I'm building a new system with a Z370M Mortar motherboard and 32GB of DDR4 RAM running at 3600MHz. I've got an MSI RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio graphics card, but I'm torn between pairing it with an i7-8700K or an i7-9700K. I would love to go for an i9-9900K or an i7-9700K, but their prices keep climbing. Is the i7-8700K a viable option too, or would it bottleneck my GPU, even if I overclock it?
4 Answers
I had an i7-8700K that I overclocked to 5GHz, and honestly, it didn't bottleneck my performance with the RTX 2080 Ti at the time. It was a solid combo back then, but nowadays, that CPU feels a bit outdated. Still, if budget is a concern, it might be worth considering.
Definitely pick the i7-8700K for just £60 and invest in a good cooler. It's a great pairing with the 2080 Ti for 1440p gaming, and it's the most sensible choice financially for your setup.
If you're gaming at 1440p, the differences won't be that noticeable. So I'd say go for the i7-8700K.
What's the price difference between them?
The i9-9900K is around £180, while the i7-9700K is about £105, and the i7-8700K is just £60. Keep in mind that the performance difference is roughly 10 fps less for each step down.