Question Would you buy a 10900K or an 11900K to upgrade your rig?

emitfudd

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Apr 9, 2017
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Looking for opinions from current owners of the 10900K/11900K. I would be upgrading my rig from 7700k so this is not a question of upgrading from the 10900K to the 11900K as most people seem to be in agreement that is not a significant upgrade or even a downgrade considering the 10 cores vs 8 cores. I was originally thinking of going with the 11900K since it has the PCIE 4.0 compatibility. From what I have read that isn't going to make much of a difference in gaming. I was running a 1080 ti and it died so I have bought an MSI 3080 Gaming Z Trio. I don't need the fastest pc on the planet and I think either CPU with a 3080 is going to be a significant upgrade from my current rig.

I have also read as much as I can find on the Alder Lake 12000 series but they seem to be geared towards Windows 11 and efficiency. Not crazy about being an early adopter either. Maybe some day after they have addressed the inevitable bugs.

My 7700K is OC'd to 5.0GHZ and gets up to a max of 76C during gaming. That is just the peak reading and it normally runs quite a bit cooler than that. I have a 360mm AIO exhausting out the top of my Corsair 780T case. Huge case with a lot of airflow. I know the 10900K/11900K use a lot of power and run hot. Anybody having problems keeping it cool with an AIO at 5.2 to 5.3 GHz?

For now I am using a 1440P/165Hz/1ms/Gsync Predator monitor. I may upgrade to a 4K that is 32"/4K/144Hz/1ms/Gsync at some point.

I am thinking of the following specs for upgrading rig:

Same case, Corsair 780T
Same AIO, Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate 360mm
Asus Maximus XIII Hero motherboard
32 GB ram probably from Corsair Vengeance line. Either 3200 or 3600MHz
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB x 2. One for OS and programs and the other for games
1000W PSU mfg to be determined after more research
MSI 3080 Gaming Z Trio
 
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The Ryzen 5000 series can easily go toe-to-toe (i.e., within 10%) against the i9-11900K, with the 5600X easily keeping up with it. So no, AMD's processors are not slower at gaming.

Between the two i9s though, personally I'd go with whatever is later unless the earlier models can do something that I can't get out of a later one for some reason.
 
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emitfudd

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Apr 9, 2017
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The Ryzen 5000 series can easily go toe-to-toe (i.e., within 10%) against the i9-11900K, with the 5600X easily keeping up with it. So no, AMD's processors are not slower at gaming.

Between the two i9s though, personally I'd go with whatever is later unless the earlier models can do something that I can't get out of a later one for some reason.
I edited my OP and removed my comment about AMD since I don't want this post to turn into a debate over AMD vs Intel. Thanks.
 
Looking for opinions from current owners of the 10900K/11900K. I would be upgrading my rig from 7700k so this is not a question of upgrading from the 10900K to the 11900K as most people seem to be in agreement that is not a significant upgrade or even a downgrade considering the 10 cores vs 8 cores. I was originally thinking of going with the 11900K since it has the PCIE 4.0 compatibility. From what I have read that isn't going to make much of a difference in gaming. I was running a 1080 ti and it died so I have bought an MSI 3080 Gaming Z Trio. I don't need the fastest pc on the planet and I think either CPU with a 3080 is going to be a significant upgrade from my current rig.

I have also read as much as I can find on the Alder Lake 12000 series but they seem to be geared towards Windows 11 and efficiency. Not crazy about being an early adopter either. Maybe some day after they have addressed the inevitable bugs.

My 7700K is OC'd to 5.0GHZ and gets up to a max of 76C during gaming. That is just the peak reading and it normally runs quite a bit cooler than that. I have a 360mm AIO exhausting out the top of my Corsair 780T case. Huge case with a lot of airflow. I know the 10900K/11900K use a lot of power and run hot. Anybody having problems keeping it cool with an AIO at 5.2 to 5.3 GHz?

For now I am using a 1440P/165Hz/1ms/Gsync Predator monitor. I may upgrade to a 4K that is 32"/4K/144Hz/1ms/Gsync at some point.

I am thinking of the following specs for upgrading rig:

Same case, Corsair 780T
Same AIO, Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate 360mm
Asus Maximus XIII Hero motherboard
32 GB ram probably from Corsair Vengeance line. Either 3200 or 3600MHz
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB x 2. One for OS and programs and the other for games
1000W PSU mfg to be determined after more research
MSI 3080 Gaming Z Trio
You might want to wait until the reviews on Alder Lake come out next month.
 
I'd still wait for Alder Lake's launch/reviews just to see what potential gains in gaming one might be passing up for a jump to Win11 a few weeks from now....

No reason to dump that much money into a 10900K/11900K only to know it has then been possibly surpassed in gaming two weeks later by a 12700K or 12600K....(not sure if that would ever happen, but, I'd sure resist the urge in buying with potentially only a couple/few weeks to wait...; the 10900K or 11900K will not suddenly be slow, of course, however, but, it's gaming performance might be equaled at a lower price point by Alder Lake!)
 

Eximo

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I went the more budget friendly route. i9-10900F, removed power limits. This was a savings for me, since it lets me re-use my CPU block one last time. i9-10850K would have been alright, but at the time was much more expensive. Still get 5.1 and 5.0 regularly on the desktop, and under a benchmark never drops below 4.6Ghz.

If you are getting a new motherboard, I would agree on waiting as well. Price and availability might be hard to deal with, but the older CPUs should still be around.
 
The i9-11900K is going to be better because of the better IPC and single thread performance.
That is most applicable for games.
Here are the passmark performance numbers:
I9-10900K 20threads 23968/3168
i9-11900k 16threads 25594/3462
I7-7700K 8 9689/2745

I would not try overclocking.
It is usually best to let the system turbo up a few cores when the need is there and conditions are right.


FWIW, on a simple CPU-Z stress test, my I9-11900KF peaks at about 73c.
using a noctua nh-d15s in a well ventilated case.

With the impending intel launch, look for the 12600K which leaks indicate will beat either.
 

emitfudd

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Apr 9, 2017
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I ended up buying a Ryzen 5900x. LOL. I kept researching and the fact that it has 12 cores, runs on less power which means lower temps and that it pretty much keeps up with the Intel CPU's in gaming even though it has a lower clock speed made more sense. Not to mention it destroys the Intel CPU's with tasks. With the current shortage of GPU's and CPU's it is hard to say if the Alder Lake CPU's will even be available for purchase any time soon. Repeat of 3000 series GPU's?? After reading that nobody had 5900x's in stock I was able to buy one from Newegg. Alder Lake may be significantly faster but I feel confident that a 5900x/3080 combo will keep me going for quite a few years with excellent performance.
 
Dec 12, 2021
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@emitfudd
Here is my situation regarding i9-10900k vs i9-11900K.

About a year ago I bought ASRock z490 Taichi motherboard after some research (wanted PCIe 4.0 for my Samsung 980 Pro SSD, SLI just in case if I would not be able to get 3080/3090 and would be forced to use x2080Ti, I had one at that moment, also wanted RGD lights and few M. 2 slots, as well as DDR4-4400 support for my new Viper Steel DDR4-4400 memory). Got i9-10900K, it was not cheap but such as i9-11900K was very close, it was not too much overpriced/stalked at that moment. The idea was to upgrade to i9-11900K to be able to use PCIe 4.0 as soon as it will be available for a reasonable price, on the same platform LGA1200 using the same motherboard and SSD avoiding hassles of Window 10 re-installations and re-activation of the Windows license (I had a lot of games on Samsung 980 Pro). Unfortunately, the idea to use DDR4-4400 memory was not working - Patriot Viper Steel is just an overclocked basic memory and didn't work properly with my Taichi (which should support up to 4800+ memory, but good memory, not Patriot one). I have found it after several troubleshooting efforts running memtest+ during several hours. Patriot support was not helpful at all. Had to go back to my old G.Skill DDR4-3600 memory, which worked flawlessly, and still works fine.
The entire PC worked fine, especially when I had been able to replace 2080Ti with EVGA 3090 FTW3 (directly from EVGA, no scalpers involved), that allowed me to upgrade the monitor to 3840x1600@144Hz (thanks to Costco), 2080Ti was not good enough for that resolution and framerate was a bit too low in some games. So I was a happy camper during over 6 months, everything works as expected.

Then I decided to "upgrade" my i9-10900K CPU to i9-11900K and had a hope that Samsung 980 Pro will perform faster being able to use PCIe 4.0 bus. Wrong decision, it was a downgrade actually. The speed of SSD dropped from 3,482 Mb/s to 905, (almost x4 times per Crystal Disk Mark tests) on exactly the same setup (and yes, I have updated the BIOS to the latest one supporting 11th generation CPU P1.90 and enabled PCIe 4.0 in it), also some "other devices/Base System Device" driver was missing (it's vendor was defined as "Intel"), nothing helped to find that driver, even the latest version of Intel Driver & Support Assistant was unable to find any problem. ASRock website didn't have it either - I re-installed all available system drivers. MS Update was not helpful as well. I have found that i9-11900K was released without the 750 video driver (although I wouldn't use it anyway, but just in case if the motherboard will be used without a video card).

In addition CPU-Z benchmark for i9-11900K was at 1048% vs my old i9-10900K CPU 1265% in Multi Thread test (i.e. simulated performance in modern games which use all threads, mostly due to 8 cores/16 thread vs old 10 cores/20 threads I assume). So in total 20% loss in CPU performance and x3.84 times loss in SSD speed performance, such a waste of time and money!

Taking all this crap in consideration, I have decided to return i9-11900K and never buy Intel products again (at least until DDR5 will be fully available and there will be motherboards designed to be used with it, not compromised DDR4/DDR5 ones).

Alder Lake is not an option, such as it is almost impossible to find DDR5 motherboard for it (IMHO it makes no sense to use a hybrid motherboard, better wait a little bit) and memory. I was avoiding AMD CPUs before (had a technical problem with 2 of them while never had any problems with Intel CPUs in the past), but it seems I have changed my mind, thanks to i9-11900K "implementation".

The lesson is leaned - no hybrid / build with future upgrade in mind platforms for me, and be very cautious with Intel "semi-released" products.

I think you made a good decision with your purchase!
 

Eximo

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(at least until DDR5 will be fully available and there will be motherboards designed to be used with it, not compromised DDR4/DDR5 ones).

Alder Lake is not an option, such as it is almost impossible to find DDR5 motherboard for it (IMHO it makes no sense to use a hybrid motherboard, better wait a little bit) and memory. I was avoiding AMD CPUs before (had a technical problem with 2 of them while never had any problems with Intel CPUs in the past), but it seems I have changed my mind, thanks to i9-11900K "implementation".

The lesson is leaned - no hybrid / build with future upgrade in mind platforms for me, and be very cautious with Intel "semi-released" products.

If by hybrid you mean Alder Lake with DDR4, most results favor something like a DDR 4400 kit over a DDR5 4800 or 5200 kit. So in that regard you are well positioned.

Though I agree on making CPU/Motherboard decision without the intention to upgrade. Except for the X470 chipset, which in hindsight would be the chipset to have for most of AM4's lifetime most of AMD's upgrade paths weren't perfect either. They themselves have claimed it was a mistake to offer such wide support as it lead to customer confusion and frustration.

11700k is in the back of my mind if I ever need PCIe 4.0 for whatever reason, just don't see that happening until we are well into 13th/14th or AM5s first refresh.