i7 or i5

David Hanna · Apr 3, 2014

I am making my computer and I am an avid gamer. I have built many over the years. I have a question I would like to see what other people think. Would it be beneficial for me to go with the Intel Core i7-4770K instead of an i5 Intel Core i5-4440. I know obviously the i7 is better but would it be noticeable enough to warrant 100+ dollars

barto · Apr 3, 2014

For gaming, no. There is very little performance difference between and i5 and an i7. If you still want to have the ability to overclock, get the 4670k. (And a Z87 motherboard).

Johan Kryger Haglert · Apr 3, 2014

Tom's Hardware list what they believe is the best processors to buy for gamers in various categories.

I think their choice is an I3, the 3440P or something such, the i7 K ones (whatever it's the 4770 or 4670 or some other I don't remember, check for yourself) if you're going to overclock it.

Whichever is right for you is up for you to decide I suppose.

logainofhades · Apr 3, 2014

Instead of the 4770k, if you are interested in the i7 advantage in certain titles like Crysis 3 and BF4, look at the 1230 v3. It is quite a bit cheaper than a 4770k.

ewok93 · Apr 3, 2014

The 4670k is a great processor, and you won't see much of a difference between that and a 4770k. That will give a good performance increase over the 4440, though, and worth the money.

Rami Zerker Reini · Apr 3, 2014

I suggest you buy a i7-4770K or an i5-4670K,
i5-4670K does the same thing in gaming as the i7-4770K the difference being that i7-4770K is 30% better overall and the i7-4770K is a good buy if you intend on doing gaming and things like rendering, Photoshop etc.

ewok93 · Apr 3, 2014

The 4770k is a much more powerful processor, but most games cannot utilize all of the cores, and even if they did, you wouldn't notice the difference, as you'd be getting past 60 FPS.

logainofhades · Apr 3, 2014

ewok93 :

Given the cost difference just to properly overclock a 4670k, I don't think the performance difference is really worth the cost. I would rather go with the 4440 and b85 pro4 and have more money for a better GPU. Same goes for the 1230v3 vs a 4770k.

David Hanna · Apr 3, 2014

Thanks for all the replies. Here is what I think i will go with but still feel I should bring the cost down a little. What do you guys think?(already have Monitor, peripherals and OS)
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Akuild/saved/4fZe

barto · Apr 3, 2014

The only thing that I would change is the PSU.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-hx650

Other than that, destroy pretty much any game.

logainofhades · Apr 3, 2014

These changes will drop the price for you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($120.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.67 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $971.58
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-03 16:23 EDT-0400)

David Hanna · Apr 3, 2014

Awesome, that does look better. Gonna go ahead with that

brianthesnail · Apr 3, 2014

Hi david
i was lucky enough to buy myself a core i5 3330 a few weeks ago,and moving up from a pentium G620 the difference was amazing ...and when my neighbour who has a core i7 2600 saw it he couldnt see any difference between his and mine,however when he converts video,s the differenc is clear,and his GTX560ti ( with cuda ) makes light work of such tasks
however for just gaming a core i5 is plenty .. throw in at least 8gb of ram and a R9 270X and you will be running the latest games the way they were meant to be played ..... dont be fooled thinking the core i7 is a better option .. ok its more powerful and has hyper threading but since your gaming a quad core i5 and a decent gpu like the R9 270x is all you need ( oh and dont forget a ssd as a boot drive )

coolcole01 · Apr 3, 2014

just depends on what you want to do and what sale you can get microcenter has the 4770k for 269
http://www.microcenter.com/product/413248/Core_i7_4770K_35GHz_Socket_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
the 4670k at 189 is a great deal too
http://www.microcenter.com/product/413251/Core_i5_4670K_34GHz_Socket_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
basically if it is just a gaming machine then the i5 will serve you well at that and more but as we have seen games starting to favor more threads for 80 bucks more you can get a nice little extra that will pay off in the future,
Rule of thumb get the best you can at the time for a resonable price i paid 170 for my 8350 last year and it has been nothing but great.
Personally i would wait till later this year to get a computer.

logainofhades · Apr 4, 2014

Yea, microcenter is the reason I have an overclocked CPU in the first place. I needed something same day and their motherboard combo deal was impossible to pass up.

ewok93 · Apr 4, 2014

My dad just needed a good office computer, but he likes to play some games, so he found an 8320 for $130 and an Asus M5A78L-M LX Plus (that name is way too long) for $10 at Microcenter, so I took the 8320, gave him my 4100 with the M5A..., but there are a ton of deals like that there. Just go to their website and the drop down menu that says Computer Parts will have both AMD and Intel CPU combos, often with discounted CPUs and extremely discounted motherboards. Right now you can get a 4770k with an MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate for $324.

Sponsored by Microcenter(?)

logainofhades · Apr 4, 2014

Yea, my i5 2400 was transferred to my file server to get it up and running again. Microcenter was my only real option to get the gaming rig up and going the same day. At the time, the 3570k was the best deal going. AMD didn't have anything worthy then. I did take advantage of the FX 8320 for $99.99 when they had it though to upgrade my Phenom II X2 rig. :lol: I paired it with the better gigabyte 760g board.

coolcole01 · Apr 4, 2014

yep bought two 8320's for 99 a piece there and got two m5a97 boards for 40 bucks a piece it was awesome

WoodenSaucer · Apr 5, 2014

logainofhades :

After coming to this forum, the Xeon 1230v3 is exactly what I'm looking at. It's almost exactly like an i7 4770 (without the k) at prices close to the i5 4670k. To me, if I can pay the same price as the i5 and get hyperthreading, that's the way to go. Most games don't take advantage of hyperthreading today, but what about 2 years from now?

ewok93 · Apr 5, 2014

It is likely more games will utilize the hyperthreading, though not all of them. If they all use higher than four threads, 90% of the population will have poorly optimized CPUs, and that's not a brilliant idea on the developers' parts.

WoodenSaucer · Apr 5, 2014

ewok93 :

True, but they have to push the boundaries sometime. Using that same logic, it would be silly to make exclusive games for the PS4 because the PS3 has a way bigger base. At least with the PC, it's easy to set options in games to scale things back.

i7 or i5

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