I swing between 8700k, 6800k or 7820x
I swing between 8700k, 6800k or 7820x
I’m looking for a budget-friendly upgrade to replace my old setup and get a solid gaming rig. Right now I have an i7 990x, but it can’t run modern titles like Resident Evil Village or Dying Light 2 because it lacks AVX support. I was really hoping to play RE Village and thought it needed at least an i7 8700K. Since I don’t have enough for a full upgrade, I checked cheaper options: a system with an i7 6800K and ASUS Rampage 5 card cost around $200, while another i7 8700K + Z370 was about $300. I also found an i7 8700K with Z390 and 32GB RAM for $400. My budget is under $300. I looked up CPU-Z and noticed both models share the same instruction set, so I’m wondering if RE Village needs a higher-end processor. Would it work to start the game on my current setup? I’d rather avoid buying a whole new system than risk missing out on the game. Thanks! P.S. I also spotted an i7 7820X with MSI X299 Tomahawk for $240—could that be a good alternative?
The 8700k is expected to perform better in gaming. It offers modern design, stronger single-core speed, and improved efficiency. However, the 6800k still holds its own, especially when the rest of the system supports it well—particularly the graphics card. The outcome really depends on the overall setup. The 6800k might be slightly less appealing due to cooling challenges and quad-channel memory, which means you'll need more investment in cooling solutions and at least four RAM sticks to achieve full potential. I’d also recommend checking out the Ryzen 5 3600 and AM4 platform for broader options. Their value is solid, and gaming performance will likely favor the 8700k compared to the 6800k and 3600. The upgrade options are limited on the AM4 lineup, but you can consider the 5000 series later if needed. It’s not a huge jump, but it provides a reasonable path forward from the 3000 series relative to current competition.
@Hunter- I agree with above, the 3600 seems to be very close in performance to the 8700k with an RTX 2080 GPU, for a GPU less powerful its going to perform essentially identical but still leave scope for upgrading the CPU to something more powerful later. The 8700k you'd have to replace the motherboard and the CPU to have any tangible upgrade, and this might happen sooner rather than later as current-gen games are starting to use more cores to make up for the dedicated hardware decompression that the consoles are using. Then there's the Ryzen 5 5600 which will outperform it.
Much quicker than the 6800k in nearly every situation, the 8700k still outperforms it in gaming. It shares the same drawbacks as the 6800k: also, X299's motherboards that work with the 7820x had inconsistent quality. Be cautious. The 7820x also offer fewer PCIe 3.0 lanes compared to its i9 lineup if that matters.
300 to 400 dollars covers a modern CPU, board, RAM, and possibly a cooler. This offers strong value compared to all the alternatives you mentioned. Looking at what’s listed: the 8700K stands out as the top choice for gaming. The 7820X runs on an X299 platform that’s been largely ignored, making the best CPU there only slightly better than the 8700K for gaming. The 6800K is outdated and slower than most options available.
For your list: an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X at 3.7 GHz costs around 167 dollars on B&H. A Deepcool AK400 cooler is about 32 dollars. The Asus PRIME B550-PLUS motherboard is priced near 125 dollars. Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB DDR4-3600 memory is roughly 82 dollars. All amounts include shipping, taxes, and any discounts. This total comes to approximately 406 dollars.
Never been, at least not in most games. Even the lastest and greatest CPU of X299's plateform i9-10980XE, it's barely keeping up with Ryzen 3000 in gaming. It needs to be overclocked to be actually somewhat faster. But since efficiency already doesn't exist with thoses chips at stock... Ya, oc, it's basicly as much of a joke as AMD's FX CPUs at this point. Why the X when there is the non X ? You basicly making him pay for a letter here. I mean I guess you can say that gaming performances scales with the numbers of Xs your pc parts does have. xD
It seemed like the price was listed low, maybe around $5, to improve speed. But it's actually $140. Go with the 5600 instead.
Sure, I understand. Even a small amount like $5 can make a difference, especially with only 2-3% variations. I’m not sure if I’d pay that extra for honesty. 😊
The 8700 delivers strong performance. I maintain 60 FPS in cyberpunk with a 3080 and ray tracing enabled. DDR4 memory is now very affordable. Upgrading is necessary since newer chips outperform everything, the 13700F could offer double or triple speed (though tests aim to avoid bottlenecks).