I've decided it's finally time to upgrade my gaming computer. The old i5-3570k just ain't what she used to be. So having done a little research, it seems that the i7 8700k is double the power of my old 3570k. Sounds good, but not great. Should I be looking for a 10700k instead? Would I get more for my money, given the price? Next question - Are new games even using 6 or 8 cores? Or should I get another i5 and stick with 4 cores? I assume that at some point, they will make the games to take advantage of however many cores it can find. But I don't know if that has happened yet. Hopefully someone can help me reach a conclusion. Thanks!
It depends on what you're doing with your PC. As far as I can see, things really didn't progress greatly from Ivy Bridge (3500K) to Kaby Lake(7500K), as they were all 4 cores of gradually increasing grunt. I upgraded an i5 4670K to an i5 8400 (Coffee Lake), and that seems to be the first generation (IMVHO) that makes a noticeable difference, as they bumped the core count up. I use that PC for gaming, photo editing and light video editing. It's the latter that's the most demanding software that will eat as many cores as you can throw at it, plus lots of GPU grunt for rendering. Your i5 3570K is coming up 9 years old, and has held up well. I'd suggest a 6 sore of some sort for preference, Ryzen has really come on since its introduction, with the 3x00 and 5x00 CPUs are definitely in the running. As an example, I bought a B450M board last year to dabble inexpensively with Ryzen, and ended up with a cheap R3 1200, which was the lowest spec quad available in that generation. It is surprisingly capable, as I was hoping it would be about the same as a Haswell i5 non K (4690). I have been playing PUBG on it with a GTX 1050Ti, and with the goodies turned down a bit, it's pretty good. I have lent it to a friend whose i5 4670K system has been playing up (GTX 970 went pop) and was using a GTX 760. The R3 1200 / 1050 Ti works well for him and has kept him gaming. /2p
Can you keep your current motherboard? If not then you can go Intel or AMD as you'll have to buy a new motherboard and CPU in any case. The AMD Ryzen 3600 (non-X) is a particular favourite at the moment (the 5XXX series are difficult to find / expensive). You could pair it with a B450 motherboard for not much money
Sorry I should've mentioned those two points: I'll only be using it for gaming, and I'm just not an AMD fan. So I'll be sticking with intel for this build. The old i5 3570k did hold up pretty well, but my GTX 970 is not up to the task anymore. When supply returns to normal, I'll replace it with an RTX 3070 or 3080 variant, not sure yet. That means the 3570k will be a pretty big bottleneck in many of the newer games that I'd like to play. There's a difference in price, when going from 8700k to 10700k. But is it worth it? (it is time to sell my AMD stock though, as they've done quite well )
Oh the irony, selling AMD stock to buy Intel/nvidia product How about 10400f or if you like to tinker with overclocking, 10600k.They are i5 and because you only want to game on them, at this stage, more cores doesn't really give more FPS. With each newer generation, you gain more single threaded optimisation, thus performance per clock. So unless you buy second hand for a very good price, always go for newest generation when possible.
10600k is plentiful for gaming, also the new 11 series is set to be out for pre-order this week I think? So wait and see how that affects the price of 10 series stock...?
Sounds like a good idea, waiting to see what prices do with this upcoming release. Maybe I can get lucky and find a sale or something. I do have a microcenter in dallas, they've been known to run sales.
A few weeks ago I went into the local Microcenter in St Louis and noticed that they had the 10600K for $190 before tax. It's still at that price and probably the bets option for Intel CPUs right now (it's $225-230 everywhere else and down from the original $260). That said Microcenter also have the 10700K for $250 and that has also been at that price for some time. It's not worth it for a gaming only PC but the extra cores for $250 is keeping it in the frame for my own newbuild. It's also a much better price than I can find it for in the UK. Keep in mind that coming from Ivy Bridge that you'll need a new CPU, motherboard and RAM. Also, 12th Gen Intel/next gen AMD will take DDR5 instead, so you might want to consider waiting for this time next year before going ahead, especially if you're just upgrading your system (I can't do that as my old gaming rig is across the pond and not likely to move soon, if at all). Also might be worth keeping a look at B&H Photo - they did a flash sale 24 hour offer on the 10600K for $175 - and there's also the matter of sales tax, which they don't charge in Missouri at least (and, for me at least, neither does Newegg).
