i7-4790 vs. i5-4690k

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For Gaming:

If you will not overclock, the 4790 (4.4 GHz Turbo) is faster than the 4690k (3.9 GHz Turbo)
If you will overclock, the 4790 (4.4 GHz Turbo) can be surpassed, 4690k can do 4.5 Ghz and sometimes better with a decent cooler.

While there is a small benefit to the 8 cores on the 4790 in gaming,the real benefit comes if you do workstation apps, large spreadsheets / databases, video editing, etc. The overclock however exceeds that benefit.

Both work equally well with one or two GFX cards. For 3 cards, you'd need to move to X99 platform or use Z97 w/ PEX.
 
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With skylake being out so soon, you might be better off waiting for the i5 6600k but that depends if you're planning to use your existing ddr3 ram in the new build or not. If you do plan to reuse it, there's the xeon 1231v3 if you want hyperthreading, the 4690k if you plan to overclock or if you want to save a bit of money and plan to get a locked quad core like the xeon without the hyperthreading a 4590. Some skylake boards are supposed to use ddr3L (low power ddr3) but most will likely be using ddr4 ram. The sand bridge i5 2500k is still going strong in games and it's almost 5yrs old now, about the best example I can think of for longevity. No way to know what games will require in 5yrs but I would expect the same or similar from current i5's and i7's in terms of viable lifespan.
 
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I'm wanting to play modern games at 60 fps and 1080p (possibly 1440p later on) I'll soon have a gtx 970 and possibly sli in the future. I just want to know how long it would be until I would have to upgrade from that i5 (or i7) to play games at a comfortable setting.
 
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nah an i5 or a 1231 v3 is PERFECTLY fine for gaming, i would recommend the 390 over the gtx 970 though, it is more powerful and would only cost 20-30$ more on power if you play 4 hours a day on FULL load and keep it for 3 years, also if your price per kilowatt hour is 12 cents per kilowatt hour, just look up what the cost in your state is.
 
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ii7 4790k is a beast... I have one (see rig in sig) overclocked 4.7ghz (rock solid)...sometimes I push to 4.8ghz short periods(benchmark). I monitor all 8 threads when gaming. where it comes in handy is multitasking. programs running---- game of choice, precision x, gpu z, cpuz, fan expert, classified voltage controller, pandorra, fraps all running at once with NO fps DROP IN GAMEPLAY......all 8 thread are being utilizedand monitored in cpu monitoring program...
 
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The applications in andtech's CPU Bench are not commonly used apps and are there to help peeps decide whether they need a workstation build..... The OP's stated focus is gaming and hyperthreading provides no benefit here. Normal office apps, web browser usage, common utilities do not take advantage of the extra threads at all.... CAD, Rendering, Video editing, yes...typical stuff no.

Many game oriented overclockers will by an i7 and then turn of HT, to keep temps down (as much as 10C lower). You could turn off HT on any 4790k and, unless you use an app that uses it, most peeps would go years w/o noticing.

One thing I always find interesting is setting affinity to use certain threads and seeing if it has any impact on performance. My primary workstation box uses an i7, .... it also serves as a SOHO server, for network storage and is accessed by both my office and my family. There's no observable performance difference in AutoCAD, Gaming, Open Office, file server access, media server, with 4 or 8 threads active, even while multitasking. Can I create scenarios where it make a difference ? Of course I can.... but that's just it, I have to "create them".

I could install Chrome and open 25 tabs, schedule backups from all 12 networked machines at the same time, do mass file conversions, play CPU demanding game or host a game, run 4 monitoring utilities that do the same thing, have the kids all use media server at same time but I just don't do those things in normal use. When I open Task manager on any given day and monitor thread activity, there's 2 or 3 threads spiking and the rest have very little going on.

If the budget is there, I'd always get a 4790k..... HT aside it is a better CPU even w/ HT turned off. But no way would I ever consider a non k processor.....and no special MoBo required. Yes, you will want a better cooler if overclocking.

But keep this in mind. Run OCCT or something similar on a 4790 and the test will terminate. The stock cooler can't keep the CPU under 85C. So if you are going to put major load on the CPU so as to actually get an advantage of those extra cores going full throttle, you will want a better cooler anyway.
 
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but look, there is a gaming tab and the stock 4790k beats the 4690k@4.7 almost every time, you didn't look at the gaming benchmarks, I agree that a 4790k is overkill but it is a bett option than an i5 and a bunch of expensive cooling and an overclocking motherboard.

Also many moder games use more than 4 threads and are starting to use more, there are articles saying dx12 spreads load across all cores.

hyperthreading is just another benifit and it will help in many ways.
 
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Just thought I'd clarify a few things. It doesn't cost "a lot" to overclock a cpu (i5 or i7 k series). People who say you need spend a ton on an aftermarket cooler aren't familiar with coolers. Does the nh-d14 cost around $70? Sure. Is it the only cooler for overclocking? Absolutely not. A $25-35 cooler like a hyper 212 evo, raijintek themis evo, cryorig h7 etc will all provide enough cooling for moderate overclocks. A thermalright true spirit 140 power will cool as well as an nh-d14 for $50 provided the case fits it if someone wanted a cooler to handle max overclocks.

As JackNaylorPE pointed out, a stock cooler is fine for 'basic' needs. If gaming or video editing where the cpu will be running at full speed (or close to it) for extended periods of time (hours) the stock cooler can struggle. That's not really considered 'normal' use and higher temps will result from it even without overclocking. Many people who don't overclock end up going with a budget aftermarket cooler anyway.

The difference in cost between a decent h97 and decent enough z97 motherboard to overclock is about $20-30. Not a major investment. Other things to consider, if you only plan to run a single gpu or crossfire an amd/ati gpu the h97 is fine. For someone who might want to sli their nvidia cards at some point, h97 won't do it. That's a feature found on z97. It's not to say overclocking is the only way to go, but a lot of misinformation running around and the reality is there's not a whole lot of difference in price and may be other reasons to choose a z series over an h series motherboard.

For someone who pairs a locked cpu (even the xeon 1231v3) with an h series motherboard and wants to run sli gpu's a year or two down will find themselves buying yet another motherboard (now that cheaper h board has cost them the price of 2 motherboards in that situation) along with having to reinstall windows with the motherboard swap.

Dx12 spreads the cpu to gpu access across multiple threads, not the game code itself. It will help for draw calls but it's not the whole picture when it comes to running a game. It reduces driver/api overhead, it doesn't make the game's cpu calculations which are still required heavily multithreaded. They can do that with games as it is, even without dx12 and there's been no major push to do so despite having multicore/multithread (above 4c/4t) cpu's around for years. In most games ht makes no difference. In some it increases performance, in others it hurts it.
 
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well the h97m anneversary which is a good motherboard right now is 51$ on pcpartpicker, the cheapest sli z97 motherboard is 40$ more after rebate and 50$ more if you don't include a rebate, and keep in mind that some h97 boards support sli as well.

So that is 40-50$ already, and a cooler would cost 30$ at least if you want to get a bit of an overclock out of it, that is 70-80$ already and you don't even have a great OC yet, and a 4790k is 100$ more than a 4690k so a stock 4790k would be much more powerful and have more threads making it just a better deal for 20-30$ more, and a xeon e3 1231 v3 is 60-70$ cheaper and it would be almost the same in single threaded and much better in multithreaded applications.

And most people don't add a GPU down the road because in 3-4 years which is about the time people will keep their GPUs there will be a GPU that is way more efficient, has newer technologies, and is just better all around than the GPU that they originally bought.
 
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I don't know if being the cheapest motherboard humanly possible makes it 'good' or not. Makes it cheap, that I can agree on. I'm not seeing any sli capable h97 boards on pc partpicker, definitely not for $51. People pair expensive cpus or gpus with other cheap components like motherboards then wonder why they're having issues. Parts are typically priced accordingly.

I can't really say whether a person will add another gpu down the road, plenty do. My crystal ball isn't working as well as yours at the moment 😛 . What I said was IF someone wanted to add a second nvidia gpu down the road. Making sure people were informed rather than blindly accepting "its cheap so get it" advice and can hopefully make the decision that will benefit their needs. Without making poor choices that could have been easily avoided if they'd had more information up front.

Each has their preferences, I don't even bother unpacking the 1990's solid hunk of metal stock cooler from the box. It's cooling performance is bottom of the barrel even for a locked cpu and isn't worth my time unpacking it personally. I also don't know that 3-4 years for a gpu replacement is typical. I'm on a slower upgrade path/schedule than many and my gpu's rarely last me 3 years. Even given 3yrs, for a system lasting that long I'd rather spend the extra $10 a year on cpu cooling to have more efficient and quieter cooling over the life of the pc. It's not really a big spend and $20-30 isn't going to buy an upgrade on other components except maybe a quality fan or two. Then again there are case fans under $5 too I'm sure. Priced accordingly (aka you get what you pay for).
 
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