Is 9700K worth 150 USD more than 3700X?

[theMorzan]

First of all, I know that the prices in these tables may seem a little bit off to some people but they are the prices we get here (converted to USD, after tax). So, does the difference seem justifiable, given that the system is going to be used for gaming only? I am asking mainly because after watching like 15 different videos, I am still not sure. Leaning towards the AMD option but would really appreciate some other opinions. Thanks in advance.

 

AMD

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($390.00) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Asus - CROSSHAIR VI HERO (WI-FI AC) ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($195.00) 
Memory: Patriot - Viper RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P600S ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Titanium 650 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($197.00) 
Monitor: Acer - XF270HU 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $782.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-18 14:09 EDT-0400

 

Intel

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($479.00) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($249.00) 
Memory: Patriot - Viper RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P600S ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Titanium 650 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($197.00) 
Monitor: Acer - XF270HU 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $925.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-18 14:11 EDT-0400

[Bananasplit_00]

The 3700x is faster everywhere afaik. Don't get the 9700k

[steelo]

4 minutes ago, theMorzan said:

First of all, I know that the prices in these tables may seem a little bit off to some people but they are the prices we get here (converted to USD, after tax). So, does the difference seem justifiable, given that the system is going to be used for gaming only? I am asking mainly because after watching like 15 different videos, I am still not sure. Leaning towards the AMD option but would really appreciate some other opinions. Thanks in advance.

 

AMD

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($390.00) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Asus - CROSSHAIR VI HERO (WI-FI AC) ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($195.00) 
Memory: Patriot - Viper RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P600S ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Titanium 650 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($197.00) 
Monitor: Acer - XF270HU 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $782.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-18 14:09 EDT-0400

 

Intel

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($479.00) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($249.00) 
Memory: Patriot - Viper RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P600S ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Titanium 650 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($197.00) 
Monitor: Acer - XF270HU 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $925.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-18 14:11 EDT-0400

AMD all the way. If you get the Intel i7, you're paying $150 more for a CPU that's proven to fall behind the 3700X in most benchmarks.

[Moonzy]

24 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

The 3700x is faster everywhere afaik

hmmmm... no? some games still favour intel (margins may not be as wide now, but there's still some difference)

Spoiler

 

but whether if it's worth the $150 is up to OP

 

personally... i'd save up the $150, the difference is miniscule and it's not worth the $150 imo, 15% cost for around ~5% performance gains averagely in games

[theMorzan]

20 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

hmmmm... no? some games still favour intel (margins may not be as wide now, but there's still some difference)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

but whether if it's worth the $150 is up to OP

 

personally... i'd save up the $150, the difference is miniscule and it's not worth the $150 imo, 15% cost for around ~5% performance gains averagely in games

I am currently leaning towards the not worth it option. I could make the difference even greater by going for a cheaper board but, I don't really need to and the the Hero VI still seems like a great deal to me, even if it's "old".

[Kitsan]

Research benchmarks on the games you want to play at the resolution you want to play and make your own mind up.

 

"Worth" is so subjective based on what you want to achieve vs what your financial position is

[Moonzy]

8 minutes ago, theMorzan said:

I don't really need to and the the Hero VI still seems like a great deal to me, even if it's "old".

personally i would go for the crosshair 7 hero for this CPU if you intend to overclock

or else, the Asus x570 TUF is also a good choice if you dont plan to OC much

i would prefer the platform built for the CPU (just my own personal preference)

 

edit: supplemental things if u wanna know more:

Spoiler

 

 

[Turtle Rig]

6 minutes ago, remus243 said:

Research benchmarks on the games you want to play at the resolution you want to play and make your own mind up.

 

"Worth" is so subjective based on what you want to achieve vs what your financial position is

Ya thing is the single core performance on game;  the difference is so minuscule don't bother comparing gaming performance.  Same sh*T.... The AMD chip is better in every way, from price point to free heatsink fan and performance,, you take those 3 things and compared it to 9700k ... Its a mistake.  Go team Red on this note imo

[Zando_]

1 hour ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

The 3700x is faster everywhere afaik. Don't get the 9700k

Everywhere except Destiny 2 for the timebeing, it plain doesn't run and IDK if they've fixed that yet. If they do I may sell my X99 rig and upgrade to Zen 2. 

[theMorzan]

7 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

personally i would go for the crosshair 7 hero for this CPU if you intend to overclock

or else, the Asus x570 TUF is also a good choice if you dont plan to OC much

i would prefer the platform built for the CPU (just my own personal preference)

 

edit: supplemental things if u wanna know more:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Believe me, I have probably seen every Buldzoids video on this and related topics. And I would love to go for the Hero 7 but the prices here are so unreasonably high (120 USD more than Hero 6) that I really have hard time justifying the purchase to myself,. Also at that point, I might as well go for like MSI X570 GAMING EDGE or PRO CARBON (yeah, I really need that WiFi). Other than the Hero 6 for about $195 there is the X470 Taichi for $225 or the B450 Carbon for $175. So I went for the middle option.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, theMorzan said:

yeah, I really need that WiFi

sometimes a wifi pcie card is cheaper than a built in option

2 minutes ago, theMorzan said:

that I really have hard time justifying the purchase to mysel

it is a hard justification, if you dont need the features then it's probably not worth it for you

[Kitsan]

1 hour ago, Turtle Rig said:

Ya thing is the single core performance on game;  the difference is so minuscule don't bother comparing gaming performance.  Same sh*T.... The AMD chip is better in every way, from price point to free heatsink fan and performance,, you take those 3 things and compared it to 9700k ... Its a mistake.  Go team Red on this note imo

 

Depends on the game, some games there's still a big gap and in others the AMD chip is faster.

 

As usual I don't agree with you though Turtle (I wouldn't call the difference minuscule) but again it's subjective on what someone feel is justified, here is a great comparison that the YT channel Hardware Unboxed did which represents how I would use either a 3900x or a 9900K (the 9900K is very close to a 9700K for pure gaming):

 

 

[Tom H]

yeah, but these benchmarks are usually done with  2080ti's @1080p or even 720p. 

 

The reality is no one will buy 2080ti's and game at 1080p. If the benchmarks were done at 1440p, those cpu's would be virtually tied. if the benchmarks were done @ 1440p and with a gpu that most people can afford like a 2070 super, those benchmarks would be absolutely tied with some minor variances as some game engines were tweaked a lot to prefer the execution path of one cpu vs the other

 

 

[TVwazhere]

2 hours ago, theMorzan said:

First of all, I know that the prices in these tables may seem a little bit off to some people but they are the prices we get here (converted to USD, after tax).

Well the prices should be the same, not a $150 increase. There is zero reason for you to buy the 9700k over the R7 3700X at that point. There's jut not a good vale argument to be hard, nor a performance one (unless you do literally nothing but game, then there's a small performance argument)

[bignaz]

People realize the new Ryzens just came out and there are zero optimizations for them. Hell destany won't even load.

 

 

Intel as good as it will get. AMD will get better when they start doing optimizations. And I love when people link 1080p benchmarks. If your worried about 1080p frames maybe you should skip the cpu upgrade and get a better display because if your playing at 1080p just get a PS4 or Xbox.

 

 

 

Go with the Ryzen. It's a superior processor l

[Kitsan]

9 minutes ago, Tom H said:

yeah, but these benchmarks are usually done with  2080ti's @1080p or even 720p. 

 

The reality is no one will buy 2080ti's and game at 1080p. If the benchmarks were done at 1440p, those cpu's would be virtually tied. if the benchmarks were done @ 1440p and with a gpu that most people can afford like a 2070 super, those benchmarks would be absolutely tied with some minor variances as some game engines were tweaked a lot to prefer the execution path of one cpu vs the other

 

 

 

You dont need a 2080Ti to get high frame rates in most esports titles (exceptions such as Apex), at 1080p the bottleneck is the cpu

[Tom H]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

Well the prices should be the same, not a $150 increase. There is zero reason for you to buy the 9700k over the R7 3700X at that point. There's jut not a good vale argument to be hard, nor a performance one (unless you do literally nothing but game, then there's a small performance argument)

I'll take it one step further.

 

The next gen gaming consoles will be very hyperthreaded with many cores. For example, playstation 5 will be powered by 8c/16t ryzen cpus and custom navi graphics. The next generation game engines will adapt and multithreading will become real. 

 

in this day and age, I would not buy a non hyperthreaded cpu. The only reason why intel created 9700k was to keep the price of 9900k expensive and premium. They are essentially the same chip with hyperthreading off.

 

We are in a core war now. Pay for cores and threads. They will be very relevant in the next generation of game engines

[Kitsan]

9 minutes ago, bignaz said:

People realize the new Ryzens just came out and there are zero optimizations for them. Hell destany won't even load.

 

 

Intel as good as it will get. AMD will get better when they start doing optimizations. And I love when people link 1080p benchmarks. If your worried about 1080p frames maybe you should skip the cpu upgrade and get a better display because if your playing at 1080p just get a PS4 or Xbox.

 

 

 

Go with the Ryzen. It's a superior processor l

 

Most people have 4-6 core cpus and most games are optimized for 4 cores/8 threads. It's got less to do with whether it's AMD or Intel and everything to do with IPC, frequency and utilization of cores/threads.

 

The Ryzen maybe a better future proof cpu but there are barely any games which fully saturate a 6 core/12 thread cpu even in the most extreme of circumstances currently, however in 1-2 years time... who knows. However in 1-2 years i'd like to think Intel will have released their 10nm processors.

 

It's an interesting time (finally).

[Turtle Rig]

31 minutes ago, remus243 said:

 

Most people have 4-6 core cpus and most games are optimized for 4 cores/8 threads. It's got less to do with whether it's AMD or Intel and everything to do with IPC, frequency and utilization of cores/threads.

 

The Ryzen maybe a better future proof cpu but there are barely any games which fully saturate a 6 core/12 thread cpu even in the most extreme of circumstances currently, however in 1-2 years time... who knows. However in 1-2 years i'd like to think Intel will have released their 10nm processors.

 

It's an interesting time (finally).

Games dont use the threads because they are not HT hyper threading apps.  So all games care about is your cores,, theres even 4 cores that are still good at gaming.

[Kitsan]

10 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Games dont use the threads because they are not HT hyper threading apps.  So all games care about is your cores,, theres even 4 cores that are still good at gaming.

 

It very much depends on if it's a DX10,11 or 12 title. Example of core/thread utilization in a game using 3900x and 9900K, strictly speaking... your statement is wrong.

 

 

[Turtle Rig]

7 minutes ago, remus243 said:

 

It very much depends on if it's a DX10,11 or 12 title. Example of core/thread utilization in a game using 3900x and 9900K, strictly speaking... your statement is wrong.

 

 

Sorry what I meant was the threads will work, but its not a HT optimized app games dont know HT hyper threading ya know. daz all sorry for confusion..

 

They use the threads their just not HT  ,,,, so you can do fine with a 8core 8 thread CPU ...... all threads work, but not optimized like Premiere or Photoshop or DAW to be HT and automatically give you about 25 percent boost.

[melete]

Yeah, I think $150 USD is much too large of a price difference to justify 9700k over 3700X. 9700k still has value for people who only play video games, but the CPU+motherboard price has to be a lot closer to AMD for the 9700k to be worth buying. 50% more money for something like 7-9% more performance at 1080p with a RTX 2080ti (???) is dumb.

[Kitsan]

You dont need a 2080ti but you do need a 1080ti/2080/2070 super...etc

 

Calling someone dumb because they're an enthusiast is just rude.

[CPUguy101]

Wow so many comments for such an easy answer and that is no........no it's not worth it 

[Kitsan]

8 hours ago, SMBGUY said:

Wow so many comments for such an easy answer and that is no........no it's not worth it 

It's a big purchase so it's fair to be 100% sure