I5 8600K or i7 8700K?

So I’m building a new PC for DCS. When choosing processor, is there any big advantage in DCS in choosing an i7 8700K over an i5 8600K?

Is the performance difference in direct relation to the price difference?

Depends on what you do with your PC

Just gaming - 8600K

Gaming and some heavy duty tasks eg video rendering etc - 8700K

DCS will only take limited advantage from the extra cores.

It seems to me that it is better to buy 8700k. I 8700k and gtx1070 - I am very pleased.

I would never consider an i5 w/o HT for my personal rig.

Tho HT is not really relevant for DCS now, other apps do take advantage from HT and new software usually tends to be multithreaded anyways.

I honestly do not know why Intel still sells that crap.

I would not buy Intel at all right now and wait for what AMD has in the box, just 2 more weeks !

R7 2700X .... first OC tries found on web : 4.2Ghz on all cores at 1.4V .... 4.3 at 1.48V.... not really appealling for the frequency part.

EasyEB, no advantage in DCS to have hyperthreading from my experience, I have the same performances HT on or off.

What is Worth is to have 4 cores or more, and high frequency. Even if not big (Gpu is the bottleneck until you use a 480p screen....) it is what matters about Cpu. (in DCS...looking wider I would advise an i7, and maybe in DCS the bigger i7's cache size matters ?)

No complaints with my 8600k. I can thoroughly recommend it for DCS and all the other games I play. 6 cores without HT but its fast and cool and I do very little of anything which would benefit from HT :thumbup:

Same here. 8600Ks are cooler too so more likely to OC higher.

///Rage just a remark : i5-8600K is 3.6Ghz/4.3turbo while i7-8700K is 3.7Ghz/4.7turbo.

That's probably why you say 8600K is cooler. But they don't run the same voltages and frequency.

From OC comparaison on f.e gamernexus, when same Vcore voltage is applied (there 1.4v, pretty high^^) the 8600K is little bit hotter than 8700K (by 2°c).

BTW heat is obviously about voltages and cooling system.

Even with my bad reputation 7700K, with some good advice here, I managed to tweak voltages and make it run "cool" with my air cooling system (2 Hours realbench stress with AVX instructions and full multiplier (no offset, here 4.8Ghz), max temp is 79°c).

So I’m building a new PC for DCS. When choosing processor, is there any big advantage in DCS in choosing an i7 8700K over an i5 8600K?

 

Is the performance difference in direct relation to the price difference?

The easy one: No and no.

Thanks guys. 8600K it is.

///Rage just a remark : i5-8600K is 3.6Ghz/4.3turbo while i7-8700K is 3.7Ghz/4.7turbo.

That's probably why you say 8600K is cooler. But they don't run the same voltages and frequency.

 

From OC comparaison on f.e gamernexus, when same Vcore voltage is applied (there 1.4v, pretty high^^) the 8600K is little bit hotter than 8700K (by 2°c).

 

BTW heat is obviously about voltages and cooling system.

Even with my bad reputation 7700K, with some good advice here, I managed to tweak voltages and make it run "cool" with my air cooling system (2 Hours realbench stress with AVX instructions and full multiplier (no offset, here 4.8Ghz), max temp is 58°c).

I guess it varies with different reviews but if you look at the Silicon Lottery results you'll see a higher proportion of 8600Ks overclock higher than 8700Ks.

Yes. On the gamernexus compare, at 1.4v Vcore 8600K is stable 5.0Ghz and 8700K 4.9Ghz.

But can be considered as little variation as cache speed/ratio is not mentionned, but generally higher for 8700K (it is same as cpu speed/ratio for some MB brand, on asus it is 4.4Ghz stock for 8700K....it varies but matters for the cpu max stable OC, and overhall perf.).

Mine 8700K runs stable at 5.0ghz 1.34v.

Mine 8700K runs stable at 5.0ghz 1.34v.

Is that the very peak Volts that you have after hours of torture or the value that you dial in.

Those 2 values differ a lot, 1.34v in the GUI might become 1.38 once stressed.

My peak volts after hours of p95_AVX is just below 1.4v, some 1.3998v or so.

The Volts I dialed in are: 1.25v !!! so 1.25 become 1.399..@ 5.2G

For my i7-8700k, I set 1.35v with highest LLC for a 5.0 GHz overclock (cache underclocked to 4.2GHz from 4.4). The actual voltage under a stress test is 1.36v peak with idle generally around 1.34v. My mobo has a stupidly good LLC though (ASRock Z370 Extreme4). I don't normally run that high though as it isn't completely stable and that voltage concerns me with top level LLC. What concerns me is the unmeasurable voltage spikes when going from full load to idle.

My normal setting is either 4.7GHz with 1.29v set and medium LLC (1.29v max measured, 1.232v minimum measured under load) or 4.9GHz with HT disabled (same LLC and voltage results).

It's worth mentioning that stock setting use no LLC and run 1.33v under load with a max of 1.37v and a minimum of 0.6v, no, that isn't a typo. My 8700k has not been delidded but is liquid cooled.

I run this Asus from sig and it's LLC is MUCH more aggressive than yours, from interpreting the numbers.

Asus uses LLC-0 for stock clocks. LLC-2 for XMP with AllCoreEnhancement, which means all cores go 4.7 solid.

If I go to 5.0 I can leave LLC-2 and only UP the Volts a little, I dial in 1.150, which equals short of 1.4 ( 1.396v max ) under full load. The actual setting for 5.2 does need ore volts, 1.250v dialed in, but what it really wants is a much higher Phase driving , which I set from Standard to Extreme ( all Phases ON ) and Current Capability to at least 120%, and finally to LLC-4+ is then also needed, and that high LLC adds the most heat of them all.

This, you only need for brutal stress testing. DCS runs 5.2G with MUCH less aggressive settings without crashing. I can leave all phases and LLC at 5G setting and just UP the Volts to 1.250 and 52x multi.

I must add, my Cache is also at 46x, 200MHz overclock. I tried 48x..but that has random BSOD's every few hours. 46x is rock solid as well. It actually helped my CPU miner to run faster haha. ..but I dont mine anymore. Filling up my last pool and then I am done with it.

My top Volts at benchmark config at 5.2G/46x/3200 are 1.46v.

This only workled after delidding. I never had the temp headroom at 5.2G before delidding. Now, it runs the same frequncy with even less Volts and thus even lower temps, a good spiral !

Temps at 5.2 are no the issue, I fear Volts more than °C and Ampere.

It's a great CPU, it still beats the new AMD 2700 in RL. As both were measured default clocks, add 40% to the Intel, that's hoiw much it can gain in total under full all core load.

but tbh, if I had to buy now, I think I would get that AMD at 4.3G and take the 2 more cores.

I must also add, I have HT enabled and all virtualization features for the CPU as I need them. They do add a little bit of heat too, but not dramatic.

I have mined for 2 months on the CPU with 5.2G, constant 24/7, I must say, I am impressed.

I have seen it evolv with Bios and Firmware, clogged CPU block and cleaned CPU block ( twice now, ARRGHH ! my current issue is ALGAE ), lidded and delidded and its only getting better.

I had a few BSOD's last week but tracked it down to 10 missing files, DISM and sfc fixed it and no more BSODs afterwards. I start to love the machine as it proofs itself reliable, even at max oc.

I went raid-0 with my 2 850's, usually I really avoid IRST raid but screw it, i have a 500Mbit pipe and the drive only holds DCS and DiRT, if it breaks, I can DL those games in an hour.

Trying to max it out.

I am thinking Optane maybe the only thing left that could kick some ass. I would have to disable the #6-Sata_DVD for it, no big issue. ..or was it Sata 5+6 ....eehhh LoL.

You should delid the CPU BeastyBaiter, it really helps the CPU ;)

Getting ready to start my own 8700K upgrade build...going to go for a all out powerhouse build that sets me for a few years. Will be running M.2 and 64GB of RAM fot the hopefully a future proof VR setup. Well once I add Pimax 8K-X and Volta when available.

Didn't the i9 just come out?

Just upgraded to the i7 8700K and DCS 2.5.1 with nearly every setting high runs at over 60fps consistently, even on the ground.

Just upgraded to the i7 8700K and DCS 2.5.1 with nearly every setting high runs at over 60fps consistently, even on the ground.

yes, same as my findings. I have set mine to All-In and I have 60+ usually everywhere, the lowest it ever went was 44fps for a second days ago somewhere in caucasus on some server. The lowest everyday fps I get are high 50s, so a few frames above the magic 50fps to have Gsync working

on my Asus ( Vertical refresh rate is your Gsync limiter, mine is 50-144Hz ). The average fps I`d say is well in the 70's, guessed. Peaks are above 100

Unless you love tinkering I would strongly advise to get the i7 8700K.

This might be my personal opinion but overclocking these days has become completely superfluous. With an i7 and a GTX 1070 (or higher) you get a nearly maintenance free system - just add a good industry PSU (Seasonic or Super Flower) and simple efficient cooling (a couple of large fans that dont cost a lot, eg Skythe). Chances are your system will run for a couple years without you even opening the side panel.

Whereas with the i5 it's more like people love to tinker and to think they are super smart. You spend 100$ less on a 2nd rate CPU then spend endless time and money to crank it up on 5.0Ghz which is probably not sustainable and causes a ton of crashes.

Or in other words, the overclocking path is also possible but you might be entering a world of pain, just to be able to say that you spent 100$ less on the CPU, which no one else gives 1 shit about.

So be smart, get the 8700K right away and spend your energy on other things than overclocking.

Actually, overclocking has little to do with it. Both chips have nearly identical single core performance. The advantages of the i7 has much more to do with the availability of more threads which, while of little value to DCS, has advantages since DCS is not the only thing the PC is doing at any given time.

get the I7. DCS is using 6-7 threads right now.

get the I7. DCS is using 6-7 threads right now.

Really? Doing what?