Both Intel or AMD might make a fully killer gaming CPU proper now. It will flat-out win all of the awards for gaming efficiency, it wouldn’t price as a lot as the present Ryzen 9 and Core i9 chips, and it could nail all of the options wanted to make the last word gaming chip. Avid gamers signify an unlimited a part of the CPU market proper now, however producers insist on circling us them relatively than giving us what we wish.
Now, earlier than you point out the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, sure that is certainly the very best gaming CPU obtainable, nevertheless it might be hundreds higher. And I don’t imply within the subsequent technology, I imply proper now, with all of the expertise AMD has at its disposal. Likewise, the excessive clock pace of Intel’s Core i9-14900K makes it nice for gaming, it might be significantly better optimized. Gaming has a really particular set of calls for, however regardless of it being one of many fundamental drivers of the desktop PC enterprise, avid gamers’ wants aren’t being met to the fullest.
There’s a wide-open secret amongst these within the know, which is that you simply don’t want greater than eight cores for gaming. The truth is, in my very own exams I’ve discovered {that a} six-core CPU shall be positive. Heck, a quad-core CPU will do the job usually. You’ll be able to level to excessive outliers, similar to Ashes of the Singularity, or the most recent replace for Cyberpunk 2077, however the reality is that you simply completely don’t want a 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X or a 24-core Core i9-14900K for the overwhelming majority of video games.
Even the most recent Cyberpunk 2077 replace remains to be far more depending on a very good GPU than having a great deal of CPU cores. On the most, what you want for gaming is eight high-performance cores – that’s not solely enough, it’s truly greater than sufficient.
The killer CPU function for gaming in the intervening time, in fact, is AMD’s 3D V-cache, which supplies its X3D CPUs speedy entry to a giant pool of high-speed reminiscence, lowering the latency that comes from having to repeatedly use slower system RAM. Nevertheless, the opposite essential a part of the equation for gaming is clock pace.
Just a few of these cores want the power to spice up to excessive clock speeds for gaming, and that’s the place the Ryzen 7 7800X3D falls down. It solely boosts to 5GHz, which is undoubtedly fast, however the 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D can increase to five.7GHz in evenly threaded workloads, assuming you’ve gotten the cooling headroom. Both means, AMD clearly has the power to make the 7800X3D increase additional, however as a substitute avid gamers must pay the additional cash for eight largely unused CPU cores to get it.
Not solely that, however the design of the 7950X3D could cause latency issues in gaming that aren’t a difficulty on the 7800X3D. The latter has one eight-core chiplet, with a stack of cache on it, however the 7950X3D has two eight-core chiplets, however solely has a stack of cache on considered one of them, so in case your recreation accesses a core on the unsuitable chiplet, you lose the good thing about that further cache. Mainly, it’s the 7800X3D that ought to have the additional clock pace headroom for gaming.
Likewise, the very best Intel 14th gen gaming CPU needs to be the Core i5-14600K, nevertheless it solely boosts to five.3GHz, whereas the 14900K boosts to 6GHz. Sure, you possibly can overclock the 14600K, however solely in case you have a Z-series motherboard and also you’re snug with pushing up the clock pace of all of your CPU cores, relatively than simply a few them. A Core i5-14600K that reinforces to 6GHz makes far more sense for gaming than a 14900K, the place all these further cores simply crowd the thermal envelope. The truth is, a extremely clocked Intel CPU with eight P-cores, and no E-cores, can be the most suitable choice for gaming.
This isn’t to say that CPUs with a great deal of cores aren’t needed. In the event you do plenty of closely multi-threaded work, similar to video encoding, then a Core i9 or Ryzen 9 CPU shall be best, and so they’re good for gaming too. However there’s a colossal hole out there for a correct gaming CPU, a chip for folks whose first precedence is gaming and don’t wish to waste extra cash on workstation options.
For AMD, that will be a chip with eight cores, a excessive clock pace, 3D V-cache, and a a lot lower cost than the 7950X3D. For Intel, that will be a CPU with eight P-Cores, no E-Cores, and a 6GHz increase clock, once more with a a lot lower cost than the 14900K.
Each firms might make these CPUs proper now, however sadly I don’t suppose we’ll ever see them. Core counts at the moment are the important thing differentiator in terms of value, and we swallow it, however avid gamers deserve higher. Intel and AMD, cease forcing avid gamers to purchase costly CPUs with a great deal of cores to get the very best gaming efficiency. Give us the killer chip we want, and that we all know you may make.
