Gaming CPU successor to 3700x

Yella Fella · 8 Jul 2021 at 13:49

I've started gaming heavily mainly in shooters, FPS and soon racing games. Currently have 3700X and 3700ti card with 64GB DDR4 ram. I also edit videos too. Question is do I really need it and would it make that much of a difference? I've had my eye on the 5900x

I'd also favour best bang per buck however willing to spend more if it makes much difference. Also gaming on a 1440P monitor with 165Hz refresh.

Orcvader · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:35

At that resolution it will be the 3070 Ti being the bottleneck, however if you're editing videos often then the extra CPU grunt will definitely help a lot.

Yella Fella · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:50

I thought the 3070ti is good and far more capable at handling 1440P over 4K as that's where the 3080+ comes in no?

pc-guy · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:57

depend on the game. some games to get over 100fps @ 2K needs a lot of grunt so GPU bound. other games can shoot over 200fps @2k CPU bound.

the best is to see what game you are playing and see what the reviewers are getting at 2K res in FPS and compare with yours.

in all fairness if you are looking at over 150FPS you are more likely to be CPU bound than GPU bound so going to Zen3 chips will yield better experience but the question is really do you need those extra frames...

Cyber-Mav · 9 Jul 2021 at 06:48

May be best to wait and see if the zen3+ vcache chips come to am4.

Joxeon · 9 Jul 2021 at 07:36

You won't gain much if anything in gaming when moving to zen 3 from zen 2 with a 3070ti@1440p however a 5900X would certainly speed up video editing. If gaming fps though is the priority then moving to a 3080 / 6800XT would be a better use of the cash rather than dropped the £500 on a CPU.

Yella Fella · 9 Jul 2021 at 13:15

pc-guy said:
depend on the game. some games to get over 100fps @ 2K needs a lot of grunt so GPU bound. other games can shoot over 200fps @2k CPU bound.

the best is to see what game you are playing and see what the reviewers are getting at 2K res in FPS and compare with yours.

in all fairness if you are looking at over 150FPS you are more likely to be CPU bound than GPU bound so going to Zen3 chips will yield better experience but the question is really do you need those extra frames...

I've been getting average 160fps with my setup, usually set medium/high not ultra. Mainly been on Warzone, and Doom Eternal which again same average FPS. Not tried Apex yet and just started Age of Empires. Its crashing a fair bit so trying to see if its a driver issue or temp as its all stock coolers.

Yella Fella · 9 Jul 2021 at 13:17

Joxeon said:
You won't gain much if anything in gaming when moving to zen 3 from zen 2 with a 3070ti@1440p however a 5900X would certainly speed up video editing. If gaming fps though is the priority then moving to a 3080 / 6800XT would be a better use of the cash rather than dropped the £500 on a CPU.

I struggled editing on my 970 card and it just about handled Canon C200 raw footage fine especially when I upgraded to the 3700X CPU setup. I'm keen to see and it should with the upgrade be able to handle C500 mkII RAW files at full 6K.

Not a pro gamer and the jump from 60 to 160Hz is more than enough for me.

jigger · 9 Jul 2021 at 22:31

I’d probably look at 5900X or maybe a 5950X. The 5800X would offer a decent upgrade but it’s still only a 8c16t CPU.

StephenJ · 14 Jul 2021 at 10:18

Can you list some of the games you play, then we can have a better idea if a cpu change will help

Tetras · 14 Jul 2021 at 13:55

It's hard to describe any CPU as a gaming 'successor' to a 3700X, there's only been one generation ahead and I'd expect a successor to be more... meaningful. People are still upgrading to a 3700X. Like said above, it might help more with video editing, but that also depends on the software you're using.

jigger · 18 Jul 2021 at 13:10

Looks like you’ll gain about 20% in games maybe a little more with games that leverage 12 cores. With the current state of the graphics market that is actually good value.

Joxeon · 18 Jul 2021 at 13:34

jigger said:
Looks like you’ll gain about 20% in games maybe a little more with games that leverage 12 cores. With the current state of the graphics market that is actually good value.

Games won't be anywhere near +20% @1440P with a 3070ti and even 5% would be pushing it but that said productivity would get a decent boost with the 5900X.

jigger · 18 Jul 2021 at 13:42

Joxeon said:
Games won't be anywhere near +20% @1440P with a 3070ti and even 5% would be pushing it but that said productivity would get a decent boost with the 5900X.

Zen2 to Zen3 is about 20% improvement depending on how many cores can be leveraged and system config. You could see more than 20%.

TheRandomGuy7 · 19 Jul 2021 at 22:25

5800x is your best bet. 5900x won't be any faster than that CPU for gaming at 1440p.

Whether the 5900x is worth it for you depends entirely on how much you do video editing and how much you value better performance in that.

Yella Fella · 22 Jul 2021 at 13:04

TheRandomGuy7 said:
5800x is your best bet. 5900x won't be any faster than that CPU for gaming at 1440p.

Whether the 5900x is worth it for you depends entirely on how much you do video editing and how much you value better performance in that.

I'm opting for best bang per buck performance. I'll look at costs... I went for the 3700x original because of that though sure some said the 3600 was better value.

TheRandomGuy7 · 22 Jul 2021 at 14:21

Yella Fella said:
I'm opting for best bang per buck performance. I'll look at costs... I went for the 3700x original because of that though sure some said the 3600 was better value.

It all depends on your needs and usage.

Best bang for buck for gaming is the 3600, it has been since its release. If you need 8 cores your best bang for buck is a cheap 3700x. If you want less bang-for-buck today, but you're looking towards the future or you potentially do video editing etc, then the 5800x or 5900x are better options.

Yella Fella · 22 Jul 2021 at 22:31

TheRandomGuy7 said:
It all depends on your needs and usage.

Best bang for buck for gaming is the 3600, it has been since its release. If you need 8 cores your best bang for buck is a cheap 3700x. If you want less bang-for-buck today, but you're looking towards the future or you potentially do video editing etc, then the 5800x or 5900x are better options.

I think I need to rephrase and add in the looking towards the future part. Not urgent at the moment so looking for a deal when it happens. Now to find a heatsink/fan that will fit the NZXT case.

dave28 · 22 Jul 2021 at 22:35

Cyber-Mav said:
May be best to wait and see if the zen3+ vcache chips come to am4.

I would wait, wont be that long before seemingly everyone has the 3+ and all the 3 owners will be green with envy

The Asgard · 24 Jul 2021 at 20:26

dave28 said:
I would wait, wont be that long before seemingly everyone has the 3+ and all the 3 owners will be green with envy

I think all the 3 owners will be happy for quite a while. I certainly won’t be upgrading to anything anytime soon.

There always will be something better on the horizon. Enjoy now and be happy