How Much Upgrade Is This Really?

jimlau

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I'm thinking of getting a new computer. Have had conflicting input on how much of an improvement the 2 systems below would be. Is there a way to roughly gauge, in general, how much better the second system would be compared to the first, for various tasks?

1) ASUS M5A88-M + AMD Phenom II X4 965 (4 x 3.4 GHz) + 8GB DDR3 (1600)

2) ASUS H110M + Intel Core i7 6700 (4 x 4.0 GHz) + 16GB DDR4 (2133)
 
Solution


In terms of raw performance, a MOBO doesn't interfere with the CPU's speed at all.

The main difference of the H110 and the Z170 is that: only with the Z170 you can overclock the 6700K. The H110 cannot overclock, therefore not using the full potential of the unlocked ( K ) CPU.

Going with the combo 6700K + Z170 would future proof your rig for a great time, because whenever it starts to feel slow ( which by itself would take a long time too...

Kavinqt

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a i7-6700 compared to a amd phenom II .... It is by far way better for many tasks including gaming, multi tasking as the i7 is basically a 8 core beast. the IPC (Instructions per clock) on the i7 is way more superior than a AMD Phenom II x4 965. It's like comparing a studio apartment to a mansion :p
 
I would recommend getting a Z170 and getting the 6700K. I understand if budget is an isue, but it will be worth it for at least the next 4-5 years.

Well for one, that AMD chip is half a decade old. It's really hard to say how much of a performance you will see. But AMD's core to performance is not as great as Intels. Sure you see 4 cores for the i7, but Intel has developed hyperthreading, which allows for 8 logical cores. So you can potentially have 12 cores on a single chip, each having a step up in performance. With the K version, you can also overclock it, and get even a better performance.

I will always recommend Intel over AMD for serious computing. We will see how Ryzen competes with Kaby Lake, but for now, Skylake is the king for CPUs. If you get that 6700K, you will be able to do much, much more.

For example, I've seen someone render a 5min 4K footage in a short amount of time. With my 6600K, it takes me about 5-6 minutes to redner a 1080p clip of the same time, so you can imagine how it supersedes the AMD chip you have.

 

jimlau

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Thanks for the info!

Is the i7 6700k better than the 6700 simply by the 4.2 GHz/4.0GHz ratio?

Also, is the Z170 much better than the H110M? From the basic specs I saw, it's hard to see why. I'm not a gamer, but I do render 3D videos and large audio files from a digital audio workspace.
 
The bit about logical cores isn't quite right with the i7. It has 4 physical cores, with hyper threading (which allows for 2 threads per core) it has 4 'logical' cores which is nothing more than the way windows reads it. Windows will display 8 'cores' (still only 4 true processing cores) but not 12 as it doesn't have 2 logical cores in addition to each physical core. It will still result in better performance when possible (not always possible, sometimes ht has little effect and once in awhile it can have a negative effect).

In order to compare renders you have to be able to specify the program, the version, the settings etc. Two i5 6600k's could give different video editing times based on settings alone for the same clip.

Here are just a few benchmarks of the x4 965 vs the i7 6700 (non k).
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/102?vs=1554

Some tasks you may not notice the difference, if you're somehow limited by the disk drive for some reason (think virus scan). If the task isn't very intensive in the first place or takes a short time to begin with to complete. If doing intensive tasks like video encoding it will be a significant difference especially over time. It may not seem like much if one editing job takes 5min and the other takes 8min depending on the cpu. However if it's a larger job and one is getting the job done in an hour vs 1hr 36min then the difference is 36min. Just a hypothetical but you get the idea.
 

manddy123

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In terms of raw performance, a MOBO doesn't interfere with the CPU's speed at all.

The main difference of the H110 and the Z170 is that: only with the Z170 you can overclock the 6700K. The H110 cannot overclock, therefore not using the full potential of the unlocked ( K ) CPU.

Going with the combo 6700K + Z170 would future proof your rig for a great time, because whenever it starts to feel slow ( which by itself would take a long time too ) you can just overclock it, pushing it further and making it faster to last you some more time.
 
Solution
The difference in compute capability is huge.
The passmark rating for a X4-965 is 4250 with a single thread rating of 1077.
Single thread rating is most important for gaming and general use,
while the total rating is more important for multithreaded batch apps.
The I7-6700 rating is 9959 and single thread is 2138.
The I7-6700K is a different cpu with a rating of 11000 and 2332
More with overclocking using a Z170 motherboard.

I might suggest you look at a $125 i3-6100 for a nice boost that is not too expensive.
The rating is 5500 and the single thread rating is 2102.
Here is a review which includes comparisons to some amd offerings
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10543/the-skylake-core-i3-51w-cpu-review-i3-6320-6300-6100-tested
 

manddy123

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i7 6700 - Base Clock: 3.40 GHz / Turbo Clock : 4Ghz
i7 6700K - Base Clock 4.00 GHz / Turbo Clock : 4.20 GHz

What's base clock? It's the stock speed of the CPU, it will work out of the box in that speed, if you put high demanding process on it, it will activate the Turbo automaticaly.

What's Turbo clock you may ask? It's a natural and automatic overclock the CPU does to itself whenever more demanding tasks are put on it so i will keep the processing as smooth as possible for the user.

With that said, you can raise the Base clock of the 6700K to a higher one, making it always work on a certain frequency, meaning it will always work that faster. That's overclocking.
 

jimlau

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ok, so if I don't get the Z170, and thus can't overclock 6700k permanently, is the i7 6700k much better than the 6700 since it's base speed is 4.0, or are the 2 very similar because whenever I need faster speed, the 6700 will turbo and get to 4.0 anyway? Not clear when the CPU turbo kicks in. You would think always to get things done quicker (at 4.0, not 3.4). Does it not do so for heat issues?

also, with these comparison charts, where they list speed at 3.4GHz and then do testing, will some of the performance tasks selected include auto-turbo and getting the 6700 up to 4.0GHz on their own? Hard to know when it turbos.

anyway, leaning towards the 6700k now.