6 Cores vs. 8 Cores for Gaming: 24 Game Benchmark

So my bigger question is what to do if you're still on a paltry four cores?

From my side - should I upgrade my 6700K or my GTX1080 when new products drop in the Fall? (gaming only use case)

I suspect even with the horrendous bottlenecking an RTX 4k upgrade will give more (if not smoother) FPS. Don't know if the fact I've got HT will be any comfort!
I'd go with the CPU upgrade before the GPU as that 1080 can handle almost everything tossed at it except for Ray Tracing. If you don't play anything that uses RT, then you're not missing anything with that 1080 and even if your are, as you don't have it, you still aren't missing anything if it handles 4k at 120fps w/o RT.
 
So the simple take-away from this article is this: Some games are more CPU dependent than others and the higher the framerate, the more important a CPU will become.

Conclusion:
If you are going to buy a highend GPU and will be gaming at 1080p, you will need a higher end CPU to match.
If you are going to buy a highend GPU and will be gaming at 1440p, you will still need a higher end CPU to match.
If you are going to buy a highend GPU and will be gaming at 2160p, you will still need a higher end CPU to match.
If you are going to buy a highend GPU and will be gaming at 4320p, you will still need a higher end CPU to match.

In contrast:
If you are going to buy a midrange GPU and will be gaming at 1080p, you will not need a higher end CPU to match because the GPU would not need as much performance from it's CPU.
If you are going to buy a midrange GPU and will be gaming at 1440p, you will not need a higher end CPU to match because the GPU would not need as much performance from it's CPU.
If you are going to buy a midrange GPU and will be gaming at 2160p, you will still need a higher end CPU to match because what a GPU can not do in hardware a CPU will often end up doing in software.
If you are going to buy a midrange GPU and will be gaming at 4320p, you will still need a higher end CPU to match because what a GPU can not do in hardware a CPU will often end up doing in software.

Hopefully, this will help simplify the choices for a few buyers.
 
So the simple take-away from this article is this: Some games are more CPU dependent than others and the higher the framerate, the more important a CPU will become.

+1

Everything has to scale nicely and if "today" a 6 core CPU will do, tomorrow you'll need an 8 core. So if you buy for just a couple of years, save $100 and go 6 core; if you want for the next 5 years, then go 8 core. The same applies for GPUs, ram etc.
 
6-core ain't hardcore :)

P.S. My desktop is on Ryzen 7 5900X (12-core)
and what do you have that uses ALL those cores??? mostly it is the CPU and GPU **speed** that counts... and then the number of 0's in cash you can afford..
 
Best upgrade I made in 2014 was to get the 4-core & 8-thread 4790k. It has lasted me 8 years, and I finally feel its time to move on from 4-cores.

With the newest consoles having 8 cores (and lets be real, they set the standard for what hardware games will utilize) and Unreal Engine 5 being utilized for many future games (which by default uses 8 cores), 8 cores will become the standard in a few years. My next upgrade will therefore be the 12700k on Black Friday. I'm very confident that'll last me another 8 years with its 12 cores and 16 threads.

Next console upgrades will be in 2027, so it'll be interesting to see how many cores will be standard by then (guessing 24, but maybe 32 if intel/AMD competition heats up).
 
You mean assuming you only game. If you also do some real work 8 cores is a much better choice and I'm moving to 12 cores with Zen 4, for photo and video editing, running simulations, using blender etc the more the better in most cases.
His inclusion of "1440p resolution" should have made it obvious he was talking about gaming.
 
If socket life matters (it appears that's all that matters lately), there is no reason to build an AMD system with either of these CPU's.

5600 is better for upgrade from slower Zen chips on AM4. Intel is the choice for new systems and platform upgrades.
 
Shame there isn't a 4 core comparison as well. It would be interesting to see whether 6 cores is a
real minimum requirement or whether 4 cores is still adequate. Maybe repeat the whole process with hyperthreading turned off to see how that affects things.
 
Do you guys think it's time to upgrade my 2700X with a 5600X or wait for Zen4?
I'm actually playing both new and "old" games with a RTX3080 at 3440x1440 but seems like some games works pretty bad with my configuration (for example in Grounded I'm only getting 70/90 FPS with Epic settings instead of 100/120 like other people with a 3080 do), even if the workload on the CPU with my resolution should be pretty low compared to the GPU
 
Thanks for sharing this detailed piece. For a beginner like me its really helpful and aids me in making a viable decision.
 
I may have changed my mind about getting the R7-5800X3D. Here in Canada, right now, these are the current selling prices of the Ryzen 5000 lineup:

R5-5500: $200
R5-5600: $260
R5-5600G: $350
R5-5600X: $400
R7-5700G: $460
R7-5700X: $380 <- HOLY COW!!!
R7-5800X3D: $570
R7-5800X: $600
R9-5900X: $750
R9-5950X: $1030

I thought that maybe Canada Computers had made a mistake but Memory Express is also selling the R7-5700X for $380. That's $190 less than the 5800X3D and $220 less than the 5800X! The total performance gap between the 5700X and the 5800X is reputed to be 2-5% (nothing that anyone would notice) and that price is so low it's just insane! I think that I'm going to get that CPU today because the TDP of the 5700X is 65W, that's 32% LESS than my 95W R5-3600X!

This is one of those deals to which I cannot say no. That $190 difference between it and the 5800X3D will probably be far more valuable as a contribution to my AM5 platform in a few years than spending it on a 5800X3D. I'm all giddy now.... :laughing:
 
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I may have changed my mind about getting the R7-5800X3D. Here in Canada, right now, these are the current selling prices of the Ryzen 5000 lineup:

R5-5500: $200
R5-5600: $260
R5-5600G: $350
R5-5600X: $400
R7-5700G: $460
R7-5700X: $380 <- HOLY COW!!!
R7-5800X3D: $570
R7-5800X: $600
R9-5900X: $750
R9-5950X: $1030

I thought that maybe Canada Computers had made a mistake but Memory Express is also selling the R7-5700X for $380. That's $190 less than the 5800X3D and $220 less than the 5800X! The total performance gap between the 5700X and the 5800X is reputed to be 2-5% (nothing that anyone would notice) and that price is so low it's just insane! I think that I'm going to get that CPU today because the TDP of the 5700X is 65W, that's 32% LESS than my 95W R5-3600X!

This is one of those deals to which I cannot say no. That $190 difference between it and the 5800X3D will probably be far more valuable as a contribution to my AM5 platform in a few years than spending it on a 5800X3D. I'm all giddy now.... :laughing:
Will also upgrade from my 2700x to a 5700x - I‘ll take lower power consumption for slightly less performance every day.

It‘s €249 (CAD 328) including taxes over here. Let‘s see if there are good Black Friday deals to get it even cheaper. The 2700X was €150 including shipping and a game when I got it new.
 
Will also upgrade from my 2700x to a 5700x - I‘ll take lower power consumption for slightly less performance every day.

It‘s €249 (CAD 328) including taxes over here. Let‘s see if there are good Black Friday deals to get it even cheaper. The 2700X was €150 including shipping and a game when I got it new.
Wow, $328CAD? Maybe I'll wait a bit longer. After all, I'm not exactly hurting for it and if it can be sold for less, I'll let time drag the price down further. :laughing:
 
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Will also upgrade from my 2700x to a 5700x - I‘ll take lower power consumption for slightly less performance every day.

It‘s €249 (CAD 328) including taxes over here. Let‘s see if there are good Black Friday deals to get it even cheaper. The 2700X was €150 including shipping and a game when I got it new.
I honestly can't believe this but.... Memory Express just dropped the price of the R7-5700X from $380 to $310 CAD!
Amazing what a difference that just one day can make, eh? I should thank you because the price you said to me gave me pause and made me realise that they had more room to drop the price.

Yesterday, I saw that newegg.com (in the USA) had the 5700X for the equivalent of $340CAD. When I saw the price of $310CAD, I didn't think twice and pulled the trigger! I just checked newegg.com again and saw that the price jumped to the equivalent of $390CAD! This is all just insane!

I'm just in a happy state of shock right now because I just got this thing for $80CAD less than THE AMERICANS are paying for it! That's essentially unheard of in Canada....

Irata, I swear, you are my good luck charm (or something like it) because we talk and this happens! :laughing:
 
I honestly can't believe this but.... Memory Express just dropped the price of the R7-5700X from $380 to $310 CAD!
Amazing what a difference that just one day can make, eh? I should thank you because the price you said to me gave me pause and made me realise that they had more room to drop the price.

Yesterday, I saw that newegg.com (in the USA) had the 5700X for the equivalent of $340CAD. When I saw the price of $310CAD, I didn't think twice and pulled the trigger! I just checked newegg.com again and saw that the price jumped to the equivalent of $390CAD! This is all just insane!

I'm just in a happy state of shock right now because I just got this thing for $80CAD less than THE AMERICANS are paying for it! That's essentially unheard of in Canada....

Irata, I swear, you are my good luck charm (or something like it) because we talk and this happens! :laughing:
That would be nice. Of course now I will need to wait so I can get it cheaper than you 😉
 
That would be nice. Of course now I will need to wait so I can get it cheaper than you 😉
If you can, more power to you! :D

An interesting thing happened that really had me pissed off. I had to update the BIOS of my motherboard (ASRock X570 Pro4) for it to accept the 5700X. I did the flash update the exact same way that I always did with my previous (and now backup) motherboard, an ASRock X370 Killer SLI. Everything went smoothly, it said that the update was successful, press enter to reboot. So I rebooted and my PC was stuck in the ASRock logo screen. I couldn't enter the UEFI and it would not boot Windows. By all appearances, the mobo had been bricked by the update.

I tried everything that I could think of. I reset the CMOS several times, I tried changing CPUs, the board diagnostic LED had "BOOT" and "VGA" solidly lit so I tried swapping out my RX 6800 XT for an R9 Fury but nothing had any effect. I saw a post on one of ASRock's forums that said to try leaving the CMOS battery out for 4 hours or more so I tried that. I took the mobo to work and popped out the CR2032. It was left like that for about six hours.

When I took it home, I hooked it up to the PSU with only the SSDs attached and, much to my shock, the thing booted up. Windows wouldn't load past the Windows logo because I hadn't set the BIOS date but it booted. It appeared that the 6 hours without a CMOS battery had done the trick so I thanked my lucky stars and put my PC back together only for it to go back to pretending to be bricked.

I was puzzled as hell. What was causing this? I started thinking about what was different between it working and not. Then I realised that I had five SATA devices attached to the mobo which got me thinking. I remembered that my X370 Killer SLI once refused to post because there was something about one of my 2TB hard drives that it didn't like. To this day, I have no idea what it was because the drive is still alive and working in an enclosure. I then realised that there had to be some problem with one of my oldest hard drives.

After playing "pull a SATA cable and boot" for about ten minutes, I discovered that it was actually TWO drives that were causing the issue. I use one of these drives to store games that I'm not currently playing (I copy games over to my gaming NVMe when I'm playing them) and I can't remember what the other drive is for but I know that I have my music collection on it.

Well, I think that they're also both 2TB drives so I'm replacing them with two 8TB internal drives and put them in enclosures. I'll copy the stuff over to the 8TB drives, format the 2TB drives and copy the data back to keep as backups. It sure beats waiting to download an entire game from Steam, Origin, Epic or uPlay and it also keeps my game progress intact. I found a great deal on 8TB drives ($155 each) so I'll get two of them and I'll be able to eliminate all of the other drives in my PC. Hell, maybe I'll finally move it over to the new case I bought (that I never used because it only holds 3 HDDs).

I was using my mining rig as a backup PC during all of this and it suddenly shut itself off and won't turn on again. It's my ancient Gigabyte 990FX motherboard with my FX-8530 on it. It's possible that my OCZ Z1000M PSU has finally given up the ghost. I'm hoping that's what it is because I came across an incredible deal on Gigabyte 650W 80+Bronze PSUs... $40 each!

If my motherboard is the problem, well, replacing that will be impossible. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed! :D
 
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If you can, more power to you! :D

An interesting thing happened that really had me pissed off. I had to update the BIOS of my motherboard (ASRock X570 Pro4) for it to accept the 5700X. I did the flash update the exact same way that I always did with my previous (and now backup) motherboard, an ASRock X370 Killer SLI. Everything went smoothly, it said that the update was successful, press enter to reboot. So I rebooted and my PC was stuck in the ASRock logo screen. I couldn't enter the UEFI and it would not boot Windows. By all appearances, the mobo had been bricked by the update.

I tried everything that I could think of. I reset the CMOS several times, I tried changing CPUs, the board diagnostic LED had "BOOT" and "VGA" solidly lit so I tried swapping out my RX 6800 XT for an R9 Fury but nothing had any effect. I saw a post on one of ASRock's forums that said to try leaving the CMOS battery out for 4 hours or more so I tried that. I took the mobo to work and popped out the CR2032. It was left like that for about six hours.

When I took it home, I hooked it up to the PSU with only the SSDs attached and, much to my shock, the thing booted up. Windows wouldn't load past the Windows logo because I hadn't set the BIOS date but it booted. It appeared that the 6 hours without a CMOS battery had done the trick so I thanked my lucky stars and put my PC back together only for it to go back to pretending to be bricked.

I was puzzled as hell. What was causing this? I started thinking about what was different between it working and not. Then I realised that I had five SATA devices attached to the mobo which got me thinking. I remembered that my X370 Killer SLI once refused to post because there was something about one of my 2TB hard drives that it didn't like. To this day, I have no idea what it was because the drive is still alive and working in an enclosure. I then realised that there had to be some problem with one of my oldest hard drives.

After playing "pull a SATA cable and boot" for about ten minutes, I discovered that it was actually TWO drives that were causing the issue. I use one of these drives to store games that I'm not currently playing (I copy games over to my gaming NVMe when I'm playing them) and I can't remember what the other drive is for but I know that I have my music collection on it.

Well, I think that they're also both 2TB drives so I'm replacing them with two 8TB internal drives and put them in enclosures. I'll copy the stuff over to the 8TB drives, format the 2TB drives and copy the data back to keep as backups. It sure beats waiting to download an entire game from Steam, Origin, Epic or uPlay and it also keeps my game progress intact. I found a great deal on 8TB drives ($155 each) so I'll get two of them and I'll be able to eliminate all of the other drives in my PC. Hell, maybe I'll finally move it over to the new case I bought (that I never used because it only holds 3 HDDs).

I was using my mining rig as a backup PC during all of this and it suddenly shut itself off and won't turn on again. It's my ancient Gigabyte 990FX motherboard with my FX-8530 on it. It's possible that my OCZ Z1000M PSU has finally given up the ghost. I'm hoping that's what it is because I came across an incredible deal on Gigabyte 650W 80+Bronze PSUs... $40 each!

If my motherboard is the problem, well, replacing that will be impossible. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed! :D
Ouch - hope the board is OK.
 
Ouch - hope the board is OK.
Yeah, me too. If it isn't, it's not the end of the world. It has more than served its purpose but I have a feeling it's the PSU because the motherboard is a Gigabyte Ultra-Durable and those things are borderline immortal. The OCZ Z1000M however, well, that was actually my third because I had originally bought a 1kW GameXStream (which failed), which was replaced by OCZ (to their credit) with a non-modular Z1000 (which also failed), which was replaced again with the partially-modular Z1000M. Still, that PSU is 12 years old so complaining about it would be kinda pathetic, eh?

Either way, they were some of the greatest tech purchases that I've ever made. :laughing:
 
What about 6 Pcores & 4 Ecores for the Intel 12600k/13600k CPUs? Is that equivalent or better than an 8 core AMD?
 
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