Need help choosing a new cpu. From Intel to AMD

[Owlman]

I'm currently using an i7-6700K and I think I want to upgrade. I want to try AMD and I'm considering spending more than I usually have. Problem is I haven't been paying any attention to new tech products recently as I've been pretty satisfied with what I got. Only recent news I've seen is about the upcoming R9 3950X which is a 16 core cpu, which is probably over kill for gaming, but I honestly don't know anymore.

 

What is generally the best Ryzen CPU for gaming these days? And I'm not totally sure about budget, but I'd say the 3950X price (750 USD) would be the absolute max.

 

Also my GPU is a 2080 Ti if that matters.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Crab Puncher]

in gaming more cores doesn't matter a higher clocked cpu is better. If you want the best cpu for gaming get a i7. but if you need the extra cores ryzen 9 3900x or 7 3700x is good. But don't forget your gonna have to replace your motherboard whether you go intel or amd

[GoldenLag]

5 minutes ago, Owlman said:

What is generally the best Ryzen CPU for gaming these days?

usually the 3700x as it offers the most bang for buck in terms of corecount and singlethread performance. 

 

and then the 3600 at a lower budget level

 

 

3900x and 3950x are more hedt CPUs or CPUs that wont buckle if games start using more threads and are good to CPU encode streams. 

[Meganter]

6 minutes ago, Owlman said:

 

Hello,

 

The 3600 or 3700x with a B450 MSI MAX motherboard are solid choices with some 16Gb 3000/3600MHz rams

[Mathieu9836]

What is you budget, the 9900k is the king AFAIK but at a price, the 3600 is usually what gamers buy because of the price to performance ratio, the 3700X is also a good buy but is more expensive. New games can use a lot more threads then they did 5 years ago, that being said you should not buy a 700$ chip to futurproof your build, in 5 years there will be a cheaper and better CPU available, so futurproofing is kind of a reason to buy expensive stuff you don't need...

[Owlman]

5 minutes ago, Mathieu9836 said:

What is you budget, the 9900k is the king AFAIK but at a price, the 3600 is usually what gamers buy because of the price to performance ratio, the 3700X is also a good buy but is more expensive. New games can use a lot more threads then they did 5 years ago, that being said you should not buy a 700$ chip to futurproof your build, in 5 years there will be a cheaper and better CPU available, so futurproofing is kind of a reason to buy expensive stuff you don't need...

 

12 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

usually the 3700x as it offers the most bang for buck in terms of corecount and singlethread performance. 

 

and then the 3600 at a lower budget level

 

 

3900x and 3950x are more hedt CPUs or CPUs that wont buckle if games start using more threads and are good to CPU encode streams. 

 

14 minutes ago, Crab Puncher said:

in gaming more cores doesn't matter a higher clocked cpu is better. If you want the best cpu for gaming get a i7. but if you need the extra cores ryzen 9 3900x or 7 3700x is good. But don't forget your gonna have to replace your motherboard whether you go intel or amd

 

Is there much difference between the 3700X or 3800X? 

 

Also I al considering the 3900X but idk.

 

And a question about intel. Aren't their processors still really hot? And are there any common problems I should be aware of?

[Crab Puncher]

2 minutes ago, Owlman said:

 

 

 

Is there much difference between the 3700X or 3800X? 

 

Also I al considering the 3900X but idk.

 

And a question about intel. Aren't their processors still really hot? And are there any common problems I should be aware of?

the 3800x has a highier boost and base clock but if your lucky and willing to oc you could get those numbers from the 3700x. Also as I mentioned before your going to need to buy a new motherboard so consider that in your budget.

[Flying Sausages]

AMD

1 minute ago, Owlman said:

 

Is there much difference between the 3700X or 3800X?

The different is only clockspeed on 3800x. 3800x has 300mhz more base clock than 3700x and 100mhz more on boost clock. 3800x to me is a scam and no point of going to 3800x when you have 3700x. The performance between 3700x and 3800x are not that huge to justify the $30 more.

[Mathieu9836]

1 minute ago, Owlman said:

 

 

 

Is there much difference between the 3700X or 3800X? 

 

Also I al considering the 3900X but idk.

 

And a question about intel. Aren't their processors still really hot? And are there any common problems I should be aware of?

the 3800X is a higher binned CPU, i would no even consider it in my list. 3600 for gamers, 3700X for hardcore gamers and enthusiasts, 3900X for streaming maybe and rendering. I can't tell for Intel, never bought an Intel CPU i'm all in AMD stuff love the price to performance ratio since Zen+. But Intel being hot is not an issue to me, just buy a good cooler and it will work just fine.

[GoldenLag]

4 minutes ago, Owlman said:

Is there much difference between the 3700X or 3800X? 

nope, the 3800x really isnt worth it when the 3700x is identical by flipping a switch in Bios. 

 

Just now, Crab Puncher said:

the 3800x has a highier boost and base clock but if your lucky and willing to oc you could get those numbers from the 3700x. Also as I mentioned before your going to need to buy a new motherboard so consider that in your budget.

you dont even need to do some fancy CCX overclocking (which is the only reasonale way to get more than PBO)

 

you just need to enable PBO in Bios. 

5 minutes ago, Owlman said:

Aren't their processors still really hot?

kinda, yes. 

5 minutes ago, Owlman said:

And are there any common problems I should be aware of?

outside of cooling, not really. perhaps slightly less IO than AM4 but that is nitpicking. 

[Owlman]

10 minutes ago, Crab Puncher said:

the 3800x has a highier boost and base clock but if your lucky and willing to oc you could get those numbers from the 3700x. Also as I mentioned before your going to need to buy a new motherboard so consider that in your budget.

I know I'll need a new motherboard and probably some new ram as well. I'm guessing Ryzen still benefits from having fast ram.

[Owlman]

8 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

nope, the 3800x really isnt worth it when the 3700x is identical by flipping a switch in Bios. 

 

you dont even need to do some fancy CCX overclocking (which is the only reasonale way to get more than PBO)

 

you just need to enable PBO in Bios. 

kinda, yes. 

outside of cooling, not really. perhaps slightly less IO than AM4 but that is nitpicking. 

Okay, thanks for the info. So a noctua d15 would have zero problems cooing a 9900K? Also is there any cons using Ryzen when i only use NVMe storage? I remember there being a difference on how intel and amd work with NVMe but i can't remember what that difference is

[Mathieu9836]

3 minutes ago, Owlman said:

I know I'll need a new motherboard and probably some new ram as well. I'm guessing Ryzen still benefits from having fast ram.

Yes it does

[GoldenLag]

8 minutes ago, Owlman said:

Also is there any cons using Ryzen when i only use NVMe storage?

No cons, 

 

However x570 has a lot more avavible bandwidth and pcie spare for m.2 (if you want IO, this is more or less the better plattform)

 

8 minutes ago, Owlman said:

remember there being a difference on how intel and amd work with NVMe but i can't remember what that difference is

AMD has 4 CPU lanes for nvme + chipset.  (16+4+4) (slots/nvme/chipset

 

Intel only has chipset unless you take away lanes from the GPU. (16+8 iirc) (slots/chipset)

 

Meaning all NVMe has to gl through chipse on intel, which makes it ever so slightly slower. 

 

Also worth noting, AMD cant boot through nvme on the chipset iirc. Correct me if i recall wrongly. 

 

11 minutes ago, Owlman said:

So a noctua d15 would have zero problems cooing a 9900K

It should be more than fine. 

[Mooshi]

I personally wouldn't if you have a 6700k. That was my old rig that's now my GFs since hers died. I went AMD at the time because I was curious about Ryzen when it launched. For gaming, she still has the better single core over my 1600.

 

Do plan on upgrading to a 3700x, but if I didn't give her my old PC, I'd still be using the 6700k.

[1van]

2 hours ago, Owlman said:

Maximus VIII Hero

It is a great board, make sure to check this before moving on)

[Owlman]

3 hours ago, 1van said:

It is a great board, make sure to check this before moving on)

I'm guessing you're quoting my signature. I haven't updated that in a while and it's mostly inaccurate by now. I should update it.

[MadmanRB]

For me i say if you want a good gaming CPU+motherboard combo there really is nothing better then the 3600 paired with the MSI Tomahawk MAX if you want something awesome, affordable and very well rounded.

Going AMD has so much going for it right now in terms of platform viability, sure intel is still the gaming king but Zen2 really puts out a lot of bang for the buck.

You know you have something awesome when a processor that is only $200 or so can keep up in most tasks and games with a processor that costs almost $500, sure the 9900K is still a better processor then the Ryzen 5 3600 in many respects but the 3600 and 3600X are pretty awesome for the price point.

[Jesse221]

Not to steal the thread but talking about amd and OC 3700x with PBO I actually went with the 3800x (the extra money didn’t bother me over the number of years I plan to keep it) and in my asus Strix x 570 the amd OC control has auto, enable and disable for PBO.  Currently I have it as auto, does auto actually mean disabled or will it enable?  It’s kind of confusing having an auto overclocking tool also have an auto and enable option. I’ve tried it both ways and seems clocks and voltages are the same regardless so I’m not sure if it does anything for me.  So many settings now it’s confusing with asus own OC, AMD own OC, manual OC, systems on full water loop so temps aren’t really an issue and auto has been more than powerful enough to run everything but just curious what’s the best settings for new gen ryzen.

[1van]

21 hours ago, Owlman said:

I'm guessing you're quoting my signature. I haven't updated that in a while and it's mostly inaccurate by now. I should update it.

Right. It is more complicated with 200-series boards, but the same advice still applies.