For those that are confused seeing an F at the end of the more familiar 9700K name, don’t worry, it’s a good thing. Sort of. Well, the F means it doesn’t have onboard graphics, and it just happens to have a slightly better all core boost clock and turbo ability compared to it’s standard counterpart.
Then, there is Ryzen. See, the 3700X, with it’s 16 threads instead of just 8, is a full £40 cheaper than the 9700KF right now, which is pretty mad, considering that in raw power – ie cinebench, the 9700KF is slower in both single threaded tests, and in multithreaded, and by a pretty big margin. Like, the Ryzen chip is a good 28% faster.
That trend continues with the blender bmw test, where the 3700X took 175 seconds to render it, and the 9700KF took 236 seconds, or around 35% slower. The difference wasn’t quite as pronounced in my 10 minute test render in Premiere Pro, with the 9700KF being only 19% slower here, but still a reasonable difference.
Cinebench
Single
Multi
9700kf
493
3716
3700X
500
4757
Premiere Pro
Time (s)
9700kf
1078
3700X
904
Blender BMW
Time (s)
9700kf
236
3700X
175
But now we have to talk about gaming, since it’s what you guys are here for anyway.
BFV
1080p AVG
1080p 1% Lows
1440p AVG
1440p 1% Lows
4K AVG
4K 1% Lows
3700X
163.49
93.28
126.86
112.48
76.23
67.52
9700kf
178.59
130.04
141.24
95.24
81.19
72.34
APEX
1080p AVG
1080p Min
1440p AVG
1440p Min
4K AVG
4K Min
3700X
137.28
100
111.79
87
89.65
67
9700kf
131.98
98
122.42
90
87.34
54
PUBG
1080p AVG
1080p Min
1440p AVG
1440p Min
4K AVG
4K Min
3700X
193.367
153
134.22
115
71.43
62
9700kf
209.71
134
132.63
120
79.32
66
Fortnite
1080p AVG
1080p Min
1440p AVG
1440p Min
4K AVG
4K Min
3700X
222.1
131
163.59
123
86.31
74
9700kf
221.98
134
161.99
122
96.1
76
So, for gaming, they are tied. In some games the 9700KF has a clear victory, in others it’s the 3700X. Bit of a strange one, but I retested everything to make sure and that’s what I got.
Anyway, at this kind of price point, I’m having a hard time recommending you buy a 9700KF. The 9700KF was a tad cheaper, then maybe, but since it’s a good bit more expensive, and you have to buy a CPU cooler for it, whereas the 3700X has a reasonable one in the box, it seems pretty hard to justify. What do you think though?