Should I get an i7 or Xeon for X99?

[IsaacThePooper]

I plan on making an X99 system for game development.

 

My current i5 + GTX 970 system is pretty lacking in Unreal, so I'm hoping to upgrade.

 

Should I try saving some money and overclock a Xeon with a decent amount of cores or get something like an i7 6800k. I can't really find any 6 core 12 thread Xeons for X99 under the price of the 6800k.

Also, another thing to note is that I dunno if I should go with Intel's 4 more PCIe lanes and quad channel memory, or to go with Ryzen's cheaper prices...

 

BTW my budget is like $400-ish so (USD).

 

Help?

[Enderman]

Why would you buy a dead platform?

[Damascus]

Get a second hand i7 5820k + older extreme x99 board on hardwareswap for about $230 and $140 respectively

[Damascus]

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Why would you buy a dead platform?

Lelz, x99 isn’t going to be dead until the 7940x is irrelevant.  When all of the workstations running unlocked 1681 (10/20) 1685 (12/24) and 1691 (14/28) are retired the chips will likely sell for about 400 - 800 bucks you can get what is basically an i9 for 1/4 - 1/4 the price

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

Lelz, x99 isn’t going to be dead until the 7940x is irrelevant.  When all of the workstations running unlocked 1681 (10/20) 1685 (12/24) and 1691 (14/28) are retired the chips will likely sell for about 400 - 800 bucks you can get what is basically an i9 for 1/4 - 1/4 the price

It's called "dead" because there are no new CPUs coming out for it.

Also, it's 3 generations old.

[Likwid]

9 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Get a second hand i7 5820k + older extreme x99 board on hardwareswap for about $230 and $140 respectively

Isn't new gen I7 about 20-30% faster?

[Damascus]

14 minutes ago, Likwid said:

Isn't new gen I7 about 20-30% faster?

An 8700k is a bit faster but it’s also 2 or 3 times as expensive

[IsaacThePooper]

22 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Get a second hand i7 5820k + older extreme x99 board on hardwareswap for about $230 and $140 respectively

oh yeah

[IsaacThePooper]

2 minutes ago, ImHyperstyle said:

x299 or AM4 or Coffeelake don't get a dead platform (x99)

Why? They preform pretty well and they're cheaper. Keep in mind my upgrade budget is only $400.

[IsaacThePooper]

26 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Get a second hand i7 5820k + older extreme x99 board on hardwareswap for about $230 and $140 respectively

Yeah but I'm looking around and the i7 6800k on Amazon (used) is like $270.

[IsaacThePooper]

and I also found a 6800k for $250 on eBay...

[Coaxialgamer]

Go for ryzen imo . New platform ,and you'll be able to get an 8 core for less than 300$ . X99 might get you a board and a 5820k/6800k for 400$ , which will perform worse . The only thing you're loosing with AM4 vs x99 is the ability to use a xeon if and when they get cheaper in a couple years when servers start being decommissioned

[Damascus]

17 minutes ago, Enderman said:

It's called "dead" because there are no new CPUs coming out for it.

Also, it's 3 generations old.

Fair point, though imo a platform isn’t dead until the low end current gen can beat it.

[Coaxialgamer]

4 minutes ago, IsaacThePooper said:

Yeah but I'm looking around and the i7 6800k on Amazon (used) is like $270.

think of it this way : that's the price of an r7 1700 . x99 boards are going to be expensive , even used . And in threaded workloads ,a 6800k will perform worse.

[Damascus]

6 minutes ago, IsaacThePooper said:

Yeah but I'm looking around and the i7 6800k on Amazon (used) is like $270.

Check out reddit, r/hardwareswap is your friend

[IsaacThePooper]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

think of it this way : that's the price of an r7 1700 . x99 boards are going to be expensive , even used . And in threaded workloads ,a 6800k will perform worse.

I live like 10 miles by a microcenter and they have like 3 open boxed X99 boards for $70 so....

 

lol

 

But the X370 with a Ryzen 5 1600 is a little less than $300 so you're still right

[IsaacThePooper]

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

Check out reddit, r/hardwareswap is your friend

Too confusing and I don't like paypal

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, IsaacThePooper said:

I live like 10 miles by a microcenter and they have like 3 open boxed X99 boards for $70 so....

 

lol

 

But the X370 with a Ryzen 5 1600 is a little less than $300 so you're still right

micro center DOES have great prices , you're right . Though that also drives my point . You can currently get an r7 1700x + asus prime x370 combo for 349$ . Yoy can even find a 259$ combo if you're willing to go for a b350 board.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

[IsaacThePooper]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

micro center DOES have great prices , you're right . Though that also drives my point . You can currently get an r7 1700x + asus prime x370 combo for 349$ . Yoy can even find a 259$ combo if you're willing to go for a b350 board.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

I would like more PCIe lanes for GPU processing tasks in Unreal so I would go with X370.

[IsaacThePooper]

2 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

micro center DOES have great prices , you're right . Though that also drives my point . You can currently get an r7 1700x + asus prime x370 combo for 349$ . Yoy can even find a 259$ combo if you're willing to go for a b350 board.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

Do you think that I should go with a 1600 for price or a 1700 later on? Because I'm pretty stuck on the Ryzen not having Quad Channel Memory and fewer PCIe lanes than X99. Also you can fix in like an 18 core Xeon down the line with X99 (i think).

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, IsaacThePooper said:

I would like more PCIe lanes for GPU processing tasks in Unreal

OK. How many gpu's are you going to be using ? X370 does support 2 gpus running 8x ( which is good for anything ) + an m.2 drive . However , the 6800k's 28 lanes can be useful if you need more .

 

And there's the chipset lanes on both chipsets , but yeah...

[IsaacThePooper]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

OK. How many gpu's are you going to be using ? X370 does support 2 gpus running 8x ( which is good for anything ) + an m.2 drive . However , the 6800k's 28 lanes can be useful if you need more .

 

And there's the chipset lanes on both chipsets , but yeah...

I have 1 GTX 970 but I plan on making that 2 and having a Quadro P4000 for co-proccessing tasks in the background and maybe for server stuff. But I might just get a seperate PC for that.

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, IsaacThePooper said:

Do you think that I should go with a 1600 for price or a 1700 later on? Because I'm pretty stuck on the Ryzen not having Quad Channel Memory and fewer PCIe lanes than X99. Also you can fix in like an 18 core Xeon down the line with X99 (i think).

theoretically , you could even put a 24 core e5 2699Av4 in x99, which is very appealing . It's worth noting that flagship parts never reach the bargain basement prices on used hardware , but it's totally plausible that you could buy a 16 core chip a few years down the line.

[IsaacThePooper]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

theoretically , you could even put a 24 core e5 2699Av4 in x99, which is very appealing . It's worth noting that flagship parts never reach the bargain basement prices on used hardware , but it's totally plausible that you could buy a 16 core chip a few years down the line.

mhm.... so im kinda stuck.

[Damascus]

6 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

think of it this way : that's the price of an r7 1700 . x99 boards are going to be expensive , even used . And in threaded workloads ,a 6800k will perform worse.

Here, perhaps my perspective may be useful.  I am, as of last week “downgrading” from a 1700 at 3.9ghz to a 5820k that I will OC as high as possible (probably around 4.4-4.6ghz on my massive loop). The board I will be using cost me $110 shipped, an ASRock x99 oc formula - it beats ANY board on am4 in almost any price bracket.  I’ll have quad channel memory, ecc 128gb support and the ability to run up to a 22 core Xeon later if I want a kickass rendering box.  The sell for less then $1000 as well.

 

All in all x99 is more flexible, better in the majority of games and more fun to Overclock.  On top of all of that I get more pcie lanes and a fantastic soldered heatspreader