The next best thing for GPU performance

Dirk Diggler · 22 May 2017 at 11:33

OP updated May 2019

I'm looking to make a purchase this summer or autumn and I've been doing a lot of research. I'm finding it difficult to fix on what to go for because of fanboy entrenchment and people maybe not understanding that there's no point buying something that doesn't meet the needs of the intended purpose. There's also this kind of gamble going on where people are purchasing tech based on what they think the future will need?

I have no preference for Intel or AMD.

Here's my criteria:

I want to push the latest GPU to the highest FPS possible at 1440p.
~~I want to push multiple GPU's in this way (maybe SLI will improve etc)~~ SLI is dead!
I'm happy to sell on after a year if something better comes along - so longevity isn't a big factor.
My preference is micro ATX/ITX without losing too much CPU performance (overclocking etc).
Budget is not an issue
This build is for pure GPU performance, I'm not interested in how fast it can encode an episode of Game of Thrones - intended use is gaming only.
Current CPU is 2700x.

So where would you invest?

Quartz · 22 May 2017 at 11:40

AMD are about to release their Vega GPUs, so you might want to be patient.

Dirk Diggler · 22 May 2017 at 11:50

@Quartz the GPU isn't important to me right now, it's the rest of the system I'm looking to plan.

DragonQ · 22 May 2017 at 11:52

You're probably going to be interested in X299 (Skylake IPC, 6+ cores with SMT, higher clocks than Ryzen, more PCIe lanes than Ryzen or Z270, money not an issue, etc.).

Hagar · 22 May 2017 at 11:52

Wait and see what Intels reactions are to AMD Ryzen in terms of pricing, cores etc. in June / July. Then buy that or a Ryzen 1700 / C6H / 32Gb 3600 DDR4 for < £1k.

voidshatter · 22 May 2017 at 12:10

String said:
I'm happy to sell on after a year if something better comes along - so longevity isn't a big factor.

I have little brand preference here, but throughout the countless gaming reviews I do find almost all games to run best with the 7700K @ 5.2GHz at the moment, with a few exceptions. I would recommend waiting for the Kaby Lake-X 4C8T and see the overclocking performance, provided that it does better overclocking than Skylake-X 6C12T.

I'm not bashing AMD here as I also used to be an AMD user and it's good to see competition, but recent reviews suggest Ryzens may stutter a bit more in games.

If things ever change in one year and 4C8T becomes thread-bound, you can always sell and move on to Skylake-X 6C12T or 8C16T.

Dirk Diggler · 22 May 2017 at 12:28

Something I really should've mentioned: Current CPU's are 6700k and 5930k so I need to see an improvement over them.

DragonQ · 22 May 2017 at 12:33

String said:
Something I really should've mentioned: Current CPU's are 6700k and 5930k so I need to see an improvement over them.

Well you can expect a very small clock boost over both of those with X299, and a small IPC boost over the 5930K. Aside from more cores you're not going to get much.

Dirk Diggler · 22 May 2017 at 12:53

DragonQ said:
Well you can expect a very small clock boost over both of those with X299, and a small IPC boost over the 5930K. Aside from more cores you're not going to get much.

Yes, that may very well be it. I'm saying longevity isn't important but it may be forced upon me as there isn't much improvement on the way.

That's kind of why I'm asking the question here, for pure engine to GPU performance I'm not convinced that there's much on the way. The 6700k is two years old now, and the 5930k is three years old. With all the talk of resurgence and competition and cores etc.. I'm looking at what's there for a GPU powerhouse and it's not improving much from what I can see?

X-Mikuru_Beam-X · 3 Jul 2017 at 17:20

String said:
With all the talk of resurgence and competition and cores etc.. I'm looking at what's there for a GPU powerhouse and it's not improving much from what I can see?

There really is next to nothing exciting around for gamers CPU wise, you can keep looking all you want but youll be dissapointed...

I'm looking to upgrade my 4770k, but as a gamer nothing I've seen from Intel x299, or AMD zen makes me want to part with a grand in cash!

gavinh87 · 3 Jul 2017 at 17:28

String said:
Something I really should've mentioned: Current CPU's are 6700k and 5930k so I need to see an improvement over them.

You won't with the current offerings. Wait for coffeelake.

Doobedoo · 3 Jul 2017 at 17:49

What you really need is some rbg, like go faster stripes for cars only cooler and way more functional

X-Mikuru_Beam-X · 3 Jul 2017 at 17:57

gavinh87 said:
You won't with the current offerings. Wait for coffeelake.

I'm not even sure coffee lake is going to be interesting now sadly, I don't know how reliable this article is but it makes CL look lacklustre

https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel/intel-14nm-coffee-lake-release-date

Perfect_Chaos · 3 Jul 2017 at 18:07

Not much interesting coming until Ice Lake or Zen 2 now, not even worth changing your system if you have anything fairly current.

I bet my 5820k could go strong another few years easily. Would be nice to have a good option before then though.

Dirk Diggler · 3 Jul 2017 at 18:08

I think I'll give up the hunt with this, and await the next GPU release (if the miners haven't ruined it

).

gavinh87 · 3 Jul 2017 at 18:11

X-Mikuru_Beam-X said:
I'm not even sure coffee lake is going to be interesting now sadly, I don't know how reliable this article is but it makes CL look lacklustre

https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel/intel-14nm-coffee-lake-release-date

First time I've seen that. I agree it doesn't look that exciting. We all know it will be fast than whats currently out there for mainstream but at the cost of a whole new platform? No thanks.

X-Mikuru_Beam-X · 3 Jul 2017 at 19:46

gavinh87 said:
First time I've seen that. I agree it doesn't look that exciting. We all know it will be fast than whats currently out there for mainstream but at the cost of a whole new platform? No thanks.

My sentiments exactly, Im sure it will clock much better than its AMD counterpart but... not interesting enough to shell out top dollar!

Chuk_Chuk · 3 Jul 2017 at 20:05

Surely the performance is going to be game dependent, as it has been shown that a Ryzen 7 can beat a 7700k in certain games (a few but they exist). If you want to tailor it to your needs I would recommend posting what games you play and what games you plan on getting in future. I'm assuming that you turn everything off while gaming?

GAC · 3 Jul 2017 at 20:14

gavinh87 said:
You won't with the current offerings. Wait for coffeelake.

with having that 6700 id wait until what comes after coffeelake as the jump you'l get wont be that great really. maybe buy a sli 1080ti setup.

DragonQ · 3 Jul 2017 at 23:04

X-Mikuru_Beam-X said:
There really is next to nothing exciting around for gamers CPU wise, you can keep looking all you want but youll be dissapointed...

I'm looking to upgrade my 4770k, but as a gamer nothing I've seen from Intel x299, or AMD zen makes me want to part with a grand in cash!

This is a good thing though, it means you can put money into GPU upgrades rather than needing a whole new rig every 2-3 years to keep up. The only thing missing has been price reduction because of a lack of competition. I'm sure Intel and AMD will step up their game over the next couple of years but I still am not convinced there's going to be any large surge in single-threaded CPU performance in that time.

Sadly the down side is the lack of competition in high end GPUs.