i7 4790k vs i5 6600k

[Davin Schmitt]

I'm putting my build together, and basing it around the fact that I want to livestream while playing games like Rust/Arma 3 at 1080p, and I want to know which cpu will perform better for me, the 6600k or the 4790k. I know that the 6600k is newer and cheaper, but it seems that te 4790k is a an absolute beast of a CPU. I understand that Skylake is better for "future proofing" and "upgrade paths" but thats not a big deal to me. Any help is appreciated, thank you.

 

[Ecky]

The extra threads on the i7 will likely be helpful for streaming, though an i5 should still handle this task while providing a good gaming experience.

Will you be overclocking?

I know you didn't mention it, but my personal choice here would be the 6700K. Or, perhaps a cheaper i7 6700, if you're looking to save money. It can't overclock, so you can go with a much cheaper H170 or B150 motherboard and use the included cooler.

 

[bignastyid]

Since you are not worried about upgrade path go for the 4790k.

 

[Davin Schmitt]

The extra threads on the i7 will likely be helpful for streaming, though an i5 should still handle this task while providing a good gaming experience.

Will you be overclocking?

I know you didn't mention it, but my personal choice here would be the 6700K. Or, perhaps a cheaper i7 6700, if you're looking to save money. It can't overclock, so you can go with a much cheaper H170 or B150 motherboard and use the included cooler.

Yes, I'm planning on overclocking big time

 

[Ecky]

For what it's worth, the 4790K comes from the factory with a 4.4ghz turbo, and I don't expect you'll get more than maybe 4.6ghz out of it without getting into dangerous voltage ranges. If you consider "big time" to be ~4% more clockspeed, and worth the extra costs over a non-K CPU, go for it.

 

[Gnuffi]

depending on where you are,, you could maybe get the 6700k for about the same cost as the 4790k, atleast you can in my country,
which would not only give you the slightly better cpu, but also that upgrade path at the same time (even tho you dont care about it now)

overall i did a z97 build and z170 build from teh same retailer in my country at teh same time to compare, and tehy both ended up costing the same within a few bucks, since my friend was certain the 4790k would have saved him a big amount

 

[Joshuapitts]

If you're not worried about investing in a new motherboard and new ddr4 ram, I'd save the money and maybe get the i7 6700k, that's what I did. Yet for me at the time, money and investing in new parts was not a problem.

 

[Gnuffi]

4790k 320$ vs 6700 302$
4790k =+10%increase at factory,
OC to 4.6ghz and= +15% increase, add cooler to cost because K needs, cooler = 35$ total 355$ = 18% increased cost over 6700 for a 15% increase in speed on OC (not performance)
6700k 345$ vs 6700 302$
6700k = +5%increase at factory,
OC to 4.6ghz and= +15%increase, add cooler to cost because K needs, cooler = 35$ total 380$ = 26% increased cost over 6700 for a 15% increase in speed on OC (not performance),
but 6700k will very likely overclock higher on air vs 4790k

 

[Ecky]

You forget that Skylake has 5-10% higher performance per clock than Haswell.

 

[redgarl]

I would wait 6 months from now since CPUs and GPUs are coming right off the bat. I don't usually recommend the waiting game, but this will provide a new generation of CPUs and a new architecture of GPUs.

You could miss on 30% performance by buying now.

 

[redgarl]

The extra threads on the i7 will likely be helpful for streaming, though an i5 should still handle this task while providing a good gaming experience.

Will you be overclocking?

I know you didn't mention it, but my personal choice here would be the 6700K. Or, perhaps a cheaper i7 6700, if you're looking to save money. It can't overclock, so you can go with a much cheaper H170 or B150 motherboard and use the included cooler.

Yes, I'm planning on overclocking big time

Just be smart and don't play the OC game vs = the CPU game.

If you plan to include a 100$ cooler, than maybe you should buy a CPU upgrade and go a cheaper cooling way. A lot of people are doing that mistake.

Also, OC is not a sure thing, my 4770k doesn't OC at all.

 

[Gnuffi]

You forget that Skylake has 5-10% higher performance per clock than Haswell.

is why i only named OC speed, and specifically stated (not performance)

 

[TJ Hooker]

I would wait 6 months from now since CPUs and GPUs are coming right off the bat. I don't usually recommend the waiting game, but this will provide a new generation of CPUs and a new architecture of GPUs.

You could miss on 30% performance by buying now.

The next gen of Intel CPUs (Kaby Lake) is basically a Skylake refresh with a few tweaks, there's no reason to expect significant performance increases. AMD's Zen is purported to be a huge increase over their current architecture, but that's only because their current tech is so far behind. I don't think anyone's expecting it to beat Intel's current top of the line CPUs. Plus it may only be out in 2017.

Not worth the wait for either, as far as I'm concerned. For GPUs, it might be worth waiting for the next gen, but that's not what this thread is about.