# 8700K to 9900K Upgrade For Streamer / Gamer PC?



## xkm1948 (Oct 16, 2020)

So I recently upgraded PC for my cousin's daughter








						2080Ti Going to a new home, in new coolers!
					

I have recently upgraded from RTX 2080Ti to RTX 3090. Before I even upgrade, my 2080Ti was already taken by one of my relative. I built her a gaming / streaming PC 2 yrs ago. https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/all-white-gaming-itx-build.247543/page-2  At that time I just give her my old...




					www.techpowerup.com
				




Current spec for that computer is:
8700K @ 4.8GHz
Corsair H115i
ASUS Strix Z370-ITX
EVGA 2080Ti with Alphacool Eiswofl 2 AIO
Corsair 32GB DRAM @ 3200MHz
ADATA SX8200 1TB
ADATA SU800 2TB






I mean the performance at her current level is pretty good with very low noise. Default Port Royal is over 10k already





So this girl just messaged me saying she saw the 9900K on sale at microcenter for $299.99. She is wondering whether that would be considered a good upgrade for her









						Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 3.6GHz Eight-Core LGA 1151 Boxed Processor - Heatsink Not Included - Micro Center
					

Get it now! Introducing the NEW 9th Gen Intel Core desktop processors the first unlocked mainstream desktop processor. When paired with Intel Optane memory, accelerates the loading and launching of the games you play.




					www.microcenter.com
				











Her major use case for is Twitch streaming, video editing and music production. I mean it is quite cheap for a drop in replacement.

What do you guys think? Worth it r nah?


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## GhostRyder (Oct 16, 2020)

Hmm, well it really depends on how much she misses the extra cores.  Because really the performance bump is gonna be negligible except in cases where those two core and accompanying threads come into play.

I would say for streaming, yes it may be worth it just to have some extra cores as it will make a difference.  Otherwise, everything else should be pretty much the same.


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## MIRTAZAPINE (Oct 16, 2020)

All this speed is beyond my comprehension.

I guess it worth it for me 9900k often sell at jack up prices. Grab the micro center deal and sell of the 8700k. Your total upgrade would be much lower. I don't think you can get any better price than that.


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## xkm1948 (Oct 16, 2020)

Yeah she mainly stream MMORPG, and now Minecraft RTX. 

Major concern is on a ITX 370 board it wont hold at least 4.8GHz speed now.


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## GhostRyder (Oct 16, 2020)

xkm1948 said:


> Yeah she mainly stream MMORPG, and now Minecraft RTX.
> 
> Major concern is on a ITX 370 board it wont hold at least 4.8GHz speed now.


I would not be worried about that, the board lists it as supported and the VRM seems well built on this one.  I would recommend a VRM fan like I did on my system if you are worried.  They are pretty cheap and easy to install.


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## ThrashZone (Oct 16, 2020)

Hi,
Yeah those 9900k's are dropping like a rock 
Might as well go for it soldered chip.


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## Devon68 (Oct 16, 2020)

Just watched a video of Jayz test a RTX 3080 with a 10900k, and with the founders 3080 he said he got 11450 points, so her Pc is no slouch with the 10k result. What I'm trying to say is it's an upgrade but not a noticeable upgrade.


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## ThrashZone (Oct 16, 2020)

HI,
Think a soldered chip has a way better chance of maintaining 4.8 and or going beyond that than a 8700k with either pigeon poop or delid inside which it sounds like a virgin 8700k not delid yet if it can only do 4.8 on an aio.


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## rtwjunkie (Oct 16, 2020)

It’s almost a pointless upgrade, although there might be some increase in streaming ability while playing. However...I’ve seen many 9900k’s selling around the $300 mark.  Over the last month used 8700k’s have sold in the range of $215 to $275.  This means it’s a no-brainer financially. She might as well do it.

Edit: Basically it will cost her $25.


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## rbgc (Oct 16, 2020)

Intel 9900k is soldered one and excellent for games. If she has one PC for games and streaming then yes. If she play games mostly at 1080p then yes. For video encoding (stream) in this case use NVENC, not CPU.


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## newtekie1 (Oct 16, 2020)

I went from an 8700K@4.8GHz to a 9900K@5.0GHz to a 10850K@5.2GHz. I didn't notice any improvements in gaming. 

I don't think the 9900K would make a noticeable difference, but I think I'd still do it. Simply because, once you sell the 87000K the upgrade is so cheap, you might as well do it and have a PC that will last that much longer. 



rbgc said:


> For video encoding (stream) in this case use NVENC, not CPU.



This is what I was going to say too.


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## xkm1948 (Oct 16, 2020)

Well im not the one paying for it so im gonna tell her go ahead. Still gotta be the one to do installation though


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## hat (Oct 16, 2020)

The only way I would make a move like this is if I was planning to stream and game on the same computer, and also using CPU x264 encoding rather than nvenc. Nvenc is a good way to get away with being able to do it all, but it isn't as efficient as CPU encoding in terms of quality/bitrate.

However, realtime CPU encoding at even 1080p60 is very intense. My 2600k can't do it, even when I'm not running a game on my PC (streaming from PS2 or something). So I don't know if even a 9900k can stream and game at the same time. Probably needs at least a 12 core Ryzen, maybe even 16 core.


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## Selaya (Oct 16, 2020)

Both 8700K and 9900K should be able to handle software encoding.
I ran a few tests on my 3900X, and on the most demanding preset OBS offers (slower), it only managed to load my 3900X up to about 30%. At veryfast, it went down to 13%. (done at the default 2500 Kbps; not sure how relevant/realistic this is as I do not stream, just occasionally record some footage and upload it later on, and then I just manually re-encode it with Handbrake.)


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## John Naylor (Oct 16, 2020)

Gaming:


			https://tpucdn.com/review/intel-core-i9-9900k/images/relative-performance-games-2560-1440.png
		

1.4% improvement

H264 Encoding:


			https://tpucdn.com/review/intel-core-i9-9900k/images/x264.png
		

25% reduction in encoding time

H265 Encoding:


			https://tpucdn.com/review/intel-core-i9-9900k/images/x265.png
		

15% reduction in encoding time


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## (*^^*) (Oct 16, 2020)

I don't see any definitive reason to upgrade.  However, I think it's good to get cheap parts that can be replaced so that her activities will not stop.


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## hat (Oct 16, 2020)

Selaya said:


> Both 8700K and 9900K should be able to handle software encoding.
> I ran a few tests on my 3900X, and on the most demanding preset OBS offers (slower), it only managed to load my 3900X up to about 30%. At veryfast, it went down to 13%. (done at the default 2500 Kbps; not sure how relevant/realistic this is as I do not stream, just occasionally record some footage and upload it later on, and then I just manually re-encode it with Handbrake.)


Preset is an important piece of the puzzle, but it's only one piece. You paint an incomplete picture. What resolution and frame rate was this at? 2500kbps isn't very much, maybe enough for low detail games (like PS1 games) at 720p30.


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## Selaya (Oct 16, 2020)

1080p30 I believe? (could be 60)
I mean, I am not aware of any streaming service that supports anything above 60, and I believe most are capped at 30 unless you buy a subscription or something.

However, unless you're really bandwidth-constrained, using NVenc is probably a better idea anyways.


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## hat (Oct 17, 2020)

Anybody can stream at least 720p60 on Twitch, I do and I'm not even affiliated. If I don't stream 60fps, everything looks choppy as hell, even though I'm primarily streaming PS1 games. Must have something to do with my capture card.


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## (*^^*) (Oct 17, 2020)

(*^^*) said:


> I don't see any definitive reason to upgrade.  However, I think it's good to get cheap parts that can be replaced so that her activities will not stop.


I didn't know the title gamer.  It may be a good option for delivering heavy games.  Not required for light game delivery.  NVENC uses a chip mounted exclusively for distribution.  I think it's a good mechanism to distribute the load.  However, even if the load is distributed, heat will be generated.  In other words, there are two heat sources.  The 2080ti has a lot of VRAM, but it also increases the load on the VRAM.  In the case of simple water cooling, VRAM and the motherboard are not exposed to the wind and are likely to cause malfunctions, so I think it is good to strengthen the parts from the viewpoint of load distribution.  When using 9900k for 2080ti, pay attention to the GPU utilization.  We recommend that you use about 80% GPU usage during game distribution.  The trick is to use it moderately even if you strengthen the parts.  Delivery is often unstable because Nvidia's products are unstable at 100% operation.  I think you should limit it a little.


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## xkm1948 (Oct 18, 2020)

And she went in and got it. 

She installed her first CPU ( put it in the socket) and I did some quick testing and benchmarking for her. She tried out her streaming. Since it is using only 2080Ti's encoder there was not much to be gained. However, she wanted to stream Minecraft RTX which will put very heavy load on GPU, she is thinking of going CPU encoding for that to maintain a good FPS.

Old versus new






New CPU put in. Long finernails definitely have an edge in handling CPU











Testing system powering on
















Did a few quick OC, it runs all core 5GHz with about 1.295 VCore. Did not OC RAM or Cache. Don't need crushing in streaming.

Temperature is way better versus 8700K. Now under full system load it draws about 520Watt. CPU temp never goes over 75C for any of the core. For comparison 8700K at 5GHz would spike near 95C from time to time using the same AIO.











And benchmark


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## phanbuey (Oct 18, 2020)

Nice!

For that price worth it just for the temps alone.  I have mine at 5.1Ghz delidded and was debating on this upgrade as well, but don't really stream or anything so doesn't seem worth it.  Also I'm not sure that loop setup can be considered an AIO .  Nice with the split liquid on CPU/GPU in an ITX case.  How are the temps on the 2080ti?


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## xkm1948 (Oct 18, 2020)

phanbuey said:


> Nice!
> 
> For that price worth it just for the temps alone.  I have mine at 5.1Ghz delidded and was debating on this upgrade as well, but don't really stream or anything so doesn't seem worth it.  Also I'm not sure that loop setup can be considered an AIO .  Nice with the split liquid on CPU/GPU in an ITX case.  How are the temps on the 2080ti?




2080Ti uses the Eiswolf 2 AIO. Pump speed is set default max which is about 2400RPM. The fans are controlled through MB fan header with fan speed from 1400RPM (silent mode) to 2200RPM (when MoBo is above 50C)

In the Port Royal torture test GPU temp is about 65C max with GPU core speed around 2025MHz consistant and +780MHz on the VRAM. Manta airflow sucks so would be better if this is in a better airflow case.


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## Max(IT) (Oct 21, 2020)

wow 522W are a big number, hardly unexpected.
I was wondering if the motherboard VRMs were able to keep up with the CPU, but the answer seems to be YES.
Do you have thermal reads about VRM under load ? Are you monitoring that ?


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## joemama (Oct 21, 2020)

Those AIO pipes really annoys me


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## Turmania (Oct 21, 2020)

My fav case off all time! Still have it. Just too big but the curves is enough to buy it


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## xkm1948 (Oct 21, 2020)

Max(IT) said:


> wow 522W are a big number, hardly unexpected.
> I was wondering if the motherboard VRMs were able to keep up with the CPU, but the answer seems to be YES.
> Do you have thermal reads about VRM under load ? Are you monitoring that ?




HWInfo shows it seems to be fine.

I do not have AVX at same 5GHz speed though. If I do that temperature would explode over 95C



joemama said:


> Those AIO pipes really annoys me




Yeah pain of not dealing with custom loop is I have to deal with AIO pipes, and pretty long too


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## Max(IT) (Oct 21, 2020)

xkm1948 said:


> HWInfo shows it seems to be fine.



what do you mean with "fine" ? Which temperature VRM reach ?

It is quite strange to me that a 9900K has better temperatures than an 8700K...


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## xkm1948 (Oct 21, 2020)

Max(IT) said:


> what do you mean with "fine" ? Which temperature VRM reach ?
> 
> It is quite strange to me that a 9900K has better temperatures than an 8700K...




8700K has thermal paste, 9900K is solidiered CPU. System is not mine so cannot answer your question right away. I will ask her later. From my initial testing CPU temp is lower. Not sure about VRM

So I asked her to open the HWINFO monitor while doing her daily streaming / video editing.

This is after about 6hrs of total system up time with all her daily heavies duty workload. Room temp is a bit warm for her around 26C.

So yeah, I am not too worried. And yes, VR VCC is the VRM temp.

This is now adptaive vcore set to 1.295V with llc at lv3. I guess 5GHz is the absolute max that can be pushed on this Z370-ITX board with a 9900K.


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## Max(IT) (Oct 22, 2020)

xkm1948 said:


> 8700K has thermal paste, 9900K is solidiered CPU. System is not mine so cannot answer your question right away. I will ask her later. From my initial testing CPU temp is lower. Not sure about VRM
> 
> So I asked her to open the HWINFO monitor while doing her daily streaming / video editing.
> 
> ...


CPU temperatures are fine, I would say they are good considering the high performance CPU.
But as I suspected VRM temperatures are very high. The 76° while the CPU is at idle (34°) and the peak at 97° are a demonstration it really is not up to the task. Not unexpected, it is an old motherboard, that’s the reason why I asked you VRM temps.
I would keep the CPU at stock without overclocking, on that board, but clearly YMMV


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## xkm1948 (Oct 22, 2020)

Max(IT) said:


> CPU temperatures are fine, I would say they are good considering the high performance CPU.
> But as I suspected VRM temperatures are very high. The 76° while the CPU is at idle (34°) and the peak at 97° are a demonstration it really is not up to the task. Not unexpected, it is an old motherboard, that’s the reason why I asked you VRM temps.
> I would keep the CPU at stock without overclocking, on that board, but clearly YMMV


No. Idle is 69. 76 was Queen she was steaming. Max 97


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