I5 vs i7 for gaming. (Help needed)

[Jam00dle]

Hey guys,

I am about to buy a new PC but I can’t decide between the following 2 CPU’s.

Intel Core i5 4 Core 3570K 3.4Ghz 6MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)
Or
Intel Core i7 4+4 Core 3770K 3.5Ghz 8MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)

My PC will be primarily for gaming and the other specs are as follows.
• ASUS P8Z77-V LX OR GIGABYTE Z77-D3H
• PATRIOT VIPER RED V3 16GB 2133Mhz
• OCZ 120GB SATA3, 6Gb/s
• SEAGATE 2TB SATA3, 6Gb/s (additional 2TB slave also)
• HITACHI Blu-Ray & DVD+/-RW Combo
• AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB

Pros for the i5:
It is cheaper
It can be over clocked to 4.7Ghz

Cons for the i5:
Only 4 cores. (No hyperthreading)

Pros for the i7:
4+4 (8) Cores.
Hyper threading
Future proof

Cons for the i7:
Cannon be overclocked as far. (4.5Ghz due to heat)



Can anyone give me any other reasons for or against the i5/i7. I get the feeling the i5 might actually be better at gaming than the i7 due to the possibility of overclocking to 4.7Ghz but then I will only have 4 Cores.

Sorry if my post comes across as being “dumb” I wouldn’t be asking for advice if I knew what I was talking about..

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jam00dle]

Hey guys,

I am about to buy a new PC but I can’t decide between the following 2 CPU’s.

Intel Core i5 4 Core 3570K 3.4Ghz 6MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)
Or
Intel Core i7 4+4 Core 3770K 3.5Ghz 8MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)

My PC will be primarily for gaming and the other specs are as follows.
• ASUS P8Z77-V LX OR GIGABYTE Z77-D3H
• PATRIOT VIPER RED V3 16GB 2133Mhz
• OCZ 120GB SATA3, 6Gb/s
• SEAGATE 2TB SATA3, 6Gb/s (additional 2TB slave also)
• HITACHI Blu-Ray & DVD+/-RW Combo
• AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB

Pros for the i5:
It is cheaper
It can be over clocked to 4.7Ghz

Cons for the i5:
Only 4 cores. (No hyperthreading)

Pros for the i7:
4+4 (8) Cores.
Hyper threading
Future proof

Cons for the i7:
Cannon be overclocked as far. (4.5Ghz due to heat)



Can anyone give me any other reasons for or against the i5/i7. I get the feeling the i5 might actually be better at gaming than the i7 due to the possibility of overclocking to 4.7Ghz but then I will only have 4 Cores.

Sorry if my post comes across as being “dumb” I wouldn’t be asking for advice if I knew what I was talking about..

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jam00dle]

Hey guys,

I am about to buy a new PC but I can’t decide between the following 2 CPU’s.

Intel Core i5 4 Core 3570K 3.4Ghz 6MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)
Or
Intel Core i7 4+4 Core 3770K 3.5Ghz 8MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)

My PC will be primarily for gaming and the other specs are as follows.
• ASUS P8Z77-V LX OR GIGABYTE Z77-D3H
• PATRIOT VIPER RED V3 16GB 2133Mhz
• OCZ 120GB SATA3, 6Gb/s
• SEAGATE 2TB SATA3, 6Gb/s (additional 2TB slave also)
• HITACHI Blu-Ray & DVD+/-RW Combo
• AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB

Pros for the i5:
It is cheaper
It can be over clocked to 4.7Ghz

Cons for the i5:
Only 4 cores. (No hyperthreading)

Pros for the i7:
4+4 (8) Cores.
Hyper threading
Future proof

Cons for the i7:
Cannon be overclocked as far. (4.5Ghz due to heat)



Can anyone give me any other reasons for or against the i5/i7. I get the feeling the i5 might actually be better at gaming than the i7 due to the possibility of overclocking to 4.7Ghz but then I will only have 4 Cores.

Sorry if my post comes across as being “dumb” I wouldn’t be asking for advice if I knew what I was talking about..

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jam00dle]

Hey guys,

I am about to buy a new PC but I can’t decide between the following 2 CPU’s.

Intel Core i5 4 Core 3570K 3.4Ghz 6MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)
Or
Intel Core i7 4+4 Core 3770K 3.5Ghz 8MB L3 CACHE (IvyBridge)

My PC will be primarily for gaming and the other specs are as follows.
• ASUS P8Z77-V LX OR GIGABYTE Z77-D3H
• PATRIOT VIPER RED V3 16GB 2133Mhz
• OCZ 120GB SATA3, 6Gb/s
• SEAGATE 2TB SATA3, 6Gb/s (additional 2TB slave also)
• HITACHI Blu-Ray & DVD+/-RW Combo
• AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB

Pros for the i5:
It is cheaper
It can be over clocked to 4.7Ghz

Cons for the i5:
Only 4 cores. (No hyperthreading)

Pros for the i7:
4+4 (8) Cores.
Hyper threading
Future proof

Cons for the i7:
Cannon be overclocked as far. (4.5Ghz due to heat)



Can anyone give me any other reasons for or against the i5/i7. I get the feeling the i5 might actually be better at gaming than the i7 due to the possibility of overclocking to 4.7Ghz but then I will only have 4 Cores.

Sorry if my post comes across as being “dumb” I wouldn’t be asking for advice if I knew what I was talking about..

Thanks in advance!

 

[Traciatim]

For gaming only, the i5. If you have some other purpose (compiles, 3D rendering, massive amounts of compression like videos or data) then the i7 is worth it. Many games don't really work well with hyperthreading, the extra cash is better spent on video or other things.

Unless you have some specific need for it, you probably don't need the 16GB of RAM either. Same with the 2133 RAM, I spent extra on it and bench marked 1600-2133 in the games I play and couldn't even detect a difference in performance that couldn't be chalked up to margin of error.

 

[wanderer11]

There really isn't much of a difference in overclockability between the 2. The only real difference is hyper threading. Right now barely any games use 4 threads, let alone 8. Since the ps4 is supposed to use an 8 core x86 cpu we may see more threads used in a year or two. For now though the i5-3570k is a better deal.

 

[nbelote]

Throughout the life of the i5, I doubt you will run into a game that will use more than 4 cores. Go with the i5.

I have an i7 because of an Intel deal that went on, otherwise I would have an i5. Plus, my i7 has Hyperthreading disabled so I can have cooler temps on air cooling.

 

[Jam00dle]

For gaming only, the i5. If you have some other purpose (compiles, 3D rendering, massive amounts of compression like videos or data) then the i7 is worth it. Many games don't really work well with hyperthreading, the extra cash is better spent on video or other things.

Unless you have some specific need for it, you probably don't need the 16GB of RAM either. Same with the 2133 RAM, I spent extra on it and bench marked 1600-2133 in the games I play and couldn't even detect a difference in performance that couldn't be chalked up to margin of error.

With the CPU i'm thinking more towards upgradability.. This PC will have to last me atleast 4-6 years as I cant justify buying another one any time soon. So the CPU needs to be one that will eb able to cope with what ever upgrades I have to buy for my PC to keep it going as long as possible.. With upgrading to an i7 have any effect on this or will an i5 do just fine?

Sorry if I sound like a novice.

 

[Traciatim]

4-6 years is a really really long time. I hate to bring console gaming in to this, but with the announcement of the PS4 being an x86 based processor with 8 cores it seems like over the next few years game designers may be forced to design from the ground up for more cores rather than raw processing speed, so if you are going for that long of a time frame it might be a good idea for the i7. It's really hard to say what will happen at this point though.

You could always buy the i5 now, put the 100 bucks under your mattress and then buy the best socket 1155 processor for 100 bucks on e-bay in 3 years

 

[Mousemonkey]

This next topics has been merged by Mousemonkey
■ I5 vs i7 for gaming. (Help needed)
■ I5 vs i7 for gaming. (Help needed)

 

[Traciatim]

H
Can anyone give me any other reasons for or against the i5/i7. I get the feeling the i5 might actually be better at gaming than the i7 due to the possibility of overclocking to 4.7Ghz but then I will only have 4 Cores.

Technically no matter which you choose you have 4 cores. Hyperthreading really is only like sharing 1 core to two threads and only works well on certain data sets (of which, gaming isn't generally one).

 

[hero1]

The i7 also has 4 core but it includes hyper threading techonology which makes it perform as if it has 8 cores. So what you really want here is an i5 3570K for gaming since you won't need the HT for gaming and you will save tons of money. They can both OC on the same level, there's not much difference there. i5 3570K is for gaming rigs as far as we gamers are concerned and if you tend to do 3D and editing and such then you might want to get the i7 3770K. So get the i5 3570K and save money. They will both last a long time with moderate OC.

 

[WyomingKnott]

This next topics has been merged by WyomingKnott
■ I5 vs i7 for gaming. (Help needed)

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Right now very few games can use more than 4 threads. For this reason the hyper-threading on the Intel Core i7 has very minimal value on a gaming system. This is the reason the Intel Core i5-3570K is so popular as it gives top of the line performance for about $100 less.