Planning for a new PC build later this year, 5960x vs 8700k vs 7900x

[iguanaonastick]

I've had my 5960x system for quite a few years now. Normally at this point i'd just replace the GPU & continue using it, but there's been some.... complications. To put it in a tl;dr form - chassis is falling apart, some fans are failing, wiring is gone to hell, etc etc. So i will be replacing the chassis AND the GPU, AND the whole cooling system. At which point I might as well consider upgrading my Mobo/cpu.

My plan is to have the new system use the 1x whatever new Nvidia card comes out (Ive given SLI too many chances.. no more! SLI can go F itself), with idea that I will eventually be upgrading it to the "1180ti" or "Titan". This will be for a top-end gaming 4k gaming PC with some (not often) 3d / simulation rendering in maya, nuke, houdini etc.

Now, 5960x has been a decent processor but i really do want more clockspeed. I am running it on stock (mostly because due to aforementioned "complications" i cant give it enough cooling to safely oc it), but I plan to have the next system use Noctua DH15 or something similar, which would let me OC stuff. The question is, do i want to use 8700k or 7900x instead?

5960x seems to have lower performance than 8700k, but they are about the same when OC'd i think. The problem is losing considerable memory bandwidth by switching to 8700k. So it seems to be more of a sidegrade than an upgrade.

7900x seems to be overall a fantastic chip, the problem is that its clocked lower by default (which would normally be fine since you can OC, however...), however based on the few benches I saw, for it to reach same clock performance as other chips it heats up to something close to a volcano. I do not mind spending £££ if 7900x gives me better performance, however im afraid that unless i go for some uber custom loop, i will be getting LESS from it than I otherwise would from 5960x or 8700k. Almost every report says that 7900k requires a ******* fridge to work properly...

To put this into some perspective, i do not plan to use liquid cooling. My plan is to have something like Noctua DH15, Dark Rock 3 or Scythe FUMA + case fans in a large tower. Im too unexperienced to risk custom loops (+I want to avoid maintenance) and i dont trust AIOs (plus they dont seem to be better than air anyway). If i can run the CPU around 4.6-4.7 or so while gaming, that's fine by me - i dont need to push into 5+. I do however multitask while gaming (i.e. i'd be watching some movies, or a twitch stream on 2nd monitor while 4k gaming on primary monitor, or downloading some torrents etc), so im not sure if i can trust the default Turbo boost, hence the need to overclock.

Another factor to keep track of is age/socket. 8700 and 7900 are using the new 14nm, while my 5960 is 22, and the fact that 5960 is relatively older socket means it less "future proof". There is also issue of PCIe lanes etc - although im really stupid in this regard, and know nothing about whats good or bad.

Given all this, would you recommend i:

1. Get the new mobo for my existing i7 5960x, and OC it?
2. Get the new mobo AND i7 8700k and OC it?
3. Get the new mobo AND i9 7900x and DONT OC it?
4. Get the new mobo AND i9 7900x and OC it?
5. Do nothing, ducttape the system until Icy Lake comes out?

Cheers!

 

[DragonQ]

I don't think any current chip will offer much improvement on your i7-5960X for gaming at 4K, especially if it's overclocked. Depends if you want extra cores for your other tasks or not. If you need a new motherboard though, you'll be buying a dead-end one (as is always the case with Intel really), so there's that to consider. It might be more prudent to sell the i7-5690X and get a new CPU anyway because of this, it depends how much you can get for it.

Also, planning what to do later this year is kinda silly when we don't know what the market will be like then.

 

[iguanaonastick]

What do you mean a "dead-end"? As in, outdated? I dont really mind that, as long as it performs well enough not to cockblock the rest of the system. But i do agree that it might make sense to futureproof so that when next cpu comes out, i dont have to replace mobo AGAIN just to swap the chip out.

However, you say "wont offer much improvement". Does it mean it will actually offer improvement? My issue was that I wasn't sure if 8700k and 7900x were upgrades. 8700 seems like a sidegrade at best (possibly downgrade in some aspects while gaining clockspeed), while 7900x has requirements that might render it unuseable. Or am i wrong?

Budget is not an issue, i dont mind spending some ££ to get new mobo and chip if it means objective improvement. I just dont want to spend £1k to gain 1fps and lose quad channel for ram...

 

[DragonQ]

What do you mean a "dead-end"? As in, outdated? I dont really mind that, as long as it performs well enough not to cockblock the rest of the system. But i do agree that it might make sense to futureproof so that when next cpu comes out, i dont have to replace mobo AGAIN just to swap the chip out.

However, you say "wont offer much improvement". Does it mean it will actually offer improvement? My issue was that I wasn't sure if 8700k and 7900x were upgrades. 8700 seems like a sidegrade at best (possibly downgrade in some aspects while gaining clockspeed), while 7900x has requirements that might render it unuseable. Or am i wrong?

Budget is not an issue, i dont mind spending some ££ to get new mobo and chip if it means objective improvement. I just dont want to spend £1k to gain 1fps and lose quad channel for ram...

Dead-end as in there are no potential upgrades down the line, except for higher core count Xeons that will likely be expensive and not overclockable.

The i7-8700K might be faster in certain scenarios, primarily since it will clock higher (5 GHz is relatively easy with good cooling, delidding is advised also). You'd lose two cores though, making it slower in heavily threaded applications compared to simply overclocking your current CPU. Finding gaming benchmarks that include the i7-5960X might be difficult, but essentially if you're gaming at 4K the CPU will not matter much since you'll be heavily GPU bottlenecked.

If you don't want to lose cores and also want an upgrade (no matter how small and at any cost) then you could go for an i7-6700K but honestly it'd be a total waste and will not be noticeably faster.

 

[iguanaonastick]

If i stay with 5960x, and just OC it a bit, how long do you think it will last me gaming wise?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If i stay with 5960x, and just OC it a bit, how long do you think it will last me gaming wise?

What graphics card do you have now??

If you are playing some games(like modded FO4 with massive settlements and loads of NPCs,as it limited by one or two threads and memory latency/bandwidth),the Core i7 8700K would be an upgrade,but in most scenarios especially at 4K it would not,and the Core i7 7900X with its different cache arrangements does not always play well with games compared to a Core i7 8700K or even a Core i7 7700K.

Also,another release is Zen+ which is coming out in the next month or so,and will have the corresponding X399 release a few months after that.

TBH,if I were you,especially with the cost of DDR4 RAM currently,I would just stick with what you have. Look at a game like Kingdom Come Deliverance which is one of the most taxing games currently:

http://gamegpu.com/action-/-fps-/-tps/kingdom-come-deliverance-test-gpu-cpu
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-page...-graphics-performance-benchmark-review,8.html

It uses CryEngine 3 which threads well and your Core i7 5960X is nearly as fast as CPUs like the Ryzen 7 1800X and is not far off a Core i7 8700K when overclocked.

However,since it is so taxing,realistically at 4K you will be GPU limited.

I can see the CPU easily lasting the next 12 to 24 months at 4K,if you are playing titles based on more modern engines.

 

[iguanaonastick]

Based on your responses and those of other places, i seem to be more and more inclined to think that the best option for me is to OC my 5960 to something like 4.1-4.2 and stick with it until 2020 or something. Would I be gimped CPU/Mobo wise if i do that, sometime in future? Assuming i update my GPU etc as they become available?

(Also im planning to reuse a lot of stuff from my current build, like RAM, PSU etc)

 

[darket]

The first thing you need to realise is that there is no such thing as future proof in pc gaming.

The 5960x when it was released was regarded as overkill for gaming and anything you upgrade to now will be a side grade at best.

If i were you i'd get a new case , fans, and custom watercool that 5960x and settle for around a 4.4-4.5 ghz overclock.

What motherboard and memory are you running with that 5960x ?

 

[~>Dg<~]

here is how it generally works out. for trouble free gaming and just gaming normally the newest i5 and i7 options available are the easiest option for performance gaming with no headaches.the tier top platform stuff is always fastest overall but will bring headaches at some point due to it being more expensive and technical in most regards.also if anything breaks replacing parts is also often expensive especially if it was a top tier previously and a out dated platform.

there is no reason really to go to a 8700k from what you have.i wouldnt go from any x99 chip to a 8700k. so it would be the 7900 if anything. the thing is its going to be a expensive move and you have a decent system.tweak it and its still as anything mainstream anyway.

your cpu will be fine for 2-3 years yet.we wont have massive jumps now as the consoles are pretty new.most games will cater for them so not that many pushes will be made gaming wise.its often just as a new console comes out you see big jumps not when they been out a while as the platform is already made for the games to be made to.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Don't be afraid of custom water. Read some guides, watch some videos and use the forum. Leak testing is a must but if you take care and abuse kitchen roll at key positions there's nothing to fear. Coolant isn't conductive anyway so a mild splash isn't the end of the world even if you did.

Choose your parts carefully and maintenance is a non issue. I've voluntarily drained and refilled my custom loop twice in about 5 years. The other couple of drains were for GPU changes. A well placed drain point, leech resistance tubing and no nonsense clear undyed premix coolant makes for long maintenance intervals.

 

[dark-knight]

Save your pennies and wait until you really need to upgrade. My CPU is the same as yours with 2 x 980Ti`s. Plays and encodes everything I throw at it for the time being and will probably last me a while. I may upgrade the tower as its looking a little dated and probably will get better cooling from a new one too.

 

[Radox-0]

I own (or did) all three of those chips only getting rid of my 5960x few days ago, and have the 8700k and 7980XE instead of the 7900x (but broadly similar for gaming as only primary cores are used) so can help you out in terms of how it performs.

If are you as you suggest looking at 4k, so I assume 60hz, then I would say keep your 5960x. The 5960x has no issues driving 60hz with the limitation usually being on the GPU's. If you were gaming at higher refresh rates which means the CPU has a higher load in order to prepare more frames, then the 8700k could start to shine, but for 60hz, the 5960x is more then capable.

With that said, the Noctua NH-DH 15 can overclock pretty respectably on the 5960x, so I would do that, then crank up the overclock, also upping the cache. That will give a nice bump to performance. If your happy with your workload performance and only plan on 60hz gaming, stick with the 5960x, the other's will not provide much of a benefit increase.

 

[zola25]

Is your board actually broken OP? If not, I'd be inclined to stick with what you have and just replace the chassis, cooler, fans etc. Then OC the CPU and upgrade the GPU if required.

Unless there's a problem with your CPU or board, there's very little to be gained by moving to a new platform.