i7-2700K 3.50GHz vs i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) for gaming?

Busterofwar

Honorable
Aug 5, 2013
52
0
10,630
How much of a performance increase would I get in games running at 1440p (eg. The Witcher 3) if I upgraded an i7-2700K 3.50GHz to an i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon)?

Also running a 780 and have 16GB of RAM.
 
Solution
I hate to ask, but why would anyone run a 2700K at stock speed? I've obtained seven 2700Ks so far, every single one of them runs at 5GHz just fine. Built another one yesterday. Doesn't need any fancy cooling at all (unlike the 4790K), I'm just using a simple old TRUE with one NDS fan (the TRUE was only 17 UKP off eBay), nice & quiet (I use the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme/Z).

To answer your question though, at stock speed (remember both those CPUs have their relevant Turbo levels aswell, the 2700K ramps up to 3.9, while the 4790K reaches 4.4GHz), the speedup if any would depend on the game, resolution, detail level, etc. I'm not familiar with TW3, has it been used in any reviews you can find of these CPUs? Or perhaps find a review of...

mapesdhs

Distinguished
I hate to ask, but why would anyone run a 2700K at stock speed? I've obtained seven 2700Ks so far, every single one of them runs at 5GHz just fine. Built another one yesterday. Doesn't need any fancy cooling at all (unlike the 4790K), I'm just using a simple old TRUE with one NDS fan (the TRUE was only 17 UKP off eBay), nice & quiet (I use the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme/Z).

To answer your question though, at stock speed (remember both those CPUs have their relevant Turbo levels aswell, the 2700K ramps up to 3.9, while the 4790K reaches 4.4GHz), the speedup if any would depend on the game, resolution, detail level, etc. I'm not familiar with TW3, has it been used in any reviews you can find of these CPUs? Or perhaps find a review of the game which tested hw requirements?

Overall though I doubt the speedup would be that much, the 2700K is still a potent chip (hence why I keep buying them because they oc so easily). If you want better fps with a CPU of this class, get a better GPU setup, though you're starting from a pretty good card already. Might need 970 SLI or something to be usefully quicker (check reviews for 780 vs. 980, not sure offhand).

Ian.

PS. My site has lots of 2700K results, tested with 980s and others (no 700 cards yet, but you can extrapolate easily enough, eg. from 580 comparisons & suchlike). PM me if you'd like some 3DMark numbers. You can use the data to cross-check with reviews, etc.
 
Solution

Busterofwar

Honorable
Aug 5, 2013
52
0
10,630


Thanks for the really quick and really helpful reply! Could you direct me to somewhere that explains how to overclock my i7-2700K to 5GHz? I've tried to overclock it a few times based on what I could find on Google, but I never seem to find exactly how to do it. I have an ASUS P8Z77-V LX2 motherboard with UEFI BIOS.
 

mapesdhs

Distinguished
Hmm, the LX level of mbd might not have the best potential as I think they're on the lower end of what ASUS makes. However, you should still be able to reach 4.5+. I suggest following Miahallen's SandyBridge overclocking guide as a starting point, but I'd be happy to post the settings I use for the ASUS M4E if it's of any help. I'm using my general-tasks M4E setup to type this, will need to reboot & check the BIOS to grab some pics, will post shortly...

Ian.

 

mapesdhs

Distinguished
Here you go! 8)

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/M4Ebiospics.zip

The archive is about 3.7MB, all images are raw BMPs. Note that on the system summary tab, it'll show the stock speed of the detected CPU, but the first image shows the target speed.

For reference, the C-drive is an OCZ Vector 256GB, coole is a Thermalright VenomousX with two Coolermaster Blademaster fans (though just one is enough), Thermaltake Toughpower 1kW PSU (complete overkill, but I use the board sometimes to test 3-way SLI setups, etc.)

Here's a CPU-Z submitted just now:

http://valid.x86.fr/vftrs2

Note the one thing I've not yet done is update the RAM timings after upgrading recently to a DDR3/2400 kit, so atm the RAM is still at 2133.

Ian.