Intel Test System
- Core i5-8600K @ 4,8 GHz
- Asrock Z370M Pro4
- G.Skill Flare-X DDR4-3200 CL14
- Crucial MX300 SATA3, 525 GB
- NZXT Kraken X62
- NZXT Source S340
AMD Test System
- Ryzen 5 2600 @ default
- MSI B350I AC Pro
- Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000 @ 2933 CL16
- Crucial MX300 SATA3, 525 GB
- AMD Wraith Prism
- Fractal Design Core 500
In the end what can we say about the combination of Ryzen 5 2600 and RTX 2070? In Shadow of Tomb Rider, Strange Brigade and Apex Legend that system is almost equal to the i5-8600K based one. In Fortnite and Overwatch on Epic settings we have again very good performance on average, however substantially lower 1% low result for the AMD based system. It is however quite a bit over 60 FPS so it shouldn’t pose a problem during gameplay. And then comes Far Cry 5, Assassins Creed Odyssey and Fortnite on competitive settings, in which Ryzen 5 2600 on default is substantially slower than the overlocked Core i5-8600K. Especially in Fortnite with Low detail. Still in general it shouldn’t hinder the playability much.
So what answer can we get from this? Unfortunately we can’t give you a straight forward answer, but just “it depends”. First lets address elephant in the room before AMD fans tear us appart :). That is, you can overclock Ryzen 5 2600, and you don’t need as big of an investment – any adequate B350/B450 board can do it, an you need to only invest 20-30 euro in cooling. But the reward is also not that big – you can gain only 10 to 15% more performance in CPU demanding situations and for 15% you need a lucky draw of the silicon lottery.
But here is our recommendation – if you primarily play single player games on high detail and/or play in higher resolutions, than there is merit to combine Ryzen 5 2600 and RTX 2070, if you are cash strapped. For online competitive gamers however, Core i5 and overclocking it seems the way to go. Moreover you can even try Core i3-8350K, depending on the games you play.
