Intel i7-8700K vs Ryzen 2700X

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extreme_noob

extreme_noob

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Jul 30, 2018
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I need to decide whether to pay the extra 60-80 dollars for an i7-8700k or get a Ryzen 2700X.
I will be doing 1440p gaming, with little to no content creation.
I really hope this 14nm shortage doesn't get worse, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
Also, If I do go Ryzen, what is the best budget motherboard? I was looking at the ASRock X470 Fatal1ty Gaming.
 
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bjornl
There will be very little difference. But the advantage will be with the Intel system for gaming (trivial though this advantage will be). There are many reviews of these CPUs where they are compared. Trust those reviews more than online opinions. After all these opinions are worth what you paid for them and generally not backed up with exhaustive comparisons like a detailed review would have:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpus,3986.html

One area where the i7-8700k is likely to have more of an advantage would be if you plan on overclocking. The AMD is a modest overclocker, the Intel can be pushed higher.

If you opt for the AMD, be sure you get quality ram. The AMD is more sensitive to ram timings.

The ASROCK...
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bjornl

bjornl

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Mar 16, 2016
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There will be very little difference. But the advantage will be with the Intel system for gaming (trivial though this advantage will be). There are many reviews of these CPUs where they are compared. Trust those reviews more than online opinions. After all these opinions are worth what you paid for them and generally not backed up with exhaustive comparisons like a detailed review would have:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpus,3986.html

One area where the i7-8700k is likely to have more of an advantage would be if you plan on overclocking. The AMD is a modest overclocker, the Intel can be pushed higher.

If you opt for the AMD, be sure you get quality ram. The AMD is more sensitive to ram timings.

The ASROCK motherboard is a decent one. The x370 is nearly identical in performance and sometimes cheaper.
Here are Tom's recommended ones: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-motherboards,3984-3.html

With my own money I opted for an 8700k.
 
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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Sep 4, 2007
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If your gaming at high Hz like 130-144hz panels then intel may be worth the extra money but if your shooting for 60-90hz I think the AMD chip would be a good choice. Even if you are gaming at high Hz AMD isn't a bad choice but Intel does have the IPC lead and usually the FPS lead at lower resolutions or when rendering at very high refresh rates. Point being both are good but Intel is better.
 
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M

mdd1963

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Jan 14, 2006
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If using a 60 Hz monitor, and a GTX1070, the 2700X would be effectively just as good, as in, more FPS than needed or can be displayed. If using a 100Hz refresh or higher monitor, and using a 1080Ti/2080 or better GPU, I'd opt for the 8700K or 9700K....

The 2700X is not a bad CPU, it's 'good', but truthfully, it does not match even the almost 2 year old 7700K in pure gaming performance in most titles.
 
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panathas

panathas

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The i7 is faster in gaming and the Ryzen 7 is faster in heavily multi threaded applications that can use the extra cores/threads. Also the Ryzen 7 is considered more future proof since it is an 8-core CPU. Having said that for 1400p gaming the should perform similarly with the i7 having a small (~5%) edge.

So either choice is pretty good and what you should really think about is the whole platform cost (CPU/mobo/RAM). Usually Intel motherboards are more expensive and you'll need a good/capable CPU cooler for the Intel CPU. On the other hand the Ryzen 7 does come with a good cooler and AMD motherboards are usually cheaper but on the other hand you'll need to get faster and more expensive RAM modules (3000-3200 DDR4) for the Ryzen CPU since it performs better with faster RAM (which Intel CPUs don't really need). Having said that usually anyone who buys and unlocked i7 CPU usually gets high speed RAM so the RAM factor may not be a case after all.

As for the motherboard, it seems a good choice. Good luck.
 
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D

Dugimodo

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Sep 22, 2011
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I wanted to do my bit to encourage competition so I switched to AMD for the first time in ages and bought the 2700X when I built my self a New PC for my birthday this year. It's very good and it games very well but at 2560 x 1080 with a GTX 1070 I kept from my old PC it doesn't actually game any better than the 3 year old i7 6700K it replaced. Still I'm pretty happy with it and am hoping it'll last at least the 3 years I got out of the last one.

Honestly though from a purely gaming perspective I almost wish I'd gone the intel way. I had issues with my RAM and had to dial it back to 2933 to stop far cry 5 crashing and have updated the BIOS twice since august improving stability each time. My last few machines have all been intel and have just worked.
This one has taken a bit more effort but it seems to be sorted out now and going very well.
 
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