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Associate
Joined
15 Feb 2019
Posts
6
I'm about to start building a new gaming PC (will only be used for gaming) and wanted to know which is the better CPU for gaming - the 8700k or the 9700k? At the moment the price between the two is pretty similar with around £20 difference so will buy whichever one I'm going to get better gaming performance from after overclocking.

Main hardware I'm using -

Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Pro Motherboard
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 2070 Xtreme
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB @ 3200 mhz
Noctua NH-U14S cooler

Any advice will be much appreciated.
 
Associate
Joined
6 Feb 2016
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168
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Liverpool
There's barely anything between them, I guess it would go down to which clocks better. Personally I'd go with the extra threads (8700K). Remember the 9700K has no HyperThreading so it's handicapped on threads. 8 vs 12. I guess that wouldn't make any difference in games but you'll fair better in more CPU intensive apps with an 8700K.
 
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Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2005
Posts
2,750
Location
Edinburgh
9700K. Real cores beat logical. There are a couple of render/encoding apps where the difference is minimal or the 8700K take a small lead. But otherwise the 9700K offers more performance, has the soldered heatspreader and has some in-silicon security fixes.

Hyperthreading can actually be a hinderance in some games if threads are not distributed evenly across physical cores.
 
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Associate
Joined
6 Feb 2016
Posts
168
Location
Liverpool
9700K. Real cores beat logical. There are a couple of render/encoding apps where the difference is minimal or the 8700K take a small lead. But otherwise the 9700K offers more performance, has the soldered heatspreader and has some in-silicon security fixes.

Hyperthreading can actually be a hinderance in some games if threads are not distributed evenly across physical cores.

The IHS is soldered on the 9700K? So no delidding? Meh I don't fancy that like. Maybe the TIM is better on the 9700K?
 
Associate
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16 Mar 2016
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814
Location
Rubber Dinghy Rapids Broo
I'm about to start building a new gaming PC (will only be used for gaming) and wanted to know which is the better CPU for gaming - the 8700k or the 9700k? At the moment the price between the two is pretty similar with around £20 difference so will buy whichever one I'm going to get better gaming performance from after overclocking.

Main hardware I'm using -

Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Pro Motherboard
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 2070 Xtreme
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB @ 3200 mhz
Noctua NH-U14S cooler

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Have you bought the z390 mobo and RTX 2070? If not I would suggest that you save money by going for a 2700x and put the rest towards the GPU. Or get a 1700 and overclock it until Ryzen 3000 comes out and get the 8/12/16 core part that overclocks the best.
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Dec 2007
Posts
13,616
Location
The TARDIS, Wakefield, UK
I did say it was tricky. Certainly not something I would try as in my opinion the gains aren’t worth the risk. But others have and do.

not many if you do a google! Its not just tricky but as said incredibly difficult to do without breaking the CPU. Unlike with the un-soldered variety where I just used a wooden mallet, two pieces of wood and a cushion to catch the CPU. Nowadays I just bought a cheap 3d Printed device to do my 8700k.
 
Associate
Joined
30 Aug 2018
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2,483
Intel soldered 9 series cpus are easy to delid. The only part that is different vs non soldered is that the tim being solder wont wipe off and takes some time to remove with a plastic card/knife/solution. It can be done with zero damage to the silicon, time is the only cost.

This applies to the coffee lake refresh series of CPUs. They have soft solder and removing the IHS has no more risk than removing it from the 8th gen etc.
 
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Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2018
Posts
2,710
I love the fact that the new 9700K is basically the same speed and more expensive yet most people love them.

Yet Nvidia released a new generation that's a massive 35% faster and more expensive yet people hate them. Nvidia should be feeling the love in comparison with rising share prices lol
 
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