is the K worth the extra money?

[chrisswart1489]

i am building a gaming pc and is looking at the 4690k but i am wandering if the k model is worth the extra money for gaming?

 

[MeteorsRaining]

If you're going to Overclock, YES, if you're going to play on stock speeds, no.

 

[prit87]

you will notice some fps difference in games when you overclock the CPU plus in the long run when the i5 4690 will start bottlenecking future GPU at that time the OC version will come in handy.

 

[Fitzitz]

I would say it's worth it just because you might want to overclock it in the future

 

[unknownofprob]

Above has clarified it but another factor -

If you go with the "K" processor you want a good Z97 board to go with it, not another chipset. If you plan on not overclocking you can get away with H97, but if you are wanting multiple cards you want the Z97 chipset.

Not overclocking can save you quite a bit of money, if you plan on doing so expect to pay more. I do believe the "k" versions are worth it, hence the reason my 4930k (there are no non-k 4930's for reference, just saying about using it's unlocked capability) is overclocked to 4.9GHz with a Modded Noctua NH-D15.

With overclocking, as mentioned in my last paragraph, you'd want to invest in a high-end CPU cooler, or something moderate which will handle moderate to low overclocks.

 

[chrisswart1489]

does the cpu make a big difference in gaming?

 

[chrisswart1489]

i know it might come in handy in the future but how far is that future

 

[MeteorsRaining]

does the cpu make a big difference in gaming?

It still depends on the fact weather you want to OC or not, unknownofprob explained it clearly the outcomes of either. Anyways, on stock speeds there's no noticible difference b/w the 2. You'd want a Z MoBo if you want to SLI (H MoBos support x4 at max, not optimal for SLI on a majority of top cards, hence Z MoBo for x8).

 

[unknownofprob]

currently the i5's are close to the i7's, but for later the i7's defiantly will be the better option to go.

As in terms of gaming, yes it is the 2nd most important factor.

Importance goes - GPU>CPU>Ram.

Graphics card is by far the most important, but if you have a poor CPU you are only limiting the GPU's performance, which is called bottlenecking. An i5 won't bottleneck much of todays setups, only if extreme.

 

[prit87]

i know it might come in handy in the future but how far is that future

well future needs would be at least 3 - 4 years.

 

[chrisswart1489]

does the cpu make a big difference in gaming?

It still depends on the fact weather you want to OC or not, unknownofprob explained it clearly the outcomes of either. Anyways, on stock speeds there's no noticible difference b/w the 2. You'd want a Z MoBo if you want to SLI (H MoBos support x4 at max, not optimal for SLI on a majority of top cards, hence Z MoBo for x8).

i already baught an msi geforce gtx 770 gaming gc so what would be the best for that gpu

 

[MeteorsRaining]

You're actually not answering a basic question. Will you indulge in OCing?

Nothing bad about it, but it's the main advantage of K version over non-K and may (an absolute may) give you an extra year or two before even OCed i5 starts bottlenecking, that'd be really way down the road though.

Also, I assume you'd want to SLI in future to gain more performance, or atleast want dual GPU capability, for that, Z MoBo would be good and K version would be a good compliment to it. Remember, having a Z MoBo and K CPU doesn't mean you must OC, it means you can OC. You can put non-K on Z MoBo too but it won't make much sense as prices of non-K and K are really close in most regions.

You'd however need a good af cooler for OCing (if you do), but you can purchase it as and when you want. In a nutshell, I'd go with Z MoBo and i5-K, for SLI capability and OCing freedom.

 

[chrisswart1489]

You're actually not answering a basic question. Will you indulge in OCing?

Nothing bad about it, but it's the main advantage of K version over non-K and may (an absolute may) give you an extra year or two before even OCed i5 starts bottlenecking, that'd be really way down the road though.

Also, I assume you'd want to SLI in future to gain more performance, or atleast want dual GPU capability, for that, Z MoBo would be good and K version would be a good compliment to it. Remember, having a Z MoBo and K CPU doesn't mean you must OC, it means you can OC. You can put non-K on Z MoBo too but it won't make much sense as prices of non-K and K are really close in most regions.

You'd however need a good af cooler for OCing (if you do), but you can purchase it as and when you want. In a nutshell, I'd go with Z MoBo and i5-K, for SLI capability and OCing freedom.

the thing is i would want to oc but if it isnt nessary i wont but im thinking about the future so the only thing i want to upgrade in the future is my gpu and ram so i am also looking at the i7 4690k

 

[MeteorsRaining]

K version makes sense then. GPU upgrade depends a lot on the fact that 'will the CPU bottleneck?' and though currently I can't state a card which runs even noticibly better on K version vs non-K on stock speeds, this'll change in future as cards get better and faster, the CPU needs to increase the clock speed to match up with it.

That's why you get substancial difference while looking at i5 2nd gen vs 4th gen with high end cards and CPU intensive games, but not that much on both the CPUs OCed to 4GHz+.

i7 4790k is more like for the future when games will be able to utilize the HTs better, few games today, like BF series take advantage of the extra power. Its due to change in future (IMO) though.

 

[4Ryan6]

i am building a gaming pc and is looking at the 4690k but i am wandering if the k model is worth the extra money for gaming?

IMO there's only one CPU out there right now that the extra expense of the K is definitely worth it even if you do not have overclock intentions at all and that CPU is the i7-4790K as it is stock clocked out of the box at 4ghz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117369

Approximately 3 years ago many overclockers goal was to reach a stable 4ghz overclock and this CPU is stock clocked at 4ghz, so IMO this K is definitely worth the extra money, even without overclocking it.