i5 4th Gen or i3 6th gen?

[John699]

I'm really confused right now as I just don't know which one should I like I really buy right now
i5 4th Gen or i3 6th gen

I know i5 has 4 real cores and the i3 has 2 cores but going higher gen is better or going after what looks and seems good on paper is better?

Please answer asap as I need to order it by tomorrow.....also which mobo is best for either cpu.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Any 4th Gen I5 will cost more than any 6th Gen I3 you buy, but the I5 overall will have better multi-threaded performance but most I3s have a higher stock frequency and some higher instructions-per-clock for better single-core performance.

As for motherboard, if getting an I5-4690K, a Z97. If not, an H97 preferably. With the I3, an H110 or H170 will suffice.

 

[Rooster__]

It depends what you're doing, if you're gaming, go for the i5, but if you want the newer architecture you should just go for the i3. I would recommend going for a skylake i5, as you get the best of both worlds, and spending a little more, and not regretting it in future (Most people are forced to upgrade from an i3, but you will regret not going for skylake for the per core performance- go for a ASRock B150 PRO4/D3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard or something else budget. You get ddr4 and a better per core speed with skylake

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I agree with Rooster, there is no reason you cannot grab an I5-6500 and a Gigabyte GA-H100M-A motherboard.

 

[lodders]

i5 FTW
an i3 only has 2 cores, an i5 has 4, so it has double the power.
Difference between generations or different clock speeds have much less effect than going from an i3 to an i5

For a very fast but lower cost solution, get a 4690k with a good h81 motherboard like mine, then do a small overclock.
(see my signature for details)

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Overclocking on H81 should not be done. The VRM is not at all suited for it. Well, it can be done, but certainly never past 4.0Ghz.

 

[Davinlevey]

Skylake i5-6500 or i3-6100 should be what you are looking at today, at least in this guy's opinion. It sets the stage for easy upgrades later if needed, but it likely wont be depending on the GPU.

 

[lodders]

Overclocking on H81 should not be done. The VRM is not at all suited for it. Well, it can be done, but certainly never past 4.0Ghz.

Your statement is an oversimplification.
Depends on the motherboard, and depends on what Vcore you run.
The motherboard I have was tested with an i7 4770, it worked, and had much better VRM temperature than competing mobos... Asrock H81 M was also really good.
I use the stock cooler to keep the VRM cool, and have slightly undervolted my CPU to prevent overloading the mobo.

All overclocking is the same - you have to work within the limits of your cooling and your voltage supply limits

 

[Rooster__]

Double the cores does not mean double the power. It means possibly 0%-100% more power depending on how the program is threaded and lots of other factors. Skylake is also much more powerful per core, it is significant. Again turkey3_scratch is right, overclocking on h81 is not a good idea, go for overclocking chipsets so you do not brick anything

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Overclocking on H81 should not be done. The VRM is not at all suited for it. Well, it can be done, but certainly never past 4.0Ghz.

Your statement is an oversimplification.
Depends on the motherboard, and depends on what Vcore you run.
The motherboard I have was tested with an i7 4770, it worked, and had much better VRM temperature than competing mobos... Asrock H81 M was also really good.
I use the stock cooler to keep the VRM cool, and have slightly undervolted my CPU to prevent overloading the mobo.

All overclocking is the same - you have to work within the limits of your cooling and your voltage supply limits

If it's a good H81 board with a good VRM, then yeah. I mean, the VRM is not the difference in the chipsets, but is usually something that always improved on the higher chipsets. But in general, there are a lot of motherboards not suited for it, so I guess yours is.

 

[Rooster__]

Overclocking on H81 should not be done. The VRM is not at all suited for it. Well, it can be done, but certainly never past 4.0Ghz.

Your statement is an oversimplification.
Depends on the motherboard, and depends on what Vcore you run.
The motherboard I have was tested with an i7 4770, it worked, and had much better VRM temperature than competing mobos... Asrock H81 M was also really good.
I use the stock cooler to keep the VRM cool, and have slightly undervolted my CPU to prevent overloading the mobo.

All overclocking is the same - you have to work within the limits of your cooling and your voltage supply limits

the thing is, if you overload it, you might just have it explode, it is not all about the temperature, overclocking boards will have better components in them. I just would avoid it for a lot of reasons, not saying it cannot be done, but undervolting the cpu is not overclocking, its just leaving it at stock and lowering the voltage...

 

[Davinlevey]

I'm a bit confused about where the overclocking came in. Either way, Skylake should be the answer, even if you simply buy an i5+ later it will be the longer term solution.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Double the cores does not mean double the power. It means possibly 0%-100% more power depending on how the program is threaded and lots of other factors. Skylake is also much more powerful per core, it is significant.

Totally agree about the first part, but I wouldn't say that Skylake is "much more powerful per core [than Haswell]". I think most tests showed a 5-10% IPC increase at best.

 

[John699]

Damn you guys are making me more confused.....what I have come to know is that skylake i3 is even better then say 4th Gen i5 or i7 because generation effects alot....that what you guys mean.

Just give me a straight answer like 4th Gen i5 or 6th gen i3 and sorry I can't afford 6th i5.

 

[Davinlevey]

The 4th Gen i5 and the 6th Gen are roughly the same cost, I think that's where we are confused

Either way, go Skylake. (6th Gen)

 

[turkey3_scratch]

The 4th Gen i5 and the 6th Gen are roughly the same cost, I think that's where we are confused

Either way, go Skylake. (6th Gen)

Not really. An I3-6100 is $120. An I5-4460 is more like $160.

 

[Rooster__]

I would go for the i5, because more cores are better, and you will regret an i3, because of how limited they are in multi-threaded applications

 

[Davinlevey]

I meant the 4th Gen i5 and the 6th Gen i5. Going 4th gen means being end of life. If he gets the i3 (which is fine for gaming btw..) he can throw a 6600k or something in it later and still get what he wants now.

 

[Solandri]

Double the cores does not mean double the power. It means possibly 0%-100% more power depending on how the program is threaded and lots of other factors. Skylake is also much more powerful per core, it is significant.

You won't notice the speed increase in Skylake over Haswell (unless you're relying on integrated graphics to play 3D games).

Intel uses a tick-tock upgrade cycle. One processor gen, they redesign the architecture. Next processor gen they shrink it to a smaller size. Broadwell was the die shrink for Haswell (22nm to 14nm). Skylake is the redesign on 14 nm. So really, Skylake is just 1 gen newer than Haswell.

The low-hanging fruit for improving processor performance was already picked 1-2 decades ago. The incremental speed increase with each gen is only about 5%-10% as someone else stated. You're not going to notice that.

You will notice the two extra physical cores on the i5 over the i3. The programs you run don't have to be threaded for the quad core to help. If you are running multiple programs simultaneously and the CPU is burdened with other tasks, the extra cores help even with a single-threaded program.

The main advantage of Skylake over Haswell is power consumption. That's where Intel (and AMD) have been concentrating their R&D on, since the low-hanging performance fruit has already been picked. The Skylake i5s have a 65W TDP, vs a 84W TDP for Haswell. About a 25% decrease. Of course this is a bigger deal for laptops than it is for desktops...

So definitely get an i5 quad instead of an i3. And if the Haswell i5 is available for significantly less money than the Skylake i5, then it's OK to get the Haswell. The price should be pretty similar though. Intel generally doesn't drop the prices on old CPUs much, to protect sales of newer low-end CPUs. About the only significant new feature I can think of for Skylake is USB 3.1 support.

 

[John699]

Thanks everybody I think I have got my answers

 

[Travis726]

Skylake i5-6500 or i3-6100 should be what you are looking at today, at least in this guy's opinion. It sets the stage for easy upgrades later if needed, but it likely wont be depending on the GPU.

People always say "buy the newest cpu for future upgrades". When if fact by the time you will want to upgrade the socket for new cpu's will have changed anyway.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Skylake i5-6500 or i3-6100 should be what you are looking at today, at least in this guy's opinion. It sets the stage for easy upgrades later if needed, but it likely wont be depending on the GPU.

People always say "buy the newest cpu for future upgrades". When if fact by the time you will want to upgrade the socket for new cpu's will have changed anyway.

No need to upgrade a CPU for gaming except maybe every 5 years at this point in time, maybe more.