i5 vs i7 for gaming

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

Hi,

I am planning to build a £2000 'extreme' pc for 5760x1080 gaming. I don't really want to go over that but I can by a little bit. Should I use i5-4690K with 8GB, i5 with 16GB, i7-4790K with 8GB, i7 with 16GB. I want this pc to last for a few years. I am using two R9 290s, Gigabyte Z97X Gaming GT.

Thanks,

ohim · Aug 10, 2014

I don`t even know why do you ask what CPU to have in an extreme build ... but to fancy you .. i7-4790K with 8GB and upgrade to 16GB later or get 16 from now though some games won`t even know what to do with 16 GB.

Calnin · Aug 10, 2014

With that budget, you could just go with a 16gb right off the bat I'd imagine, even with the 2 graphics cards.

DarkSable · Aug 10, 2014

Get the i5. There is little to no reason to get an i7 for gaming. Its only advantages are a negligible amount of l3 cashe, and hyperthreading... hyperthreading does very little for gaming, and actually reduces framerate in some games. it's also unlikely to be supported heavily in the future, as those with i7s like to claim.

I personally use 8GB of ram - it's enough to simultaneously run Battlefield 3, Photoshop, AND 30 tabs in Chrome. I regularly have over 80 tabs open at once with no noticeable slowdown, and that's with a minimal pagefile that's been moved to a hdd.

i7Baby · Aug 10, 2014

Maybe along these lines?

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£129.76 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£124.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.71 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£289.99 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£289.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Cooler Master HAF XM (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£122.84 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£138.12 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHBS312-98 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£11.15 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£26.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1597.44

Alex Kelly · Aug 10, 2014

DarkSable :

Agreed. You are better off spending the extra money you say with the i5 elsewhere, like the case, fans, PSU or 780ti's ;P

Alex Kelly · Aug 10, 2014

By the way, 2 Gigabyte 290's will get very hot and loud.
One Windforce 290 gets up to 90C by itself. I'd go with Sapphire's Tri-X or Vapor-X 290's instead.

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

So how about this. Maybe get i5, 8GB but then use dual R9 290X or dual GTX780Ti, would that significantly improve framerates at 5760x1080?

Calnin · Aug 10, 2014

Any decent aftermarket cooler can keep the r9 290 from going to 90C... Gigabyte's cooler is a fairly decent cooler...

DubbleClick · Aug 10, 2014

With that budget, you're better off going with the I7. Sure, theres currently little use for it in gaming, but that might change. Also, if he's recording, streaming and maybe rendering, the I7 will be noticeably faster.

ohim · Aug 10, 2014

Multiplayer intensive games will benefit from an i7`s power, for mostly single player games you can pick any CPU you want.

Alex Kelly · Aug 10, 2014

Man, I've used both an MSI Twin Frozr 290, and a Gigabyte Windforce 290. They both neared 90C in games like Metro.
Both were inside an NZXT H440, which doesn't have the best cooling, but it's definitely not bad.
jmracerboy, what you mentioned sounds good! 780Ti's would be your best option, I think.

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

I may record some games, and will be playing multiplayer. Will I be better off with 8GB or 16GB of ram?

DarkSable · Aug 10, 2014

Dual 780ti will be absolutely beast at that resolution, but so would dual 290x's... what I would seriously look at, though, is custom watercooling. Put those cards underwater and all the heat and noise problems go away instantly. You have the budget for it.

@DubbleClick: Why in the world are you telling him to waste money just because he has it? There's absolutely zero reason for games to suddenly start supporting hyperthreading when the average game out there barely supports dual-threading and hyperthreading is an absolute nightmare to support. No game developer is going to say it's worth the man-hours to do that when a fraction of their customer base would have it anyways. That $100 could be way better spent elsewhere. IF he were going to be doing heavy video editing, to the point where it was worth spending $100 to make the renders go by slightly faster, then maybe. He's asking about gaming though.

@ohim: Not. True. Seriously, go research hyperthreading, and then what it takes to support it. The only benefit you get is offloading passive background processes onto the gimp threads, and that's very marginal. Also, games that are single-player only are often more CPU-intense than others, barring 64-player matches of battlefield and heavily-packed instances of MMOs.

nathangmail · Aug 10, 2014

get the i5 and 16gb ram you only need the i7 if your video editing and stuff but if only for gaming just save a bit and get the i5

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

What will be better dual R9 290X or GTX780?

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

If I am watercooling I would have to go with i5 8GB. That budget includes OS, peripherals and monitors

Alex Kelly · Aug 10, 2014

DarkSable :

Dual 780ti will be absolutely beast at that resolution, but so would dual 290x's... what I would seriously look at, though, is custom watercooling. Put those cards underwater and all the heat and noise problems go away instantly. You have the budget for it.

@DubbleClick: Why in the world are you telling him to waste money just because he has it? There's absolutely zero reason for games to suddenly start supporting hyperthreading when the average game out there barely supports dual-threading and hyperthreading is an absolute nightmare to support. No game developer is going to say it's worth the man-hours to do that when a fraction of their customer base would have it anyways. That $100 could be way better spent elsewhere. IF he were going to be doing heavy video editing, to the point where it was worth spending $100 to make the renders go by slightly faster, then maybe. He's asking about gaming though.

@ohim: Not. True. Seriously, go research hyperthreading, and then what it takes to support it. The only benefit you get is offloading passive background processes onto the gimp threads, and that's very marginal. Also, games that are single-player only are often more CPU-intense than others, barring 64-player matches of battlefield and heavily-packed instances of MMOs.

Great response!

ohim · Aug 10, 2014

DarkSable :

"Why in the world are you telling him to waste money just because he has it?" well ... then why not a Radeon 295x2? It comes standard with watercooling and it`s quite good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEgsG_wl0kc - and it trades blows with 2 780Ti`s in SLI and no need to have 2 slots in the case taken.

As for Battlefield 64 players.. i`m just fine with my CPU for 64 player maps in ultra but since he started with an extreme rig in mind.. you don`t know if he will do streaming / recording / editing so an i7 would be better suited for than than an i5.

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

I know very little about watercooling. What would I need and roughly how much would it cost?

Calnin · Aug 10, 2014

For water cooling, you just need the water cooling kit and an instruction manual if you're unsure about how to put it together. I personally think that could come later down the line if you want to get that at all. Air coolers are usually enough for most operations. Even the lower budget CM 212 evo can support a decently overclocked CPU. If you're not overclocking, the stock cooler would be enough in most cases.

DubbleClick · Aug 10, 2014

ohim :

Exactly my point. If he went with a static 2000GBP and wasn't going to get more than 2 290's, why not power the money towards a better cpu? Those 50€ difference between the two have not and would not be a reason to hold me of buying the faster one, considering I have the money. And my budget was a lot smaller than 2000€ or even 2000GBP.
The i7 won't benefit you in strictly gaming at the moment, but what if he's going to browse the internet in another task, stream his gameplay or even record it, which rendering naturally comes by? It's not like I'd advice him to go with an i7 4960x and a 2011-3 socket motherboard, which would still fit into the budget.

ohim · Aug 10, 2014

Get a Noctua NH-D15 (or alike) .. it cools just as good as a water cooler, the down side is that you have to research with the memory and case for fitting since it`s a massive cooler , the good side: you don`t have to hassle with buggy control software of the cooler... it just works out of the box.

As for the GPU the Radeon 295x2 comes from factory with what seems to be a pretty nice all in one watter cooler (not the best on the market but is good indeed).

Note: water cooling won`t make your PC exhaust less heat, it will keep your parts cooler but will throw out just as much heat as a normal coolers.

Rationale · Aug 10, 2014

Maybe nobody here is aware, but HT threads are *automatically* used if a game supports enough threads. They'll work just as consistently as having physical cores, though obviously not with the same performance returns. Games do *not* need to be custom coded to use HT, they just need to support enough normal threads.

The reason i7s don't benefit much from HT is not because HT is pointless, but rather because very few games can even use more than 4 threads in any capacity. The i3s benefit heavily from HT.

I'm not actually weighing in on the i5 vs i7 debate, just pointing out that HT is an exceptionally well-developed and universally supported technology, provided of course the extra threads are actually necessary, which for gaming with an i7 they're really not.

jmracerboy · Aug 10, 2014

But if I was recording, i7? 8GB or 16GB?

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