to answer your question I’m intending to use it for gaming.
In particular I would like to run Witcher 3 maxed out at 1440p
My son is playing Witcher 3 on max settings on his R5 3600 & RTX 2070 at 1440p/144Hz. Whatever you choose from the top end should run it fine. Heck, the 8700k is still a beast of a chip for gaming!
When you play, is it the game only, or do you have a bunch of other things running? We have multiple monitors and tons of windows/programs open which is the only reason we went Ryzen (also because it was so cheap around Black Friday!).
In this case, Intel changed the naming schemes.
The i9-9900k is an 8 core, 16 thread CPU with a maximum single core boost of 5.0ghz.
The i7-10700k is an 8 core, 16 thread CPU with a maximum single core boost of 5.1ghz.
They are effectively the same chip, but the i7-10700k is a bit more refined in thermal design, microcode, and factory boost.
For the 10th generation, the i9-10900k became a 10 core, 20 thread chip with a 5.3ghz single core boost.
The i9-9900k is around $430 right now, and the i7-10700k is $410.
Now, you could go the i5-10600k route, which is significantly cheaper, and your game performance would be practically identical to the i9-10900k.
However, I’m hesitant to recommend any 6/12 chips moving into 2020 outside of the lowest budget Ryzen builds.
One thing to consider - you are upgrading after 6 years.
If you are going to be on the 5+ year plan for a Computer (with a potential GPU upgrade halfway through it’s life-cycle), then I would push for more cores than you need today (within reason) and also more PSU than you need today (within reason).
I also can’t recommend Ryzen to someone who isn’t planning on upgrading their CPU in a 2-year time frame in addition to their GPU.
So either one of those cpus
(i9-9900k or the i7-10700k)
would be appropriate for what your saying then? They both have 8 cores,
or would you go with the 10 core?
I’d say so. And lean towards the 10700k.
Keep in mind it’s entirely possible that in less than two months, AMD may release a product that will be better than the 10700k for cheaper.
As it stands, the 3700x-3800XT don’t beat a 9900k/10700k at gaming, but who can say for the 4th generation?
Your system is still capable of running most games at medium-high settings. The GTX 970 might be slightly hampered by its limited VRAM compared to newer models but it still should work fine at 1080p.
I would consider waiting until after 4th Generation Ryzen comes out to really make your decision to upgrade - at that point you’ll have to upgrade every in your system anyway.