The 9700k has eight real cores so it definitely Makes a difference to four cores where each will handle two tasks at a time with slightly reduced Performance.
If you want to render on the CPU it makes a difference.
For modeling i would choose the CPU with higher Single Core Performance, just google „Cinebench Single Core“ and the Processor.
Between the two the 9700K is far better in any scenario, no doubt about it. It’s slightly better both in single and multi-threaded tasks compared to a 8700K too, which is a 6c/12t.
To give you a rough description of how HT affects performance, it only has to do with multi-threaded tasks, but it doesn’t double the performance of the natural cores. The performance boost is around 25-30%, ex. a 4-core processor with HT on would perform ~25% faster in a threaded task compared to a 4-core without HT.
That’s why 9700K is slightly better than the 8700K in multi-threaded tasks, although the 8700K has 12 threads. It’s because it has 2 more physical cores, that’s 25% more than the 8700K, so that’s the math behind their performance in various tasks.
On the other hand, there are specific single threaded tasks in which cpus without HT perform slightly better compared to their HT-on counterparts. So, there are cases where HT is a drawback, sort of speaking.
HT NOT x2 boost
HT probably closer to 20% boost (depending on app)
the 9700 is a better choice.
Also HT has way to many security exploits, and it feels like Intel is pushign HT-less CPU’s. The first i7 without HT that I can recall. And even their new 48 core Xeon didn’t mention HT at any point, and even during internal tests against AMD, they disabled SMT, probably cause they also disabled HT cause it won’t support it?
Still for us, regular users, go for more cores the HT.
Yes, security reasons is one additional factor (you mentioned the new super Xeon with 48 cores but no HT, that’s what I’ve heard too), but the lack of HT doesn’t resolve all, but some of them. For us everyday users it’s not a big deal anyway, so that’s why I didn’t mention it. But you’re most definitely right.
