8 Core CPU Platforms?

[Seanoog]

Hi Every One.
So the time has come to potentially retire my trusty i5 2500K System.
Long story short it's showing all the symptoms of a failing motherboard, with cold boot cycling too random crashes while under load and at stock clocks. I am going to pull the system apart tomorrow, but I don't hold much hope for finding a culprit other than the motherboard + ram, perhaps need reseating.

As per the thread title, what platforms support 8 Core CPU's that are presently available
and will be available in the Future? These are the Four platforms that I am aware of, have I missed any?

AMD AM4 + Ryzen 7 (1800X or 2700X.)
AMD TR4 + Threadripper (1900X)
Intel S2066 + Skylake (7820X.)
Intel S1151 + Icelake (9700K. H2 2018 Release?)

Any potential system will be used for gaming extensively
(GTA5, FarCry5, Kerbal Space Program, Hitman 2016, Witcher3 and Assassins Creed Origins.)
Will also be used for common daily activities like software analysis + profiling, Chrome, video encoding and solitaire.
Most of my present system will be used for donor parts, including Case, PSU, Hard Drives, Nvidia 1070 and a Dell U3014 (2560x1600) Resolution.

I am aware as a gamer 4-8 Cores is recommended.
High IPC + Low latency ram + High system clocks. But I feel that with consoles been 8 Cores, a gaming system should have that number of cores minimum in 2018. I have no budget in mind at this time, just starting out with my research.

So which system would you recommend?

 

[ChocoViennese]

Cant answer your question I'm afraid, however, just wanted to say I am about to upgrade from the same CPU. I have had it at 4.5GHz OC on air for nearly 7 years, very stable and still going strong (It is going into a system for my son, I have GAS...). The sandy bridge CPUs really were astonishing at the time and even more so now. Eagerly awaiting some replies too

 

[james_2k]

much of a muchness at max overclock, can do more things in the background with more cores. but for gaming wont be much difference.

however, might want to read this to see the jump you will get from your old cpu

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2773-intel-i5-2500k-revisit-benchmark-for-2017

 

[BongoHunter]

Have got some experience on all of those platforms, if gaming is your main focus and budget in not an issue then 7820X is top of the the tree IMO (if 8c16t is your target)

However I do not see longevity on the 2066 platform as Intel will need to go a different way to compete with the AMD offerings on price - decent mobos are quite expensive as well on s2066.

TR4 is good IMO - but I'm only an occasional gamer, my own TR system is a lab in a box for me - and Intel cant get near it for performance per £ - unless you willing to got second hand Xeons on skt 2011. The 1900x is the fastest clocking TR chip - but the motherboards are expensive (£260+), personally I don't think it's worth going TR unless you take the 1920X or above though. 1900X can now be found online for less that top of the line Ryzen 7 chips - so it's swings and roundabouts really, awesome options for building a system though, - you get an outrageous number of PCIE lanes to use which really adds a lot of flexibility that is simple not available on other platforms without a really large spend.

You've mentioned Icelake - TR4 will be getting refreshed threadripper in the same kind of time frame - so might be worth putting on your list.

Best bang for buck 8 core right now, and for the foreseeable future IMO is Ryzen 7 on AM4 - yeah it will not win against a 6 core Intel as a pure benchmarking machine today - but it's really damn close for a lot less money, and software seems to be getting better and better in supporting higher core count CPUs which should give it a decently long life.

If your considering every option it may also be with a look at Xeon-W and Xeon Gold - I highly doubt these will be an economical option though!

 

[Seanoog]

Thank you everyone.
I appreciate the thread was a difficult one, I asked about platforms and then mostly answered my own question, but I wanted to be specific, and know what routes where available to me.

Have got some experience on all of those platforms, if gaming is your main focus and budget in not an issue then 7820X is top of the the tree IMO (if 8c16t is your target)

However I do not see longevity on the 2066 platform as Intel will need to go a different way to compete with the AMD offerings on price - decent mobos are quite expensive as well on s2066.

TR4 is good IMO - but I'm only an occasional gamer, my own TR system is a lab in a box for me - and Intel cant get near it for performance per £ - unless you willing to got second hand Xeons on skt 2011. The 1900x is the fastest clocking TR chip - but the motherboards are expensive (£260+), personally I don't think it's worth going TR unless you take the 1920X or above though. 1900X can now be found online for less that top of the line Ryzen 7 chips - so it's swings and roundabouts really, awesome options for building a system though, - you get an outrageous number of PCIE lanes to use which really adds a lot of flexibility that is simple not available on other platforms without a really large spend.

You've mentioned Icelake - TR4 will be getting refreshed threadripper in the same kind of time frame - so might be worth putting on your list.

Best bang for buck 8 core right now, and for the foreseeable future IMO is Ryzen 7 on AM4 - yeah it will not win against a 6 core Intel as a pure benchmarking machine today - but it's really damn close for a lot less money, and software seems to be getting better and better in supporting higher core count CPUs which should give it a decently long life.

If your considering every option it may also be with a look at Xeon-W and Xeon Gold - I highly doubt these will be an economical option though!

Thank you BongoHunter.
I had never even though of the Xeon Platforms. So that's some extra home work over the coming weeks.

I am truly spoilt for choice, from AMD's Ryzen to Threadripper to Intels mainstream offerings. But at this time I don't think I am in the market.

After tearing my system apart, reseating the ram, and double checking all cables where fully connected.
I did notice my ram is specified as been 1.6volts. Now I know Sandy bridge recommended ram at only 1.5volts.
So it's possible as the parts aged they are needing more power to operate.
So I upped the power to 1.575volts. And the system is significantly more stable.

I still get a odd cold boot start hiccup (cycles once or twice, then starts.)
But I have no problems now with the system running Prime95 or gaming for hours at 4.6Ghz which has always been my over clock.

As it stands if my system is stable for the foreseeable future, I won't be upgrading.
As for what Platform I'd like to upgrade too in the future, I'd like Icelake.
As I don't upgrade often, and with 32GB of high speed ram, an aggressive overclock, with a new GPU it would easily meet my gaming and workload requirements.
But time will tell.

Again thank you all for reading and contributing.

 

[B1gbeard]

Honestly OP at some point your thread will probably get filled with the same people arguing the same points as so many other threads.

Have a look on YouTube for benchmarks but look for ones that show actual in game performance and go from there. Testing Games seems a good one as they do CPU’s running side by side during real gameplay.

You’ll probably find all the cpu’s you mention will do a grand job but maybe for your specific games one is better. It’s probably worth waiting for the Ryzen refresh anyhow as it is so close.

 

[Jumper118]

2700X or 9700k would be my choice.

 

[~>Dg<~]

the simple truth of games is look at what intel have put out for most who game its a i5 with 6 cores and a i7 with 6 cores and high mhz.thats what you need for next two to three years.thats why its made.thats what you need.

amd offer you more cores cause they cant match the mhz.its that simple.if you cant offer what people want offer them something different which maybe appealing.its been their pitch for years now.

when 8 cores is needed you will see a 8 core i5 and i7 as mainstream chips.amd will just do more cores as usual.

 

[a66as]

Will you ever be going high refresh rate ? If your going to stick with the 30 inch monitor then wait for the new ryzen and that should serve you well

 

[jigger]

TR4 and Socket 2011 are more about what's on offer from the motherboard and although they offer a lot more features it's debatable if it's worth stumping up the extra money for gaming system.

At the current prices a Ryzen 1700/1800 is hard to look past, but I'd hold off until Ryzen plus is out before deciding.

 

[DarkHorizon472]

I would wait for the new version of Ryzen to come out, give it a month and then make a comparison so people have got used to how to get better performance out of it. When I bought my 1700 based on my budget it was either that or a 7700k at the time. Due to thinking multi core would be better used in the future and the AM4 socket is supported at least until Ryzen Gen 3. Had Intel had an equivalent product in price , spec and performance I would have considered that.

 

[voidshatter]

7820X

I wouldn't prefer these Mesh architecture CPUs - low overclockability, high inter-core communication latencies etc.

Ring Bus architecture is perhaps the best design for gaming in the past years and I'd like to see that on the 9700K if possible (though I'm not sure whether past 6 cores it would become less efficient than Mesh).

 

[Seanoog]

Will you ever be going high refresh rate ? If your going to stick with the 30 inch monitor then wait for the new ryzen and that should serve you well

I'd love to upgrade the monitor.
But what monitor is worth my money, that's 120hz 16:9 and larger than 30"?
Has it really got to a stage where high specification OLED or QLED TV's
are superior too monitors for gaming and movies?

TR4 and Socket 2011 are more about what's on offer from the motherboard and although they offer a lot more features it's debatable if it's worth stumping up the extra money for gaming system.

At the current prices a Ryzen 1700/1800 is hard to look past, but I'd hold off until Ryzen plus is out before deciding.

I'll be honest I haven't looked further into motherboards or a new CPU at this time.
I have fixed my Sandy Bridge system sufficiently, that it boots and plays every game I throw at it
while been stable.

But when I upgrade in the future (When the Sandy Bridge system stops working.)
I'd need a motherboard that supports 8+ SATA3 Ports. That's commonly available
on mainstream systems now?

I wouldn't prefer these Mesh architecture CPUs - low overclockability, high inter-core communication latencies etc.

Ring Bus architecture is perhaps the best design for gaming in the past years and I'd like to see that on the 9700K if possible (though I'm not sure whether past 6 cores it would become less efficient than Mesh).

I remember reading about the Intel change recently, relating to the change away from Ring Bus, too Mesh Architecture. And thank you for reminding me of the potential ramifications to gaming.

Similarly, doesn't Ryzen us a mesh like CCX architecture?
And that may be part of the reason why it's slower in games (Also lower overclock potential, partly due to manufacturing process?) But generally Ryzen and Thread-ripper are beast's in workload (Rendering and Trans-coding applications, to name a few.) When been compared to Intel counter parts.

Again thank you every one for contributing to the thread.

 

[DragonQ]

If you're dead set on 8 cores then you've pretty much covered your options. Ryzen 2, a future Intel Z390 8c/16t chip, or HEDT platforms. However, if you're pretty much just gaming then the best chip right now is the i7-8700K, which is 6c/12t and will probably continue to be fantastic for gaming for years. The i5-8600K is nearly as good and a lot cheaper, but if you do any heavily threaded tasks also the i7 will have a significant advantage.

 

[fadingfool]

I recently went from an i7 3770 to the i7 7820X and whilst not trouble free (trying to track down why the clocks won't boost after sleeping without a reboot) I do like this chip. The benches on CPU-Z has the single thread speed higher than all the reference chips (due to the intel turbo boost 3.0) and it keeps fairly cool with a closed loop cooler. Also went from a 970 to 1080Ti so gaming now is very nice. It is also used for work so I don't totally waste the cores.....