Best CPU for gaming for the upcoming V6?

[SuperShires]

I'm wondering what would be the best processor for me. I was leaning towards a Ryzen 3700X but the X570 ITX boards really threw a spanner in the works with their tiny 30mm fans and how loud I feel they will be/will become.

So I started leaning towards a i7 9700k but the prices are pretty steep in the UK, Overclockers sell one for £350~ which seems decent.

I plan on pairing which ever CPU with a Corsair H100i Pro RGB AIO (rather than the popular X52 mainly for price and also I dont want to deal with the sh*tty CAM software, though the X52 looks a lot better)

Also I doubt I will overclock any of them.

So my question is which should I lean towards? What should I expect temperature-wise? Is the i7 worth the £350 its at now compared to the 3700X?

I am very bias towards getting an Asus motherboard so if I did get the 3700X I would pair it with the X570-I Strix. Same with the Z390-I Strix.

Thanks.

 

[HottestVapes]

Assuming you'd go with an X570 with the 3700X and the Asus Z390 with the 9700K, then the price difference (PC part picker prices currently) would be a negligible £12. If you went with an Asus B350 or B450 with the 3700X, then the price difference is just shy of £100.

Either way, for a purely gaming CPU, then the 9700K does edge out the 3700X in most games, but whether you'll actually notice the difference comes down to the GPU you pair it with, along with the resolution and settings you use in games.
Paired with a 2070 for instance and at 1440p, they'll likely be equal. At 1080p, there will likely be a small delta in performance between them that will increase slightly if you bumped up to a 2080 and slightly more with a 2080Ti.

Though with a 2080 or 2080Ti, the only reason you'd ever play at 1080p is if you were a competitive player (as in actually competing, not just taking the game a bit more seriously than most) and you wanted the absolute highest frame rate/responsiveness of the game you play possible. If that's you, then the 9700K (or 9900K) would be a good choice.
If that's not you, and you plan to pair a high-end card with an appropriately high end resolution, then the difference between the two will be minuscule outside of some outliers that perform poorly on one CPU or the other.

 

[SuperShires]

Assuming you'd go with an X570 with the 3700X and the Asus Z390 with the 9700K, then the price difference (PC part picker prices currently) would be a negligible £12. If you went with an Asus B350 or B450 with the 3700X, then the price difference is just shy of £100.

Either way, for a purely gaming CPU, then the 9700K does edge out the 3700X in most games, but whether you'll actually notice the difference comes down to the GPU you pair it with, along with the resolution and settings you use in games.
Paired with a 2070 for instance and at 1440p, they'll likely be equal. At 1080p, there will likely be a small delta in performance between them that will increase slightly if you bumped up to a 2080 and slightly more with a 2080Ti.

Though with a 2080 or 2080Ti, the only reason you'd ever play at 1080p is if you were a competitive player (as in actually competing, not just taking the game a bit more seriously than most) and you wanted the absolute highest frame rate/responsiveness of the game you play possible. If that's you, then the 9700K (or 9900K) would be a good choice.
If that's not you, and you plan to pair a high-end card with an appropriately high end resolution, then the difference between the two will be minuscule outside of some outliers that perform poorly on one CPU or the other.

Thanks for the response. To clear a few things up, it will be paired with a RTX 2060 Super which I've already bought and I will playing at 1440p 60Hz.

I was tempted with getting a X470 to avoid the chipset fans but I don't have a CPU to use so I can update the BIOS

You don't happen to know which one would run hotter at stock speeds do you? granted it probably doesn't matter that much as it'll be cooled with a 240 AIO so I doubt it'll ever get to temperatures I have to worry about.

 

[Kaiede]

According to Extreme Tech, the 3700X will be a bit cooler under load, but the 9700K will be cooler under idle.

I’m personally going with the 3600 on a B450 board since I’m not really in dire need of squeezing every little bit out, and I’m not doing streaming or heavily threaded workloads, and the CPU should be easier to cool. The X470 is getting you better VRMs and SLI over the B450, with the SLI not being useful on mini-ITX, so it’s mostly the VRMs. Unless you need PCIe 4.0 SSDs or want to future proof for potential GPUs that are years away, then I’d skip the X570. If doing stock clocks, a B450 has been fine for me, with a more powerful GPU than you have. So it is possible to go cheaper on the Mobo/CPU without giving up too much. But I think the advice so far is also good.

Im mostly planning on transplanting my Node 304 guts into an NCase, and upgrade the CPU while I’m splurging on the case.

I would consider looking into AMD’s offer to help update the BIOS if want to go with the 3700X.

 

[EndEffeKt]

If you do not plan to overclock I guess the 3700x is the better choice, because PBO as an auto-overclock works respectably well. Might even edge out a stock 9700k.
I am not quite sure why someone would not overclock/undervolt? a k-chip. Thats whats their sole purpose

 

[HottestVapes]

Thanks for the response. To clear a few things up, it will be paired with a RTX 2060 Super which I've already bought and I will playing at 1440p 60Hz.

I was tempted with getting a X470 to avoid the chipset fans but I don't have a CPU to use so I can update the BIOS

You don't happen to know which one would run hotter at stock speeds do you? granted it probably doesn't matter that much as it'll be cooled with a 240 AIO so I doubt it'll ever get to temperatures I have to worry about.

For updating the BIOS of B350/B450 boards (don’t bother with the X370/X470 ITX boards, they’re identical, no difference beyond price in actual components and features), try calling up a retailer like Overclockers or SCAN and ask if they can update the board for you before you purchase.


I can’t guarantee they will, but OCUK have really good customer service in my experience so they likely would.

 

[Kaiede]

I will add that there is currently some early teething problems with the 3000 series. Depending on how long you can wait, I might hold off on a Ryzen 3000 until that shakes out.

 

[SuperShires]

Thanks for the replies people. I'm going to hold off for now on my decision until I receive my case/see a review of the X570-I Strix. Currently I'm leaning towards the i7 but I waited this long for multiple reasons: M1 V6, Zen 2 & RTX Super/Navi and Zen 2 is new and fresh haha.

 

[HyperActive]

Thanks for the replies people. I'm going to hold off for now on my decision until I receive my case/see a review of the X570-I Strix. Currently I'm leaning towards the i7 but I waited this long for multiple reasons: M1 V6, Zen 2 & RTX Super/Navi and Zen 2 is new and fresh haha.

Rtx 2060 super = 360-400, rx 5700 xt = rtx 2070 super with soms optimalisations since it came out for 420-450. I would go rx 5700xt and ryzen 7 3700x with Asus b450i.
I did lost of research and with the upcoming zen 2 8 core 6 thread amd consoles, i would bet my chances on more threads. Directx 12 will be more main stream and so will multi threaded i think.

 

[paulesko]

Just wanted to say that the stupid 30mm fan does very little... I have my case to see how it works and if I put it in silent mode it doesn´t spin at all and stays at 65 degrees. If I put the fan curve in balance it stays under 60 degrees most of the time. Now I´m testing the black ridge with a noctua 25mm over it, and without that tiny fan it stays at 63 on idle and 57 under load...

In my opinion if you are going to use a heatsink that blows to the motherboard, that 30mm fan its not obligatory... this is just my opinion but these fan stupidness is just because they plan to release higer end chipsets without fan, not because the motherboard needs it that much.

Another curious fact. This weekend I was testing a scythe tower style heatsink on this motherboard, so the chipset didn´t had any airflow over it, and the mobo was out of the case... well, with chipset fan on silent mode it was hotter than it is now without a fan and a heatsink that blows air to the motherboard. My motherboard is a gigabyte x570 and I dont have an ssd over the chipset which may affect temperatures big time.

 

[SuperShires]

Rtx 2060 super = 360-400, rx 5700 xt = rtx 2070 super with soms optimalisations since it came out for 420-450. I would go rx 5700xt and ryzen 7 3700x with Asus b450i.
I did lost of research and with the upcoming zen 2 8 core 6 thread amd consoles, i would bet my chances on more threads. Directx 12 will be more main stream and so will multi threaded i think.

I've gone with the i7 9700k coupled with a Z390-I Strix & a RTX 2060 Super ref.
There were too many compromises I wasn't happy taking if I went Ryzen which really annoyed me but I know fine well the 9700k is more than enough for me.

Couldn't hold out any longer and ordered all the parts a few weeks back haha all I'm missing now is the case.