Should I move to AMD?

[JollyJamma]

Thanks this is a super helpful perspective on things - you’re right these days I’m unlikely to ever want to tinker and replace the cpu. Long time since my pc building days !

I think I’d want 64gb of ram, does that affect cpu choice at all? I guess overall an air cooler would be fine but are they noisier?

I like higher capacities of RAM because they tend to have an increased bandwidth which can help performance but I’d suggest you go with 48gigs instead as they put less strain on the CPU memory controller and are better overclockers as a result.

A good air cooler isn’t noisy.

 

[platypus]

I like higher capacities of RAM because they tend to have an increased bandwidth which can help performance but I’d suggest you go with 48gigs instead as they put less strain on the CPU memory controller and are better overclockers as a result.

A good air cooler isn’t noisy.

Ah I’m not bothered about over clocking. Just do a fair bit of compiling and rendering so wanting the higher ram.

Bearing in mind that I’ve had 32gb of slow ram on a slow counter years, perhaps just 32gb of ddr5 is going to blow me away anyway!

 

[JollyJamma]

Ah I’m not bothered about over clocking. Just do a fair bit of compiling and rendering so wanting the higher ram.

Bearing in mind that I’ve had 32gb of slow ram on a slow counter years, perhaps just 32gb of ddr5 is going to blow me away anyway!

Ah right, then yes. Go for the 64gigs.

I wouldn’t go with 32gigs of RAM in your case, I’d go with the full fat 64gigs.

DDR5 is Faster than DDR4 but it’s not THAT much faster that everyone needs to dump their old rigs and immediately run out and buy a whole new system.

I’d probably spec you following rig:
64gigs DDR5-6000 MT/s (it’s not mhz, it’s MT/s) and just make sure that it’s on the memory QVL list of the motherboard.
Any B650 or X670 motherboard that’s well rated by Buildzoid.

And this is where it gets spicy, if you’re using your system for gaming and video rendering and compiling, the 7900X3D and incoming 9700X3D might be a great choice. They are worse at rendering and compiling than the regular non X3D versions of the same CPU but they use less power and offer great gaming performance.

Edit: here’s a review on Puget systems for the X3D CPUs https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...ontent-creation-review/#CPU_Rendering_Blender

If you don’t game that often and are willing to take the slight gaming performance hit of having multiple CCDs on a CPU (since that adds latency and reducing FPS), then just go with the 7900X or 7950x or 9700X or 9750X (price depending).

I can’t recommend Intel at the moment. The 13900K and 14900K are great but their recent issue with CPU voltage damaging a lot of CPUs and essentially killing them is now being fixed by a microcode update applied via BIOS update but I remain concerned since most people aren’t comfortable fiddling around with the BIOS or even doing a BIOS update and the fix may not work in the long run.

If your budget doesn’t stretch that far, you could just pick up a used B450 motherboard, 5950X and 64gigs of RAM at 3600MT/s.

Here’s a comparison of new versus old Ryzen https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/amd-ryzen-9000-performance-vs-previous-generations/

Word of caution tho, make sure your RAM kit is 2 by 32gigs and not 4 by 16gigs as many motherboards struggle to run more than 2 DIMMs at full Expo or XMP speeds.

Edit: CPU rendering review https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...amd-ryzen-9000-series-vs-intel-core-14th-gen/

TL;DR: AMD Ryzen 9000 Series Processor Performance in CPU Rendering​

AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X grabs the top spot in CPU rendering, being 20-30% faster than the Intel Core i9-14900K. The other CPUs in the 9000 series do not hold on as well, however. The 9900X ranges from an even tie with the 14900X in Cinebench, to 10% faster in V-Ray, although it does have a lower cost and power draw. On the lower end, the 9700X and 9600X can’t keep up with either the Intel 14700K or 14600K.

That said, many users looking at this class of hardware would probably be better served with GPU rendering, in which case the new 9000 series do offer 12% faster single-core performance over the previous generation, putting them in a dead heat with Intel.

 

[JollyJamma]

The rig I would build you:

G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K) - ***** not stocked by Overclockers.

As per Buildzoid - Hynix with a strong profile for both Ryzen and Intel.

Ryzen 9 7900X - the 7950X and 9750X are too expensive and this should work really well for your needs. You can always upgrade to a 9750X or 10750X down the road if you need. £350 on the Overclockers shop. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am5-processor-retail-cp-3dh-am.html

Asrock X670E PG lighting EATX motherboard £250 on the Overclockers shop but not in stock. It’s well rated and well priced. Just make sure it fits in your chassis

You’ll probably need a new PSU so any well reviewed 750 watt PSU would do unless you’re running an RTX 4090 or something.

 

[platypus]

Amazing, thank you @JollyJamma .

 

[zaniro]

If you play strategy games then the X3D cache capability really shines. That was one of the reasons for me going AMD and X3D. These processors also help with increasing the 1% frame rate lows for a smoother gaming experience. I had an I7 6700K and recently got a 7900X3D.