Very interesting information, thanks! I'll be honest; I'd not really looked into the 9700k at all and didn't really know much about it. With your mentioning it I did a little more reading. It seems like a rather interesting CPU upgrade to do, and I'm specifically intrigued by the fact that it doesn't have HT, keeping temps fairly low. I'm surprised at the clock speed! 4.8GHz across all cores out of the box is pretty amazing to me! Especially that you say that you can achieve this with the Noctua cooler, as I've got essentially the same one (well... the 15S). That's a huge relief for me. My prime concern with the i7 was the temps, and it's why initially I didn't want to go with the 8700k and thus opted for the 8600k instead. You're making a strong case for the 9700k... I think, down the line, I might treat myself with it, perhaps in another few months or so. Depending on how P3D performs with that upgrade, I may or may not opt for a GPU upgrade.

Thanks for all the information SunDevil. I think I have a pretty good idea now of the sort of upgrade path that I will take!

7 hours ago, Benjamin J said:

 I'm surprised at the clock speed! 4.8GHz across all cores out of the box is pretty amazing to me! Especially that you say that you can achieve this with the Noctua cooler, as I've got essentially the same one (well... the 15S). That's a huge relief for me. My prime concern with the i7 was the temps, and it's why initially I didn't want to go with the 8700k and thus opted for the 8600k instead. You're making a strong case for the 9700k...

Everyone's system is different... How much a 9700K would benefit you over your current CPU, and without changing your graphics card is anybody's guess..

Here's a screen capture of the 9700K in action... This was about halfway thru a 45 minute P3D v4.4 session, note the average clock speeds, which to me is a more useful metric than minimum or maximum speeds. because it shows you the average clock speeds over the course of your P3D session... All I can tell you is it's working great for me, and CPU package temps run in the upper 50's to low 60's, I don't think i've ever seen it top 63C even after long periods of P3D use in intense scenery environments. FWIW, I used AS5 thermal paste on this CPU with the Noctua NH D-15, but the Noctua paste is an excellent choice as well.

Edited February 22, 20197 yr by SunDevil56

REALLY Happy with my set up got 43inch 4 k tv set at 30hz ....runs mint

 

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