With the release of the highly-anticipated i9-9900k, gamers running Intel systems may still be wondering whether it’s worth upgrading to this pricey CPU, even over less-expensive options like the i7-9700k and the year-old i7-8700k. It can be tempting to default to the latest flagship model, but that may not be the best option for every builder.
There are new high-end CPUs available from Intel, and new low-end CPUs available from AMD. And we’ve taken a look at both!
It’s time for a big ol’ showdown as the shiny new flagship CPU of the Ryzen platform, the Ryzen 7 2700X, goes head-to-head with Intel’s high-end 8th-generation offering, the i7-8700K. We’ve got some big heavy hitters here, so let’s get into it!
A Ryzen CPU and an Intel CPU. Which system is a better value if we compare the full PC?
In the past few months, we have written comparison after comparison of AMD’s very successful Ryzen CPU series to Intel’s ultra-fast 8th generation Coffee Lake chips. (For a quick recap, here are a few: Ryzen 7 1700 vs Core i7-7700K and vs Core i7-8700K, Ryzen 5 1600 vs Core i5-7600K and vs Core i5-8600K.)
These processors are often comparable in terms of price and performance, but building a complete PC is a different story. In this article I will show the differences between two comparable Intel and AMD Ryzen systems, based on the i7-8700K and Ryzen 7 1700 respectively.
Like the other new 8th Generation CPUs from Intel, the i7 CPUs have proven extremely popular, continuously selling out as soon as they come in stock. The i7-8700 and i7-8700K are a jump up to 6 core/12 thread chips, which represents a significant improvement over the previous generation’s 4 cores and 8 threads.
That jump in core count means major improvements to performance, which means new possibilities the workloads we can expect from a new PC build. If you can manage to find one of these new i7 chips your local store or online, let’s have a look at what you’ll be able to build with them.
Intel’s Coffee Lake CPUs are part of the 8th generation of processors.
Last week, Intel released their Coffee Lake-based 8th generation CPUs. Intel has been usually refreshing their processors at the beginning of each year, but this one happened a few months early. (Earlier in July, Intel’s X299-based Skylake-X CPUs also experienced a rushed launch.)
It seems that AMD’s Ryzen CPUs really did light a fire under Intel, with the underdog AMD slowly earning the hearts of both reviewers and customers around the globe. But how does Intel’s newest Coffee Lake mainstream flagship CPU, the i7-8700K, compare to AMD’s Ryzen 7 processors, as well as the previous generation’s i7-7700K?