i7 4790k or i5 4690k for a new high end pc?

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Josh-Sweeny

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My friend is currently planning on building a completely new gaming rig with high end parts using a gtx 980 as the gpu or maybe one of the new amd 300 series. Originially the cpu i was planning to use was an i5 4690k as 2 years ago i bought a 4670k and has been fine and nowhere near bottlenecking any of my games up until just now when playing gta V. The cpu utilization was fluctuating at 100% causing some really annoying stuttering. I fixed this by turning some cpu intensive settings down. Meaning i cannot make the most of my gtx 780. I have also heard that more games will follow in this fashion of beig very cpu intensive so has lead me to lean towards the i7 4790k for my friend for some future proofing so it definitely doesnt bottleneck any games. Also so he wont have to replace it for a longer while. But is this worth the £100 premiumover the i5?
 
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DasHotShot
I think if the money is there it is a great CPU and will last for many many years.

The i5 would simply need an upgrade a little sooner (say 3 years, no less). I mean. If you spend smartly and buy high grade but not top end components, you can upgrade "more often" as in 2 year spaces or 3 year spaces and always stay at the top of the chain.

By spending on bonkers parts you run the risk of wanting to upgrade sooner than you need to and having wasted the money really.

My suggestion would still be i5. My 3570K is still very very good and that is over 2 years old now.
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rmpumper

rmpumper

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i5 is now high-end. Even 1150 i7 is not high end when there's 8 core 5960x on the market.

And no, there is not reason to get i7 over i5 for gaming. Even GTA5 does not benefit from i7: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://pclab.pl/art57777-22.html&usg=ALkJrhijfW4eVdmOXJg2iODTEw-T1B9Uyw

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gtav_cpu_core.png
 
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Joseph DeGarmo

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Yes, the i7 is worth it. As more games are becoming better optimized for eight cores / threads, the hyperthreading will prove to be useful, especially in SLI / crossfire GPU setups and streaming. Games like GTA V, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Battlefield Hardline multiplayer are some games which are showing some performance gains with i7s.
 
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DasHotShot

DasHotShot

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Your 4670K is NOT bottlenecking lol...how would they release a game which is bottlenecking current high/ultra high end components?

Looks elsewhere for the cause of your stutters.

As for you friend, in games, even CPU intensive ones he will not see the difference from an i5 or i7. For now, it is not worth going big on the CPU however it is true that if he does pick the 4790K it will perform better for longer over the 4690K...again though, not by a big margin.

As for the GPU, it really depends on the resolution. The 980 is well priced right now, for sure and would may any and all 1080p titles, even mostly with MSAA enabled.

The "new" 3xx series AMD GPU's are just renamed 2xx series cards...not really what to aim for. Today at 5pm AMD will announce the FURY XT which is the REAL new card. That will retail around a 980TI or more though...and is designed for slightly higher res than 1080p.

My suggestion is as follows:

Sensible Build for 1080p High end Gaming: i5 4690K, GTX 970/980, 8GB Ram

More money than sense build 1440p or higher: i7 4790K, GTX 980 Ti, 16 GB Ram
 
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Josh-Sweeny

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We were going for 1440p which i think the 980 would be fine for as my 780 seems to cope up to around 75 fps on my 1440p monitor without msaa enabled and mostly highest settings. As for the whole cpu thing i am quite sure my cpu was the problem, maybe i got a faulty processor, but when i turned down the so called cpu intensive settings such as particle and grass quality, the stuttering basically completely disappeared, now i was able to thrn other settings like texture quality to max and the stuttering was still gone. Monitoring the cpu uitilization it now never went above 90%. But back to whether i should get the i5 or i7, is it only worth getting the 4690k for now and then upgrade in a couple years time for when cpus with more than 4 cores become more worthwhile to buy

 
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geofelt

geofelt

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For your extra £100 you get a better binned chip that runs at 4.0/4.4 stock.
It really needs no extra overclocking. Also you get 4 hyperthreads and extra L3 cache.
My take is to spend the £100 if you can manage it. If you don't, you will forever wonder if you should have.

But... WORTH is something only HE can determine.
 
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DasHotShot

DasHotShot

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Feb 17, 2015
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I think if the money is there it is a great CPU and will last for many many years.

The i5 would simply need an upgrade a little sooner (say 3 years, no less). I mean. If you spend smartly and buy high grade but not top end components, you can upgrade "more often" as in 2 year spaces or 3 year spaces and always stay at the top of the chain.

By spending on bonkers parts you run the risk of wanting to upgrade sooner than you need to and having wasted the money really.

My suggestion would still be i5. My 3570K is still very very good and that is over 2 years old now.
 
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