Intel Core i7 8700k or Ryzen 7 2700X?

[NovaTronMC]

I am upgrading a system that is about 4 intel generations old. But checking the new releases of the new AMD Processors, i've been doubting a lot. I use my system for heavy gaming (Witcher 3, Destiny 2, Battlefield 1/4, Fortnite and new comming games), as well as some light video editing and some heavy 3D rendering as I'm an architecture student. So I wanted to know, which CPU fits best my needs? I want a future proof system that might last for atleast 3-4 years. I am currently on a 970 but waiting for new nvidia gpus to release, so ill be pairing the to be chosen cpu with the --80 GPU of the new architecture. Also, for the i7 I want the Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 5, hands down, love the RGB, just beautiful, but what's the equivalent for the X470 chipset? Please suggest me mobos with beautiful RGB and dark themed PCB, my budget for the MoBo goes up to 200-225 dollars. Thanks!.

 

[Finstar]

The quality depends on the binding right? Luck on fabrication. Does this also happen on the Ryzen? Also, I really like the Amd, performance wise looks promosing, with an Asus X470-F and 16Gbs I believe ill be good to go for years, since i've heard it's a future proof system. The thing that worries me is the gaming performance, I prefer the AMD over the intel for everything... except gaming. I feel those 7 fps drops will really make me regret, is there a way to make the Ryzen perform just as good as the i7 on gaming?

It happens on all CPUs including Ryzen. The way the Ryzen will perform as good as the i7 is game optimization.
Zen as an architecture is still very new and many programs and games have not yet been fully optimized for it.
Also, support for several threads in games is still quite bad (thanks to 5 years of quadcores with minimal performance gains) with only few games being currently able to fully utilize the 16 threads as of now. The situation will likely improve in future when game engines are updated to support more threads. The i7 8700k suffers from this too as the i5 8600k clock to clock has near identical performance in most games despite the i7 having twice the threads.

 

[NovaTronMC]

The quality depends on the binding right? Luck on fabrication. Does this also happen on the Ryzen? Also, I really like the Amd, performance wise looks promosing, with an Asus X470-F and 16Gbs I believe ill be good to go for years, since i've heard it's a future proof system. The thing that worries me is the gaming performance, I prefer the AMD over the intel for everything... except gaming. I feel those 7 fps drops will really make me regret, is there a way to make the Ryzen perform just as good as the i7 on gaming?

It happens on all CPUs including Ryzen. The way the Ryzen will perform as good as the i7 is game optimization.
Zen as an architecture is still very new and many programs and games have not yet been fully optimized for it.
Also, support for several threads in games is still quite bad (thanks to 5 years of quadcores with minimal performance gains) with only few games being currently able to fully utilize the 16 threads as of now. The situation will likely improve in future when game engines are updated to support more threads. The i7 8700k suffers from this too as the i5 8600k clock to clock has near identical performance in most games despite the i7 having twice the threads.

So basically, the Ryzen will perform equally or even outperform the i7 when games inplement support for 8 core processors? And optimizations for Ryzen 7? Because if this is the case, Ill go for the Ryzen hands down!

 

[Finstar]

So basically, the Ryzen will perform equally or even outperform the i7 when games inplement support for 8 core processors? And optimizations for Ryzen 7? Because if this is the case, Ill go for the Ryzen hands down!

It's impossible to tell but there's certainly more power left in the 2700x than most current games can utilize.

 

[NovaTronMC]

So basically, the Ryzen will perform equally or even outperform the i7 when games inplement support for 8 core processors? And optimizations for Ryzen 7? Because if this is the case, Ill go for the Ryzen hands down!

It's impossible to tell but there's certainly more power left in the 2700x than most current games can utilize.

True, and still the Ryzen keeps up quite decently with the i7 in terms of gaming, specially when paired with a 1080 im planning to buy. And if it does happen, the optimisation for 8 core processors, then I'm on plain luck!

 

[faalin]

The main issue is to run a 8700k at 5ghz requires $150 worth of cooling.
Whereas the 2700x comes with the fairly giant sized wraith prism which does the job fine.

8700k ? Great cpu, on price/performance / productivity though the 2700x is a clear winner.

a cryorig r1 is less than $90

+1 i have the cryorig R1 universal $89.99 at amazon right now and i can do 5.1Ghz with it on my 8700k.

 

[NovaTronMC]

The main issue is to run a 8700k at 5ghz requires $150 worth of cooling.
Whereas the 2700x comes with the fairly giant sized wraith prism which does the job fine.

8700k ? Great cpu, on price/performance / productivity though the 2700x is a clear winner.

a cryorig r1 is less than $90

+1 i have the cryorig R1 universal $89.99 at amazon right now and i can do 5.1Ghz with it on my 8700k.

I might just go for the Ryzen, after thinking I believe it is so much worth it.

 

[YoAndy]

If you’re going to be focusing on content creation then you’re going to get faster production speeds out of the 2700x but if you’re buying this specifically for gaming then the 8700k does have better performance on individual cores.

In a similar case, the 8700k is more than capable of crunching through large content production projects rapidly, just perhaps not quite as quickly as AMD’s offering.

With the race being so close in terms of performance, we’re going to have to come back to the value game. The 2700x is a cheaper unit, and comes with a very impressive (Free) stock cooler as well and that's a good cooler for the general public.

However, if you want to be the fastest kid on the block or you’re an enthusiast and you’re going to be tinkering with a large cooling set up to get the very best speeds, the 8700k will be a slightly better choice here because of the better overclocking headroom.

You can’t really go wrong with either of these options, as they’re both fantastic and will be a solid purchase for a few years at least.

Check this for comparison and lowest peice available http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-2700X/3937vs3958

 

[spdragoo]

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-pc-gaming-cpus-processors/

Scroll down and you'll see a 10 game benchmark average. The i7 8700k is only 9% faster.It's very late. When I wake I will look for the charts that show software benches.

"All the results are for CPUs running at stock speeds"

Which means those benches are skewed in amd's favor due to their poor headroom


a 5ghz 8700k is a whole other beast

https://www.techspot.com/review/1655-core-i7-8700k-vs-ryzen-7-2700x/page8.html

Note that, per the first page, both CPUs were OC'd: i7 to 5.0GHz, & the R7 to 4.2GHz...& despite its ~20% advantage in clock speed, the OC'd i7 only managed ~13% average performance edge at 720p, 9% at 1080p... & only 4% faster at 1440p.

And the results themselves have some outliers on the data:

• 
  ■ Not sure why, but they claim that Starcraft II only uses a single thread...although it would explain why you'd get 20-30% better performance from the CPU that's running 20% faster. However, it appears there might be some sort of limitation in the game engine itself -- as it boggles the mind how, with these 2 top-of-the-line CPUs paired with a GTX 1080TI, you'd have identical average & 1% FPS rates for each combination at 720p, 1080p & 1440p.
  ■ The average FPS rates were so ridiculously high on both CPUs (both well over 500+ FPS at all resolutions) that they used the 1% minimum figures.
  ■ Although Overwatch looks like it has a huge FPS gap in performance, remember that both were hitting well over 200 FPS averages (& close to that on the 1% mins) at 720p & 1080p. When your FPS is that high, even a 20FPS margin isn't going to make that much of a difference.
  ■ Pretty much across the board, once you hit 1440p you're much more limited by the GPU than either CPU, as their performances become nearly identical.
  ■

The OP, however, is currently using a GTX 970...which, being roughly comparable to the current GTX 1060, is going to see much more of a GPU-related limitation at 1080p than Techspot did in their testing.

Long story short: i7-8700K's game performance is measurably greater than the R7 2700X, but since the OP isn't going to be strictly gaming he's probably better off picking the Ryzen instead of the i7.

 

[poopstains82]

I am upgrading a system that is about 4 intel generations old. But checking the new releases of the new AMD Processors, i've been doubting a lot. I use my system for heavy gaming (Witcher 3, Destiny 2, Battlefield 1/4, Fortnite and new comming games), as well as some light video editing and some heavy 3D rendering as I'm an architecture student. So I wanted to know, which CPU fits best my needs? I want a future proof system that might last for atleast 3-4 years. I am currently on a 970 but waiting for new nvidia gpus to release, so ill be pairing the to be chosen cpu with the --80 GPU of the new architecture. Also, for the i7 I want the Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 5, hands down, love the RGB, just beautiful, but what's the equivalent for the X470 chipset? Please suggest me mobos with beautiful RGB and dark themed PCB, my budget for the MoBo goes up to 200-225 dollars. Thanks!.

I was always in intel man, since day one..but I recently switched to AMD Ryzen 7 2700x and honestly for my needs with Audio Production and yes gaming as well..I personally have no regrets to be honest what so ever...In my personal exp , really just like anybody else ...needs and preference are totally diff things ..So, really only u can choose whats best for u ( yourself ) in the end ...Goodluck ..

 

[Carlton999]

The real question you need to ask yourself is what's more important to you.........your gaming or your work.

 

[lsatenstein]

Is cost any consideration? It is my experience that with every new Intel CPU you most likely need to purchase a new motherboard. Not so with AMD. And going back to the frames per second, if, can you tell the difference between 60fps and 57fps. I say, not with your eyes, your reflexes. That difference is 7%.
Do you want a toaster system (high wattage), then Intel is for you. If you want a more efficient setup, AMD is for you.
Software in the future will be developed to work with a large number of cores. 8 cores, 8 threads is what you get today, and that will serve you well for the next 5 years.

Right now NVIDIA is the company with a great overpriced set of graphic cards. AMD is going to release some of their new versions soon, hopefully for Christmas. My choice, without hesitation, is AMD, because, AMD's grapic card software will be open sourced. Many many eyes will be looking at it for bugs, for tuning it to be more efficient, and for compatibility with some proposed standards. One should not have to search a vendor website for drivers.

Once again, AMD is my choice.

 

[g-unit1111]

For gaming, the i7 8700 is about 7% faster.

For video editing and 3d rendering, the Ryzen 7 2700x crushes it.

You can't go wrong with either but I would choose the Ryzen

True, the i7 will perform faster on games, while the Ryzen destroys the i7 on content creation, which is basically my work. The thing is that im afraid of getting the i7 because I feel that I will need that 2-core power for my work, but also I feel that I will miss those fps for gaming, which in some ocasions even go down by 40 fps.

I'm kind of in the same boat, I have an old Intel X79 system that is lagging a lot, and I am looking to upgrade, and right now I'm leaning heavily toward Ryzen 2nd gen - maybe the 2700X if I can get a good price on it.

 

[NovaTronMC]

If you’re going to be focusing on content creation then you’re going to get faster production speeds out of the 2700x but if you’re buying this specifically for gaming then the 8700k does have better performance on individual cores.

In a similar case, the 8700k is more than capable of crunching through large content production projects rapidly, just perhaps not quite as quickly as AMD’s offering.

With the race being so close in terms of performance, we’re going to have to come back to the value game. The 2700x is a cheaper unit, and comes with a very impressive (Free) stock cooler as well and that's a good cooler for the general public.

However, if you want to be the fastest kid on the block or you’re an enthusiast and you’re going to be tinkering with a large cooling set up to get the very best speeds, the 8700k will be a slightly better choice here because of the better overclocking headroom.

You can’t really go wrong with either of these options, as they’re both fantastic and will be a solid purchase for a few years at least.

Check this for comparison and lowest peice available http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-2700X/3937vs3958

I want the processor for a bit of heavy gaming, but also for content creation. Since I study architecture, I need 3D modelling power, but also love to game demanding games. But from what i've heard, maybe the i7 will be faster at gaming, and the ryzen at content creation, but since both of them do quite a good job on both (one slightly better than the other) I think I might go for ryzen for varios reasons. First, on my city getting a good MoBo for the i7 is very expensive, while for the Ryzen is quite cheap actually, was thinking about the Strix X470-F. Then, in the future I might lower my gaming and focus much more on school, then I will need more cores. Also, Im waiting for programs and games to focus more on octa cores, and to optimize the new ryzen for this, since now there's a lot of optimization missing. I prefer going for ryzen, also taking into account that i've heard they are much more user friendly, and actually use thermal paste instead of other non-professional substances. And oh yeah, I might really slightly overclock the ryzen, dont really like overclocking tho.

 

[NovaTronMC]

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-pc-gaming-cpus-processors/

Scroll down and you'll see a 10 game benchmark average. The i7 8700k is only 9% faster.It's very late. When I wake I will look for the charts that show software benches.

"All the results are for CPUs running at stock speeds"

Which means those benches are skewed in amd's favor due to their poor headroom


a 5ghz 8700k is a whole other beast

https://www.techspot.com/review/1655-core-i7-8700k-vs-ryzen-7-2700x/page8.html

Note that, per the first page, both CPUs were OC'd: i7 to 5.0GHz, & the R7 to 4.2GHz...& despite its ~20% advantage in clock speed, the OC'd i7 only managed ~13% average performance edge at 720p, 9% at 1080p... & only 4% faster at 1440p.

And the results themselves have some outliers on the data:

• 
  ■ Not sure why, but they claim that Starcraft II only uses a single thread...although it would explain why you'd get 20-30% better performance from the CPU that's running 20% faster. However, it appears there might be some sort of limitation in the game engine itself -- as it boggles the mind how, with these 2 top-of-the-line CPUs paired with a GTX 1080TI, you'd have identical average & 1% FPS rates for each combination at 720p, 1080p & 1440p.
  ■ The average FPS rates were so ridiculously high on both CPUs (both well over 500+ FPS at all resolutions) that they used the 1% minimum figures.
  ■ Although Overwatch looks like it has a huge FPS gap in performance, remember that both were hitting well over 200 FPS averages (& close to that on the 1% mins) at 720p & 1080p. When your FPS is that high, even a 20FPS margin isn't going to make that much of a difference.
  ■ Pretty much across the board, once you hit 1440p you're much more limited by the GPU than either CPU, as their performances become nearly identical.
  ■

The OP, however, is currently using a GTX 970...which, being roughly comparable to the current GTX 1060, is going to see much more of a GPU-related limitation at 1080p than Techspot did in their testing.

Long story short: i7-8700K's game performance is measurably greater than the R7 2700X, but since the OP isn't going to be strictly gaming he's probably better off picking the Ryzen instead of the i7.

Exactly, the fact that I need that pc for gaming and for a lot of content creation, it might be soft-medium modelling, but since software updates for the better as time goes forward, I want the 8 core cpu. I know im sacrifizing gaming performance but well, it's my studies, that's the main reason im taking the Ryzen. Also, in few months im getting the GTX 1080 or the new GTX model for the 1080.

 

[tinob20]

You really should research how those CPUs behave with the software you use. Content creation can be complex, I do some audio on protools and it prefers Intel over AMD. (Not sure why) but I think it's cause depending on what you are doing, just like games, it prefers stronger single performance over multicore stuff. You need to be doing a lot of stuff at the same time to have use for that many cores... With any other CPU, AMD seems the logic choice but the flagship i7 is no joke, specially at 5.0ghz...

 

[NovaTronMC]

You really should research how those CPUs behave with the software you use. Content creation can be complex, I do some audio on protools and it prefers Intel over AMD. (Not sure why) but I think it's cause depending on what you are doing, just like games, it prefers stronger single performance over multicore stuff. You need to be doing a lot of stuff at the same time to have use for that many cores... With any other CPU, AMD seems the logic choice but the flagship i7 is no joke, specially at 5.0ghz...

The thing is that I sometimes work with single core, sometimes with multi core. And the recommended system for what I need includes threadrippers, Xeons, i9 X... thing I can obviously not affort, im a student. Also, the overclocking thing, I currently have a Corsair H80i v2, not very good for 5.0GHz overclocking, also, I should delid the i7 for the best temps, things I find quite difficult for a mainstream PC user. Also, I've been told that future of gaming and programs may require 8 cores, instead of single core power, thus making the Ryzen future proof. I really don't know which CPU to get, I know both are great but I really dont know now.

 

[cher_thomas_mignon]

I am upgrading a system that is about 4 intel generations old. But checking the new releases of the new AMD Processors, i've been doubting a lot. I use my system for heavy gaming (Witcher 3, Destiny 2, Battlefield 1/4, Fortnite and new comming games), as well as some light video editing and some heavy 3D rendering as I'm an architecture student. So I wanted to know, which CPU fits best my needs? I want a future proof system that might last for atleast 3-4 years. I am currently on a 970 but waiting for new nvidia gpus to release, so ill be pairing the to be chosen cpu with the --80 GPU of the new architecture. Also, for the i7 I want the Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 5, hands down, love the RGB, just beautiful, but what's the equivalent for the X470 chipset? Please suggest me mobos with beautiful RGB and dark themed PCB, my budget for the MoBo goes up to 200-225 dollars. Thanks!.

intel is better. it uses less power and performs better. 14nm & 65W (not overclock)

 

[poopstains82]

I personally think AMD is overall better , it has the best of both worlds , a few drops in FPS isn't that much of big deal and yes I am a enthusiast ..to some it might matter , omg I need a extra some what FPS in my games lol , which the average loss in FPS is very very slim , so honestly AMD has the upper-hand . even with that beautiful threadripper..which honestly getting that CPU is way over-kill for me . 2700x works just fine . , I have at 4.0ghz @ 1.26v atm very stable. I also have good cooling and amazing case , Corsair 570x RGB white ..

 

[NovaTronMC]

I personally think AMD is overall better , it has the best of both worlds , a few drops in FPS isn't that much of big deal and yes I am a enthusiast ..to some it might matter , omg I need a extra some what FPS in my games lol , which the average loss in FPS is very very slim , so honestly AMD has the upper-hand . even with that beautiful threadripper..which honestly getting that CPU is way over-kill for me . 2700x works just fine . , I have at 4.0ghz @ 1.26v atm very stable. I also have good cooling and amazing case , Corsair 570x RGB white ..

True, the fps difference should not really matter for me, a kind of casual gamer. Just wanted to know few things, which GPU do you have? And which cooler to overclock? Wanted to know if I will overclock my system or not.

 

[poopstains82]

I personally think AMD is overall better , it has the best of both worlds , a few drops in FPS isn't that much of big deal and yes I am a enthusiast ..to some it might matter , omg I need a extra some what FPS in my games lol , which the average loss in FPS is very very slim , so honestly AMD has the upper-hand . even with that beautiful threadripper..which honestly getting that CPU is way over-kill for me . 2700x works just fine . , I have at 4.0ghz @ 1.26v atm very stable. I also have good cooling and amazing case , Corsair 570x RGB white ..

True, the fps difference should not really matter for me, a kind of casual gamer. Just wanted to know few things, which GPU do you have? And which cooler to overclock? Wanted to know if I will overclock my system or not.

Cooler : Thermaltake Floe AIO Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition w/ a total of 9 fans on a push-pull config. radiator mounted in the front

Ram : Trident Z RGB 3200 8x2 @ 16gb ( OC'd @ 3200 )


GPU : ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 DUAL-GTX1060-O6G 6GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

PSU : CORSAIR RM750x White CP-9020155-NA 750W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply

MOBO : ASUS Prime X470-Pro AM4 AMD X470 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

 

[poopstains82]

i grew up in the IBM days hehe , when that's all we had ..i went straight to intel. i had my up and downs with intel.. both CPU companies are amazing to me , only ones in the world ..but both companies have there faults..like i said ive always been a intel man .but with my exp ..i would like to think AMD has the upper hand if you like an all around CPU..yes if u want high overclocks and just a few more FPS yea go for intel..but really all that isn't needed really , unless u want LN2 lol but that really is a task in itself , but not recommended for basic user , which the basic user are more mainstream than ever ..AMD can do ur work and play ur games with no issues..an honest gamer doesn't really need that much , unless he wants to high on himself and be the bigger guy on the block . wow ur cool lol who cares honestly . ur only cool for so long ..i like to look on the brightside of things ..AMD is my choice ...

 

[NovaTronMC]

I personally think AMD is overall better , it has the best of both worlds , a few drops in FPS isn't that much of big deal and yes I am a enthusiast ..to some it might matter , omg I need a extra some what FPS in my games lol , which the average loss in FPS is very very slim , so honestly AMD has the upper-hand . even with that beautiful threadripper..which honestly getting that CPU is way over-kill for me . 2700x works just fine . , I have at 4.0ghz @ 1.26v atm very stable. I also have good cooling and amazing case , Corsair 570x RGB white ..

True, the fps difference should not really matter for me, a kind of casual gamer. Just wanted to know few things, which GPU do you have? And which cooler to overclock? Wanted to know if I will overclock my system or not.

Cooler : Thermaltake Floe AIO Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition w/ a total of 9 fans on a push-pull config. radiator mounted in the front

Ram : Trident Z RGB 3200 8x2 @ 16gb ( OC'd @ 3200 )


GPU : ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 DUAL-GTX1060-O6G 6GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

PSU : CORSAIR RM750x White CP-9020155-NA 750W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply

MOBO : ASUS Prime X470-Pro AM4 AMD X470 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

This is the current setup I have and will have (Some of the parts I already have).
Cooler: Corsair H80i V2 (Already have)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB 16GB 3200MHz
GPU: Evga GTX1080 FTW
PSU: Evga SuperNova G2 850W
MoBo: Asus Strix X470-F

 

[a.wenda]

We have similar background. From X58 based, I wouldn't want to go with the mainstream Intel desktop platform. You have got less PCI Express lane than your current X58 (36 if I recall correctly) with some of the higher end motherboard comes with PLX switch. On gaming, the GPU will matter much more than the CPU for the scenario that you are describing.

I can see that you are on the AMD X470 platform already. Ryzen 7 2700 (no X) will get my vote. It's only at 239USD on Amazon.

 

[poopstains82]

We have similar background. From X58 based, I wouldn't want to go with the mainstream Intel desktop platform. You have got less PCI Express lane than your current X58 (36 if I recall correctly) with some of the higher end motherboard comes with PLX switch. On gaming, the GPU will matter much more than the CPU for the scenario that you are describing.

I can see that you are on the AMD X470 platform already. Ryzen 7 2700 (no X) will get my vote. It's only at 239USD on Amazon.

I honestly love my Ryzen 7 2700x ( my whole build I love ) I just honestly got done down-volting it from 1.261v @ 4.0ghz stable w/ram @ 3200 OC'd to 1.2333v @ 4.0ghz same w/ ram OC'd @ 3200 ran extensive tests , I am 2c less in temps ..Max load temp was 54c...idle 26c..Core performance boost disabled as always ..I tried w/ 1.200v lol it wouldn't go stable . so I went up increments from there..so 1.2333v @ 4.0ghz is the best I can do , unless I increase SoC voltage from 1.1v to 1.150v or 1.2v. but its not really needed..so , Im not goin to .. yep I used to be an intel man , for a long time .. AMD has my vote for an overall performance CPU ..

 

[NovaTronMC]

We have similar background. From X58 based, I wouldn't want to go with the mainstream Intel desktop platform. You have got less PCI Express lane than your current X58 (36 if I recall correctly) with some of the higher end motherboard comes with PLX switch. On gaming, the GPU will matter much more than the CPU for the scenario that you are describing.

I can see that you are on the AMD X470 platform already. Ryzen 7 2700 (no X) will get my vote. It's only at 239USD on Amazon.

The thing is that im doubting about that loss of performance on gaming from the i7 to the Ryzen X model, the non X will just make it worse, and for 20 dollars (in my country) its simply not worth it. Also, I might do custom loops, so overclocking can be possible, my case is quite small, thats the problem.