i7 4790k or new mobo + new ram (ddr4) + i5 6600k

usa_john

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I have just purchased a gtx 970 and I currently have a pentium g3258. I play/ want to play (my cpu prevents me from playing some of my owned games) csgo, gta v, bf4 and ofcourse bf1 when it comes out.

I also like to stream, but atm, i cant because of my terrible cpu.

So my question is, do I go for a 4790k, or change my mobo, ram and get an i5 6600k.

I dont think that I will do much editing, mainly gaming and a little streaming on the side.

My current specs:

Intel Pentium g3258
h81m-hd3 motherboard
Gigabyte GTX 970 4gb
8gb ram
500 W psu

Thanks for any help :D
 

usa_john

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Ok, so you would recomend me buying an i7 4790 and not uppgrade my mobo and ram
 
The 4790(K) has a clockspeed advantage on the 6600K, which more than makes up for its slight IPC disadvantage, and hyperthreading is useful in a handful of cases. There will be very few cases when a stock 6600K will be faster, and when it is, it will be entirely academic - both are overkill for a majority of games today. You would probably be pretty happy with an i5 4690.

If you go with the 6600K and replace your motherboard you have the option of throwing another $100 or so at it to be able to overclock by way of a Z170 motherboard, some faster DDR4, a nice aftermarket cooler, and of course paying extra for a 6600K over a non-K CPU. You might get another 10-15% performance, but there are very few games where it will make any difference. You'll also most likely need to replace your copy of Windows, due to the motherboard change.
 

HyperCat

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the i7 4790K is a overclockable CPU and your motherboard (H81) cant overclock a CPU. Because you wont be doing much editing and mainly gaming your best choice would be the i5. a overclocked i5 6600K performs same as a i7 in gaming so you wont take advantage of the i7s full power (HyperThreading and more Threads which will boost the performance in photo/video editing. So you should refresh your PC and get new CPU (I5 6600K + a Z170 motherboard and new Ram (DDR4). hope this helped.
 
H81 can't overclock a K CPU at all.

A 4790K generally has little to no overclocking headroom anyway. At stock, it turbos to 4.4ghz (one-core), and OP is likely to only get maybe 4.5-4.6ghz even with a top-tier overclocking board, which is 2-4% more performance. To me, this is absolutely not worth spending $$$ on.
 

HyperCat

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Because he will mainly be doing gaming wont the i7 give him a performance boost against a Overclocked i5 6600K. also he wont take advantage of the HyperThreading because he wont be doing much editing. Windows arent hard to get and why would anyone get a non overclockable older gen over a newer more future proof i5 but yes the i5 6600K will cost more with a new mobo and ram. Sorry if this sounds rude or unpleasant just wanted to inform.

 
It's quite simple - the 4790(K) is faster and cheaper. It has better single-threaded performance than a stock 6600K, and is damn close to even an overclocked one. It also doesn't require that OP replace nearly every other part in their system - it's a drop-in upgrade.

Also, the trend is for games to use more threads. Most new games released now (at least the big-studio ones) DO actually show an advantage on an i7; check GameGPU's benchmarks if you're curious. This is probably partly because many of them are being designed to also run on 8-core consoles. The reason an i5 usually doesn't look any slower is that both CPUs will easily keep modern games at 60+ FPS.
 

HyperCat

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Wow i didnt knew that, anyways a i5 would fit him perfectly imo. Im getting an i7 6700K for my build because i do photo editing/photoshoping and some video editing and gaming. It just makes my i7 more future proof :D If games will be using more threads and MAYBE in the future, use HyperThreading.
 

usa_john

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Thanks for all the replies!!! Really helps. So as I understand it: Buying the i7 4790k will be about the same price as a decent z170 mobo, 8 0r 16 gb ddr4 and an i5 6600k. But the i7 is better for future big studio games, but the i5 option will be more cost efficient if i want to upp grade anything in the future.

DAMN THIS IS SO HARD :D
 
It's not worth the expense of doing a full CPU/MB/RAM upgrade for a i5 6600, the performance gains will be small and the cost BIG, also bear in mind, you may also need another OS licence-yet more expense and hassle.

Fastest option is the i7 4790K, it's quicker both at normal and turbo speeds than the other options, just remember to add a half decent cooler during the upgrade to keep things cool and quiet: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo, Cryorig H7 type will do nicely and they're not too expensive either.
Next fastest is the non 'K' i7 4790, you can stick with the Intel cooler but it's noisy under sustained load and (to me) makes its replacement during the upgrade a bonus.
Almost as fast as the i7 4790 is the i5 4690/4690K, they're cheaper but lack the Hyperthreading of their bigger sibling, with more and more software being able to use more than 4 threads/cores I'll suggest that for a long term purchase the i7 offers better value, despite its higher cost.

As always, make sure the motherboard BIOS is updated to the latest version before you upgrade!
 

usa_john

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Thanks for the wonderfull reply. Seems like u know ur stuff. I am just conserned that sticking with my old MBwill make it extremely hard to uppgrade any part of my build in the future. For example, if I need 16 gb ram next year, will they still be selling ddr3. Or if I need sli (wont be anytime soon, perahps in 3 years if I get hardcore), will they still be selling MBs with socket 1150?
 
Socket 1150 boards will probably start to dry up, but I generally recommend against SLI. It's usually better to sell the card you have and buy a new one, rather than add a second, old card. The only cases where SLI makes sense (to me) are when you're looking to do 4K gaming and a single of the latest and greatest just isn't enough.

DDR3 will still be around, too, but I expect DDR4 to continue to drop in price. It will probably be a bit cheaper in a year's time than DDR3.

Other than that, the two new CPUs that will be available for socket 1151, Kabylake and Cannonlake, are likely to only be small, incremental ~5% improvements over Skylake, much like Skylake is only ~10% better (per clock) than Haswell. If you get a 6700K today, there will almost certainly never be a CPU released on the socket that's worth upgrading to - and arguably, neither of those will probably be worth even upgrading to from a 4790K.
 

usa_john

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So what would you recomend I do? If you dont mind me asking for your opinion. :)
 
Tough to say. I expect an i7 4790 will probably be good for a very long time, considering how much the rate of improvement has slowed in PC components - we went close to 5 years without a change in process node for video cards, and people running 2011 Sandy Bridge CPUs are still able to max out new games, and it's only going to get slower from here. If you're itching for a platform upgrade, you may as well do it now, because you're probably going to have it for a very long time, but Skylake isn't really that much of an improvement in terms of performance.
 
It's very, vey unlikely you'll be able to find a LGA 1150 motherboard in 3 years time, Intel have moved on and 1150 parts are becoming scarce, if not yet unavailable, so you should consider any upgrade using the existing MB/RAM as the last stage of the current systems effective life, the next upgrade will be a full MB/CPU/RAM swap.
The above sounds bad but it's not really, an i7 4790 is going to be viable for several years at least, as Ecky says, so it's not like you're going to upgrade again in a few months.
The only reason I can see for you to move up to a Skylake build is for the higher USB and SSD connectivity, most (but not all) of us prefer a single GPU over Crossfire/SLI because a single card is easier to manage and offers more stable performance than a multi-GPU setup; and isn't reliant on the card maker providing SLI/CF profiles to make the system work.

Still think your best option would be an i7, either 4790K or 4790, either is a big upgrade over the current Pentium and unless you're looking for maximum performance out of USB devices or PCI-E SSD storage the current MB is more than good enough.
 

usa_john

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I think that I have decided. i7 4790, maybe K. I think that I will be able to buy my friends 16 gb ram. But will the cpu fan I have atm be enough for an i7? Or should I go with something like Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler?

Just to be on the same side as you, if I have understood you correctly, an i7 4790 should be able to run games, even 4-5 years from now? And stream most of them?

Thanks for everyones help! :D
 
I expect the 4790 will be fine in 4-5 years, assuming something drastic doesn't happen.

The 4790K is at the very limit of Intel's stock cooler's abilities. I would consider running a non-K with the stock cooler, but an inexpensive aftermarket cooler is probably a good idea if you get the K.
 
What CPU fan do you have ATM? The Intel boxed cooler does the job but parts like the Cryorig H7 or Hyper 212 Evo are both cooler and quieter than that.

Planning 4-5 years in the future is virtually impossible, PC hardware moves forward pretty quickly, but from the way CPU/MB/RAM performance has advanced over the last few years then yes, I'd say a i7 4790 would last 4-5 years, it's more likely you'll need to upgrade the graphics card first.
 

usa_john

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I dont know what I have for a cpu fan atm, but when I look at it looks like a round fan. I think thats a stock cooler? If I am to get the K version of the i7, would you guys reccomend a cooler such as the Hyper Evo 212 or should i get something beefier?
 

lodders

Admirable


Have a look at my signature.
As you can see, I have an overclocked i5 on the same motherboard as you.
It is a small cheap motherboard with a limited power supply - only 3 +1 phase VRMs... I bought mine based on a review in which this motherboard performed a lot better than most other budget mobo when running a powerful CPU.... but it can only just handle an i7

3 things you need to know.
Your motherboard will run a i7 4790 at stock speed, but has insufficient power to overclock an i7
Or you can do a modest overclock with an i5 like I did, but only if you undervolt the CPU a bit.
BUT, VERY IMPORTANT, you need to stick with the stock intel cooler.... because it blows air across the motherboard and keeps the VRM cool.

IMHO a fast i5 is a really good processor - mine is great for gaming and video editing, and I expect it to last a minimum of 5 years before I need to upgrade.
so I suggest a 4690k or a 4590
 


Are you using baseclock overclocking?
 

lodders

Admirable


No I am not.

Baseclock 100Hz
Latest BIOS installed for Win 10 compatibility
Z series overclocking enabled
Multiplier set to 42
Ring Bus set to 35