Hello, I will shortly be upgrading my CPU on my system. I have 3 options, and I would appreciate your views on the matter. I really only 'play' Flight Sims (Prepar3D, MSFS2020). Both options will require motherboard changes. I will not be overclocking CPU, as I will get B motherboards

Current PC:

i5 7500 (4C/4T) 

16GB 2133mhz DDR4 RAM (Will be the next upgrade)

2070 Super OC

 

Option 1:

i9 10900F Base 2.8GHZ Boost 4.5GHZ 10C/20T

 

Option 2:

i5 11600KF Base 3.9GHZ Boost 4.9GHZ 6C/12T

 

Option 3:

i7 10700KF Base 3.8GHZ Boost 5.1GHZ 8C/16T

 

Having searched through this forum and others, people seem to say that although P3D v5/DX12 has definitely improved CPU utilisation it is still very dependent on the performance of the main thread. 

On PassMark CPU Benchmark the i5 achieves a 260 point lead over the i9 in single thread performance, with the i7 inbetween

So really my question I suppose is it worth having fewer cores at higher speeds? Thank you:)

 

Edited April 6, 20215 yr by AppleUK

Max budget for the CPU?

7 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Max budget for the CPU?

Thank you for your reply

CPU, Cooler, Motherboard max around £550-575 mark

Currently the i9 10900F is £325

i5 11600KF £225

i7 10700KF £290

So many choices, I do like to watch some Youtube in flight, so maybe 6 Cores is not the correct choice. 

Just to say, if there were no supply issues I would have gone with Ryzen, but of course, that is not possible now

Edited April 6, 20215 yr by AppleUK

Intel 10900K

Asus Prime Z490-P (Upgrade if you can spare as bit more money) 

Noctua NH-U14S.

Total about £618. On Amazon UK. 

You could upgrade the cooler to NH-D15S or an AIO in the future, if you wanted to get heavy will OC. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-NH-U14S-Premium-Cooler-NF-A15/dp/B00C9FLSLY/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=nhu+-+14s+chromax&qid=1617724027&s=computers&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Z490-P-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Motherboard/dp/B08827G69R

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Core-i9-10900K-base-stroke/dp/B0883NZC43

 

Edited April 6, 20215 yr by martin-w

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

Intel 10900K

Asus Prime Z490-P (Upgrade if you can spare as bit more money) 

Noctua NH-U14S.

Total about £618. On Amazon UK. 

You could upgrade the cooler to NH-D15S or an AIO in the future, if you wanted to get heavy will OC. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-NH-U14S-Premium-Cooler-NF-A15/dp/B00C9FLSLY/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=nhu+-+14s+chromax&qid=1617724027&s=computers&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Z490-P-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Motherboard/dp/B08827G69R

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Core-i9-10900K-base-stroke/dp/B0883NZC43

 

Thank you for your help. Having looked further, I think I'm definitely going to say no to the i5 as 6 cores is not adequate. 

With the i9, I'm not able to stretch to the 10900K which leads me with 2 options:

i9 10900F or i9 10850K - I'm leaning towards the i9 10850K as it gives me room to overclock and I can also upgrade motherboard in the future.

I suppose though any i9 option will be a 'noticeable' upgrade over my current CPU

I'm looking at similar upgrading however have been looking at AMD. Is this something you've considered? The difference between the two seems to be negligible with AMD coming out ahead nowadays in all but outright single threaded performance (which from what I've read is still really neck and neck).

 

22 hours ago, AppleUK said:

Just to say, if there were no supply issues I would have gone with Ryzen, but of course, that is not possible now

The 5600X and 5800X are readily available through the likes of Scan and Overclockers. But if you go with the 5800X and have to keep to your budget it could get a bit tricky as it's priced just a bit less than the 10900K.

11 hours ago, KL Oo said:

I'm looking at similar upgrading however have been looking at AMD. Is this something you've considered? The difference between the two seems to be negligible with AMD coming out ahead nowadays in all but outright single threaded performance (which from what I've read is still really neck and neck).

 

Hi I have been looking at Ryzen, I use PassMark CPU Benchmarks as my go to comparison tool. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Obviously theres many game comparisons on Youtube, but I think MSFS and P3D is pretty unique so prefer to use synthetic benchmarks.

I definitely have ruled out the 5600X as I want more than 6 cores.

 

I have found the Ryzen 7 5800X for £390 which I think is a very good price, considering most places have it for over 400.

I would then likely choose the AMD Wraith Prism cooler for £40 and the B550M for 100.

 

The only thing is that initially I will have to use 2400mhz RAM

Edited April 7, 20215 yr by AppleUK

10 hours ago, AppleUK said:

Hi I have been looking at Ryzen, I use PassMark CPU Benchmarks as my go to comparison tool. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Obviously theres many game comparisons on Youtube, but I think MSFS and P3D is pretty unique so prefer to use synthetic benchmarks.

I definitely have ruled out the 5600X as I want more than 6 cores.

 

I have found the Ryzen 7 5800X for £390 which I think is a very good price, considering most places have it for over 400.

I would then likely choose the AMD Wraith Prism cooler for £40 and the B550M for 100.

 

The only thing is that initially I will have to use 2400mhz RAM

That would really hurt performance, Ryzen 5x00 needs 3600mhz CAS 16 or better RAM to show its strengths

10 hours ago, Charlatan said:

That would really hurt performance, Ryzen 5x00 needs 3600mhz CAS 16 or better RAM to show its strengths

Yeah that’s one of the reasons why I’m heading towards Intel