Intel Core i7-8700K, Intel Core i7-9700K or Intel Core i9-9900K

[t3kn03]

Hello guys, I am going to upgrade my pc and I was thinking of buying a new motherboard, a new cpu, RAM and a CPU cooler, I currently have a i5 4460 and i was thinking to buy or Intel Core i7-8700K, Intel Core i7-9700K or Intel Core i9-9900K, the budget does not matter to me and I am a gamer. I was thinking of buying the i7 8700k just because it has hyperthreading and i7 9700k does not have and only the i9 has but both the 9700k and 9900k heat up too much and I was thinking of overclocking them. Please help! Thank you!

 

[JamesSneed]

The 9700k and 9900k are soldered IHS so good cooling if you are OC'ing helps a ton. The 8700K is the best value since its the cheapest and if you look at benchmarks all three CPUS are neck and neck. Personally as a gamer I would get the 8700k not even worry about OC'ing and put the savings into a better GPU which is where you will pick up the extra FPS. Don't get me wrong I have overclocked a lot of CPU's over 20 years but for playing games there is no real reason to OC one of these CPU's.

 

[t3kn03]

The 9700k and 9900k are soldered IHS so good cooling if you are OC'ing helps a ton. The 8700K is the best value since its the cheapest and if you look at benchmarks all three CPUS are neck and neck. Personally as a gamer I would get the 8700k not even worry about OC'ing and put the savings into a better GPU which is where you will pick up the extra FPS. Don't get me wrong I have overclocked a lot of CPU's over 20 years but for playing games there is no real reason to OC one of these CPU's.

Dont worry about GPU, i have bought last week a 1070 ti.

 

[Dugimodo]

The two extra cores of the 9700K make up for the lack of hyperthreading and it's looking like game performance will be very close between it and the 8700K so it practice it's not really going to matter which you pick. The 9900K just looks like a lot more money for no real gaming advantage. Personally I went ryzen 2700X instead.

Personally I find my gaming doesn't push the CPU hard enough to bother overclocking and unless you are aiming for very high framerates I would suggest it won't benefit you either.

If it was me I'd go with the 9700K, a reasonable air cooler, and leave it at stock. If you discover later performance is lacking (hard to imagine) you can still overclock it. This is about my personal preference for the least amount of hassle with a build for great gaming performance. Even saving a couple of $$ and getting a non K CPU for gaming is perfectly valid .

Overclocking is great, but it's not a requirement for decent framerates so I don't agree with just automatically going for it for most gamers.

 

[t3kn03]

The two extra cores of the 9700K make up for the lack of hyperthreading and it's looking like game performance will be very close between it and the 8700K so it practice it's not really going to matter which you pick. The 9900K just looks like a lot more money for no real gaming advantage. Personally I went ryzen 2700X instead.

Personally I find my gaming doesn't push the CPU hard enough to bother overclocking and unless you are aiming for very high framerates I would suggest it won't benefit you either.

If it was me I'd go with the 9700K, a reasonable air cooler, and leave it at stock. If you discover later performance is lacking (hard to imagine) you can still overclock it. This is about my personal preference for the least amount of hassle with a build for great gaming performance. Even saving a couple of $$ and getting a non K CPU for gaming is perfectly valid .

Overclocking is great, but it's not a requirement for decent framerates so I don't agree with just automatically going for it for most gamers.

I mostly play csgo and csgo is a cpu intensive game, its like a difference of 300fps between ryzen and intel, thats why im going for intel, the price does not matter to me, i only want the better cpu overall for gaming and everything else so i get the best computer i can get so it last me for a while. I was thinking i9 but i heard it is not as good for gaming as the other and that is why i was going for 8700k.

 

[Dugimodo]

Well they didn't test csgo but here https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i9-9900k-9th-gen-cpu,5847.html
seems like in almost all games the difference from the i5 8400 upwards is pretty minimal, but yes the 9900K does win - I just don't think the margin justifies the price or that you will realistically notice any difference from an 8700K or 9700K or realistically even an i5 8600K/9600K

 

[JamesSneed]

For csgo I wouldn't even bring the 9900k into the equation as csgo is lightly threaded so it won't make use of the 8 core 16 threaded chip plus the 9900k will produce the most heat so will be hardest to cool if you are overclocking. The 9700K stock should be faster at csgo than the 8700k. Once you get into OC'ing them your mileage may vary depending on how good the chip is but I suspect it's close to a wash for csgo between the 8600k and the 9700k. However for your usage the 9700k is likely the best choice as it should OC easier since it lacks hyperthreading and has a soldered IHS so should run a little cooler.

If you really want to go overboard and ensure your 9700k is a race car you can buy a binned version but for a large premium.
https://siliconlottery.com/collections/coffeelake-r/products/9700k51g?variant=12794700529750

or a 8086k delided, soldered, guaranteed for 5.2Ghz OC:
https://siliconlottery.com/collections/all/products/8086k52g

Just in case you want to go a bit crazy on the OC side.

 

[t3kn03]

Thank you all When i buy it I will update you guys