It’s been nearly 8 years since I’ve built up a new machine. Before prices sky rocket more I’m considering upgrading. Just curious what the current 7 series intel equivalent is ? I see core series now ?
Always referred to this site for a basic benchmark of CPU or GPU.
It’s good for a basic reference
Forget brands, forget series. Look up benchmarks for the things you actually want to run (games? video editing? raw compute?) and find the best bang for the buck on that. And of course find a motherboard to match that CPU and your other needs.
I’ve run Intel, AMD, even IBM PowerPC for many many years and they’ve all been very reliable. The difference just comes down to performance for the job.
For me I’ll only build a machine to game with. I’m not into video editing and I don’t run any home servers. For anything else I’d just happily keep using m2 Mac Mini.
Benchmarks only get so much value for me. It scored 2490 Thorbles you say? Oh that’s wonderful ! What’s a Thorble ??
For me it’s more helpful with human experience. How does it work daily ? How is it with games stability wise ? Brands matter little bit as the setup between them can be different.
In the past historically I’ve been let down by AMD processors so I for personal reasons shy away.
I’m hoping to spend under 2500 dollars if I can help it. Reusing components where I can.
I mean technically there is nothing wrong with my existing machine. It works great just staring to fall behind. Would need a new motherboard no matter what I did so I minus well price this out / consider this a near new build.
Look for benchmarks on games you actually play (or at least similar ones). That’s way more useful and practical than the artificial tool scores.
I just did a web search for a popular GPU model + “benchmarks” and the very first result was a Tom’s Hardware page showing how it scores (in frames per second) against a 17 different models and 14 popular games with common resolution/quality settings.
We’ll you have “Core” and “Core Ultra”. Core 3, 5, 7 are your more efficient CPUs, even if it ends in H which was previously “high” performance. But Core Ultra is 5, 7, and 9 which is what you’d want to aim for obviously. Personally, I don’t know that a 9 gives you all that much more on real world gaming performance.
Idk though, because, while the Ultra series has a higher boost clock, good for “AI”, and has improved single core benchmarks, the 13th and 14th gen (14700K for example) are still damn impressive, support DDR5, PCIe 5.0, etc. You even get the same approximate multi core performance and the core count is higher (vs Ultra 7 265K)
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-intel_core_ultra_7_265k-vs-intel_core_i7_14700k
Is it worth it to you to spend the extra dough? Some 13/14 gen support Ddr4 too if you wanna save, OR recycle your ddr4 from your current rig if you’ve got enough.
Edit, ohhh yeah back to original ask. A Core i3-13100 or 14100 is 4c/8t and holds its own to a 7700K. Quite impressive.
Mate this wonderful!
This is what I needed. I was wondering my current rig has 32 gb of ddr4 (two sticks of 16) higher speed.
Was wondering maybe it’s worth it to salvage that and try to save some costs as well.
Just wondering with the price I’m paying to upgrade is it worth whatever bottleneck that presents ?
I was looking at 13 - 14 gen but I remember the issues when they first launched. I wasn’t sure they were resolved.
If you currently have 32GB of ddr4, ain’t nothing wrong with going to AliEx for a 5500X3D (should be about $210, and yes, it’s fine to shop on AliEx) and Bezosland (or one of hardwareswap subs for a used one) for a B550 board.
Toss in a decent GPU and you’re golden.
I was looking at 13 - 14 gen but I remember the issues when they first launched. I wasn’t sure they were resolved.
I looked recently and ended up recommending 12th because near as I could tell the answer was maybe, especially if not in aircon.
I’ve got a 13700K currently at work with no issues for almost 3 years, and our sales manager at work, I got him a 14900HX for his laptop last year and no issues. I’m the IT guy and I don’t want bogged down machines, so I’m choosy with who gets what.
We’re not gaming per se, but I’ve got 4 screens, he’s got 3, neither have had driver issues or crashes. Both get plenty of airflow and in a cool building, like the other commenter mentioned. Hope that helps.



