Ryzen vs Intel for development?

[DevPete]

I'm a developer and want to build a fast machine (Windows 10). I'm trying to decide whether to go for an Intel i9 10900kf or Ryzen 3950x/5950x. The Intel is cheaper and in stock but I would need to wait for a 5950x as the seem to be out of stock and I don't know when more will come in. The 3950x is in stock but it would be a shame to get one if the 5950x is going to be available soon.

I'm wondering whether development (compilation and running tests) would be able to utilize 16 cores (32 threads) or whether the extra cores wouldn't bring much benefit. My current 6 core (12 thread) processor seems to use all cores albeit only slightly. Has anybody tried development with any of these processors? I would really like to see everything being instant, or at least close to instant.

The i9 would probably be better than the 3950x with < 20 threads but the 5950x would probably match or beat the i9 in all scenarios.

Any recommendations?

 

[sideways14a]

The 5600,5800 and 5900 will match or thump the i9 in most tasks - you dont need the monster 16 core job to do that now.

 

[chroniclard]

Er what compilation and testing is going to be instant on any platform.

What dev work is it?

Arguably the latest Ryzen processors are going to be marginally quicker than comparable intels.

 

[DevPete]

Thanks, the 5900x looks ideal. Very good single core performance and multi-core performance that is similar to the 3950x!

The dev work is mostly .Net and Javascript/typescript ie. Angular. In terms of testing, it's automated ('unit') tests.

 

[Jimmy Weirdarms]

Been using a 3800X for the last year or so to develop java and bits of C. Anything that can spread across more than a couple of cores can usually spread across all available cores. I know of no workload that can benefit from 20 threads but not 24 or 32 (that's not been deliberately limited like "make -j 20").

I have a 5950 on preorder. Gonna be a beast.

 

[jakspyder]

I'd think a 5900x, with a very fast gen4 nvme drive and 32GB of fast, tight timing DDR4 is going to be the sweet spot when looking at high end performance vs cost. I'd only really go for the 5950x if you have massive cash to burn, or that compilation time is a significant bottleneck that the cost justifies the savings. I think you'd need quite significantly huge projects to compile for the 16 core to be worth the money.