Debating on CPU for PC Upgrade

[scottyseng]

I draw as a hobby and planned to revamp my PC anyway (2700K at 4.8 GHz), but I'm stuck between the two sides. I was either going to go for a 10700K (was going to go used 9900K but it's not much more for a new CPU) or 3900X (They pretty much cost exactly the same to me), with the Gigabyte Aorus Ultra board for each respective socket (also costs the same at $299). Since I draw, I need single thread performance more than anything. I don't really game much at all, but if I do, it's a 60fps capped game. The hard part is that I need a lot of RAM to keep up with my art programs, so I bought 128GB (4 x 32GB at 3600MHz). I do plan to stream / record tutorials on my PC, but I really don't need a ton of cores. I have a rendering server for that kind of stuff. After a fair bit of research, I've summed it down to this:

 

Ryzen 3900X:

Less hot

More cores

Would have to turn memory speed down to 2666MHz due to large memory kit size (so single thread performance would take a hit)...Ryzen's controller will not handle this at faster speed without a bunch of manual timing tuning which I don't really want to deal with.

Would have a future (by the time I upgrade next I expect DDR5 to be out though)

X570 boards limited in stock

 

Intel 10700K:

Hot

Would be able to handle memory kit at full speed

No future except probably one more generation

Lots of Z490 boards because everyone buys Ryzen (at least what I see at Microcenter)

 

I already have the rest of the parts so I just need to pick a CPU and motherboard. Yes, I know it would be better to wait for Ryzen Zen 3, but I'd rather not wait 3+ months (I've read it might be August / September) for this.

[Haro]

3 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Would have to turn memory speed down to 2666MHz due to large memory kit size (so single thread performance would take a hit)...Ryzen's controller will not handle this at faster speed without a bunch of manual timing tuning which I don't really want to deal with.

It's imc should handle it I don't see why not 

 

But over all what does your budget allow?

[GDRRiley]

I'm running a 2nd gen chip with 4x8gb and I'm able to do 2933. I'd suspect 3rd gen should be able to do all at full speed.

I'd grab a 3900x or maybe drop down to a 3700/3800x and save some money.

[scottyseng]

2 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

It's imc should handle it I don't see why not 

 

But over all what does your budget allow?

It's also motherboard memory topology configuration too.

 

Overall I'm trying to stay below $800. I still have to buy a thunderbolt add in card to run my cintiq as well.

[scottyseng]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

I'm running a 2nd gen chip with 4x8gb and I'm able to do 2933. I'd suspect 3rd gen should be able to do all at full speed.

I'd grab a 3900x or maybe drop down to a 3700/3800x and save some money.

I read it changes when you start putting 32GB sticks on the board. However, I'm going off of reddit posts I've seen with people running 128GB on Ryzen 3rd gen where they had to drop down to 2666MHz to post.

[Haro]

1 minute ago, scottyseng said:

I read it changes when you start putting 32GB sticks on the board. However, I'm going off of reddit posts I've seen with people running 128GB on Ryzen 3rd gen where they had to drop down to 2666MHz to post.

The thing is for 128 gigs your right

You might have to do a decent OC on the soc and the interconnect might not be able to handle it but at the same time even games benifit from those extra threads and cores and the 10700k while being a 9900k pretty much it still runs stupid hot 

Has a better imc true but has less cores and honestly that platform isn't the best 

I still am leaning on the 3900x but it's up to you

[scottyseng]

2 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

-snip-

Yeah, it is a hard call. I don't really mind the heat so much since I already have a server that dumps out heat. Also I'd really would be pushing one core really hard while the rest would be barely doing much (even streaming doesn't do much since NVENC encoding). I barely game much at all, and even then the stuff I play barely pushes the CPU (2700K handles that with ease).

[Haro]

2 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Yeah, it is a hard call. I don't really mind the heat so much since I already have a server that dumps out heat. Also I'd really would be pushing one core really hard while the rest would be barely doing much (even streaming doesn't do much since NVENC encoding). I barely game much at all, and even then the stuff I play barely pushes the CPU (2700K handles that with ease).

Yea even further with Intel's max turbo boost and the thermal velocity boost (sorry if the names are wrong there are like a million ) which will really benifit the single threaded performance of it

Over all I think just looking up benchmarks for it will be the best way to determine your choice

[TrigrH]

26 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Since I draw, I need single thread performance more than anything.

Look at benchmarks on specifically the programs you use the most, make your final decision based on that.

 

Note: the AMD platform will be cheaper and the ram should run higher the 2666. Even 3600mhz isn't guaranteed on the intel platform. 

[Haro]

1 minute ago, TrigrH said:

Even 3600mhz isn't guaranteed on the intel platform. 

No I'm sure it is 

[TrigrH]

Just now, TofuHaroto said:

No I'm sure it is 

not at 4 x 32GB its not, show me a single motherboard QVL that has a kit with 128gb supported at 3600.

[GDRRiley]

2 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

No I'm sure it is 

not for 4 32gb dims

[Haro]

1 minute ago, TrigrH said:

not at 4 x 32GB its not, show me a single motherboard QVL that has a kit with 128gb supported at 3600.

Yea I just noticed you said "Intel platform" not Intel cpu's lmao

[scottyseng]

32 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

Over all I think just looking up benchmarks for it will be the best way to determine your choice

Yeah, no one really benchmarks drawing software sadly. The photoshop benchmarks I see are usually image editing or applying filters (which you don't do a ton of while drawing digitally). 

 

27 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

not at 4 x 32GB its not, show me a single motherboard QVL that has a kit with 128gb supported at 3600.

I don't even think I've seen 128GB on QVL regardless of speed or model. Most I've ever seen is 64GB. I'm probably wrong here though, I'm just going off of the Aorus Ultra QVL. I wish I could stick my RAM into a demo display PC at microcenter to check what it would run at, but can't really do that. haha. Testing on Ryzen 3rd gen is easy for me since I have friends with 3rd gen CPUs already that I can use to test.

[Haro]

1 minute ago, scottyseng said:

Yeah, no one really benchmarks drawing software sadly. The photoshop benchmarks I see are usually image editing or applying filters (which you don't do a ton of while drawing digitally). 

 

Maybe cinebench single threaded can give you an idea 

[TrigrH]

1 minute ago, scottyseng said:

Yeah, no one really benchmarks drawing software sadly. The photoshop benchmarks I see are usually image editing or applying filters (which you don't do a ton of while drawing digitally). 

Sounds like either processor would do just fine.

Quote

Testing on Ryzen 3rd gen is easy for me since I have friends with 3rd gen CPUs already that I can use to test.

Well this is where I would start. Make sure they have updated bioses for your testing.

 

Considering you plan to use NVENC and only need 60fps in games i would recommend getting a good b450/b550 motherboard and a ryzen 3300x then upgrade to next gen if you want more power.

[scottyseng]

13 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

Considering you plan to use NVENC and only need 60fps in games i would recommend getting a good b450/b550 motherboard and a ryzen 3300x then upgrade to next gen if you want more power.

Yeah, I'm still stuck with X570 regardless because I need a certain header that Gigabyte only puts on the X570 boards to run the thunderbolt card.

 

I think at a minimum I would want to go six core.

[Haro]

Just now, scottyseng said:

Yeah, I'm still stuck with X570 regardless because I need a certain header that Gigabyte only puts on the X570 boards to run the thunderbolt card.

 

I think at a minimum I would want to go six core.

Forgot to say something

While this was a problem with z390 I suspect it being an issue with z490

And that is thunderbolt you probably know about the Availability of it on these boards unless you get a pcie card for it which is jank af and has such a shit firmware 

[scottyseng]

5 hours ago, TofuHaroto said:

Forgot to say something

While this was a problem with z390 I suspect it being an issue with z490

And that is thunderbolt you probably know about the Availability of it on these boards unless you get a pcie card for it which is jank af and has such a shit firmware 

Interesting. I had two options, get thunderbolt on board (Which would be Z490 Vision D for Intel) or the Gigabyte Titan Ridge Thunderbolt card. 

I'm not using thunderbolt to transfer files, but to inject displayport into and deliver power to my cintiq. I have an artist friend who uses the same card for a cintiq pro as well and hasn't had any issues at all.

[Haro]

4 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Interesting. I had two options, get thunderbolt on board (Which would be Z490 Vision D for Intel) or the Gigabyte Titan Ridge Thunderbolt card. 

I'm not using thunderbolt to transfer files, but to inject displayport into and deliver power to my cintiq. I have an artist friend who uses the same card for a cintiq pro as well and hasn't had any issues at all.

Oh my bad I thought you had something similar to Linus where it was a high bandwidth thunderbolt bolt that connected the PC to the monitor essentially 

But if it will be managed this way I have no idea if it works properly but if a friend tried it and it is all good then I guess it is lol

[scottyseng]

9 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

Oh my bad I thought you had something similar to Linus where it was a high bandwidth thunderbolt bolt that connected the PC to the monitor essentially 

But if it will be managed this way I have no idea if it works properly but if a friend tried it and it is all good then I guess it is lol

Ah, that was a good Linus rage video. haha. 

 

But no, I'm not doing anything bandwidth intensive, only thing that would high bandwidth is my 10Gb/s SFP network card to my server.

 

I was hoping I could misuse the USB-C port on the RTX 2080 to do the same, but it can't send power.

[Haro]

Just now, scottyseng said:

Ah, that was a good Linus rage video. haha. 

 

But no, I'm not doing anything bandwidth intensive, only thing that would high bandwidth is my 10Gb/s SFP network card to my server.

Then I guess it's going to be pretty smooth on both platforms obviously I don't have any experience with it just things I heard