i7 4790k Worth the upgrade?

JamaicanBobsled · May 25, 2015

I currently have an i5-4460 3.2ghz and i'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to the i7-4790k 4.0ghz.
My current setup is
Asus Strix GTX 970
i5 4460 3.2ghz
MSI H81I Mini ITX motherboard
8GB Ram

Darkbreeze · May 25, 2015

For gaming, no. For more demanding applications, maybe. I'd personally suggest waiting for Broadwell or more specifically for Skylake in august. Skylake should bring a 10-15% performance increase over Haswell Refresh. You can also go with an E3 Xeon 1241v3 which is the same chip as the i7-4790 (No K, Xeons can't be overclocked and don't have any integrated graphics on this model) with 8 threads and a 3.5Ghz Haswell Refresh core architecture. That Xeon games very well and is more comparably priced to a higher end i5 than an i7.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $254.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-25 01:58 EDT-0400

Honestly, if gaming is your main priority, you're not going to see a significant difference in most games. Titles that are optimized for threaded processing might see some benefit though.

xStampede · May 25, 2015

Does the Xeon work well with standard RAM and motherboard, or is it better to get unbuffered ECC ram for the xeon? And what about higher speed ram like 1866 Mhz with CL 8, does it work well with Xeon or is it better to use the standard 1600 mhz ram?

Darkbreeze · May 25, 2015

It works with ECC RAM, of course, but it also works with regular DRAM as well. We've used it successfully with up to 2133mhz modules so long as you don't have an H97 board which only supports 1600mhz modules. That H81 board only supports 1600mhz modules as well. You need a Z87 or Z97 board for high speed RAM and XMP support.

xStampede · May 25, 2015

darkbreeze, so you think that this build would be good price performance for gaming, video editing and CAD?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($73.39 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($171.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.60 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($324.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.30 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: LG 24GM77 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($289.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1594.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-25 04:41 EDT-0400

Darkbreeze · May 25, 2015

Yes, but I wouldn't go with the EVGA NEX power supply. If you're going to stick with EVGA, you want a B2, G2, P2 or V series unit. The W1, B1 and G1 NEX series units are much lower quality. You want a model that's Tier 1 or 2 here:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

xStampede · May 25, 2015

Ok, good to know, i'm buying in Germany so the prices are very different from USA ones.

It is very time consuming finding the lowest price Tier 1 / 2 PSU's there, which one would you pick on this website(It's also in English) for under 100€ budget? The lower price, the better.

https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/groups/30000573/power-supplies.asp

Darkbreeze · May 25, 2015

This would be a good choice:

https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90404091/antec-hcg-620-high-current-gamer-atx2-3.asp

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i7 4790k Worth the upgrade?

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