Intel High-End Gaming PC Build : CPU
While all of the components we are selecting here today are what we would go with, and priced from vendors we trust, it is always a good idea to shop around as deals on these, or other good options, pop up from other reliable vendors all the time. With that said, let’s dive right into the first order of business.
CPU
Intel Core i9-9980XE $1899.99
60 FPS
- Excellent Single Threaded Performance
- Excellent Multithreaded Performance
- 4.5GHz GHz Max Boost
- Overclocking Potential
30 FPS
- 3.0GHz Base
- Expensive
- ”Only” An 18 Core Product
CPU Alternate
Intel Core i9-9920X $1299.99
60 FPS
- Excellent Single Threaded Performance
- Very Good Multithreaded Performance
- 500MHz Higher Base Clock Than i9-9980XE
- 4.5GHz GHz Max Turbo
- Overclocking Potential
30 FPS
- Same 4.5GHz Max Turbo As i9-9980XE
- ”Only” A 12 Core Product
Today’s number one pick for a processor in this range is the Core i9-9980XE. Now, this is going to be a bit of a thorny pick as Intel is in the midst of refreshing their product stack with some new processors (built on their “new and improved” 14++++++++++++++++++++++++++nm node). However, as of today, that refresh hasn’t been moved along to HEDT products. Thus, we are still looking at the 9 series processors today as the 10 series are not available yet.
Among those processors, the i9-9980XE is still king. Certainly, versus AMD options we will be giving up on the core count (a war that AMD firmly has in hand at the moment) but we do gain a bit in single-threaded performance and platform such that the i9-9980XE still does hold its own in a Threadripper world. On top of that, the i9-990XE has a base clock of just 3GHz and a Turbo Boost Clock of 4.5GHz. For our purposes in gaming today, those base clock speeds and how long/well that Turbo Boost can be maintained are going to be more important than core count. So, the Core i9-9980XE is an easy pick in this price range/product range from Intel as we get clock speed and core count for when we do “other things” with this system.
For those looking to shave some cost of their system, Intel has the Core i9-9920X which makes a good alternate solution. Stepping back to the i9-9920X loses 6 cores, but picks up 500MHz in base clocks and keeps the same Max Turbo Clock speed. That is a very nice base clock boost and it is a rather significant drop in core count. So, this will be a mixed bag as the base clocks will help in gaming while the drop in core count will be a capability step backward for any professional applications that are heavily multi-threaded that you might also use this Core XE/X system for when the Core XE/X based systems are already trailing Threadripper systems of equal pricing. As such, this is very much a value move and one that will depend largely on if you are going to be gaming only or gaming and working on this system to an even larger degree than what we saw in our Threadripper alternate choice.