Upgrading my 6-year-old AMD CPU/mobo to Intel; which CPU would be best for me?

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kadreamy

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Jan 21, 2016
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Hi all, this is my first post. To start...

My current build:

  • AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black, 3.2GHz
    MSI GTX 960
    Corsair 8GB DDR3
    6 year old ASUS mobo
    XFX 550W PSU
    Samsung 850 250GB SSD
    WD 500GB HDD
*Parts in bold I've upgraded in the past year

I use my PC for browsing, gaming, and entertainment. I occasionally do some Photoshop. I appreciate being able to run modern games (Witcher 3, MGSV, JC3) on the highest (or close to highest) settings. I'm in the market for a new CPU/Mobo, and since I'm upgrading from an old AMD to Intel I pretty much have no benchmark for differences in the Intel generations. Thus I suppose I'd be willing to spend a little more for futureproofing. But how much more is worth it for my situation? I ideally want to upgrade while changing the least amount of components of my current build.

I've spent the better part of today researching the difference in parts required for an i7-6700K, i7-4790K, i7-5820K, i5-6600K...and I now have quite the headache. I think I can easily eliminate the 5820, as I dont need the 6 cores for development work, and my gaming needs would be better served with one of the other three. The i7-4790K definitely seems the best bang for buck, as I could go for a cheaper mobo/CPU combination, and not need to change my RAM. However, the i7-6700K and i5-6600K would futureproof me by introducing me to a Skylake mobo, right? And these systems would also need new DDR4 RAM, which would require another upgrade. I understand many people on Intel's previous gens are hesitant to say the upgrade to the 6700K is worth it, but for me I'm jumping between so many gens it's an easier sell for me. I'm also looking more long-term for my CPU/mobo needs (~5 years again).

I guess my ultimate question is what would you do if you were me? Would going for the i7-4790K just be a waste of money since I'm investing in an end-of-the-line chipset? Is an i5-6600K build better than an i7-4790K one? Would I be needlessly overspending on a i7-6700K build when I wouldnt even be able to utilize its full power?

Thanks ahead of time for your responses.
 
Solution
N3rdR4ge
if i were you, i'd pass on overclocking, buy a xeon which is equivalent to an i7-4770, keep your ram and get a budget mobo. you would definitely be overspending on switching to skylake and incurring the cost of unnecessary ram for little improvement. an i7 is overkill. an i5 is even more power than you need for the system you've posted and your requirements. the xeon will hold up solid and give you some performance advantages over the i5, especially with its hyperthreading.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total:...
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I would choose an I5-6600k over the i7-4790k any day. I think in your options and for your needs, an i7-6700k is overkill and the if you plan on keeping it for a while, the I5-6500k is more futureproof, since DDR4 ram will probably be around as long as DDR3 has been, and still is.
 
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if i were you, i'd pass on overclocking, buy a xeon which is equivalent to an i7-4770, keep your ram and get a budget mobo. you would definitely be overspending on switching to skylake and incurring the cost of unnecessary ram for little improvement. an i7 is overkill. an i5 is even more power than you need for the system you've posted and your requirements. the xeon will hold up solid and give you some performance advantages over the i5, especially with its hyperthreading.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $326.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-21 00:30 EST-0500
 
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Solution
My advice would be to go with the i7-4790(K) or i5-4690K for three reasons:

1. Right now, in the United States, due to shortages, you can find i7-5820Ks cheaper than the i7-6700Ks, they are selling for almost 85 dollars over MSRP, and the cheapest price for one last time I checked PCPartPicker was hovering around 410 USD. The same goes with 6600Ks, though to a lesser extent.

2. The 6700K/6600K isn't even that much faster than the i7-4790K/i5-4690K. Especially for gaming. The IPC increase is roughly 3-4 percent compared to the i7-4790K on the 6700K. Also, you can overclock the i7-4790K to easily hit the stock performance of a 6700K, and even a slightly overclocked 6700K if you push the 4790K. The same goes with the 4690K in terms of overclocking.

3. You can keep your RAM. You already have 8GB of nice DDR3 which works fine for everything. Save yourself some money and save yourself from having to buy a whole new kit.

My advice would be to get an i5-4690 or i5-4690K for the best bang for the buck. If you are still on a Phenom, this i5-4690(K) will be an awesome improvement, especially on a gaming computer like yours.

Overclocked Build:
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=I5-4690KBX&c=CJ Intel Core i5-4690K. $227.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157501 ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer motherboard. $129.99

Non-overclocked Build:
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=I5-4690BOX&c=CJ Intel Core i5-4690. $214.99
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-H97MPO4&c=CJ ASRock H97M Pro4. $79.99

A Xeon would offer closer performance to an i7 for cheaper, but it is locked and runs at a lower clockspeed. Xeons are adequate for gaming, but the Core i series has always shined as a gaming centric CPU, especially the Core i5s.
 
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Thanks for the responses so far. Now we have the Xeon and i5-4690K in the mix! I looked at reviews for both of these and they both appear to have much love from their respective users. My question now is would OCing necessitate water cooling (looking at the i5-4690K)?

The base clock speeds on the Xeon vs the 4690K are nearly identical. Assuming I dont want to OC, which one would perform better? How big of a part does clock speed play in gaming vs everyday use, and how big of part does the hyper-threading capabilities of the i7 vs i5?
 
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Considering the price difference between a i5-4690K and i5-6600K is <$20, is there any real reason not to opt for the 6600K?
 
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Yes, there is a significant reason: New RAM. Adding in a kit of DDR4 8 GB RAM makes the difference an extra $70, not to mention the inflated price tag of ANY new socket 1151 board, could actually lead to more than $100 spent on an insignificant performance boost.
 
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Your main uses are gaming/photoshop/some development, right?
You should not really need a Xeon, considering this basic work.

OC should not be important either. Better not to burn out or lower the durability of your system with OC. Just burchase a non-OC i5. An i5 will be plenty fast for your needs.

Spend the rest on an SSD and good GPU. No need to waste it on a Xeon in which you will prolly not use to the fullest potential.

A Skylake i5 may not be the best solution. Considering that you used your Phenom for 6 years, you might as well stick with an older gen. CPU. Prices will be lower for an older generation. Regardless, if DDR4 is very important for you as well as new features that might be more present in 6th generation CPUs, you should just purchase Skylake.
 
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Well, still, a base-grade Xeon will have a lower grade of performance compared to a highly clocked i5 or i3. I am assuming that OP will be playing single-threaded intensive games or GPU-focused games. OP can get a decent i3 or i5 for far less than a Xeon, and still get very good performance.

A Xeon would be a good alternative to an i7 tho.
 
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The Withcer 3 and Photoshop will use all of it's 8 Threads,
Everyday more apps and games support more cores,
In that kind of situation you will see the difference between core i5 and core i7.
and the 4790K is close to the 6700K in overall performance.
an 8 core AMD CPU is not a bad option either,
The AMD FX 8350 surpass the 4690K and the 6600K in multithreaded apps and in 4.5GHz even surpass the 4770K.

Benchmark Cinebench R15:
Intel Core i5 4690K 3.5GHz/3.9GHz (Stock): 579 cb
Intel Core i5 6600K 3.5GHz/3.9GHz (Stock): 599 cb
AMD FX 8350 4.0GHz/4.2GHz (Stock): 625 cb
Intel Core i5 4690K 4.5GHz (OC): 682 cb
Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5GHz/3.9GHz (Stock): 697 cb
AMD FX 8350 4.5GHz (OC): 718 cb
Intel Core i5 6600K 4.5GHz (OC): 727 cb
AMD FX 9590 4.7GHz/5.0GHz (Stock): 788 cb
Intel Core i7 4790K 4.0GHz/4.4GHz (Stock): 862 cb
Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz/4.2GHz (Stock): 873 cb

I would choose:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $417.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-21 12:28 EST-0500

or

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($167.78 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 R5 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $260.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-21 12:45 EST-0500
 
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You're missing something there mate, the FX-8350 is very likely to need a third party cooler, even at stock clock. Also, when it comes to gaming, Intel processors, despite what benchmarks like cinebench say, have a strong tendency to perform better than equivalent AMD processors. Additionally, I don't understand what in his description makes you think that an I5-4690k wouldn't do the trick. It's almost as good as the 4790k, simply without hyperthreading and a lower stock clock rate.

For roughly the same price, you could get an I5-4690k and a H100i GTX liquid cooler. I have the H80i GT, which is far less effective than the H100i GTX, and I can get my I5-4690k to run stable at 4.6Ghz, and never going past 70 degrees Celcius during Small FFTs stress tests on Prime95. If you had large video renderings to do, like professional level, I'd say the 4790k or the FX-8350 would be your best options, but not for gaming and photoshop. While Adobe Photoshop would take advantage of the additional threads, it wouldn't make much of a difference, and certainly not one worth a 100$ premium.

Here's what it would look like : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rTnsxr
 
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To answer kadreamy's question. You will not need a beefy cooler to OC the i5, even highly. Though the stock Intel cooler is trash and there's a reason they stopped even putting them in with K SKUs anymore. Pick up a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, they're easy to install and overclocking and seeing how high an i5-4690K will overclock on a 212 Evo is about the most amount of fun you can have with your clothes on 😉

As for the question of the 6600K versus the i5-4690K. They are literally almost identical in performance, the i5-6600K is die shrunk so it should be a bit better at overclocking, but the real benchmarks are disappointing. Long story short, a stock i5-6600K performs within a 5% margin with a stock i5-4690K and a highly overclocked 6600K is only a tiny bit faster than a highly overclocked i5-4690K. If you think that performance difference is worth the price premium for a new set of DDR4 RAM and a Z170 board, then be my guest. I think your best option is the 4690K. Expect it to last a solid 3 years with overclocking. :) Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ_5p9wd2dk&ab_channel=DigitalFoundry

Here is a Digital Foundry video comparing gaming performance of the i5-4690K and the i5-6600K and a variety of other CPUs. Overclocking the i5-4690K will result in even better performance. Make sure to note though, that they are forcing the CPU to be the bottleneck by using a Titan X OC'd to 1247 MHz at 1920x1080, with your GTX 960 or even a GTX 980, the results would be pretty much identical.
 
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Thanks for the input everyone, I ended up going with the Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5 GHz for a couple reasons: the Skylake system is not worth it to me for negligible performance upgrades in both CPU and DDR4 RAM; I'm not interested in overclocking; with Intel's Turbo Boost, the Xeon can get all 4 core speeds up to 3.8 or 3.9 GHz.

I invested the money I saved on the chipset to get myself a new monitor and keyboard, so I'm pretty happy with myself. Thanks and take care!
 
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