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So now that all the new Ryzens are here how many cores do we actually need in 2020?

Most likely 95% of PC users would have no need for more then a 4 core cpu
Sure if you are counting/concerned with people who just use their PC to check their email and surf the net.

I'm not sure I consider that to be relevant to this discussion tho.
 
Sure if you are counting/concerned with people who just use their PC to check their email and surf the net.

I'm not sure I consider that to be relevant to this discussion tho.
Even the 4 core (4770k) PC I have downstairs for the kids to game on I can't see it needing upgrading in 2020 just because it has a 4 core cpu
 
Maybe not before the new consoles launch, but after it'll be a different landscape.

When PS5 and Xbox SX both have a modern Zen2 8-core CPU, devs aren't going to waste too much time optimising for 4c/4t PC CPUs any more.

You'll probably get a sub-par experience on those CPUs in 2021 and beyond.
 
Maybe not before the new consoles launch, but after it'll be a different landscape.

When PS5 and Xbox SX both have a modern Zen2 8-core CPU, devs aren't going to waste too much time optimising for 4c/4t PC CPUs any more.

You'll probably get a sub-par experience on those CPUs in 2021 and beyond.
Am not jumping again into the most core count fashion

Back in about 2006 when I bought my first AMD 4400+ X2 dual core cpu just about nothing used or needed that second core for years
 
Ryzen at 2.8Ghz would be crazy efficient. 4-5 watts per core?

yeah these seems more in line with what I was thinking. I dont expect it to hit the same ghz level as the desktop cpu part, but I do expect it to be in the high 2's or low 3's range
 
yeah these seems more in line with what I was thinking. I dont expect it to hit the same ghz level as the desktop cpu part, but I do expect it to be in the high 2's or low 3's range

If we say MS have a max budget of 280watts for the APU? That should be enough to get close to desktop speeds assuming the current 60watt TDP capabilities of Ryzen. And leave a couple hundred watts for the GPU side. I can see the next round of consoles being PDQ.
 
I'd say a safe-ish bet is 8 core. Considering the way consoles are going (custom 8 core AMD chip)... seems sensible :)

2020 is the year where 8 core will become the base standard for the average desktop. Enthusiasts will go for 12 or 16 cores
 
6 core will become the base standard next year.

a high clocked 6 core may be enough to close the gap on desktop and bring parity but otherwise I'd still expect the ryzen 3700 inside of the next gen consoles to be faster even though its clocked a bit lower
 
Looking at cinebench single thread scores there is no meaningful difference between a 3700x and a 3950x.

So the only benefits of the ‘better’ Ryzen CPU’s are more cores(?) But can we realistically make use of those cores?

Is eight cores the new ‘four’?
Is having 16 cores only for niche use?
Isn’t eight cores simply overkill for most desktop consumer software?

Are you honestly going to buy a Ryzen for use in 2020 and then replace it before the year ends?

Surely it's better to ask how many cores we'll need in 2022 so you've got an extra couple of years use out of it?
 
Are you honestly going to buy a Ryzen for use in 2020 and then replace it before the year ends?

Surely it's better to ask how many cores we'll need in 2022 so you've got an extra couple of years use out of it?

Ironically I did just that in 2019, bought a 2700x in January and then a 3800x on Black Friday :o

I think many on here change their cpu like
their socks! Maybe even more frequently;)

But no the thread was started to get a picture of where we are today now that all the Ryzens have landed.
 
Ironically I did just that in 2019, bought a 2700x in January and then a 3800x on Black Friday :o

I think many on here change their cpu like
their socks! Maybe even more frequently;)

But no the thread was started to get a picture of where we are today now that all the Ryzens have landed.

Its easy with AMD due to the AM4 socket. You literally just buy a new CPU and replace - and given a reasonable sell value for the previous CPU, you're not even spending anything overly crazy to get it
 
Its easy with AMD due to the AM4 socket. You literally just buy a new CPU and replace - and given a reasonable sell value for the previous CPU, you're not even spending anything overly crazy to get it
My total ‘upgrade’ fee was £160 after selling free games and old cpu so not end of the world!
 
I think the safe bet would be the 3900X with 12 cores, 24 threads and a boat load of cache. Scaling across cores has been cracked even in a desktop environment, but I think next big thing to be leveraged and probably worth investing in will be CPU cache.
 
Are there any tests out there that disable cores on current CPU's and benchmark them? Gaming-wise how much performance do you lose, say even a 9900k @ 4 cores vs 8? are the extra cores really giving a big boost in gaming or is it mainly the IPC improvements?

You can find some evidence in BF5 where a 4 core stutters and struggles, probably if you dig around you'll find other evidence as well. From personal experience on a 2600x, in 6c/6t configuration, BF5 could get stuttery and freeze for a bit which is not much of an issue in 6c/12t. Also Watch Dogs 2 provides better performance in some cases with 6c/12t.
However, this is with a 2080 and a in triple display mode, so the CPU has to process more data due to the larger FoV. When I still had the [email protected], there were moments in different games that CPU could not properly feed the GPU (rtx2080).

Right now the minimum I'd say is 4c/8t with a fast CPU, but most likely the trend will move towards 8c/16t and probably here and there 12c/24t.


Seeing the results, most likely disabling the cores for such a test disables internal cache system as well, meaning lower performance for lower than 16cores (full CPU active), than it would normally be.
 
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