Ryzen 7 1700 vs i7 7700k for gaming

Shaz12 · 4 Jun 2017 at 04:47

I am going to be using this PC for only gaming at 1080P resolution. I was leaning towards the Ryzen because it has more threads and cores which may make it future proof but the i7 is showing higher frames at this resolution. Is there a significant difference? I am pairing the CPU with either a 1080ti or a top end Vega.

PS- I got burnt with Piledriver and my FX 8350 is even bottlenecking my 970 in many games like BF 1 so I really don't want a headache of lower frames down the line as games become more CPU dependant

FredFlint · 4 Jun 2017 at 06:06

Ryzen CPU's are very good, the worst case would be that the I7 would be a bit faster in some games and a lot slower in others. As more games start to use more cores the Ryzen CPU's will get better, The I7's are already maxed out in a lot of games where the R7's are at 50-60%. I would not get a quad core CPU now, especially when they cost more than an R7 8 core.

DarkHorizon472 · 4 Jun 2017 at 08:04

In bf1 my 1700 runs at 30% while my gpu is maxed out at 1080p. Faster ram improves ryzen so aim for 3000 or better speed that is ryzen compatible at that speed.

andy_mk3 · 4 Jun 2017 at 08:13

DarkHorizon472 said:
In bf1 my 1700 runs at 30% while my gpu is maxed out at 1080p. Faster ram improves ryzen so aim for 3000 or better speed that is ryzen compatible at that speed.

What GPU do you have?

spolsh · 4 Jun 2017 at 09:00

an RX480 according to his sig.

DragonQ · 4 Jun 2017 at 10:47

Either Ryzen or wait for Coffee Lake if you can. I agree that there's no point buying a quad core right now.

Panos · 4 Jun 2017 at 10:53

DragonQ said:
Either Ryzen or wait for Coffee Lake if you can. I agree that there's no point buying a quad core right now.

Coffee Lake going to be more expensive than Ryzen 7 CPUs. I do not believe would make sense, like the 7700K doesn't make today.

DragonQ · 4 Jun 2017 at 11:11

Panos said:
Coffee Lake going to be more expensive than Ryzen 7 CPUs. I do not believe would make sense, like the 7700K doesn't make today.

Well it depends if it clocks any higher than Broadwell-E (we already know IPC won't be much better). The 6c/6t Core i5s might be interesting but only if they are priced appropriately, which I doubt they will be.

DarkHorizon472 · 4 Jun 2017 at 11:19

andy_mk3 said:
What GPU do you have?

The rx480, inherited from my previous machine. My plan is to upgrade it when needed but at the moment it works well for me.

Panos · 4 Jun 2017 at 11:29

DragonQ said:
Well it depends if it clocks any higher than Broadwell-E (we already know IPC won't be much better). The 6c/6t Core i5s might be interesting but only if they are priced appropriately, which I doubt they will be.

Actually given the size of the chip, no.

EsaT · 4 Jun 2017 at 11:55

DragonQ said:
Well it depends if it clocks any higher than Broadwell-E (we already know IPC won't be much better). The 6c/6t Core i5s might be interesting but only if they are priced appropriately, which I doubt they will be.

And if tolerances in seating heatspreader are still bad use of TIM instead of solder also makes keeping temperature down as factor in deciding clock speeds.

But anyway with riding on brand name still working I doubt Intel is going to price their hexa cores cheaply.

Panos · 4 Jun 2017 at 11:57

EsaT said:
And if tolerances in seating heatspreader are still bad use of TIM instead of solder also makes keeping temperature down as factor in deciding clock speeds.

But anyway with riding on brand name still working I doubt Intel is going to price their hexa cores cheaply.

Yep.

Look at the Skylake-X lineup quote from guru3d today

Now I did some rounds with the mobo partners and simply asked them what clock frequencies they can tweak the 8 and 10 core parts at with a more normal cooling method, like LCS or a really proper heatpipe cooler. The magic number seems to be 4.2 to 4.3 GHz depending on the ASIC quality. And if you are wondering about it: the 4.5 GHz Turbo 3.0 you see noted as a spec means that likely only two cores will be able to run that frequency simultaneously (while others are clocked lower).

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/co...up-to-10-cores-first-does-4-3-ghz-on-lcs.html

Don't expect anything better on Ghz count as Intel cramps more core in that small die size. And lets not forget the Coffee Lake will have an IGP on it also.

Shaz12 · 4 Jun 2017 at 15:26

Is the Asrock Taichi X370 a good mobo for Ryzen? Also will choosing 2400mhz RAM over 3000mhz have an effect on gaming?I dont want to get into overclocking the RAM as there are several issues with Ryzen on that front. I want to allocate as much as possible to the GPU

Panos · 4 Jun 2017 at 15:30

Shaz12 said:
Is the Asrock Taichi X370 a good mobo for Ryzen? Also will choosing 2400mhz RAM over 3000mhz have an effect on gaming?I dont want to get into overclocking the RAM as there are several issues with Ryzen on that front. I want to allocate as much as possible to the GPU

Yes and yes. 3200Mhz is better also.
On Ryzen CPUs higher speed ram affects performance directly due to Infinity Fabric.
The difference between 2133 to 3000 is something like 15% in pure gaming FPS

muon · 4 Jun 2017 at 15:34

Shaz12 said:
Is the Asrock Taichi X370 a good mobo for Ryzen? Also will choosing 2400mhz RAM over 3000mhz have an effect on gaming?I dont want to get into overclocking the RAM as there are several issues with Ryzen on that front. I want to allocate as much as possible to the GPU

Depends if GPU limited which at reasonable settings you shouldn't be.

Great video below. At 1080P you get some gains from memory for GTX 1080 and GTX 1080Ti.

GTX 1070 shows no gains.

So if its a case of getting expensive memory + 1070 or cheaper memory and a 1080 then I'd go for the latter.

Also worth noting the first written comment from the uploader where they talk about 1440P and 2160P.

Shaz12 · 5 Jun 2017 at 18:40

Some of the videos I am seeing show the 1080ti dropping below 60 on Ryzen at 1080P compared to the 7700k which is almost 20 fps ahead. Can the difference be made up by ocing?

GAC · 5 Jun 2017 at 18:47

Shaz12 said:
Some of the videos I am seeing show the 1080ti dropping below 60 on Ryzen at 1080P compared to the 7700k which is almost 20 fps ahead. Can the difference be made up by ocing?

the problem is if you check the dates like the above video they are all a month or more ago. id be interested to see where ryzen stands now with its updated memory bios tweaks.

Brizzles · 5 Jun 2017 at 18:59

If you want to squeeze every last frame out of certain games, and you can't wait - then the i7 7700k

If you want a CPU that is pretty close, and can only get better with optimising - then Ryzen

In 6-12 months time the i7 will still be performing as it does today, but in 6-12 months with Ryzen you will have a newer, more mature platform with more cores/threads that software will start to use.

muon · 5 Jun 2017 at 19:25

Shaz12 said:
Some of the videos I am seeing show the 1080ti dropping below 60 on Ryzen at 1080P compared to the 7700k which is almost 20 fps ahead. Can the difference be made up by ocing?

The chips there have all been overclocked already.

3570K - 4.5ghz
7700K - 4.7ghz
1700 - 4.0ghz

The 7700K is better for nearly every game right now. There is no doubt about that, especially if you are going to use a 1080Ti at only 1080p.

The game at 3.05 looks very badly optimised, but it does show how the 7700K is nearing the limit in that game hitting 90%+ across all cores now and again. However the FPS does remain easily higher than the 1700 at all times.

At 1080p with a GTX 1080Ti, go for the 7700K. Spending a lot on that GPU and you want to get that benefit at 1080p.

Panos · 5 Jun 2017 at 20:56

Using NV cards with Ryzen it all depends the drivers. There is a known issue with NV drivers and Ryzen affecting the performance on the later.

Also the benchmark is from April!!!! A lot of water had flown under the Ryzen bridge since.
2666mhz to 3200mhz ram is 10-15% more FPS depending the game.