3570k vs. 3770k for gaming

[freakyguy88]

I just want to know what, if any, differences I will notice between the 3770k and the 3570k in gaming. I know that the 3770k is almost $100 more expensive and that it's not worth it, but money aside, are there absolutely zero differences between them in gaming or are there differences but they are just very small? Also, I occasionally use After Effects and I would like to know by how much the 3770k will speed up the rendering process over the 3570k?

Oh, I use my 7970 in CF to play games, don't know if that matters.

 

[Guest]

I asked the same question pretty much last night. The 2 guys who answered were convinced that the 3570K was the better chip for gaming since most games only use 2-4 cores anyhow and some games even have problems with HT (A good example was BF3 until it was patched.)

Hope it helps!

 

[digitalmiget]

When it comes to gaming the difference between the 3570k and 3770k is very small, though as you are willing to spend that much on a cpu, you should use the money to contribute to a better graphics card

 

[bkboggy]

Here's the comparison of the two:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/65523,65520

You get a very slight increase in frequency and a 2MB increase in your L3 Cache. Other than that, hyper-threading is the only thing that's different between the two. Some software may have issues with hyper-threading, but usually that gets fixed relatively quickly for mainstream applications. Intel addressed that issue and ways to fix it here. Going back and looking at what you get for almost $100 is not a lot. HT and 2MB in L3 Cache --- is that worth it to you? That i5 should be able to handle Crysis 2 without any issues.

Here on this very website you can see that the i5 version performs really well comparing to the overpriced competition: link

Here are the more comprehensive benchmark tests from cpubenchmark.net: 3570K & 3770K.

Rule of thumb has been that if the the increase in performance of the next processor is too slight, spend that money on other components instead. Get better RAM or a nicer video card. In the end, however, it's just how much money you're willing to spend. Remember, in a few years, everything you're buying right now will seem obsolete anyways.

 

[freakyguy88]

Ok so the differences are almost none in modern games. In the future games will obviously start to use HT and more cores, but do you think that those games are 2 or 3 years away, or quite a bit more?

 

[bkboggy]

Virtually no modern game benefits from HT at the moment, and by the time the next generation games come out, you'll probably want to upgrade the rest of your components as well... If you get that i5 instead of i7, you're not going to miss out on much. You're still getting a processor that performs well on benchmarks and has four cores. That processor will serve you well for a while. With the $100 you save, you can increase performance in other areas such as RAM or Video, cooling or even a better motherboard, that will show a higher performance improvement than i5 to i7. Heck, go get a nice meal -- it'll probably make more difference.

Here's a great analysis of your magic hyper-threading by... no other than tomshardware (interesting what you find on this website with a little bit of research): Hyper-Threadingl

Here's more info on Hyper-Threading and the 2MB L3 Cache boost that's offered by i7: link

Gaming-wise... HT is a no-no. However, your After Effects will probably benefit from it.

Here's a good article for you to read (it's not too long, but explains what I'm talking about): link

If you're worried about missing out on not having HT for the future generation games... think of it like this, if you knew where you'd fall, wouldn't you put some hay there? It's hard to predict things like this. Intel got rid of HT for a while and now it's back. Who knows what's going to be around the corner. Just go with what you can afford and don't worry about getting the best thing, because it won't be a month from now.

 

[freakyguy88]

Best answer selected by freakyguy88.

 

[freakyguy88]

Ok thanks for explaining everything, guys. I will probably get the 3570k then.