Question Intel 7th to 10th gen

Skel

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Apr 11, 2001
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I've a 7th i7-7700K at 4.2GHz and the motherboard is going out. I'm trying to sort out if I should replace the CPU as well and just rebuild using the new 10th gen stuff, but am very unclear if it's worth the $$. Would it be better to replace with a 9th gen? I haven't kept up with CPUs in a bit so I'm struggling on finding benchmarks and whatnot.. any guidance is very appreciated. I am sticking with Intel.. just personal preference
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Someone did that, and now claims that his rig is running much slower, same monitor / GPU. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.


I've been running a Ryzen CPU for the last 3 years, haven't really touched Intel much lately, since Kaby Lake (G4560, GREAT CPU!), and a few Haswell semi-retro-gaming builds. (Just got a i5-4670 in from another forum member. You know who you are.)
 
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Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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I've a 7th i7-7700K at 4.2GHz and the motherboard is going out. I'm trying to sort out if I should replace the CPU as well and just rebuild using the new 10th gen stuff, but am very unclear if it's worth the $$. Would it be better to replace with a 9th gen? I haven't kept up with CPUs in a bit so I'm struggling on finding benchmarks and whatnot.. any guidance is very appreciated. I am sticking with Intel.. just personal preference
As Larry said, the latest Intel have been loosers. Ryzen is the only good upgrade at this time, and maybe even the next 2 years. Then who knows.
 

IEC

Elite Member
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Jun 10, 2004
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I've a 7th i7-7700K at 4.2GHz and the motherboard is going out. I'm trying to sort out if I should replace the CPU as well and just rebuild using the new 10th gen stuff, but am very unclear if it's worth the $$. Would it be better to replace with a 9th gen? I haven't kept up with CPUs in a bit so I'm struggling on finding benchmarks and whatnot.. any guidance is very appreciated. I am sticking with Intel.. just personal preference

6th-10th gen are basically all Skylake cores with minor tweaks. Still the same 14nm process.

Do you need more than 4 cores?

If the answer is no, just find a cheap Z270 board and be done with it.
 
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Skel

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wow. I didn't know intel dropped it so bad this round. huh.. guess I need to expand my research to AMD now.. Side question.. the ram I have is this link which is 3000mhz. Would I need to buy new ram or is the speed rating on the motherboards as high as I can clock them? I'm a bit confused because Amazon doesn't have a bunch of 4800mhz but I'm seeing that listed on the motherboards
 

Skel

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
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6th-10th gen are basically all Skylake cores with minor tweaks. Still the same 14nm process.

Do you need more than 4 cores?

If the answer is no, just find a cheap Z270 board and be done with it.

Truthfully.. IDK.. I'm an shameful whore for speed and specs. When I don't understand the difference (which I've already stated I haven't kept up on parts like I used to) I normally just go with the larger specs. I'm doing games and for work graphic creation type stuff. I'm pretty sure that i'm using more than 4 cores but I haven't actually looked.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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wow. I didn't know intel dropped it so bad this round. huh.. guess I need to expand my research to AMD now.. Side question.. the ram I have is this link which is 3000mhz. Would I need to buy new ram or is the speed rating on the motherboards as high as I can clock them? I'm a bit confused because Amazon doesn't have a bunch of 4800mhz but I'm seeing that listed on the motherboards
That will work with Ryzen, just not as well as 3200 cl14 or 3600 cl16. Depending on your budget, you could use it for now, and leave it as an upgrade when the budget allows. Next thing we need to know is the budget. and do you need a video card ? and if you keep the PSU, what are the specs ?
 
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IEC

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That will work with Ryzen, just not as well as 3200 cl14 or 3600 cl16. Depending on your budget, you could use it for now, and leave it as an upgrade when the budget allows. Next thing we need to know is the budget. and do you need a video card ? and if you keep the PSU, what are the specs ?

He already said he's sticking with Intel.
 

IEC

Elite Member
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Truthfully.. IDK.. I'm an shameful whore for speed and specs. When I don't understand the difference (which I've already stated I haven't kept up on parts like I used to) I normally just go with the larger specs. I'm doing games and for work graphic creation type stuff. I'm pretty sure that i'm using more than 4 cores but I haven't actually looked.

If you list some examples of games and apps we could probably hunt down the relevant benchmarks for you.

So you can objectively determine if an upgrade is worth the cost to you.
 

Thunder 57

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Aug 19, 2007
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He already said he's sticking with Intel.

Originally, yes. But see a follow up post.

wow. I didn't know intel dropped it so bad this round. huh.. guess I need to expand my research to AMD now.. Side question.. the ram I have is this link which is 3000mhz. Would I need to buy new ram or is the speed rating on the motherboards as high as I can clock them? I'm a bit confused because Amazon doesn't have a bunch of 4800mhz but I'm seeing that listed on the motherboards


As Larry said, the latest Intel have been loosers. Ryzen is the only good upgrade at this time, and maybe even the next 2 years. Then who knows.

That seems a bit harsh. They are don't suck. But they are old tired rehashed versions of Skylake that use more power. That said, I wouldn't recommend Intel to probably anyone at this point. I run a Zen 2600X with 3200 RAM and it is plenty fast. The current version of that is the 3600X, still with six cores but considerably faster, especially in gaming. Most people opt for the non X version though, and it's been the best selling CPU on Amazon for a long time. Anandtech did a review on it recently.

Intel did a good thing by adding HT to all CPU's rather than just the top of the line one with Gen 10. Other than that they aren't particularly noteworthy unless you count excessive heat and power usage on the higher end models.

Like @IEC said, we could give you better recommendations based on what software and games you use.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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He already said he's sticking with Intel.
I see Thunder 57 already pointed out that he is now open. I think that's a good thing. Right now Intel is rarely a good choice. I am glad to provide input along with everyone else here.
@Thunder 57 , Yes, I guess that was a little harsh, but really, aside from a hot power hungry expensive machine that gets 2% faster FPS in gaming, there is nothing in the Intel camp worth considering. When I see that he does "work graphic creation type stuff ", not sure what software, but I know that in general, AMD wins almost all productivity benchmarks right now.

I think once we see more on budget ans specifics, we can make a better recommendation.
 

amrnuke

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Apr 24, 2019
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I've a 7th i7-7700K at 4.2GHz and the motherboard is going out. I'm trying to sort out if I should replace the CPU as well and just rebuild using the new 10th gen stuff, but am very unclear if it's worth the $$. Would it be better to replace with a 9th gen? I haven't kept up with CPUs in a bit so I'm struggling on finding benchmarks and whatnot.. any guidance is very appreciated. I am sticking with Intel.. just personal preference
"games and for work graphic creation"

In Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve Studio benchmarks, the 7700K is about on par with a Ryzen 3100.

In gaming, the 7700K is about on par with a Ryzen 3300X at 1080p.

Ref: Techspot

For $75-100 you can just replace the motherboard and just keep trucking along, until the release of Zen3 drops Zen2 prices or makes a full upgrade to the latest tech compelling.

The Intel 10th gen stuff is probably not worth the cost premium right now. If you can even get one of them. A 10400 on a cheaper motherboard will be locked to RAM speeds of 2666 and at that speed it's basically the same as the 7700K from a gaming standpoint, basically the same in Photoshop, and within 15% in Resolve Studio. Though in Blender, the 10400 is fairly decently ahead. (I am NOT saying it's equivalent in all tests, but just from an overview of the Techspot benchmarks, it's not a significant difference.)

IMO, a 10400 would be a side-grade and a wasted $160.

Now, a 10600 might be more compelling, but it runs $265 and yet is about on par with a $159 Ryzen 3600 or $199 Ryzen 3600X in productivity apps, but the 3600 and 3600X are within 10% in gaming. And really to maximize the 10600 you need one of the nicer $175-200 new LGA1200 mobos that unlocks faster RAM, you'd probably need to buy faster RAM to exploit that, plus you'll need a cooler too, so the total out of pocket cost for the 10600 would be ~$265 + $185 + $30 + whatever the net cost of selling old RAM/buying new RAM = $480+. For that price you can snag a quality MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX ($115) plus a 3700X ($275) and 2x8GB 3600 CL16 RAM ($85) = $475. The Ryzen system would be at least 8% faster than the 10600K in productivity apps, and less than 7% slower in gaming at 1080p, and within 3% in gaming at 1400p.

Right now Intel is keeping up, but only just so, and still, unless you have specific apps that would benefit from Intel over AMD to justify cost increases, doesn't make sense.

IMO, stay put and grab a new mobo for your 7700K and watch how things unfold.
 
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Skel

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I mostly play 3D shooters myself like your Dooms and the like. The wife is the one that uses it for work, she uses the Adobe stuff, Cinema 4D and a bunch of other tools like those that seem to eat any and all resources I give them.

Far as budget goes.. IDK. It depends on what kind of boost to price it would give. I'm not above throwing $1500 at it, but if it's only going to give me a bit more than it might not be worth it. I built this thing 3 years ago so I'm pretty sure it's a bit long in the tooth.

I've normally gone with Intel stuff as I've not had the amount of issues with them that I had with AMD stuff. To be fair this was over a decade ago since I last looked at them so I might be holding onto stuff that no longer applies, which is why I'm now open to looking at AMD stuff. It really depends on how much better the performance is. Odds are I won't look at this stuff again for a while after I update as I've a very bad habit that's held over from working at an OEM of constantly replacing stuff to get the bleeding edge. Now that I pay full price for stuff that just isn't worth it.
 

Thunder 57

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Aug 19, 2007
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I mostly play 3D shooters myself like your Dooms and the like. The wife is the one that uses it for work, she uses the Adobe stuff, Cinema 4D and a bunch of other tools like those that seem to eat any and all resources I give them.

Far as budget goes.. IDK. It depends on what kind of boost to price it would give. I'm not above throwing $1500 at it, but if it's only going to give me a bit more than it might not be worth it. I built this thing 3 years ago so I'm pretty sure it's a bit long in the tooth.

I've normally gone with Intel stuff as I've not had the amount of issues with them that I had with AMD stuff. To be fair this was over a decade ago since I last looked at them so I might be holding onto stuff that no longer applies, which is why I'm now open to looking at AMD stuff. It really depends on how much better the performance is. Odds are I won't look at this stuff again for a while after I update as I've a very bad habit that's held over from working at an OEM of constantly replacing stuff to get the bleeding edge. Now that I pay full price for stuff that just isn't worth it.

During AMD's "Glory Years" of the Athlon 64, they were still dependent on NVIDIA, VIA, or others for chipsets. As so much more has been integrated into the CPU, that matters far less. Not to mention AMD has its own chipset in the x570, and sourced lower end ones from ASMedia, which have worked well.

I don't think you've mentioned what GPU you currently have. We would like to know that before we can start putting together some advice. Doom isn't very CPU heavy. Battlefield is. It sounds like your wife would be happy to get a 6/8 core CPU. That would definitely help. I'd recommend AMD as there is more flexibility there, but if you are dead set on Intel you could still find a decent upgrade.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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@Skel

Even if you want to buy Intel products, I would wait until after June 16th. You will probably save a lot of money that way. Er well hopefully. Right now prices are too high for what you get. Consider this list of available upgrades:


If you are replacing a 7700k with an Intel product . . . hmm. Not entirely sure what I would recommend, but a 9700k would not be a bad upgrade. But why should anyone have to pay $374 for one of those? I would recommend a 10600k instead, but then you may wind up paying a premium for the board. There's so many "gotchas" right now trying to get into a new Intel rig that could replace a 7700k.

If you can't wait, a 10600k might be your best upgrade path (it's basically an 8700k at a lower price), assuming you insist on Intel.

If you are buying AMD, you would be nuts to buy before June 16th. Unless you get one of those "magic" chips that clock like mad for whatever reason (early XT release, oops).
 

coercitiv

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Jan 24, 2014
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I've a 7th i7-7700K at 4.2GHz and the motherboard is going out. I'm trying to sort out if I should replace the CPU as well and just rebuild using the new 10th gen stuff, but am very unclear if it's worth the $$. Would it be better to replace with a 9th gen? I haven't kept up with CPUs in a bit so I'm struggling on finding benchmarks and whatnot.. any guidance is very appreciated. I am sticking with Intel.. just personal preference
9th Gen is out of the question, 10th Gen offers more perf/dollar + optional upgrade to next gen. Your best bet is to wait 3-4 more weeks until supply (hopefully) gets a correction and prices settle down. This will include some product updates from AMD which should (in theory) help with Intel product pricing/availability as well.

Best bang for the buck from Intel is the 10th Gen Core i5, either the 10600K or better yet a 10600KF or 10600 (when these become available). You will essentially get i7 9700K like performance for a fraction of the price, with the added benefit of optional upgrade to 11th Gen.
 

Gideon

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Nov 27, 2007
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I mostly play 3D shooters myself like your Dooms and the like. The wife is the one that uses it for work, she uses the Adobe stuff, Cinema 4D and a bunch of other tools like those that seem to eat any and all resources I give them.

Cinema 4D strongly favors AMD (Cinebench is it's canned benchmark and AMDs favorite to showcase its CPUs):
pic_disp.php


Photoship is bit more of a mixed story, but AMD is still very competitive
pic_disp.php


Considering the power draw differences AMD should imo be preferred for work related stuff. Notice 3700x and 10700K scoring about equal in Cinebench? On the following chart is the powerdraw in a similar all-core load (POV-Ray) 90W for AMD vs 207W for Intel. Granted that this is worst-case scenario for intel (lightly threaded apps won't really use anywhere near that), it still shows that the difference can be very stark (and needs appropriate cooling).
116012.png


Gaming
For gaming Intel takes a minor win (it doesn't really matter unless you have a high refresh-rate monitor and using something like RTX 2080 or better, at 2060 Super level they are basically equal)

Conclusion
Overall I agree with the posters above. Wait until after June 16th for the MOBO situation to normalize and new AMD refresh CPUs are released (3600 XT, 3800 XT, 3900 XT adding a "T" and 200-300Mhz to existing models) also putting pressure on Intel prices.

After that date I'd probably recommend a B550 board and either:
  • a 3600XT, if you're on a budget (no CPU below will really be much faster in Photoshop or Gaming, Cinema 4D and other such rendering apps are another story)
  • a 3700X, if you want bigger gains in Cinema 4D at the same all-core powerdraw as your current CPU (7700K)
  • a 3800XT, if you don't mind power-draw up to 142W and need the extra ~10% perf above 3700X
  • a 3900XT, if the release price isn't much above 3800XT and you really want ~30% extra multithreaded oomph (photoshop and gaming perf will be the same as 3600XT really)
Bear in mind the XT models are still a somewhat unknown quantity at this point (except that they will launch and will be faster). They will probably be excellent but AMD might decide to remove the stock cooler and/or change the TDP rating. A 3700X Is a known CPU with excellent bundled stock cooler (as are the predecessors: 3600X, 3800X and 3900X).

On the Intel Side, the only CPU I'd really consider is the 10600K, if you can get a really good deal, preferably with a LGA1200 board and an decent aftermarket cooler (you'll need it, unlike AMD!). Realistically though, it's still just your 7700K with sightly better heat dissipation and 2 extra cores bolted on top (no extra features no extra performance per MHZ)
 
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amrnuke

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LOL! Yeah, that. Good luck!

(I've been checking every day @ Newegg, price hasn't dropped below around ~$300 for a Tomahawk Max B450 board. Can't seem to find them @ MSRP anywhere...)
As I wrote my post I had PCPartPicker pulled up and it was available at $115. Stock is so low, but it appears it intermittently comes back at a decent price. Doh!
 

Gideon

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Nov 27, 2007
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As I wrote my post I had PCPartPicker pulled up and it was available at $115. Stock is so low, but it appears it intermittently comes back at a decent price. Doh!
For once things are better in Europe. It has been constantly available here in Estonia for ~115€ (including 20% VAT) and some places still have it in store. Though where it has ran out they also don't list the delivery date.

I really hope when B550 is released they have a decent amount of boards in the channel
 

blckgrffn

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www.teamjuchems.com
If you have a Microcenter available, I am seeing decent availability on AMD chipsets and boards atm. You may not be able to get exactly what you want, but there are some options.

It seems like there is always a reason to "wait" with tech right around the corner, but with supply chain issues for retailers and imminent release from Intel of their new kit and a what seems a GPU market move from AMD to potentially play spoiler with a chip refresh and drop of a new mainstream motherboard chipset (550) this is truly a sub-optimal couple of weeks to be shopping.

One consideration is that new replacement motherboards for older Intel chipsets tend to be very expensive. If you can figure out if your CPU or motherboard is the culprit (I almost always blame the PSU first, and good luck getting a solid replacement unit at a reasonable 2019 price now!) The upside? If your motherboard and CPU are good (or at least one of them is) you can apparently get stupid money for them on the second hand market right now, especially the CPU.

Peeking at eBay shows craziness, but it's likely worth your time to research more. What if you could get $200 for your CPU? Then you should definitely get a $200 *new* processor from Intel or AMD in a couple of weeks and you'll get a solid uplift in cores and threads, and you'll likely be in for the cost of a decent motherboard, like $100-$200. This becomes an easy decision for me. Shipping CPUs is also cheap and easy.

Anyway, GL. I think you should replace your PSU and see if that shakes the weirdness :p
 
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