I'm building a new PC, and while gaming is part of the plan, it's not my main focus. I mostly play indie titles and occasionally use VR on my Quest 2, so I'm not concerned about being CPU-bound for those types of games. Instead, I anticipate doing a lot of productivity tasks, like programming, running Docker containers, potentially using virtual machines, and video editing. Some benchmarks suggest that the 9900X might perform better in these areas, but I've heard a lot about the 9800X3D being the go-to processor in this price range.
Am I making a mistake considering the 9900X, or is it a suitable choice for my intended use? Also, I have an NVIDIA 4070 GPU and prefer sticking with AMD for future-proofing reasons as I believe AM5 will serve me better long-term.
Here are the prices for reference:
- 9900X = $400
- 9800X3D = $450
1 Answer
It really depends on whether you're leaning more towards gaming or a workstation. Both CPUs can handle gaming and productivity tasks well, but they have their unique strengths. If you're mostly running heavy applications like Docker and video editing software, the 9900X may suit you better since it tends to excel in multi-core scenarios. However, if you're just doing light gaming alongside those tasks, you might benefit more from the 9800X3D's superior single-core performance.
That's a good point! I usually have tons of tabs open and a couple of projects going at once too, so multi-threading is crucial for me. I guess I'll need to weigh my multitasking needs against gaming performance.