Both Intel or AMD might make a fully killer gaming CPU proper now. It might 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. Players symbolize an unlimited a part of the CPU market proper now, however producers insist on circling us them moderately than giving us what we would like.
Now, earlier than you point out the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, sure that is certainly the perfect gaming CPU out there, however it may very well be masses higher. And I don’t imply within the subsequent era, I imply proper now, with all of the know-how AMD has at its disposal. Likewise, the excessive clock velocity of Intel’s Core i9-14900K makes it nice for gaming, it may very well be significantly better optimized. Gaming has a really particular set of calls for, however regardless of it being one of many primary 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. Actually, in my very own exams I’ve discovered {that a} six-core CPU might be nice. Heck, a quad-core CPU will do the job normally. You possibly can level to excessive outliers, equivalent to Ashes of the Singularity, or the newest replace for Cyberpunk 2077, however the fact 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 newest Cyberpunk 2077 replace remains to be way more depending on a superb 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 sufficient, it’s truly greater than sufficient.
The killer CPU characteristic for gaming in the intervening time, after all, is AMD’s 3D V-cache, which supplies its X3D CPUs fast entry to an enormous pool of high-speed reminiscence, lowering the latency that comes from having to commonly use slower system RAM. Nonetheless, the opposite vital a part of the equation for gaming is clock velocity.
A couple of of these cores want the flexibility 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 enhance to five.7GHz in calmly threaded workloads, assuming you could have the cooling headroom. Both method, AMD clearly has the flexibility to make the 7800X3D enhance additional, however as an alternative avid gamers need to 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 problem 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 one in every of them, so in case your recreation accesses a core on the fallacious chiplet, you lose the good thing about that further cache. Mainly, it’s the 7800X3D that ought to have the additional clock velocity headroom for gaming.
Likewise, the perfect Intel 14th gen gaming CPU needs to be the Core i5-14600K, however it solely boosts to five.3GHz, whereas the 14900K boosts to 6GHz. Sure, you might overclock the 14600K, however solely you probably have a Z-series motherboard and also you’re snug with pushing up the clock velocity of all of your CPU cores, moderately than simply a few them. A Core i5-14600K that reinforces to 6GHz makes way more sense for gaming than a 14900K, the place all these further cores simply crowd the thermal envelope. Actually, a extremely clocked Intel CPU with eight P-cores, and no E-cores, could be the most suitable choice for gaming.
This isn’t to say that CPUs with a great deal of cores aren’t vital. In the event you do loads of closely multi-threaded work, equivalent to video encoding, then a Core i9 or Ryzen 9 CPU might be splendid, they usually’re good for gaming too. However there’s a colossal hole available in the market for a correct gaming CPU, a chip for folks whose first precedence is gaming and don’t wish to waste more money on workstation options.
For AMD, that will be a chip with eight cores, a excessive clock velocity, 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 enhance clock, once more with a a lot lower cost than the 14900K.
Each corporations might make these CPUs proper now, however sadly I don’t assume we’ll ever see them. Core counts are actually the important thing differentiator in relation to 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 perfect gaming efficiency. Give us the killer chip we’d like, and that we all know you can also make.