Need or Want to Upgrade?

So, is there any need for those still running the Core i7-5820K to upgrade? In brusque, no, and as mentioned in the intro, we largely knew equally much before fifty-fifty running the first criterion. For gaming, the gains simply aren't in that location and nosotros'll take a closer expect at that in a moment.

Moving away from gaming for a 2d to clear up one exception: if y'all've overclocked your 5820K to the max it's even so not getting the job done apace enough, then yes, an upgrade can help reduce workload times.

For productivity workloads, the overclocked 8700K was 20-thirty% faster, so information technology's your call on whether or not information technology seems worth to buy a new CPU, motherboard and potentially higher-clocked DDR4 memory.

It's worth noting that the Ryzen 7 1700 is $100 cheaper than the 8700K and for most productivity workloads it is equally fast or faster with both CPUs overclocked. There certainly are applications that still favor Intel CPUs, and then make certain you lot research how these CPUs compare in the applications you'll be using.

If gaming is the focus and application performance is more of a secondary demand, then correct at present Intel is the best choice, at least for flat out performance with the latest and greatest GPUs.

Here's a await at the average results seen across the half-dozen games tested. Here the 5820K was just ten% slower and that's seen when using an extreme GPU on balmy quality settings. That's certainly not a large margin and I can't imagine anyone would ditch their 5820K for that kind of proceeds.

Under more realistic conditions we run into just a half-dozen% reject in operation when using the 5820K as opposed to the 8700K and you can expect that margin to at least halve once more when going to 4K, if non evaporate entirely.

So information technology's not worth upgrading from the 5820K to annihilation newer for gaming, nosotros've established that much. Productivity is a petty more catchy but that really comes down to how much money you're willing to invest to reduce your downtime past about 20-xxx% and even and so, you lot're better off looking at CPUs with eight or more than cores for a truly worthwhile upgrade.

It's a complicated ownership decision and while some people like to attempt and simplify it with their ain bias by saying either Intel or AMD is better, the truth is that information technology'south far more circuitous than that.

2d-hand shoppers... bold a realistic $250-$300 price for the Core i7-5820K and X99 combo, that's at least 40% cheaper than the $500 that an 8700K and bones Z370 board volition fix you back -- a big difference, especially since the performance difference for gamers is negligible. Of course, second-mitt hardware comes with obvious drawbacks such every bit a lack of warranty for example, merely 40% off may be worth the adventure to some.

The other culling would be a Ryzen 7 1700, which when coupled with a decent B350 board tin can support a 4GHz overclock in many cases and the philharmonic only costs $360 or so. In other words, you'd exist saving $100 at about by going the second-hand route, and realistically probably less than that. While gaming operation volition exist every bit good or better with the 5820K, many productivity workloads will be additional with the Ryzen seven CPU.

You besides become a warranty with the brand new parts, so personally I'd shy abroad from the 2nd-hand market in this situation. Additionally there'due south at present likewise the security issues that come up with older Intel hardware and we're not 100% certain when CPUs such equally the 5820K will receive the required BIOS update to help mitigate those concerns. That update will come with at least a iii-v% performance hit in games and then be aware of that. I believe MSI simply rolled out updates for X99 boards simply once more, note that all of this testing was done pre-patch.

In brusque, if yous're a gamer and you already take a 5820K, keep it for at present. If you're looking to buy second-manus, it seems better to aim for something cheaper like a Haswell Core i7-4770K or 4790K. Unless you're getting the 5820K with a motherboard for less than $250, nosotros wouldn't bother. AMD's recent Ryzen price cuts really make products like the R5 1600 and R7 1700 mighty tempting just even then it might pay to concord out for a few more months and see what the Ryzen refresh brings and what that does to prices.

Shopping Shortcuts:

  • Intel Core i7 8700K on Amazon, Newegg
  • Intel Core i5 8600K on Amazon, Newegg
  • AMD Ryzen 7 1700 on Amazon, Newegg