Question bought i7-6700k early 2016

[dopemoney]

so i am curious about the forum's thoughts on upgrading my cpu. as a starter, i will say that it appears not necessary for me now. my cpu is still lightning fast and has shown no indication of slowing down these past 3 years. is it possible that we have reached a point in technology hardware that when you spend big early in a release that upgrading isn't necessary for 5-7 years in the future?

 

[Barty1884]

If the CPU is doing what you need it to, then there's no point in upgrading.

Ultimately, Intel's process hasn't moved on much. A 6700K and 7700K at the same clocks will perform identically. 8700K added extra cores, but unless there's a workload of yours that'll benefit heavily from the added cores/threads (like some games, or editing/rendering etc) then the 6700K is more than capable - and should remain so for some time yet!

 

[punkncat]

As much as I am sure you are already aware...by and large most feel that waiting 4 generations on Intel is a smart move for upgrade/not wasting money.

 

[izoli]

Absolutely a good CPU doesn't necessarily need upgraded for a solid 5-7 years. Now if you decide you want to play at higher resolutions and maintain ultra settings then upgrading may be of more interest, obviously that would also require GPU improvements.

You can play pretty much anything at 1080p on ultra settings with a 6700k still. 1440p, you can play pretty much anything at ultra settings on a 60hz monitor. 4k, you will need to turn down settings to achieve 60fps average.

 

[Barty1884]

Absolutely a good CPU doesn't necessarily need upgraded for a solid 5-7 years. Now if you decide you want to play at higher resolutions and maintain ultra settings then upgrading may be of more interest, obviously that would also require GPU improvements.

You can play pretty much anything at 1080p on ultra settings with a 6700k still. 1440p, you can play pretty much anything at ultra settings on a 60hz monitor. 4k, you will need to turn down settings to achieve 60fps average.

That's a bit backwards there. Lower resolutions (like 1080p) can be more CPU dependent. As you move up the resolution scale, the CPU matters less. Still relevant - you're not running 4K games on a Core2Duo or anything, but even a 6600K etc will serve you pretty well at 4K (with an appropriate GPU, of course).

 

[mdd1963]

6700K/7700K at 4.5 GHz all-core clockspeed is still plenty for gaming/general use competence, where either processor at 4.2-4.5 GHz often matches or exceeds the 2600X/2700X in most game comparisons. (naturally, adding streaming to the mix can shift this dramatically, however)

 

[izoli]

That's a bit backwards there. Lower resolutions (like 1080p) can be more CPU dependent. As you move up the resolution scale, the CPU matters less. Still relevant - you're not running 4K games on a Core2Duo or anything, but even a 6600K etc will serve you pretty well at 4K (with an appropriate GPU, of course).

It matters less than the GPU scaling, I agree that the GPU is scaling is going to be larger as you improve resolution. But when a 6600k can maintain over 100fps at 1080p on ultra settings, but cant maintain 60fps at 4k it shows that there is some fairly considerable scaling taking place.