Select CPU models suited for 4K60+ performance.
Select CPU models suited for 4K60+ performance.
I possess a wealth of technology, yet I remain open to refining its application. My goal is to better leverage the 4K G-sync TV I acquired recently for gaming. Presently, I rely on an RTX 2070 as the sole GPU that supports VRR on this display, though it clearly falls short in delivering sufficient power for stable 60fps at higher resolutions. I anticipate upgrading to a model like the 3080 when it becomes available, since future HDMI standards will enable smoother performance at 4K. My ideal specifications are 4K resolution at 60fps or faster. Titles such as Final Fantasy XIV, Cities Skylines, and World of Warships are among my priorities. Other tasks like streaming media or recording gameplay (excluding editing or live streams) are acceptable. The decision: What processor should I consider now and in the coming years? I already own some, but I’m not dismissing a purchase later. Let’s evaluate the possibilities:
1. 5930K – My existing setup. It remains functional with six cores on a reliable platform, though clock speeds are modest compared to modern needs. I’d prefer not to push it beyond its limits.
2. 3700X – Currently in an Asus X370 Prime Pro unit. It offers solid performance but has a known issue: fans occasionally overheat during load, causing brief shutdowns. I’m considering alternatives like a dedicated fan controller or swapping the motherboard for a B550 chipset when it arrives. Until then, it’s not fully optimized.
3. 7920X – Purchased last year for budget reasons. It boosts the core count to 12, but I’m uncertain if it enhances my gaming experience. I haven’t tested its performance against the 3700X.
4. Future Zen 3 CPU – Likely to be my next choice. It promises significant upgrades, though I haven’t tested it yet or compared it to the 3700X.
My preference leans toward either the 3700X or a 7920X, pending availability and stability. The 5930K remains a safe bet until newer options emerge.
It's 60fps at 4k and that’s pretty much the best you can do. You should try whatever works for you. I checked if you're using a beta BIOS for your ASUS, and it seems the same problem exists on my friend’s X470 Strix and another X470 Prime. They switched to a beta BIOS for Ryzen 3000, and once they moved to a stable version, the issues disappeared.
Today I chose to shift the 2070 around three systems to observe their performance in benchmarks. It also offered another opportunity to evaluate the TV and figure out my preferences. In summary, I paired the 2070 with the 5930k (stock), 7920X (stock), and 3600 (stock). I conducted two benchmark tests for comparison, plus some personal checks unrelated to this discussion. The SOTTR benchmark at 4k with high DLSS performed consistently across all CPUs—it’s heavily GPU-dependent. There were slight variations: the 5930k led at 60fps on average, the 7920X at 58fps, and the 3600 at 52fps. The other test was the FFXIV Shadowbringers benchmark at two resolutions. At 4k max, the 5930k achieved 48.1fps, the 7920X 47.7fps (turbo off), and the 3600 47.7fps. For 1440p max, the 5930k reached 90.6fps, the 7920X 81.0fps, and the 3600 94.1fps. The 5930k outperformed expectations; I doubted it would fall behind the 7920X, though the mesh cache might be a limiting factor. I had higher hopes for the 3600 even with its FxIV win at 1440p, but it still managed a solid score. I’ll likely stick with the 7920X for now, mainly because it has more RAM and extra SSD space. For anyone curious about my choice, I used the 3600 instead of 3700X since that unit is already in use and I didn’t want to interrupt it. The 3600 was available.
Your SOTTR evaluation catches my attention. The 3600 offers a higher IPC compared to the 5930, and the latter isn’t considered a high-frequency chip by today’s standards. After running several tests, I noticed consistent frame counts whether the CPU was overclocked or not. What could be limiting performance on the 3600?
I know this is an old thread, but I have been tinkering more with the systems and think it is worth a direct follow up, as well as tieing up some loose ends. There has been a new bios in recent months, with much newer AGESA (from something like 1.0.0.3 to 1.0.0.6). It didn't help the fan noise problem. It still randomly goes noisy. I really wanted to use it as a gaming system but that prevents it. I'll keep it around for compute uses. I did start doing a clean install on a spare SSD before I noticed the fan noise was still happening, and I still have concerns about stability of this system. I had one unexplained crash and I don't have anything to blame it on. I can't trust this system for gaming. For compute uses there are checks in place to handle error conditions. At worse I lose a little throughput without impacting validity of the work. Anyway, I've been using the 7920X and it has had its ups and downs. The main game I was playing on it was and still is FFXIV. With the CPU at stock, I was getting occasional stutters which was mildly annoying. Thinking the game was not going to make use of all the threads, I turned off HT and that seems to have eliminated the stutter. I think the game/OS was essentially tripping over itself with so many threads available. Unfortunately I didn't note the operating clocks before making that change. I mess about with settings depending on what I use that system for. I had disabled turbo when doing compute (base clock 2.9 GHz), as it increases the power efficiency a lot without too much hit on throughput. I forgot to turn it back on one time before gaming, and yeah, that wasn't a great experience. It was struggling to keep around 60fps. It did make me think though, could I improve gaming performance some more on this particular system? I set up some monitoring, and saw with 12 cores active, turbo on, HT off, it was averaging around 3.8 GHz. I disabled 4 cores, leaving 8 cores, and the average clock in game went to 4.0 GHz or so. I forget the exact numbers, but from memory I saw around 10fps increase with it typically around 90fps at my chosen settings. I think I'd still like a more gaming oriented CPU for this system, as I want to use its full potential on productivity tasks once I reorganise my home network. Let's see what Zen 3 brings, although with the ongoing annoyances I get with all Ryzen systems I've owned, I'm thinking whatever next gen Intel will be (Rocket Lake?) could be more interesting still. Edit: the fan noise problem is still there with the mobo swapped out. So, I was wrong to blame the Zen 2 system. Logically whatever is happening moved with the case/fans, not the mobo. While I don't know which fan(s) are doing it, I have an obvious candidate to check out now. I have Corsair RGB fans, which are connected to an RGB controller, and normal connections to the mobo fan headers. Maybe it is some kind of interaction between those. This does re-open the Zen 2 system as a possible gaming system, once I rebuild it again into the now vacated case.