1080p competitive settings - 10900k vs 10600k

Anyone know if competitive FPS settings (aiming for 300 FPS at all times 1080p) benefits from a 10900k over a 10600k? Benchmarks online typically max out GPU settings which does not show the CPU constraints in competitive scenarios. I’ve played on a 10600k which was extremely smooth but notice dips down to 280 FPS in rare occasions. Curious to understand if a 10900k provides any benefit at all.

Similar comparisons with 9700k vs 9900k that might help show if the additional cores provide a real-world benefit for OW too. But I can’t find these using competitive settings either.

I reach 280fps on a 9900k. The maps themselves will always force a dip. Sections of the map just load too much, to keep the FPS at 300. If you’re going for max detail.

Ram speed is for overwatch any of them cpu with 3600 mhz + ram will cap at 300fps ofc and if you overclock them to 5ghz

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nl hardware info/artikel/9944/intel-core-i5-10600k-a-core-i9-10900k-review-de-snelste-gaming-cpu-die-je-niet-moet-kopen

(Sorry I can’t link it directly)

This review is in Dutch but the benchmarks are clear enough. They tested both CPUs at medium and ultra settings in several titles and it looks like yes, the 10900 is faster in most of them when the GPU is not bottle necking. Deciding if it’s a good deal or not, is left as an exercise for the reader.

Thanks - this is the best testing comparison I’ve seen yet. If only they included Overwatch one of the tests. I think you’re correct there would be some benefit to the 10900k without GPU bottleneck. Trying to understand how much that is, I assume this depends on how optimized Overwatch is on 4/6/8 cores etc.

I don’t have the data to back it up on hand but it’s fairly well optimized. However, going from a 10600k to a 10900k will help but probably not all that much in dollar per dollar. But, hey if you got the money to burn go for it.

You can always resell the 10600k and make some of that investment back.

The 10600k is more than enough it even has hyperthreading the only reason you would ever choose a 10900k is it you want to stream at lets say 1080p 60 fps or do video editing 10600k will kill overwatch and even get over 144fps in games like modern warfare too no reason to get a 10900k if you are just purely gaming

And even if you do want to do all of that the 10700k is like the current 9900k its better value for money there is no games that are going to take advantage of 10 cores 20 threads

i would take the extra money you was going to spend and put it on cooling and overclock the 10600k

honestly I’d go with the best CPU with the most cores that you can afford

since AMD shook up the market with Ryzen 3 years ago, and then again with Zen 2 last year, picking a good CPU actually matters because for the first time in 10 years, we are no longer limited to the same Core i7 4-core/8-thread options for generation after generation with slight IPC improvements.

Games and software are starting to be developed with more cores in mind; it’s no longer all about raw clockspeed and IPC.

He is asking for 1080p gaming tho man you dont need 10 cores for this and wont for a very long time and 6 cores 6 threads is going to be fine for the next 2-3 years.

how you are wording it is like he should just get a threadripper but its not how games work he wants maximum fps so clock speed will always matter in 1080p if he wants just 144hz at 1440p sure clock speed starts to not matter and its more on your gpu but for 1080p clock speed is going to be what is needed for overwatch and overwatch 2 as they are not making a new engine.

people telling him to get the 10900k are going to screw him in the 1-2 years because intel is going to be bringing out better chips or AMD may be able to catch up in the new 2 years but if he is just buying a 10600k and having it max overwatch for now while not needed to go over the top on motherboards and cooling to get the most out of the 10900k he can always upgrade in the future.

Amd is great and all but its still not aimed at 1080p gaming and untill they bring out chips that have that many cores at 5ghz or higher intel will always be in the lead not to mention no gaming company is going to optimize their games for 8 core processors because they would lose half of their playerbase

I wouldnt choose i5. For gaming just i7 or i9. Probly has lot of power anyway that i5, but still it is i5… Depends on money.

Thank you. Yeah I already got a 280MM AIO so cooling should be good enough. I think you’re right that the 10600k is plenty. My only concern is when pushing team fights at 300FPS it drops a bit. JW if a 10700K or 10900K would provide measurable improvement but it sounds like probably not.

You can see from GPU usage. If the GPU is maxed out all the time then probly not. Atleast I think…xD You can check GPU graph in Task manager if it goes lower than 100 when FPS drops occur, then it could be weak CPU. Overwatch is well optimized, Im at GPU 100 all the time I think
( Maybe Im wrong, Im not an expert. xD)

have you overclocked it to 5ghz or higher? everyones game is going to drop at some point its how the game is optimized id just recommend capping the game at 280 you wont notice the 20 fps and it will be stable i have the i7 9700k and i just capped mine at 250 even tho it could also do 300 if you have a 240hz monitor try capping at 250.

i had a 9600k before i got this 9700k i was getting the exact same fps but the only problem was it was makin my game stutter because the 9600k does not have hyperthreading like the 10600k so i swapped it out for 9700k its all fine now yours has hyperthreading so you wont see any of them problems.

Also overwatch scaled really well with ram speed just going from 2133mhz ram to 3200 you can gain around 50-60fps so if your wanting to go for the 300fps constant it would be overclocking and faster ram.

Streamers with the best PC often drop from 300fps be it from using the tab to bring up score screen or when you are watching killcam or when everyone uses ultimates its not your cpu its the game how its optimized

Overwatch priority from what I can gather is:

  1. RAM Speed/Timings
  2. CPU
  3. GPU
  4. Expensive Gaming Chair :sunglasses:

10700k if you want to stream 10900k if you want to stream/game and video edit after 10600k if you just want to play the game at 300fps only difference between the 3.

I doubt it would.

You’re likely always going to see drops of at least a couple frames from 300, regardless of your hardware. Aiming for a consistent 300 FPS 100% of the time isn’t really feasible.

I have an AMD Ryzen 3700x and RTX 2070 SUPER and if I lower the settings enough I can get 300 FPS without ever dropping below 280 - and the newest 10th Gen Intel chips are probably a little bit more powerful than my CPU.

Yeah that makes sense. I wonder if this game favors Intel to a degree though. I had a ryzen 3600 before switching to the 10600k and it’s a huge difference. Running the same B-die ram kit on both (OCd to 3800mhz C14 on ryzen) and the 10600k is night and day difference. I was dropping to almost 200 FPS in teamfights. Now i’ve never seen it go below 280.

its the clock speed its why if you overclock your cpu to 5ghz you might be able to hold the stable 300fps if you have it running at stock still its only 4.5ghz on all cores with the turbo boost but you can get the 10600k to 5ghz easy probs higher on all cores if you overclock it you will see fps increase.

Just depends how good of a chip you got just dont go over 1.4 volts and make sure you have good cooling.

Here is an easy way to do it just start of at 1.4 volts then do a stress test for 10 minutes and if it does not crash lower the voltage down by 0.1 volts untill you get to where it crashes and then turn it back to the one you had before most i5 are stable at 1.35 volts for 5ghz.

I think you are probably right. Would be really nice to see someone test/benchmark all three in competitive FPS settings though. Especially since these games are CPU bound. So many focus on the GPU, no CPU love

Thanks I’m running it at 4.9 ghz 1.26V - nice and cool with virtually the same performance at 5.0. B-die rams @ 4000mhz is helping a lot too.