Upgrade my X99 Haswell-E 6-Core I7-5820

[qyvnncgr]

Question: Should I update to the Z390 Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake refresh, which would drop me back to 2-channel memory, or update to the X299 and i7-9800X platform Basin Falls refresh? Or wait to see what AMD does with 7 mm process mid-year 2019?

Z390 and Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake refresh: Pro: Fastest on single-thread benchmarks. Hardware-based mitigation for the Meltdown and L1TF (Foreshadow) vulnerabilities. Con: steps back to 2-channel memory.

X299 and i7-9800X Skylake-X platform Basin Falls refresh: Pro: More PCI lanes, bigger package may allow better cooling and thus overclocking than Z390 Intel Core i9-9900K. Quad-channel memory. Con: Lower clock rate on-paper before I overclock. No hardware-based mitigation for the Meltdown and L1TF (Foreshadow) vulnerabilities.

Application: Mostly gaming, but some Maya and Blender work on animated 3D models.

Other option: Wait to see what AMD does with 7 mm process mid 2019.

Price sensitivity: I can afford either, but I'd like to get a big performance bump if I go to all this trouble to build a new system. If the performance increase isn't great, I'd rather wait for 7 mm AMD.


Current System Info

Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 motherboard. Reminder: X99 has quad-channel memory
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99%20Extreme4/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3GHz LGA 2011-v3
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/x-series/i7-5820k.html

Overclock: 4.2 GHz long term stable.

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 288-Pin DD, which is 32 GBytes over 4 sticks on the quad-channel X99 chipset. Clocks at 2600; I don't overclock the memory. I figure that quad-channel at 2600 is about like 2 channel at 5200.

Graphics: NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080Ti founders edition\

Cooling: Closed loop CPU Water Cooler Corsair H100i V2, configured to pull fresh air from outside.

Case: HAF932(RC-932) with 230x30mm side fan configured for exhaust, because my Water Cooler is configured to pull fresh air from outside.

 

[Barty1884]

For "mostly" gaming, I don't see any need at all to upgrade from a 5820K. I just don't see a 'big' performance gain in your primary workload. Gains could be sizeable in Maya/Blender etc, but if that truly is a secondary/minimal workload, I don't see it making a whole lot of sense.

 

[qyvnncgr]

For "mostly" gaming, I don't see any need at all to upgrade from a 5820K. I just don't see a 'big' performance gain in your primary workload. Gains could be sizeable in Maya/Blender etc, but if that truly is a secondary/minimal workload, I don't see it making a whole lot of sense.

Yeah, that's what my head tells me. I've got a 4.2 GHz overclock that's long term stable and quad channel memory. I'm not excited about the Z390 Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake refresh because it would move me backwards on memory lanes and PCI lanes, getting an 11% to 19% (4.7 to 5.0 GHz / 4.2 GHz) faster clock in trade. I'm certainly going to wait and see overclocking reports on the X299 and i7-9800X platform Basin Falls refresh before I do anything. I'll probably just wait another 9 months to see what AMD does with the 7 mm process.

 

[mdd1963]

Wait for 10 nm.....

At 4.2 GHz, you should at least be roughly matching a 6700K's performance in gaming, which is still no slouch by even today's standards...

 

[qyvnncgr]

When will benchmarks on i7-9800X go off NDA? As far as I can tell i7-9800X in still its paper-launch phase.

https://ark.intel.com/products/189122/Intel-Core-i7-9800X-X-series-Processor-16-5M-Cache-up-to-4-50-GHz-

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/x-series/i7-9800x.html

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/core_i7/i7-9800x

 

[karenjoly]

I like the 9800x over the 9900/9700k assuming money is not a consideration.

Quad memory is marginally faster, sometimes, over dual.

The 9800 has a higher base clock than the K series which will make it marginally faster in many run of the mill operations ( non oc).

Final determining thing is the pathetically low processor pcie lanes in the K series. 16 ? lol.
The 9800 has 44.

The unknown thing for me is the quality of the ASUS x299 boards designed for this series. They are not deliverables yet and I'm waiting for reviews. If the boards are loaded with crap like Bluetooth , WiFi and a heart rate monitor then I may go with an bios-upgraded current x299 board.

 

[qyvnncgr]

I like the 9800x over the 9900/9700k assuming money is not a consideration.

... The unknown thing for me is the quality of the ASUS x299 boards designed for this series. They are not deliverables yet and I'm waiting for reviews. If the boards are loaded with crap like Bluetooth , WiFi and a heart rate monitor then I may go with an bios-upgraded current x299 board. ...

Well, a decent x299 board will be cheaper than a top z390 board, because the z390 boards have to do a lot of reindeer games to switch the limited PCI ports around. I went with an Asrock board for my x99 build because I could get a well configured board without having to pay up for the very top board. Asus interleaves features in its product line in such a way that I would only want the very top Asus board, and those are pricey.

I'm seriously thinking about Threadripper now because of its automatic overclocking, but not now. I'm going to wait for 10mm Intel or 7mm AMD. Just not enough increase in performance to justify a change. The new 2080 Ti was worth it; a big increase there.

 

[qyvnncgr]

First 9800x overclock report that I've seen. Not encouraging.
https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/792775-Intel-i7-9800x-mini-review

 

[qyvnncgr]

Okay, I went with the i9-9900k. I wasn't hearing great things about i7-9800X overclocking.
My build:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3876604/9900k-build-leaving-led-bling-disconnected.html