Skylake 6600k; worth it?

[Gallarian]

Hey guys,

Is Skylake and the new Z170 platform worth it?

My current CPU is the classic workhorse, the i5-2500k. Here are my relevant specs:

- Mobo: ASRock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 ATX
- CPU: Intel i5-2500k @ 4.4Ghz
- RAM: 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600
- GPU: EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 (OC)
- PSU: Corsair TX 750
- OS: Windows 10 Home

Planned upgrades:

- Mobo: MSI Z170A Krait ATX
- CPU: i5-6600k
- RAM: 2x4GB Corsair DDR4 Vengeance (3000)

So, if anyone has personal experience with Skylake and Z170 or has taken more time than myself to research it, would it be a worthwhile upgrade?


Notes:
- I use the system for high-end gaming (Witcher 3, GTAV, Total War: Attila, Battlefield 4 etc)
- I would be OCing
- The cost of upgrading will be offset by selling the replaced components as part of a different complete system

 

[fudgecakes99]

Maybe i'm personally switching from an old nehalem chip to a 6700k. I mean i don't notice poor performance as it is now, but i expect a pretty big jump from the architecture and instructions. That and my old cpu isn't overclockable. But in your case yo u got a stable 4.4ghz clock. Maybe some ivy bridge owners can chime in.

 

[HEXiT]

if your thinking gaming performance gains then in 99% of cases there will be no gains.
you would see slight gains on things like video compression and archiving. but most of that would come from the raw speed increase over the cpu you already have.
i run an even older i7 920 and get every bit the fps guys running the latest i5/i7 cpus get. i loose maybe 1-2 fps overall due to pci-e 2, but other than that i get the same.

 

[killer pc g15]

it whont perform much better but it will draw much less power.
and you will have all the new tech support usb 3.1 pci-e 3.0 etc but there is almost nothing that needs it yet.
even a titan X whont gain much from pci-e 3.0.
I would wait 1 more gen or get 2011-3 then you atleast have a real performance gain.

 

[fudgecakes99]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sx1kLGVAF0

According to this video theirs a pretty massive change in terms of fps from an old ivy bridge to a skylake. Interesting stuff.

30% GAINS is pretty insane!

 

[killer pc g15]

but they use all the same clocks.. thats kind of unfair because sandybridge (2xxx) overclocks much better that 3xxx and 4xxx

 

[baha_timimi]

Stick with your i5 2500k it will not bottleneck the titan-x at a speed of 4.4GH. sandy-bridge CPU's are amazing in overclocking without heating opposite to all next gen. and you must know that its TDP is 95W while i5 6600k had 91W therefore the difference is just 4W?
instead for that the gaming performance with Titan x OC-ed below show good FPS rating for i5 2500k, all above 60FPS.
you may need to change the platform until the gaming performance will struggle and I think it will be for one or two years from now, and at that time there will be two or three Intel CPU's generations better than i5 or i7 6XXX series.

 

[baha_timimi]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-skylake-core-i5-6600k-review
above comparison between clocked and overclocked i5-6600k & i7 6700k against normal speed i5 2500k and I think with overclocking of i5 2500k to 4.4GH the FPS difference will be minimized than at the above link.

 

[Gallarian]

if your thinking gaming performance gains then in 99% of cases there will be no gains.
you would see slight gains on things like video compression and archiving. but most of that would come from the raw speed increase over the cpu you already have.
i run an even older i7 920 and get every bit the fps guys running the latest i5/i7 cpus get. i loose maybe 1-2 fps overall due to pci-e 2, but other than that i get the same.

I see your point, but Im not looking for a boost of max FPS in games, Im actually hoping for a boost to min FPS due to less CPU bottlenecking (something that does currently happen to me on Witcher 3 and Total War games). Digital Foundry's review article show better min figures in all games they tested..

Also, what about the stuff that Z170 gives, such as DDR4 and better PCI-E bandwidth for M.2?

Considering the upgrade will actually cost me next to nothing (do to selling off my old parts), would you still say its not worth?

 

[HEXiT]

you will see real world gains on storage as the motherboard has dedicated pci-e lanes for things like m.2 so your not gonna have to share the 16 lanes on the cpu which was the case on older hardware.
so things like m.2 should see some real world gains.

ddr4 wont bring much unless your using bandwidth intensive programs like adobe after-effects photoshop or video/audio editing.
its also not cheap in comparison to ddr3. although you can use ddr3 with skylake to help reduce cost.

so yes in some situations you will see real world benefits that are worth the money but for gaming. its not really worth the outlay.

if your having trouble with lower than should be fps or serious dips in games, give this a try.
open taskmanger select the game and change its priority from normal to above normal (no higher or it could cause system instability)
this little tweak gave me an extra 20% fps on gta 5 and it works on other cpu bound games 2.
im gonna try this in witcher 3 tonight and will post my results.

update... seems to have stabilized my min fps to 43 it was dropping to low 30's then bounding back to 45 on max settings with hairworks aa off. @1080p on my 970.

 

[fudgecakes99]

but they use all the same clocks.. thats kind of unfair because sandybridge (2xxx) overclocks much better that 3xxx and 4xxx

They wouldn't be able to do a controlled benchmark if they had "all variable clock speeds" The point of this controlled benchmark. Is to show that at same speeds which according to various reviewers skylake overclocks really well. Wouldn't make a difference if you can clock a skylake chip to 4.8ghz and an 2700k to 4.8 ghz it will still outperform and you know even if you did overclock an i7 2700k to 4.8ghz and left the skylake at 4.0ghz it would still out perform the 2700k on instructions alone. It would still show massive fps gains and more stable fps. Clearly shown in the video. .8 ghz isn't going to make a huge difference in stable fps gains.

 

[fudgecakes99]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ_5p9wd2dk i5's benchmarked.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDo-j00vUtw
This video proves the fps difference from a 4.0ghz skylake chip to a 4.6ghz overclock their isn't much difference in fps maybe 2-3 fps higher a bit more stable for a .6ghz overclock, but it's negligble the fps difference from ivy bridge/sandy bridge is pretty massive in *some games. Not all games are cpu intensive, but in those that are their are some pretty massive gains to be had.

 

[killer pc g15]

but they use all the same clocks.. thats kind of unfair because sandybridge (2xxx) overclocks much better that 3xxx and 4xxx

They wouldn't be able to do a controlled benchmark if they had "all variable clock speeds" The point of this controlled benchmark. Is to show that at same speeds which according to various reviewers skylake overclocks really well. Wouldn't make a difference if you can clock a skylake chip to 4.8ghz and an 2700k to 4.8 ghz it will still outperform and you know even if you did overclock an i7 2700k to 4.8ghz and left the skylake at 4.0ghz it would still out perform the 2700k on instructions alone. It would still show massive fps gains and more stable fps. Clearly shown in the video. .8 ghz isn't going to make a huge difference in stable fps gains.

Hm yes I think you're right as far as I can see the overclocks on skylake seem very good, deliding also shows huge thermal improvement making 5ghz a very possible overclock. looks like skylake is what we have all been waiting for.. even base clock overclocking is back!
for me skylake seems the first real sandybridge successor.

 

[fudgecakes99]

But i'm still bummed out that they don't have the darn chip in the states yet. Dumb supply shortages. I just hope it comes out on the 14th or at least before intel developer forum in san fran. I don't think i'm going to delid until after i get a decent water cooling set up, though. You have any recommendation on de-lided water cooling kits?

 

[killer pc g15]

well they have shown that deliding it is just like with haswell.
http://nl.hardware.info/nieuws/44728/een-kijkje-onder-de-ihs-van-een-core-i7-6700k
so that prosses is just the same watch any tutorial on youtube.

mounting a delided cpu is very hard with intel. best way to go is something like this:
http://www.pcper.com/image/view/42990?return=node%2F60555

you can get them from msi and it replaces the normal lotus / foxconn cpu holder.
And when you have the cpu in any waterblock would do I guess I always prefered the heatkiller waterblocks.

 

[fudgecakes99]

The only de lidded kits i've seen are the naked ivy from ek. That msi one looks like it'll offer a heck of a lot more protection. I know it's insanely easy to break a delided die.

 

[killer pc g15]

As long as you dont angle the heatsink the die can handle a lot of stress. the corners are the real problem
And after the delid the cpu is allot lower, aroud 2mm so the springs on heatsinks are going to be a lott less tight should be fine.

At the moment I am building a high end fm2+ machine with a delided 860k. Watercooling is not here yet but until then I mounted a hyper 212 evo on the die and well its fine.