Amount of Cores

[Hi P]

How do you know how many cores do you actually need? 

 

Because back in 2016 I was using a old PC running a second gen i7 of 4 cores, and I honestly never felt anything slow.

 

So right now I'm between 6 to 8 cores, but I see other people going for 12+ so it got me thinking.

 

Thank you

[Rayhunter]

6-8 should be fine, all comes down to what you're doing and how CPU intensive it is.

[LukeSavenije]

It depends on the workload. Something like virtualisation will scale better than old games for example. What are you going to do with it?

[Guest]

First of all what are you using the CPU for, or essentially, what are you using the whole PC for? 

[Artyomka]

It depends on what you will do with all the cores, 4 is still more than enough for gaming. If you don't do video editing\3D rendering\FHD 60fps streaming every day you will not feel any difference between 4 and 10+ cores. If you do then go for 6-8 cores, the sweet spot in price is there.

 

[Hi P]

9 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

What are you going to do with it?

 

8 minutes ago, PC_Master said:

What are you using the whole PC for? 

 

3D in general, video / photo editing, and of course gaming

[Guest]

Your better off asking yourself, do I need an upgrade, would I benefit from it? 4c/8t is enough for gaming, streaming at the same time will most likely require more CPU horse power to get a decent quality stream. 3D modelling/video rendering will need 6-8 cores at most. I mean, your CPU could run premiere pro or any other video editing package/3D modelling software, but rendering will take longer on your CPU but will take less time if you got a higher core count CPU with more cores/threads. Same goes for streaming, it will run, might need to stream at 720p, again, depends on the use case.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Hi P said:

 

 

3D in general, video / photo editing, and of course gaming

What cpu do you currently have?

[cj09beira]

the most important thing is not really if you use programs that can use the whole cpu but more how many programs will you be running at the same time, the more you have running the better cpu you need (and more ram), for example i have a 4 core i5 which only allows me to have a game open, if i have something somewhat intensive also running i get bad performance, so in my case as i only plan on having a game + some other programs a 6 core would be enough, but for example if i want my plex server to be able to perform well while i am playing, 8 cores might be a better choice 

[Hi P]

1 minute ago, PC_Master said:

What cpu do you currently have?

None, I don't have a pc, I plan on buying the parts this or next month

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Hi P said:

snip

 

1 minute ago, Hi P said:

None, I don't have a pc, I plan on buying the parts this or next month

Go for a ryzen 7 2700x or ryzen 5 2600

[cj09beira]

1 minute ago, PC_Master said:

 

Go for a ryzen 7 2700x or ryzen 5 2600

depending on how ok you are with overclocking, you could also save a bit of money and go for the non x versions (2700 and 2600) and then overclock to make up de difference (they should overclock to similar levels)

[Guest]

1 minute ago, cj09beira said:

depending on how ok you are with overclocking, you could also save a bit of money and go for the non x versions (2700 and 2600) and then overclock to make up de difference (they should overclock to similar levels)

It depends if @Hi P wants to overclock or is familiar with overclocking. Even though it isn't hard to overclock, yes, the ryzen 7 2700 or ryzen 5 2600 will save you money of course and will come with a decent cooler. 

[LukeSavenije]

pair a 2600 or 2700 with a good nvidia or amd graphics card and you'll be having a great time. 6-8 cores is fine if you aren't that serious about video editing. if you have a big budget and doing video editing for a living you might want to consider first gen treadripper.

[cj09beira]

2 minutes ago, PC_Master said:

It depends if @Hi P wants to overclock or is familiar with overclocking. Even though it isn't hard to overclock, yes, the ryzen 7 2700 or ryzen 5 2600 will save you money of course and will come with a decent cooler. 

agreed

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

pair a 2600 or 2700 with a good nvidia or amd graphics card and you'll be having a great time. 6-8 cores is fine if you aren't that serious about video editing. if you have a big budget and doing video editing for a living you might want to consider first gen treadripper.

1st gen threadripper is good since it has come down in price, same goes for the motherboards (a little). Tip: don't buy the 1900x, it has 8c and 16t + it's an 1800x with more pcie lanes that you probably don't need anyways. 

[Hi P]

Thanks to everyone, I think I'm going to get either 2600 or 2600x while I wait for the 3000 series.

 

Is there a big difference between 2600 and 2600x? (both not overclocked)

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Hi P said:

Thanks to everyone, I think I'm going to get either 2600 or 2600x while I wait for the 3000 series.

 

Is there a big difference between 2600 and 2600x? (both not overclocked)

Essentially next to no difference at all, even when overclocking, the performance will be near the same accross the board.