Should i have went the the K version of the i5-4690?

Ferrariassassin

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I own an MSI R9 280, a Gigabyte GA-H97-Gaming 3, and a i5-4690 and i am hoping i did not make a mistake not getting the (K) version. Does every CPU suck if not overclocked, do i need to really do it? I want to stay away from overclocking considering this is my first build and all. The only thing i will be doing is playing Skyrim with a good bit of graphics mods and stuff like BF4, AC black flag, and Minecraft, lol.
 
Solution
CPUs does not suck when not overclocking. in fact, overclocking can get you 5-10% performance gain in cpu intensive application and even more when cpu is bottlenecking your system.

But, since it's an I5 4690, which is a beast of a CPU, there is really nothing to worry about. also, since your motherboard does not support overclocking, you would have to pay extra $ for a Z97 motherboard aswell. for performance gained from this vs $ invested is not always that good for going overclocking.

No you don't need to overclock

No it was not a mistake

I5 4690 base clock can rock any games

pierrerock

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CPUs does not suck when not overclocking. in fact, overclocking can get you 5-10% performance gain in cpu intensive application and even more when cpu is bottlenecking your system.

But, since it's an I5 4690, which is a beast of a CPU, there is really nothing to worry about. also, since your motherboard does not support overclocking, you would have to pay extra $ for a Z97 motherboard aswell. for performance gained from this vs $ invested is not always that good for going overclocking.

No you don't need to overclock

No it was not a mistake

I5 4690 base clock can rock any games
 
Solution

Danifilth

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Think overclocking is a kids thing and i don't see the point of overclocking. As long as you have a good video card you should be fine but that's just my opinion. Games just run fine for me in 1080p on my amd 1055T with MSI GTX 650ti
 

InvalidError

Titan
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Unless you get lucky with the chip lottery, you can only expect about 15% more performance out of overclocking. If you end up finding a game where your 4590 "sucks," a 15% faster chip would merely suck marginally less.

Personally, I would not lose sleep over it - that's why I went with an i5-3470 when I put my current PC together two years ago.
 

FoxVoxDK

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Well, without the K version, at most you'd be overclocking via baseclock. I can say that you might be missing out on some performance, will it be noticeable outside of benchmarks and other synthetics? I doubt it, the recent 4670k build I did went from 3.4GHz to 4.2GHz. I am not sure how much you'd be able to squeeze out of the 4690k yet.
 

pierrerock

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It is not a kid's thing, it taking all potential from component you bought. Intel and AMD sell their CPUs to a certain clock because their manufacturing process isn't perfect (like every process in the world). so every chip made has to perform is a given range to be accepted and sold.

So let day their manufacturing process is more or less 10% precise. They will clock their chip so they all fit in range. let say you have a CPU which is in the top percentage and could support higher clock to a given voltage since it is made of better quality than average identical CPU but is clocked to the same level as every other CPU.

Overclocking allow you to benefit from that and get everything out of your investment. That is all.
 

FoxVoxDK

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Damn straight, lol. I like getting the most out of my purchases. :D +1
 

Ferrariassassin

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Wow thanks guys you all have really helped me a lot, good to know i got some smart people to help me on here or i would end up making a Nuke by accident lmao. My build is a MSI R9 280 3gb-VRAM, i5-4690, Gigabyte GA-H97-Gaming 3, Rosewill Challenger case, Asus RW drive, 5 120mm Corsair led fans, NZXT touch Fan controller, XFX TS 550w PSU, G.Skill (2X4=8) Sniper series RAM, Samsung evo 120GB SSD, WD Black 1TB HDD, windows 8.1, on an ASUS 23.8 inch 1920 x 1080 IPS penal Monitor . THis is my first build and it is all thanks to everyone on Toms Hardware, if it was not for Toms hardware i would have probably bought an LGA 1150 CPU and try to stick in in an AM3 motherboard, lmao. Hope my build can play Skyrim on HD with many texture packs haha. Because not to sond crazy but it is the (ONLY) reason i am building this :p
 

InvalidError

Titan
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In terms of bang per buck, you do not break even: a non-OC build will cost ~$200 for the CPU, $80 for the motherboard and $70-150 for the RAM while an OC build will cost ~$230 for the CPU, $150 for the motherboard, $80-200 for the RAM and $30-100 for aftermarket cooling, which is 35% more cost for 15% more performance.

Overclocking lets you get more performance than the best officially available on the market but in terms of bang-per-buck, it is a money pit.
 

pierrerock

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well, if you buy high end only yes money difference is that big. But personnlay, i would not change RAM since overclocked ram give about 3 % boost. Also, i would not go for a 150$ board but a 80-100 $ board which will offer 80 % overclockability. and of course you have to buy an after market cooler but if you built into AMD (which is my case) aftermarket cooling is kind of a must.

But you are right. With intel, performance boost from overclocking isn't worth since everything will cost more. And this is where, i think, AMD get the upper hand. you can buy a mid-range CPU around 120-160$ and will be able to overclock since all their CPU are overclockable. Also, AMD motherboards are cheaper when it comes to overclock.

But in the end, i would probably go for a stock intel I3 or I5 and use money saved from cooler and motherboard to get a better GPU which would gives better performance in gaming than overclocking.

But in my case, i need the benefit from a 8-core CPU since gaming isn't my only activity on a computer.