i5 or i7 for gaming?

Diamond-HP

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Hi guy's I'm soon to get my upgrade done and thought I had settled on the i5-4670k but I have a few issues.

Aim: To gear my rig for gaming specifically Rome II i.e very CPU heavy.

My current rig is in my sig, now I was going to get the i5-4670k but in their wisdom Intel basically made the thing an APU so as we all know they heat up due to the onboard graphics which I'll never use as I always use a discreet GPU.

So why is this a problem? well I want to buy a Corsair H60 as their tidy and I don't want a huge H100 or even a H80 if I can avoid it so that leaves out OC'ing, I could but not by much so .........

I was thinking the money I'd save on a smaller H60 cooler I'll spend a bit more on the CPU, basically I'm done with OC'ing if I can avoid it, I'd rather spend a bit more and have a stable tidy rig this time round with optimal parts.

So my question is are the Intel Core i7 4820K or the i7 4770K superior enough compared to the i5 to warrant doing it if I'm not OC'ing? obviously if I got the i5 I'd want to OC which I'm trying to avoid.

Suggestions would be appreciated

....... and I will be giving "best answer".
 
Solution
to everyone advocating i7 over i5 because it makes little difference (I'm a part of the club too at one point, tis why I have an i5 myself), he's running Rome II specifically, and in some particularly CPU heavy games, there is a noticeable difference between an i5 and i7. Here's an example of CPU benchmarks:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1426315/gamegpu-total-war-rome-ii-benchmarked

I've run into similar problems myself in guild wars 2, where my friend, who have the same GPU but an i7 2600k, gets about 25% more FPS than I do in big multiplayer fights.
if you're not OCing, don't get a 'k' series CPU, the only thing you're buying for the 'k' is an unlocked multiplier for OCing.

that aside, the integrated GPU does NOT heat up if you're not using it. if you have nothing plugged into the motherboard's display outputs, the thing won't be heating up. one of the reasons people say the iGPU causes the CPU itself to overheat is because Intel reduced the foot-print of the processing cores, thus there's less space with which to transfer heat to the heatsink

at the end of the day, for what you're doing, I'd get an i7 4770 (without -k).
 

Nismo1

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Gaming-wise i5-4670k is one of the best for gaming . Why is that? Is it cheaper that the i7 ( of course ) and it has the same perfomance even in CPU oriented games. No need to OC but even if you want to to it's very easy since its from 'k' series. If you combo that CPU with a high end GPU then you will play games in ultra graphics with a steady 60-70 fps.
1) In gaming same perfomance ( FPS ) as the i7 haswell series
2) Easy to overclock, plus you know deep inside that even if you never overclock you have the choice to do :)
3) No need to overclock for gaming
4) Way cheaper than i7.
 
to everyone advocating i7 over i5 because it makes little difference (I'm a part of the club too at one point, tis why I have an i5 myself), he's running Rome II specifically, and in some particularly CPU heavy games, there is a noticeable difference between an i5 and i7. Here's an example of CPU benchmarks:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1426315/gamegpu-total-war-rome-ii-benchmarked

I've run into similar problems myself in guild wars 2, where my friend, who have the same GPU but an i7 2600k, gets about 25% more FPS than I do in big multiplayer fights.
 
Solution

Diamond-HP

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Thanks, yeah I know what the K stands for but it depends if there's only a few bucks difference I'd get the K "just in case" ;).

But yes ultimately I don't want to OC so maybe I'll get the non K, all depends on the diff in price.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i5_4670K_and_i7_4770K_Comparison/8.html

This is showing the stock i7 to be a decent bit better for gaming than a stock i5 which is what I'm aiming for, also there's no harm in having hyper threading for poss future gaming as I intend to have this CPU for a good few years.

So I guess what it boils down to is this ......

Is a stock i7-4770 equal or better for gaming than a OC i5-4670k @ 4ghz?

If the stock i7 can equal or hold its own against a OC i5 I'll have my answer.
 

Nismo1

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Apart from Rome II what other games do you play?
 

Diamond-HP

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COD although tbh I'm pretty exclusive on the Rome TW front, which is my favourite game and why I need my rig aimed for that.

You can play COD on an Atari its that un -demanding, my current rig play's it on ultra.

PS - the non K i7 is only £4 cheaper, I pay more than that at Mc'D's, at least it'll be future proof.
 

Nismo1

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Also , most of the MMORPG , RTS games are CPU oriented . They only games that I know and have played (because I play this kind of game a lot ) that I can categorize them as CPU heavy ( like hardcore CPU ) are Guild wars 2 and TERA , GPU offers like 10-15% there. Which is annoying but in general [very good CPU + high end GPU >> high end CPU + very good GPU ]
 

Diamond-HP

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Rome II is ridiculously CPU heavy.

But when you have hundreds / Thousands of units on one screen doing their thing you can see why.

Anyway if anyone can answer this we're good.

Is a stock i7-4770 equal or better for gaming than a OC i5-4670k @ 4ghz?

If the stock i7 can equal or hold its own against a OC i5 I'll have my answer.
 

Nismo1

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OC i5-4670k @ 4ghz is a little better than i7-4770 for gaming. Faster. I can explain why if you like :)

 

Nismo1

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What has i7 that i5 doens't have? Hyperthreading. Cpu oriented games are the games that take advantage of this hyperthreading . These games are few and there are not any games that take advantage of that element more than 10% ( 10% is a lot I just say that to ensure that I am in the limits ) , plus gaming companies are not very eager to use that element cause they would have done it long ago . So Rome II TW is one of these games i7 against i5 would have like a 5 fps differnce maybe. ( I sucpect you are playing online cause single players RTS games tend to get boring . So a low amount of FPS is not always the hardware there. There is a high possibility to be a bad client or server or even overpopulation in a server .. anything that will cause slow data transfering to players . Just wanted to note that out ). Well when you OC the CPU you actually OC most of the hardware along with it so they match its speed. Most of the times hardware might OC itself otherwise the system will be unstable. So the i5 becomes a little better that the i7 on gaming. And by better I mean faster calculation and actions per second ( that's Ghz ).

I know my speed might be a little boring :D
Edit : Yeah I forgot tthe games like GW2 and TERA . These games have just have bad source code thats why they need high end CPU.
Also I can see your feel kinda unsafe about the i5 . If that is the case go for the i7 you won't regret it cause both CPUs are beastly.
 

Diamond-HP

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I don't play online with RTW, the game itself is the main fun unlike COD so my rig is all important for performance.

I think the bottom line here is that with the H60 I shouldn't really OC too much and I don't want a bigger cooler so if I'm avoiding OC'ing because I want to keep the temps down a stock i7 is superior to a stock i5 so at this point I'm leaning toward the i7.

I guess I'll make my final decision at the time of purchase.

Thanks guys.
 

Nismo1

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Can't argue with that i7 stock is slightly better than i5 stock . Do whatever feels better for you and your gaming.