The high-end hex core, 12 thread i7-8700 is second in Intel’s line up of 8th generation Coffee Lake CPUs that witnesses an increase in the number of cores at each SKU, as well as further refinement on the 14nm architecture as seen in the 6th and 7th generations. The i7-8700 features a TDP of 65W, 12MB of L3 Cache and 16 PCIe lanes. Although the 8700 has a base clock of 3.2 GHz it has an all core boost of 4.3 GHz and a single core boost of 4.6 GHz. These are unusually high clocks for a non-K SKU, Intel have historically clocked their non-K SKUs around 10% lower than the flagship K variants but with Coffee Lake, the 8700 is almost a match for a stock 8700K. Priced at $320, the i7-8700 offers exceptional single, quad and multi-core processing power to the mainstream market but unfortunately a new 300 series chipset will also need to be factored into the purchase. AMD’s comparably priced Ryzen 7 1700X is an 8 core 16 thread processor which is around 20% faster at multi-threaded tasks, but has around 20% slower single and quad core performance so the choice between these two processors is use case dependant but generally favours Intel for most desktop users whose workloads are typically single or dual core bound.
[Oct '17CPUPro]
The 3700X is a $320 USD 8-core, 16-thread mid-range Ryzen 3000 series CPU. Out of the box, the 3700X, 3600X and 3600 achieve similar quad core speeds but the 16 threaded 3700X is 30% faster at multi-core computations than the 12 threaded 3600X. Comparing the 3700X to Intel’s i7-9700K shows that, when overclocked, the 3700X is 26% faster at 64-core computations but 13% slower for gaming and desktop (sub eight core performance). Unlike lower end Ryzen 3000 SKUs, the 3700X comes with a half decent cooler but AMD should not have bothered since a $20 aftermarket cooler is still quieter, easier to change, and better at cooling. With a Gammaxx 400 cooler we were able to maintain a 43.25x OC during our EFps tests. We had to use a fixed clock OC (rather than Offset/PBO) to avoid significant frame drops in Fortnite. With strong single-core scores, the 3700X should offer very strong gaming performance but in reality it is let down by its memory controller, which, although significantly improved over previous Ryzen iterations, still has limited bandwidth and high latency. The heavily hyped 3700X, paired with a 2060S, offers real world gaming performance comparable to the $80 USD entry level 4-core, 4-thread Intel Core i3-9100F. At $320 USD, the 3700X offers reasonable value to full time media encoders but general desktop users, gamers and even streamers should look elsewhere. Streaming with dedicated hardware such as NVENC or a separate stream PC will nearly always result in fewer dropped frames. The 3700X severely bottlenecks a 2070S: gamers should investigate the 9600K, which is both cheaper and faster. [Jul '19CPUPro]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.