3700x, 3800x & 3900x

[TristanN]

Hi,

 

I am building a new pc for gaming and streaming/recording. Might do some video editing of gameplay as well. I mostly play F1 2020, Assetto Corsa, and Battlefield 5. I want to try some flight sims in the future as well. I plan to keep this PC for 4-5 years. I plan on buying the 3000 series GPUs but buying cpu/mobo now since old one died.

 

From my research so far it seems that the 3700x would be enough for what I want to do, the 3800x is marginally better than the 3700x and not worth the money unless on sale, and the 3900x is said to be more future proof but probably wouldn't notice any extra performance in gameplay.

 

What do people mean when they say the 3900x is more future proof? Realistically will games be optimized to use 8+ cores in the next 3-4 years? Any other reason to get it? I don't mind paying another $100 if the pc is more future proof but at the same time don't want to waste money on performance I'll never use.

 

Would you get the 3800x if it is $20 more than the 3700x?

 

Thanks!

[Moonzy]

11 minutes ago, TristanN said:

What do people mean when they say the 3900x is more future proof?

those words mean nothing

if anything, by the time games utilise 10 cores, the 3900x will probably be lacking in single thread performance to run the game well anyway, compared to options of that time

 

a 3700x is enough unless your video editing workload is heavy

 

i suggest waiting 2-3 weeks if possible? AMD might be announcing their new lineup soon

but if you wanna buy one today, the 3700x is a better choice than 3900x, unless you really need those extra cores

just make sure you have a gpu or you wont be able to use the computer in the meantime anyways

[Shimejii]

3900x just has the 12 cores, so it allows you to be more flexible than the 8 cores. the 3700x and 3800x are about the same, 20$ if you plan to Manually Overclock the CPU to 4.4ghz or so, otherwise get the 3700x.

 

Personally speaking? Get the 3700x, you need to build an audience first before spending a ton of money on a setup. You need to spend years getting that audience so it should last you that.

[lmeneses]

the 3800x is not worth the extra money compared to the 3700x in my opinion. As for deciding between the 3700x and 3900x, it mostly comes down to your budget, and what you're gonna do w the pc. Both are great chips, but do you really need the extra power of the 3900x for the increase in price? From what you've listed, I would say it isn't, and you should focus the money on more ram or storage if you're gonna have videos on your computer. There is also the ryzen 4000 series, which is supposed to come out in October, if you can wait for that

[DailyProcrastinator]

From a long time user of the R7 1700, a R7 3800x, and now an R9 3900XT trust me when I say that an 8 core 16 thread CPU is enough, these are still productivity monsters, the only reason there is justification for higher core count is because you are on the same socket and it's available for a reasonable price. But if you compare this to anything Intel that pre-dates Ryzen you will absolutely blow it out of the water. So don't bother with the R9 there's really no real 'future proofing' with an R9. And in a 2-3 years time-frame you can just get a 4th gen Ryzen CPU as an upgrade. 

 

However, I would say for only $30 more the 3800x is worth it, basically it is a fully OC'd 3700x right out of the box. But keep in mind it has a much higher TDP and will run quiet a bit hotter than the 3700x, so a large air cooler or a 240mm AIO would be my recommendation. 

[TristanN]

Thank you all for the advice!

 

1 hour ago, Moonzy said:

those words mean nothing

if anything, by the time games utilise 10 cores, the 3900x will probably be lacking in single thread performance to run the game well anyway, compared to options of that time

 

a 3700x is enough unless your video editing workload is heavy

 

i suggest waiting 2-3 weeks if possible? AMD might be announcing their new lineup soon

but if you wanna buy one today, the 3700x is a better choice than 3900x, unless you really need those extra cores

just make sure you have a gpu or you wont be able to use the computer in the meantime anyways

What you say makes sense, I will get the 3700x unless they have the 3800x for $20 more in stock, I will overclock it. I need a PC by the end of the month (don't have working one as CPU died), from what I read AMD is launching their CPUs in November, or did that change? I will use my gtx 970 in the meantime.

 

1 hour ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

From a long time user of the R7 1700, a R7 3800x, and now an R9 3900XT trust me when I say that an 8 core 16 thread CPU is enough, these are still productivity monsters, the only reason there is justification for higher core count is because you are on the same socket and it's available for a reasonable price. But if you compare this to anything Intel that pre-dates Ryzen you will absolutely blow it out of the water. So don't bother with the R9 there's really no real 'future proofing' with an R9. And in a 2-3 years time-frame you can just get a 4th gen Ryzen CPU as an upgrade. 

 

However, I would say for only $30 more the 3800x is worth it, basically it is a fully OC'd 3700x right out of the box. But keep in mind it has a much higher TDP and will run quiet a bit hotter than the 3700x, so a large air cooler or a 240mm AIO would be my recommendation. 

Thank you I will get the 3800x for $20 more. A Noctua NH-D15 should be fine for overclocking right?

 

Thanks again!

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, TristanN said:

from what I read AMD is launching their CPUs in November, or did that change?

we have no date for any AMD event or launches

but i would be surprised if they dont have an announcement slightly before or after NVIDIA for their GPU, and while announcing their GPU, not announcing their CPU as well.

so I guesstimate them to announce around early sept, launching around october for high end stuffs (that you are considering of buying)

 

3 minutes ago, TristanN said:

A Noctua NH-D15 should be fine for overclocking right?

yup, make sure your casing fits it as it's honkin huge

[Shimejii]

4 minutes ago, TristanN said:

Thank you all for the advice!

 

What you say makes sense, I will get the 3700x unless they have the 3800x for $20 more in stock, I will overclock it. I need a PC by the end of the month (don't have working one as CPU died), from what I read AMD is launching their CPUs in November, or did that change? I will use my gtx 970 in the meantime.

 

Thank you I will get the 3800x for $20 more. A Noctua NH-D15 should be fine for overclocking right?

 

Thanks again!

Yeh my 3800x gets to about 84c at 4.4ghz at 1.375v with the nH-d15

 

[TristanN]

9 hours ago, Moonzy said:

we have no date for any AMD event or launches

but i would be surprised if they dont have an announcement slightly before or after NVIDIA for their GPU, and while announcing their GPU, not announcing their CPU as well.

so I guesstimate them to announce around early sept, launching around october for high end stuffs (that you are considering of buying)

 

yup, make sure your casing fits it as it's honkin huge

Ok thank you, I will wait until Sept 1, if no rumors about upcoming AMD event I will buy then. I bought a Phanteks P500A so Noctua should fit

 

@Shimejii Thanks for the info!

[DailyProcrastinator]

12 hours ago, TristanN said:

Thank you I will get the 3800x for $20 more. A Noctua NH-D15 should be fine for overclocking right?

NH-D15 is a great cooler choice. But you won't want to OC, 3rd gen Ryzen doesn't really OC well to begin with, nor does it yield much performance gained, fast RAM (3600MHz+, CL16 or better) and adjusting PBO settings in Ryzen Master is best if you want to ‘OC’. 3rd gen Ryzen CPU's seem to show faster degradation symptoms if higher voltages are applied (something I recently learned). For long term 'safe' OC'ing voltages below 1.375V were considered to be fine. However, this rule of thumb is adopted from overclocking Intel CPU's, and previous generations of AMD CPU's. So, for long term use I would NOT recommend OC'ing via the standard Manual method in Bios. Keeping the voltage low (1.27500V or lower) and adjusting PBO settings is the safest way to squeeze out some extra performance. But even then, only expect 100-300MHz at most.

12 hours ago, Shimejii said:

Yeh my 3800x gets to about 84c at 4.4ghz at 1.375v with the nH-d15

Not safe to recommend high voltages with these CPU's. Good read on voltage issues with Zen2: (And why I recommend low voltage)
https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/ejd5c9/1325v_is_not_safe_for_zen_2/

 

[TristanN]

@TheDailyProcrastinator thanks a lot for the info, I am new to all this so very helpful.

[DailyProcrastinator]

9 hours ago, TristanN said:

@TheDailyProcrastinator thanks a lot for the info, I am new to all this so very helpful.

No problem, happy to help!