Hello, I plan on building a PC for using Unreal Engine 4 and am wandering if I should buy an Intel Core i7-7700k or an AMD Ryzen 7 1700x.
Here is the PC build if you need it: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/NoidHurricane/saved/vb6r7P
Thanks!
Why not 8700k? It just got released, massive boosts is productivity and gaming.
(I will assume that you build your PC primarily for working with Unreal and not for gaming.)
As Everynone pointed out, you shouldn’t consider the 7700k at this point. (Well, unless you can get one for a really good price.) If the only options are, for whatever reason, the 7700k or 1700x, get the latter. It’s hands down the better workstation CPU by a long shot.
You should consider either the 1700, the 1700x or the 8700k. The 1700 is the better value with no downsides, if you’re lucky. Some people can overclock that CPU to 1800x levels of performance because their clock frequencies are literally the only difference. The 1700x is a 1700 that is a bit faster by default and guaranteed, by AMD, to be a better overclocker. If you don’t want to rely on luck so much, just get that one over the 1700.
The 8700k is a trade off. Much better single core performance, but two less cores and four less threads. When working with Unreal this will impact you negatively when it comes to compiling the engine and building the lighting with Lightmass, as both are heavily multi threaded and push your CPUs to their limits.
8700k vs 1700x for Unreal is a difficult decision.
- The 8700k has faster cores, but …
- the 1700x has more
- The 8700k can handle faster RAM, but …
- doesn’t benefit nearly as much from RAM speed as the 1700x does
Then there are the motherboards. Do not get a B350 for a Ryzen 7, if you want to overclock. Yes, you can overclock on them, but those boards are not suitable for running an overclocked eight core Ryzen with the kind of workload Unreal throws at it.
Just about every review of Ryzen talks about overclocking for gaming, but even the most CPU hungry games don’t put nearly as much stress on your hardware as Lightmass or the C++ compiler do. These applications make your CPU run at 100%, flat-out. And in the case of Lightmass, that may very well be hours at a time. At the moment not a single B350 motherboard has VRMs that can handle that sort of punishment (if you overclock, which you should).
The YouTube channel “Actually Hardcore Overclocking” has two videos on B350 where he covers that in depth. The short version is that a maxed out Ryzen eight core will push the VRMs on those mainboards very close to the absolute limit of their specifications, which seriously degrades their lifetime. (And he doesn’t even live in a particularly warm climate, so go figure what that will be like in summer, if you do).
If you go with Ryzen, get the Asus Prime X370-Pro instead. It’s the cheapest X370 mainboard with good VRMs. So it can handle a Ryzen 7 running at 4 GHz for extended periods of time safely. (Since Asus glued the backplate to the mainboard, you should inform yourself how to fit your cooler beforehand.)
Lastly there’s the question about which platform is more future proof. Sadly that’s a gamble either way. However, AMD has said that they will support AM4 for a long time and there are rumors that their Zen 2 CPUs (codename: Matisse) which supposedly launch in 2019 will use the AM4 socket. Rumors, so that that for what it’s worth.
I’m reluctant to give you any advice on how to improve your current setup (aside from the X370 mainboard), because it will make it more expensive. The only thing I’m willing to say is that fast memory is a worthwhile investment, particularly with Ryzen. The Corsair Vengeance LPX series is supposedly very good. I’m getting 3200 MHz myself soon.
I suppose one way to reduce the price would be to go with a decent air cooler. But that’s not an option if you want the 8700k, because they run quite hot.
Does the 8700k have so much faster cores that it beats the Ryzen’s slower 8 cores? And I’m only getting 16gb 2666 (2x8) ddr4 ram and am probably in the future going to upgrade to 32gb (8x4). So the question pretty much is, do I need more but slower cores, or less but faster cores?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The extra cores of the Ryzen don’t help it a whole lot in poorly optimized or simply old applications that just use one or two. (Obviously) In those application the Intel wins, hands down.
For properly multi threaded applications they are more or less on even footing, with Ryzen doing a bit better on average. You can see a nice selection of good productivity benchmarks here. (Bear in mind that the 1700x wasn’t tested, but it can be overclocked to reach or at least be very close to the 1800x, so use that as reference).
If you aren’t sure whether your workload will make enough use of the Ryzen’s extra cores, just get the Intel. Or, if you’re too indecisive, just flip a coin. I’m serious. Neither CPU will disappoint you.
I will be doing some gaming but mostly video editing and Unreal Engine 4 (Mainly Unreal and blender). So how much of an FPS boost will the 8700k give me in some games? (I might look into some AAA titles). And will I be able to notice a difference between the two?
Thanks!
The biggest performance differential I’ve seen was about 30% in CS:GO. That’s a lot, but both systems pushed stupidly high framerates. In most games you can expect the 8700k to be about 20% faster. In a few games that are really well multi threaded the difference is less than 10%.
For gaming the 8700k is much better, just as the 7700k was.
Ended up going with the 8700k and 1080ti. 