Question 5900x or 12700k (or something else?)

[GodisanAtheist]

Ok, been a long time and I'm out of the CPU loop a bit. My current rig is in my signature.

Its time to refresh my core components. I have a 3080 10g in the mail (and presumably it works) so I'd like to pair it with a CPU that is up to the task and has some staying power.

I'll be sticking with my craptastic DDR4 3000 RAM for the time being (DDR5 is too pricey and Im not interested in throwing more money behind RAM for the 5-10% performance it will bring me).

Which of the listed parts makes the most sense? What should I look for in terms of used prices (USD) given the next gen is around the corner?

Given I'm looking to more or less just use the rig for gaming, listening to music, surfing, etc is there something else I should consider? The reason these 12 core processors call to me is I felt like I went too lean on my 6600k which ended up lasting me 6 years, I'd like to overspec a bit on a processor in the event that it's another 6 years before a new PC is on the docket.

Thoughts? Should I just check out another thread around here that's already talking about the same thing?

 

[Harry_Wild]

@Harry_Wild there are some deficits with 10/11th gen setups. Maybe the suggestion should be waiting for another drop on ADL when RPL come out in a month or so.

Announcement of 13th generation Intel Raptor Lake is tomorrow.

 

[Tech Junky]

Announcement of 13th generation Intel Raptor Lake is tomorrow.

But they won't go on sale that quickly. People have to replace what they have to drop the price.

 

[ImpulsE69]

-My current rig is so old that basically anything I get today is an auto 2-3x improvement across the board.

I admit I had dreams of going all AMD this round but a lucky ebay purchase of an NV card has sort of scrapped that idea and I'm tempted to just stick with Intel, especially given their 12700K is a solid gaming chip, supports DDR4 & 5 (I know different boards are involved), is an LGA set-up (nightmares of bent pins on old A64 processors), and seem to be much more plentiful for rather reasonable prices second hand (good number of chips in the $200-250 territory, which is a fair bit off new).

I must have read this wrong.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Better to go with the new Zen4 architecture since it has PCI5, DDR5, etc... Cost only $200 more and 15% faster and be future proof for a good 5 years plus. 7600X is the one I would get at $300 MSRP. You can always upgrade to the 7975X when the prices fall in the future years if you not happy with the power of the 7600X but I think it will work with 90% of the games out their perfectly! Most games depend on the GPU then the CPU!

Disagree. As others have stated, PCIe 5.0 isn't that big of a deal for someone on a budget, and DDR5 prices are just too high. Platform cost is gonna be much higher for a 7600X than a 5800X3D. You'll be able to run a lot of different video cards in an AM4 system over the next 5+ years, assuming your PSU and wallet can keep up, and the 5800X3D will likely chug along quite nicely.

 

[Revolution 11]

- Right, this is going to be basically 100% pure gaming PC for me (with some dabbling in photoshop and other things) and the goal is to be as economical as possible (for sport, I can go buy a $5000 PC right now but what's the fun in that, I want to build something at the peak of the price/performance curve).

That said, PC gaming always has the added drag of backward compatibility (meaning the largest pool of customers are never on the latest and greatest hardware) and consoles (meaning the lead platform for nearly all games is already kinda outdated), both of which prevent all these fancy new techs from really being fully utilized outside of some very niche typically professional use scenarios (in many cases simply making an already very fast thing a little bit faster).

I see your point, but i think outside of prosumer and professional workloads much of the new technology that is rounding the corner is more of a "nice to have" than something that will materially affect most use case scenarios.

OP, I think your approach is definitely the right way to think about this. Optimize your cost of ownership, and upgrade more often over the years with the same exact budget. Futureproofing has always been a shifty idea but when progress is happening faster with very fast I/O like PCI-E 5.0, very fast NVME SSDs, GPUs and CPU chiplets, weird on-chip cache designs, future stacked memory....etc, etc.....definitely do not build PCs for "future-proofing". You are far better off building again in 2026 or 2027 instead of trying to make your PC last all the way to 2030 and spending double the money for it.

Also, absolutely correct on backward compatibility with the PC. The legendary world-class software backwards compatibility is the PC's greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. Whenever I see that a fantastic new feature is coming in 20XX, I always add 5 years to that date as the true date for the feature to actually matter. By which time, you can build a PC that is better suited to the new feature at a lower cost with better hardware.

The only difference I would have done is to wait until November Black Friday so that prices drop more on all the older components once all the new products have launched or gotten substantial previews and hype.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You are far better off building again in 2026 or 2027 instead of trying to make your PC last all the way to 2030 and spending double the money for it.

If only you or someone else had hammered these wise words into my head when I began purchasing PC hardware, I would have an extra few thousand dollars in my account...

Unfortunately, our minds play tricks on us by making us believe that we are smarter than we really are. The mind conjures up all sorts of crappy "brilliant" ideas and then feels good about itself by patting itself on its back. Unfortunately, the mind makes bugs but only way to debug it is to go forward in time and rewind and see things in retrospect

 

[igor_kavinski]

5800X3D will likely chug along quite nicely.

+1

Only thing you may miss out on is AVX-512. If you can live without it, go with 5800X3D with the highest speed and lowest latency DDR4 you can afford (not that the CPU needs it but it will make you feel good )

 

[GodisanAtheist]

+1

Only thing you may miss out on is AVX-512. If you can live without it, go with 5800X3D with the highest speed and lowest latency DDR4 you can afford (not that the CPU needs it but it will make you feel good )

- Chip is in my possession. AIO is in my possession. Only the Mobo is still in the mail (slated to arrive tomorrow, meaning I'll probably actually get it from the PO on Friday).

If you're following the thread in Video Cards, my Ventus 3x 3080 is having some goofy ass problems. The worst kind of problem, where the card isn't just completely busted, just strangely unstable at the most unexpected times.

I've read a number of people just stopped having issues when they upgraded to a brand new core system (maybe just because of a clean Windows/Driver install, who knows) and I hope I experience the same without having to get into messy p-states and vbios updates.

 

[inf64]

After seeing impressive 7700X gaming results (productivity is on average on par with 5900X/12700K), I'm now not so sure I will upgrade to either 5900X or 5800X3D. 5900X is still my first choice as I can buy it for just 350 euros (a value that is very hard to beat). But looking at the platform longevity I'm itching for buying a brand new X670 system with 7700X or even 7900X (if I go full crazy). It will cost an arm and a leg but the itch is way too strong!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

After seeing impressive 7700X gaming results (productivity is on average on par with 5900X/12700K), I'm now not so sure I will upgrade to either 5900X or 5800X3D. 5900X is still my first choice as I can buy it for just 350 euros (a value that is very hard to beat). But looking at the platform longevity I'm itching for buying a brand new X670 system with 7700X or even 7900X (if I go full crazy). It will cost an arm and a leg but the itch is way too strong!

- If no one bought new hardware then none of the rest of us would be able to buy it used for 50% the price a year later.

I say do it, go all in on the new platform

 

[Revolution 11]

If only you or someone else had hammered these wise words into my head when I began purchasing PC hardware, I would have an extra few thousand dollars in my account...

Unfortunately, our minds play tricks on us by making us believe that we are smarter than we really are. The mind conjures up all sorts of crappy "brilliant" ideas and then feels good about itself by patting itself on its back. Unfortunately, the mind makes bugs but only way to debug it is to go forward in time and rewind and see things in retrospect

I feel your pain. I too was speaking from experience although I wasted less money than I could have because I spent months agonizing over what build to make. For my next build, I am just going to match the best consoles' CPU power and core count (so nothing above 8 cores), determine what monitor size and resolution I want, get the cheapest GPU for those specs at the FPS limit of the monitor, and try to buy all hardware during a time like Black Friday.

If this wasn't a hobby and/or sickness of my mind, it would be a horrible waste of my time.

 

[Revolution 11]

After seeing impressive 7700X gaming results (productivity is on average on par with 5900X/12700K), I'm now not so sure I will upgrade to either 5900X or 5800X3D. 5900X is still my first choice as I can buy it for just 350 euros (a value that is very hard to beat). But looking at the platform longevity I'm itching for buying a brand new X670 system with 7700X or even 7900X (if I go full crazy). It will cost an arm and a leg but the itch is way too strong!

It kind of depends on what PC you already have. If you have a Zen 1 PC, the Zen 3 CPUs are not as compelling as the Zen 4 CPUs, although I personally would not upgrade for such high platform costs.

My PC is a Haswell i5-4670K (never overclocked). These days in modern games, it feels as slow as turning the Titanic away from the iceberg. It has served well for 10 years but I am feeling the lack of clockspeeds and the lack of cores. An RX 580 can bottleneck this CPU in certain games. For me, the difference between this venerable chip to a Zen 3 or to a Zen 4 will be pretty indistinguishable.

 

[Tech Junky]

You are far better off building again in 2026 or 2027 instea

This has been my approach since the depreciation is there. Rebuilding every couple of generations allows you to recoup some of the costs to keep up with the tech curve.

 

[In2Photos]

You are far better off building again in 2026 or 2027 instead of trying to make your PC last all the way to 2030 and spending double the money for it.

While this may be true it is tougher to justify to the Mrs!

 

[inf64]

It kind of depends on what PC you already have. If you have a Zen 1 PC, the Zen 3 CPUs are not as compelling as the Zen 4 CPUs, although I personally would not upgrade for such high platform costs.

My PC is a Haswell i5-4670K (never overclocked). These days in modern games, it feels as slow as turning the Titanic away from the iceberg. It has served well for 10 years but I am feeling the lack of clockspeeds and the lack of cores. An RX 580 can bottleneck this CPU in certain games. For me, the difference between this venerable chip to a Zen 3 or to a Zen 4 will be pretty indistinguishable.

I was in a similar boat as you a few years ago (2020). I upgraded my 4690K@4.2Ghz (see my sig) to Ryzen PinnacleRidge 1600AF (rebranded 2600 Zen+) and OCed it to 4.2Ghz. I cannot even describe how much faster my whole system is, not only games which are noticeably faster with the same NV 1080, but general applications as well.

So I have an easy upgrade path with 5900X for a "measly" 350e or I can go full mental and shell out 3x as much for AM5 system . I can do it no problem, but do I need it? With 5900X I could buy RDNA3 or new NV card for 500-600e and still get MUCH better fps in games and performance in productivity (and single thread) with Zen 3 . I will have to think about it.

 

[moinmoin]

After seeing impressive 7700X gaming results (productivity is on average on par with 5900X/12700K), I'm now not so sure I will upgrade to either 5900X or 5800X3D. 5900X is still my first choice as I can buy it for just 350 euros (a value that is very hard to beat). But looking at the platform longevity I'm itching for buying a brand new X670 system with 7700X or even 7900X (if I go full crazy). It will cost an arm and a leg but the itch is way too strong!

"Why not both?"

Just give your current system the final boost, to either 5900X or 5800X3D. Wait for the 7000X3D chips to be released, then you can choose between keeping your updated system or selling it and jumping ship to AM5.

 

[inf64]

"Why not both?"

Just give your current system the final boost, to either 5900X or 5800X3D. Wait for the 7000X3D chips to be released, then you can choose between keeping your updated system or selling it and jumping ship to AM5.

You've got a good point there. Btw I don't sell my used HW, I'm a tech hoarder

 

[moinmoin]

You've got a good point there. Btw I don't sell my used HW, I'm a tech hoarder

Haha, me too. Though I have to admit to be slightly envious of friends who seemingly easily manage to exchange their stuff like phones and laptops for the latest and greatest like every year. Could never do that, I keep stuff until it falls apart...

 

[Markfw]

Haha, me too. Though I have to admit to be slightly envious of friends who seemingly easily manage to exchange their stuff like phones and laptops for the latest and greatest like every year. Could never do that, I keep stuff until it falls apart...

I have a 1700 original athlon from like 2002 or before. 5 old laptops, all functional, and I currently jave all my EPYC Naples and 2990wx systems powered off to save power, and the 5950x's (7 of them, and 2 7950x's coming) have taken over

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I've always liked keeping my CPUs and GPUs, even if I rehome or recycle every other component.

It's like keeping the heart and soul of each build, and until recently didn't take up too much space.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Holy crap guys, this build is turning into such a comedy of errors. My NZXT x73 Kraken, new in box, is missing ALL.OF.THE.MOUNTING.SCREWS.

Pump to board mounting screws? Missing. Fan to AIO mounting screws? Missing. ALL MISSING.

It has the brackets, cooler is clearly unused (disk of factory applied thermal paste is there) no scratches or anything. Just no screw baggy.

So, that's another $20 in mounting hardware and fan screws for the AIO.

Gonna go big brain here: going to take the Wraith cooler off an old 2200G and slap it on the 5800x3D. Temps aren't going to be good and processor might throttle, but right now I just need to make sure stuff works.

 

[In2Photos]

Holy crap guys, this build is turning into such a comedy of errors. My NZXT x73 Kraken, new in box, is missing ALL.OF.THE.MOUNTING.SCREWS.

Pump to board mounting screws? Missing. Fan to AIO mounting screws? Missing. ALL MISSING.

It has the brackets, cooler is clearly unused (disk of factory applied thermal paste is there) no scratches or anything. Just no screw baggy.

So, that's another $20 in mounting hardware and fan screws for the AIO.

Gonna go big brain here: going to take the Wraith cooler off an old 2200G and slap it on the 5800x3D. Temps aren't going to be good and processor might throttle, but right now I just need to make sure stuff works.

Did you reach out to NZXT? They are usually pretty good about stuff like this.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Did you reach out to NZXT? They are usually pretty good about stuff like this.

-Not yet, and I will, but I'm in a bit of a rush to confirm the parts are working.

 

[Revolution 11]

While this may be true it is tougher to justify to the Mrs!

Does she care about the environment? Tell her it is better for energy efficiency. Or you can say that it will let you do your work and your "work" faster so you get to spend more time with her (risky option).

Is she a more analytical mindset? Show her the total budget for the 2030 build and how much money you save by upgrading to less overpowered hardware but more often. You can also recoup some costs by selling old hardware.

Is she open to learning new hobbies? Get her to build a PC or to get into gaming.

My opinions are free and worth that much so caveat emptor!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ok, 5800x3D installed on the B550 Aorus Master, cooled by a piddly Wraith Cooler and some good old Arctic Silver.

Holy cow this thing is fast. I know my CPU is probably choking on its own heat output right now but CPU score/framerates in CPU test doubled + from ~4000 with the 6600K to ~10,000 with the 5800x3d.

Bit of a chore getting everything working together, mobo had an older bios so it was 5800x3D in, cross fingers, q-flash plus didn't work, 5800x3d out, 2200g in, standard bios flash, 2200g out, 5800x3D back in. Oy.

But its crankling now and temps are ~60c with the Wraith Cooler (although clocks regularly drop to 4.1/4.2).

I'm impressed and I don't even have the AIO on there yet.