i5 vs i7 for P3D/Xplane

[Kalo]

I'm about to upgrade my aging system (i7-3770k) and I am leaning towards the new i5-9600k because of the price/performance ($230 from Micro Center). The i7-9700k is $170 more. On average user benchmarks the i7 is only about 10% better: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compar...00K/4031vs4030

Since P3D runs processor heavy, do you think that the i7 would produce better than a 10% performance increase with P3D vs the i5?

I'm trying to decide whether the nearly $200 upgrade would be worth it (trying to keep cost down since I'll also have to buy a new mobo, ram and ssd). If it's only a 10% increase I would say it's not worth it, but since P3D uses a lot of processor I'm thinking it could possibly be more then a 10% increase.

[Karl]

Looking at https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html the 9700k looks to do 27% better. I've never spent $400 on a cpu. That would give me sticker shock. I would personally go the I7 route. The I5's that I've had do very well but I do notice the difference compared to the I7's that I've used.

I'm at the stage in my life that I get things that I want. I haven't seen a reason to upgrade my 4770k. What type of improvement in performance has your research told you to expect?

[Kalo]

Thanks Karl, the reason I'm upgrading is actually mainly because I was planning on getting a larger 1tb ssd. If I'm going to get that I want to get one of the new m.2 nvme ssd sticks (no cables and much faster and only $150)...which would also require a new mobo. My 3770k is getting pretty old, and compared to the new i7 should be about a 60% increase: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compar...00K/1317vs4030

[HawgDawg4life]

Thanks Karl, the reason I'm upgrading is actually mainly because I was planning on getting a larger 1tb ssd. If I'm going to get that I want to get one of the new m.2 nvme ssd sticks (no cables and much faster and only $150)...which would also require a new mobo. My 3770k is getting pretty old, and compared to the new i7 should be about a 60% increase: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compar...00K/1317vs4030

I know your an intel guy, but you should take a serious look at the Ryzen 7-2700 from AMD. its a 16 core processor that screams performance at 249.00.
https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-Pro...s%2C175&sr=8-2

[Travis]

Also, I would be interested to see what kind of SSD you are thinking of getting for your m.2 slot. Getting a new rig (mostly) based on a hard drive doesn't make much sense to me, even with the new m.2 speeds. But if you do go that route, I would like to make sure it is worth it for you. Most of the time, a regular 2.5 ssd is just fine. You will hardly find much of a difference. You are talking about saving a few seconds compared to coming from an HHD where you literally save 30 seconds or more. If you have time and havent made a purchase yet, put some links out and I can give my opinion if you want it. You should also be able to use pcpartpicker.com to make a link as well.

[Kalo]

Thanks guys, I haven't bought any parts yet, that AMD is tempting at that price. I wasn't upgrading only for the SSD, but that was the catalyst. I have a 3770k which is going on 7 years now, so the new gen of processors should be a huge upgrade, along with the mobo and ram.

The NVMe ssd sticks have really come down in price so I think it's definitely worth it. I'm also the type that like's my computer case super neat, so not having any cables is a big plus, and that ssd stick will be the only HD in there, so it will look pretty clean. This 1tb is $180: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...XPH5G1GE&psc=1

Ram: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Venge...SIN=B0143UM4TC

I haven't decided on the cpu yet but if it was the i5 or i7 I would prob get this combo from microcenter: https://www.microcenter.com/product/...erboard-bundle

I already have a 1060 6gb gpu.

Total: $615 upgrade + whatever cpu heatsink I get

[HawgDawg4life]

for the M.2 drive I would recommend the Samsung evo 970. Check the read/write speeds of the one you were looking at against this:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-E...tronics&sr=1-3

This one is a 500mb, but if you run a Hybrid or secondary SSD for games, this drive is incredible for the OS. It reads at 3500mb/s and writes at 2500mb/s.

My boot time after post is under 12 seconds.

Also on the Ram, what your looking at is 2300 mHz, where as another 30 bucks can get you to 3200.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D1XCKWW..._t1_B0143UM4TC

[Travis]

I sort of agree with Hawgdawg. I am not sure on what the reliability of HP hard drives are, but I do not like HP as a company and feel they usually produce lower quality products.. I didn't even know they were in the market. The fact they are lower in price than the 970 Evo's from Samsung is interesting. I know Samsung has a good reputation on SSDs and longevity of them. I think spending about 70 bucks more for a 1TB would be a hard bullet to chew, but it could be worth it in the long run. You will also get better support if you run into problems most likely. The specs look good, and the tests a reviewer posted looked promising, and you will be just about as happy with both as long as the HP is reliable in the long term.

Consider learning more about hard drive specs before hitting the purchase button. After doing more research, it looks like the 4KB Random Read(smaller files) is almost twice faster on the samsung. These type of read speeds are more practical for every day computing and should be given closer attention, the 3.5gig/s speed is sequential(such as a movie and not looking for multiple files such as booting up, or flight sim). Have you ever done a file transfer of a bunch of documents and pictures, compared to one big file like a movie? The speed difference is pretty big.

I would recommend going for the Samsung, but you probably wouldn't go wrong getting the HP(as much as I don't like them, it is still a small risk though in my opinion). If you do decide to go that route, and I understand, especially for budget reasons, I found it 20 bucks cheaper on newegg. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-778-_-Product

If you go for the 1TB Samsung, get this one: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-E...s%2C146&sr=1-1 It is cheaper than on newegg(as of now). I think it would be worth just paying the extra buck for the extra space instead of getting another hard drive like hawg suggested. Both solutions are fine, but my opinion.

As for the rest of it, It looks okay to me. The Ram is kinda fishy, because the information on amazon is not accurate on parts of the page, so I would check newegg to make sure the info is good of what you want. you will have to overclock the ram if you want 3000mHz I believe. The MOBO and processor look fine if that is your budget, I cant see the price so must make sure you shop around.

Good luck on your decisions, I hope that helps a little.

[Kalo]

Thanks for the input guys. The ram I linked is 3200mhz (I didn't look at the amazon specs but the model number is correct from a benchmark site I was looking at). As for the 970 evo, the main issue is price, it's almost twice as expensive as the hp one I linked ($250 vs $160, well not twice but $90 more is a lot). 1tb is plenty for me, so I don't want to bother hooking up other drives, I have an external drive I use if I need to store some large files.

it looks like the 4KB Random Read(smaller files) is almost twice faster on the samsung.

On this average of benchmarks the 4k random read is pretty much the same, although the Samsung does have a lot faster write speeds. https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compar...93540vsm488611

But on the other hand if you compare the HP NVMe to a regular sata samsung 860 evo (same price for 1tb) the HP stick is much much faster in everything. https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compar...93540vsm488611

So I have to figure out, am I OK with much faster then a regular sata SSD, or to spend $90 more for +10% more overall effective speed (according to benchmark averages in first link). If money wasn't an issue I probably would get the Samsung, but the frugal side of me might want to try the HP...I'm still undecided.

[CaseyRyback53]

Just in case if u going to buy a 9700k , here the specs : https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-4-90-ghz.html so check again if it is good to spend money on expensiv 3200mhz memory when the cpu can just manage 2666mhz. u can put in 3200mhz but the bios would level it down except u are knowing how to overclock memory( hard stuff and u have to know what u do). maybe u can sav money on the memory for a good watercooling AIO system for the CPU

[Kalo]

I'm not sure how much of a difference 2666 ram vs 3200 actually makes, but new ram comes with "XMP" technology that lets you set the right overclock settings in your bios. From the rams amazon page, "XMP 2.0 support for trouble-free, automatic overclocking".

[junglejim7]

Hi to everyone, didn't think this was still around, re-signed up from years ago. I couldn't resist this post though...I'm running the following for spec purposes here. Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz
Haswell 22nm Technology (unclocked). , Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z97-HD3 (SOCKET 0) <--(the socket MATTERS). The chip is called the Devils Canyon, and its inexpensive.I have pushed this chip all the way up to 5.2GHz, only for about 5 mins. Couple this with a really good video care; 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (ZOTAC International), and of course RAM.
Bottom line, its all about the Threads, FSX still even with Steam cannot use anything past the 1st Core, its 32bit, Hence enter the 64bit processing w/ xPlane and P3D. The chip I own is reliable, and at the moment I am running a Steady overclock of 4.4GHz. with NO problems, and it is more then enough for both with 16gb of RAM. I hope this helps, and didn't mean to interupt any posts here being new and all. See ya in duh Air !
Jim

[Kalo]

thanks for the info jim, and welcome back!

[junglejim7]

Thank you Kalo !!