Thread: The CPU Thread
I'm kinda on a fuck all spending spree and thought about going with a 9800x3D, new mobo and super fast RAM. Was already mentally prepared to buy it.

Its not even a money thing, it's not worth the hassle to do the work to exchange the components. At 3440x1440p there are marginal gains in gaming compared to my current 13600k, like 2% on average. In most games there's zero gains, only a few like Spider-Man 1+2 or Baldurs Gate Show some significantly better results. I don't play most of them though and maxing my games out, I'm basically always GPU bound. If not GPU limited, it's well over like 120fps either way so the impact isn't huge for those very few titles.

CPUs are weird. And testing high-end CPUs that cost over 500 bucks at 1080p to show gains is stupid.

I'll wait at least one more CPU generation to upgrade because it's just not making any sense right now.
 
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I'm on a 10700k. How much of a handicap is that going to be when my 5080 gets here? I game at 4k.

Compared to the latest and greatest 9800x3D, overall maybe 10% difference on average at 4k. But that's a misleading number because there won't be a game with a 10% difference. It's more complicated than that.

You'll have many games with practically zero difference and a few CPU heavy games with like 30-40fps difference. It really depends on the game. Google the most CPU heavy games, see if those are the ones you're playing.
 
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Key thing I've noticed with my 9800X3D over other CPUs are far fewer microstutters and 1% lows, ie. just pure smoothness most of the time. That alone is worth it for me, some of you might not be so sensitive to tiny dips and hitches like I am.
 
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Key thing I've noticed with my 9800X3D over other CPUs are far fewer microstutters and 1% lows, ie. just pure smoothness most of the time. That alone is worth it for me, some of you might not be so sensitive to tiny dips and hitches like I am.

That's definitely a thing, especially in Unreal Engine games, those are brutal on the CPU in terms of asset streaming.

@VlaudTheImpaler if you're upgrading, don't cheap out on RAM. Make sure to buy very fast RAM because it can have a significant impact in games that are CPU heavy. Can go from 5-30fps depending on the game.
 
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Well frick. Microstutters are a big deal to me. I guess I'll see how smooth it is for me and go from there.

I use a VM for Linux. Would Intel run it better for cheaper or is AMD ok?
 
Faster cpus can't fix ue5/4 stutter.

To be honest if I had a 9900k (10700k is basically the same) or better cpu I wouldn't even bother upgrading unless it's hard to hit 60fps. Or you're so rich it's like buying lunch to you.

Yeah 144fps sounds nice but if the port/engine is a turd you are going to have stutter no matter what. Sad truth of the state of pc gaming right now.
 
Faster cpus can't fix ue5/4 stutter.

To be honest if I had a 9900k (10700k is basically the same) or better cpu I wouldn't even bother upgrading unless it's hard to hit 60fps. Or you're so rich it's like buying lunch to you.

Yeah 144fps sounds nice but if the port/engine is a turd you are going to have stutter no matter what. Sad truth of the state of pc gaming right now.

A fast CPU paired with fast RAM reduce the stutters and frame time spikes in UE games. Shader compilation stutters can't be fixed or improved, but the asset streaming issues and traversal stutters are way more extreme on a slower CPU.
 
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Faster cpus can't fix ue5/4 stutter.

To be honest if I had a 9900k (10700k is basically the same) or better cpu I wouldn't even bother upgrading unless it's hard to hit 60fps. Or you're so rich it's like buying lunch to you.

Yeah 144fps sounds nice but if the port/engine is a turd you are going to have stutter no matter what. Sad truth of the state of pc gaming right now.

It won't completely remove it, but heavily reduce it for most games
 
A fast CPU paired with fast RAM reduce the stutters and frame time spikes in UE games. Shader compilation stutters can't be fixed or improved, but the asset streaming issues and traversal stutters are way more extreme on a slower CPU.
In my experience, being very sensitive to stutters, it's more a matter of how much but is it there at all. Obviously don't try to run 120fps when you can't even lock 60 etc.

In games where it was the cpu going from 1600af to 5800x3d was a huge improvement. But in games where it was the engine I was extremely unimpressed and came to the conclusion that you can't brute force stability.

Your mileage may vary depending on the game. But PC devs will seemingly never get their shit together.
 
In my experience, being very sensitive to stutters, it's more a matter of how much but is it there at all. Obviously don't try to run 120fps when you can't even lock 60 etc.

In games where it was the cpu going from 1600af to 5800x3d was a huge improvement. But in games where it was the engine I was extremely unimpressed and came to the conclusion that you can't brute force stability.

Your mileage may vary depending on the game. But PC devs will seemingly never get their shit together.

In the bad games where it's fucked, there's no way around that, sadly. But it's way less of an issue with a strong rig, the literal short freezes with weaker CPUs are crazy, while it's "only" noticable frame rate dips on strong CPUs.

I see an upward trend, a few good releases like AC Shadows give me hope.