Are 8 cores going to be enough for gaming/light video editing for the next 4-6 years?

[Hickaru]

Hello, i am building a high end pc by the end of this year when the next gen stuff drops. I am probably going to go for the 3080ti if it is priced similarly to the 2080ti.

I plan on playing AAA titles at 1440p and expect 60+fps. Is it too much to expect atleast 4-5 years of this smoothly with an 8 core cpu like let's say 4700x? I will also be doing light video editing.

 

I currently own a i7-5500u which is 2c/4t at 2.4ghz. It has started to show its age after 4 years of use.

 

Now with the new consoles on the horizon which are going to have a downclocked 8c/16t 3700x I am not sure if 8 cores are going to be enough for the next 4-6 years?

I don't plan on doing multitasking except maybe discord open and 3-4 chrome tabs open.

 

Would you buy a 12 core cpu over the 8 core just to be safe or am i overthinking this?This is going to be my first pc and the most money i have ever invested on something so i want to do this right and i don't want to feel buyers remorse lol

 

 

 

[Haro]

We don't know and we really can't know how demanding games can be in the future. But it may be fine. As I said we don't know though. 

[Sakkura]

It's likely going to be enough. 6 cores, 12 threads might just about do, but 8 cores, 16 threads is a safer bet.

 

Not that we can know for sure, of course. The new console generation does change things up, but since those are using 8-core CPUs too I wouldn't worry about 8 cores becoming insufficient.

[Hickaru]

Just now, TofuHaroto said:

We don't know and we really can't know how demanding games can be in the future. But it may be fine. As I said we don't know though. 

oh.. but like 8 cores should still be "good enough" right? I mean its impossible for them to go obselete or something right before the next console generation?

 

The only thing that concerns me is zen4 might increase core counts which might make my cpu seem obselete

Sadly can't wait another year and its not possible to do a stopgap build since zen4 is likely to be am5

[Hickaru]

Just now, Sakkura said:

It's likely going to be enough. 6 cores, 12 threads might just about do, but 8 cores, 16 threads is a safer bet.

 

Not that we can know for sure, of course. The new console generation does change things up, but since those are using 8-core CPUs too I wouldn't worry about 8 cores becoming insufficient.

Oh okay
So you think buying a 12 core cpu just for future proofing would not be a good idea then? 

[Haro]

Just now, Hickaru said:

oh.. but like 8 cores should still be "good enough" right

As I said. We really can't know. But it may be fine. I personally think it'll be more than fine but I could be wrong obviously. 

[Moonzy]

i expect most games to run fine on 8c/16t in the next 4 years, because if they dont, they would be cutting out quite a significant portion of the market

 

cant know for sure though

 

of course there will be games that are stupidly cpu demanding (glares at MHW:IB) that would probably be a minority

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Hickaru said:

Oh okay
So you think buying a 12 core cpu just for future proofing would not be a good idea then? 

buy what's best for the dollar at the time, you'll save money to buy the next best perf/dollar machine down the road, this way u can be sure you're not too behind

[Hickaru]

Just now, Moonzy said:

i expect most games to run fine on 8c/16t in the next 4 years, because if they dont, they would be cutting out quite a significant portion of the market

 

cant know for sure though

 

of course there will be games that are stupidly cpu demanding (glares at MHW:IB) that would probably be a minority

Oh okay, that isn't too bad as long as most games run fairly well and allow for very light multitasking for the next 4 years. 

Yea ofcourse some games will always be more demanding then others

[Hickaru]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

buy what's best for the dollar at the time, you'll save money to buy the next best perf/dollar machine down the road, this way u can be sure you're not too behind

yea that makes sense, i will probably save that extra $200+ for future upgrades.. 

You know the thing that concerns me the most is that zen4 being on 5nm might increase core counts so the ryzen 7 might have 12 cores in 1-2 years.

Which might make my cpu seem obselete..

[Jurrunio]

Unless you play simulators, going past 8 cores wont really help with games. Otherwise old Xeons with a ton of cores will be great, but they arent. Single thread performance is what really mattrrs.

[Hickaru]

4 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

As I said. We really can't know. But it may be fine. I personally think it'll be more than fine but I could be wrong obviously. 

Oh okay 

[Hickaru]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

Unless you play simulators, going past 8 cores wont really help with games. Otherwise old Xeons with a ton of cores will be great, but they arent. Single thread performance is what really mattrrs.

I see. I am just going to be playing AAA titles with minimal multitasking. Maybe some 1080p video editing at best.

[porina]

6 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

i expect most games to run fine on 8c/16t in the next 4 years, because if they dont, they would be cutting out quite a significant portion of the market

I think that sums up the position. Not everyone will have the latest equipment. PCs can be used for many years. Game makers wont want to cut their potential market too much by having high minimum hardware requirements. We only just started to move in meaningful numbers beyond 4 cores a few years ago, and IMO that will remain a minimum standard. As in, it'll work, but you're going to have a more basic experience. As you go above that in spec, you get more and more potential. Given next gen consoles are 8 core, that will be a safe level to be at for a long time. At least one console generation long. The number of people going beyond 8 cores is and likely will remain a minority for a long time. Again IMO if you were to build a high end gaming system "soon" and expect it to last several years, 8 cores would be a good place, and I'm not convinced of the necessity of going above that for gaming unless you just want to, or have another reason to need to.

 

Also, based on current rumours, Zen 3 CPUs will have a larger CCX of 8 cores, compared to 4 cores of today. 8 cores working in one unit can give advantages over two groups of 4 cores that we have with Zen 2. If you were to go beyond 8 cores with Zen 3, you'll end up with a split CCX arrangement again. 

[Moonzy]

10 minutes ago, Hickaru said:

Which might make my cpu seem obselete..

if you bought the highest end threadripper last gen, you would still feel obsolete now due to current gen threadripper having such improved IPC

 

you'll never not feel obsolete when new stuffs come out

[Hickaru]

Just now, Moonzy said:

if you bought the highest end threadripper last gen, you would still feel obsolete now due to current gen threadripper having such improved IPC

 

you'll never not feel obsolete when new stuffs come out

Ah that makes sense

[Hickaru]

4 minutes ago, porina said:

I think that sums up the position. Not everyone will have the latest equipment. PCs can be used for many years. Game makers wont want to cut their potential market too much by having high minimum hardware requirements. We only just started to move in meaningful numbers beyond 4 cores a few years ago, and IMO that will remain a minimum standard. As in, it'll work, but you're going to have a more basic experience. As you go above that in spec, you get more and more potential. Given next gen consoles are 8 core, that will be a safe level to be at for a long time. At least one console generation long. The number of people going beyond 8 cores is and likely will remain a minority for a long time. Again IMO if you were to build a high end gaming system "soon" and expect it to last several years, 8 cores would be a good place, and I'm not convinced of the necessity of going above that for gaming unless you just want to, or have another reason to need to.

 

Also, based on current rumours, Zen 3 CPUs will have a larger CCX of 8 cores, compared to 4 cores of today. 8 cores working in one unit can give advantages over two groups of 4 cores that we have with Zen 2. If you were to go beyond 8 cores with Zen 3, you'll end up with a split CCX arrangement again. 

Oh i was not aware that 8 cores were going be on a single unit.Thanks for sharing that and for your insightful answer

I'm just being paranoid i guess lol, i just don't want to see games getting 100% cpu usage in a few years hence why i was thinking of getting 12 cores.

[Mick Naughty]

Enough is subjective. Some games aren’t optimized for it and some still don’t have enough. I upgraded to a 8700k for black ops 4. Maxed out on every core using a stock clocked 1080. Not my idea of enough but it got me by. Even though I wanted a gpu upgrade. 

[xg32]

3 hours ago, Hickaru said:

.

 

 

 

imho it's a hard no, 6 years is a long time. That said, it's not hard to find a 3900x on a deep sale these days, and maybe you can find used 3950x's in the future. I can name quite a few games that 100%s a 9900k.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 hours ago, Hickaru said:

seem

Key word here.

 

2 hours ago, Hickaru said:

You know the thing that concerns me the most is that zen4 being on 5nm might increase core counts so the ryzen 7 might have 12 cores in 1-2 years.

It may also lead to higher clocks and higher IPC. It already happened with Zen 2. And that's far more important for gaming.

I have a TR 1920X. What do you think runs games better, my CPU or a 6-core R5 3600? If I had bought it with the intention of "future-proofing for gaming", I would have shot myself in the foot, even if games are more multi-threaded now than a couple of years ago

 

2 hours ago, Hickaru said:

I'm just being paranoid i guess lol

Pretty much.

 

2 hours ago, Hickaru said:

i just don't want to see games getting 100% cpu usage in a few years

That's the good scenario right now. You see, when you observe a 50% CPU usage ina  4C/4T CPU in games, it doesn't  necessarily mean that you have 50% extra CPU if needed. It more often just means that the game you play uses two croes only, it's using them to their limits, so the faster those 2 cores are, the better. Having many more cores won't help you, in fact it will make running those two cores faster more difficult. It's true that for Ryzen specifically that trade-off is somewhat less extreme, but it still has an impact on the cooling required 

 

[Hickaru]

4 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

Enough is subjective. Some games aren’t optimized for it and some still don’t have enough. I upgraded to a 8700k for black ops 4. Maxed out on every core using a stock clocked 1080. Not my idea of enough but it got me by. Even though I wanted a gpu upgrade. 

oh okay..

[Hickaru]

2 hours ago, xg32 said:

imho it's a hard no, 6 years is a long time. That said, it's not hard to find a 3900x on a deep sale these days, and maybe you can find used 3950x's in the future. I can name quite a few games that 100%s a 9900k.

oh

What? What game can max out 8 cores???
 

[Hickaru]

2 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

That's the good scenario right now. You see, when you observe a 50% CPU usage ina  4C/4T CPU in games, it doesn't  necessarily mean that you have 50% extra CPU if needed. It more often just means that the game you play uses two croes only, it's using them to their limits, so the faster those 2 cores are, the better. Having many more cores won't help you, in fact it will make running those two cores faster more difficult. It's true that for Ryzen specifically that trade-off is somewhat less extreme, but it still has an impact on the cooling required 

 

Oh i did not know that, thanks a lot. I will most likely be opting for a 8 core cpu after reading all the responses.
 

 

[-iSynthesis]

Looking into the past it was mostly always possible to use a mid-high end processor for at least 4-5 years, so going by that rule it should be no problem really. I don't think it's too advisable to invest into a 12 core now, it's probably a better idea to save that money and invest it into a new CPU in the future. Before you run into a thread limitation I'd guess you'll be bottlenecked by raw core performance.

 

My Xeon is now 7 years old and still going quite strong, I can see it limiting the Vega but it's nowhere near unbearable.

[xg32]

6 minutes ago, Hickaru said:

oh

What? What game can max out 8 cores???
 

any ubitsoft games is cpu bottlenecked, mhw, Detroit maxed it out at 60 on certain scenes (some kinda emulation from a ps4 port), Then there were apex complaining how no cpu can run 240fps smoothly, but thats more of a single core issue.i think 8 cores in 5 years will be what 4 cores is today.  

 

Then there were apex complaining how no cpu can run 240fps smoothly, but thats more of a single core issue. Tech tubers did mention brieflymention about the bottlenecks even when the 9900k came out, but they didnt go in depth with it because there's no solution and people get salty if they talked about "bottleneck" on a faster gaming cpu. Single core performance likely isn't going anywhere for a long time