Is upgrading from the i5 6500 to i7 7700 worth it?

[Sebs RO]

Hi! Recently I've come across the possibility of upgrading to the seventh generation of i7s, more exactly the i7 7700 (non K, my motherboard won't carry it up) and I really am wondering if the upgrade would be worth it. First of all, my GPU is a 1060 with 6gb of VRAM, alongside 12 GB of ram. I would mostly pick this upgrade for X-Plane 11, which really is a CPU killer. The question is, would there be much of a difference? How much FPS would I gain?
Mainly this particular CPU (i7 7700) is priced as about 305 euros where I live. Seeing that I could sell the current i5 for around 105 euros and make it up for the i7's price, should I go ahead and get this upgrade? I really want to see lots of FPS ahead of the i5, which also stands up to every single game. Thank you so much!

 

[Darkbreeze]

For gaming, no, it's really not worth the upgrade unless the games you play are titles that you KNOW are able to heavily utilize more cores and threads than your current CPU is able to provide. Mostly, the answer to that question these days is still no, as Ryzen CPUs with significantly more cores and threads and very close to equal IPC don't show dramatic increases in performance over Intel units with fewer cores.

IPC is still king and there is very little improvement in IPC between Skylake and Kaby lake. Certainly if you run other tasks, such as recording or streaming, alongside your gaming, then you will likely see some benefit from moving to any equal or newer i7 from an i5, but honestly the difference probably isn't worth what you are going to pay for it. If you can't jump to Coffee lake, and maybe even if you can, I'd probably wait. If you have no desire to upgrade the whole platform at some point, then obviously a Kaby i7 is the best upgrade you are going to be able to do.

 

[mdd1963]

what does '...non-K, my motherboard won't carry it up' mean? Just because a MB does not support overclocking beyond specs does not mean that the standard 4.2 GHz/4.5 GHz clocks are not useful... (unless for some reason your particular MB does not support 91 watt TDP CPUs)

The 7700K is clocked 600 MHz faster on base clock speed, and 300 MHz faster in single core turbo...

HOwever, the 7700K's prices are now somewhat inflated, and, naturally, an 8400 and mainboard could be acquired for possibly less...

 

[cryoburner]

Since Intel added cores this generation to remain competitive against AMD's Ryzen, a six-core i5-8400 offers comparable, and in some cases slightly better performance than an i7-7700, at a significantly lower cost. You would need a new motherboard, but it would still likely end up costing less overall.

I'm not super-familiar with X-plane 11's exact performance demands, but I would not expect you to get more than 10-20% better performance out of such a CPU upgrade, even if performance were heavily CPU limited. You might want to inquire about performance at an Xplane forum though, to get feedback from someone with a similar setup.

Another possible option, if you were getting a new motherboard anyway, would be to pick up an overclocking-capable Z370 motherboard, along with an appropriate K-series processor and a capable CPU cooler, then overclock to push the performance a little higher still. If the game happens to not heavily utilize more than four threads, then you might even consider going with an unlocked quad-core like an i3-8350K. Or there's the six-core i5-8600K (comparable in performance to an i7-7700K), though that would be a more expensive option.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think all of the upgrade to coffee suggestions are probably moot. I have a feeling this op has come across a singular opportunity to get just the CPU for a good price and that's why he's asking. I could be wrong, but even if I am, it seems to me that not every thread or upgrade needs or has to be to whatever the pinnacle part happens to be at the moment.

There's no reason an i7-7700 can't be a really good upgrade option, as it clearly has better performance in SOME areas, so long as the price is "can't pass it up" type pricing. If it's not, then it's probably not worth doing and then he might start thinking about a full upgrade but I doubt at this point my recommendation in that event would be to any Coffee sku unless again, there was a blockbuster deal involved.

There will be some new Intel skus coming at some point down the road in the not too distant future and AMD just released new skus recently. Either of those options would probably be better than jumping on a brand new Coffee upgrade this late in the game, unless the pricing/performance could justify it versus what's in the pipeline for Intel in a few months. We won't know that for probably a few more weeks, at least.

 

[cryoburner]

I have a feeling this op has come across a singular opportunity to get just the CPU for a good price and that's why he's asking.

They said an i7-7700 would be around 305 euros in the first post. I'm not sure exactly what pricing is like in their country, but an i5-8400 would most likely be under 200 euros, and even combined with a new motherboard would likely cost less. Now, if they found one at a much better price, even on the used market, it might be a fine-enough option, though depending on the demands of X-plane, they might potentially be better off looking for a processor with higher per-core performance. A 7700K could be a reasonable choice even without an overclocking-capable motherboard, since even at stock clocks it boosts around 10% faster than a 7700. Or an i3-8350K / i5-8600K overclocked on a new Z370 motherboard, again, depending what pricing and the demands of the simulator are like.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Normally that CPU is about 320 Euros, so yeah, that's not a terribly great deal, but it's not horrific either.

I'd have to agree that perhaps Coffee lake makes more sense in that context, but again, it's awfully late to be buying that Gen new, when there are releases on the horizon which will likely either create a drop in the current price of stock for Coffee lake or offer better performance, even if it's only minor improvements, for around the same price. Either way it's a win.