CPU Dilemma i7 4790k vs i7 5820k

mikem527 · May 8, 2015

I am building a new computer for 4k gaming and I was wondering. For gaming, what CPU is better for gaming and the price, i7 4790k or i75820k? The price difference is not really much for my budget.

Thanks, Mike

Arronleeds · May 8, 2015

i7 4790k is better for gaming, the i7 5820k is for people who are into video editing etc.

if you got the i7 5820k you would have to fork out quite a bit for a motherboard.

games dont tend to use more than around 2 cores and a max of 4, and in single core performance the i7 4790k beats the 5820k by quite a bit.

holyrage · May 8, 2015

Arronleeds :

dude where have u been living? games are already using 8 cores LOL (although they are optimized to make better use of the first couple of cores)

also a fun fact some games wont even run on a dual core like far cry 4

for 4K gaming even an Overclocked 4690K will do unless the game makes a good use out of hyper threading

anyways if u want the PCIE lanes for quad sli/Xfire just get a 4790/4690K with a motherboard that has a PLX CHIP

Arronleeds · May 8, 2015

and what games are those?

for gaming alone id say get the i5 4690k and overclock it to around 4.4-4.6 Ghz, but for better future proofing get the i7 4790k.

holyrage · May 8, 2015

BF4/BF hardline Dying light GTA V Far cry 4 watchdoge almost every AA Title released after BF4? need i say more assassins creed etc etc

LookItsRain · May 8, 2015

holyrage :

Well, the games that dont run on 2 cores have code in them that forces that, they will run on 2 cores/threads just fine when you remove that bullshit code.

Back to the question, for gaming, the i5 4690k is all you would need, HT does not help in games.

holyrage · May 9, 2015

well i have seen hyperthreading work...... Once and uknow what that 100 USD got ? 2 FPS difference and no not really that 2 FPS difference is mostly coz of the higher stock clock speed lol

4K Gaming dosnt work your CPU as much as your GPUs would for 4k u will need an I5 4690K Overclocked for SLI/Xfire setups and for GPUs

970 SLI is the minimum or a titan X or a GTX980 i think the most cost effective would be the GTX970 atm imo i would wait for the GTX980TI/GTX985 with 6GB of vram or until next month and just buy a R9 390X with 1024 bit Freaking Memory Bus and 8GB of vram Jesus AMD ...

Arronleeds · May 9, 2015

tbh it doesnt matter how many cores a game uses because if them cores are weak it means nothing, we all know amds single core performance compared to intels is shocking lol. get the i7 4790k mate, doesnt matter if ht doesnt help in games, the i7 will be better for future proofing as gpus become stronger and games start to require more juice.

Mugglensu1984 · May 9, 2015

Arronleeds :

Palewing · May 9, 2015

If you intend to stream in good quality, the 5820k is better than the 4790k. For just gaming, there won't be much difference, but some games do utilize more than 4 cores; it's just that the % usage is not very high, so we are talking minute performance increases.

Arronleeds · May 9, 2015

the 4790k overclocks better and also is fine for streaming.... whats the point paying more for the 5820, then having to pay more for a motherboard and then more for ddr4 memory, think about it, don't try make it sound like you need the 5820k to game and stream when we all know even a 3770k can.

Palewing · May 9, 2015

The x264 CPU Preset will at the better settings be extremely demanding, that is all I'm getting at. The 4790k is best in most cases in regards to gaming, but given certain circumstances more cores will have a larger impact, especially when running several demanding programs.

Arronleeds · May 9, 2015

I know what you mean but, just for gaming, I wouldn't tell the person to get the 5820k for cost reasons as they only want to game, come different circumstances then yeah

. my i7 4790 does fine while gaming and streaming but then again it also depends what gpu you have or you will get big frame drops, I have a gtx 970 so im fine.

dominirican3351 · May 9, 2015

5820k will kill your pockets with the ram because of the quad channel and ddr4 also mobo cost more. For the money you save with 4790k you can buy a second gpu

DubbleClick · May 9, 2015

Streaming puts literally ZERO load on the cpu, I have no clue why people think it is even remotely cpu heavy.

On average, the I7 4790k is the "better" gaming cpu than the I7 5820k. You'll only have to go with it if you want 3 way sli, which is extremely cost inefficient.

Palewing · May 9, 2015

There are many ways to stream, such as nVidia Shadowplay or Open Broadcast Software using either x264 or NVENC. Using x264 can give a better quality at high settings than using the other options, and this does put quite a load on the CPU. Also, there will always be some overhead, so saying "Streaming puts literally ZERO load on the cpu" is a bit of an exaggeration. But obviously, if you use certain settings, the CPU load increase while streaming will be minimal.

Arronleeds · May 9, 2015

Of course it puts load on your cpu, don't tell me you think the gpu does all the work..... It has to process everything that's going on and output it to another source eg twitch. The processor is the main part of a pc and without one there's no computer obviously. You try stream on a Intel celeron at 720p and I bet you a grand it won't stream and make your game unplayable.

And as me and Dom said, if you go with the 5820k you have to shed loads out for ddr4 ram and an x99 motherboard and it's just not worth the money unless you edit videos etc and the op only wants to game and we should all agree the i7 4790k is the cheaper and better choice, this thread is going far too off topic.

holyrage · May 9, 2015

what if i told they are almost the same architecture (different cache size n stuff no useful for gaming )

why is the 4790K faster than the 4690K than if it is a pseudo octa core

Coz of the freaking clock speed no Overclock the 4690K to 4GHZ which should be a peace of cake and watch the 1 FPS diffrance (margin of error)

for me i just game i will definitely Spend 100+USD that i wont USE! LOGIC

4690K is the best for pure gaming

lazyboy947 · May 10, 2015

Getting past this argument, Pretty much if ur looking at the 5820k and 4790k, u get more cores, and expansion room with x99. The 5820k is still hasewell so same architecture as the 4790k, Devils Canyon has no main performance difference with the core. The 5820k costs about $60 more than the 4790k, and a cheap x99 board will go $180, and all x99 boards are all quality boards as its the enthusiast line, and the Toms Hardware motherboard listings, have the lowest end board at still very good boards, and none of them are bad -
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2383165/motherboard-tier-list-x99-chipset.html

For Z97, a decent board will go similar to $150-180 unless the features and appearance dont matter. Its usually the DDR4 that gets you, as $160gb is $150-200 and 8Gb is about $75 at the cheapest to $100, where ddr3 on the low end is now back down to $50 for 8gb

Having more cores for gaming at least in terms of HT so in the 8 to 12 range has its benefits and downsides for gaming, but there will be literally zero performance hit that will be noticed. As long as ur gpu is fairly high end the cpu wont make a difference in the i7 range.

Mugglensu1984 · May 10, 2015

Bottom line is:

Get the i7-4790K, Two R9 290X in Crossfire or GTX970 in Sli, a Seasonic 850Watt PSU and a ASUS Maximus VII Hero Motherboard. This will allow you to game hard for the next 3-4 years I believe.

Karadjgne · May 10, 2015

A lot depends on just exactly what games. At 4k resolution playing WoW, the lowly r9 270x gets better frames than a gtx 970. Take that with a grain of salt if you wish.

There are always exceptions to every rule. Ya'll say the i7 is useless for gaming, only 1-2 frames more? In what games? In BF4 multi-player the i7 beats the hell out of an i5, as does the fx 8350. This is true for any mmo or similar multi-player game. It's only on the single player that there's only a 1-2 frame difference.

Pound for pound, the i7 is equal to or beats an i5 at anything. Is the i5 enough? Yep, and deservedly so. A strong i5 will handle any game pretty damned well, single gpu or sli/CF. The i7 will handle it better.

As for the 5820k, Op is gaming on a 4k monitor. That's not exactly a budget oriented decision, so tight budget isn't too much of a concern. The only reason it doesn't game as well as the 4790k is its relatively slow clock speeds. OC it to 4.5(1x core) to 4.1(6x cores) and then tell me it sucks compared to a 4790k. Yeah right.

Gta - V reps state a 4core cpu minimum. However, the game plays just fine on a Pentium g3258 if you get the clocks up. Many games play just fine on an i3 with HT enabled, almost as well as an i5,better than some i5s actually considering the i3's faster clock speeds.

Ya'll are missing the point somewhat. It's not a topic of how little can op spend to just settle for 2nd best because it's 'good enuff'. OP is looking for best performance. Question is, does op have the wallet for that, and the knowhow to get it, because the 2011-3 will be stronger for longer with a good OC, the i7 is good now, and will have benefits if Op branches out of 'just gaming' vrs i5.

I bought an i5 for me and my games. My wife now works online from home using Citrix (sheesh) and is currently Photoshop crazy. Wish I'd spent the extra for the i7, but I was repeatedly told, 'an i5 is all you need for gaming'. Yeah. Just goes to show what happens when you settle for good enuff.

DubbleClick · May 10, 2015

With a celeron any current game will be unplayable anyway. And what would put load on the cpu is recording the screen, not streaming it to another source. But then again you can use shadowplay for that and get no cpu performance penalty at all. Quality is absolutely the same too, unless you record with >1080p and more than 60fps. Seems like a waste when streaming it anyway, a 4k video in 90 fps would require a faster internet connection than 99,5% of all consumers have.

@Mugglensu:
Any arguments to back that up? What if the op doesn't need more than 6 usb 3 and sata 3 ports, doesn't overclock daily to make use of the oc reset button and isn't interested in paying extra cash for design and brand name? Any z97 board in the $100-$120 range will do absolutely the same then.

@Karadijgne:
Well, you haven't been given wrong advise, you just haven't thought of those use cases outside of gaming.

Arronleeds · May 10, 2015

if the op can tell us what his budget is, thats if he has one then we can all come to an agreement on what he should get, the i5 4690k is a beast of a cpu and overclocks like a beauty, but if the op is wanting to play in 4k im pretty sure hes going to have to go either 2 way or 3 way sli, same goes to crossfire and an i7 would be better at keeping them up without bottleneck. ddr4 ram is the future but for gaming its just not needed and the 4790k is better at single core performance than the 5820k so in theory is better for gaming.

look at this video guys, the 4790k gets 14fps more in farcry 3 than the 5820k and thats a big difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQNFr3-PUrk

Karadjgne · May 10, 2015

As I said. That YouTube video is run at stock speeds, that's 4.0 for the 4790k vrs 3.3 for the 5820k. I really wish someone would bench a 5820k vrs a 4790k on equal footing, 4.0 vrs 4.0, because then that stupid farcry3 bench would dissappear as it's a single threaded game just like skyrim and doesn't use more than 3-4 threads anyways so relies totally on core speeds for fps. If both cpus had the same clocks, they'd get equal results in that game but the 5820k already beats it in almost every other category at stock. At a 4.0GHz OC it'll kill a 4790k. It's a stronger cpu, has more cache, more cores, better pcie, better bandwidth, and a better mobo from the get go.

@DubbleClick. Yeah, it's aggravating that so many see budget right now as the priority, not budget long term. If you keep a pc for 3 years that $100 difference is less than $3 a month, which honestly for the benefits, gaming or non gaming over 3 years is totally worth it and I really wish someone had said something like that.

DubbleClick · May 10, 2015

What shouldn't be forget is that i7 5820k's that go to 4.6ghz are rare and need enormous cooling, while 4.8ghz aren't too uncommon on i7 4790k's. (even though they require really strong cooling, too). For gaming the choice between the two is absolutely irrelevant performance wise, if you take workloads as rendering, zipping or other heavy workloads into consideration, the i7 5820k wins brutally (like 40% faster), but for a gaming or general build for ocassional rendering, the $400 saved will be better put towards a gpu.

CPU Dilemma i7 4790k vs i7 5820k

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