I’m considering a new PC build, which at the moment consists of a Ryzen 7800X3D processor and a RTX 4070 Ti Super. I plan to use the PC for not just flight sim but a variety of other games (action, adventure, simulation, not an FPS guy). Additionally i will plan to use the PC for streaming and productivity (video and graphics editing) which is why I’m leaning towards an nvidia GPU.
With that being said I’ve seen suggestions that for mixed usage (gaming and productivity) one should consider swapping the 7800X3D for either the 7700X or the new 9700X. Wanted to ask for thoughts here.
Actually, the sim loves the 3D cache as it makes the sim experience smoother so you definitely want to stick with an x3d processor. If you need to use it for other productivity tasks as you mentioned above, you’ll want the 7950x3d. The 7950x3d has the x3d cache on half of its cores (8) and no x3d cache on the other half of its cores (8). The x3d cores are down clocked a little due to heat considerations of the 3D cache whereas the other normal cores can run at a higher clock rate.
Windows knows when you run a game to put it onto the x3d based cores and when you run non-games (productivity apps) to run them on the higher clocked cores for speed. Unfortunately, the 7950x3d does come at a higher cost.
Not as well as you’d hope, unfortunately. Many games still run faster on a 7800X3D than a 7950X3D despite the latter being a strictly better CPU from a hardware perspective.
On topic I would absolutely stay with your current chip unless you really need more than 8 cores. The 7700X is a downgrade for almost everything if not literally everything, and the 9700X typically isn’t much faster.
The only plausible upgrades are the 12- and 16-core variants, but gaming would probably suffer, especially if they are non-X3D.
Based on the info available at the moment I wouldn’t bother with any of the 9000 cpus launched to date. They aren’t much faster than the equivalent 7000 series and cost a lot more.
I would say you have to make a decision whether gaming or productivity is your priority. If it’s gaming then I would say get the 7800x3d. If it’s productivity then I would consider the 7900/7900x. If you want to do gaming and productivity then maybe the 7950x3d.
Rumours are circulating that the new 9800x3d cpus could be announced early in Jan next year but given the poor reception of the 9000 cpus and given that the Intel Arrow cpus are releasing on Oct 17 this year I half wonder if the 9800x3d could release later this year especially if the Arrow lake cpus turn out to be better than the 9000 cpus released so far. Maybe wait 'till late Oct before making a decision?
From what I’m hearing the 9000 series CPUs will have more headroom for overclocking if that’s your bag, as they run similar performance at a lower default power limit. But they’ve had a bumpy start, and the 7800X3D is a known winner. Avoid 9000 for now.
I’d recommend sticking with the 7800X3D unless you specifically know that you want to do stuff like long video encodes or software compiles that will literally double in speed with the 16-core 7950X3D and you know that that will be a big enough benefit to you to be worth the added price and complexity in performance tuning (as it’s got the double chiplets with differing cache).
I keep saying the current move is to use the 7800X3d but get a 670 mobo so when the next great thing comes along sell the 7800 and move on. But stick with 6000 CL28-30 ram. GPU is tougher as the 4070tis/7900xtx/4080s kind of dance in a very tight circle. On paper the 7900xtx should be a hero if properly utilized in '24, but Nvidia is the king of GPU software, AMD relies on the game developer. I don’t think any of those will be an issue regardless, maybe look towards the other games you play.
If you’re going to be taxing the productivity limits as a power user, you’d be better looking at a 7950X3D, building it for a next gen CPU swap if needed.