Whats the best gaming CPU period

[ccoo84]

Money is no object just want the fastest best gaming cpu? its not about saving money I could blow as much money as I want on a build.. I am building my dream computer I was going with threadripper but I am kinda leaning back towards intel what cpu should I build around if I am using bethesdas creation kit and gaming. Maybe some .nif scope- grinder a little.
I also want future proof if possible thanks guys.. Reminder I am curious the fastest & best.. I'm coming from a 4970k gave it to my dad.

 

[Isokolon]

there is no 4970k.
there was a 4790k, a 4930K and a 4960X, the first being consumer grade.
most CPUs right now won't be an improvement

furthermore for a highend upgrade, I'd wait for Coffeelake and Intel's jump on high clock hexacores.

right now the best you can get is probably the i7-7820X or the i9-7900X (with a 7920 / 7940 coming this fall)
depending on the application neither is much of an improvement over the Ryzens, so I reckon they won't be that much of an improvement over Threadripper as well.

and the price of Intel X-CPUs is out of proportion compared to their performance

 

[envy14tpe]

i7-7700k. Show me something else that begs to differ.

 

[Isokolon]

i7-7700k. Show me something else that begs to differ.

gaming bechmarks for F12015, Crysis, Witcher & Fallout
gaming benchmarks BF1, F12016, Project Cars, Tomb Raider, Total War:Warhammer, Ghost Reckon
sadly in German, but numbers are the same

games that can't make use of the threads the i9 has to offer of course run better on a 7700k. but that's not the future. future will see more multithreaded games.

oddly enough in Tom's test, the i9 beat the i7 in GTA V

 

[envy14tpe]

If someone is buying a high end build I would assume they would play at 1440p (at minimum) or 4k. If you look at those resolutions you'll see it isn't worth it to buy anything more than a i7-7700k or Ryzen 7 1700.

 

[Isokolon]

If someone is buying a high end build I would assume they would play at 1440p (at minimum) or 4k. If you look at those resolutions you'll see it isn't worth it to buy anything more than a i7-7700k or Ryzen 7 1700.

the analogy is wrong.

fps-differences at 2k/4k aren't so much since the GPU is the bottleneck right now
that might change
since OP asked for the best CPU possible and future proofing a 7700k wouldn't be the "I have no budget and want the best of the best" choice
but of course from a value point of view, a Ryzen or 7700k is the better choice

 

[envy14tpe]

If someone is buying a high end build I would assume they would play at 1440p (at minimum) or 4k. If you look at those resolutions you'll see it isn't worth it to buy anything more than a i7-7700k or Ryzen 7 1700.

the analogy is wrong.

fps-differences at 2k/4k aren't so much since the GPU is the bottleneck right now
that might change
since OP asked for the best CPU possible and future proofing a 7700k wouldn't be the "I have no budget and want the best of the best" choice
but of course from a value point of view, a Ryzen or 7700k is the better choice

No budget and future proofing are oxymorons. Of course you'll change it as dictated by new needs. If I was to tell a friend, who had deep pockets, which cpu to get I'd say 7700k or Ryzen 1700. Then, I'd have to see what games n settings he wants to determine whether single or dual GPU is best. However, those CPUs won't bottleneck even a dual 1080ti, so either cpu is still valid. Only other thing I'd suggest is gets tons of M.2 storage. That space and speed won't be overtaken in next couple years.

 

[Vellinious]

i7-7700k. Show me something else that begs to differ.

That would really depend on the game. In older games, and some newer ones, the 7700k will outperform a lot of CPUs, because it's single core performance is the best out there at the moment.

Now, on some of the newer games using DX12 and the Vulcan APIs, where more multithreading is employed by the devs, then a 6 core 12 thread or 8 core 16 thread CPU would likely end up better.

Some of that will also depend on the resolution that's being played at. Gaming at 1080 puts a lot of pressure on the CPU, so having the CPU that will work best for the game your'e playing will be very beneficial. At higher resolutions, and especially at 4k, the GPU has the most work to do, so the CPU becomes "less" important. Still an integral part, obviously, but......

So, the TLDR: In some cases that's absolutely true. In other cases, it's absolutely false.

In the next few years, you'll start seeing more multithreaded games, and the 4 core / 8 thread processors will start to be overwhelmed....

....and there it is.

 

[ccoo84]

What do you guys think about Threadripper 1920 I like the slightly faster speed vs cores? also I was wondering I would like my mother board to be future proof & when I say that I mean- I would like to be able to purchase different new CPUS with it even thought there's nothing but a really really bad track record in the industry- if intel would use the same socket I would think about investing the $1200 + for their cpus like i9 even though you dont get the extras & whistles like extra pci lanes .

 

[envy14tpe]

What do you guys think about Threadripper 1920 I like the slightly faster speed vs cores? also I was wondering I would like my mother board to be future proof & when I say that I mean- I would like to be able to purchase different new CPUS with it even thought there's nothing but a really really bad track record in the industry- if intel would use the same socket I would think about investing the $1200 + for their cpus like i9 even though you dont get the extras & whistles like extra pci lanes .

Benchmarks and reviews will be coming out in a week. Wait and see....should be great like Intel's high end but at a more reasonable price....also it'll smash thru rendering...but I doubt there will be gaming improvements.

 

[mdd1963]

What do you guys think about Threadripper 1920 .

I'd be surprised if fares any better than the 1800X OC'd to 4.0 Ghz.....save for perhaps at low res (sub 1080P), and if running quad channel in memory bandwidth sensitive games...

And the $350-$400 TR4 motherboard expense makes that combo choice seem questionable for gaming, at best...

Once TR4 CPUs deliver and can be benchmarked with something other than Cinebench or a single game other than what AMD approves (4k, SLI, likely the best result possible for AMD), we'll have a better idea...

 

[mdd1963]

7900K fared quite well in the above benchmarks; pity the $1000 cpu cost coupled with $350 mainboards will likely cause it to be chosen 'infrequently' for a gaming rig, I'd suspect... (But I'd sure choose it before 1950X for gaming, short of come miracle OC's that seem unlikely given the horrendous temps noticed on ALienware's pathetically undercooled sample that Linus ran the other day!

 

[Vellinious]

Threadripper for gaming? Foolish

 

[ccoo84]

So let me get this straight from what i'm reading the i7 7700k uses the 1151 socket, when coffee lake comes it will have 6 cores. So if I was to build a 7700k system I could upgrade it to 6 cores later next year?

 

[mdd1963]

The 98% certainty based on a leaked manufacturers tweet (not Intel confirmed yet) is that CoffeeLake will be out on socket 1151 V2, and ergo not backwards compatible with existing Z270/170 boards...

 

[ccoo84]

What about this post though https://hardforum.com/threads/asrock-coffee-lake-cpus-not-compatible-with-z270-motherboards.1941102/

 

[letsrun4it]

I may end up being wrong but I believe that Threadripper and the chips soon to follow in that category will eventually be monster gaming cpus when games start being designed to use the multi core technology.

 

[envy14tpe]

As someone mentioned...it has been said by companies (not Intel though) that the new 6core will need a new mobo and will not be able to be used on Z270 platform. Also, intel already has 6core CPUs on X99 platform and they don't game as well as the 7700k does. So, I'm doubtful the new 6core (next year) will be any better.

But wait a week, the embargo is going to lift soon and we can see the performance of Threadripper.

 

[ccoo84]

I bought the i7 7700k with titan xp sli..

 

[mdd1963]

I may end up being wrong but I believe that Threadripper and the chips soon to follow in that category will eventually be monster gaming cpus when games start being designed to use the multi core technology.

We heard similar things several years ago during the 8350 days as well....; 5 years later, the 'future proof' monster is still tyically manhandled by the i3-7350K when the latter is OC'd.....

At some point, (who knows how many years from now...2?...3? 4?) a crossover of rough parity beween more slower cores vs. fewer faster cores ( 4c/8t )will /might occur.... Perhaps a year or two after that, more games might start arriving that make 6-8 cores at 4 GHz better than 4 cores at 4.5-5 GHz, but that time has not yet arrived...at least not with most games today....

If you are sure that games arriving over th next year or two WILL thrive on 6-8 cores, by all means, everyone has the freedom to choose the R5 /R7, or X99, or even X299...; let your research and wallet be your guide...

We won't know who was correct until the crossover occurs, and then the shift to more cores...*IF*/*WHEN* it occurs...

 

[Vellinious]

I may end up being wrong but I believe that Threadripper and the chips soon to follow in that category will eventually be monster gaming cpus when games start being designed to use the multi core technology.

We heard similar things several years ago during the 8350 days as well....; 5 years later, the 'future proof' monster is still tyically manhandled by the i3-7350K when the latter is OC'd.....

At some point, (who knows how many years from now...2?...3? 4?) a crossover of rough parity beween more slower cores vs. fewer faster cores ( 4c/8t )will /might occur.... Perhaps a year or two after that, more games might start arriving that make 6-8 cores at 4 GHz better than 4 cores at 4.5-5 GHz, but that time has not yet arrived...at least not with most games today....

If you are sure that games arriving over th next year or two WILL thrive on 6-8 cores, by all means, everyone has the freedom to choose the R5 /R7, or X99, or even X299...; let your research and wallet be your guide...

We won't know who was correct until the crossover occurs, and then the shift to more cores...*IF*/*WHEN* it occurs...

Even then, it certainly won't be 10+ core CPUs that dominate that portion of the gaming market. It'll be 4/8 and 6/12.

6/12 seems to be the sweet spot, atm. Enough threads to do very well in heavily threaded games (and then some), and still light enough on core temps, they can be overclocked high enough to compete with the single core performance of the mainstream processors.

Intel's next gen, mainstream i7 will be a 6 core CPU.