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

[Dadrian Daedalus]

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).

 

[mdd1963]

IF you could get it at a good price ($100-$150, preferably closer to the former, it might be a good stopgap solution for 6-12 months...

Any money sunk into this is money spent for the performance bump only until your next upgrade, which certainly must then be MB/CPU, and DDR4...

(The GTX1060, of course, is still quite competent at 1080P!)

 

[Ketchup79]

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

As long as it stays under 100 at full load, there isn't too much to worry about. You might want to get a better thermal paste down the road, but as long as it won't throttle, I wouldn't worry too much.
My question is - how is it running? Are your slowness issues gone?

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

Its touching 99 degrees on occasions which is causing it to thermal throttle, so i have decided to return it

 

[Ketchup79]

That's too bad. Considering what you said about your other processor, you probably just needed some new thermal paste. Personally, I run mine around 4.2, which keeps the temps down quite a bit (as it keeps the auto voltage down as well).

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

That's too bad. Considering what you said about your other processor, you probably just needed some new thermal paste. Personally, I run mine around 4.2, which keeps the temps down quite a bit (as it keeps the auto voltage down as well).

Which thermal paste would be effective at keeping the processor cool?can you recommend any?

I used a small drop of some Cm mastergel pro that i had received with my h410r cooler last year-while its staying at around 40 degrees at idle, the temps increase when its subjected to some load-in all my years of using pcs, this is the first time I have seen a cpu hitting the 90s so quickly on load. I know that tx3 isn't the best cooler out there, but i don't think the temps should have been that high even with this cooler installed.

Is the thermal paste not doing a good job of conducting heat? Can a bent mobo socket pin cause such abnormally high temps?

 

[Ketchup79]

Arctic silver 5 is what I always use. Pins wouldn't be related to high temps, whether or not you have any. Any just to be clear, what are you running to get the "load" temp. One of your games?

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

I checked the temps using some games as well as benchmarking tools (cinebench r15, prime95 etc). In both cases the cpu overheated, which is a bit strange as i had never seen it exceeding 60-65 c earlier even under load.

This is causing me to suspect that it's probably a motherboard issue.

Given how buggy win 10 has been lately, can it somehow be responsible for the high temps?

 

[Ketchup79]

I haven't had any issues with Win 10 personally. Prime95 will put Haswells under an abnormal, non -realistic load and it most definitely would throttle at 4.4 unless you were cooling it with water or one of the high-end Noctua units.

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

Would things improve if a better cooler such as cm hyper 212 is used along with some good quality thermal paste?

 

[Ketchup79]

Possibly. What was your high temp in an actual game?

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

Earlier it hovered around 60-65 C, but now it reaches 86-95 C within a few mins of launching the game

 

[Ketchup79]

Ok. What do you have turbo speed at? Does your motherboard allow you to run it on non-turbo (4.0 GHz), at least until you get a better cooling material. What is your case fan setup like?

 

[Mustard_Gas123]

@Dadrian Daedalus sounds like my upgrade i went from an i5 4460 to i7 4790 it was so worth it and getting the i7 4790k would be even better, do it. u probably have the same pc as me acer aspire. also remember that k(overclock) is where u have to be careful when buying a 2nd hand cpu they coulve abused this fragile piece of hardware. pushing it to maximum clock, over heat/high temperatures and 24/7 USE. ask the buyer how condition is, if it has been overclocked(most likely) and if it has been used in a mining rig.

 

[Mustard_Gas123]

because at the time of release this was one of the most powerful cpus