My brother is looking to upgrade his motherboard and CPU since his current setup is struggling to run GTA 5 Online smoothly, especially with all the other applications he runs simultaneously. He's currently using an i7-9700K with 4x16GB DDR4-3600 RAM, but his motherboard is outdated. We're considering upgrading to 2x32GB DDR5-6400 RAM as a start. I'm leaning towards the i7-14700K for its additional cores to improve gaming performance. However, I've found that many suggest the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which has 8 cores and a base clock of 4.2 GHz, for a similar price point with the 4070 Ti. I could use some opinions or insights, as I'm no expert in these components!
3 Answers
For gaming, the 7800X3D is great. It actually performs better than the 14900K in many games due to that extra L3 cache. Just keep in mind that when comparing speeds, boost clocks matter more than base clocks, especially across different generations. As for RAM, 6000 CL30 works best for Zen CPUs, but some can handle DDR5 6400 with some fine-tuning.
Honestly, I see no reason to choose the 14700K for gaming needs. The 7800X3D is really the better bet, especially since he's multitasking a lot while gaming. It’ll handle all those streams and Discord chats much better.
Right? I was thinking the extra cores of the 14700K might help with all that, but the feedback here is leaning towards the 7800X3D. Thanks for your input!
If you're focused on gaming, the 7800X3D is a better choice for pure performance. It has more L3 cache, which can give it an edge, even over some more powerful CPUs like the i9. While the i7-14700K can handle productivity well, there have been reports of it overheating, so I'd be cautious based on that. If he's looking for strong gaming performance without risking reliability, the 7800X3D is the way to go.
Thanks for the tip! I definitely don’t want him to have issues down the line. Is there a specific motherboard you would recommend for the 7800X3D?
I appreciate the clarification on RAM and clock speeds; I had them mixed up! I’ll definitely focus on the 7800X3D. Any motherboard recommendations?