Which Processor i7 - 8700K or i7 - 9700K

[Joe Lavery]

Hi all,

I'm in the process on putting together a new PC for P3D. I'm wondering if anyone has any first hand knowledge of which is better for our hobby, the  i7 - 8700K or i7 - 9700K? They don;t vary much in price but the 9700 has an extra core but if I understand correctly doesn't support Multi threading.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Joe.

[Trevor Hale]

I have seen the 9700K in action in Prepar3d, and personally I find the 8700K has better performance than the 9700K
My opinion only.
Trev

[FredK]

The 9700k has extra cores, but the 8700k has a higher native clock speed and easily overclocks stable to 5 ghz.  That clock speed is important for P3D.  I am using the 8700ks and can recommend highly.

Fred K

[Joe Lavery]

Thanks guys I knew you would have some good advice  😎
Joe

[Joe Lavery]

Hi All, sorry to drag this up again... 

Right, I'm ready to get my new processor for the flight deck and I appreciate all the advice I've had so far.

However I've never overclocked my PCs, as I don't have the knowledge to do so. And a friend said why don't you save yourself $100 and buy the i7 8700 it's the same clock speed but can't be overclocked. If you don't overclock it you're wasting your money.

Is that right?

I've read that overclocking needs quite a bit of knowledge in order to protect your processor, what do you guys think? 

Thanks
Joe.

[FredK]

That is nonsense about the I7-8700....

The I7-8700 can be over-clocked for sure.....and it is a very stable over-clocker!  Mine is clocked 36% stable....about 5.1 ghz.

You do not need to have any deep understanding of computers to overclock it.  All you have to do is go into the Bios at boot and look for the EZ overclocking method.  It will simply ask you to answer 4 questions about your hardware (for example, Do you have a water cooler on your CPU?).  It will then suggest overclocking parameters....Hit OK and you are good to go. If you do find you have pushed it to far....enter Bios again and just back off the aggressiveness of your answers a bit.

Takes all of about one minute to do.

Go for it!  You will not be sorry with the I7-8700.

Fred K

[Joe Lavery]

Thank you Fred, once again for your words of wisdom.

Now forgive me for this next question, but all the forums and vendors text tell me that you can only overclock the K series of processors!
The ones without the K, like the i7 8700 cannot be overclocked, are you saying that this is incorrect?

I'm happy if you are becasue it will save me $100 ... 

All the best
Joe

[Trevor Hale]

Joe, if it is an 8700K <-- it can be overclocked if it is missing the K it cannot be overclocked.
the K means unlocked processor.  Now having said that some people have messed with the Base Clock on a non K chip but for the layman, don;t bother getting a non K chip.
I run an 8700K and have it running at 5Gig stable.
Trev

[FredK]

To clarify.....Mine is a I7-8700K. 

I did not realize there was also a I7-8700 that is not overclockable as Trev points out.

Fred K

[Jason L]

8700k is a good one. That's what I've been using.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Joe Lavery]

Thank you everyone for the definitive answer,
I will get an 8700K and see how I get in with the overclocking.

Joe.