU's but I realized the 9th gen i7's lack hyper threading which to my understanding is beneficial for things like video rendering. However, the 8th gen CPU price seems to higher now than the 9th gen... So what's the ideal CPU I can get without breaking the bank either (the i9 is a bit out of my budget). I don't do a lot of crazy rendering though so I am open to a non HT CPU or even a 6 core i5 9600K. But I'm just not sure how much of a performance loss I'm looking at compared to a 6 core 12 thread i7 8700T.

 

[13thmonkey]

Might be worth understanding why yours is failing, that's not normal.

The T is a 35W part limited to 4Ghz max boost, in reality it'll never boost all the cores with that TDP (or intels version of TDP), so you might only be looking at all core = 3.0Ghz. So bear this is in mind when comparing to other processors.

What Temps are you currently running at under load, what's your Bclk frequency? What's your memory speed? Have you done any kind of Overclocking at all, or has your mobo tried to do it for you? Understand this before attempting to replace the CPU.

 

[InvalidError]

Did you check your HDDs and SSDs' SMART status using something like CrystalDiskInfo to see if a failing drive could be causing your crashes during "high IO"? Since most IO goes through the chipset, IO-related crashes (assuming drives check out fine) would be more likely to be a board/chipset-level failure than CPU.

 

[EPIC123]

The i5-9600k has 21% more effective speed than the i7-8700T https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700T-vs-Intel-Core-i5-9600K/m480804vs4031. So you're actually going forward by upgrading.

 

[EPIC123]

The i5-9600k has 21% more effective speed than the i7-8700T https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700T-vs-Intel-Core-i5-9600K/m480804vs4031. So you're actually going forward by upgrading.

 

[Endre]

1. Best choice for that socket:
i9-9900KS (which is expensive, but maybe it is better to wait and gather more money and buy the best stuff, than rushing to buy a weaker one).

2. Second best choice:
i7-9700K or i7-9700KF (though they lack hyperthreading, they still beat the 8th gen CPUs due to their number of physical cores).