Choosing a CPU hyper threading or no

[Rayzer_116]

I'm trying to decide between the i7-4790K the Xeon E3-1241 and the i5-4690K

What does hyperthreading actually do?
And what core would you recommend for gaming and maybe 3d rendering?

 

[RektSkrubs]

3d rendering is mostly done by the GPU. I also know that you will want hyperthreading over a non-hyperthreading core.

 

[Ezo Legendz]

If youre gonna do rendering get the i7 4790K or Xeon. Hyper threading means that your CPU has extra virtual cores not physical. In windows it will say you have an 8 core processor (i7) those extra cores help you when rendering.

 

[aerocool]

For gaming a i5 is ok. Games are more GPU dependant.

For 3D rendering it depends... If you are not a proffesional or only wants to do some not complex 3D images, a fast i5 is ok.
If you lives (or tries) from doing 3D renderings, then a i7. If the i7 has 6 cores, better than 4.
Hyperthreading helps a bit, not too much. Time ago I disabled the HT in Bios to test, using Cinebench (similar to rendering in 3D Studio MAX), and the difference was small... from 13 points to 12. But is better to have HT for professional rendering.

I work with 3D programs, and is better to have more cores in the CPU (i7 4930k (6) is faster than i7 4790k (4)).

If you want to do 3D renders with GPU, you can use Octane Render, VrayRT... They uses Nvidia because they are programed to use CUDAs. AMD don´t work. Well, I think that Octane is working with a new version to work with AMD GPUs. More Vram is better for GPU renders (6-12GB...), because you can load a lot more complex scenes in the GPU.

 

[Rayzer_116]

What if I change the build to include the i7-5820k

 

[aerocool]

5820 is similar to my 4930. And it supports up to 128GB RAM (a lot room for complex scenarios in 3D profesional programs). I have 64 and in some situations I used it all.

For gaming, more than 8GB is not neccesary. 16GB will be ok for near future.

But it is more expensive than 4xxx series, because it is socket 2011-3 and uses DDR4.

5820k has less lanes and for SLI is better that all GPUs have 16 lanes each one (SLI 2GPUs = 32 lanes). But having a SLI working with 16x and 8x is not noticiable. For GPU rendering it doesen´t matter (I think...), because You can render with 2 GPUs without SLI them.

 

[Moonstick2]

If you're just gaming and "maybe" 3D rendering then just get the i5.

Spending more than twice the price of an i5 on a 5820K just to dabble in 3d rendering is senseless. It's like buying a £600 professional-quality drill when all you're going to do is put up a few shelves. If you ever get to the point that rendering is a serious hobby or even profession for you, then's the time to spend money on a high-level processor, and by then there'll probably be stuff that leaves the 5820K for dust.

 

[Moonstick2]

@RektScrubs: I'm not sure of the etiquette of deselecting an answer selected by the OP as the solution just because you presumably don't agree with it...

 

[13thmonkey]

@RektScrubs: I'm not sure of the etiquette of deselecting an answer selected by the OP as the solution just because you presumably don't agree with it...

The ettiquette is that you don't do it, but the system unfortunately allows you to do it.

Rektscrubs please don't do that again.