Question Gaming: Ryzen 7 3800XT or i7-10700k?

[Dave3000]

I right now have an i7-4930k with a GTX 1080 ti but I want to see better performance in gaming and be prepared for FS2020. Should I go for the i7-10700k or the Ryzen 7 3800XT? I don't need more than 8 cores for gaming right now, so I see no point in a 3900X or 3950X (even though I can afford those) for just gaming right now or any time soon, especially since the upcoming PS5 and XBox Series X are going to have 8-core/16-thread CPUs.

 

[GaiaHunter]

That's something I've always noticed, and was glad to see Gamers Nexus cover. All the bloat and crapware that is on OEM systems can really drag it down. And even for stuff you might want, it really doesn't need to be running all the time. Everything seems to wan to autoboot with windows, but disabling autostart for excess stuff and opening it only when you need it is far more efficient for sure.

During one of the the Pcgamer full nerd podcasts (during the show about the 3950X review) the guy said that he turned off the cooler fan monitor app because so it wouldn't sit on the OS.

When I was studying I used to do that and reinstall windows every few months. I'm old and lazy now.

 

[ondma]

The benchmark environment is ideal for lower core/thread CPUs.
A regular user will most likely have a few programs/apps running on the background - something might decide to update or run a scan in the middle of your game, then the extra resources that on a clean optimized system are useless will have a use.

I hear this over and over yet it still makes no sense to me. If one knows a game is hammering the cpu, WHY OH WHY would you be running background tasks and programs while gaming. And you certainly can schedule scans or updates to run at a different time. Only possible case I can see for this is streaming, and that can often be offloaded to the GPU.

Edit: @ Arkigen: As far a bloatware slowing down a PC, back in the old days of slow single or dual core cpus, it was definitely a problem. I dont really think it is a problem these days though. The last OEM desktop I bought had only an i5 2320 (4cores/4threads), and cpu usage at idle was only a percent or two.

 

[CP5670]

It's true that many driver tools and larger programs install useless services that auto-start and run all the time. The worst example I've encountered lately is the MSI Dragon Center app, which doesn't start half the time and installs a huge number of unnecessary auto-start services, but is needed to control the RGB. I use a free tool called Autoruns to turn things like this off. You can probably get bigger performance gains from optimizing Windows like this than upgrading the CPU. That being said, these programs don't occupy cores at 100% over a sustained period.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I hear this over and over yet it still makes no sense to me. If one knows a game is hammering the cpu, WHY OH WHY would you be running background tasks and programs while gaming. And you certainly can schedule scans or updates to run at a different time. Only possible case I can see for this is streaming, and that can often be offloaded to the GPU.

It is a question of can versus can't.

And even if you stop most processes there are still software quirks of the OS/Firewall and whatever you disable but might decide to wake up on its own.

I would say a PC that can only Game when its gaming isn't the same as a PC that can multitask while gaming and/or doesn't require a .bat to shutdown all the stuff you run on your PC when you are not gaming.

As long as people understand that what they see on the benchmark charts is an optimized PC for gaming and not a PC for gaming while watching youtube/netflix/game wiki on a second monitor, having a VOIP open, acting as a file server to the living room TV, having a few monitoring apps, a few game store (steam, gog, epic, xbox PC, etc) apps and some mods for your game on a 3 year old installation of windows, it is all good.

If you can't jump from a 4c/4t or a 4c/8t to a 6c/12t you can't but you will have to compromise and keep your machine lean to emulate those benchmark results (and there are some games where your performance already is reduced).

That said a 4c/8t is still a capable gaming CPU today although I wouldn't personally buy anything lesser than a 8c/16t.

 

[ondma]

It is a question of can versus can't.

And even if you stop most processes there are still software quirks of the OS/Firewall and whatever you disable but might decide to wake up on its own.

I would say a PC that can only Game when its gaming isn't the same as a PC that can multitask while gaming and/or doesn't require a .bat to shutdown all the stuff you run on your PC when you are not gaming.

As long as people understand that what they see on the benchmark charts is an optimized PC for gaming and not a PC for gaming while watching youtube/netflix/game wiki on a second monitor, having a VOIP open, acting as a file server to the living room TV, having a few monitoring apps, a few game store (steam, gog, epic, xbox PC, etc) apps and some mods for your game on a 3 year old installation of windows, it is all good.

If you can't jump from a 4c/4t or a 4c/8t to a 6c/12t you can't but you will have to compromise and keep your machine lean to emulate those benchmark results (and there are some games where your performance already is reduced).

That said a 4c/8t is still a capable gaming CPU today although I wouldn't personally buy anything lesser than a 8c/16t.

Must be a really boring game if you have to have You Tube and Netflix open at the same time, while you are also shopping for a new game on 3 or 4 different gaming sites.
I guess we just have a difference of opinion on the use of a PC. My idea of using a PC is optimizing it for the most important task at any given time, while I guess yours is to do as much as possible at the same time.

Edit: However, please recall, my post was given in the context of Flight Sim 2020, which apparently (I have not tried it) hammers even the most powerful cpus. I also have never had to use a .bat file to close down a process on my PC.

 

[tamz_msc]

It CAN be, at ultra settings and 4k, however it slams into a CPU wall at 1080 and 1440 even with a 2080ti. Even the very best current AMD and Intel CPUs choke on it 😑

The CPU utilization in this game depends on what you're doing - if you're not moving the camera around a lot then quad-cores do fine as long as the GPU can keep up. However if you're panning the camera then loading the assets into memory causes CPU utilization to skyrocket and GPU usage plummets. Also, 16GB isn't enough for this game.

 

[Arkaign]

Bloatware is still a serious issue in today's world, and because of interruptions in cache, memory, and storage resources, cannot even be truly overcome with enormous core counts. Even with high core counts, having some junkware interrupt your system can bring nasty hitching and frametime spikes. Ugh. This reinforces why I always just reformat new OEM PCs right out of the box when I deploy them.

 

[Makaveli]

Just as an update, as we couldn't have known before, but FS2020 turns out to be interesting.

SIGNIFICANT CPU bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p, even with top end 2080ti.

Poor CPU multithreading, although it will use more than 4 cores, 4 cores take the overwhelming brunt of the load.

Because of horrific CPU bottleneck, it's not terribly hard on GPU at sub 4k. In most scenarios you'll be waiting on your CPU to do its work while your GPU idles. Hence, eg 51FPS CPU limit locks you down even if you go to minimum details vs high details with a 2060/5600 or better.

With a stock 3.6Ghz 9900K and god-awful 3200 CL16 Ram, the 9900K is 10%+ faster at 1080p/1440p over Ryzen 3800XT (the fastest Ryzen CPU for gaming available so far).

Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020): PC graphics performance benchmark review

Are you ready to take a short flight with us? We look at one of the most anticipated games of 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator, in a PC graphics performance and PC gamer way. We'll test the game on t... VRAM Utilization and CPU Scaling

www.guru3d.com

For FS2020, neither the 9900K (10700K more or less identical, though the 10700K has more aggressive stock turbo), 10900K nor the 3700/3800/3900/3950 make sense for the title. Scaling with 6C/12T and even 4C/8T CPUs is so close that even a 10100 or Ryzen 3100/3300 would give nearly the same performance, though the 3700X and 10600K make more sense.

Given OC headroom, a 5.2Ghz all-core 10600K with 3600 or better DDR4 is probably about the optimal CPU for this title, boosting that ~10% lead seen in the benchmarks closer to 15-17%.

It's an interesting, and seemingly VERY unoptimized title so far. The fact it scales so horribly over multiple cores is disappointing. It's also shown to be unstable for quite a number of users on the subreddit so far.

Just another point of reference.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Benchmarked

Today we're benchmarking a cargo plane load of graphics cards in the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Visually the game is breathtaking and we'd say that we're...

www.techspot.com

 

[Arkaign]

Just another point of reference.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Benchmarked

Today we're benchmarking a cargo plane load of graphics cards in the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Visually the game is breathtaking and we'd say that we're...

www.techspot.com

Ouch. Yeah the 3950X is a great example of CPU bottleneck even at 1080p Ultra. 1fps gap from 2080/2080s/2080ti, 2080/2080s have identical minimums. Then 1080p medium the whole upper stack hit the same 66fps wall.

It's a little fascinating, as the detail settings DO hit both CPU and GPU, compared to most games where it's more cut and dry.

 

[Makaveli]

Ouch. Yeah the 3950X is a great example of CPU bottleneck even at 1080p Ultra. 1fps gap from 2080/2080s/2080ti, 2080/2080s have identical minimums. Then 1080p medium the whole upper stack hit the same 66fps wall.

It's a little fascinating, as the detail settings DO hit both CPU and GPU, compared to most games where it's more cut and dry.

Yup this game is the new "can it play crysis"

 

[moinmoin]

Yup this game is the new "can it play crysis"

"can it fly fs2020?"