More CPU cores=Less GPU bottleneck?

[Joseph18]

So I'm waiting for the new GTX 2000 Series to come out and I was wondering if I should get a I7 7700K or an I7 8700 and wondering will having more CPU cores will limit GPU bottlenecking.
But a 7700K has a higher clock speed and better single core performance but the 8700 has more cores.

 

[TechyInAZ]

That's not easy to answer at all. It depends ENTIRELY on the games you play. It's up to the developers of the game to choose if they want to take advantage of more cores or if it's simply not worth it.

 

[Joseph18]

That's not easy to answer at all. It depends ENTIRELY on the games you play. It's up to the developers of the game to choose if they want to take advantage of more cores or if it's simply not worth it.

I play Fortnite, Rainbow 6 Siege, CS:GO but mostly Fortnite and R6.

 

[RememberThe5th]

Thats not always that type, sometimes higher clock speed or in technical name IPC=Instructions per clock, has better result than other CPU's with higher core count and lower core speed.
Like 32C/64t 1.8GHz CPU is waaay slower in games than 5GHz 4C/8T (C=cores,T=threads). but that 32c can render video waaaaay faster than 4C CPU.
Soo in short, still 4 core CPU's are very good for Games, since rarley some games implement 6C support, I think Far Cry 5? Or Hitman (2016?) did that?
Not sure. but still you're gonna feel bottleneck when CPU usage is 100% on game, and GPU 60%, but that's rarely since most of games use 2 cores or 4 cores that you play.
Please correct me if im wrong.

 

[TerryLaze]

If you already have hardware to put the 7700K into then get that,it will be fine for years to come even on demanding games,the ones you list don't use many cores and will run faster on the 7700k.

 

[cryoburner]

But a 7700K has a higher clock speed and better single core performance but the 8700 has more cores.

Actually, the i7-8700 can boost to higher clocks than the i7-7700K in its stock configuration. You can't just look at the base clocks, because the CPU should automatically boost to higher clock speeds as needed depending on how many cores are active, so long as temperatures remain reasonable. The base clocks don't actually matter a whole lot in practice. You can see a list of the boost clocks on wikipedia's pages for these processors...

i7-8700: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake#List_of_Coffee_Lake_processors

i7-7700K: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaby_Lake#List_of_7th_generation_Kaby_Lake_processors

So, with a single core load, the 8700 can boost up to 4.6 GHz, while the 7700K can only boost up to 4.5 GHz at stock clocks. With additional cores active, the two processors can boost like so...

Cores |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6
8700  | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3
7700K | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 |  X  |  X

As you can see, their boost clocks are actually quite similar, with the 8700 actually able to boost slightly higher under lightly threaded loads. And since it has 50% more physical cores and threads, it can handle heavily-threaded workloads significantly better. Unlike the 7700K, it also comes will a stock cooler, although you may need to use a better cooler to get it to boost to its full potential.

The 7700K does have one advantage though, in that it is unlocked for overclocking for potentially better performance than at stock, provided you pair it with a Z-series motherboard and a capable third-party cooler. If you're not overclocking though, in general the 8700 will tend to be faster all around, being slightly faster in lightly threaded workloads, and significantly faster in heavily threaded workloads.

But are you planning to build a new system, or upgrade an existing one? The 8000-series processors require newer 300-series motherboards (Z370, B360, etc), which is something to keep in mind. What kind of hardware do you have now?

 

[Joseph18]

But a 7700K has a higher clock speed and better single core performance but the 8700 has more cores.

Actually, the i7-8700 can boost to higher clocks than the i7-7700K in its stock configuration. You can't just look at the base clocks, because the CPU should automatically boost to higher clock speeds as needed depending on how many cores are active, so long as temperatures remain reasonable. The base clocks don't actually matter a whole lot in practice. You can see a list of the boost clocks on wikipedia's pages for these processors...

i7-8700: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake#List_of_Coffee_Lake_processors

i7-7700K: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaby_Lake#List_of_7th_generation_Kaby_Lake_processors

So, with a single core load, the 8700 can boost up to 4.6 GHz, while the 7700K can only boost up to 4.5 GHz at stock clocks. With additional cores active, the two processors can boost like so...

Cores |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6
8700  | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3
7700K | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 |  X  |  X

As you can see, their boost clocks are actually quite similar, with the 8700 actually able to boost slightly higher under lightly threaded loads. And since it has 50% more physical cores and threads, it can handle heavily-threaded workloads significantly better. Unlike the 7700K, it also comes will a stock cooler, although you may need to use a better cooler to get it to boost to its full potential.

The 7700K does have one advantage though, in that it is unlocked for overclocking for potentially better performance than at stock, provided you pair it with a Z-series motherboard and a capable third-party cooler. If you're not overclocking though, in general the 8700 will tend to be faster all around, being slightly faster in lightly threaded workloads, and significantly faster in heavily threaded workloads.

But are you planning to build a new system, or upgrade an existing one? The 8000-series processors require newer 300-series motherboards (Z370, B360, etc), which is something to keep in mind. What kind of hardware do you have now?

I have an FX 8350 and a Gtx 1050 so i'm getting a huge upgrade. Based on your answer i'm thinking of getting an I7 8700 and a h310M motherboard.

 

[cryoburner]

You might want to go with at least a B360 motherboard, especially since they typically only cost around $5 to $10 more. H310 will limit you to single-channel memory and PCIe 2.0, which is likely to impact performance a little, and also cuts out some other features and connectivity options.

You can find a summary of the differences between the various Coffee Lake chipsets here...

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3268063/components-processors/intel-motherboard-z370-vs-h370-vs-b360-vs-h310-8th-gen-cpu.html

 

[RememberThe5th]

Take z motherboard, ypur cpu with turbo will suffer.

 

[Joseph18]

Take z motherboard, ypur cpu with turbo will suffer.

Does a B360 motherboard really limit the turbo on the cpu?Because a Z370 motherboard is expensive and I might as well get an i7 7700k w/ a z270.

 

[toshibitsu]

You can get a Z370 board for around $100 now on Newegg(just looked). I also see they have a banner to pre-order the new RTX 2080 / 2080 Ti cards (although when I try to it just says 'coming soon')

 

[cryoburner]

B360 motherboards should boost fine as well. The main thing Z370 motherboards have to offer is overclocking, but an 8700 can't overclock anyway. Some Z370 boards feature automatic overclocking features that can can potentially enable the single-core boost clock on all cores (multi-core enhancement), but as far as I know those require an unlocked K processor this generation, at least on most boards. And at the very least, a good cooler, because such automatic overclocks typically use more voltage than they need to, making them run quite hot. And since an 8700 has decent clocks to begin with, it wouldn't likely make a perceptible difference in gaming performance anyway.

A Z370 motherboard also allows for higher speed memory, as the other chipsets are limited to DDR4-2666 at most. In practice though, it tends to not make much of a difference in gaming performance, and you would need a high-end graphics card running a low resolution on 144Hz monitor just to see maybe a 5% performance gain in some games.

 

[Joseph18]

B360 motherboards should boost fine as well. The main thing Z370 motherboards have to offer is overclocking, but an 8700 can't overclock anyway. Some Z370 boards feature automatic overclocking features that can can potentially enable the single-core boost clock on all cores (multi-core enhancement), but as far as I know those require an unlocked K processor this generation, at least on most boards. And at the very least, a good cooler, because such automatic overclocks typically use more voltage than they need to, making them run quite hot. And since an 8700 has decent clocks to begin with, it wouldn't likely make a perceptible difference in gaming performance anyway.

A Z370 motherboard also allows for higher speed memory, as the other chipsets are limited to DDR4-2666 at most. In practice though, it tends to not make much of a difference in gaming performance, and you would need a high-end graphics card running a low resolution on 144Hz monitor just to see maybe a 5% performance gain in some games.

So now i'm going more towards getting a B360 Mobo, 2x8gb DDR4 2666MHz, and a I7 8700. Also does anyone know when the price drops for previous generation gtx cards will happen? Like since the RTX cards came out im asking when will the gtx 1000 series cards will drop. Because the prices for the RTX series are ridiculous and I don't want to wait another year or two for the RTX cards to drop in price.

 

[toshibitsu]

RTX 2070 - starting at $499
RTX 2080 - starting at $699
RTX 2080 Ti - starting at $999

The 2080 / 2080 Ti will be available September 20. No official release date yet on the 2070. Expect them to sell out quickly and sell for a lot more on ebay.

[EDIT] looks like the pre-orders on Newegg are already out of stock.

 

[Joseph18]

RTX 2070 - starting at $499
RTX 2080 - starting at $699
RTX 2080 Ti - starting at $999

The 2080 / 2080 Ti will be available September 20. No official release date yet on the 2070. Expect them to sell out quickly and sell for a lot more on ebay.

[EDIT] looks like the pre-orders on Newegg are already out of stock.

I'm looking more into getting a GTX 1080 now but there are rumors that the new RTX 2060 is on par or faster than the GTX 1080 which would be a waste of money. What are you're opinions?

 

[toshibitsu]

Hard to say.. judging by the specs of the 3 "official" cards, the RTX 2070 looks to be comparable to the current GTX 1080 Ti. That being the case, it's safe to assume that if they release an RTX 2060, it would be comparable to the GTX 1080(or possibly the GTX 1070 Ti).

 

[cryoburner]

It's difficult to say what performance of the 2060 will be like. Could it be comparable to a GTX 1080? Maybe. The GTX 1060 6GB was close in performance to a GTX 980, after all. On the other hand, the GTX 960 didn't even match the previous generation's GTX 770. So, based on prior generations, performance could lie anywhere from around GTX 1080-level down to below 1070-level.

And it's still unknown whether or not it might include the new raytraced lighting capabilities found in the higher-end cards, or what the price might be like. I would assume around $250-$300, but it's difficult to say without knowing what kind of hardware capabilities it has. Nvidia was kind of vague about the exact performance of even the cards they announced today.

I would expect the prices of existing cards to drop over the coming months though. If an RTX 2070 actually offers performance comparable to a GTX 1080 Ti with additional features, and is actually available for around $500, then I would expect the GTX 1080 might at least drop below $400, and the 1070 down around $300.