The Old King of Gaming: Intel Core i7-8700K Revisited

Great revisit.
I would suggest adding 1 more CPU.
Right before 8700k was released, there was significant price reductions and good offers for CPUs 6800k and 6850k. I bought a 6850k and x99 Taichi for 510 Euros total in mid 2017 as I wanted an upgrade path (to Xeons or 6900k / 6950x) once the platform gets older and cheaper. It has been a great purchase since it costed less than a similar quality setup with 8700k and provided me with 40 PCI lanes and a decent 4.3 GHz overclock I am still rocking the 6850k. I think intel pretty much brought this chip from HEDT to regular platforms. Any chance to have it tested? Right now 6850k goes as cheap as 125-150 Euros in second hand market and X99 boards are around 100-150 Euros. So for a total of 225 - 300ish Euros (and in the US probably for same amount with USD) it is possible to get it. It of course maybe makes less sense with Ryzen 3600 in the market BUT I think even 6850k provides more FPS in games although I might be wrong since I have never seen a benchmark.
 
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Could you maybe add 6850K to the bunch? In summer 2017 before 8700K launch I bought it and Asrock x99 Taichi for 510 Euros total. It was at the time less costly than 8700K and equivalent quality motherboard. It also provides 40 PCI lanes. Most importantly, it provided an upgrade path (to 6900K/6950X or Xeons) as the second hand market matures and used CPUs that are compatible get cheaper. This is in contrast to 8700K which is the strongest CPU one could slot at that time in that platform. Still rocking 6850k with 4.3 GHz OC.

Furthermore, you can get a used 6850k and x99 board for 250 Euros to 350 Euros total. Maybe in the US even cheaper if not the same amount in USD. Of course with Ryzen 3600 it has become more irrelevant but even Ryzen does not provide all the lanes (B550 or X470 might mitigate that with PCI E 4.0) and is most likely slower for high refresh rate gaming.
 
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This was a very interesting revisit. Thanks.

The 8700k held up very well in gaming, particularly when overclocked. Tbh, I had not expected it to be on top for that many games.

So if single task gaming is your main task, there really seems to be no reason to change CPU right now. Overclocking seems to be the more sensible option if you aren‘t already doing it.
 
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Thanks for the revisit, very interesting read. On one hand, it is impressive to see that the 8700K was indeed a good buy, and holds up very well against the current offerings (especially overclocked, which is easy). On the other hand, it is a bit sad, and only confirms the lack of development for the last 3 generations (at least).
Thinking about it (after reading the article): why wouldn't it hold its ground? It is the same microarchitecture (as the 10th gen), it goes to 5GHz all core with ease, and games seldom can saturate more than 6 cores/12 threads anyway (at least till now and for the immediate future). Of course it is still going strong :)
 
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All I can see is that 4C/8t intel is still pretty much better gaming choice than almost all AMD cpus. Even @ 14nm.
I also see that having 8/16, 10/20 etc. CPU is also much much less relevant than peple would like it to be. Except for people that use PC as a work station. Then go for threadripper for max benefit, if you can.
 
Useless review for a 1440p or superior gamer. In 1080p CPU performance is by far more relevant than GPU, in 1440p differences are smaller.
 
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OMG! I can't believe how well a three year old CPU is holding up (even if it was just re-released weeks ago under a new name). Next test a three year old GPU like the Nvidia GTX 1080ti, think that card can even handle 720p for today's demanding games like Halo Master Chief collection?
 
less than a year after the release of the 7700K, Intel pushed out the 8700K on an incompatible platform for roughly the same price.
Click to expand...
Why can't Intel treat their fans with a little bit of respect and decency? This is what they get for spending top dollar for their CPUs?
 
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I love my 8700K. Easy overclock to 5GHz on all cores. I did delid of course. Paired with the 1080ti it has had no issues reaching 100+ fps in 99% of games at 1440p max settings. Of course there are exceptions like Red Dead Red. 2, but even a 10900k and 2080ti can't hit 100fps at 1440p. I have no regrets.
 
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Nobina said:
Why can't Intel treat their fans with a little bit of respect and decency? This is what they get for spending top dollar for their CPUs?
Click to expand...
So, when Intel is pushing faster CPU's out of the door, they don't respect their customers. When they keep serving the same 4 core cpu's they still don't respect their customers....

Isn't that what AMD, since a year after the 500euro 1800x you could get the much faster and much cheaper 2700x?
 
MetXallica said:
I love my 8700K. Easy overclock to 5GHz on all cores. I did delid of course. Paired with the 1080ti it has had no issues reaching 100+ fps in 99% of games at 1440p max settings. Of course there are exceptions like Red Dead Red. 2, but even a 10900k and 2080ti can't hit 100fps at 1440p. I have no regrets.
Click to expand...
I had the 8700k delided with a 1080ti until I swapped it for a 10900k.Biggest mistake of my life.
 
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Strawman said:
So, when Intel is pushing faster CPU's out of the door, they don't respect their customers. When they keep serving the same 4 core cpu's they still don't respect their customers....

Isn't that what AMD, since a year after the 500euro 1800x you could get the much faster and much cheaper 2700x?
Click to expand...
It isn't comparable at all my friend. What Intel did was way worse and unexpected.

Intel launched the 8700k, 6 months after the 7700k. The 8700k is a 6 cores/12 threads almost same price and better turbo frequency against a 4 cores/8 threads one, no options to upgrade unless you buy a new mobo. AMD launch the Zen+ series a year after Zen launch (something everyone knew it would happen) and the performance was decent but nothing crazy, you could also just reuse the same mobo and just buy the new CPU.

Intel just launched something to compete against Ryzen, disrespecting their consumers at the same time.
 
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Strawman said:
So, when Intel is pushing faster CPU's out of the door, they don't respect their customers. When they keep serving the same 4 core cpu's they still don't respect their customers....

Isn't that what AMD, since a year after the 500euro 1800x you could get the much faster and much cheaper 2700x?
Click to expand...
Difference is you could upgrade to the 2700x on the same board (e.g when it was on sale for €150 after Ryzen 3000 was released) or the 3xxx Ryzen if you wanted to.

That said, I don‘t disagree with your comment. Getting 50% plus cores and better overall performance between „generations“ is a good thing.
 
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Ludak021 said:
All I can see is that 4C/8t intel is still pretty much better gaming choice than almost all AMD cpus. Even @ 14nm.
I also see that having 8/16, 10/20 etc. CPU is also much much less relevant than peple would like it to be. Except for people that use PC as a work station. Then go for threadripper for max benefit, if you can.
Click to expand...
No the i5's are bad for gaming @144hz since they no longer support hyperthreading. If you have a 144hz monitor the CPU can not keep up in some games that demand more cores. Like Far Cry and Battlefield. Get an i7 or go Ryzen.They start to get awful frametimes even tho the FPS may be over 150fps.
 
I have a complete 8700k motherboard kit that is just sitting around doing nothing.
Is offering things for sale ok here? I'm going to post in site feedback to find out.
 
Part of me is happy I don't need to upgrade my 8700K but part of me is not happy I don't get to play with new toy yet ;)
Just waiting for Ryzen 4000 to drop the bomb on Intel's laziness.
 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an 8700k right now.

Thing is...it's easier to buy a 9900k.

I built a 9900k for my cousin recently.

Even if you take these two CPU and match them up against a 5960x, having so many cores with so many threads and then matching it to a 2000 series GPU and 16GB RAM allows you to play virtually anything in 1440p or 4K in max settings.
 
THANK YOU for the charts Techspot.

AMD CPU are like diesel engines. Yeah, they can out tow everything else, but when you race one they get beat really bad.
 
QuantumPhysics said:
THANK YOU for the charts Techspot.

AMD CPU are like diesel engines. Yeah, they can out tow everything else, but when you race one they get beat really bad.
Click to expand...
I think a few Le Mans winners would disagree.

But you are right about one thing in your analogy - a big advantage of Diesel engines is them needing a lot less fuel under hard load, e.g when you are driving at high speeds.
 
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QuantumPhysics said:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an 8700k right now.

Thing is...it's easier to buy a 9900k.

I built a 9900k for my cousin recently.

Even if you take these two CPU and match them up against a 5960x, having so many cores with so many threads and then matching it to a 2000 series GPU and 16GB RAM allows you to play virtually anything in 1440p or 4K in max settings.
Click to expand...

At 4K, an R5 3600, R3 3300X or an i7-7700K will also allow you to play virtually anything at max settings. 1440p HiRR will start to separate these processors out.
 
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