QOTW: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X?

[philehidiot]

So it's nealry 1AM and I'm about to go away on holiday so this seems like the perfect time to try and troll.

I agree with everyone who has said that the AMD platform will have better longevity, BUT I have to ask a question. How many people can afford to / need to upgrade the CPU so frequently that the mobo upgrade (and maybe even the RAM, I'm still on DDR3) isn't a requirement anyway? Yes there will be the odd person who uses CPU bound processes but most stuff can be done exponentially faster with GPGPU these days and so the CPU is becoming less and less relevant. Indeed for gaming the improvement you get from an i7 over an i5 is only signfiicant if you're playing at stupidly low resolutions in which case you're an idiot who should have spent more on your GPU / monitor. I personally find benchmarks which turn down the graphics settings to expose GPU bottlenecks in games totally useless as no one runs Doom 3 at 640x480 at the lowest settings. Run it at normal settings against the competition and see if you get any odd lag that shouldn't be there.

I think there's an excellent marketing strategy out there from Intel which makes their products seem more "solid". This may be a hangover from the old days when a cheap AMD CPU + cheap RAM made for an unstable system due to my cheapskate ways but that's the "feeling" I get when I see an Intel processor. It's interesting, totally unfounded (unless you count the recent RAM compatiblity fiasco) and something I'm acutely aware of to disregard in favour of objective criteria.

Personally, I think you just need to examine your needs, existing hardware and the capabilities of each CPU carefully. If one excels at benchmarks on a program you use then you should buy that if you have the cash. If you're a gamer, you should probably consider if you really need this kind of CPU horsepower and whether spending your money on a better GPU would be better. If you have the money to spend on a high end CPU and GPU, I would suggest strongly dropping the CPU spec down to a mid range i5 and giving me the surplus cash. Or maybe buying the missus something nice. Like a porno.

EDITED because my brain works faster than my alcohol addled fingers.

[Glock24]

I'll take the R5-1600 or R7-1700, much better bang for the buck and already include HSF.

[decends]

Either wait for 12nm ryzen or 8c/16t i7 on z390 for me. My I7 4790k is still more than enough performance in my games.

[Shane74]

AMD wins, Intel's cpu's were sold out on the first day where I live,No ETA on next lot.
They only had a handful sent to stores, May as well have been a paper launch.

[ETR316]

Neither thanks. Not because the CPUs aren't good, they're both great performers, but because both platforms are utterly gimped for anyone who wants 16X for the GPU, an 4X M2 and have one or more additional cards which needs 4X or better.

That's why Z390 will be well worth waiting for, it addresses both those issues.

[adidan]

I agree with everyone who has said that the AMD platform will have better longevity, BUT I have to ask a question. How many people can afford to / need to upgrade the CPU so frequently that the mobo upgrade (and maybe even the RAM, I'm still on DDR3) isn't a requirement anyway?

It's a fair point but back in the days of 939 and AM2/AM3 I changed CPUs quite a few times while retaining the same boards.

But yeah now I tend to only change when i need a full overhaul, probably next year for me.

[Xlucine]

So it's nealry 1AM and I'm about to go away on holiday so this seems like the perfect time to try and troll.

I agree with everyone who has said that the AMD platform will have better longevity, BUT I have to ask a question. How many people can afford to / need to upgrade the CPU so frequently that the mobo upgrade (and maybe even the RAM, I'm still on DDR3) isn't a requirement anyway? Yes there will be the odd person who uses CPU bound processes but most stuff can be done exponentially faster with GPGPU these days and so the CPU is becoming less and less relevant. Indeed for gaming the improvement you get from an i7 over an i5 is only signfiicant if you're playing at stupidly low resolutions in which case you're an idiot who should have spent more on your GPU / monitor. I personally find benchmarks which turn down the graphics settings to expose GPU bottlenecks in games totally useless as no one runs Doom 3 at 640x480 at the lowest settings. Run it at normal settings against the competition and see if you get any odd lag that shouldn't be there.

I think there's an excellent marketing strategy out there from Intel which makes their products seem more "solid". This may be a hangover from the old days when a cheap AMD CPU + cheap RAM made for an unstable system due to my cheapskate ways but that's the "feeling" I get when I see an Intel processor. It's interesting, totally unfounded (unless you count the recent RAM compatiblity fiasco) and something I'm acutely aware of to disregard in favour of objective criteria.

Personally, I think you just need to examine your needs, existing hardware and the capabilities of each CPU carefully. If one excels at benchmarks on a program you use then you should buy that if you have the cash. If you're a gamer, you should probably consider if you really need this kind of CPU horsepower and whether spending your money on a better GPU would be better. If you have the money to spend on a high end CPU and GPU, I would suggest strongly dropping the CPU spec down to a mid range i5 and giving me the surplus cash. Or maybe buying the missus something nice. Like a porno.

EDITED because my brain works faster than my alcohol addled fingers.

Could be they can't afford to drop the lump sum on a dream PC at once, so they're working up to it - eg put together the base of the system now, and upgrade to higher up the product stack once the next paycheck comes in. You could also upgrade a year or two after the part you're upgrading to has been released - so the 3 year old system you've been using can get a 1 year old CPU with more cores dropped in once whichever ryzen you're gone for starts showing it's age

That's why Z390 will be well worth waiting for, it addresses both those issues.

1) You've got to wait a year till it's released
2) The roadmap show it for sale in parallel to the Z370 - so it's bound to cost more than Z370, which is already pricey. I bet it'll cost the same as low end X299 or TR systems, which both provide good IPC, good clockspeeds, and lots of IO

There's only £90 difference between the cheapest Z370 board and the cheapest X299 board, and the 7800x is £10 cheaper than the 8700k (and in stock). That means you're only paying £80 more for a system with the same core count, that should OC to the same speed (+/- a couple hundred MHz, 4.8GHz vs 5GHz), and a lot more IO. TR is substantially more pricey, but it's bound to come down in price over the next year (and starts at 8 cores)

[Wrinkly]

Holding on for next year's 12nm Ryzen. Still using a 3770k.

[Csikasz]

Still no point to upgrade my i7 3770K. If i need more speed i can just adjust it to 5Ghz (5120 is the end of for my cpu, running under water)
I think i will upgrade when my mobo will die.

[enemys]

My mobo is dying, so I'm buying i7-8700K the moment it becomes available. I would gladly wait for Ryzen+, but I have no time, and I need the single-thread performance, so current Ryzen is out of question .

[iworrall]

It seems Intel's 8700K had a "paper launch", as it's out-of-stock everywhere.

[ohmaheid]

I’m thinking about upgrading from z170 / 6700k to z370 8700k, but not for a few months. Not really interested in AMD

Does the performance increase REALLY warrant shelling out $600? I would say not.

[Ozaron]

Since I am a FO4 player,the Core i7 8700k,even though I think the Ryzen 7 1800x and it's platform is better overall.

Thank you Bethesda!

Honestly I'm surprised anyone likes FO4 enough to base their CPU choice on it. Was the lack of dialogue, creation club etc. not a put off for you?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Honestly I'm surprised anyone likes FO4 enough to base their CPU choice on it. Was the lack of dialogue, creation club etc. not a put off for you?

Its the fact I am at my mod limit and have built massive settlements,some upto 23 stories high with dozens of NPCs. My current modded playthrough is really very different from the normal game.

With a Xeon E3 1230 V2 and a GTX1080,at qHD I can hit sub 30FPS in settlements,and the game is unplayable without an SSD.

Could be they can't afford to drop the lump sum on a dream PC at once, so they're working up to it - eg put together the base of the system now, and upgrade to higher up the product stack once the next paycheck comes in. You could also upgrade a year or two after the part you're upgrading to has been released - so the 3 year old system you've been using can get a 1 year old CPU with more cores dropped in once whichever ryzen you're gone for starts showing it's age

This is what I have done as I tend to buy secondhand CPUs,but a major problem is since Intel changes sockets so much is if you are stuck with a decent CPU but when your motherboard goes you find getting a replacement harder. AMD tends to have made their motherboards much better with regards to compatibility. Someone with a Phenom II X6 for example,can even buy a replacement motherboard today if it still does the job.

[FromUSA]

AMD is old now....Just wait for the 8700k chips to come back into stock....get your other parts lined up 1st...by then the chips will be back and ready to go.

[tweake628]

The i7-8700k is $379 the 1800x $294 and the benchmarks don't show the i7-8700k worth the extra $100 plus the hole upgrade path of the AMD alone makes the 1800x a clear winner in my eyes .for rite now my i7-7700 will hold me over for a bit