i5 8600k & 1080ti or i7 8700k & 1080

If 4k 60 FPS is fine for you, you will need 1080 ti. 8600k and 8700k has little to none diff if only gaming.
I will suggest you do 1440p 144Hz gaming, which is better for 1st personal shooter games, but 4k will be better for MMO kind of games. Your call. Definitely consider Gsync to pair with your 1080/1080 ti
If you go with 1440p 144Hz, I will get 8700k+1080 and wait for Volta.
Just make sure you have good coolers for 8700k, 8600k is not as hot and can save some on cooler.

The i5 and 1080 ti combo would perform better in games. There will be little to no difference between the 8600k and 8700k at 1440p or above in current games.

I would personally prefer a 1440p 144hz monitor over a 4k 60hz monitor in really any game I could run at over 60fps.

The 8700k is faster than the 8600k. Also the added hyper-threading on the 8700k is nice. However the in game performance difference between a gtx1080 and a gtx1080ti at 1440p or above is significant. A 1080 can not run a 1440p screen at 144fps. A 1080ti can barely do it.

A 1440p display is 2560x1440 x 144 FPS = ~531 million pixels per second
A 4k display is 3840x2160 x 60 FPS = ~498 million pixels.

So contrary to what Vapour says it is harder for a system to drive a 1440p screen at 144fps than it is to drive a 4k one at 60fps.

He is also wrong about the 8600k not needing as good cooling. They have the same TDP and are essentially the same power consumption as they are overclocked. Their minor differences (hyperthreading) does not save significantly on heat and does not allow 8600k users to skimp on cooling.

He is right that the differences in gaming between the 8600k and the 8700k are fairly minor. The 8700k is slightly faster for those few games that would be highly threaded. It is my opinion that this is going to increase over time as both AMD and Intel are currently pushing the "more threads/cores" as the way to more CPU performance. But for now the performance of just the first 2 cores matters far more than the rest.

Waiting for the next Nvidia series is likely going to be a long wait. The last two Nvidia solutions were both released in late June and the cards based on those were in limited supply (with high prices to match) for a couple of months. Then the OEMs were allowed to make and release their own better performing models (rather than just re-branding the founders edition with it's inferior cooler). So if you want a card which truly competes with current 1080 and 1080TIs then you are looking at a 8-9 month wait and by that time people will begin speculating and recommending waiting for the next big thing. You can wait forever if you play this game right.

I own both a 4k and a 1440p screen. There is more to them than MMO vs FPS. It is also about what DPI you prefer. Text on my 4k is very hard to read, there exists scaling but it is a troublesome and incomplete solution. Try to actually look at and play with both monitors before you get to that stage. There is also HDR coming. Finally there is the possibility of running the 1440p screen at a lower refresh rate with no impact to visual quality, while scalers in 4k screens mean that playing on a lower res will be blurry.

Bottom line
If you are looking at high res gaming and or a combination of high res and faster frame rates... both the options are going to be good. But I think your obvious solution is "none of the above". Don't buy a video card today that won't benefit you for a year or more. Instead get the 8700k (or 8600k) for now. Put the rest money in the bank. Use your old video card if it is still functional (and it probably will be). Then when you are looking at monitors, you look at monitors and video cards together.

If you are determined to buy both today, get the 8600k and the 1080ti.

4k gaming is really just starting, that's why there aren't a lot of 4k gaming videocards to choose from. For that reason, I would not advise building a 4k gaming computer now with the intention that it lasts for 2 or 3 years. You can expect to see many more options for 4k gaming in the next couple of years, you don't want to be stuck with an underpowered computer.

I'd go for a 1440p at first. Live with that as you watch what happens in the 4k market.

But you don't need to run at 144hz. You can run at 85+hz and still get a much smoother gaming experience than 4k 60hz.

If it's a PC for gaming only my vote goes to the i5 8600k / 1080ti combo. My son has that combo and it's definitely the equal to my i7 8700k / 1080ti in games.

I said as much:


@ vapour
Funny link. If you had thought about it, you would have seen that it proves you wrong. Performance per watt is the same (or within the margin of error at 1%) and their tests were at stock speeds. Overclock them to the same speed and the power consumption is essentially identical.
Your graphics link is just as well thought out. It only shows what happens when you push a system beyond what it can manage. The simple math regarding is still true. The pixels involved in 1440p v 4k are pretty simple. Quit being a contrarian or trying to drag this "help" off the rails again. Say what you will, I know you want to. But don't expect me to show you the obvious again and again. I haven't got time for it nor the interest in engaging you at that thread derailing level.

Gaming Comparison:





Torture Comparison:

8600k/1080ti would be my recommendation right now. Very few games need more than the 6 cores available & the 1080ti will benefit you now, as opposed to maybe in a couple of years with the 8700k.

Team vapour here btw, simple posting of evidence always wins vs chunks of text without.

My personal opinion is definitely 1440@144Hz over 4k@60Hz. High refresh isn't hugely noticeable by everyone, but for the majority of gamers it really is & I can never go back!

there will likely never be a game that an 8700k/1080 combo would perform better in than an 8600k/1080ti would.

Can confirm this is true, I have an i5 8600k OC'd to 5 GHz and run at ~60 degrees Celsius at max load, and I only have a cooler master hyper 212 evo CPU cooler

Obviously this isn't true. I totally agree it'll be a while, but look back at the 2500k/2600k. There was a time the same thing was said about games never needing the i7s extra threads, now there's quite a big difference in many games between the two. Games will eventually use those extra threads, & likely within only a couple of years given consoles are 8-cored now.

But yes, 8600k/1080ti is a much better choice for now!