[SOLVED] Should i buy i7 9700k or Ryzen 3700x for the long run? 4-5 years.

Sangeeth Sivan

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Oct 22, 2015
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okay so i know that 9700k is much better when it comes to gaming but apart from gaming i also do a little video editing and currently learning Unreal engine,unity etc. I was thinking about getting 3700x initially i even waited for these new set of processors from AMD to release to build my next PC.

So i did a little research and people been complaining that 3700x is behaving weirdly , heating problems like that. Does it have those?

Also i usually upgrade my builds only after 4-5 years or so. So which is the best? keeping this in mind.

so which CPU should i buy i7-9700k or 3700x? Help me decide.
 
Solution
Since you said "long run", then the Ry3700X has the upper hand in my opinion.

Yes, they've had issues due to Motherboards not having their support fully nailed upon release and still some lingering RAM configuration issues that AMD has owned, more or less, since launch. Those are not hardware defects, and although really annoying, you can update to get rid of them.

As for the i7 9700K, it's a dead end CPU plagued with problems of its own and no room to grow. While it's not a bad CPU, I would hardly recommend it for a "long term" purchase after the new Ryzen 3K CPUs are out there in the wild.

Even more, I would dare saying you don't really need to get a Ry3700X and you may be able to enjoy a Ry3600(X) and invest a bit more on a good...
Since you said "long run", then the Ry3700X has the upper hand in my opinion.

Yes, they've had issues due to Motherboards not having their support fully nailed upon release and still some lingering RAM configuration issues that AMD has owned, more or less, since launch. Those are not hardware defects, and although really annoying, you can update to get rid of them.

As for the i7 9700K, it's a dead end CPU plagued with problems of its own and no room to grow. While it's not a bad CPU, I would hardly recommend it for a "long term" purchase after the new Ryzen 3K CPUs are out there in the wild.

Even more, I would dare saying you don't really need to get a Ry3700X and you may be able to enjoy a Ry3600(X) and invest a bit more on a good video card and RAM. I say this, because even if current games are saturating 6 cores easily, the move or jump to 8+ cores is not going to happen in the next year; also, having more RAM is better forward looking than even having a beefier CPU. I'd love to be wrong and, even if I were, the Ry3600 can still cope with a sudden "widening" as it's a 6c/12t CPU anyway. As for RAM, 32GB for a 4-5 year span is the minimum I'd recommend.

Cheers!
 
Solution
okay so i know that 9700k is much better when it comes to gaming but apart from gaming i also do a little video editing and currently learning Unreal engine,unity etc. I was thinking about getting 3700x initially i even waited for these new set of processors from AMD to release to build my next PC.

So i did a little research and people been complaining that 3700x is behaving weirdly , heating problems like that. Does it have those?

Also i usually upgrade my builds only after 4-5 years or so. So which is the best? keeping this in mind.

so which CPU should i buy i7-9700k or 3700x? Help me decide.


The 9700k is not a "much better" CPU for gaming...it's only slightly better when using any video card that a mid level cpu would be paired with and only shows any note worthy advantage over the 3700x when paired with a 2080ti...which nobody but review websites ever does in the real world. Most 9700k and 3700x cpu's are paired with 2060/2070 or Vega/5700 series cards or lower...and with any of those the performance gap, if any, is unremarkable at best.

As far as longevity the 9700k is simply no match for the 3700x...the 3700x already leaves the 9700k in it's dust on multi-threaded apps like encoding and file compression and will likely over take the 9700k in most of not all games in the not too distant future as they become more multi-threaded. Add in the future CPU's to be released on the AM4 socket versus end of life 1151 - 300 series boards and there's no justifiable reason to even consider the 9700k...unless you have a specific single core app that you use all the time that benefits from an optimized Intel single core pipeline.
 

Stealth2668

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Nov 7, 2013
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I'm in the same boat as you. I currently have;
i5-4670k @ 4.4 Ghz
GTX 1070
16GB DDR3 ram

I'm gonna keep my 1070 for at least a few more years (I game at 1080p/60hz for now but will upgrade at some point) but I do want a future proof high end cpu. Of course that means a new mobo and a switch to DDR4 ram. But I'm torn between the 9700k and the 3700X like you.

I've always been an intel guy since amd has been lackluster. I've heard Ryzen 3 is MUCH better though compared to intel in terms of single core performance. For ~$50 less, I can get the 3700X which is also an 8 core but also has hyper threading which the 9700k does not. However I will only be gaming so so hyper threading won't do much. I was also considering the i5-9600k 6 core but i don't think a 6 core is nearly as futureproof, even just for gaming.

Decisions, decisions...
 

GeForce1012

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Sep 14, 2014
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okay so i know that 9700k is much better when it comes to gaming but apart from gaming i also do a little video editing and currently learning Unreal engine,unity etc. I was thinking about getting 3700x initially i even waited for these new set of processors from AMD to release to build my next PC.

So i did a little research and people been complaining that 3700x is behaving weirdly , heating problems like that. Does it have those?

Also i usually upgrade my builds only after 4-5 years or so. So which is the best? keeping this in mind.

so which CPU should i buy i7-9700k or 3700x? Help me decide.

I will try to give my most neutral opinion, but for me security is a big issue. You will see a lot of biased opinions for both AMD and Intel owners/fans but what stopped me from going Intel this cycle is the Zombieload virus that Intel has yet to fix with their hyperthreading.

AMD also had a similar issue with the release of first and second gen Ryzen. Most of those flaws however were patched and we're done so quickly with bios updates. However, Intel's solution to their issue was to disable hyperthreading.

From watching these companies and their practices I would say AMD is pretty good with security as they don't try to hide their flaws and make updates to fix them. Whilst Intel kind of hides it under the covers.

Remember though the 9700k has no hyperthreading so it won't be a problem now but if something were to happen in the long run, I don't know how both companies would respond to these security flaws.