i5-6600k vs. i7-6700k (for gaming)

[Bowwow42]

Hello everyone,

I am planning on buying a new PC. The main question for me right now is whether to go with the i5-6600k or the i7-6700k. I plan on using the computer almost entirely for gaming (other than the usual school work with Word/Excel etc., nothing too challenging). The system would also have a GTX 970 and 16 gig of RAM. My understanding is that, for normal gaming, the i7 isn't really going to perform much better than the i5, and is mostly useful for video editing, streaming etc? I would love to buy the cheaper i5.

Also, if I were to go with the i5, what kind of fps hit would I take in most games compared to the i7 (if this is possible to estimate at all). I wouldn't be running games at 4k or anything crazy like that . What do you guys think?

Thanks!

 

[raisonjohn]

Definitely choose the i5-6600k if the main purpose of your new PC is gaming. The huge difference in price you pay for the i7 is not worth it as you won't see a huge difference in gaming performance with using the i5. So, save that $100+ to upgrade you GPU (which is the primary factor in determining fps/gaming performance). Hope this helps!

EDIT: Additional info:
You may also save more bucks in downgrading your RAM to an 8GB rather than the 16GB. The logic is the same with the CPU as you mentioned. The increase in RAM is geared towards multi-tasking and it has little effect in gaming (as long as you are in the 4GB or 8GB memory, you'd be okay).

 

[cub_fanatic]

This question has been asked many times since around 2008 when intel released the first quad core i7 with HT and also had a quad core i5. Always been the same answer since HT gives you very little performance gain in gaming - get the i5 and use the $100 or so that you saved on a better video card.

 

[Bowwow42]

Thanks for the lightning-fast response guys! It sounds like the i5 is the best bet for me. Happy computing to everyone who answered.

😀