Is Haswell still relevant?

[Fire&Cold]

I'm planing to buy a used cpu and was looking for i7 4790(k) and pair it with gtx 1070/1080. Is still good if i plan to use it for office, browsing and not AAA games for at least 2-3 years from now? And if it's worth with Meltdown/Spectre bugs or Should I look for a newer option, like 10th gen of Intel?

 

[cdrkf]

I'm planing to buy a used cpu and was looking for i7 4790(k) and pair it with gtx 1070/1080. Is still good if i plan to use it for office, browsing and not AAA games for at least 2-3 years from now? And if it's worth with Meltdown/Spectre bugs or Should I look for a newer option, like 10th gen of Intel?

It really depends on your budget and what price you can get the i7 for. In terms of performance, the Haswell i7's are fine for day to day and office tasks. It will also keep up with a 1070 / 1080 in modern games, although in a lot of the biggest AAA titles 4 cores / 8 threads is starting to become a limiting factor. You would really need a 4790k and overclock it to get the best gaming experience.

If you are looking at Haswell, why not look at an AMD chip? The Ryzen 2000 and 3000 series parts are much better gaming cpu's than Haswell, if a fraction behind intels current top options due to slightly lower clock speeds. That said something like a Ryzen 5 2600 (which is a 6 core, 12 thread part) will be a much better long term bet than a 4790K and will out perform it across the board. The newer Ryzen 5 3600 is the current best value all rounder for gaming (between 5 and 10% slower than Intels 9900k on average but only costs $200) and again would be a much better long term investment. The other good option on the AMD side is how expandable the AM4 platform is.... currently AMD offer 3 generations of ryzen cpu with core counts going all the way up to 12 cores (24 threads) on the same socket, and there is a 16 core (32 thread) part due out latter this year as well. We don't know for sure but I'd bet AMD will probably keep AM4 for the next generation as well so lots of upgrade options if / when you need it.

Edit: I forgot to mention re Intel 10th gen- so the new Intel 10th gen does have a new core design and is built on 10nm. However, it isn't available on the desktop (laptops only) and due to Intels ongoing manufacturing issues with 10nm the clock speeds are pretty low. The result is that the new 10nm cores are up to 18% faster per clock (which is a massive per gen boost) but they clock ~15% slower than the last gen so there is very little difference in performance between 9th and 10th gen on laptops. On the desktop side of things, Intel haven't announced any 10nm parts and look set to release another 14nm refresh (i.e. it will be the same core as the existing parts with tweaks to core counts / cache- there is rumoured to be a 10 core part, although we don't know when). TL,DR, I wouldn't worry about waiting for 10th gen on the desktop as it could be a long way off and doesn't look like there is going to be anything genuinely new.

 

[Fire&Cold]

It really depends on your budget and what price you can get the i7 for. In terms of performance, the Haswell i7's are fine for day to day and office tasks. It will also keep up with a 1070 / 1080 in modern games, although in a lot of the biggest AAA titles 4 cores / 8 threads is starting to become a limiting factor. You would really need a 4790k and overclock it to get the best gaming experience.

If you are looking at Haswell, why not look at an AMD chip? The Ryzen 2000 and 3000 series parts are much better gaming cpu's than Haswell, if a fraction behind intels current top options due to slightly lower clock speeds. That said something like a Ryzen 5 2600 (which is a 6 core, 12 thread part) will be a much better long term bet than a 4790K and will out perform it across the board. The newer Ryzen 5 3600 is the current best value all rounder for gaming (between 5 and 10% slower than Intels 9900k on average but only costs $200) and again would be a much better long term investment. The other good option on the AMD side is how expandable the AM4 platform is.... currently AMD offer 3 generations of ryzen cpu with core counts going all the way up to 12 cores (24 threads) on the same socket, and there is a 16 core (32 thread) part due out latter this year as well. We don't know for sure but I'd bet AMD will probably keep AM4 for the next generation as well so lots of upgrade options if / when you need it.

Edit: I forgot to mention re Intel 10th gen- so the new Intel 10th gen does have a new core design and is built on 10nm. However, it isn't available on the desktop (laptops only) and due to Intels ongoing manufacturing issues with 10nm the clock speeds are pretty low. The result is that the new 10nm cores are up to 18% faster per clock (which is a massive per gen boost) but they clock ~15% slower than the last gen so there is very little difference in performance between 9th and 10th gen on laptops. On the desktop side of things, Intel haven't announced any 10nm parts and look set to release another 14nm refresh (i.e. it will be the same core as the existing parts with tweaks to core counts / cache- there is rumoured to be a 10 core part, although we don't know when). TL,DR, I wouldn't worry about waiting for 10th gen on the desktop as it could be a long way off and doesn't look like there is going to be anything genuinely new.

I found i7 4790 for $115 and k version for $150. A friend of mine has sold out his i5 4670 and he has a h97m-e mobo. He said he can give me the board and 2 sticks of 4gb drr3 but I will need to buy the cpu.

For AMD I need to buy everything, like building a new pc which will be more expensive. The prices for Ryzen are:255$ for Ryzen 5 3600 with $104 for cheapest mobo.

I search for something that isn't too expensive because I don't need too much power(i don't render or something else) and gaming(lol, apex, pubg) is casual, when I have free time.

 

[damric]

Haswell i7 is fine if the price is good but $115 is not a good price. If you look hard enough and haggle you can get one for $75.

 

[InvalidError]

$115 for a used Haswell i7 isn't particularly appealing when you can get better performance out of a new-in-box Ryzen 2600 for $120.

Haswell is still usable by today's standard but I agree with damric that the price is too high for where it lands in performance.

 

[Karadjgne]

H-97 can't be overclocked, and the 4790k has a 400MHz advantage in clock speeds, (4.0-4.4GHz vs 3.6-4.0GHz of the non-k) so could be a benefit in more than a few apps.

8Gb of ddr3 is kinda tight, but doable.

Considering consoles range from 30-60fps, it's not a bad deal, I game happily on a i7-3770k and gtx970, even in 8man teams, but 16 gets a little latency and 24man is noticeably chopped. So there are drawbacks.

A 9400f with b360 mobo and 16Gb of ram will run @ $300 and is pretty equitable for the most part, only having advantage due to higher IPC in games that make use of it. So for half that price at $150, the i7-4790k is still viable.

The biggest drawback will be driver support, you'll get the basics and a few updates, but 4th gen is no longer actively supported by the mobo manufacturers, so can possibly have issues with current/upcoming windows versions and some software.

 

[Fire&Cold]

H-97 can't be overclocked, and the 4790k has a 400MHz advantage in clock speeds, (4.0-4.4GHz vs 3.6-4.0GHz of the non-k) so could be a benefit in more than a few apps.

8Gb of ddr3 is kinda tight, but doable.

Considering consoles range from 30-60fps, it's not a bad deal, I game happily on a i7-3770k and gtx970, even in 8man teams, but 16 gets a little latency and 24man is noticeably chopped. So there are drawbacks.

A 9400f with b360 mobo and 16Gb of ram will run @ $300 and is pretty equitable for the most part, only having advantage due to higher IPC in games that make use of it. So for half that price at $150, the i7-4790k is still viable.

The biggest drawback will be driver support, you'll get the basics and a few updates, but 4th gen is no longer actively supported by the mobo manufacturers, so can possibly have issues with current/upcoming windows versions and some software.

Thanks! Should I be worried about Meltodown/Spectre bug and move to AMD if I want to be protected? Or should I care about those bugs that can harm my system?

 

[cdrkf]

I found i7 4790 for $115 and k version for $150. A friend of mine has sold out his i5 4670 and he has a h97m-e mobo. He said he can give me the board and 2 sticks of 4gb drr3 but I will need to buy the cpu.

For AMD I need to buy everything, like building a new pc which will be more expensive. The prices for Ryzen are:255$ for Ryzen 5 3600 with $104 for cheapest mobo.

I search for something that isn't too expensive because I don't need too much power(i don't render or something else) and gaming(lol, apex, pubg) is casual, when I have free time.

To be honest, if you are being given a motherboard and memory I would go for it... Haswell is good enough for current games with a decent GPU.

Thanks! Should I be worried about Meltodown/Spectre bug and move to AMD if I want to be protected? Or should I care about those bugs that can harm my system?

If you run Windows 10 and install all the updates, then the bugs are patched so your machine will be secure, although I know on some of the older processors the patches can reduce performance a bit (although from what I've seen the difference is pretty small on Haswell). I would just make sure everything is up to date and you should be good.

 

[Karadjgne]

If you look at Windows alone, that's 40+Gb of code that's hand written, not a machine generated program. So is going to contain a butt load of flaws. Some show up as bugs, some are harmless and affect nothing but can be exploited. And that's what finally happened with Intel. Someone found a flaw that could be exploited. It was pretty much always there, a backdoor, one that was bricked over and painted, but there none-the-less.

And where there's a door, there's a burglar itching to see if it can be opened.

There's going to be doors. There's going to be burglars. It's an inescapable fact, nothing is foolproof in design. Maybe the next Spectre or Meltdown will be targeted at AMD now that they are again some market competition. Seriously nobody would benefit much from hacking FX. Ryzen/TR is a different story.

Not long ago was a post here about a man looking for a new case. It had to be all metal outside, and 2 fan ports total, no mesh, no buttons no extras, solid. He is stationed in the Middle-East and his over the top Primary concern was someone walking outside and being able to hack into his pc by cellphone via rf/magnetic emissions. (did I mention his internet was over Wi-Fi?)

I think he watched Mission Impossible series far too many times.

You can protect yourself from everyday idiots, even some zealots, but if someone really wants your pc messed with, they will find a way around anything. So it's not something to really worry about, cuz you can't stop it when it happens on that level of expertise.

 

[Rodrigodrt]

Ok, haswell both 4770k and 4790k are the best processors in all galaxies. They will run any game paired with a good gpu, any, heavier ones with at very least 60 fps, while the mainstream at 100+.

so, with it said, however, they are obsolete stuff, and sorta low core count despite still being perfectly capable, so i'd only get if the price is good, and yes they will still do for 2 years.


now, if i had the cash i'd go ryzen 3600 or even 3700x for more cores future wise thinking, dont even think about intel atm, even the 10th gen is still another crap 14nm refresh of the refreshed refreshy refresh, no no, until they sort out that 10n they're just pushing it as it is all they have left to battle amd.

spectre and meltdown are but theorical threats, and they have been patched to no performance impact in the end, so dont worry about that.

 

[logainofhades]

This is one of the cheapest 6 core ryzen setups, that you can get. The 2600 being about $25 more. 3rd gen is great, but not a must, and you can always upgrade later. In modern titles, the 1600 is quite capable, to the point that it has surpassed 4c/4t i5's, like the 7600k, in minimum framerates.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor ($105.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($71.00 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($73.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $249.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-26 09:20 EDT-0400