Question Is upgrading to an i7 4790k worth it in 2019?

Dadrian Daedalus

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i have an older haswell i5 4460 based system with a gtx 1060 6gb-while its able to run most games satisfactorily,it struggles while running cpu intensive titles like AC origins,Ac odyssey,metro exodus and so on.In these games,the fps drops to the low 30s(such as while exploring areas with many npcs in ac origins).

As i currently dont have the means to upgrade all components,i was thinking whether upgrading only the cpu to a haswell i7 would make any difference to its performance or not.

I found someone who's willing to sell me his i7 4790k for a reasonable price-but will getting it be worthwhile?Will there be any noticeable improvements in performance while running those demanding titles?Or will i be better off upgrading to a completely new setup when i've managed to save up a bit more?

please advice what i should do.

ps- the mobo is a gigabyte b85 d3ha and its equipped with 12gb ddr3 ram(running at 1333 mhz).
 
While your B85 motherboard will not allow you to overclock the K, the stock and turbo speeds of the 4790K will be a nice boost in capability. from 3.2-3.4 to 4.0-4.4
I do not know if those titles respond more to single core speeds or to thread count, but you are getting a boost either way.
 
Tough choice, it would have to be cheap. It is a nice step up over your current cpu but it is however still short of a modern mid range cpu’s. The risk is it will only satisfy you for a short while and you will be looking to upgrade again in the near future. Unless it’s cheap I would just save the money and put it towards a upgrade to a modern platform.
 
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Dadrian Daedalus

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thanks for the inputs,but as you can see i have my ram running at 1333 mhz-could that possibly have any adverse effect on the performance?

Also as this is an used cpu-what are the odds that it might fail soon?(as its already a couple of years old at this point).I asked its owner whether he had ever OC'd it or not,he said he didn't-not sure whether he was telling the truth or not.
 
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If it's a good price why not take a shot? CPUs are pretty hardy as long they had proper cooling. Ask your friend that he guarantee it that it runs.

How long will it last? Nobody knows. I still have my old i5 3570 system that's still kicking. Going on 7-8 years.
 
Haswells don't care a whole lot about memory speed unless you are running integrated graphics. However, I see that you are running 12 GB, so make sure you are running dual channel properly. As others have said, watch the price. The market knows that the 4790k is still a great CPU, and the best choice available for a DDR3 system. I am still very happy with mine! Due to high clock speed, lots of cores (real and hyper-threaded), and a large CPU cache, lots of people who have them are still hanging onto them due to their versatility.
 
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King_V

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The few times I have looked, the Haswell i7 chips have been more expensive than I am willing to consider on the used market.

Granted, it means you don't have to upgrade the rest of the system, but the prices I've generally seen, I would not be willing to pay.

I'm currently on an i5-4460 as well, though not putting as much demand on it as you are. I guess it depends on how much that "reasonable" price is.


Also, as has been pointed out - running 12GB suggests that you have a single 8GB RAM stick and a single 4GB RAM stick. This means that you are not running in dual-channel mode. A matched pair would be better, and show some performance improvements.

EDIT: That said, if you can set it up with matched pairs and do so inexpensively, that might be worth it. Used DDR3 RAM is still pretty inexpensive. Still, the long term plan should be to invest minimally in the existing platform, if you can live with its performance for the time being, and save the money to get a modern CPU/MB/RAM combo... and definitely make sure to budget for a good PSU if your current one is not a high-quality model.
 

Dadrian Daedalus

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yeah the price seems ok-atleast it certainly is a lot lower than what one would have to pay for building a whole new system from scratch.I intend to build a ryzen 3600 based setup after a few more months(preferably as and when amd does launch the b550 chipset based mobos,if at all)-when i get it i will relegate this pc for usage in less demanding tasks like programming,watching videos etc and playing the odd game once in a while.

I do have one 8gb and another 4 gb ddr3 corsair vengeance modules running in dual-channel mode(they are installed in similarly colored ram slots,thereby enabling the dual channel functionality).Can mixing rams of different capacities impede their ability to work in dual channel mode?I was under the impression that as long as both modules are rated at the same frequency and are installed in correct ram slots,they should have no problem working in a dual channel config.


Also the ryzen 5 1600s are going pretty cheap these days-how do they compare(in terms of gaming performance) to the i7 4790k?
 
thanks for the inputs,but as you can see i have my ram running at 1333 mhz-could that possibly have any adverse effect on the performance?

Also as this is an used cpu-what are the odds that it might fail soon?(as its already a couple of years old at this point).I asked its owner whether he had ever OC'd it or not,he said he didn't-not sure whether he was telling the truth or not.
Unless a processor has been abused, it will likely become long obsolete before it fails.
By abused I mean overclocking with voltages that exceed maximum values.
I would not worry about a used 4790K.

As to ram, intel processors do not much depend on fast ram.
Here is a study:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

Your 12gb is a bit strange.
I assume you have 3 4gb sticks or a 8gb stick and a 4gb stick.
Regardless, the matched 8gb will run in dual channel mode and the odd 4gb will run in single channel mode.
That is called flex mode.
Not bad at all.
Unless you need more ram, I would leave well enough alone.

As to gaming on a ryzen 1600 vs. 4790K, the 4790K should be better.
1600 passmark rating is 12279 when all 12 threads are in use and a single thread rating of 1817.
4790K has a rating of 11169 and a single thread rating of 2529.
Once you have at least 4 threads, the single thread rating becomes more important for gaming.
 
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King_V

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Your 12gb is a bit strange.
I assume you have 3 4gb sticks or a 8gb stick and a 4gb stick.
Regardless, the matched 8gb will run in dual channel mode and the odd 4gb will run in single channel mode.
That is called flex mode.


By "the matched 8gb" that I assume you mean "the matched pair of 4gb (if using 3x4gb)?"

Or is it also that with an 8+4 setup, the first 4gb of the 8gb stick, along with the other 4gb stick, runs dual, and the remaining 4gb of the bigger stick runs single?
 
By "the matched 8gb" that I assume you mean "the matched pair of 4gb (if using 3x4gb)?"

Or is it also that with an 8+4 setup, the first 4gb of the 8gb stick, along with the other 4gb stick, runs dual, and the remaining 4gb of the bigger stick runs single?
first 4gb of the 8gb stick and 4gb of the second stick will run in dual channel mode, assuming, of course that the two sticks are installed on different channel slots.
 
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yeah the price seems ok-atleast it certainly is a lot lower than what one would have to pay for building a whole new system from scratch.I intend to build a ryzen 3600 based setup after a few more months
Not trying to be rude, but I will be blunt: terrible idea. If you are going to get a 4790k, keep it for a while. If you are going to "upgrade" to a 3600, wait until you are ready and just do that. At best, going from a 4790k to a 3600 would be a sidegrade. In some cases, it might even offer worse performance (see geofelt's post).
.
 
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Dadrian Daedalus

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guys i took the i7 4790k from that chap for testing today-upon installing it the pc booted up just fine.

Shockingly however the moment i run some game or benchmark,the temps instantly sky rocket towards the 90's,sometimes even reaching 99 degrees celcius.

I checked everything to ensure that the cooler was mounter properly,and it surely is.Then why is it reaching such high temps during load conditions?

Is the cpu itself defective?Or is my cooler(CM hyper TX3) incapable of cooling it properly?

I read somewhere that vcore setting needs to be on "Auto",otherwise it may result it high temps-i checked the bios and its at auto by default.

please suggest a remedy for this issue,thanks.
 
Did you use some thermal paste?

That should be a nice improvement. The market "knows" however that the fastest CPU for a DDR3 system is a 5775c with a whopping 128MB of L4 cache, and that's why it's still $300 used. I assume the slower 4790k was much cheaper than this, no?
 

Dadrian Daedalus

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The most likely thing that could cause that then is one of the pins hasn't locked. Are you sure that all the pins are inserted completely through the board? They will still click even if they have not.
All the pins are mounted securely, i checked the rear of the mobo just to make sure and they all appear to be fine.

I even checked using the stock intel cooler but to no avail, so it seems the cpu itself is defective
 
Did your friend delid that 4790k? They might've done a poor job relidding it, creating a gap between the IHS and die. Even filling that up with thermal compound wouldn't transfer heat quickly enough. If there's no heatspreader on it now, then the top surface is lower so push-pin coolers won't apply enough pressure and screw-in brackets would be required
 

Dadrian Daedalus

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Can bad or old thermal paste cause temps to increase drastically?i used some cm master gel pro that i had lying around, its about a year or two old.Could it be responsible for the the unusual rise in temps? Is it safe if i mount the cooler without applying any paste?

Also i noticed something really weird, i removed the 4790k and put back my 4460-now even the 4460 is overheating! I had used it yesterday and it was working perfectly fine!

Is something wrong with the mainboard?
 
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Your objective was better performance.
How did that work out for you?
I suspect that the 4790K did the performance job for you.

90c. is high, but not dangerous. The throttle point is around 100c.
This looks like a simple cooling issue, nothing more.
Leave all bios settings on auto and default.
Do not pick such as "optimized settings" which may induce some sort of overclocking.

I sense a certain degree of panic.
Not to worry.
I really doubt that the 4790K was in any way defective.
I doubt that your motherboard has any fault either.

Look to your cooler mounting.

The TX3 is about as capable as the stock intel cooler.
They both have 92mm fans which need to spin up to high rpm.
Really, not the best.
When you remounted, did you clean off the old paste? You need to.
Alcohol and a paper coffee filter(which is lint free) will do the job.
Yes, the paste quality can make a difference, but really not by all that much.
A pushpin mount is tricky, If all 4 pins are through and locked, you should be ok.
But, possibly the cooler is not on even. The trick is to push down on a diagonal pair of pins at the same time.
If you do them one at a time you will not set the cooler evenly.


What is your case?
In particular what do you have for fresh air intake capability?
Take the case covers off and direct a house fan at the innards and see if that helps.
You might find that a cooler with a 120mm or 140mm fan will cool better and be quieter.
160mm is sufficient for a very good air cooler.
A noctua NH-U12s is very easy to mount and works well.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16835608040

As a caveat, be very careful when dropping the processor into the socket.
If you smoosh it around to seat it, you can bend a socket pin causing all sorts of problems.
Once in, leave it be. The socket is designed for a limit of 15 insertions.

I hesitate to mention this:

What is your motherboard bios level?
CPU-Z will tell you.
On occasion, there are bios updates that address minor issues.
You can check if there are any bios updates that fix issues that cause you a problem.
DO NOT try to update the bios on speculation.
A failed flash can render your motherboard useless and be very difficult to recover from.
 

Dadrian Daedalus

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I spent the entire evening troubleshooting this issue but didn't succeed in finding the possible cause . I even swapped the hyper tx3 with a cm h410r cooler that i had running in another system but that too failed to bring the temps down under load.

This is a really strange issue, i have never encountered anything like this before.

Did i do anything inadvertently that could have damaged the motherboard (such as bent pins etc)? I inspected the cpu socket but all the pins seemed ok-i could see no signs of any bent or damaged pins at all.

If the 4790k was faulty, could its use have damaged the mobo somehow, such that when other cpus are used, the same issue keeps cropping up again?

Had the mobo been damaged somehow, would it have booted up at all?

Ps my case is a corsair carbide 400r