Intel’s Core i7 processors is probably not absolutely the cream of the crop any extra because of the introduction of their new ninth Gen Coffee Lake Core i9 vary of gaming CPUs, however I’ll be damned if the Core i7-9700Ok nonetheless isn’t one of many best gaming CPUs you should purchase right this moment. For starters, it prices a heck of quite a bit lower than Intel’s high canine Core i9-9900K, with costs beginning at £360 / $410 at time of writing in comparison with the whopping £485 / $490 you continue to must fork out for the i9. Plus, its gaming efficiency is fairly darn nice, too. Here’s wot I feel.
One of the largest issues Intel’s achieved for its ninth era of Coffee Lake Core i7s is improve the core rely. Whereas the Core i7-8700K was a six-core / twelve-thread CPU, the Core i7-9700Ok is an eight-core chip with eight threads to its title. Sure, it’s misplaced Intel’s Hyper Threading help (that’s now reserved for the eight-core / sixteen-thread Core i9-9900Ok), however as you’ll quickly see from the outcomes beneath, the lack of these 4 further threads isn’t actually that huge a deal relating to the i7-9700Ok’s total gaming efficiency.
Intel have additionally bumped the i7-9700Ok’s most Turbo Boost velocity up by one other 200MHz, taking its high velocity as much as 4.9GHz right here over its 4.7GHz eighth Gen predecessor. However, you’ll virtually definitely want a greater cooling resolution than a regular tower cooler to get the very best out of the i7-9700Ok, as my BeQuiet BK009 Pure Rock cooler couldn’t actually reduce it once I tried overclocking the rattling factor. Indeed, it solely boosted to round 4.6GHz once I was operating Cinebench’s multicore check, and any makes an attempt to go greater than 4.7GHz in Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility Software not solely confirmed indicators of thermal throttling however was additionally more and more unstable.
As such, I’d extremely advocate pairing this CPU with a liquid cooler if you happen to’re going to go for it, however that’s to not say you received’t nonetheless get an important gaming expertise with out one. Indeed, check out the graphs beneath and also you’ll see it presents considerably extra efficiency than the Core i7-8700Ok, and (a minimum of with my restricted cooling choices) is simply as nippy because the Core i9-9900Ok.
Admittedly, testing any CPU’s gaming efficiency remains to be a little bit of a nebulous train. As our pals at Digital Foundry have explained in the past, numerous benchmarks both don’t check your CPU correctly, or just aren’t very correct within the first place. Fortunately, a handful of gaming benchmarks have gotten quite a bit higher at this lately, with the likes of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and extra all offering an in-depth take a look at your CPU’s efficiency in addition to what your graphics card’s doing.
That mentioned, there are additionally a number of different elements that may impression gaming efficiency, resembling your graphics card, the kind of RAM you’ve bought, and even what kind of storage you’ve put in the game on. As a end result, getting a really correct image of a CPU’s gaming efficiency is difficult, however I’ve achieved the very best I can with the tools out there to me.
I’ve additionally centered much more on gaming efficiency on this evaluate than I’ve on, say, utility efficiency or media creation ins and outs as a result of, properly, I’m not likely involved in that. I’ve included some cursory Cinebench scores as a fundamental indicator of what every CPU can be like for common desktop duties, however actually, my principal aim right here is to work out what CPU is the very best for gaming and gaming alone.
And relating to the Core i7-9700Ok, it drives a really laborious discount certainly. As you’ll see from the graphs beneath, its out of the field efficiency is definitely just about neck-and-neck with what I managed with the Core i9-9900Ok. Again, apply higher cooling to each CPUs and also you’ll most likely get higher outcomes than what I’ve bought right here, however I’d argue these are nonetheless fairly good numbers regardless.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as an example, I used to be capable of get one other 10fps over the Core i7-8700Ok at 1080p simply by switching processor. That’s mad! That’s extra what I’d anticipate to see when upgrading my graphics card, not to mention my CPU. Of course, the Core i7-9700Ok’s beneficial properties weren’t fairly as massive elsewhere, however it nonetheless managed to squeeze out one other 5fps from Total War: Warhammer II and 6fps from Forza Horizon 4. That’s fairly spectacular, all issues thought of, and I think about you’ll see a fair wider hole with a correct liquid cooler.
Admittedly, its 1440p efficiency wasn’t fairly so jaw-dropping, however given the overall uniformity of my outcomes at this decision, it simply goes to point out how a lot games are nonetheless GPU-bound right here, even after they’ve bought Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at their disposal – and if you wish to see the even flatter plateau of my 4K gaming outcomes, then head over to my best gaming CPU article for the whole rundown.
One factor is for certain, nevertheless – AMD’s Ryzen 2700X can’t maintain a candle to Intel’s Core i7-9700Ok at both decision, and I’d undoubtedly advocate spending the additional 100-odd quid if you happen to really need the very best gaming CPU that doesn’t fully soften your pockets. Of course, I’ll be very to see what the brand new AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPUs carry to the desk as soon as they launch on July seventh, because the $329 Ryzen 7 3700X, $399 Ryzen 7 3800X and $499 Ryzen 9 3900X chips are all primed and able to tackle the Intel huge boys. Naturally, I’ll replace this evaluate as soon as I’ve had an opportunity to check them out for myself, however evidently, they’re going to have a reasonably large process on their fingers in the event that they’re going to beat the Core i7-9700Ok.
Of course, one space the place AMD are prone to completely crush their Intel rivals is normally multi-tasking efficiency. After all, even the Core i7-9700Ok struggles to match AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X chip on multicore efficiency within the Cinebench R20 benchmark, and that hole will seemingly solely get even greater as soon as AMD’s Ryzen 3000 CPUs arrive on the scene.
Intel nonetheless have the sting for single core efficiency, although (a minimum of for now), however as I discussed up high there, I’m actually not that fussed about how a CPU handles artistic functions and rendering software program and the like. If you’re going to make use of your PC primarily for that goal, then by all means go along with AMD, as you’ll little question really feel the distinction while you’re enhancing movies, rendering bits of animation or compiling who is aware of what into who is aware of the place.
For those that primarily use their PC to play games, Intel remains to be undoubtedly the way in which to go – though once more, this will properly change as soon as AMD’s top-end Ryzen 3000 CPUs arrive on July seventh. In the meantime, although, the Core i7-9700Ok is fingers down the best gaming CPU you should purchase right this moment that received’t completely cripple your checking account.
