Which one for gaming in the future: Ryzen 5 1600 or I7-7700k?

DukeLaCroix · May 27, 2017

Hi guys,

I am currently torn between getting the Ryzen 5 1600 or the i7-7700k as my new cpu.
I am mostly gaming with my PC so I know that in this regard the i7 is probably the better choice right now given my setup (see below). This may be especially true because I could get CPU&MB combo for both CPUs at about equal price (thanks to the ASUS cashback offer).

So, why do I ask? Well, I do wonder what the future outlook for these CPUs is; i.e. what's the better long-term investment for gaming. I intend to keep it for at least 2-3 years. Will the Ryzen 5 become more powerful than the i7 in the future thanks to increasing support of DX12 and multicore/threading in games? Or do you think that this development will be slower than, say, in the next 2-3 years? And in how far can either be better than the others if one would consider their overclocking potential?

Thanks!

My setup:
New CPU & MB
MSI Geforce GTX 970 4G
Crucial DDR4 Ballistix Tactical 2x8GB 3000MhZ
Scythe Mugen 3 Rev B. CPU cooler
Be quiet Pure Power 10 500 Watts

Dragos Manea · May 27, 2017

For you videocard you would not see any difference between those 2 cpus, ofc with DX12 and vulkan Ryzen will rise (pun intended

)

synphul · May 27, 2017

Hard to say what the future will bring. It depends on the games you play and whatever mystery games come out in the next few years as to how they make use of the additional threads. So far dx12 has been rather disappointing and in several games it improves performance by reverting to dx11. The whole point of dx12 and big push for win10 for dx12 support was improved performance.

This is a quote from dsogaming from around 5mo ago. -
"However, as it turns out, things did not go as well as most PC gamers anticipated back in 2015. Like it or not, DX12 – in its current state – is not up to what we were expecting from a low-level API. In fact, DX12 is slower than DX11 in almost every game, without adding any new graphical effects (something that was happening in previous versions of DirectX that could somehow justify the performance differences)."
http://www.dsogaming.com/editorial/the-current-state-of-directx-12-in-pc-gaming-was-it-worth-the-hype/

Here's hardocp's conclusion on testing in 6 games (along with separate pages for each game). They came to the same or similar conclusions.
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/03/22/dx12_versus_dx11_gaming_performance_video_card_review/11

Not to say dx12 can't improve or vulkan can't make improvements but so far dx12 has been a whole lot of hype and not much else. It's nothing like the massive performance projections and all the drawcall charts insinuated. We already know that ryzen ipc isn't quite as high as intel's 7th gen and a 7700k runs nearly 500mhz faster than ryzen does overclocked (at around 4ghz where it seems to top out).

Could things improve? Sure. Will they? No idea. It's a lot of if's and but's and as they say, if "if's and but's were candy and nuts, we'd all be having a merry xmas". More importantly I think the difference is how you use your pc. Are you strictly gaming? Gaming and streaming on the same pc? Trying to encode video or render 3d models while gaming? Plan to do a lot of video editing? If so then ryzen would likely be the better choice. Otherwise intel may have the slight edge.

The problem with speculation is nothing is guaranteed. Go back a year, even two years ago when everyone swore dx12 was the future. It was going to be the biggest change in gaming as we knew it. Well, here we are 2yrs later and still waiting. Sometimes things change in 2-3yrs, other times they stagnate. After seeing all the prediction of 'do this and get that because dx12' 2yrs ago I wouldn't hedge bets on getting one thing or another because it 'might' improve.

DukeLaCroix · May 27, 2017

Hey,

@Synphul: Thanks for the in-depth reply. I kinda got a similar vibe browsing the internet for the answer to my question. It also seems like noone, except the AMD CEO maybe, wants to make an optimistic short-term prognosis for the Ryzen concept wrt gaming (i.e. more cores/threads will bring better gaming performance). Maybe that's exactly because of what you correctly summarized in your post.
I also agree, that I should rather focus on what I want to do with my PC. It is clear that the majority will evolve around gaming, maybe I start streaming with the better setup but I doubt I will have time for that... There will certainly be no video and rendering stuff.
Thanks for the links!

@Dragos Manea: True, I probably wont matter that much with the current graphics card. But eventually the next item to upgrade on the list is the GPU and than the question still holds!

EDIT: Before I forget: I wonder though, in how far the current gaming developers just lag behind the actual development on the CPU market. Judging from how much of the Ryzen's are low on stock it seems there is a high demand (although it might just be that the vendors were understocked). If that's the case, there might be more incentives/pressure on (game) developers to cater more to the needs of the new high-core users and thus a stronger focus on developing games/engines that make more efficient use of more cores. I understand though, that this argument has been around for 1-2 years and hasnt come true yet. So maybe thats just wishful thinking to have a real competition between Intel and AMD...

Thanks you guys for the replies!

mightyjp64 · May 29, 2017

I'm not entirely sure but as far as I know, the i7-7700k is faster when it comes to gaming while AMD's line of Ryzen chips makes a lot better progress when it comes to rendering. However, the graphics card that you chose will probably be pushed to its max regardless of which of the 2 CPUs you pick, so unless you plan on upgrading your GPU in the future, I would advise that you save some money by choosing the Ryzen 5

Dragos Manea · May 30, 2017

I agree, a single gtx 1080 will be pushed to max by any ryzen, i got a sli gtx 1080 with 1700x and in most games i get 90% utilization for both cards, some games are very poorly optimized (Far cry 3, Far cry4, far cry primal, and primarily old games like blur, Knights of the old republic etc). Dont need to worry for a single gtx 1080, any ryzen will push it to almost max if not max. If want a sli gtx 1080 or an 1080 ti then a ryzen will not cut at 1080p, for that you will need a 7700k, but you know the best what do you want to do for the future, depends towards what are you heading, single gtx 1080, sli gtx 1080, 1080 ti etc.

Harshil34 · May 30, 2017

Live the present not the future both will last atleast 3-4 years. But still as we all know that most games are intel and nvidia optimised so if you are specially buying for gaming then there is nothing like 7700k.

Ditt44 · May 30, 2017

Ryzen. Period. The next generation of CPUs will fit the AM4 boards. The generation after that? Perhaps as well, but we do not know that yet. Buy the best board/feature set/power management you can afford. Add in the best RAM you can, 3200+ and be set for several years. Intel is going to milk you for every single uptick or new generation where you need new motherboards etc. Break the cycle and go with Ryzen.

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