i7-7700 vs i3-8350k

[nottherealzeesh]

Right now, I share a PC with my dad and the specs are as follows:

22-core Undisclosed Processor @2.5Ghz

16GB RAM

GTX 1060

 

I use it for gaming, but since it's shared between us, I can't use it whenever I please, so I decided I'd save up some money to build my own computer. Since my dad is an Intel employee, he receives discounts on their products. Right now, I'm having trouble deciding on what processor I should get. My two choices are an i3-8350k or an i7-7700 (non k). The i7 comes in a bundle with a Gigabyte GA-H270-HD3 mobo, while I'm planning on pairing the i3 with an ASRock Z370 Killer-SLI/ac mobo. Both pairs come around to being $220 respectively. Now the obvious choice here seems to be to go with the i7 because, well, it's an i7. However, after looking up benchmarks I noticed that the i3 has much better single core scores. I intend to game on this computer and do some schoolwork, so I feel like the single core scores would be more important for me. Either way, I'm not really sure which one to go with. What are y'all's thoughts? 

[Thermosman]

2 minutes ago, nottherealzeesh said:

Right now, I share a PC with my dad and the specs are as follows:

22-core Undisclosed Processor @2.5Ghz

16GB RAM

GTX 1060

 

I use it for gaming, but since it's shared between us, I can't use it whenever I please, so I decided I'd save up some money to build my own computer. Since my dad is an Intel employee, he receives discounts on their products. Right now, I'm having trouble deciding on what processor I should get. My two choices are an i3-8350k or an i7-7700 (non k). The i7 comes in a bundle with a Gigabyte GA-H270-HD3 mobo, while I'm planning on pairing the i3 with an ASRock Z370 Killer-SLI/ac mobo. Both pairs come around to being $220 respectively. Now the obvious choice here seems to be to go with the i7 because, well, it's an i7. However, after looking up benchmarks I noticed that the i3 has much better single core scores. I intend to game on this computer and do some schoolwork, so I feel like the single core scores would be more important for me. Either way, I'm not really sure which one to go with. What are y'all's thoughts? 

undisclosed processor??? did you break into intel?

edit just reread

[ARikozuM]

I'd take the i3 since it'll offer more than enough power for gaming and allows you to move up to the 8600K or 8700K. 

 

You can also try grabbing an 8400 hexa-core that offers more for your buck. 

[nottherealzeesh]

Just now, Thermosman said:

undisclosed processor??? did you break into intel?

my dad was given the processor for testing, and I'm not really sure how much info I'm allowed to say on it so I just stuck with "undisclosed" to be safe haha

[nottherealzeesh]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

I'd take the i3 since it'll offer more than enough power for gaming and allows you to move up to the 8600K or 8700K. 

 

You can also try grabbing an 8400 hexa-core that offers more for your buck. 

thanks! I'll be waiting until black Friday to see what kind of deals I can grab

[Thermosman]

sounds like a xeon processor, or the next HEDT platform. Maybe it is 2699 v4

[HKZeroFive]

The i3-8350K gives you a better upgrade path but the i7-7700 would provide higher 0.1% and 1% minimums (in other words;  more consistent frametimes). Try and see if you can get a i5-8400... that'll give you the best value.

[Thermosman]

8 minutes ago, nottherealzeesh said:

Right now, I share a PC with my dad and the specs are as follows:

22-core Undisclosed Processor @2.5Ghz

16GB RAM

GTX 1060

 

I use it for gaming, but since it's shared between us, I can't use it whenever I please, so I decided I'd save up some money to build my own computer. Since my dad is an Intel employee, he receives discounts on their products. Right now, I'm having trouble deciding on what processor I should get. My two choices are an i3-8350k or an i7-7700 (non k). The i7 comes in a bundle with a Gigabyte GA-H270-HD3 mobo, while I'm planning on pairing the i3 with an ASRock Z370 Killer-SLI/ac mobo. Both pairs come around to being $220 respectively. Now the obvious choice here seems to be to go with the i7 because, well, it's an i7. However, after looking up benchmarks I noticed that the i3 has much better single core scores. I intend to game on this computer and do some schoolwork, so I feel like the single core scores would be more important for me. Either way, I'm not really sure which one to go with. What are y'all's thoughts? 

You should definitely get a Ryzen 1700 to piss off your dad

[nottherealzeesh]

6 minutes ago, Thermosman said:

You should definitely get a Ryzen 1700 to piss off your dad

hahaha that's one way to do it

 

[Evolution.]

get a ryzen 

[nottherealzeesh]

8 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

The i3-8350K gives you a better upgrade path but the i7-7700 would provide higher 0.1% and 1% minimums (in other words;  more consistent frametimes). Try and see if you can get a i5-8400... that'll give you the best value.

yeah that's what some of my friends have been saying as well... the thing with getting a non-k coffee lake processor is that I'd still have to get an expensive z370 mobo, and if I had to do that, I might as well get an overclockable cpu

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

 

6 minutes ago, nottherealzeesh said:

yeah that's what some of my friends have been saying as well... the thing with getting a non-k coffee lake processor is that I'd still have to get an expensive z370 mobo, and if I had to do that, I might as well get an overclockable cpu

save money go with 8600k

[HKZeroFive]

5 minutes ago, nottherealzeesh said:

yeah that's what some of my friends have been saying as well... the thing with getting a non-k coffee lake processor is that I'd still have to get an expensive z370 mobo, and if I had to do that, I might as well get an overclockable cpu

Or take advantage of the Z370 chipset and get faster memory. Better than overclocking the chip. It also gives you an upgrade path towards K-series processors.

[toastybread]

2.5Ghz is too damn slow for gaming and even other tasks like media creation/content creation,  unless intel has somehow found a way to actually improve IPC dramatically.  so that xeon im assuming is not the best for gaming..

 

that being said i recommend a balance of core count and raw speed.  if you are interested in latest coffee lake from intel, maybe get i5-8600K series CPU.  get a good balance of core count and raw thread speed. and for gaming that will do you nicely and only cost you a few dollars more then i3-8350K to get all 6 cores unlocked.

 

or you can go old school...

like i'm rocking out on a sandy bridge E5-1660 xeon, got 6 cores, 12 threads, and single core turbo is 3.9Ghz, all core is 3.5Ghz. and with asus board i'm using i can lock single core turbo to all cores.  and it really kicks butt!.  my single threaded score is making skylake i5-6600, and multi threaded scores are matching the Ryzen 5-1600X scores..  and im not sure about why this is, but i was doing video encoding on it while gaming, and resulting video was really smooth.. 1080P 60fps, @ 10mb/sec . it maybe the extra cache, or better AVX instructions or something..

 

 

if you are "locked" into only picking between i7-7700 (non K) and a i3-8350K.   i would grab the i7-7700K bundle and not worry about the future too much, because even without unlocked multiplier, you have a few things going for you.  one is the turboing can work wonders, even with a locked board like mid ranged board, you you give enough coloring like nice air cooler or a simple AIO water cooler, it probably hover around 4.3-4.5 Ghz on all cores all the time.  two is  if you have a higher end board, or get your hands on a Z170/Z270 board then you can even use built in overclocking features like asus multicore enhancement which locks the all core turbo speed to the max single core turbo speed..   only downsides are you will be stuck with Z170/Z270.  however it is still a fantastically usable system shouldn't bottleneck most situations in gaming..  and probably wont for a foreseeable future.. i predict at least 3-5 more completely usable years out of 7700...

[MyName13]

43 minutes ago, nottherealzeesh said:

Right now, I share a PC with my dad and the specs are as follows:

22-core Undisclosed Processor @2.5Ghz

16GB RAM

GTX 1060

 

I use it for gaming, but since it's shared between us, I can't use it whenever I please, so I decided I'd save up some money to build my own computer. Since my dad is an Intel employee, he receives discounts on their products. Right now, I'm having trouble deciding on what processor I should get. My two choices are an i3-8350k or an i7-7700 (non k). The i7 comes in a bundle with a Gigabyte GA-H270-HD3 mobo, while I'm planning on pairing the i3 with an ASRock Z370 Killer-SLI/ac mobo. Both pairs come around to being $220 respectively. Now the obvious choice here seems to be to go with the i7 because, well, it's an i7. However, after looking up benchmarks I noticed that the i3 has much better single core scores. I intend to game on this computer and do some schoolwork, so I feel like the single core scores would be more important for me. Either way, I'm not really sure which one to go with. What are y'all's thoughts? 

Why not buy i7 8700(/k) or i5 8600k or i5 8400 (which should turbo all cores to 3.8-4 ghz on certain motherboards)

 

[arnavvr]

Wait for the H and B series motherboards to be released on LGA 1151v2 and snag a hexcore i5 8400.

[toastybread]

1 minute ago, MyName13 said:

Why not buy i7 8700(/k) or i5 8600k or i5 8400 (which should turbo all cores to 3.8-4 ghz on certain motherboards)

 

 

i think because he has himself in a very awkward position..

[nottherealzeesh]

2 hours ago, toastybread said:

2.5Ghz is too damn slow for gaming and even other tasks like media creation/content creation,  unless intel has somehow found a way to actually improve IPC dramatically.  so that xeon im assuming is not the best for gaming..

 

that being said i recommend a balance of core count and raw speed.  if you are interested in latest coffee lake from intel, maybe get i5-8600K series CPU.  get a good balance of core count and raw thread speed. and for gaming that will do you nicely and only cost you a few dollars more then i3-8350K to get all 6 cores unlocked.

 

or you can go old school...

like i'm rocking out on a sandy bridge E5-1660 xeon, got 6 cores, 12 threads, and single core turbo is 3.9Ghz, all core is 3.5Ghz. and with asus board i'm using i can lock single core turbo to all cores.  and it really kicks butt!.  my single threaded score is making skylake i5-6600, and multi threaded scores are matching the Ryzen 5-1600X scores..  and im not sure about why this is, but i was doing video encoding on it while gaming, and resulting video was really smooth.. 1080P 60fps, @ 10mb/sec . it maybe the extra cache, or better AVX instructions or something..

 

 

if you are "locked" into only picking between i7-7700 (non K) and a i3-8350K.   i would grab the i7-7700K bundle and not worry about the future too much, because even without unlocked multiplier, you have a few things going for you.  one is the turboing can work wonders, even with a locked board like mid ranged board, you you give enough coloring like nice air cooler or a simple AIO water cooler, it probably hover around 4.3-4.5 Ghz on all cores all the time.  two is  if you have a higher end board, or get your hands on a Z170/Z270 board then you can even use built in overclocking features like asus multicore enhancement which locks the all core turbo speed to the max single core turbo speed..   only downsides are you will be stuck with Z170/Z270.  however it is still a fantastically usable system shouldn't bottleneck most situations in gaming..  and probably wont for a foreseeable future.. i predict at least 3-5 more completely usable years out of 7700...

Sounds good, so at this point it seems like either getting the i7 or a coffee lake i5 would be a much better use of my money?

[toastybread]

32 minutes ago, nottherealzeesh said:

Sounds good, so at this point it seems like either getting the i7 or a coffee lake i5 would be a much better use of my money?

ya i think so!  i mean the i3-8350K is way to expensive for what it is.. its basically like a skylake i5.. 4 core 4 threads.. as i7-7700 is 4 cores 8 threads, so going to get way more mileage out of it right away.   and on its own can turbo really high with proper cooling and power, plus with decent motherboard you can enable single core turbo to all cores under load.   with unlocked coffee lake i5 you are getting 6 cores and 6 threads, so it be more or less same as i7-7700 in gaming and most tasks.. neither are bad solutions, in terms of future proofing, i usually stick to the idea of, dont bother with worrying about future proofing, both will last a good half decade of solid enjoyment.

[gbergeron]

3 hours ago, nottherealzeesh said:

Sounds good, so at this point it seems like either getting the i7 or a coffee lake i5 would be a much better use of my money?

8600K 

[CheeseburgerChad]

The i3-8350K should actually provide you with better gaming performance. While the i7 has hyperthreading, the 8350K is almost exactly equivalent to last-gen's "i5-7600k". I think people are confusing the fact that the 7700 and 7700K differ by more than just the unlocked multiplier. The 7700 is significantly (15%) slower than the 7700K. Synthetic scores for single and quad-core benchmarks give the 8th gen i3 a 12-20% advantage over the 7700 (non-K) when it comes to gaming. However, as others have mentioned, the 8th gen i5-8600k is still the best option for gaming if you can get one for a reasonable price. The i5-8400, while it has more cores, has a significantly slower clock speed than the 8350K, and is actually worse in gaming.

 

To summarize: Get the 8350K, or an 8600K if you can afford it. Both leave room to upgrade, and the i7-7700 is deceivingly under-powered compared to the i7-7700K everyone is used to. The i5-8400 is NOT as good for gaming as the i3-8350K due to clock speed differences.

[MyName13]

4 hours ago, CheeseburgerChad said:

The i3-8350K should actually provide you with better gaming performance. While the i7 has hyperthreading, the 8350K is almost exactly equivalent to last-gen's "i5-7600k". I think people are confusing the fact that the 7700 and 7700K differ by more than just the unlocked multiplier. The 7700 is significantly (15%) slower than the 7700K. Synthetic scores for single and quad-core benchmarks give the 8th gen i3 a 12-20% advantage over the 7700 (non-K) when it comes to gaming. However, as others have mentioned, the 8th gen i5-8600k is still the best option for gaming if you can get one for a reasonable price. The i5-8400, while it has more cores, has a significantly slower clock speed than the 8350K, and is actually worse in gaming.

 

To summarize: Get the 8350K, or an 8600K if you can afford it. Both leave room to upgrade, and the i7-7700 is deceivingly under-powered compared to the i7-7700K everyone is used to. The i5-8400 is NOT as good for gaming as the i3-8350K due to clock speed differences.

i3 8350k works at 4 ghz, i5 8400 seems to have a 3.8 ghz all core boost.I've seen it perform like i7 7700k in some benchmarks so it should be much better than i3.

[CheeseburgerChad]

5 minutes ago, MyName13 said:

i3 8350k works at 4 ghz, i5 8400 seems to have a 3.8 ghz all core boost.I've seen it perform like i7 7700k in some benchmarks so it should be much better than i3.

The "all core boost" you're talking about might be due I think to the "enhanced multi core" mode that is rather controversial. It was in the WAN show that some coffee lake processors are getting "auto-overclocked" by a specific motherboard feature that's turned on by default that boosts all cores as high as possible creating this effect.I would probably turn this off, not a huge fan of overclocking, especially automatically. Regardless, going off all benchmarks I've seen so far, the 8400 trails the 8350 by a bit except in games that can take slight advantage to the 2 extra cores - though most won't. The 8400 is a great processor but I'd argue the 8350 is slightly better for gaming with better single-threaded benchmarks and at a lower price point it's an exceptional value for OP.

[Carbongrip]

Get a Coffee Lake (8XXX) CPU at least so you have upgrade paths in the future, the i3 8350K is just like last gens i5 7600k but with better core speed.

[MyName13]

49 minutes ago, CheeseburgerChad said:

The "all core boost" you're talking about might be due I think to the "enhanced multi core" mode that is rather controversial. It was in the WAN show that some coffee lake processors are getting "auto-overclocked" by a specific motherboard feature that's turned on by default that boosts all cores as high as possible creating this effect.I would probably turn this off, not a huge fan of overclocking, especially automatically. Regardless, going off all benchmarks I've seen so far, the 8400 trails the 8350 by a bit except in games that can take slight advantage to the 2 extra cores - though most won't. The 8400 is a great processor but I'd argue the 8350 is slightly better for gaming with better single-threaded benchmarks and at a lower price point it's an exceptional value for OP.

According to Wikipedia all core boost is 3.8 ghz, I have no idea how reliable that is but i5 8400 has 4 ghz single core boost, not 3.8 ghz.Shouldnt Intel disclose turbo boosts for all cores?