Upgrading CPU. Is it worth it? What's the difference?

[KoalaT]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU in the PC I built. I'm having a hard time deciphering what the main difference will be or if it's worth it.

I currently have a Intel Core i5-4670K. That has 3.4GHz speed/ 4 Cores / 84W TDP.

If I was to upgrade to an i7 would I have a significant difference? According to PC part picker, based on my motherboard the best i7 I could upgrade to is Intel Core i7-4790K. This has 4.0GHz speed / 4 cores / 88W TDP.

What does all this mean? How much faster will it actually be? If I really wanted it be faster, do I need to upgrade my motherboard to accommodate a newer generation i7?

P.S. It's not just for a speed upgrade. I'm building a second computer for my parents and plan to put the old i5-4670K in their new computer (this is far more power than they need to do what they do on there)

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU in the PC I built. I'm having a hard time deciphering what the main difference will be or if it's worth it.

I currently have a Intel Core i5-4670K. That has 3.4GHz speed/ 4 Cores / 84W TDP.

If I was to upgrade to an i7 would I have a significant difference? According to PC part picker, based on my motherboard the best i7 I could upgrade to is Intel Core i7-4790K. This has 4.0GHz speed / 4 cores / 88W TDP.

What does all this mean? How much faster will it actually be? If I really wanted it be faster, do I need to upgrade my motherboard to accommodate a newer generation i7?

P.S. It's not just for a speed upgrade. I'm building a second computer for my parents and plan to put the old i5-4670K in their new computer (this is far more power than they need to do what they do on there)

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4670K/2384vs1538

 

[KoalaT]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU in the PC I built. I'm having a hard time deciphering what the main difference will be or if it's worth it.

I currently have a Intel Core i5-4670K. That has 3.4GHz speed/ 4 Cores / 84W TDP.

If I was to upgrade to an i7 would I have a significant difference? According to PC part picker, based on my motherboard the best i7 I could upgrade to is Intel Core i7-4790K. This has 4.0GHz speed / 4 cores / 88W TDP.

What does all this mean? How much faster will it actually be? If I really wanted it be faster, do I need to upgrade my motherboard to accommodate a newer generation i7?

P.S. It's not just for a speed upgrade. I'm building a second computer for my parents and plan to put the old i5-4670K in their new computer (this is far more power than they need to do what they do on there)

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4670K/2384vs1538

Thanks for the response. But what does all this mean exactly? The tool is nice and it seems to say a lot of good things about upgrade, but what does all this mean in terms of actual performance? I'm a gamer. Will I notice faster loading speeds? Will this CPU better accommodate my GTX 980 SC? Will my overall browsing experience more quicker? I'm not too familiar with all these terms in the link you sent.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Not a lot in terms of gaming , I own both and the 4790k is only slight better when paired with the same card in games.

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

The two processors are the same generation, so the main differences are clock speed, and hyperthreading. The clock speed is fairly straightforward, 3.4 GHz base vs 4 GHz base (17%) and they both turbo an extra 400 MHz. Hyperthreading allows a physical core to operate 2 threads which can make use of unused computing power when a core isn't fully utilized. This doesn't help single threaded programs, but in multithreaded it can offer up to about 30% improvement. The i7 has HT giving it 8 logical threads running on 4 physical cores, while the i5 has 4 threads on 4 cores.

Multithreaded scenarios are things like running multiple programs at once such as gaming and streaming. Or browsing while watching a movie and folding and so forth in the background. It also helps when crunching large amounts of data, such as video/photo editing.

As far as games go, only the most CPU intensive see much improvement from hyperthreading. I think BF1, RTS games when there's thousands of units with AI, and multiplayer games with tons of people online to track. There hasn't been much push to utilize more than 4 threads though, since games try to run on the widest range of hardware they can.

If you need more fps, you'd want a faster GPU. If you want faster loading times, you get an SSD. And if you want more visuals, you upgrade your monitor. People usually only upgrade CPU's when they become bottlenecks, not to improve already great performance.

 

[Ecky]

A 4690K is already capable of keeping most games above 60fps, provided you have enough GPU power for it too. Where you'd see a difference is in new, well-threaded titles like Battlefield, when trying to run them on a 120hz or 144hz screen. The i7 will get you a lot closer to 120 or 144fps than an i5.

 

[KoalaT]

The two processors are the same generation, so the main differences are clock speed, and hyperthreading. The clock speed is fairly straightforward, 3.4 GHz base vs 4 GHz base (17%) and they both turbo an extra 400 MHz. Hyperthreading allows a physical core to operate 2 threads which can make use of unused computing power when a core isn't fully utilized. This doesn't help single threaded programs, but in multithreaded it can offer up to about 30% improvement. The i7 has HT giving it 8 logical threads running on 4 physical cores, while the i5 has 4 threads on 4 cores.

Multithreaded scenarios are things like running multiple programs at once such as gaming and streaming. Or browsing while watching a movie and folding and so forth in the background. It also helps when crunching large amounts of data, such as video/photo editing.

As far as games go, only the most CPU intensive see much improvement from hyperthreading. I think BF1, RTS games when there's thousands of units with AI, and multiplayer games with tons of people online to track. There hasn't been much push to utilize more than 4 threads though, since games try to run on the widest range of hardware they can.

If you need more fps, you'd want a faster GPU. If you want faster loading times, you get an SSD. And if you want more visuals, you upgrade your monitor. People usually only upgrade CPU's when they become bottlenecks, not to improve already great performance.

This is a great answer. The rest of my PC is already pretty close to top of the line on other components (not counting if I began crossfiring or something). My graphics is a GTX 980 ACX 2.0 + SC. And to refer to Ecky, yes I am running 140Hz screen and pushing as much FPS as possible (usually around well over 120+ on ultra setting for most games for a 1920x1080 resolution). I'm not quite sure if I'm "bottle necking" my i5 yet, but I feel like I must be getting close I'd think.

In terms of multi-threading I do multitask. I'll often have tons of browsers open while playing a PC game and projecting a professional CSGO game onto my TV (second monitor) at 1080p (so basically streaming on top of playing).

In the end, it sounds like I may not quite need it and it may not improve my performance significantly. However, I'm building my parents a new computer that I want to last for them when I go off to school (they know nothing about PCs and their's is very old). I think it's worth me paying the extra $100 for the i7 and putting my i5 into their new PC (they don't even need this much power. The idea is to keep it lasting a long time so they don't have to deal with a PC for a long time).

 

[Ecky]

If you're gaming above 60fps, you'll see gains in many titles with an i7.