Ryzen 7 or the 7700k?

Not sure if OP has made up his mind already but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents too for him or anyone else.

You could get a 6-core 5 series Ryzen CPU, 1600 or 1600X. You'll be able to build that system with around the same or less money than Kaby Lake one (with better multithreaded performance than KL).

Get a "mainstream" X370 or B350 motherboard and overclock as high as you can (3.9 - 4 GHz should be doable with proper cooling).
It's recommended to get around 3000 Mhz memory though as Ryzen's cluster fabric scales with memory speed so you may need to fork out a bit more on memory vs. KL (also try to get Samsung single-rank modules if possible and check motherboard QVL).
However latency isn't that big of a deal so eg. 3200/CL16-18 is fine, no need to go for high end CL14 modules.

Also if you (OP) intend to keep your GPU (GTX 770 in specs) you will not see any performance degradation vs. Kaby Lake anywhere.
That only applies to very high-end GPUs in (select) CPU-limited scenarios.

I have an overclocked GTX 980 Ti and recently switched to R5 from a Haswell i5. No drops in any games I have, including ROTTR and DXMD. Actually ROTTR got a small fps boost!

Game at 1080p.

 

still too many architectural issues to flush out before i'd recommend a ryzen.

 

Like? The only one I can really think is IOMMU distribution under Linux. But that's apparently getting worked on.

 

Ryzen 5 is a good buy..My 3.9ghz 1600 can keep up to my old 7700K @ 5.1ghz on TimeSpy..

TimeSpy Comparison between my 3.9ghz 1600 vs 7700K @ 5.1ghz with both Ram @ 2666 and RX 480 @ 1400..

 

To the OP:

Here is a Graph showing i7-7700k @ 5 GHZ with various RAM speeds in ARMA 3 (notorious for single thread performance) vs R7-1700@ 3.8 GHZ with 3200 CL14 RAM:



And I quote:

Just saying R7 is competitive with the right components. And yes, for game engines or work that require pure MHZ, I also want to Ryzen clock up to 5+ GHZ as well. Maybe Ryzen 2.0 will get us there.

PS: IF I was buying a new cpu/ram/mb combo right now, I would buy Ryzen unless Intel releases 6/8 core cpus that also OC to the same as kabylake to keep the IPC crown. Ryzen is just going to get faster and faster over time.

 

Thanks, that's actually very interesting. Going past 3600 mem speed makes performance scale even better with Kaby Lake.

We've yet to see how that would be with Ryzen as 3200/3600 is the peak atm. Hopefully 4 GHz+ mem speeds would be possible in the future.
That way anyone who got their system early and had to make cuts in memory speed can just swap their mem kits for high speed ones and get a notable perf boost.

CPU clocks are pretty much what you get with 6 or 8 core CPUs AFAIK. Hilbert said in his Ryzen reviews that Intel's 6 and 8 core are no different in this respect and usually peak at the 4 GHz+ region too, give or take.

 

I've seen I think only one review where 3600mhz has been used and there the difference is noticeable from 3200 already in some cases. I would think if 4.2ghz is possible in future on ryzen it will make a big difference it would also make the fabric work at double rate of the 2133mhz so it would be rather nice. Of course goddamn expensive with current ram prices.

 

Yeah it would be very cool to see how it works! Just hope that'll be achievable with BIOS updates and not needing a hardware change (Ryzen 2.0).

I think the fabric-memory relation was and is the reason memory speed is limited. Hope that's not a hardware limitation but just a "fail-safe" in current BIOS/microcode to prevent stability issues until the code can be perfected.

Looking forward to May AGESA update, AFAIK it should greatly improve memory compatibility and performance.
I'll fork out a bit extra for faster memory, if not gladly at least willingly
and sell my current modules while they're still worth something.

 

Pretty much this and yet almost nobody tests CPU limited games with faster memory such as ARMA, Fallout, Civilization, flight sims, racing sims, and etc... I know most consumers won't pay 100 USD premium on memory just to boost one game, but a lot of people will pay 100 USD for a faster GPU that applies to more game.

But there are still very hardcore communities of people who ONLY play certain games and always are looking to maximize those certain games as its like a sport or poker night to them.

So it would have been interesting to see how far Ryzen can go with faster memory even if they choose to upgrade it later when RAM prices drop again (probably before DDR5 hits).

 

Im using a 7700k on an asus heroe viii z170 oced to 5055mhz and i have no problem running ddr4 oced at 3600 from a 3200 kits with samsung e-die, i think its a great cpu for gaming most of my games dont even use all the threads and i personnaly think that this cpu will be good easily 3-4 years for gaming which is what i do with my rig. I think the 7700k is the way to go for gaming right now, z170 and z270 handles ddr 4 much better than ryzen with way better latemcy as well

 

Dude that's a tough choice... I would go with Ryzen option because it simply offering more for the price.

 

I went with Ryzen, the only "big" thing I do is game now and then or edit photos & videos.
So far, I'm really happy with the upgrade.

Why did I choose Ryzen? Rather simple.

I had a 2600k before, I had it for at least 5 years. Before that? Another i7, -860 I think.
When my first motherboard died, I bought a 4770k. No real speed improvement, nothing at all. Bought a new "old" board and kept using my 2600k.
Then, the second board died. Bought a 4790k. Again, no speed improvement.
So I kept the 2600k again.
Now, as my third board died for the second time, I wanted to get something different.
First I bought a X99 system, but then Ryzen came out and I thought "why not get those two extra cores at no extra charge?" And that's what I did.
Speed is great, power consumption just like my old 2600k (less than X99), so I'm really happy with that.
Performance in games is very good, haven't had any hiccups so far.

 

This graph actually isn't that far off from the truth .

 

It would appear that most of the results I have seen show that as soon as you jump to 1440p and higher, all produce the same results. You happen to have a 1440p monitor. I personally would not be comfortable buying anything less than 6 cores, preferably 8 right now. You will get the same performance with the advantage of having more cores in the future and potentially more performance with future updates/bios etc.

A bit of a risk, but worth the gamble?

 

I'm trying to hold out for Zen+....but I may ditch my 6600K for an Ryzen 5 1600X later in the summer when I have the funds available. If I don't upgrade one of my media centers anyway. Depends on when AMD releases the Zen based APUs...

 

Right now it would be folly to grab a 7700k over a 1600x. Seriously about $125 less and it's on par with a 6800k.

1600/1600x is THE CPU to get at the moment.

 

My buddy just got a 1600, running it stock with 16GB 2400, and it wipes the floor vs his old cpu. i7 3820 @ 4.5.

Its even beating my 3930k @ 4.1 quite handily while the 1600 is stock.

Wish I had the scratch to build a 1600x rig.

 

Only thing I do not like about (Ryzen) is its not able to clock any higher then 4.1Ghz - If they made that puppy hit close to 5ghz right now it would of been a Major win for Amd and all of us.

 

True, but it doesn't. And not every Intel chip will hit it either.

I, personally, had quite some issues overclocking a 4770k and a 6800k. In conparison, Ryzen was as easy to clock as my old 2600k and previous chips.
It'll be faster here and a little slower there. That's fine for me.