Question i7 7700k to i7 12700k worth it ?

[pcslookout]

Mainly for gaming but maybe some Virtual Machines too.

 

[coercitiv]

Yes. Consider the DDR4 route though.

 

[pcslookout]

Yes.

How much of a performance bump ?

This is the specs of my current system

i7 7700k
32 GB of DDR4 ram
2 TB NVMe SSD
4 TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
EVGA Geforce GTX 2060 super

 

[CakeMonster]

Everything in those specs except the hard drive is being held back by the 7700K. You'll notice it even in rather passive desktop usage with browsing and multitasking.

 

[pcslookout]

Everything in those specs except the hard drive is being held back by the 7700K. You'll notice it even in rather passive desktop usage with browsing and multitasking.

Thanks. So how much percent in general faster in your opinion ?

 

[coercitiv]

How much of a performance bump ?

For games it depends greatly on the kind of titles you play, max refresh rate and resolution. If you consider a future GPU upgrade to something like 4060 - 4070 class, then gaming performance can increase by up to 30-40% @ 1440p. On your current GPU you may see performance jumps only on CPU limited titles.

For virtual machines the additional resources are huge, even if we consider just the P-cores alone you have 2X more cores, 50% faster cores.

 

[kschendel]

Everything in those specs except the hard drive is being held back by the 7700K. You'll notice it even in rather passive desktop usage with browsing and multitasking.

Desktop use, seriously? I strongly doubt that, unless your "passive desktop" usage is a heck of a lot more CPU intensive than mine is.

7700K to 12700K is a pretty decent jump. "Worth it" is a value judgement that depends a lot on what the upgrade ends up costing you in CPU, mobo, possible cooling upgrade, possible (if unlikely) PSU upgrade.

Just hand-waving, probably worth it running VM's especially if you run multiple concurrently. Gaming, hard to say.

 

[CakeMonster]

With a regular amount of tasks running, Chrome alone will eat up resources. I just upgraded a 6700K machine and just browsing Google Maps improved. Neither 4 cores nor IPC will cut it for medium multitasking case, especially not with multiple monitors. And the way OP has described the rest of the computer having modern hardware, I would absolutely expect that they are not a 'grandma' use case.

 

[Mopetar]

Yeah, I think this would be a pretty substantial upgrade for you. You're getting both some solid IPC and clock uplifts that are going to be noticeable even if you're not doing anything that's heavily threaded. There are already a lot of games now that are going to want more than 4 cores and with the latest console generation an 8 core CPU is the new baseline. There are probably a few titles where the 7700k is already a performance bottleneck even with a 2060 Super.

 

[Ajay]

For virtual machines - definitely a high core count. I don't know how well VMs are performing on Adler Lake, given the asymmetrical cores.

 

[Ed1]

For virtual machines - definitely a high core count. I don't know how well VMs are performing on Adler Lake, given the asymmetrical cores.

I use VMware player (free version), with latest version on my 12600k setting VM to use 4 cores got me 1 core in use, after playing with all core counts in setting the highest i could get in the windows VM was 3 cores.
I had to hack the VMX file and I was able to get 10 cores to show in VM.

 

[Ajay]

I use VMware player (free version), with latest version on my 12600k setting VM to use 4 cores got me 1 core in use, after playing with all core counts in setting the highest i could get in the windows VM was 3 cores.
I had to hack the VMX file and I was able to get 10 cores to show in VM.

Then something is amiss. I can select all 24 logical processors (if I wanted to) in VMware Player on my system.

 

[Ed1]

Then something is amiss. I can select all 24 logical processors (if I wanted to) in VMware Player on my system.

For sure, probably needs more patching unless it is something on my end. It is a VM setup I had running on my old 3570k, I used to set 4 cores and get 4 cores in VM.

Maybe the Pro version has better support I didn't spend much time with it, I just wanted to up core count.

 

[OlyAR15]

For games, you likely won't see much improvement. I have a 8700K and 1080Ti, and most games are gpu bound at 1440p. The 7700k isn't much slower than the 8700k, and the 2060 super is about the same as the 1080ti. Of course, if you get a faster gpu, then the 12700k will be worth the upgrade.

 

[pcslookout]

I only play games like Planet Coaster.

Doubt it would help 10 to 20 fps increase on minimum fps there at 1440p but you never know.

 

[Ajay]

For sure, probably needs more patching unless it is something on my end. It is a VM setup I had running on my old 3570k, I used to set 4 cores and get 4 cores in VM.

Maybe the Pro version has better support I didn't spend much time with it, I just wanted to up core count.

Workstation Pro is better, for a variety of reasons. Too bad I missed the 20% off sale on Cyber Monday .

 

[StinkyPinky]

For games, you likely won't see much improvement. I have a 8700K and 1080Ti, and most games are gpu bound at 1440p. The 7700k isn't much slower than the 8700k, and the 2060 super is about the same as the 1080ti. Of course, if you get a faster gpu, then the 12700k will be worth the upgrade.

There are many games that have difficulty with 4 cores these days. 8700k has 6 cores, I'd argue it performs quite a bit better than the 7700K in gaming and especially virtual machines.

 

[Markfw]

I would have to say that the 7700k is too old. Either a 12700k, or a 5600x or a 5800x AMD, any of the three will max that card. Depends on budget, and if you like AMD.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Desktop use, seriously? I strongly doubt that, unless your "passive desktop" usage is a heck of a lot more CPU intensive than mine is.

Of course you will notice a difference. Our senses are relative, meaning even if the 7700K is more than enough, you are used to that and a faster system will feel faster.

We can notice a candle flickering in very dark environments several hundred feet away but darned if we notice a bright flashlight shining at you during sunny days.

That's how we went from 800x600 resolutions being fine and 1024x768 being premium to 4K resolutions. Also 60Hz and maybe 75Hz to 144Hz and 200Hz.

I know that we can be sensitive to the kilohertz range, even if we are only aware of it at the subconscious level. That's why Notebookcheck has the whole portion of PWM dimming being a problem on some laptops.

There's a point where it's not worth it but if you want to spend the money you'll see it perform better.

Since Core 2 era you really didn't need anything faster.

Mainly for gaming but maybe some Virtual Machines too.

Faster CPU also "uncorks" a fast drive. I noticed less than expected difference between WD Raptor and X25-M on the Core 2 Duo. I noticed just as big, even larger improvement upgrading to a Core i5 661.

The benchmarks, even the ones showing 99% figures miss the gains you'll see in real world gaming, where player counts are high, the scenes are unexpected, and custom maps can be really large.

25% faster clocked CPU plus a 50% faster per clock architecture, then double the amount of cores. Then you add the E cores which themselves are not much behind your 7700K.

 

[tamz_msc]

I only play games like Planet Coaster.

Doubt it would help 10 to 20 fps increase on minimum fps there at 1440p but you never know.

Games like Planet Coaster are heavily CPU-bound especially with a lot of objects on screen. 7700K to 12700K is a 60% increase in theoretical single threaded performance. You should be seeing substantial gains.

 

[kschendel]

Of course you will notice a difference.

...

Since Core 2 era you really didn't need anything faster.

So which is it?

I have a 5800X next to a 2300X, the latter being a 4-core Zen+ that's probably a rough equivalent to a 7700K, and for desktop usage there's no subjective difference. Sure, I can find web pages where the 5800X is marginally snappier. There's no way that I would pay for a CPU, mobo, and possibly cooling upgrade just for that marginal difference.

You're welcome to your opinion as to desktop performance, just be aware that it's not universally shared.

Of course, for real work, the 5800X is massively faster. Not for running a desktop though.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Another vote for "yes".

 

[IntelUser2000]

So which is it?

I have a 5800X next to a 2300X, the latter being a 4-core Zen+ that's probably a rough equivalent to a 7700K, and for desktop usage there's no subjective difference. Sure, I can find web pages where the 5800X is marginally snappier. There's no way that I would pay for a CPU, mobo, and possibly cooling upgrade just for that marginal difference.

That's what I mean. You and most everyone else will be fine with a Core 2. But even I upgraded because the newer systems do feel faster. And also because if you sell relatively recent parts on places like Craigslist you get lots back and costs little to upgrade.

I stopped upgrading from the 2600K for the same reason. I primarily aimed for responsiveness but has reached the good enough point. Also I pretty much stopped gaming since as someone puts it most are "murder simulators".

You won't notice it in side by side comparisons testing for several hours or so. But you will if you use one system for a while and then move to the next.

 

[Hulk]

I recently upgraded from a 4770K to a 12700K DDR4 based system. Both the 7700K and 4770K are quad core. The difference for me was massive. Generally not measure in percent but more in how many times faster is the new rig. Like 5x faster encoding with Handbrake. Games, I don't know as I haven't been a gamer in a few years. For me everything that was compute bound, video, photoshop, etc.. is probably 4 to 6 times faster.

 

[Borealis7]

i'm on the same boat,but looking at a more mid-range CPU just for gaming. maybe a 12400 (the one without E-cores) for a 6C/12T chip and i gave up on OCing entirely.
my plan is to get a B660 board and a CPU some time after release to see that it performs well and there are no major issues. i want to keep everything in my rig but i think i'm going to need a new cooler because of mount holes compatibility.