3080 gaming system CPU thoughts

[porina]

Budget (including currency): as little as I can get away with

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The goal will be to get a high end gaming experience (not best of best) without throwing silly money at it. May include old games, new games, going forward 2 years or so.

Other details 

Display is 4k 120 Hz HDR G-sync compatible TV. I have checked and there is no FreeSync support.  I'm already using it with a 7920X and 2070, neither of which are ideal. The lack of GPU power of course hinders averages which will be resolved by the 3080, but the lows are what's in most need of improvement and I think that is due to CPU, not GPU. As part of this I want to go 8 core for the next iteration.

 

Short version:

• I don't want to pay for the currently announced Zen 3 offerings
• I can put a 3700X in B450 ITX system and try that, but I had stability problems with 3700X in X370 mobo.
• I have a Z390 ITX mobo that I could try to source an 8 core Coffee Lake CPU to use. This involves spending money, and likely going used cos I'm not getting one new.
• 7920X sucks for gaming. It works, but there's obvious CPU limiting going on. It will be rebuilt for workstation use as it should be. Only using it since it was laying around anyway.
• Coffee Lake will be a better performer than Zen 2, but I don't need to spend to get Zen 2. Guess I'll try it anyway? Just writing this out is helping my thought process, but would welcome any further feedback.

 

Longer version:

 

I will buy some version of 3080 when it is possible to do so, but what CPU to pair it with is and remains an area of great debate for me. I have a ton of stuff already. Zen 3 sounds like a great choice, but I'm not going to buy any of the currently announced models, and it may already be too late by the time they fill in the gaps with the cheaper models at each core count. I want to get this system going ASAP when I get a 3080.

 

I have a 3700X on X370 mobo which I was going to use, but in preparation of it I've had the occasional unexplained crash that I can't get to the bottom of. I do have a B450+2600 system I was trying to sell, but now I'm wondering if I should swap the CPUs over and give the B450 a try. I didn't think of this before as it is an ITX system, but for pure gaming, I don't need expansion potential. I will also need to do extensive stability testing on this. Gaming is serious, and stability is as important as performance. I don't overclock other than running fast ram at the ram's rated speed.

 

 

[SavageNeo]

5 minutes ago, porina said:

B450+2600 system I was trying to sell, but now I'm wondering if I should swap the CPUs over and give the B450 a try

do that first. if stable, then 3700x with 3080 at 4k will be fine

[Morgan MLGman]

Have you tried downgrading the BIOS on your X370 board? I'm using a similar combo myself as well. Had a faulty BIOS once, that was later taken down from ASUS' website but besides that - no issues

Waiting for the 3080 order to come in too   Unless you're playing at 1080p, I believe a 3700X would be a fine choice, especially that you already have one At 4K there would be no difference honestly, even if you compare it to a 10900K
 

What is the board that you have problems with?

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Have you tried downgrading the BIOS on your X370 board? I'm using a similar combo myself as well. Had a faulty BIOS once, that was later taken down from ASUS' website but besides that - no issues

I only recently tried upgraded it, but still happening. 

 

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Waiting for the 3080 order to come in too   Unless you're playing at 1080p, I believe a 3700X would be a fine choice, especially that you already have one At 4K there would be no difference honestly, even if you compare it to a 10900K

Like I said, it is going on a 4k TV, and I'm making do at 1440p until I get the GPU upgrade. I suspect the CPU can influence lows even when mostly GPU limited. I'm getting occasional micro-stutters with the 7920X that by experimenting I found improves by turning off HT, and further by disabling cores to allow higher turbo clocks. I'm thinking 8 fast cores are going to be best here, hence Coffee Lake is still a consideration, but Zen 2 might be good enough.

 

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

What is the board that you have problems with?

Asus Prime X370 Pro (all the right terms, but not necessarily in the right order). The problem is that the crashes are seemingly unpredictable and infrequent enough I can't directly diagnose it. In the past I changed pretty much everything else on it. They're not that often, but still more often than never. Casual users might not even notice it.

[Vishera]

58 minutes ago, porina said:

• 7920X sucks for gaming. It works, but there's obvious CPU limiting going on. It will be rebuilt for workstation use as it should be. Only using it since it was laying around anyway.

NUMA nodes suck for gaming

1 hour ago, porina said:

I do have a B450+2600 system I was trying to sell, but now I'm wondering if I should swap the CPUs over and give the B450 a try.

Try that first,that's my recommendation

[porina]

Just now, Vishera said:

NUMA nodes suck for gaming

Try that first,that's my recommendation

7920X isn't NUMA.

 

I just done the CPU swap. In my sleep deprived state I forgot to do the twist on the first one and pulled the CPU out of the socket with the heatsink. Fun. All repasted and I just need to do some tweaks before starting stress testing.

 

It feels so wrong with the 2600 now under a Noctua D15, and the 3700X under a Wraith Prism. 2600 is barely getting over 50C under load. I'll have to spend more time moving bits around later should I decide to keep on this route.