Depends on what you do and on the particular CPU architectural design. Dual CCD Ryzens (12/16core) heavily rely on scheduling when gaming as cross CCD communication is bad for game performance due to extra latency… So 8core Ryzens tend to be better gaming chips.
I would argue if your budget allows you to, it’s better to get 8 cores.
Any benefit for paying for 12 or 16?
Only if you do demanding use cases other than gaming. One example is video editing and encoding (the type that should not be done on a GPU).
Some games do benefit from having 16 cores, things like economic strategy games with lots of background simulation (one example would be path finding).
For gaming exclusively, no. More cores means very little. And will for a long time to come (10 years+). And 8/10 seems ample enough for anything that isn’t highly specific to a field.
What’s the current sweet spot 6 or 8 cores?
Any benefit for paying for 12 or 16?
Depends on what you do and on the particular CPU architectural design. Dual CCD Ryzens (12/16core) heavily rely on scheduling when gaming as cross CCD communication is bad for game performance due to extra latency… So 8core Ryzens tend to be better gaming chips.
I would argue if your budget allows you to, it’s better to get 8 cores.
Only if you do demanding use cases other than gaming. One example is video editing and encoding (the type that should not be done on a GPU).
Some games do benefit from having 16 cores, things like economic strategy games with lots of background simulation (one example would be path finding).
For gaming exclusively, no. More cores means very little. And will for a long time to come (10 years+). And 8/10 seems ample enough for anything that isn’t highly specific to a field.