[SOLVED] Should I buy this CPU? (i9-7940X)

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ShadeSlayer812

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Dec 1, 2015
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I build my PC for gaming about 5 years ago. I no longer use my PC for gaming and instead use it for software development and virtualization. That said I've been finding my 4 core 6600K very lacking. However I'm starting college in the fall so my finances are pretty limited. I'd like to spend $650 or less on a CPU/Mobo

I found a great deal ($389) on an unused i9-7940X. As far as I can tell this would be the perfect CPU for me to buy, considering my needs. I know it doesn't have any new features like PCI Gen 4, but it has everything my current CPU has as they are the same generation. However, I'm no expert so I there could definitely be something I'm missing.

What I'll be using it for:
Virtualization
Android Studio
Visual Studio
IntelliJ IDEs
Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, and occasionally Premier)
Lots of file transferring

Current PC Specs:
MB: Z170X-Gaming 3
CPU: i5-6600k (max OC I can get is now down to 4.1Ghz)
Storage: 2 Adata XPG SX8200 Pros and assorted HDDs and SATA SSDs
RAM: 32GB DDR4
I don't think any other specs are relevant so I wont list them. The only things I have on my PCIe ports are my GPU (R9 380) and wifi card

Let me know if you think this is a good buy. If you know of another CPU of similar price that would be better (please also consider socket type as some are no longer made) I would love to hear it.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: Here's the link for the CPU specs (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...eries-processor-22m-cache-up-to-4-20-ghz.html)
 
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Solution
jojesa
ShadeSlayer812 said:
...I found a great deal ($389) on an unused i9-7440X.
Click to expand...
Did you mean an Intel i9-7940X? That's a very good deal.
By the way I got the Intel Core i9-7960X for $350 on eBay.

$389 for a i9-7440X! That will be a great deal for the seller. That's more expensive than the retail price when that CPU was released.

For that price you could get a Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread CPU and for $10 more an Intel Core i9-10850K 10-core, 20-Thread CPU .
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Its good. It's really up to you and your budget.
If you want raw performance, R9 3900X would be better but will cost ~&80 more. But it uses less power, its newer and will be overall better in games than the intel counterpart.
 
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ShadeSlayer812 said:
...I found a great deal ($389) on an unused i9-7440X.
Click to expand...
Did you mean an Intel i9-7940X? That's a very good deal.
By the way I got the Intel Core i9-7960X for $350 on eBay.

$389 for a i9-7440X! That will be a great deal for the seller. That's more expensive than the retail price when that CPU was released.

For that price you could get a Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread CPU and for $10 more an Intel Core i9-10850K 10-core, 20-Thread CPU .
 
Last edited:
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Solution
jojesa said:
Did you mean an Intel i9-7940X? That's a very good deal.
By the way I got the Intel Core i9-7960X for $350 on eBay.

$389 for a i9-7440X! That will be a great deal for the seller. That's more expensive than the retail price when that CPU was released.

For that price you could get a Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread CPU and for $10 more an Intel Core i9-10850K 10-core, 20-Thread CPU .
Click to expand...

Ah yeah sorry, I mean the i9-7940x
 
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After watching the relevant Linus’ video (link here) I have been pondering about the same thing too. There are no 7980XEs any more it seems but there are plenty of 7940X still (link here). It is not really that good of a deal though if you think about it.

(a) The i9 7940X is superseded by the 10940X which has an MSRP of $789 so even on a relative basis the 7940X would at most be worth $700-$750. So paying $389 for a tray 7940X with scratched IHS and/or slightly damaged PCB from some unknown retailer off China to save $300-$350 is not as good of a deal as it originally sounded. And you have no warranty (not from Intel at least).

(b) The 7940X will need overclocking to be competitive in anything other than a pure multithreaded workload. Even with OCing it loses by around 15% to any 10th gen Intel mainstream K-series i7&i9 cpus and by 25-30% to 11th gen Intel & 5000 X-series AMD cpus. Also the 12-core 5900X (currently in stock and selling at its MSRP of $549) beats the 14-core 7940X even in pure multithreaded workloads even when the 7940X is overclocked, even in Userbenchmark’s comparison. And overclocking the 7940X is neither that easy nor cheap. You will have to use a hefty cooler and preferably also delid it and apply liquid metal.

(c) You also have to consider the cost of the motherboard. Personally, I wouldn’t buy a first gen X299 (those that came in 2017) as most of them (and especially the cheaper ones) had VRMs more geared towards the LCC chips (7800X, 7820X, 7900X). So, you want a decent “mark-II” (or “mark III”) X299 so you have to shell out at least $350. Sure, you get a lot of features and PCIe lanes and you also get quad-channel RAM. You REALLY REALLY have to want those as you can still buy a high-end X570 for the same money and you can still get most of the features (or exchange some for others like PCIe4). So you are really comparing spending $750 for the CPU+MB combo versus $900. And you can reduce the latter easily to $750-$800 by going for a $200-$250 board.

(d) Last but not least is Windows 11. This is a 7000-series CPU and at the moment is not amongst the officially supported cpus (although some people with 7940X run the compatibility tool and it said it is compatible).

So all in all purchasing a 7940X, even for $389 is not that good of a choice unless you really, REALLY want a lot of PCIe lanes, AVX-512 and quad channel RAM.
 
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