7600k or 7700k with gtx 1070

[RandomUser3847]

I am building a gaming pc with a gtx 1070 and I can't decide if I should get a 7600k or a 7700k. I am going to be using it for 1080p gaming with a 144hz monitor. It looks like there is a 10-20 frame difference on most triple A titles but I am not sure if 120 fps will be that much different than 100fps. Is 10-20 frames higher worth the extra $100?

 

[lakimens]

Since the difference between 7600K and 7700K is about $100,
get the 7600K and push for a 1080, about $150 more expensive than 1070.
Depending on the games, I don't think you'll be able to get over 100FPS max settings.

 

[Chugalug_]

An i7 7700 is a better choice, it'll cost the same as an i5 7600k setup and perform much better.
What's the budget for your build?

 

[Ecky]

Agree with Chugalug_.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($294.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $364.48
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-14 10:10 EDT-0400

^ Might be cheaper than a 7600K + cooler + Z270 board, and will perform better in a majority of cases.

 

[mrobscura]

7700k. the 7600k will bottleneck the 1070 at 1080p.

 

[Chugalug_]

That's a poor way to put it, while the i5 will fall behind, it won't bottleneck, more to the point it will just be outperformed by the 7700.

 

[mrobscura]

no, at 1080p it will bottleneck it and you wont fully utilize a 1070. just go watch any of the many videos online of gameplay footage using a an i5 paired with a 1070 and youll see gpu usage drop regularly.

 

[Chugalug_]

Resolution has nothing to do with this, it's the application scenario which matters.

 

[mrobscura]

Resolution has nothing to do with this, it's the application scenario which matters.

no, res as everything to do with it. at 1080p the 1070 can push more fps than an i5 can keep up with, whereas at 1440p it cannot alleviating the bottleneck.

 

[lakimens]

I'm with Chugalug_ on this. 7600K can handle a 1070, heck even a 1080.
The frame drops you're talking about are probably when the player isn't moving or moving the camera and the GPU drops to about 80% for a second.

 

[Chugalug_]

Still waiting on a budget @OP.

 

[machfelon]

I'm building similar build. I chose the 7700k and am ordering the evga sc 1070.

 

[Chugalug_]

All depends on varying budgets.
@machfelon feel free to PM me your budget and what you need included and i'll sort you out, you can do better.

 

[mrobscura]

I'm with Chugalug_ on this. 7600K can handle a 1070, heck even a 1080.
The frame drops you're talking about are probably when the player isn't moving or moving the camera and the GPU drops to about 80% for a second.

well, your wrong. a lot of people see to be ignorant of the fact that at 1080p a i5 will bottleneck a 1070. just go look up some videos of people running through novigrad or driving through the city in gta5 and youll see cpu maxed out while gpu usage falls causing fps to nose dive.

 

[lakimens]

Since we're two older members, against you, a younger one, can you prove we're wrong?

 

[J_E_D_70]

Folks here aren't interested in random youtube videos. Need links to a legitimate review site with a repeatable test methodology and frame time variances.

I keep seeing people parrot this as fact and would really like to see something proof positive if it is real. That "old gamer guy" or whatever his name is doesn't count. I already ran benches that he ran and got far higher numbers. Think his setup is jacked.

 

[mrobscura]

well, most "legit reviews" didnt bench a 1070 with an i5, so thatll will be difficult to find. and recent cpu reviews used a 1080 or above intentionally to put the load on the cpu and in those you can definitely see the difference between the i5 and i7.

anyway, whether you want to accept random youtube videos as evidence is up to you. theres countless videos of people running an i5 paired with a 1070 and you can clearly see that card being bottlenecked. at 1080p when things get cpu intensive an i5 absolutely bottlenecks a 1070...if you dont want to believe that, thats fine by me. in the end its no skin of my back if people arent getting the most out of their components. but i am going to try to help them out when they ask for advice.

 

[J_E_D_70]

We're all trying to help but I live this scenario every day because it's what I run. If there is a bottleneck it's not perceptible - if there were frame drops/stuttering/lag I'd see it and would drive me to get a new cpu/mobo/ram but it's just not there. I have the bug to upgrade just for the sake of it but doesn't look like good ROI.

Whew. All that being said, get a 7700k if you can part with the&.

 

[mrobscura]

We're all trying to help but I live this scenario every day because it's what I run. If there is a bottleneck it's not perceptible - if there were frame drops/stuttering/lag I'd see it and would drive me to get a new cpu/mobo/ram but it's just not there. I have the bug to upgrade just for the sake of it but doesn't look like good ROI.

Whew. All that being said, get a 7700k if you can part with the&.

do you have the witcher 3 or bf1? if so go load them up and run through novigrad or play a 64 player match on an open map while playing at 1080p and monitor cpu vs gpu usage... youll notice it. as long if you dont have setting set in a way that results in fps always remaining above a certain cap.

 

[J_E_D_70]

I run BF1 at 1080 daily with no crazy drops. I did run Witcher 3 at 1440 normally but ran it at 1080p after watching one of those videos and my framerate went up significantly (thinking 20-30fps) and Novigrad didn't slow it down any noticable amount. Did the same for Doom 3 and again just didn't see what the video folks were seeing. I am a sample size of one but I know what I see.

One interesting thing is it appeared that every case was 4xxx cpu that was used in the tests which makes me question it or the z87 chipsets.

 

[Chugalug_]

Jed, at a very basic level, an i7 performs better than an i5 due to the fact it has double the threads on the same architecture, no?
Now it boosts to 4.2GHz out of the box, you're looking at 8 threads at 4.2GHz vs 4 threads at (idk, 4.8 as a high OC?) in a world where games are becoming more and more CPU intensive, and are using more cores.

 

[J_E_D_70]

I wouldn't argue that and flat out said to get it if you can afford it. But also saying you won't wonder wth happened if you get a 7600k. The differences in any benches I've seen are marginal and up to the person if worth the money. If streaming, then definitely go 7700k.

Also suppose there needs to be a better definition of a bottleneck. Will you lose some frames? Depending on the game, yes. Will you lose enough to ruin your gaming experience? No. Again - I live it every day and have seen zero evidence that I need to spend the money to upgrade. I want to just for the giggles but keep resisting the urge because the ROI is low.

I'm out - gave my thoughts. Next time I'll go into a long-winded explanation about bottleneck in benchmarks vs perceptible difference for the cost. Would that get people off my back?

 

[Chugalug_]

A few years ago, if you said an i5 performs the same as an i7 in gaming, you'd be right in most scenarios, today however that's different, games are taking advantage of more threads, and i5s are becoming less and less used in high performance machines.
A bottleneck refers to the limitation of one piece of hardware due to another, this is not the case at all, it is simply what an i5 can muster versus an i7, not a bottleneck though.

 

[Karadjgne]

Depends entirely on the games op uses. There's still more than a few that have no need for more than 4 threads, in which case the i5 will perform almost the same (smaller Lcache limited) as an i7, within a few fps. Nothing drastic. Some games are making full use of 8 threads if available. These will show a definite better playability, but to my knowledge there's only 1 game that demands an i7 and thats Ashes of the Singularity, it simply tanks on anything lesser.
Best option is the i7. Covers all the bases.

 

[hazey123]

I'm running an i5 7600k /w a evga 1070ftw . I can say I have amazing performance , no frame drops as all , doesnt matter what game I throw at it . Bf1, arma 3 , even unopitimized pubg in beta. They all run amazing. One thing I can tell you is that the ram is what makes the biggest difference , I started with 2133 ripjaw 5 . Wasn't excited at all . Replaced with trident z 2400 oc to 3200 and gained about 20-35 fps all around in bf1, and arma 3 and warhammer total war. The i5 7600k runs amazingly more efficient with fast ram .