i5 4670K to i7 700K - worth the upgrade?

Aftershock416

Prominent
Apr 3, 2017
9
0
510
My current system specs:
Intel i7 4670K CPU with stock cooler
Gigabyte P85-D3 Motherboard
16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
Nvidia GTX 1080 (I bought a nearly brand new one of a friend who emigrated for 30% retail price)
500GB Corsair SSD & HDD used for mass storage
Decently ventilated Antec Case

I use the system for gaming at 1080p, and I would like to be able to run just about everything on the highest possible graphics settings. And yes, I'm fully aware my current CPU might somewhat bottleneck the graphics card. From my research online it seems that the i7 7700K offers about a 22-26% performance bonus over my current one. Of course, I would also need to purchase a new motherboard and DDR4 RAM to go with it, so not exactly a cheap upgrade for me. It doesn't quite seem to me like the performance difference is worth the price. Also, is the Ryzen 1700 worth considering? I can get an upgrade kit with one for about the same price as the i7 I mentioned.

Another option is buying a decent cooler, either water or air and seeing how much performance I can squeeze out of my current CPU, though keep in mind that it's going on 3 years old now and I'm a bit unsure how long it will still last (it's not been overclocked at all so far).

 
Solution
In retrospect, I'd not spend anymore money on the platform unless the baord is exactly half the price of a brand new unit(or less) since you're best bet would be to go 2nd like that suggested above by Ecky.

Here's where your maths skillz come in handy. If the cost of an i7-4790K + Z97 board+ aftermarket cooling + DDR3-2400Mhz ram kit is the cost of a brand new Kabylake platform, then yeah you're best off with the latter than the former.

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
1| You're currently on a B85 chipset which is a complete waste of your unlocked processors potential. If you should go for an unlocked K suffix processor part, since the Ivy Bridge platform, you should always look at the Z series chipsets.

2| If you're only looking at 1080p then even a GTX1080 is a waste of it's potential since it's touted to be a 4K gaming capable GPU. In retrospect, you're only change should be the motherboard to a Z97 platform and if possible with some cooling/case change you can overclock the processor and get some more life out of it.

3| Now that you're on Intel, getting anything in the RyZen flavor would be moot since it's already been established that Intel is the route to go when yo're looking at gaming duties. Reviewers have stated that, mind you.
 

Aftershock416

Prominent
Apr 3, 2017
9
0
510


1) I honestly had no idea about this. At the time I bought it I was a student and I must have overlooked overclocking potential in my over-zealousness to stick to the budget. You wouldn't believe how disappointing this was to find out, but thanks a lot for pointing it out to save me the hassle later!

2) Like I said, I bought the nearly brand new gtx 1080 from someone who was moving out of country for a bit less than a gtx 1060 would have cost otherwise. I figured it would be good for future proofing in case I wanted to upgrade to 1440p at some point in the future. Overkill perhaps, but it was such a bargain I couldn't pass it up!

3) This does seem to be the general consensus among the enthusiast community, but the confirmation is nonetheless nice to have.

Thanks!

 

Aftershock416

Prominent
Apr 3, 2017
9
0
510


This is not something I considered, but it definitely seems like an option.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that I live in South Africa, there seems to be some buggery with the prices. To put it in perspective: a new 4790K would cost me R6200 while an upgrade kit (i7 7700K, 16GB 2400 Mhz Crucial Red RAM, MSI Z270 TOMAHAWK Motherboard) would cost me R10500.

Do you still think the upgrade is worth it at that cost? I'm very tempted to click the order button right now, but some other part of me tells me I'm just prolonging my current system's suffering, so to speak.


 

Aftershock416

Prominent
Apr 3, 2017
9
0
510


We do. I'm usually a bit skeptical to buy computer hardware second hand, but I might see what sort of offers there are. What bothers me a bit, is that I can pick up a 7700K for R5600, compared to R6200 for the 4790K. But I guess it all depends on how much I'm willing to spend, since I need to factor in the motherboard and RAM costs as well.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: changed prices

 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
The last thing I'd like to do is disappoint an end user with a purchase let alone a budget build. But please note that a budget build more often then not does not include a K suffix processor part mainly due to the cost of the processor alone. I just re read your specs and you actually have an i5-4670K(as stated in your thread title) and not the i7-4670K(as stated in your thread body).

Another option is to sell what you have, add some more cash since the only way you're going to get the sweet spot of you Haswell platform is with the aforementioned board + a 2133MHz DDR3 kit which in today's price point isn't cheap and is almost the same price as DDR4 ram which in itself starts at 2133MHz. If you're going with an Z series path with Skylake/Kabylake in mind then it's a good idea to get ram kits above 2800MHz since you can easily get to 3200MHz and in the event that you cant reach 3200MHz on your ram, you can always revert to 2800MHz.
 

Aftershock416

Prominent
Apr 3, 2017
9
0
510


Yeah that's my bad. I've been googling and typing various processor names most of the day, so getting them mixed up was somewhat inevitable, heh.

If I remember correctly, the reason I bought the 4670K at the time, was because it was on sale and only cost something like 5% more than the standard locked 4670 version which I had planned on buying. One would think they would mention that the motherboard was a poor fit in hopes of selling me a more expensive one, but apparently not. Guess that's what I get for not doing proper research ~3 years ago.

I guess now that I can afford it, I might as well spend an extra month saving and then just buy a proper upgrade kit instead of doing things half-baked again.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
In retrospect, I'd not spend anymore money on the platform unless the baord is exactly half the price of a brand new unit(or less) since you're best bet would be to go 2nd like that suggested above by Ecky.

Here's where your maths skillz come in handy. If the cost of an i7-4790K + Z97 board+ aftermarket cooling + DDR3-2400Mhz ram kit is the cost of a brand new Kabylake platform, then yeah you're best off with the latter than the former.
 
Solution