Question Gaming i5 vs i7

[Tattooguy90]

Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell Quad-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 1150

vs

Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150

I have
-Windowss 10
-GTX 1660
-8gb of ram

i want to play more games but when I've ran benchmarks or gone on "can you run it" my CPU is ALWAYS the issue. I'm running a 5 or 6 year old (i5 4670k 3.4 GHz) I obviously want a decent CPU at a good price. Those are both around the $250 range. Thanks for all the help!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I wouldn't buy either to be honest. There will be very little difference for you in gaming. It's more of a sidegrade, than an upgrade.

If i was to choose, i'd take the I7 as more cores/threads helps in modern cpu demanding games. But spending $250 just doesn't make sense.

 

[Tattooguy90]

I wouldn't buy either to be honest. There will be very little difference for you in gaming. It's more of a sidegrade, than an upgrade.

If i was to choose, i'd take the I7 as more cores/threads helps in modern cpu demanding games. But spending $250 just doesn't make sense.

From what I've read.... Lol i7s are really for people who do programming and stuff. Which I don't. All info is play games. But some of the games I've seen say they recommend a i7 and they are 450-600.

 

[Tattooguy90]

And I'd prefer something decent that fits the 1150 socket. So I don't need to upgrade my mobo

 

[sizzling]

From what I've read.... Lol i7s are really for people who do programming and stuff. Which I don't. All info is play games. But some of the games I've seen say they recommend a i7 and they are 450-600.

Years ago it used to be true that CPU’s with more than 4 threads (i7’s) didn’t help much in games. However in the last few years that has changed a lot and modern games can often use 8 or more threads when available.

The 4690k is just a refresh of your 4679k and you won’t tell the difference between them. The 4770 at least upgrades you from 4 to 8 threads but $250 seems expensive for the performance you are getting. You can get better for less with a modern cpu but the overall cost is more as you need a new motherboard and RAM. I just can’t recommend paying $250 for a cpu which is already aging and you may find you want to upgrade again in the near future.

 

[sizzling]

And I'd prefer something decent that fits the 1150 socket. So I don't need to upgrade my mobo

The 4770/4770k/4790/4790k are the best for that socket but they are not much of an upgrade. The main benefit for gaming is you gain hyperthreading which is good but not a huge leap forward.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Years ago it used to be true that CPU’s with more than 4 threads (i7’s) didn’t help much in games. However in the last few years that has changed a lot and modern games can often use 8 or more threads when available.

The 4690k is just a refresh of your 4679k and you won’t tell the difference between them. The 4770 at least upgrades you from 4 to 8 threads but $250 seems expensive for the performance you are getting. You can get better for less with a modern cpu but the overall cost is more as you need a new motherboard and RAM. I just can’t recommend paying $250 for a cpu which is already aging and you may find you want to upgrade again in the near future.

Exactly.

 

[guanyu210379]

4770 (no-k) vs 4690k?
For most games, I5 4690k is the better pick especially if it is OCed.
For some games which benefit from HT, I7 4770 is the better pick.

4670k to 4690k? these two are max only 2% apart from each other, nothing noticeable.
4670k to any I7 4xxx (k or no K)? the only main difference is the HT (Hyperthreading), nothing else.

If you want a noticeable upgrade, you must move to newer platform.

Note:
Intel's I5 and 7 on 3xxx, 4xxx, 6xxx up to 7xxx are all very near. It is not worth it to go from 4xxx into any of those.
The 8xxx and 9xxx are decent upgrades but AMD Ryzen especially the 3xxx beat the crap out of Intel in the price/performance cathegory.

 

[LordVile]

If you have 250 you could sell your current board, RAM and CPU and get a r5 2600, B450 board and 16GB of ram for the same price. You might even turn a profit

 

[Nihilanth]

If you have 250 you could sell your current board, RAM and CPU and get a r5 2600, B450 board and 16GB of ram for the same price. You might even turn a profit

This. There's absolutely no reason to pay 250 bucks for a used 4th gen chip when you can get a brand new 2600 + B450 board combo for the same price or less. Sell the current parts, buy a 2x8GB 3000-3200MHz kit, and pocket the remaining cash while having a much better system.

 

[Tattooguy90]

My only issues is I don't want to have to scrap my old ram

This. There's absolutely no reason to pay 250 bucks for a used 4th gen chip when you can get a brand new 2600 + B450 board combo for the same price or less. Sell the current parts, buy a 2x8GB 3000-3200MHz kit, and pocket the remaining cash while having a much better system.

Stupid question, but IF I did that would I have to buy a new copy of windows? I'm extremely non computer smart. Long story short I got a free upgrade to windows 10 from Windows 7 and no longer have the disk ext. Btw I appreciate all the help a lot!!

 

[Nihilanth]

My only issues is I don't want to have to scrap my old ram



Stupid question, but IF I did that would I have to buy a new copy of windows? I'm extremely non computer smart. Long story short I got a free upgrade to windows 10 from Windows 7 and no longer have the disk ext. Btw I appreciate all the help a lot!!

Your old RAM (especially if its 1333/1600MHz) is also holding you back along with your CPU. In fact, if you replaced it with faster 2133-2400MHz 16GB RAM and oc'ed your CPU to about 4.5GHz (assuming you have a Z series board), you would see a noticeable performance increase. But absolutely no way should you pay 250 bucks for a used 4th gen chip now.

As for the Windows question, I am really not sure. If it was a Win 10 retail key that was tied to your MS account, usually all you'd need to do after changing hardware is go to Settings -> Activation -> Troubleshoot and reactive Windows from there. But I'm not sure how the 7 to 10 upgrade reactivation works. Plus, if its an OEM key, then its not going to work because its permanently tied to your current hardware. Btw, a CPU or RAM change usually doesn't require Windows to be reactivated, but a board change definitely does. You should get in touch with their support for more info.

But even in the event that you're unable to activate Windows 10 after a hardware change, you can continue using it w/o any issues. Afaik, none of the core features or updates are disabled if you don't activate Windows. And the little annoyances like the Activate Windows watermark and not being able to display all the icons in the notification area can be fixed via simple registery/group policy edits. Not saying you shouldn't have an activated copy of Windows, just saying you can get by w/o one for the time being.

 

[Tattooguy90]

Is this a decent deal? Like I said I don't know much about computer stuff so any input would be great.
That's a "b450 f"? Whatever that means and a ryzen 7 2700

https://www.microcenter.com/product...-strix-b450-f-gaming-cpu---motherboard-bundle

 

[Solidjake]

Is this a decent deal? Like I said I don't know much about computer stuff so any input would be great.
That's a "b450 f"? Whatever that means and a ryzen 7 2700

https://www.microcenter.com/product...-strix-b450-f-gaming-cpu---motherboard-bundle

Throw in this and you're set

https://www.microcenter.com/product...el-desktop-memory-kit-f4-2666c15d-16gvr---red

 

[LordVile]

My only issues is I don't want to have to scrap my old ram



Stupid question, but IF I did that would I have to buy a new copy of windows? I'm extremely non computer smart. Long story short I got a free upgrade to windows 10 from Windows 7 and no longer have the disk ext. Btw I appreciate all the help a lot!!

You can always make a usb installation media and buy a key for like 10, can always try to get it transferred across too.

 

[Tattooguy90]

Microcenter looks to be sold out of the G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB 2 x 8GB DDR4-2666 PC4-21300 CL15 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit F4-2666C15D-16GVR - Red

 

[geofelt]

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
If the chipset has a Z97 you can overclock your 4690K to perhaps a 25% benefit.
If you have a Z97 based motherboard, you could buy a used i7-4790K which is going for about $175 on ebay.
Not only can you overclock, but the i7 gets you 8 threads.
Most games today do not make effective use of more than 4 threads.
Single thread performance is most important.
Here is an older study.

Report: Despite Claims, Most PC Games Are Still Unable To Take Advantage Of More Than 4 CPU Cores

Well, you gotta love developers. This past year, we’ve been hearing from a lot of teams that their games were taking advantage of more than four CPU cores. And you know what? We decided to put a lot of CPU-bound games to the test. The results are a bit disheartening – to say the least – …...

www.dsogaming.com

If you do not have such a motherboard, buying a Z97 based motherboard would allow you to overclock.
That would be in the $120 range new.

 

[Tattooguy90]

Ok so I think I have decided for the most part...

-AMD Ryzen 7 2700X with Wraith Prism Cooler, ---ASRock B450M Pro4 AM4,

Next issue....
So I bought windows 7 possibly 7 or 8 years ago and no longer have the disc. Well I upgraded to windows 10 for free. So what do I do once I add the new mobo and CPU? How do I recover a operating system I don't have a disc for or anything?

 

[Nihilanth]

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
If the chipset has a Z97 you can overclock your 4690K to perhaps a 25% benefit.
If you have a Z97 based motherboard, you could buy a used i7-4790K which is going for about $175 on ebay.
Not only can you overclock, but the i7 gets you 8 threads.
Most games today do not make effective use of more than 4 threads.
Single thread performance is most important.
Here is an older study.

Report: Despite Claims, Most PC Games Are Still Unable To Take Advantage Of More Than 4 CPU Cores

Well, you gotta love developers. This past year, we’ve been hearing from a lot of teams that their games were taking advantage of more than four CPU cores. And you know what? We decided to put a lot of CPU-bound games to the test. The results are a bit disheartening – to say the least – …...

www.dsogaming.com

If you do not have such a motherboard, buying a Z97 based motherboard would allow you to overclock.
That would be in the $120 range new.

I am with you on o'cing the 4690K for a performance bump, but are you really suggesting OP should spend $175 bucks on a older, used chip when he can get a brand new 2600 for $130 or a 3600 for around $195, both of which are much better CPUs? And $120 for a Z97 board when something like a MSI B450 Tomahawk can be had for less?

And no, quite a few games today do use more than 4 threads effectively so single thread performance is not the only thing people should be looking for when buying CPUs. What's the point in linking to an article from 2014 when its not really applicable today? Here's a recent R5 1600 vs i5 7600K revist - https://www.techspot.com/review/1859-two-years-later-ryzen-1600-vs-core-i5-7600k/
Look at the Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Battlefield V (%1 low), The Division 2 benchmarks and tell me more than 4 threads don't matter in modern games.
And if OP decides to do anything else with his system in the future like streaming or video editing, then its not even a debate here.

I'm glad OP has decided to go with a Ryzen system because spending close to 300 bucks on used parts when brand new, better parts are available for less is just plain madness.

 

[geofelt]

Overclocking a 4690K is only possible IF the OP has a Z97 motherboard.
Yes, a new 2600 is less, but one also needs a motherboard to go along with it.

Spending on a Z97 motherboard will have a lower out of pocket cost.

Yes, a B540 motherboard may be less, but one also needs to buy a processor to go along with it.

The OP stated that he/she wanted to do better in games.
If there was a desire for multithreaded batch apps, then, of course, the many cheap threads of ryzen is good.

 

[RodroX]

Wow, this was a long post. I will try to be short.

For your windows question, you can donwload Windows 10 from oficial microsoft site here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
(just pick the download that said: Create Windows 10 installation media-> Download Tool Now), you will need atleast a 8GB pendrive).

As for the upgrade, as others said, don't buy a 4gen core i5, If you manage to get a decent priced 4770 (around or less than USD140), that will be a "somehow" good replacement (4 cores/8threads), to let you play a for a little more time, but thats all, 1 year or so.

The best option will be to go with a Ryzen 2600 or a 2700X, a really good B450 mobo and some known brand DDR4 3000 or 3200 RAM kit (2x8GB).

Later on you could upgrade on that same mobo and RAM to a Ryzen 3700X and get another huge jump on performance.

Cheers

 

[Stealth2668]

I am with you on o'cing the 4690K for a performance bump, but are you really suggesting OP should spend $175 bucks on a older, used chip when he can get a brand new 2600 for $130 or a 3600 for around $195, both of which are much better CPUs? And $120 for a Z97 board when something like a MSI B450 Tomahawk can be had for less?

And no, quite a few games today do use more than 4 threads effectively so single thread performance is not the only thing people should be looking for when buying CPUs. What's the point in linking to an article from 2014 when its not really applicable today? Here's a recent R5 1600 vs i5 7600K revist - https://www.techspot.com/review/1859-two-years-later-ryzen-1600-vs-core-i5-7600k/
Look at the Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Battlefield V (%1 low), The Division 2 benchmarks and tell me more than 4 threads don't matter in modern games.
And if OP decides to do anything else with his system in the future like streaming or video editing, then its not even a debate here.

I'm glad OP has decided to go with a Ryzen system because spending close to 300 bucks on used parts when brand new, better parts are available for less is just plain madness.

Agreed 100%. Switching to another 4th gen intel, especially a 4690k is pointless. I'm looking to upgrade my 4670k Aswell, possibly with a ryzen 5 3600 or something. That I feel like would be a nice upgrade.

 

[Tattooguy90]

Ya I'm looking at the ryzen 7 2700x. The 8 cores will be a huge bump. I tried a game lastnight running MSI afterburner with my "old" i5 and my CPU usage for all 4 cores is at 92-100... Pretty sure that's not good

 

[mdd1963]

I would invest no more money in that rig..

It's time for DDR4 and 6 cores minimum...

There is a reason the R5-3600 is selling in droves at $199 each....

To quote the M60 chopper door gunner on Full Metal Jacket..."....Get some...!"

 

[Chrushop]

Your CPU is still pretty good, twice as fast as an AMD 8350 which I was getting 60-90 frames on Heaven Benchmarks with a 1060 6GB before I upgraded. You should try and re-do the Thermal Paste if you can manage it. See if it helps, could buy you some time, especially if you haven't done it before