Best "budget" CPU for 3D Rendering and Development

[longjohnsally]

I'm getting ready to build a new PC and I am looking for suggestions for the best CPU to pick in the $350-$550.  My primary use will be 3D development and rendering in Maya using VRay, modeling in Mudbox and Zbrush, and texturing in Substance Painter.  I also do tons of editing in Premiere.  It would be great to be able to do some decent gaming as well, but this is less important.  On a day to day basis I also do a lot of management tasks, so I tend to have 2 or 3 graphics apps open at once, plus tons of browser tabs, word, email, etc.  My plan is to upgrade to either a 4k 4:4:4 monitor or possibly the LG 38" ultrawide (if this matters for CPU).

 

I have been looking at i7 6800k, i7 7700k, and i7 6700k.  The new AMD CPU's seem really tantalizing as well at this price range. I am a little wary since they are so new, but have been looking at Ryzen7 1700 and 1800.  

 

Any thoughts, suggestions, or comparisons would be greatly appreciated.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id go r7 1800, it will be up to 40% faster in some tasks, and about the same in others and about the same cost.

[LienusLateTips]

R7 1800X. Although 1700 and 1700X are OK if you OC, potentially becoming as good as the 1800X

[longjohnsally]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id go r7 1800, it will be up to 40% faster in some tasks, and about the same in others and about the same cost.

I was looking at mobo options for r7 and it seems so limited compared to intel (never built and AMD based machine).   How big of a deal is this when it comes to the rest of the components for the build?  Does it limit them as well...RAM, cooler, etc? 

[Energycore]

Well Ryzen 1700 is $300 and for 3D modeling it's the same as the $1000 6900K, so I think this is a no-brainer choice. OC it, should hit around 4GHz.

[RTheTroll]

This one:

 

 

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[longjohnsally]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

Well Ryzen 1700 is $300 and for 3D modeling it's the same as the $1000 6900K, so I think this is a no-brainer choice. OC it, should hit around 4GHz.

For rendering, how big of a deal is clock speed?  Is this more/less important than cores n' threads?  i7 7700 seems to get pretty impressive numbers in bench mark tests compared with 1800 but only sports 4 cores.  Still trying to figure this out.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, longjohnsally said:

For rendering, how big of a deal is clock speed?  Is this more/less important than cores n' threads?  i7 7700 seems to get pretty impressive numbers in bench mark tests compared with 1800 but only sports 4 cores.  Still trying to figure this out.

look at cinebench numbers to get a idea about rendering speed, you want lots of cores.

 

[Energycore]

Just now, longjohnsally said:

For rendering, how big of a deal is clock speed?  Is this more/less important than cores n' threads?  i7 7700 seems to get pretty impressive numbers in bench mark tests compared with 1800 but only sports 4 cores.  Still trying to figure this out.

Don't think about it that way. Think about what performance numbers both CPUs put up in the workloads you care about.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170/the-amd-zen-and-ryzen-7-review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/18

Spoiler

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[longjohnsally]

2 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Don't think about it that way. Think about what performance numbers both CPUs put up in the workloads you care about.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170/the-amd-zen-and-ryzen-7-review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/18

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makes sense.  thank you...those benchmarks are very helpful!