Is 7800x plausible for gaming?

[HangTime]

Weighing up the possibility of getting a 7800x now that the price have dropped under £250, as on paper it looks a viable alternative to 8600K (double the thread count, double the memory channels).

However from what I've read early benchmarks were poor due to the different architecture (Mesh?) on the X299 platform. On the flipside to that I know that the 7740x at least is deemed a very good overclocker.

Factoring in overclocking, does it warrant paying the bit extra for X299 mobo compared to Z370 mobo or is the platform still unviable at the current price point? As I understand it X299 is perhaps a better platform in terms of features but I don't want to go that route if it is fundamentally flawed from a gaming perspective.

Looking to ditch my 3570K as having only 4 threads is starting to cause issues in a couple of titles such as Mafia 3 and Mankind Divided.

 

[muon]

What features on an X299 board will you use that doesn't exist on a Z370?

 

[Silent_Scone]

Of course it is, whether it's the best option is another matter entirely depending on your workload, or needing more cores in the near future. X299 isn't flawed for gaming, at all. It's beastly, but as most will tell you frequency and IPC are king in that domain, and the 8700K currently holds that crown due to how well the architecture overclocks.

 

[Caracus2k]

Coffee lake holds the edge in (gaming) performance currently but you'll likely have no upgrade path past am 8700k from existing motherboards where as on X299 you can but a 7800x now and have the option to swap it out for a 7900x of a likely whatever they call the refresh on the HEDT platform (coffe lake-x?)

 

[muon]

Coffee lake holds the edge in (gaming) performance currently but you'll likely have no upgrade path past am 8700k from existing motherboards where as on X299 you can but a 7800x now and have the option to swap it out for a 7900x of a likely whatever they call the refresh on the HEDT platform (coffe lake-x?)

Very good point. Can always drop in a 7900X and above in the future when they lose value.

I don't think there will be a CoffeeLake-X though. That is what Skylake-X is supposed to be.

 

[Silent_Scone]

I don't think there will be a CoffeeLake-X though. That is what Skylake-X is supposed to be.

Nope, it's not.

 

[muon]

Nope, it's not.

They are both Skylake architecture. Underlying IPC is identical.

Coffeelake was simply a different way (ringbus) of adding more cores vs Skylake-X (mesh). A method which won't scale to 18 cores.

Skylake, Kabylake, Skylake-X and Coffeelake all have the same IPC bar RAM and uncore differences.

 

[WingZero30]

Cascade Lake-X will succeed Skylake-X on X299

 

[Silent_Scone]

They are both Skylake architecture. Underlying IPC is identical.

Coffeelake was simply a different way (ringbus) of adding more cores vs Skylake-X (mesh). A method which won't scale to 18 cores.

Skylake, Kabylake, Skylake-X and Coffeelake all have the same IPC bar RAM and uncore differences.

The architectural differences are of no consequence to the release schedule, there's also inaccuracies in the last post but we'll leave it there.