i9-13900k vs 7800X3D - Photoshop + 4K Gaming Build

LyondellBasell · July 2, 2023

Budget (including currency): $1,900

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Lightroom + Photoshop//Jedi Survivor + SW Outlaws

Other details: Doing some upgrades to my 2015 i7-6700k/Z190/DDR4 build.

I already replaced my Titan SLI setup with a 3090 2 years ago, and am looking to refresh the rest of the system to keep pace with modern games at 4K and increasingly larger photo files.

The entire build is watercooled and will remain that way, I've already accounted for all waterblock upgrades.

Whatever processor I choose will be getting tuned to extract more performance.

Right now I'm leaning towards the 13900k, with some DDR5 and a Crucial T700 to round out the system.

I've watched LTT and others' comparisons with the 7800X3D. I know it's faster for gaming, draws less power, and prices out a bit cheaper even with a similar board.

I *do* value strong performance in Adobe apps though, and I'm having a hard time making the right decision.

Should I wait for the next Intel gen?

Should I check out with the 13900k today?

Is the 7800X3D *that* superior that I should ignore the Adobe performance and go Team Red?

Help me out here, LTT.

PDifolco · July 2, 2023

7 minutes ago, LyondellBasell said:

Budget (including currency): $1,900

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Lightroom + Photoshop//Jedi Survivor + SW Outlaws

Other details: Doing some upgrades to my 2015 i7-6700k/Z190/DDR4 build.

I already replaced my Titan SLI setup with a 3090 2 years ago, and am looking to refresh the rest of the system to keep pace with modern games at 4K and increasingly larger photo files.

The entire build is watercooled and will remain that way, I've already accounted for all waterblock upgrades.

Whatever processor I choose will be getting tuned to extract more performance.

Right now I'm leaning towards the 13900k, with some DDR5 and a Crucial T700 to round out the system.

I've watched LTT and others' comparisons with the 7800X3D. I know it's faster for gaming, draws less power, and prices out a bit cheaper even with a similar board.

I *do* value strong performance in Adobe apps though, and I'm having a hard time making the right decision.

Should I wait for the next Intel gen?

Should I check out with the 13900k today?

Is the 7800X3D *that* superior that I should ignore the Adobe performance and go Team Red?

Help me out here, LTT.

At 4K I don't think the 7800X3D will give you much more gaming performance, you'd be GPU limited everywhere

Get either the 13900K or the 7950X

RONOTHAN## · July 2, 2023

11 minutes ago, LyondellBasell said:

Right now I'm leaning towards the 13900k, with some DDR5 and a Crucial T700 to round out the system.

If your goal is to use a Gen 5 SSD, you really don't want to be going LGA 1700. They do technically support PCIe Gen 5, but in order to get a Gen 5 M.2 slot they need to steal half the PCIe lanes from your GPU. Gen 5 SSDs just aren't that much faster than their Gen 4 counterparts that I would avoid them anyway, it's not likely to give a performance uplift, but if you really want one you should go AM5 instead, as the Gen 5 M.2 slots are standard and don't require stealing lanes from the GPU.

11 minutes ago, LyondellBasell said:

Is the 7800X3D *that* superior that I should ignore the Adobe performance and go Team Red?

It is significantly better, especially in Jedi Survivors, but you're playing at 4K where the gaming performance is almost always GPU limited and not CPU limited. It's not likely to make a noticeable difference.

If you don't get a T700, lga 1700 is a good option, especially if you just drop down to the 13700K (you save $150 and realistically won't lose any performance in games or Adobe), but if you do going for a 7900X is probably the chip I'd go for so you get better Adobe performance. Technically the 7950X3D also exists and is the best of both worlds if you ignore the software concerns, though it's also a bit more expensive so keep that in mind and again, at 4k you're not likely to notice a difference between anything better than a 5600x.

LyondellBasell · July 2, 2023

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

At 4K I don't think the 7800X3D will give you much more gaming performance, you'd be GPU limited everywhere

Get either the 13900K or the 7950X

That's a good point, I don't think I've researched this enough. Thank you!

LyondellBasell · July 2, 2023

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If your goal is to use a Gen 5 SSD, you really don't want to be going LGA 1700. They do technically support PCIe Gen 5, but in order to get a Gen 5 M.2 slot they need to steal half the PCIe lanes from your GPU. Gen 5 SSDs just aren't that much faster than their Gen 4 counterparts that I would avoid them anyway, it's not likely to give a performance uplift, but if you really want one you should go AM5 instead, as the Gen 5 M.2 slots are standard and don't require stealing lanes from the GPU.

It is significantly better, especially in Jedi Survivors, but you're playing at 4K where the gaming performance is almost always GPU limited and not CPU limited. It's not likely to make a noticeable difference.

If you don't get a T700, lga 1700 is a good option, especially if you just drop down to the 13700K (you save $150 and realistically won't lose any performance in games or Adobe), but if you do going for a 7900X is probably the chip I'd go for so you get better Adobe performance. Technically the 7950X3D also exists and is the best of both worlds if you ignore the software concerns, though it's also a bit more expensive so keep that in mind and again, at 4k you're not likely to notice a difference between anything better than a 5600x.

I didn't know AM5 had those lanes as standard! Thanks for the insight. I'm going to have to think about my priorities here.

Why_Me · July 2, 2023

1 hour ago, LyondellBasell said:

Budget (including currency): $1,900

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Lightroom + Photoshop//Jedi Survivor + SW Outlaws

Other details: Doing some upgrades to my 2015 i7-6700k/Z190/DDR4 build.

I already replaced my Titan SLI setup with a 3090 2 years ago, and am looking to refresh the rest of the system to keep pace with modern games at 4K and increasingly larger photo files.

The entire build is watercooled and will remain that way, I've already accounted for all waterblock upgrades.

Whatever processor I choose will be getting tuned to extract more performance.

Right now I'm leaning towards the 13900k, with some DDR5 and a Crucial T700 to round out the system.

I've watched LTT and others' comparisons with the 7800X3D. I know it's faster for gaming, draws less power, and prices out a bit cheaper even with a similar board.

I *do* value strong performance in Adobe apps though, and I'm having a hard time making the right decision.

Should I wait for the next Intel gen?

Should I check out with the 13900k today?

Is the 7800X3D *that* superior that I should ignore the Adobe performance and go Team Red?

Help me out here, LTT.