Is upgrading from an i5 4440 to a i5 4690k worth it?

[daniel_blacke]

Benchmarks show a 23% increase in performance overall. I'm pretty sure that before overclocking. To me that seems worth it. What do you guys think?

 

[Undying89]

Only if you think overclocking it further. There isnt really a difference between those two in gaming, trust me.

 

[rhysiam]

For what? For gaming?

Almost certainly NOT worth it. There are a few games that are CPU bound, but the vast, vast majority are GPU bound with the i5 you have now. It's still faster for gaming than anything in AMD's camp, and AMD CPUs still get plenty of recommendations in budget or mid range builds.

If you're not happy with your gaming performance, you're almost certainly better off keeping your CPU and investing the money into better graphics hardware.

Post your full build, your monitor resolution (are you gaming at 1080p@60?) and the sorts of games you're hoping to see a benefit for and someone will confirm it. There are possibly a few specific games (particularly if you have a 144hz monitor) where the CPU upgrade *might* make sense, but for the vast, vast majority of cases, investing in graphics will net you much larger gains.

 

[TheNewGeek420]

Benchmarks show a 23% increase in performance overall. I'm pretty sure that before overclocking. To me that seems worth it. What do you guys think?

only if your OCing, and arent you the guy who's budget is "as.much.as.i.can.spend.without.my.wife.knowing." or something like.

 

[rhysiam]

Just in case you don't want to take our word alone for it, have a look at the the Tom's Gaming CPU hierarchy chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

They put every Intel Quad Core (or better) CPU that's been released since 2011 in the same box at the top of the chart (all the way back to an i5 2300).

People get frustrated about it in the comments from time to time, but the reason Toms list it that way is that (for almost all users) any Intel quad core released in the last four years is plenty enough to keep high end graphics cards working at 100% in games.

If upgrading from a four year old i5 2300 to a i5 4690K is hard to justify... your upgrade is an even tougher sell!

 

[daniel_blacke]

only if your OCing, and arent you the guy who's budget is "as.much.as.i.can.spend.without.my.wife.knowing." or something like.

Yes, I plan to overclock and yes, I am that guy.
But... I don't let my budget fool you, my current plan has me spending $2k before the end of next summer.

My machine is mainly for gaming, but I don't rule out the possibility that my hobbies with it may turn elsewhere.

my current build is:
i5 4440
Lenovo mobo
MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4gb
WD Blue 1 TB 7200rpm
eVGA 600B
HP 2211x 1080p 60Hz

My intention is to move to an sli set up and 1440p probably with multiple monitors. I'm trying to plan my build strategically and buy upgrades 2 or 3 at a time according to how they fit together.

I play things like Skyrim modded, Fallout New Vegas modded, Civ 5, World of Tanks, Neverwinter... I'm interested in Shadow of Mordor, hoping for a new Fallout announcement at E3, and whatever suits my fancy. I just got the pre-release of Darkest Dungeon and am enjoying a return to that flavor of game.

 

[TheNewGeek420]

only if your OCing, and arent you the guy who's budget is "as.much.as.i.can.spend.without.my.wife.knowing." or something like.

Yes, I plan to overclock and yes, I am that guy.
But... I don't let my budget fool you, my current plan has me spending $2k before the end of next summer.

My machine is mainly for gaming, but I don't rule out the possibility that my hobbies with it may turn elsewhere.

my current build is:
i5 4440
Lenovo mobo
MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4gb
WD Blue 1 TB 7200rpm
eVGA 600B
HP 2211x 1080p 60Hz

My intention is to move to an sli set up and 1440p probably with multiple monitors. I'm trying to plan my build strategically and buy upgrades 2 or 3 at a time according to how they fit together.

I play things like Skyrim modded, Fallout New Vegas modded, Civ 5, World of Tanks, Neverwinter... I'm interested in Shadow of Mordor, hoping for a new Fallout announcement at E3, and whatever suits my fancy. I just got the pre-release of Darkest Dungeon and am enjoying a return to that flavor of game.

why a lenovo mobo? , how much does it cost?

 

[daniel_blacke]

why a lenovo mobo? , how much does it cost?

Because it came with my original pc.

 

[TheNewGeek420]

why a lenovo mobo? , how much does it cost?

Because it came with my original pc.

makes sense, but is there a chance you can get a mobo like an asus z97-a or gigabyte z97 gaming 5?

 

[rhysiam]

If you're itching to upgrade, the obvious thing to me is your monitor.

The 970 is pretty solidly overkill for 1080p@60 gaming. Get a 1440p monitor and you'll have a much better gaming experience.

You may not be able to max out every game at 1440p, but I'd take high-very high settings at 1440p over ultra at 1080p any day!

There's a lot happening over the next few months. Broadwell on desktop is soooo far behind that it's approaching the rumoured August launch for Skylake. I'm really interested in Skylake, I think it's a much better proposition. We don't really know when it will arrive, maybe Intel will skip it altogether and go straight to Skylake, but if Intel do finally released Broadwell desktops it will need to be in the next couple of months, AND if they want any enthusiasts to buy it, they'll have to give some indication of when Skylake will arrive.

So my suggestion, upgrade your monitor (settle for high or very high settings @ 1440p if you have to), and wait and see what Intel do with Broadwell/Skylake... whatever it is, they have to something soon.

The other thing to note, of course, is that the various VR firms are making progress, AMD & Nvidia and DX12 are all on the VR hype-train. We're likely to see shipping products with 12 months. If that's something that interests you, perhaps now is not the time for a big investment in monitor(s). In that case, maybe wait and see is better. You have a very solid rig with a Haswell i5 and a 970. Any upgrades are going to be very incremental (and I suggest entirely irrelevant while you've got that 1080@60 monitor).

 

[daniel_blacke]

I've had this floating around in my head, as well. I guess I really do think that waiting to see what will come is wise. It looks like my most likely next move will be to get an SSD. The 1440p I'm looking at is the ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27". That's a chuck of change right there and probably won't happen for a year. I could get several smaller upgrades between now and then which would equal out to more money but less spent at one time, which is crucial to my personal situation.

 

[rhysiam]

I've had this floating around in my head, as well. I guess I really do think that waiting to see what will come is wise. It looks like my most likely next move will be to get an SSD. The 1440p I'm looking at is the ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27". That's a chuck of change right there and probably won't happen for a year. I could get several smaller upgrades between now and then which would equal out to more money but less spent at one time, which is crucial to my personal situation.

Yeah, the ROG Swift is a massive investment, and one I'd (personally) be very nervous to make with VR around the corner. Who knows whether it will actually gain widespread support in games, or whether it will live up to the hype... but from my reading and conversations with friends who have tried it first-hand, it's at very least worth holding off on big monitor investments (which used to have good 4-6 year lives) until we see where it all goes.

I hadn't noticed you don't have an SSD. That's an absolute no-brainer then... if you've got the upgrade-itch get an SSD and reinstall your OS on it for sure. Won't help you gaming one bit, but it's by far-and-away the most impactful upgrade you can make to that machine in terms of its general all-round responsiveness.

250GB is the sweet spot if you can afford it. And I'd advice sticking with a cheaper drive (Crucial BX100 or Samsung 850 EVO are both solid models) because the performance increases from larger models only come under massively intensively workloads which almost never arise for "normal' or even enthusiast computer users.