Best Gaming CPU

kill8r

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
Messages
172
Hi All,
What is regarded as the best cost no option gaming cpu? Best bang for buck at the higher end of things?

I am looking to build a small form factor wc rig and want to futureproof as much as I can for 4k and 8k gaming.
 
AMD does not currently have a better option if gaming is all you care about.
But AMD supports pcie4 if I am not mistaken and Intel 10th gen cpus do not. I could be wrong here but this could matter greatly.
 
Last edited:
yes but you are saying it is saturating 3.0x16, how can you know that when it is only capable of 3.0x16?
with pcie4 the 3070 (2080ti level if marketing is to be believed) might be able to leverage more bandwidth

just a thought
 
I currently use and like AMD CPU's, however I see no reason to make PCIe 4.0 a sticking factor.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1605...re-for-gaming-starting-with-rtx-3080-rtx-3090
As for the performance impact from PCIe 4.0, we’re not expecting much of a difference at this time, as there’s been very little evidence that Turing cards have been limited by PCIe 3.0 speeds – even PCIe 3.0 x8 has proven to be sufficient in most cases. Ampere’s higher performance will undoubtedly drive up the need for more bandwidth, but not by much. Which is likely why even NVIDIA isn’t promoting PCIe 4.0 support terribly hard (though being second to AMD here could very well be a factor).
 
I’m going to differ from other opinions here:

get a 3700x
Get a gigabyte aorus ultra 570x
Get 32 gig of ram in two sticks
2 of those sabrient 1-2tb drives (nvme)
A fractal design define r6
And search the used market for a 2080ti

The OP asked what the best gaming CPU is. He said nothing about value. He also asked about 4K and 8K gaming. The 10900K is his best option. It's not the cheapest, but it is the best.

Also for 4K or higher, the 2080 Ti isn't going to be the best option. At that resolution, the 2080 Ti can barely do 60FPS in some games. That means 8K is a no go unless you like running games in potato mode.

The 3080 or 3090 will be better. We just aren't sure by how much yet.
 
Last edited:
The OP asked what the best gaming CPU is. He said nothing about value. He also asked about 4K and 8K gaming. The 10900K is his best option. It's not the cheapest, but it is the best.

Also for 4K or higher, the 2080 Ti isn't going to be the best option. At that resolution, the 2080 Ti can barely do 60FPS in some games. That means 8K is a no go unless you like running games in potato mode.

The 3080 or 3090 will be better. We just aren't sure by how much yet.

I clearly posted in the wrong thread, sorry
 
Right now it's the 10700k and 10900k for best gaming performance. If that's all you care about, that's what you should decide between.
That said, new CPU's from AMD should be out soon (zen3) and hopefully Ice Lake in the near future that will add support for pcie 4.0 which *may* make a few % difference for games (more likely for lower resolutions than you're talking, at higher resolutions the differences will be less). Honestly though, if you only play 4k (and some 8k) I think you'll be more GPU constrained than CPU and would probably lean towards the 10700k myself.
Just an example from a few benchmarks, this is only a 1080p with medium/high details... (last one is 95th percentile, not average). As you can see, even at this lower resolution where frame rates are higher, there is barely any seperation between the 10700k/10900k... and even the 10600k keeping up just fine. Heck, the Ryzen 3600 is right up there as well, but in general it will fall behind more often (depends heavily on the game). Please do find some charts (from multiple reviewers) and find the games you like and see what the differences are. Spend more $$ doesn't always get you more performance if you aren't matched to your workload. Like using a 3950x wouldn't make sense for a pure gaming build, but is great if you need cores.

1599308508604.png
1599308543943.png
1599308588531.png

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15785/the-intel-comet-lake-review-skylake-we-go-again/16
 
I read the same conclusion....... odd how it was interrupted as “maxes out pcie3.0 x16”.

if anything, extrapolating that data means pcie 3.0 x16 still has some legs before moving up to 4.0 Is required
 
Haven't checked CPU performance for some time now, but damn AMD's best isn't even an i5 in gaming anymore. Just going by the crazy hype alone, you would think that AMD is the one on top lol!
 
Haven't checked CPU performance for some time now, but damn AMD's best isn't even an i5 in gaming anymore. Just going by the crazy hype alone, you would think that AMD is the one on top lol!

You can do what I did when I needed to dig into Kubernetes, build yourself essentially a gaming box.
I saw a $300 MSI x570 + 3700x combo for $300 in my area last week on CL from a guy that did exactly what I was doing ^.

Lab out whatever pays the bills, then game on it a bunch to compare it to an Intel build.
Ryzen was ok, but I can feel stutters in frame pacing.
I have a couple visual fx buddies doing same right now, they game on their 3950x and Threadripper 3 builds when they aren’t working.

Some people aren’t so sensitive so $100 Ryzen cpu & $50 or less motherboards are fine.
After I sold the Ryzen parts, I built out my current sig rig.
Gaming, I’m much happier.
 
At this point, we're close enough to Zen3 to see if that is any better than Intel in gaming. I have a 10700 and used a 3600/3600x/3800x/3900x and didn't notice any big differences when gaming at 1440p.

Edit: Caveat...I mostly play SP games, and have a Freesync monitor. I'm not oblivious to the fact that there are differences, but they aren't so noticeable or distracting to me. They might be to others.
 
Last edited:
Like others said already, were close enough now to Zen 3 that it would be senseless to go all out on what's available today when soon we will have faster options.
 
My vote for a dedicated gaming build is still 9600k/10600k clocked.
If you can get a mid tier or + z370/z390 board for under $100 you put the extra $ towards 3080 vs 3070.....or a better monitor which barely anyone mentions we we bench race builds.
 
10600K or 10700K for Intel - doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to spend $100 more on a 10850K or 10900K for gaming.

Otherwise...wait for Zen 3.
 
Something to keep in mind between Intel and AMD is USB endpoint limitations if you use quite a few USB ports, especially if you VR. Unless Intel has changed something, their USB 3.x controller are limited to a maximum number of 96 endpoints per controller. AMD's USB 3.x is limited to a maximum number of 254 endpoints per controller. This is one of the reasons I switched to AMD for my current build project (among a few other things). With up to 32 endpoints being consumed per device, those resources can be eaten up pretty quickly. Just something to keep in mind that probably most people don't even consider when building out a new machine.

My current Intel machine, a 6700K, I frequently run into USB resource errors ever since I bought my Valve Index. Hubs don't help, they actually will make it worse since they will at minimum consume 1 endpoint per port on the hub whether it is used or not. Even if you are using ports just for RGB or charging, they will eat up some of those endpoints. One of the workarounds for this is to disable XHCI but then you drop your USB ports down to 2.0 by doing this. Another option is to invest in an additional USB controller, but that doesn't work if you are doing a SFF or compact build like I tend to do with my builds.

I would like to think that I don't have too many devices, and have even unplugged some devices to free up resources:
  • Razer BlackWidow Elite (2 USB ports)
  • Razer Basilisk wireless mouse/dock (1 USB port)
  • Razer Firefly V2 mousepad (1 USB port)
  • XBox 360 controller (1 USB port)
  • Epson V500 Photo Scanner (1 USB port)
  • 7 port USB 3.0 hub, only using two ports to charge Valve Index controllers (1 USB port)
  • Valve Index (1 USB port)
  • APC UPS (1 USB port)
  • USB Hard drive dock or camera card reader (1 USB port, only plugged in when using)
 
Something to keep in mind between Intel and AMD is USB endpoint limitations if you use quite a few USB ports, especially if you VR. Unless Intel has changed something, their USB 3.x controller are limited to a maximum number of 96 endpoints per controller. AMD's USB 3.x is limited to a maximum number of 254 endpoints per controller. This is one of the reasons I switched to AMD for my current build project (among a few other things). With up to 32 endpoints being consumed per device, those resources can be eaten up pretty quickly. Just something to keep in mind that probably most people don't even consider when building out a new machine.

My current Intel machine, a 6700K, I frequently run into USB resource errors ever since I bought my Valve Index. Hubs don't help, they actually will make it worse since they will at minimum consume 1 endpoint per port on the hub whether it is used or not. Even if you are using ports just for RGB or charging, they will eat up some of those endpoints. One of the workarounds for this is to disable XHCI but then you drop your USB ports down to 2.0 by doing this. Another option is to invest in an additional USB controller, but that doesn't work if you are doing a SFF or compact build like I tend to do with my builds.

I would like to think that I don't have too many devices, and have even unplugged some devices to free up resources:
  • Razer BlackWidow Elite (2 USB ports)
  • Razer Basilisk wireless mouse/dock (1 USB port)
  • Razer Firefly V2 mousepad (1 USB port)
  • XBox 360 controller (1 USB port)
  • Epson V500 Photo Scanner (1 USB port)
  • 7 port USB 3.0 hub, only using two ports to charge Valve Index controllers (1 USB port)
  • Valve Index (1 USB port)
  • APC UPS (1 USB port)
  • USB Hard drive dock or camera card reader (1 USB port, only plugged in when using)

I have had similar issues on my rig - however, I can't find any data supporting the Intel vs. AMD thing you mentioned on this front.
 
I have had similar issues on my rig - however, I can't find any data supporting the Intel vs. AMD thing you mentioned on this front.
I have been trying to find a whitepaper on this, but all I have found through my searching is a couple of tech blogs that discuss USB endpoint usage with XHCI and some forum/reddit posts of users discussing the USB endpoint counts between Intel and AMD and the problems it causes. I can't find a direct link if current chipsets from Intel still exhibit the problem or not.

Also, my initial count on the AMD total endpoints per controller might be off. Some links I have read mentioned a total of 254 endpoints per controller for AMD while others mentioned 127 endpoints per controller. The confusion here is because the AMD CPUs have a USB controller on both the processor and on the motherboard chipset. If each controller has 127 endpoints, then it would total 254 endpoints between the two of them. Depending on how the CPU and chipset handle these in regards to the ports on the motherboard, I am not sure if it counts as a total pool of 254 endpoints or if a certain set of USB ports are allocated to one pool of 127 endpoints while the other set of USB ports are allocated to the other 127 endpoints.
 
Zen 3 is slated to be announced on October 8th if you can wait, I wouldn't buy Zen 2 at the moment, unless it's really cheap.
 
Back
Top