Intel Core Ultra 7 270K vs Ryzen 7 9850X3D for gaming + dev build
Posted by FactorRealistick@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 27 comments
Hey,
I am putting together a new PC build and I am stuck between two CPUs: Intel Core Ultra 7 270K and Ryzen 7 9850X3D. I am pairing it with an RTX 5080.
My use case is roughly 70% gaming and 30% development. I don’t use this machine for work (I’m on a company laptop for that), but I do mess around with side projects every few months or so.
When I do dev work, it’s usually VS Code or Visual Studio, Cursor or Claude, a database tool running, a browser with way too many tabs, and a test environment or two. Nothing super heavy or production-scale, just typical multitasking dev setup. Everything my company's laptop already can handle but I just want bit more speed.
On the gaming side, I would mostly play at 1440p and 4K. I don’t really play any multiplayer games at all, only single-player stuff. Mostly RPGs, sports, strategy, shooters and things like Assassin’s Creed, RDR2, Far Cry...
From what I’ve read so far, the Intel seems to edge out in general productivity and multitasking, while the Ryzen with the 3D cache clearly wins in gaming. That’s basically where my confusion comes from.
I’m not too bothered about the price difference. This is more of a build it once and keep it for years situation, so I care more about long-term choice than small performance differences today.
So the main question is: does the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K provide a better gaming experience than the Ryzen provides a better developer/multitasking experience and
Would I even notice any gaming difference if I went with the Intel or any problems with multitasking if I go with Ryzen?
Would really appreciate any real-world input from people who’ve used either (or both).
TheGamerX20@reddit
If the Intel 270K Plus is at MSRP ($300), then I'd take it without a single doubt, you are gonna be getting nearly 9950X multi-threading performance and a motherboard for the price of the 9950X alone.. basically a free motherboard with the CPU, so the platform longevity doesn't even matter in this case (and you said you'd want to keep this system for a while anyway).
Now I'll tell you about my experience in Unreal Engine and other development work, I have had a Ryzen 7800X3D for a while now, bought it way before the 270K was released, it is fine.. I can do what I want and performance is good enough, but there definitely are instances where I wish I had the extra cores, I will probably upgrade to a Ryzen 10950X at some point in the future because of it.
Plenty-Industries@reddit
Neither CPU is going to be better than the other at those resolutions.
Choose the build that costs the least.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
make -j24MyLifeInPixels0@reddit
9850X3D will feel better in games. Intel wins dev stuff but you won't notice much there
Smarmy82@reddit
They would be similar, the biggest benefit to am5 is there will be another generation of cpus for the socket and for Intel, there will not be.
GestureArtist@reddit
Intel 270k plus. It's technically faster than my 9950x3d at everything except gaming. To be fair I havent tested the 270k plus in games yet though because i don't use that pc for gaming. I use the 9950x3D of course.
270k plus is pretty impressive especially at it's price. It beats my 9950x3d at cinebench r23.
9950x3d and 270k in my experience are quite similar in terms of real world performance, meaning you wouldn't really notice it unless you ran them side by side to see the subtle nuances.. The 270k plus is much cheaper. I would skip the 9850x3D as it's simply not as good as the 270k plus. The 270K plus is a very good CPU. I replaced my 13900K with it. (13900K got moved to file server duties to replace an aging 4960x).
So I can't recommend the 270K plus more. Personally I'm a bit more happy with it than even the 9950x3D but I think that's just the "it's new" factor. Although I love the Asus Pro Art motherboard that it's in where as my 9950x3D is in an MSI Carbon (A great motherboard but the Pro-Art is better).
BigDaddyTrumpy@reddit
270K.
mati203920392@reddit
Unless you want to play at low setting to reach 300+ fps, you won't see any difference between those two cpus at 1440p or 4k with 5080. I own 9800x3 and tweaked 265k(bassicly 270k) and at 1440p at highest settings with 5080 there is bassicly no difference.
If you are going to stick with this build for the next 4 years just pick what is cheaper, if you wish to update in like year or two amd is your only choice.
FactorRealistick@reddit (OP)
I will stick with that build for next 4-5 years. I like that x3d cache but also Intel's extra cores. Hard decision.
Tiny-Chipmunk7211@reddit
Intel makes more sense imo. Way cheaper and the extra cores will help the CPU age better in the long run. You can't go wrong either way tho
Gordend@reddit
With amd you will be able to upgrade later if you wish.
GTFr0@reddit
I would personally lean more towards the 270k+, but ultimately it’s a question of which you value more.
The 270k+ gives you excellent workstation performance and good enough gaming performance.
The 9800X3D gives you excellent gaming performance and good enough workstation performance.
Which is more important to you: your games running a few FPS faster, or your code compiling a minute or two faster?
Own-Indication5620@reddit
X3D for gaming, Intel for applications/budget minded. At 1440p and 4K the performance is generally pretty close as you are usually more GPU dependant at these resolutions on average.
MECHANICAL-CHODE@reddit
Sounds like you’re not limited on CPU speed for development, so go for the better gaming one, you’ll get more value out of it.
Efficient7480@reddit
I think X3D would be best option for you
FactorRealistick@reddit (OP)
Any your experiences?
Efficient7480@reddit
Not any personal experience but according to your use case to me seems like X3D would be better in terms of gaming performance and for development related tasks it would be on par with Intel.
AesirDRiVEiN@reddit
ingame, the difference will be miniscule. In Productivity however, the 270K is way stronger.
At the end of the day, your CPU wont make that much of a difference since ur gaming on 1440P or 4K if ure looking for CPU´s that expensive. Your GPU will do way more than the CPU in gaming.
BUT IF ure only gaming, the 9850x3d is the obv choice (dont get the 9850x3d tho, the 9800x3d is 2-4% slower for 100bucks less where i live)
tilted0ne@reddit
Honestly could flip a coin and be happy with either. It's a tough decision unless you play specific games which greatly benefit from the 3d cache, most games, the AMD will be faster but it's only something you'd notice if you put them side by side. Or if output in a real world task scales well with the multi core performance such as rendering. Id personally lean towards the Intel because of 4k gaming, it's cheaper and has around 75% more multi core. But the thing that makes AMD quite compelling is the motherboard longevity.
Flimsy_Complaint490@reddit
It's complicated.
At higher resolutions, such as 4k, or maxed out 1440p, the CPU ceases to be much of a bottleneck and it's all about the GPU. Even with that 5080, the raw compute of it remains the limiting aspect at those resolutions, so if that's your graphical fidelity settings, it is entirely conceivable, if not highly probable, that you could completely fail to notice the 15% performance superiority of a 9850x3d against the 270k plus in gaming in most titles. Things like Stellaris or Cities Skylines are obvious exceptions, the simulation there is entirely CPU bound.
In multicore productivity tasks, the 270k either shreds those x3d chips or performs the same, and GPU doesn't matter there. That being said, again, i dont think you would be able to feel a visible difference between the two.
So, since for you, you likely would fail to see or feel a difference between the two platforms, and you dont plan to upgrade and therefore AM5 longevity argument doesnt matter, I recommend to either wait half a year for Zen 6 and Nova Lake and buy that instead for a more generational boost, or save 300 bucks and get the Arrow Lake system.
I dont personally own an x3d chip but i do have a 9700x and 250k, which compare similiarly to x3d and 270k differences.
ElBartimaeus@reddit
I think this production performance is blown out of the water. Like you save a few ms when you conplie? I really struggle to see where these xpu heavy workloads appear in a non-professional environment. If your crappy work laptop can handle, a fresh gen top tier pc processor will be more than enough for you.
Gaming is much more demanding, although on 4k the gpu will be much more limiting for a long time. The x3d seems to be having more headroom in that department, ao later upgrades to gpu will yield better performance boost if your fps will ever get too low.
JoshLineberry@reddit
You won't notice a different in gaming. The mob is going to say 9800x3d and sure, if you want absolute max fps, but 99% of people in this world don't need max fps and won't even notice. For the price to performance, I would easily take the 270k plus.
Uranium___Potato@reddit
i am pretty much in your shows, use my pc for mostly heavy games 60-70% (DCS VR at 4k), and the rest of the time is on Reaper, Visual Studio, VSCode, Claude, several chrome tabs and windows, occasional video editing on DaVinci. After a LOT of research, turns out a 9800x3d or a 9850x3d is more than enough for all my other use cases (unless i am doing like 4k video editing professionally which i dont), and has a massive improvement over the ryzen 9 9900x or the Intel Core Ultra 7 270k as far as gaming performance in concerned.
JoshLineberry@reddit
If you're running 1440p or 4k it really doesn't do much. You won't even notice a difference in gaming.
FactorRealistick@reddit (OP)
Yeah, but this extra cores looks like it could be useful in a future.
VOIDsama@reddit
AMD will probably give u a longer lasting platform. Would allow better chance for an upgrade later on if u needed it.
se777enx3@reddit
I don’t know these software so can’t speak about that but in gaming: in 4k you will probably not notice a difference in most games (unless cpu heavy), in 1440p you will. For my audio work and occasional davinci resolve, 9800x3d was always plenty.