I7-6850k vs i7-7700k at same clock

[Montani Dominari]

If both the i7-6850k and i7-7700k are clocked at the same 4.5 ghz, which one would be better for gaming (at 3440x1440 and 4K)? I plan on using m.2 storage mainly, a 1080 GPU but might SLI in the future, and the main games I play are civilization 5/6, cities skylines, GTA V and Battlefield 1.

Will either one perform majorly better than the other in this scenario?

 

[Ecky]

At 4.5ghz:

- In some games that aren't super well threaded (Cities Skylines in your list), the 7700K will win, because it has 5-10% better performance per clock

- In games that are better threaded (GTA, Civ, BF in your list), the 6850K will perform better, but not the ~40% better you'd expect from having 50% more cores

- A 6850K may not make it to 4.5ghz, Broadwell is a poor overclocker, especially without a high-end cooler

- A 7700K will probably still have 4-600mhz of headroom at 4.5ghz

- The 6850K will produce a lot more heat at this clockspeed and require a lot more cooling; it's undoubtedly the more expensive option

 

[Montani Dominari]

Thank you

 

[photonboy]

If building a new system, wait for AMD's RYZEN pricing information for the CPU's and for the motherboards.

I believe they said you can overclock ANY CPU but to do so you must buy specific motherboards. The price estimates right now suggest you might save at least $100USD on a system (CPU + motherboard) going with a similarly performing Ryzen CPU.

Possibly $150USD or more, especially if the AMD CPU uses the WRAITH cooler and it's good enough for your needs. Otherwise I usually recommend a $40 to $80USD cooler for the better CPU's.

 

[Ecky]

AMD's Wrath cooler performs on par with a $15-20 heatsink, it's not a replacement for an $80 cooler. However, I probably wouldn't recommend an $80 cooler in most cases anyway.

 

[photonboy]

I mostly agree with the BEST ANSWER comment.

The PRICING is roughly (in USD):

i7-7700K $350
i7-6800K $420
i7-6850K $590

The i7-6850K I think adds more PCIe lanes direct to the CPU and has a higher CPU cache which doesn't aid most people. It's hard to justify that price.

The i7-7700K performance difference can be hard to calculate. It has a slightly higher IPC and overclocks higher but many titles aren't CPU bound, then of course there are VIDEO EDITING gains if you do that and arguably the i7-6800K is more FUTURE PROOF CPU if games in DX12 and Vulkan use the processing more.

Then the MOTHERBOARD cost is higher I believe as well for the i7-6800K.

*But, back to RYZEN...

I'm most interested to see what the 6C/12T CPU ends up costing. You'll want either a 4C/8T, 6C/6T or a 6C/12T. If the price is reasonable it might be worth it as we really don't know how demanding games will end up being in a few years. Sure, DX12 and Vulkan can reduce draw calls but game developers can easily decide to add in features that hit a CPU heavily and a 6C/12T may give a better experience.

Game devs will have to make games work well on 4C/8T and below, so the higher CPU would likely be for the high-end to improve things and be more OPTIONAL in the settings, but still improve things. Probably. And of course Multi-Tasking such as converting videos whilst gaming or running a web browser while gaming (which can eat up a lot of CPU cycles so I normally don't recommend it).

There's a good ESTIMATE video on Ryzen costs here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGbC6XLCneU

He's guessing the following:

4C/8T (unlocked with proper motherboard) $175
6C/6T (unlocked, but no SMT which is hyperthreading) $225
6C/12T (unlocked... ) $350

Even if the 4C/8T part was $250 it would still be $100 cheaper than what Intel has.

The prices will no doubt differ from that. If they WERE true though the 6C/6T looks pretty interesting depending on your budget. It should end up similar to an i5-6600K with 50% more cores (6-core without hyperthreading vs 4-core without hyperthreading).