[SOLVED] i5-4570 to i7-4790K upgrade worth it?

Aug 8, 2019
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... or should I admit defeat and change the motherboard too? The CPU is working at 100% on some games. A used 4790K goes for <200€, the rest of the system is 16gb RAM, 3 gb 1060.
 
Solution
If you also sell your 4570. After factoring in fees and shipping. You'll get about 25€ . Your net cost will be about 175€ .

If you build an new core system. Comprising a motherboard, CPU and RAM. You'll net about 90€ to 120€ . Depending on the quality of your motherboard and CPU cooler. Your net cost will 280€ to 300€ for a faster Ryzen 2600 build. With proper support for many recent standards (USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C and M.2 NVMe). Plus extras headers the old board likely doesn't have (water pump, RGB).

It makes more sense to go new.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (€129.90 @ Alternate)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (€104.84 @ Mindfactory)...
the 4770k and 4790k are the best processors in all galaxy, fact.

but they're old... you could defintiely get one and overclock the hell out of it, paired with a good GPU they rock ANY title out there at 1080/1440p with the 60 fps in mind, still they're a bit on the edge, 4 core and 8 threads is the minimum recommended nowadays...

if the price is very very good, i would definitely do it, but only if so!

theres also the fact that the battle between intel and amd is gonna get fierce in 2020, intel has to respond to the ryzen 3900x and such, and intels 9th gen is a frankenstein, i dont like it one bit tbh, with that said, im betting (a bit) on some fancy new stuff within the 1 year timeframe, seems like a worth wait, and thats why i stick with the almighty 4770k.

price-wise i cant help you
 
If you also sell your 4570. After factoring in fees and shipping. You'll get about 25€ . Your net cost will be about 175€ .

If you build an new core system. Comprising a motherboard, CPU and RAM. You'll net about 90€ to 120€ . Depending on the quality of your motherboard and CPU cooler. Your net cost will 280€ to 300€ for a faster Ryzen 2600 build. With proper support for many recent standards (USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C and M.2 NVMe). Plus extras headers the old board likely doesn't have (water pump, RGB).

It makes more sense to go new.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (€129.90 @ Alternate)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (€104.84 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (€156.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €391.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-08-08 16:39 CEST+0200


Edit: The speed difference between Ryzen and the old Intel may be even greater once you factor in all the performance sapping CPU security mitigations for the old Intel CPU.
 
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Solution
In some games it will help, but in many you won't see a difference. The 4570k and the 4790k aren't all too different other than hyper-threading and such, so unless a game is actually able to use more than 4 threads you won't see much of a change.

If you are trying to stream, record, video edit and such maybe there would be a bigger difference, but for just gaming I would say you might want to hold onto you money until you can upgrade to a new platform (3600x?).

Here is a comparison video between the i5 and i7, obviously its up to you, but the FPS difference isn't worth the money in my opinion.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzpYOHuSfaM


i have a 4770k, my plan is to move to a new platform once AMD moves off AM4 and onto AM5???
 
it's not whether the game can use more than 4 threads (many can), it's whether the OS and the Game want to use more than 4 threads. If you have OS activity in the background and you have an 8T processor the OS can grab threads as needed leaving plenty for the game, with only 4T you ware always hitting the game resources. And it's smoothness where you'll see it, not 10s of gameplay.
 
Aug 28, 2019
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I just wanted to say, I had a i5 4590 @3.7GHz and just bought an i7 4790k (I didn't want nor had the money to upgrade all the mobo to a new generation.) The improvement is HUGE!! In Battlefield 4 my CPU was under 100% load, the maximum I got was about 100FPS, not good enough with a 144Hz monitor. Now with the 4790K at @4.2GHz I get 200+FPS and the cpu doesn't even reach 60%. Aligned with a GTX1070 FTW. If the games/apps that you use are very CPU demanding, the jump in performance will be insane.

Just a hint: The i7 4790k gets REAL hot. My older CPU with Arctic Cooler i11 never passed 60ºC. The i7 gets very easy to 85ºC. I just bought a water cooler Corsair H45, it arrives tomorrow, I'll install and later tell you the diference.

I think that now I can hold 2+ year with my setup.
 
I just wanted to say, I had a i5 4590 @3.7GHz and just bought an i7 4790k (I didn't want nor had the money to upgrade all the mobo to a new generation.) The improvement is HUGE!! In Battlefield 4 my CPU was under 100% load, the maximum I got was about 100FPS, not good enough with a 144Hz monitor. Now with the 4790K at @4.2GHz I get 200+FPS and the cpu doesn't even reach 60%. Aligned with a GTX1070 FTW. If the games/apps that you use are very CPU demanding, the jump in performance will be insane.

Just a hint: The i7 4790k gets REAL hot. My older CPU with Arctic Cooler i11 never passed 60ºC. The i7 gets very easy to 85ºC. I just bought a water cooler Corsair H45, it arrives tomorrow, I'll install and later tell you the diference.

I think that now I can hold 2+ year with my setup.

Pretty much my experience, although I came from a 4690k at 4.6Ghz, the improvement was still pretty stark. 8 threads versus 4 is the difference.

I too had the i5 running at 100% on all 4 threads but during BF5 not BF4. The i7 now runs between 65-90% at stock speed on all 8 threads, it's actually cooler than the i5, reaches 65c during BF5 whereas the 4690k reached around 70-72c. I do have a large Phanteks air cooler and a full tower case with 9 fans though, maybe that's why. This in combination with a 2080 and adaptive sync 1440p monitor, I reckon like you I'm good for another year or two easily with this setup.

That water cooler will tame it, mid 60's to 70c I'd say.

To the OP, if the price is good but only if the price is good, it's a decent enough drop in upgrade.
 
Aug 28, 2019
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Pretty much my experience, although I came from a 4690k at 4.6Ghz, the improvement was still pretty stark. 8 threads versus 4 is the difference.

I too had the i5 running at 100% on all 4 threads but during BF5 not BF4. The i7 now runs between 65-90% at stock speed on all 8 threads, it's actually cooler than the i5, reaches 65c during BF5 whereas the 4690k reached around 70-72c. I do have a large Phanteks air cooler and a full tower case with 9 fans though, maybe that's why. This in combination with a 2080 and adaptive sync 1440p monitor, I reckon like you I'm good for another year or two easily with this setup.

That water cooler will tame it, mid 60's to 70c I'd say.

To the OP, if the price is good but only if the price is good, it's a decent enough drop in upgrade.
Wow, full tower with 9 fans?!?! The airflow must be insane!!
Yup, pretty much spot on! My temps now stay about 55-59C, testing Far Cry 5 for about an hour, the maximum it got was to 62C for about 10 seconds, then it dropped to 55-59C again.
My case is very old, it didn't had any fan, just an opened side. Now I just installed the watercooler pushing air from the outside into the case. And installed a top fan to pull the hot air for the case. I'm very happy with this watercooler, it's a little bit noisy, but as I always use headset, it isn't a problem at all...
 
Wow, full tower with 9 fans?!?! The airflow must be insane!!
Yup, pretty much spot on! My temps now stay about 55-59C, testing Far Cry 5 for about an hour, the maximum it got was to 62C for about 10 seconds, then it dropped to 55-59C again.
My case is very old, it didn't had any fan, just an opened side. Now I just installed the watercooler pushing air from the outside into the case. And installed a top fan to pull the hot air for the case. I'm very happy with this watercooler, it's a little bit noisy, but as I always use headset, it isn't a problem at all...

Those temps are great now, you've done a good job there! I like keeping electronics cool, I do believe it makes them perform better and last longer.

The case with 9 fans does seem to have very good airflow. I thought it might not be that good as I have 4 intake fans and 5 exhaust fans, all 120mm and not the 140mm ones I'd have preferred, but it's ace. It's a bit cooler here today, so just had an hour of Ghost Recon Wildlands and the CPU maxed at 60c and the graphics card at 62c. That satisfies my obsession with cool temps :)

Your top fan will make a difference, if you didn't have any exhaust fan then that difference will be significant.